PART 4: "SURELY THE MAN DESERVES TO DIE" of MY LITTLE WHITE LAMB BIBLE STUDY

        David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."

Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? (2 Samuel 12:5-9)

Are you a man or woman who deserves to die? The wages of sin are death, after all.

How many of the Ten Commandments have you broken? One or two occasionally, perhaps? Have you thought about any sin you 've committed that you feel was too terrible to be forgiven?

How many commandments did David break?

David broke the ever-popular Commandment Number Seven, that's obvious. He committed adultery.

 I'm willing to go as far as to say he may have even committed rape. There is not anything saying what Bathsheba's complicity was in all this. We are told he saw her bathing, he sent messengers to get her and she came to him, and he slept with her.  The literal translation may shed a little light on this:

...and it cometh to pass, at evening-time, that David riseth from off his couch, and walketh up and down on the roof of the king's house, and seeth from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman [is] of very good appearance, and David sendeth and inquireth about the woman, and saith, `Is not this Bath-Sheba, daughter of Eliam, wife of Uriah the Hittite?'

And David sendeth messengers, and taketh her, and she cometh unto him, and he lieth with her...[2 Samuel 11:2-4 (YLT)] 

It says at evening time he got off his couch and went to his roof. That may sound odd to us today, but there was nothing unusal about this behavior. This was fairly common, especially if it were a warm night. It was cooler on the roof, easier to sleep. David didn't sleep, though, did he?

 In the literal translation it says he sent messengers "and taketh her". She may not have been given the choice of refusal.

It needn't matter. I know today everyone likes to throw around the term, "mutual consent" when caught in such an involvement, as if that makes it okay.  However, there is also the matter of "equal power". You are just a soldier's wife and the supreme commander of the armed forces has you brought to him and indicates he wants to have sex with you, well, you may not want to, but...

And could we honestly expect she would begin yelling, "The King is raping me"? There was no #MeToo movement at the time.

Even if Bathsheba was willing (I think Nathan's story of the man who had a lamb actually indicates that Bathsheba [the lamb] is innocent and Uriah [the poor man] is a victim of the Rich Man [David]'s lust)  David still committed adultery. In the Midrash, the ancient book of Rabbincal writtings and opinion, the Rabbis seem to agree that Bathsheba was an innocent party. 

The Rabbis do try to somewhat extricate David, though. They claim that Bathsheba was bathing behind a modesty screen and there came a bird. David tried to shoot the bird (bow and arrow, spear, slingshot) missed the creature, but knocked the screen askance, thus exposing Bathsheba to his view. I don't see any mention of screen or bird or David shooting at anything in the Scripture.

If you wonder whether Bathsheba was trying to entice David by bathing outside au natural, well, the passage doesn't take her to task for anything. What she was doing was not unusual for that time period in Israel anymore than walking on roofs was. The homes didn't have indoor plumbing and running water. They did have courtyards with cisterns for collecting water. It was common for the residents to bathe in the courtyards duing the warmer seasons. The courtyards generally were surrounded by walls, which could afford privacy. David was sort of invading the people's privacy. He was above the walls.

David was certainly breaking Commandment Number 6, "You shall not commit murder." (Open the Clue envelope please: "It was the King on the Battlefield with a Direct Order".) David may not have weilded a sword in his own hand, but his command to Joab assured Uriah's death and that is murder by hire.

He broke Commandment Number 10, "You shall not covet your neighbor's wife...or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

David went to some lengths to cover up his sin by trying to get Uriah to go home and have sexual relations with his wife so David could claim it was Uriah's baby. Thus, David was trying long and hard to break Commandment Number 9, "You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor."

David eventually took Bathsheba as his own wife, so in some sense he broke Commandment Number 8, "You shall not steal."

Do you think such behavior reflected well on David's parents? What in the world would Jesse think? There goes Commandment Number 5, "Honor your father and mother."

If David had kept his eyes and mind on Jehovah, he would not have let lust become his God and break Commandment Number One, "You shall have on other god before me," nor Commandment Number two by making Bathsheba his idol.

