The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 129: David Commits Adultery (2023)

Episode Date: May 9, 2023

Fr. Mike breaks down David's tragic downfall as he commits adultery with Bathsheba and kills her husband, Uriah the Hittite. We learn that David's road to grave sin began with small acts of disobedience and selfishness. Today's readings are 2 Samuel 11, 1 Chronicles 14-15, and Psalm 32. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story. Today, it is day 129. Man, oh man, this is so good. We're reading 2 Samuel chapter 11. So up to this point, David has been a solid, solid guy. And 2 Samuel chapter 11,

we're going to see a descent. And then in 1 Chronicles chapters 14 and 15, as well as we're praying Psalm 32. As you all probably already know, the translation of the Bible that we are reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition. I am using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. To download your own Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, you can just click on subscribe and then you'll be subscribed and you can follow along every single day and it will find you.

You don't have to find it. That's great. As I said, today is day 129, reading 2 Samuel chapter 7, 1 Chronicles, both chapters 14 and 15, and we are praying Psalm 32. The second book of Samuel, chapter 11. David commits adultery with Bathsheba. In the spring of the year, the time when kings go forth to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking upon

the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she was purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am with child. So David sent word to Joab, Send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David.

When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people fared and how the war prospered. Then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David, The ark, Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my Lord

Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, remain here today also and tomorrow I will let you depart. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. And David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord, but he did not go down to his house. David has Uriah killed. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

In the letter, he wrote, Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down and die. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite was slain also. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting, and he instructed the messenger, When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then, if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerubasheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone upon him from the wall so that he died at Thebes?

Why did you go so near the wall? Then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, The men gained an advantage over us and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.

David said to the messenger, Thus shall you say to Joab, Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another. David said to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. The first book of Chronicles, chapter 14. David established in Jerusalem. And Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, also masons and carpenters, to build a house for him. And David perceived that the Lord had established him king over Israel, and that his kingdom was highly exalted for the sake of his people Israel. And David took more wives in Jerusalem, and David begot more sons and daughters. These are the names of the children whom he had

in Jerusalem. Shemua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Elpelet, Noga, Nefeg, Japhia, Elishema, Bileada, and Eliphelet. Defeat of the Philistines. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David. And David heard of it, and went out against them. Now the Philistines had come and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of God, Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? And the Lord said to him, Go up, and I will give them into your hand. And he went up to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. And David said, God has broken through my enemies by my

hand like a bursting flood. Therefore, the name of that place is called Baal Perazim. And they left their gods there and David gave command and they were burned. And the Philistines yet again made a raid in the valley. And when David again inquired of God, God said to him, you shall not go up after them, go around and come upon them opposite the balsam trees. And when you hear the sound of marching and the tops of the balsam trees, then go out to battle for God has gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines. And David did as God commanded him. And they struck the Philistine army from Gibeon to Gezer. And the fame of David went out into all lands. And the Lord brought the fear of him upon all nations.

Chapter 15, The Ark Brought to Jerusalem. David built houses for himself in the city of David and he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. Then David said, no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever. And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place which he had prepared for it. And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites, the sons of Kohath, Uriel, the chief, with a hundred and twenty of his brethren, and the sons of Merari, Asaiah, the chief, with two hundred and twenty of his brethren. Of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, with a hundred and thirty of his brethren. Of the sons of Elizabethan,

Shemaiah the chief, with two hundred of his brethren. Of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, with eighty of his brethren. Of the sons of Uziel, Amenadab the chief, with a hundred and twelve of his brethren. Then David summoned the priests, Zadok and Abiathar, and the Levites, Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab. And he said to them, You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites. Sanctify yourselves, you and your brethren, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it. Because you did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God broke forth upon us because we did not care for it in the way that is ordained. So the priests and the Levites sanctified themselves to bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel. And the Levites carried the ark of God upon their shoulders with the poles

as Moses had commanded according to the word of the Lord. David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brethren as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals to raise sounds of joy. So the Levites appointed Heman, the son of Joel, and of his brethren Asaph, the son of Berechiah, and of the sons of Merari, their brethren, Ethan, the son of Cushiah. And with them their brethren of the second order, Zechariah, Jahaziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Uni, Eliab, Benaiah, Maasaiah, Metathiah, Elephelahu, and Micniah, and the gatekeepers Obed-Edom and Jeiel. The singers, Him, Asaph, and Ethan were to sound bronze cymbals. Zechariah, Aziel, Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Uni, Eliab, Maasaiah, and Benaiah

