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With barely any variance, David’s ascendency has been constant from the beginning.  Always capable of seeing the right, of heeding wise counsel, of submitting himself to both the LORD and to his office.  

And this unaltered trajectory makes today’s story all the more shocking.  At the beginning of chapter 11, the author suggests that something is amiss by intimating that at the time of the year when kings go out to battle… David remained at Jerusalem.  While at Jerusalem he sees something – someone – he wants: the wife of Uriah, one of his mighty soldiers; her name is Bathsheba.  The king summons and seizes.  Bathsheba becomes pregnant.  And David has to figure out what to do. 

Listen as Uriah’s integrity plays opposite David’s treachery.  The death of this Hittite – this foreigner – is among the most hauntingly tragic in the Bible.  Listen as David wrangles Joab into the conspiracy to protect the king, and consider whether Joab knows what’s going on.  Listen to David’s callous dialogue.  And listen as the author twists the knife by referring to Bathsheba as “the wife of Uriah,” even after her husband’s death. 

Pause before you turn the page to chapter 12, because there’s a weighty question hanging over this story.  What will the LORD do?  Will He execute the judgement on him that is prescribed in the Law of Moses?   Or will He be forced to overlook this, bound by His own promise that David’s name be forever connected to the throne?  Consider also David; with Bathsheba’s husband safely removed, does he believe himself safe? 

The author refuses to tip his hand, allowing the dialogue to do the work, and leads only with “And the LORD sent Nathan to David…”

Our verse for this week is John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12.  Now let’s read it!

It’s symbolic of the peace of the moment that today’s reading opens with David asking a transitional question: “Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?” 

Recalling his covenant with Jonathan in 1 Samuel 20 – “The LORD shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring, forever.” – David calls Jonathan’s crippled son Mephibosheth to him, promising that “I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.”  This is again a unique gesture for an ancient king, but is consistent with the LORD’s expectation that the king’s heart not be lifted up above his brothers. 

This story not only illustrates David’s ever-expanding kindness toward his former enemy, and his continued integrity toward his departed friend, but it also cleverly marks the time.   In chapter 4 we learned that Mephibosheth was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and he is now old enough to have a son of his own. 

Twenty years have now passed since David was first crowned at Hebron, and in chapter his tributaries in Damascus want to test the strength of David’s army and his God.   Note that David sends Joab – who can’t be much younger than David himself – out to meet them.  The question, as is always the case in ancient warfare, is not whether the army is strong enough but whether their God is with them: “Be of good courage,” Joab reminds his brother, “and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.”

Our verse for this week is John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

2 Samuel chapters 9 and 10.  Now let’s read it!

So much has happened recently that bears significance for David, for Israel, and for the rest of the Old Testament, that it’s a good day to catch our breath. 

We first met David as the youngest son of a shepherding family in Judah.  He was a fierce and skilled soldier, first in his father’s service and later in King Saul’s.  His battlefield prowess drew the admiration of the people and respect of foreign rulers.  Not only was the Spirit of the LORD upon him, but David seemed aware of this – in a way that Gideon, Jephthah, Samson and Saul did not. 

In chapter 7 David’s relationship with the LORD reaches a zenith.  The LORD makes three promises.  First, He promises that He “will make for [David] a great name, like the name of the great ones on earth.”  Only Abraham has been given such a pledge before. 

Second, the LORD assures Israel that He “will appoint a place for [His] people Israel and will plant them…” giving them “…rest from their enemies.”  This promise of security and permanence had been made to the wilderness generation, but never has a convergence of leadership, resolve, and political opportunity brought it this close to fulfillment. 

These two blessings intersect when the LORD makes His third and final promise: “When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.  He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.”  The LORD has no interest in David mimicking the kings of other nations and building a capital temple to his favorite God.  Rather, the LORD will build David a house – a more permanent house than can be built with cedar.  The LORD “will be to him a father, and he shall by my son.”  More importantly, “…My steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul...” 

Let those words sink in: a house, a throne, a kingdom, forever.  Israel’s security and David’s name would now be forever linked.  So the events you’ll read today of David’s continued conquests might seem a foregone conclusion.   Moab, Syria and even the mighty Philistines are subdued.  Garrisons are established in Edom – Esau now under Jacob’s feet – bringing previously unknown peace and prosperity to Israel. 

Most importantly, by administering justice and equity to all his people, David is fulfilling the centuries-old hope that Israel should have a king who “may learn to fear the Lord his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, either to the right hand or to the left, so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.

Our verse for this week is John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

2 Samuel chapter 8.  Now let’s read it!