As King of Israel, David represented God. He ruled by the Grace of God and in the Name of God. So technically, David broke Commandment Number 3, "You shall not misuse the name of your LORD your God."

It doesn't say what day of the week it occurred. Hopefully not on a Friday evening after sundown, because then we would have to add Commandment Number 4, "Keep the Sabbath Holy," to the list.

Probably when David first sent for Bathsheba he thought, if he was thinking at all, what harm was there, nobody would be hurt. After all, any woman should be thrilled to have this handsome, rock star of a King's attention and no one else need ever know. A victimless crime if you could call it a crime.

If you saw (and it is hard to avoid at Christmas) the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life" you will remember what Clarence told George. "When a man isn't there he leaves an awful big hole."

Sometimes when a man is there, he digs a mighty big pit and then falls into it. David certainly did: a pregnant woman not his wife and her husband murdered.

What should have happened to David according to the Law? 

He pronounced it himself after Nathan told the story of The Man Who Had a little Lamb.

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity."

In those days in Israel, what was the punishment for both adultery and murder?

It was death.

These sins were pretty grievous. Have you committed sins this heinous? Can such things possibly be forgiven?

NEXT TIME: FORGIVENESS AND CONSEQUENCES

PART 3: A MOST HONORABLE MAN: BIBLE STUDY "MY LITTLE WHITE LAMB"

David, the mighty king, has commanded the attentions of anotherman's wife and he has gotten her pregnant. He should be confessing this to God and seeking how to make it right to Uriah, but like many today, he begins a coverup.

When he learns Bathsheba is expecting he sends his Field Commander Joab, an order to send Uriah back home. Maybe, just maybe that's a good thing; maybe David is going to confess to this warrior, try to make things right with him. What Joab made of this request we don't know, but David was his King so Joab did as he was requested.

Joab sent Uriah to David’s palace, and David asked him, “Is Joab well? How is the army doing? And how about the war?” Then David told Uriah, “Go home and clean up.” Uriah left the king’s palace, and David had dinner sent to Uriah’s house. (2 Samuel 11:6-8)

When Uriah arrives it looks like this may be exactly what David has in mind, to coffess to Uriah and try to make amends.. He invites Uriah in and asks him how the war is going. He sends Uriah to his home to freshen up, rest and be with his wife, and beyond this, he even sends a big delivery of meat to the man as a gift. Ain't that King David a sweet guy?

The next morning David is surprised to learn Uriah didn't go home. The man spent the night sleeping in David's doorway, so he asks why.

 But Uriah didn’t go home. Instead, he slept outside the entrance to the royal palace, where the king’s guards slept.

Someone told David that Uriah had not gone home. So the next morning David asked him,

"Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?"

Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"

Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.

So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home. (2 Samuel 11:10b-13 (NIV))

It just gets worse and worse for David, don't'cha think? Do you see what David's real motive is here? He didn't call Uriah from the front to try and make amends for sleeping with his wife. David is trying to get Uriah to go home and have sexual relations with Bathsheba so they can claim the baby is his. The problem for David is Uriah is too honorable a man to fall into the trap. He's not going to enjoy any creature comforts when his fellow troopers are camping on a battlefield, which remember is where David should have been.

Are you starting to wonder just how low David can sink?

He can sink a lot lower, my friends, a lot lower.

Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day. Then the next day, David invited him for dinner. Uriah ate with David and drank so much that he got drunk, but he still did not go home. He went out and slept on his mat near the palace guards. Early the next morning, David wrote a letter and told Uriah to deliver it to Joab. [The illustration at the top of this lesson.] The letter said: “Put Uriah on the front line where the fighting is the worst. Then pull the troops back from him, so that he will be wounded and die.”(2 Samuel 11:13-15)

David sends Uriah back to the front and places in Uriah's hand his own death sentence. Again Uriah shows his honor, he never peeks at the letter addressed to his commander, Joab. And what does the letter say?  It orders Joab to send Uriah, the honorable and faithful warrior, to the fiercest fighting on the front, to where the enemy is the strongest, and then to pull back and leave Uriah alone without backup.

Joab must have been scratching his head over this, but good soldier that he is, he obeys. Perhaps he believes God has directed David to do this.

