King David and Bathsheba

The story of David’s seduction of Bathsheba is recorded in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and subsequent chapters. Bathsheba was initially the wife of Uriah the Hittite, but later married King David and became the mother of King Solomon.

One day, King David was walking on the roof of his palace when he saw Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, bathing. David immediately desired her and committed adultery with her, causing her to become pregnant. To cover up his sin, David summoned Uriah, who was fighting on the front lines, hoping that Uriah would sleep with Bathsheba, thereby making it appear that Uriah was the father of the child. However, Uriah, unwilling to violate the ancient Israelite regulations concerning soldiers on active duty, did not go home to sleep but remained with the king’s army at the palace.

After repeated failed attempts to have Uriah sleep with Bathsheba, King David wrote a letter to his general Joab, ordering Joab to send Uriah to the front lines of battle and then abandon him during intense fighting, so that he would die at the hands of the enemy. David then sent the unwitting Uriah himself to carry this letter that sealed his fate. After Uriah was killed in battle, David took the widowed Bathsheba as his wife. Although Uriah was a Hittite, he was loyal to God and God’s people, a result of his long years of following David and being influenced by him. But he never imagined that David, his spiritual role model, would murder him to cover up a sin, and even make him carry his own death warrant—what an irony! Even more ironic is that David tried every possible way to cover up his sin, yet it became one of the most well-known stories in the Bible, perpetuated for three thousand years.

According to the Book of Samuel, David’s actions displeased the LORD, who sent the prophet Nathan to rebuke King David. Nathan prophesied that the first son born from David’s adultery with Bathsheba would die, and that the sword would never depart from David’s house. God would raise up trouble against him from his own household: “I will take your wives before your very eyes and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight” (2 Samuel 12:10-11).

The ancient Jewish historian Josephus said: “Had not David at this time sinned in the great sin, he would have been a righteous and pious man, strictly adhering to the laws of our ancestors” (Antiquities of the Jews, Book 7, Chapter 7, Section 130). If David’s life had ended on the rooftop of his palace, what a perfect curtain call that would have been: his life grew under God’s pursuit, pursued all the way to the throne, achieving repeated victories inwardly and outwardly, establishing God’s kingdom, preparing materials for the Temple, and receiving the Davidic Covenant. However, God did not allow David such a graceful exit. Instead, He let him descend from the palace rooftop, going downhill all the way, plunging into severe failure and enduring its consequences. God does not aim to set up an unattainable lofty ideal for us, but rather to allow every person to see their own reflection in David, who was reachable, to see themselves.