Stories from the Bible - Ep 13 The Fall of the King (2 Samuel 11)

Episode Date: December 15, 2021

David, the shepherd boy chosen to be the next King of Israel, shows so much promise. He has remarkable trust in God, and God uses him to rescue the Israelites from their enemies the Philistines. But there remains an enemy more powerful and deadly which even David cannot conquer. The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved

Beauty, perfection, desire, deception, rebellion, judgment, hope. You're listening to Stories from the Bible. Bible stories told in order, using the words of the Bible, with introductions to give a recap and provide context. At the end of each story, you might want to pause and take a moment to reflect on what you noticed in the story. Things you liked or didn't like. Something the story showed you about God or about people. Don't worry if not everything makes sense. Keep listening to each episode and sit with the journey. I'm stoked to have you on the ride. Today is story 13. But before we get there and hear what happened to David after he killed Goliath, let's zoom out for some context.

Recall Abraham again and the promises God made to him. Check out episode 3 if you missed it. God promised Abraham he would be the father of many descendants, that those descendants would be blessed and one day blessing would come through them to all the nations of the world, and that those descendants would dwell in a land of their own that God would give them. To receive these promises, all that is required of Abraham and his descendants after him is that they trust what God says to them. True blessing is only found in trusting God's words to be good and true. When Adam and Eve chose to distrust God's words, that is, to ignore his instruction to them about

the fruit from the tree of knowledge, they brought the opposite of blessing upon themselves. They brought the curse of sin and death. That's all in episode two, by the way. Now, as we've gone through the stories, we've seen God's unwavering commitment to keep those promises. He is determined to bless Abraham's descendants, the Israelites, despite how determined they are, most of the time, to not trust him, even in the face of all the evidence God gives them that he can be trusted. His rescue of them from Egypt, his deliverance of them through the Red Sea, his provision of water and food for them in the desert. Hear those stories in episodes 4 to 7.

When God brings the Israelites to Mount Sinai in the desert, he even makes a formal agreement, called a covenant, with them. He promises that if they take his words seriously, if they trust and obey what he says, then they will be his special, blessed people. The covenant formalizes the idea we've seen from the beginning. If they want to be blessed and live, then they must choose to trust his words. However, if they choose to ignore his words, then they bring curses and death upon themselves. Life is found in trusting God. Ignoring him is death. We saw

a stark picture of this in episode 4 amongst the Egyptian officials and their servants. Some trusted and some didn't. Well, how is God going to bless the Israelites if they seem determined not to be blessed? That is, they seem unable to trust his words. If you haven't worked it out already, God does it through leaders. He puts his spirit in the heart of a leader who is then able to trust his words. Joshua, for example, had God's spirit in him. He trusted God's words. And while he lived, he led the rest of the Israelites to trust and obey God, and they were able to receive the blessing of the land promised to Abraham. But of course, when Joshua died, the people stopped trusting God and brought trouble upon

themselves. Trouble took the form of physical enemies who ruled over and oppressed them. In the last episode, we met David, a young shepherd boy. God had marked him out to be the next king of Israel. God put his spirit in David's heart, and David was able to put his trust, not in swords or spears or muscles or armies, but in God. Through David's trust in God, the entire nation of Israel was delivered from their enemies, the Philistines. Like Joshua, David had God's spirit, and under his leadership, the Israelites received blessing. Unlike Joshua, David is chosen to be king. The problem with Joshua was that he died. David as king would also die. But as a king, there is a hope that perhaps the spirit that is in David would continue on to his son,

and his son after him, thus there might be a royal dynasty of leaders with God's spirit in them. If the Israelites could be assured of always being led by a spirit-filled king who trusted God, then they might be assured of always receiving God's blessing. In fact, that is almost exactly the promise that God later made to David, with an important difference. Listen for that in a moment. Coming back to what happened after David defeated Goliath. Remember, David is chosen to be king, but he's not yet established on the throne. Currently, tall Saul is still in power. After David's victory, Saul becomes increasingly

jealous of David's popularity. His jealousy turns into a maniacal obsession with murdering David. For a number of years, Saul pursues David, but he is never successful. David has opportunities to kill Saul, but he refuses to take them. Instead, David trusted that God would put him on the throne at the right time without him needing to kill Saul. Finally, Saul died in a battle, and David became king. One time, after he was finally settled in the palace, David said, Look at me, sitting in a palace, while God still lives in a tent. He was referring to the flappy, fabric tabernacle which we heard about in episode 9. David wanted to build God a solid house. But instead of agreeing to this, God said to David, Are you the one to build me a house

to live in? I am the one who is going to build you a house. I am going to build you a dynasty. I am going to establish one of your descendants as king forever. I will place him on the throne, and his kingdom will always endure. It will have no end. This is God's solution to ensure that his people will always be blessed. Did you get the important difference? Instead of an endless number of descendants who live and die one after the other, leading as kings like David, God promises something that sounds much more secure. A single king, and this one king, will never die, thus making blessing for God's people forever certain. But hang on, what was the blessing David secured for the

