As noted last time, it also found expression in his writings. David knew he and all mankind are created in God’s image, that it is godless men who plot and commit murder, that God remembers innocent people who are slain and punishes their killers. In short, David knew that God abhors murder.
This is why it's so shocking that David plotted against Uriah and had him killed. He not only violated Uriah’s sanctity of human life, but also the sanctity of marriage—his own as well as Uriah and Bathsheba’s. We can’t overlook this one glaring exception to the pro-life principle in his life.
Let’s consider 2 Samuel 11 in light of the passages highlighted previously:
1/ We saw how David honored the lives of three of his mighty men by refusing to drink their oblation of water from Bethlehem’s well (2 Sam. 23:13-17). Uriah was also one of David’s mighty men (2 Sam. 23:39, 1 Chronicles 11:41). Why didn’t he care the same way for Uriah? Because he'd indulged himself with Uriah’s wife while the man was away serving in David’s army. Rather than satisfying himself with the wife (or wives) of his youth, David drank from another man’s well (Proverbs 5:15,18).
2/ Even though Uriah was his compatriot, David treated him worse than an enemy combatant (1 Sam. 30:11-15). Uriah was a Hittite, not an ethnic Israeli, yet he'd chosen to fight alongside David. David betrayed a faithful soldier and became his fiercest foe because he lusted after his wife; he put Uriah to death because he’d gotten Bathsheba pregnant.
3/ Because Uriah had something David wanted—a beautiful and desirable wife—they became rivals for her affections and her hand in marriage. Because he had power, David shamelessly treated Uriah the way Saul had treated him… placing him on the battle’s front line and hoping for his death (1 Sam. 18:17,21,25).
Like David, Uriah had done nothing to deserve death, but David did not offer him the protection he'd granted to Saul as God’s anointed (1 Sam. 24:1-7 and 26:1-25). In terms of the Golden Rule, David did not treat Uriah the way he wished Saul would have treated him. If he’d been perfectly guided by the pro-life ethic, David would have shielded Uriah from death instead of arranging for his murder!
David violated his own standards and Uriah's right to life, but his sin was primarily against God (Psalm 51:4). In one sinful act he broke nearly every commandment. He not only coveted another man’s wife, but also stole her away. He committing adultery with her, and killed her husband in order to keep her. He lied to himself and others in the process.
Unlike Joseph, who lived before the law was given, David did not ask, “How could I do this great evil and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9) He succumbed to temptation because he placed another god before his eyes—himself—and failed to trust God for all he needed. In this instance, YHWH was not his shepherd (Psalm 23:1).
So while we could be inspired by the positive nature of David’s commitment to the pro-life ethic, we also receive powerful instruction through his tragic failure.
Other considerations:
►We should contemplate how sexual sin played into David’s disregard for the sanctity of human life. It was at the heart of this murder plot. David hoped to hide his sin by killing the inconvenient person in the relationship. Interestingly, David and Bathsheba’s son Solomon may have been thinking of his family’s experiences when he taught their grandson this important lesson:
Drink water from your own cistern and fresh water from your own well…. Rejoice in the wife of your youth…. Why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress…? (Prov. 5:15-23)
►Note also how strong drink was used in the effort to weaken Uriah’s resolve, much like the way predators use drugs and alcohol in sexual assaults.
►Looking at 1 John 3:11-12, we can recognize similarities between Cain and David. Like Cain, David was at this moment loving himself more than his brother soldier. Furthermore, he began to hate Uriah because David’s deeds were evil and Uriah’s were righteous. Neither Cain nor David listened to God before taking the fatal measure.
►David involved Joab in his wicked deed, misusing and abusing another faithful servant. Perhaps David felt he could take advantage of Joab because Joab had previously violated the sanctity of human life (2 Sam. 3:27-28). In this way David perverted justice and kingly authority, much as Saul had done when he ordered the murder of priests (1 Sam. 22:14-19).
►Even though it was the Ammonites whose swords did the act of killing Uriah, it could not be dismissed as an act of war. David intended Uriah’s death, for a selfish purpose. It was murder.
►What does it say about David that he was placated by the news of Uriah’s death, heartened by his army’s loss, and unmoved by the loss of a brave warrior? Everything about this story is topsy-turvy. A guilty conscience hindered him from thinking straight. His mind and heart were twisted by lust.
►In 1 Samuel 13:14, David had been called “a man after God’s own heart.” The final words of 2 Samuel 11:27 show a man who was completely out of step with God. God was greatly displeased because David had arranged everything for his own pleasure, without keeping God’s design for life and marriage in mind.
