2 Samuel 11:1-17

The facts are:

1 . During the prosecution of the war against Ammon in the spring, David remains in Jerusalem.

2 . Walking one evening on his house top, he sees a woman washing herself, and observes her beauty.

3 . Curiosity being awakened, he sends to inquire after her, and learns that she is the wife of Uriah.

4 . Sending a royal message to her, she, as a loyal subject, waits upon him, whereupon he commits adultery.

5 . Discovering in the course of a little time that the fact would come to light, he sends for Uriah from the war, under pretext of gleaning information concerning it, but really that, by Uriah's sojourn with his wife, the fact may be concealed.

6 . Uriah, possibly suspicious of wrong, excuses himself from doing as David desires, on the plea that military duty and patriotism required of him absolute abstention from domestic pleasures.

7 . Failing in the first attempt, David makes him drunk, in hopes that, when stupid, he would go to his home; but in this also he fails.

8 . Subsequently he sends him back to Joab, with a secret instruction that he would set him in such a position as to ensure his death, which instruction Joab faithfully carries out.

The beginnings of great sins.

By universal consent the deed of David here recorded is regarded as a great sin—a very great sin, because it was a breach of the commandment which guards the purity of human life, and because committed by one blessed with more than ordinary privileges, and in an abuse of regal authority over a probably unsuspicious subject. The deed is ever base and criminal, but that such a man should commit the crime when God was prospering him in all his affairs, when his people were bravely risking their lives in defence of their country, and after he had spent so long and blessed a life in fellowship with God, is one of the marvels and mysteries of human nature. In the narrative we have set forth the origin and progress of the sin, so far as relates to its ostensible character. Scripture gives us outward facts in their natural order. But we know that in one outward fact of human life there are involved many mental and moral movements, and these are connected in the continuity of life with antecedents which, in part at least, account for their occurrence. It is not difficult, by bringing our knowledge of the laws of mental and moral movement to bear on the facts here recorded, to get a clue to the real beginnings of this great sin, and of great sins in general.

I. INTENSE ABSORPTION IN PROSPEROUS AFFAIRS DIMINISHES THE ENERGY THAT OTHERWISE WOULD GO TO SPIRITUAL CULTURE . Man, considered physiologically and physically, is a store of energy, and he can give out only what he possesses. The totality of his thoughts and acts is the outcome, and generally speaking the measure, of his store. What portion of it is spent in excess in one direction is just so much taken from another direction. The usual law of forces here applies. For some time David had been intensely absorbed in consolidating his power. The amount of work involved in all the changes he initiated and brought to completion must have been far in excess of what falls to an ordinary monarch, and this in proportion to the utter disorganization of affairs under Saul and Ishbosheth. Such an absorption most probably trenched upon the nervous and moral energy he had at one time concentrated directly on the culture of the spiritual life. Some few men seem gifted with the faculty of sudden transitions of energy, so that, while intensely absorbed in business or secular studies at one moment, they can, by an act of will, become equally absorbed at once in religious pursuits. Possibly David was one of these; but even in their case they cannot escape the weakening effect on the finer sensibilities of a protracted absorption in purely temporal affairs, especially if they are very prosperous. We see many instances of this in the lives of professedly religious men.

II. HABITS OF LIFE MAY UNCONSCIOUSLY BE FORMED WHICH GENERATE A CLASS OF FEELINGS PROVOCATIVE OF TEMPTATION . Habits grow in silence and too slowly to be noted, and every unconsciously formed habit brings with it its corresponding class of feelings, which also, rising gradually, are apt to obtain an unobserved permanence in life. The usages of Eastern courts in reference to polygamy acted in a subtle way on David's life, so that he gradually formed the habits peculiar to that abnormal form of domestic life, and we need no Divine revelation to inform us of the class of inferior feelings that would thereby be surely though slowly engendered. The man in modern times who, by reason of his affluence, combined with a certain habit of body, fares sumptuously every day, does not, while he is getting into the practice of so doing, reflect on the possible effect of all this, in days not far distant, upon his animal tendencies in a certain direction, and his corresponding moral safeguards. There can be no question that the physical, mental, and moral habits of life of a polygamous household are such as would furnish good soil for a sensual temptation, which, in the case of a man unduly absorbed and preoccupied in mere secularities, would be still more perilous. Many a religious man is weak from sources similar to this. Our Lord even warned his apostles, after they had had the benefit of his teaching for two years, to take heed lest at any time their hearts be" overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life" ( Luke 21:34 ).