Joab had been carefully watching the city of Rabbah, and he put Uriah in a place where he knew there were some of the enemy’s 

best soldiers.  When the men of the city came out, they fought and killed some of David’s soldiers—Uriah the Hittite was one of them.

Joab sent a messenger to tell David everything that was happening in the war. He gave the messenger these orders:

When you finish telling the king everything that has happened, he may get angry and ask, “Why did you go so near the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall?  Don’t you know how Abimelech the son of Gideon was killed at Thebez? Didn’t a woman kill him by dropping a large rock from the top of the city wall? Why did you go so close to the city walls?”

Then you tell him, “One of your soldiers who was killed was Uriah the Hittite.”

The messenger went to David and reported everything Joab had told him. He added, “The enemy chased us from the wall and out into the open fields. But we pushed them back as far as the city gate. Then they shot arrows at us from the top of the wall. Some of your soldiers were killed, and one of them was Uriah the Hittite.”

David replied, “Tell Joab to cheer up and not to be upset about what happened. You never know who will be killed in a war. Tell him to strengthen his attack against the city and break through its walls.”

When Bathsheba heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. Then after the time for mourning was over, David sent someone to bring her to the palace. She became David’s wife, and they had a son. (2 Samuel 11:16-27)

 Uriah dies. It appears he died in gallant battle. In truth, David murdered him.

David went to this extent to cover up his own deeds. Uriah would never question how Bathsheba came to have a child now, because he is dead. If anyone else would ask, why look, Uriah was home on leave, obviously he went into his wife and it's his child. Nobody would ever know the truth.

Except God always knows the truth and so Nathan is sent to tell David about a man who had a little lamb.

NEXT TIME: SURELY THE MAN WHO DID THIS DESERVES TO DIE

PART 2 of MY LITTLE WHITE LAMB: THE WOMAN IN THE BATH

RICH MAN/POOR MAN

A rich man and a poor man lived in the same town. The rich
man owned a lot of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had only one little lamb that he had bought and raised. The lamb became a pet for him and his children. He even let it eat from his plate and drink from his cup and sleep on his lap. The lamb was like one of his own children.

    One day someone came to visit the rich man, but the rich man didn't want to kill any of his own sheep or cattle and serve it to the visitor. So he stole the poor man's little lamb and served it instead. 2 Samuel 12:2-4 (CEV)

Makes you feel like crying. What a monstrous thing to do. So why is this sad little story in the Bible? Is it there just to depress us? Is it to prove this is the "horrible, horrible, horrible world," that Bertrand Russell claimed it was?

Who told this story and to whom?

The man who told this story was Nathan. He was a prophet of Israel, a contemporiary of Samuel. They kind of served in court at 

the same time. Samuel gets more press, probably because he has a couple Old Testament books named for him. Samuel had also been one of the Judges. Nonetheless, Nathan was an important prophet as well. Whereas, Samuel had anoited Saul Israel's King, and later did the same for David when he realized his mistake in picking Saul based on looks. Samuel had picked Saul because he was tall and handsome and his looks fooled Samuel. Inside Saul was small and ugly. Samuel came to relized his mistake and found the man God wanted, David, the giant killer.

         Nathan kind of strayed down that same road of error when he said David was going to build a house for God in Jerusalem. But like Samuel, Nathan got ahead of God on that one. Nathan had to backtrack and tell David he wasn't going to build any temple,  but the good news was David's seed would be the forever dynasty. 

         Now a few years later after that blunder, Nathan was back telling King David the sad tale of the little white lamb.

         David wasn't very pleased with the rich man at all.

David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, "As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity." 2 Samuel 12:5-6

After all, David was the King and if he decided the man must die; the man was going to die. Most of us probably felt about the same toward the rich man as David did. We'd probably tell David, "Right on, brother."

That is not how Nathan responded.

 Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!" 2 Samuel 12:7

You can bet that unstrung David's harp.

Say what? David did this? David, one of the great heroes of Scripture did this? David stole a poor man's pet sheep?

Well, sort of, but not exactly, David did much worst. David had fallen very far indeed.

Go to 2 Samuel 11.