were to play harps according to Alamoth. But Metathiah, Eliphilehu, Micniah, Obed-Edom, Jeiel, and Azaziah were to lead with lyres according to the Sheminith. Jenaniah, leader of the Levites in music, should direct the music, for he understood it. Berechiah and Elkanah were to be gatekeepers for the ark. Shebaniah, Josaphat, Nethanel, Amasai, Zechariah, Benaiah, and Eleazar, the priests, should blow the trumpets before the ark of God. Obed-Edom and Jehiah were to be gatekeepers for the ark. So David and the elders of Israel and

the commanders of thousands went to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the house of Obed-Edom with rejoicing. And because God helped the Levites who were carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord, they sacrificed seven bulls and seven rams. David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as also were all the Levites who were carrying the Ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah, the leader of the music of the singers. And David wore a linen ephod. So all Israel brought up the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord with shouting to the sound of horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyres. And as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came to the city of David, Michal, the daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David

dancing and making merry, and she despised him in her heart. Psalm 32, The Joy of Forgiveness. A Psalm of David, joy of forgiveness. A Psalm of David, a Maskell. When I declared not my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you and did not hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. Then you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you. At a time of distress, in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with deliverance. I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, else it will not keep with you. Many are the pangs of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds him who trusts in the Lord.

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart. Father in heaven, we give you praise and thank you. Thank you for this Psalm 32. Thank you for the fact that even in our sin, we can call upon you and you hear our voice. You hear our prayer. Lord, in our imperfection, you meet us with your mercy. In our sins, you meet us with your grace. And so we're so grateful, so grateful because we in so many ways are like David. And we have so many ways turn away from what we know you're calling us to do and who we know you're calling us to be. And so we ask you, please renew your mercy in us as your mercies are renewed each morning. Renew them in us because we need you and we need your mercy. We thank you and give you praise.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So, gosh, here's the first tragic word, right? It's 2 Samuel chapter 11. And that first tragic word is that here is David and it begins poorly. But here's the interesting thing. With David's sin, it doesn't begin with an awful sin. How does it begin? The very first lines of chapter 11 say, at the turn of the year or in the spring of the year, when kings go out into battle, David sent out Joab and the rest of the army while he stayed

back in Jerusalem. Remember in the ancient world, the job of the king was not simply to govern, wasn't simply to make decisions. The job of the king was to lead in battle. The job of the king was to fight for the people. And here is David who has done this a bunch, but here he is in chapter 11 and he sends someone else out to do his task. And this is, again, this is how it starts. This is how almost all of our big sins that we fall into, we look up from our sins and think, oh my gosh, how did I get to this place? They begin by us not doing our daily duty, by not doing the task the Lord has set in front of us. And that's how it goes for David. And then

what happens? He says, then David, one evening, one afternoon, he arose from his siesta. So you can imagine David saying, I'm really busy. I've got to be here in Jerusalem. I've got a country to run. I can't afford to be out in the field fighting. So he's staying back home, but here he is rising from his siesta. So the second piece is not only is he not doing the task that God has called him to, to fight for his people, but he's also giving into this comfort. And this is, again, nothing wrong with taking a nap, nothing wrong with rising from a siesta. But here is the people, David's army, David's mighty men who are sleeping in the open field and risking their life and limb every single

day. And here's David who's comforting himself. And that comfort, it's not, again, it's not evil, but it can dull our senses. We can start down this slope of, okay, I'm not doing what I should be doing. And now, not only am I not doing what I should be doing, I'm also giving into comfort. Then what does he see? He sees a young woman bathing. Now, this is the moment where it's like, okay, alarm bells, look away. And when I was a kid, we used to have a thing, my parents would, if something was on the screen or in a movie or on a TV show that was inappropriate for us to look at, my parents would say, ceiling scene, and we had to look up at the ceiling. This is a moment where David should have, okay, ceiling scene, where he's on his roof and he can

see from his roof a woman bathing. She's very beautiful. He should have just gone back in, taken a cold shower and moved on with his day. But what did he do? He stared and made inquiries made of her. Finds out, it gets worse, finds out, oh yeah, that is, she's married. Not only is she married, but we already heard the name of her husband. He was one of David's 30 mighty men, Uriah the Hittite. He finds out that she's a married woman. And that, if nothing else at this point, that should be the moment where he just stops, does an about face and goes the other direction. But what does he do? He keeps down on this slope.