III. LEISURE SUPERVENING ON GREAT ACTIVITY BRINGS THE WEAKER SIDE OF NATURE INTO PROMINENCE . The protracted exertions of years had now issued in a compact kingdom and internal order. Saul's family was cared for. Administration was organized and labour divided ( 2 Samuel 8:14-18 ). The war against the Syrians was in the hands of a powerful force, under a skilful general. David, in Jerusalem, had leisure unknown in former years. Now it is a fact in the history of human nature that, when great energies cease to be in demand, and the force of life no longer goes out in its wonted volume in its ordinary course, then the feelings and tendencies which, meanwhile, have been unconsciously generated by slowly formed habits of social life, are apt to take more prominence, and find less resistance, in consequence of the probably impaired power of the spiritual element (see division I). It is well known among young men that more moral falls occur during seasons of leisure than at any other time. Leisure following on great prosperity requires for its safe use more than ordinary wisdom and spiritual health. Adversity, though taxing energy to the utmost, tends to draw the heart nearer to God, so that when there is leisure from it the soul is in a better condition to guard against the evils incident to such a season.

IV. AN UNCONSCIOUS DECLINE OF REALITY IN COMMUNION WITH GOD MAY SET IN ON A MAN 'S OBTAINING A RECOGNIZED POSITION IN THE RELIGIOUS WORLD . The subtlety with which spiritual declension sets in is admitted by all who know anything of religions experience. The best of men are the objects of assault from the powers of darkness, clothed, it may be, as angels of light ( 2 Corinthians 11:14 ). Once let a man, by some subtle insinuation, begin to think that now, having served God so many years and written such useful and sincere utterances of his experience, he has a distinctly recognized position,—then, in that very thought, there is an element of danger. From that hour watchfulness may be less keen, routine may set in, and grey hairs may come "here and there upon him" while he "knoweth it not" ( Hosea 7:9 ). Undoubtedly David had attained such a recognized position in the religious world. His people would accord it; and, in the cessation of strain in civil and political exertions, he might, in an unguarded hour, especially if the lower feelings (see division II .) began to put forth their force, indulge in self-complacence. Communion with God might continue in full form, but its original intense reality would have passed away. Herein, perhaps, is the secret of the decline of religion in many a quondam professor. There are in the Church not a few who have left to them only "the form of godliness."

V. UNDER THE CONDITIONS THUS FAR CONSIDERED DISTINCT SUGGESTIONS COME THROUGH THE SENSES WITH DOUBLE FORCE . There are conditions under which suggestions through the eye, ear, or animal passions fall as powerless as snow on the solid rock. The real power of a temptation through the senses lies in the state of mind which we are in at the time. David had probably seen beautiful women many a time during his exile, and while king in Jerusalem; but the healthy, well guarded spirit was unhurt by the sight. Beauty anywhere is, to a healthy spiritual nature, an object of pure admiration as a work of God. It was because David was not his old self that this sight was as fuel to a smouldering flame. It takes but little to create radical changes and commotions, as seen in chemistry, when the primary elements of things are brought into contact; and so is it when certain elemental conditions of the moral man and his surroundings are concerned. Joseph was pure and spiritually healthy when the suggestion of evil came upon him, and it only produced a recoil ( Genesis 39:8 , Genesis 39:9 ). Great stress is laid on this in the Bible. "To the pure all things are pure." "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life."

VI. THERE IS A DISTURBING FORCE IN CERTAIN PASSIONS BY WHICH REASON , THE WILL , AND SPIRITUAL INSTINCTS ARE WEAKENED . It is a psychological fact that all emotion affects the exercise of the pure reason for the worse. It is in the experience of men that such passions as were aroused in David by the sight he witnessed from the roof of his house, more than any—except, perhaps, those involved in drunkenness—disturb or cripple the action of reason and of the will. Of course, they weaken the spiritual instincts in proportion as they find scope. Thus the powers which may be considered as the guardians of purity, the foes of evil, are not in their normal condition, and consequently the chances are, unless something happens to prevent such an issue, that the unhallowed feelings will gain further ascendency. In this we see that the perfect man is attainable only in Christ. The triumph of spiritual religion in our nature is coincident with the most perfect development of that nature. Hence, also, spiritual power among men is dependent on inner purity.