First he had neglected his duty as the king. 

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war...

In Ecclesiastes , Solomon wrote: "There is a time for every season."

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:8)

Why was Spring a time of war? Didn't you ever wonder why that?

In Israel winter was the rainy season and during the rainy season the people planted the crops. By spring crops such as barley and wheat were ready for harvest, and to be used as food for marching armies. Also, by spring the rains had ceased and the land dried out. The road became dry as well, making them ideal for troop movements and for transport of the food and supplies that kept the army fed and prepared.

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. (2 Samuel 11:1)

The Israelites were doing pretty well. They were destroying the enemy and had lay seign to the Ammonites main city, Rabbah. Rabbah today is still an important city. It is now called Amman and is the capital of Jordan. It is also the most populous city in Jordan. David's armies took down the Ammonites, who had been a thorn in the side of Israel for a long time. You have to go back to Genesis to find their origin, all the way back to the destruction of Sodom and Gommorrah. 

After Lot was saved from the destruction of those two cities, he 

took refuge in a cave with his two daughters. (Geneisis 19:30-38) The daughters seem to have decided no one else was left in the world and they needed to do something on their own power to continue the race. They took turns getting their father, Lot, drunk then sneaking in at night and having sex with him during his stupors. Both girls became pregnant. The older sister had a boy named Moab from who the Moabites descended, and the younger a boy she named Ben-Ammi, who the Ammonites came from.  Both tribes would be a thorn in Israel's side for years to come. The Ammonites were a pretty nasty people who worshipped a god called Moloch.

When David's armies had gone off to war in the spring against the Ammonites, he hadn't marched before them to lead as he should have. He chose to remain behind and laze about the palace. You know the saying, "idle hands are the Devil's workshop" and sure enough David went to the Devil. 

There is another old saying about sping time. Spring is when a young man's fancy turns to love...or perhaps, lust.

From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" (2 Samuel 11:2-3) 

If it seems a bit odd that a wife of a Hittite was living in such proximity to the royal palace, here is one possibility both as to why and also how she may have met and married Uriah. David had a group of warriors, the Navy Seals of his day, and many scholars believe Bathsheba's father is the same as the Eliam listed as one of the Mighty 30 [2 Samuel 23]. Also in that list is Uriah the Hittite. It is certainly not inconceivable that a warrior of this elite corp might meet and marry the daughter of a fellow warrior. Just sayin'.

One night David went wandering about the palace rooftops, not an unusual practice in those days. It was cooler and safer up on the rooftop. In his traipsing about he saw a beautiful woman taking a bath and as luck would have it she looked just like Susan Hayward. David decided he wanted to have sex with her.

He had no business having this desire, but he was only human, and a male at that, so temptations do sometimes present themselves. We can understand he could have felt this desire emotionally, but he had no business making it happen in reality. He sent servants to fetch the woman and she came. If the king tells you to come, you come. 

Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) [2 Samuel 11:4

Bathsheba was the lady's name, it means "Daughter of the Oath", and like David, she was married. She was married to a man named Uriah, who David knew full well was off in the battles where David should have also been. 

David was married to...Well, David had so many wives and mistresses he makes Tiger Woods look like a chaste Monk by comparison. So we know all ready that David was far from perfect.

A SIDE NOTE: In 2 Samuel 11: 4, there is a parenthetical statement: "Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.)"

Now what about this statement that Bathsheba had purified herself from her uncleanness? We know David saw her bathing so what is important enough to add this little description of her purifying herself?

This may appear as if it has no reason to be there. She certainly isn't purifying herself from the action between her and David. What it probably indicates is Bathsheba had her monthly period prior to this happening. It is quite possible the bathing David witnessed was a "mikveh". This is a ritual pool in which the women would  emerse after the purification following her period. Before entering a mikveh the lady would have already bathed, shampooed and combed her hair, so she would be looking her very best at the time she did this.

Under the Law when a woman began her menstruation she would be impure for a period of seven days. She was not allowed to have sex during this time and anyone who touched her was unclean.

Leviticus 15: 19-24 shows us the significance of this sentence being here.