Why didn't David die for his capital crime?
David had pronounced the death sentence on the villian in Nathan’s parable, even though a thief only had to pay restitution (Exodus 22:1). Rather, God’s law required adulterers and murderers like David to be put to death (see Ex. 21:12, Leviticus 20:10).
A guilty conscience is probably what caused David to lash out against another sinner, but how was it he escaped losing his life? Why did God let him survive? Was it because he confessed his sin, agreed with God about it? Was it because he repented and showed proper remorse? (2 Sam. 12:13-23, Psalm 51)?
He did those things, but I think the reason has more to do with God’s purpose and plan for David. In 2 Samuel 7:12-16, God had made an unconditional covenant with David unlike any other. David’s line would never fail to have someone on Israel’s throne—leading up to and including the hope of the world, Jesus Christ who will reign forever.
When Nathan pointed the finger and said, “You are the man!” David immediately realized he deserved to die (2 Sam. 12:1-14). He could not help but agree with the justice of the law: “I have sinned against YHWH.” But since David was the king of Israel, he was its supreme court and could not conduct a righteous judgment on himself. He had pronounced the death sentence on others, but there was no one higher in the land to carry out judgment on him. Only God had the authority to do so.
Amazingly, God intended to make another son of David and Bathsheba the one who would succeed David on the throne. It would not be this son to whom she had just given birth—not the offspring of their illicit affair, not one that could be conjectured to belong to Uriah—but another.
Simply put, God wanted to forgive David. What He wants to do He does. He orchestrated David’s repentance by causing Nathan to confront him in a manner that would be effective. In his rebuke, He enumerated all the things He’d done so David knew he had no excuse, and He uncovered every aspect of his sin so he knew God had witnessed everything he’d done. There was no hiding from God.
David was the amply-provided man in the parable who had no excuse for stealing and killing another man’s pet. There would be no escaping the death penalty unless God removed the crime, erased the debt, and that is what God did. Nathan announced, “YHWH has taken away your sin; you shall not die.” Wow.
David did not get away unscathed. Just as his household would always have a representative on the throne of Israel, so would the sword also never depart from it. There would be evil in his household that would rise up against David. He would suffer the humiliation of having his own wives taken from him. And, because this action had caused great amusement among God’s enemies, the child recently born would die. David probably wished he was the one so punished, because the child’s death caused his beloved wife added pain.
No human being is infallible. The most devoted person can fail miserably. We’re relieved and grateful that, with acknowledgement of guilt, there is restoration. David’s story is a testament to God’s grace, even for the most egregious sins. No sin is beyond God’s forgiving reach. Not even sexual sin and murder.
Considering how quickly and easily we can fail, let’s remember a few lessons from this episode in David’s otherwise exemplary life: A) Sexual sin is closely related to disregard for the sanctity of human life. B) Obedience to God requires constant vigilance over our minds and hearts to guard against temptation. C) When pursuing our own pleasure we’re most in danger of displeasing God.
We might ask ourselves how well the biblical pro-life ethic is ingrained in our own hearts and minds. How might we strengthen our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors in relation to the sanctity of human life so that we always choose life?
Epilogue
David was denied his wish to build YHWH’s temple because he had “shed so much [human] blood on the earth.” We might think this indictment included the murder of Uriah, but that didn’t happen until well after God designated David’s son Solomon, the man of peace, as His temple builder. The bloodshed God spoke of had to do with the many great wars David had waged as a younger man (1 Chronicles 22:8). God’s covenant with David remained firm, despite what he would do to Uriah.
David is still remembered as a great, blessed man... just not as the temple-builder. After his death, he served as the standard by which other kings were judged. He turned not aside "to the right or to the left," in continuation of an evil path. Nevertheless, as 1 Kings 15:5 shows us, the ungodly way he treated Bathsheba and Uriah permanently stained his legacy:
“David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.”
Many years later, King Herod would try to prevent the ascension of the final king in David’s line—the Messiah, Christ the Lord. David’s hometown Bethlehem would become the scene of a terrible atrocity, a massacre of innocents, but God protected Jesus from slaughter that day (Matthew 2:13-18, 9:27). He had another purpose for this son of David… a death on the cross to atone for sin. God still wants to forgive sin!
Next: King Saul and the pro-life ethic
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Image credit: King David by Jean David https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-david/king-david. Fair use.
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