VII. WHEN ONCE THE REIN IS GIVEN TO SUCH PASSIONS , THE FALL HAS TAKEN PLACE IN ESSENCE . When David saw and looked on her, with a certain thought in his mind and feeling in his heart, he had virtually done the deed of which we have a record. In the spiritual sphere, thought and desire are tantamount to deed. The one is but the fuller form of the other. Sin lies in intent and purpose, whether it be actualized in outward fact or not. Hence our Lord's strong words ( Matthew 5:27 , Matthew 5:28 ). The mystery of David's sin really lies in the creation within himself of the base feeling indicated in the terms of 2 Samuel 11:2 . All that followed was a development of this ( James 1:14 , James 1:15 ). It is a question whether Christian people have, as a rule, recognized the solemn truth taught by Christ and seen in David's case. The seventh commandment has a bearing on the daily mental life.

VIII. AN INWARD FALL BRINGS ON SPIRITUAL DARKNESS , LOSS OF SELF - RESPECT , WITH FURTHER ENFEEBLED REASON AND WILL - POWER . Such an inward fall as David's on the roof of his house at once brought a cloud between him and his God, caused him to feel that he was a degraded man, and placed him, in that abandoned mood, under weaker safeguards against the growth of the evil passion. Unless a sudden and sharp repentance—a shocked cry to God for special help—came forth, there was no hope of his being the same man as formerly. Every hour during which the intrusive evil passion retained ascendency only hastened his final overthrow. Men so circumstanced become blind and stupid; they know their degradation, but are under a spell by which it becomes greater; consequences suggested in feeble or strong tones by the reason are not considered; the will, lately crippled for good, now goes over in full strength to the side of evil. Facilis descensus Averni. The particular passion may vary in the different deeds of evil which occasionally shock the religious world, but in every case there is a gradual decline, and it is only the last few stages of it which form the subject of surprise among men. Not murder as seen in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth,' nor fraud as seen in occasional modern revelations, nor youthful excesses as when the parent's heart is broken, are sudden in origin. A series of mental and moral changes precede that which attracts the notice of men and forms the occasion of a social condemnation.

GENERAL LESSONS .

1 . The fidelity of Scripture writers may be referred to as evidence of Divine inspiration. The cool impartiality with which the best king of Israel is represented as having fallen into the vilest of sins, and this without note or comment, is certainly not of man.

2 . Moral causes are deepest and most wide reaching in the sphere of human life; the change here indicated in David's moral condition was of pernicious influence ever after on his rule, his court, his private life, and the general prosperity of the kingdom.

3 . The season of great prosperity in temporal affairs, and of elevation in religious privilege, should, on account of the peril it brings, be a season of keenest and most earnest watchfulness.

4 . So powerful are the inferior propensities of human nature, even in the case of most favoured men, that it is possible for them to sweep away in their outburst the reputation built up on the best purposes and actions; and hence the importance of a most jealous guard against everything in appetite, sight, and sound, that may develop their power.

5 . Seeing the extraordinary extremes of human experience in the life of David, we may note and weigh well the undeveloped possibilities for good or evil, for joy or pain, for usefulness or harm, that lie within the scope of every human being in the future state, even more than in this.

6 . Feminine obtrusiveness, even when no danger is actually perceived in it, may all the time be operating on some one for evil; and hence the duty of the most guarded modesty of manner and personal appearance. We do not fully estimate the harm done to human thought and feeling by the ocular impressions produced by certain forms of dress and bearing.

7 . It is good to have leisure from toil, but much grace is needed to use leisure so that in it the tempter may not gain power over us.

8 . The dangers of eventide leisure are conspicuous, especially to the young and to the ardent.

9 . It adds to the guilt of a man if, being in a position of authority or influence, he exercises his official influence to gain power over others for proposes of evil.

The crooked ways of sin.