When a woman has a discharge, if her discharge in her body is blood, she shall continue in her menstrual impurity for seven days; and whoever touches her shall be unclean until evening. ‘Everything also on which she lies during her menstrual impurity shall be unclean, and everything on which she sits shall be unclean. ‘Anyone who touches her bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.  Whoever touches any thing on which she sits shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening. ‘Whether it be on the bed or on the thing on which she is sitting, when he touches it, he shall be unclean until evening. ‘If a man actually lies with her so that her menstrual impurity is on him, he shall be unclean seven days, and every bed on which he lies shall be unclean.

Perhaps David was being caution so he didn't become unclean by touching a woman at such a time. If so, he certainly wasn't as ticklish about Leviticus 18:20 "Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor's wife and defile yourself with her."

There might be another reason for this statement. Although the Law said the woman was unclean for seven days once she began her menstrual flow, Teachers of the Law added an extra seven days to it as a purification period. It became not kosher to have sex with a woman until this full time was observed.

The time of separation begins at the first sign of blood and ends in the evening after the woman's seventh "clean day".  This separation lasts about 12 to 14 days.  The rabbis broadened this prohibition, providing that a man may not even touch his wife during this time.  Weddings must be scheduled carefully, so that the woman is not in a state of niddah on her wedding night.

At any rate, there is a good chance David picked the point where Bathsheba might have been at her height of ovulation. You would think with all the wives and concubines he had he could have figured this out.

What two important facts does that parathetic sentence being here tell us?

One, it tells us Bathsheba was not pregnant when she first lay with David. Two, it tells us she had recently purified herself from her period. If Bathsheba finds herself pregnant, it cannot be her husband's child.

David stept with her. Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am Pregnant." (2 Samuel 11: 4-5)

Still, he was compounding his failures on this one. He had already shirked his duty as the King by not leading his army in battle and taken another man's wife to his bed and now she comes and tells him she is pregnant. This means he didn't just dawdle in his leadership, he took an extended vacation from it. He's been lounging about the castle for the while now and who knows how many rooftop sorties he's taken.

But David isn't finished. Like many of us when things don't go our way we think about how we can get out of it and how can we keep others from knowing. David doesn't turn to God for forgiveness or guidance. Instead he hatches a plan.

 David sent a message to Joab: “Send Uriah the Hittite to me.” (2 Samuel 11:6)

When he learns Bathsheba is expecting he sends his Field Commander Joab, an order to send Uriah back home. Maybe, just maybe that's a good thing; maybe David is going to confess to this warrior, try to make things right with him. What Joab made of this request we don't know, but David was his King so Joab did as he was requested.

Joab sent Uriah to David’s palace, and David asked him, “Is Joab well? How is the army doing? And how about the war?” Then David told Uriah, “Go home and clean up.” Uriah left the king’s palace, and David had dinner sent to Uriah’s house. (2 Samuel 11:6-8)

When Uriah arrives it looks like this may be exactly what David has in mind. He invites Uriah in and asks him how the war is going. He sends Uriah to his home to freshen up, rest and be with his wife, and beyond this, he even sends a big delivery of meat to the man as a gift. Ain't that King David a sweet guy?

The next morning David is surprised to learn Uriah didn't go home. The man spent the night sleeping in David's doorway, so he asks why.

 But Uriah didn’t go home. Instead, he slept outside the entrance to the royal palace, where the king’s guards slept.

Someone told David that Uriah had not gone home. So the next morning David asked him,

"Haven't you just come from a distance? Why didn't you go home?"

Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"

Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.

So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. At David's invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master's servants; he did not go home. (2 Samuel 11:10b-13 (NIV))

It just gets worse and worse for David, don't'cha think? Do you see what David's real motive is here? He didn't call Uriah from the front to try and make amends for sleeping with his wife. David is trying to get Uriah to go home and have sexual relations with Bathsheba so they can claim the baby is his. The problem for David is Uriah is too honorable a man to fall into the trap. He's not going to enjoy any creature comforts when his fellow troopers are camping on a battlefield, which remember is where David should have been.

Are you starting to wonder just how low David can sink?

NEXT TIME: THE FURTHER FAILING OF DAVID