David and Uriah . . . and You
I could write a book titled David And. . . Chapters: David and Goliath. David and Bathsheba. David and Joab. David and Absalom. David and Barzillai. But the most depressing chapter would be David and Uriah.
In the New Testament, the worst betrayal is the story of Judas and Jesus. In the Old Testament, it is the story of David and Uriah.
The story is a warning, both to would-be Davids and potential Uriahs. Those with power can misuse it. Those who get in their way are disposable. The story of David and Uriah is the story of a righteous man turned evil, and another righteous man who became his victim.
RIGHTEOUS MEN
Uriah was a righteous man. He was a warrior. He served in the army.
He was the victim of David, who seduced his wife while Uriah was on the battlefield. David was safe at home. He had too much time on his hands. With a home on the high ground, he could see the rooftop of another man's house. He spied Bathsheba bathing. He lured her into a trap.
When she became pregnant, he ordered Uriah to return home, thinking he would spend time with his wife. In Uriah's mind, he was still on duty. The war was still in progress. He slept outside his David's door.
David, desperate, then told his overly loyal commander Joab to send Uriah into the thick of battle, and then order Uriah's support team to retreat, leaving him exposed. This is the worst situation for a soldier. A brave man stands his ground. If his colleagues run, he is most likely to be killed. His courage is his death warrant.
David signed Uriah's death warrant.
In First Samuel, chapter 12, we read of the outcome. Nathan the prophet came to him. He told David a story. A man of great wealth stole a female lamb from a poor neighbor. What should be done to the thief? Execute him, David said, plus fourfold restitution to the victim. Nathan's response, in the language of the King James version of 1611, has come down through the centuries: "Thou art the man." He added:
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
These were the negative sanctions. "And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die."
David's household never recovered. First, the newborn son died, as Nathan had said. Second, his son Amnon raped David's daughter Tamar. David did nothing about this. Third, Tamar's brother Absalom killed Amnon. Fourth, Absalom revolted against David. He was killed in battle. Fifth, after David died, his son Adojinah plotted a revolt against King Solomon, Bathsheba's son by David. He asked her to intercede with Solomon. He asked for David's female bed-warmer as a wife. Solomon saw through this attempt to establish a tentative legal claim on the inheritance of the throne. He had Adonijah killed.
POSTHUMOUS VINDICATION
There were no witnesses, so David got away with it judicially. But all Israel knew what David had done. The story soon spread to the enemies of Israel, Nathan said. The sanction? The death of the child. God had seen.
Uriah was a loser in history. He did not know what had happened. He was misused by David repeatedly. Yet David was the supreme commander. In his capacity as the supreme commander, he sent a brave man to his death. He corrupted his chief of staff, Joab.
David had no pangs of conscience. When Nathan presented a story that was obviously aimed at him, David did not see this. He pronounced judgment against himself. It took these words to bring him to his moral senses: "thou art the man."
Anyone who is ever tempted to misuse his position should remember David.
Anyone who is the victim of such an act should also remember David. He got away with it in Man's court. He did not get away with it in God's court.
If we think of the civil government as the final court of appeal, we risk betrayal. David was at the top of this court. That is why Nathan came to him to present the case against him.
Uriah was not only the victim of David in his office as military commander, he was the victim of David in his office as the supreme judge in the civil government.
The priests said nothing. So, God raised up a prophet. In Mosaic Israel, the prophets were not on anyone's payroll, in either church or state. They came as independent judges, acting in the name of God. When they declared a sentence, God backed them up. When they announced sanctions, God backed them up.
David thought he could get away with it, step by step, because he was the head of state. He was wrong. There was a higher court of appeal.
Nathan did not organize a revolution. He simply presented a judicial case to the king. Then he let the king seal his own fate. David minced no words. Neither did Nathan.
David did not lose his life or his throne. But he lost his household.
Anyone who seeks the kind of power that David possessed has exposed himself to his worst enemy: himself. He will be sorely tempted to exploit his own greatest weakness, to pursue a path that will bring him down. David was not brought down, but his household was. His sons pursued power relentlessly. Even Solomon, who asked God for wisdom, and who gained the reputation as a wise judge, was the stupidest man in recorded history: 700 wives and 300 concubines. He set the record in dumb.
CONCLUSION
If you are a victim, and you are without the support of official sanctions, bide your time.
If you are a perp, get it settled before it gets settled for you. Psalm 94 is still operational. "Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it" (v. 7). They are wrong. "He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?" (v. 9).