Israelites? It was freedom from their physical enemies, the Philistines. But actually, David and the Israelites have a remaining enemy, an enemy more deadly and more powerful than the Philistines. This enemy conquers even David. The story starts here. In the spring of the year, at the time when kings normally conduct wars, David sent out Joab, the commander of the army, with his officers and the entire Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. But David stayed behind in Jerusalem. One evening, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of his palace. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing.

Now this woman was very attractive. So David sent someone to inquire about the woman. The messenger said, Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? David sent some messengers to get her. She came to him and he slept with her. Now at the time she was in the process of purifying herself from her period. Then she returned to her home.

The woman conceived and then sent word to David saying, I'm pregnant. So David sent a message to his commander Joab that said, send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked about how Joab and the army were doing and how the campaign was going. Then David said to Uriah, go down to your home and relax. When Uriah left the palace, the king sent a gift to him. But Uriah stayed at the door of the palace with all the servants of the king. He didn't go home. So they informed David, Uriah has not gone home. So David said to Uriah, haven't you just arrived from a journey? Why haven't you gone down to your house?

Uriah replied to David, the ark and Israel and Judah reside in temporary shelters and my Lord Joab and my Lord's soldiers are camping in the open field. Should I go to my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you are alive, I will not do this thing. So David said to Uriah, stay here another day. Tomorrow I will send you back.

So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem both that day and the following one. Then David summoned him. He ate and drank with him and got him drunk. But in the evening, he went out to sleep on his bed with the servants of the king. He did not go to his own house. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In the letter, he wrote, Station Uriah at the front of the thick of the battle and then withdraw from him so he will be cut down and killed. So as Joab kept watch on the city, he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew the best enemy soldiers were.

When the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, some of David's soldiers fell in battle. Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent a full battle report to David. He instructed the messenger as follows. When you finish giving the battle report to the king, if the king becomes angry and asks you, why did you go so close to the city to fight? Didn't you realize they would shoot from the wall? Who struck down Abimelech the son of Jerubasheth? Didn't a woman throw an upper millstone down on him from the wall so that he died in Thebes? So the messenger departed.

When he arrived, he informed David of all the news that Joab had sent with him. The messenger said to David, the men overpowered us and attacked us in the field, but we forced them to retreat all the way to the door of the city gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall, and some of the king's soldiers died. Your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead. David said to the messenger, tell Joab, don't let this thing upset you. There is no way to anticipate whom the sword will cut down. Press the battle against the city and conquer it. Encourage him with these words.

When Uriah's wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for him. When the time of mourning passed, David had her brought to his palace. She became his wife and she bore him a son. But what David had done upset the Lord God. So the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to David. When he came to David, Nathan said,

There were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except for a little lamb he had acquired. He raised it, and it grew up alongside him and his children. It used to eat his food, drink from his cup and sleep in his arms. It was just like a daughter to him. When a traveller arrived at the rich man's home, he did not want to use one of his own sheep or cattle to feed the traveller who had come to visit him. Instead, he took the poor man's lamb and cooked it for the man who had come to visit him.

Then David became very angry at the rich man in Nathan's story. He said to Nathan, Nathan said to David, you are that man. This is what the Lord God of Israel has said. I chose you to be king over Israel and I rescued you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and put your master's wives into your arms. I also gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all that somehow seems insignificant, I would have given you so much more as well. Why have you shown contempt for the Lord's commands by doing evil in my sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and you have taken his wife to be your own wife. You have killed him with the sword of and you have taken his wife to be your own wife. You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites, so now the sword will never depart from your house. For you have despised me by taking the wife of Uriah the Hittite as your own. This is what the Lord has said. I am about to bring disaster on you from inside your own household. Right before your eyes I will take your wives and hand them over to your companion. He will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. Although you have acted in secret,

I will do this thing before all Israel in broad daylight. Then David exclaimed to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan replied to David, Yes, and the Lord has forgiven your sin. You are not going to die. Nonetheless, because you have treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son who has been born to you will certainly die.

The story ends there. Thanks for joining us for today's story. You might like to take a moment to pause and think about what you noticed. Things you liked, things you didn't like, something the story showed you about God. Perhaps you might even have thoughts about how this story fits into the bigger narrative of the Bible. If you'd like to look it up, it's from 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12. You've been listening to Stories from the Bible. I'm Jen, and I look forward to sharing more stories with you.