It started with him not doing his daily duty. Then it started with him indulging his comfort. Then it went to the place where he's looking where he shouldn't be looking and inquiring where he shouldn't be inquiring. And now he knows that woman is married to a man that you've trusted with your life, a man who's placed his life on the line for you and for the people of Israel. What does he do? He sends for her and takes her. You know, for years, a little side point for years, the story can be of David's unfaithfulness, you know, that he's committing adultery. But we also recognize in this day and age that here's David who's abusing his power.

So I imagine that Bathsheba wasn't necessarily, again, for lack of a better phrase, wasn't necessarily, quote unquote, into it. But here is the king. And he says, hey, come over here. What can she do? He's the king. And you see this massive, massive abuse of power. The Lord God had anointed David to be the king of Israel, to fight for his people, to lead his people, to guide and govern his people. And now here he is using that anointing, using that power, not only to betray Uriah, but also to violate this woman.

The crazy thing is it realized it does gets worse. She says, I'm with child. And so what does David do? He decides I need to cover this up. And so this is the contrast in chapter 11 of the nobility of Uriah and the lack of nobility in this moment in David, because he calls Uriah from the field and sends him home. Go back to your wife. And Uriah, no, he sleeps at the gates of the city. He sleeps at, in fact, the doorway of the king's house. David finds out, says, no, no, no, gets him drunk the next night. Go down to your wife. He says, how would I possibly, possibly ever sleep with my wife when my brethren, my brothers in arms are out in battle? And you see this contrast. Here's David. He started how? He started by not

doing his daily duty, gave into comfort, gave into all his base instincts, and then, you know, betrayed and took advantage of this woman. Now he's becoming a murderer. Contrast with Uriah, who is doing his daily duty. He's doing exactly what he's called to do and is not giving into that comfort, not giving into those base instincts, but instead choosing character and choosing nobility and choosing the right thing. And David ends up being a murderer, conspiring to murder this man who, again, has laid his life on the line for David and for Israel many times. I say it's only interesting because it ends with David being an adulterer, even worse, right? Maybe we use our word, right?

Maybe even taking advantage and sexually taking sexual advantage of this woman, very possibly against her will, and then becoming a murderer. These three things that we recognize are so evil. Adultery, rape, murder. These three things that are so evil, done by a man who in other contexts, in other places is so good.

Keep this in mind. He doesn't start there. He ends up there. Where does he start? He starts simply by not doing what he knew he was called to do. He starts simply by giving into his comfort. He starts simply by living off mission. And when we live off mission, where it leads is it leads to a dark, dark place. Now you and I might never become adulterers or rapists or murderers, but we all know that that's where it could end. When we start living off the mission that God has given to us, we don't know where it's going to end. What we're going to find tomorrow is that God has to step in. He has to step in and convict

David of what he's done. And he does, which is great. It's one of the reasons why tomorrow we're going to be reading Psalm 51. It's David's prayer of repentance. But today we read Psalm 32, which is another prayer of repentance from David. And we give God praise for the fact that, yeah, God, I can sometimes find myself in a place where I did not ever, ever dream I would end up here. I never imagined that I would end up in this place being an adulterer, being a rapist, being a murderer, being whatever the thing is, right? Being a someone who's doing what I'm doing right now or someone who's in the place where I am right now, but it started somewhere. So I go back to where it started and say, God, forgive me for that and forgive me for this. It's so dark, but it's also, it's a story of our own hearts.

And so we not only see the story of David, but we also learn from the story of David. And so, yeah, we just pray for each other because we know that could be any one of us. And that could be any one of us ending up being a murderer when we just decided to live off mission. That was all it was. But it ends up killing someone that trusted us with everything, whether that's killing them physically or killing them spiritually. That was all it was. But it ends up killing someone that trusted us with everything, whether that's killing them physically or killing them spiritually. That's what betrayal does. Betrayal kills someone spiritually. Fraud kills someone spiritually. That's why we need

prayers. I need prayers. I know that you need prayers and we need to pray for each other because it's not the end. Even the worst sin is not the end. This is not the end of David's story. Thanks be to God. This is not the end of David's story. Now, David, in your eyes might be someone that you can no longer ever respect yet. And yet in his eyes, he's also someone who he probably can no longer respect, no longer look at his reflection, but God knows David's heart and he keeps calling David's heart back to him. And that's what he does for you. And that's what he does for me. The question is not what we sin, we have sinned.

The question is, what do we do when we've sinned? And we're gonna see that tomorrow. Until then, please, we're all broken. We are all broken. So let's pray for each other. I am praying for you. As I said, I know you're praying for me. My name's Father Mike.

I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.