It happened in the spring of the year, when kings go out into battle with their troops that King David stayed back at his palace in Jerusalem. David headed out to the roof to take in a vivid sunset just as the sun began casting shadows beyond the great pillars of the portico. Stepping out to the sculptured limestone railing David grasped the smooth stone as the sun disappeared beyond the Judean hills.
As the bright orange globe began dipping below the horizon, David became distracted by a woman bathing on her rooftop. David gazed as the servant poured hot water into the bronze bathtub where she was bathing. The king continued to stare at her beautiful shapely body that glistened in the soft evening twilight. He was pleasantly allured to her beauty and soon began to desire her company.
David dispatched a messenger to the woman’s home to invite her back to his palace. The woman’s name was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite. It would not have been a wise thing for Bathsheba to refuse the king’s request for her company. David had used his influence as king to lure Uriah’s wife to his palace and lay with her. Bathsheba conceived and later that month sent a message to the king that she was with child.
“Be sure your sin will find you out!” David kept hearing in his head as he schemed and pondered how he could cover up his mistake and makes this whole affair go away.
“I know what I will do, I will order Uriah back from the battle line, allowing him time to lay with his wife” thought David smiling as the solution was to be a sure fix to the awkward situation he now found himself in.
There was a hitch to his plan, Uriah was a more loyal, ethical and honorable man than David and had refused to stay with his wife while he was on leave. Instead Uriah slept outside on the king’s porch. David’s plan to cover his sin had backfired as he became obsessed with another solution to his problem.
“Be sure your sins will find you out!” the king continued to hear replayed in his head as a guilty conscious worked on him to tell the truth, make things right and lead him towards repentance.
David’s incessant desire to cover his sin drove him to send Uriah back to the front lines with sealed orders for the commander of the army to set Uriah in the hottest part of the battle. He then ordered Israel’s troops to pull back exposing Uriah to an archer’s fatal arrow. David’s plan unfolded exactly as he had planned and Uriah perished in the heat of battle.
After a time of mourning Bathsheba returned to the king’s palace pregnant with their child. The Lord sent the prophet Nathan to confront David with his sin. Nathan tells David a story about a rich man who had a very large flock and his poor neighbor who only had a single lamb that he kept as a pet for his children. One day when a stranger comes for a visit the rich man takes the poor man’s only lamb and prepares it for a feast.
Upon hearing the story David swears that the man who has done this should surely be put to death. He orders that the man should also first repay fourfold because he had no pity! Nathan looking directly into the king’s eyes says bluntly “David, you are the man!”
It is easy to see the faults in others but not so easy to see our own faults. David is ready to judge the rich man in the story but not so quick to judge his own actions. Not only did he commit adultery but he was a murderer. Church discipline, judging others is tricky business. A zealous apostle Paul pointed out that the sin in the Corinthian church had to be judged by physically removing a man from the fellowship. Pointing out that even a little yeast will leaven the whole lump of dough.
Our Lord, Jesus Christ, explained church discipline and judging others in this way. “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me remove the speck from your eye; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