We have in 2 Samuel 11:6-13 an account of the devices by which David sought to escape the human discovery of his guilt. The perhaps sleepless nights spent in painful thought as to what could be safely done are not alluded to—only the product of his thinking. After what was said in 2 Samuel 11:5 , it was certain that exposure in the most palpable form would ensue if the woman's husband remained away at the war. To bring him home, and get him in an apparently natural way to spend a little time with his wife, at once seemed most feasible. The failure of this scheme, either through the patriotism or the awakened suspicions of Uriah, caused another night of thought and scheming, and, as the case was urgent, he was made drunk, in hope thereby his patriotism or suspicions would yield to natural propensities. Once more the force of events is against the scheme; and, as a last resort, seeing that Uriah could not be made out to be the father of the coming child, he must, with as good an appearance as possible, be put out of the way so that the king, in accordance with the rights of Eastern monarchs, might take his wife, and the expected one thus appear to be prematurely born in wedlock. Concerning these crooked ways of sin observe—

I. THE FIRST STEP OF THE IMPENITENT SINNER IS TO CLING TO HIS SIN . When such a sin as David's is committed, God is offended, conscience outraged, self-respect disregarded, and human condemnation rendered imminent. The whole of this disruption and confusion in the moral sphere is recognized at once as being a consequence of the deed done. Now, it is obvious that these consequences are not only to be dreaded, and, if possible, to be avoided, but also that the first act of a sound mind would be to abominate and seek to get dissociated, in every sense of the term, from the sin which entailed them. The sin, and not the consequences, is the evil thing—the most terrible and hurtful thing. And the first step of a truly penitent mind would be to shrink from it, to loathe it, to seek to cut it off if possible from self as the accursed thing. But note here that David shows no sign of this. The evil nature adopts the deed, identifies itself with it, seeks to live on in association of thought, feeling, and interest with it. God, purity, conscience, self-respect,—all may go; the soul will have its sin, and, by cherishing this sentiment towards it, virtually persists in its repetition. So did Adam, Achan, and Ananias; and so do all the poor debased souls that sink into iniquity without the grace of true repentance.

II. THE SECOND STEP IS TO RECOGNIZE THE POSSIBILITY OF EXPOSURE BEFORE MEN . The guilty man knows that God is aware of his crime. His action in this respect is a very singular phenomenon. There may be secret dread of God's coming judgment; the certainty of God's knowledge and power to punish may be so strong as even to render life inwardly wretched, and to produce the passivity and helplessness proper to an unavoidable fate. Possibly this sort of desperation urges to a warding off of such consequences as would come did men but know as much of the sin as God. At any rate, what the narrative sets before us is not an endeavour to escape from God and his anger; it shows us rather that, as soon as the mind can collect itself after the indulgence in sin, it recognizes the possibility of men becoming acquainted with the deed done. That was the thought which lay at the basis of Achan's covering up his spoils; that is the thought which starts in the mind of the thief, the liar, the adulterer, the false professor. The fear of man is a very potent influence. The fear of God is real, but it carries with it a hopelessness of effort. This induces gloomy desperation, but not thought and action to prevent discovery.

III. THE NEXT STEP IS TO CONSIDER THE POSSIBLE MEANS OF ESCAPE FROM HUMAN EXPOSURE . A guilty man pays unconscious homage to holiness in that he begins to think how he can prevent men knowing what he has done. David the hero, who trembled not before Goliath, now spends hours in thinking how he may escape the consequences of his own people knowing what he has done in private. Is it simply fear of civil and social loss? Is it merely dread of physical pain? No; even the guilty testify that sin is abominable; that sin is deepest personal disgrace; that sin is too black and ugly to bear even the gaze of imperfect men. No doubt David saw that he would suffer loss of respect among the best of the land; that the force of law would be weakened; that turbulence might arise in his kingdom by reason of others following his example; and that he would no longer be able to figure before the nation as the illustrious reformer of religion. The thousands who daily live in dread of, and consider how they may escape, human exposure! What restless nights! what deep-laid plans! what feverish concern!—all to cover up sin from feeble man! And yet God knows all, and will bring to judgment. Truly sin renders the operation of the mind very perverse. God knows all and judges all, and yet all effort is to keep man from knowing! Nothing is done Godward, except to harden the heart against him, and go on in sullen desperation. This is sin!—this the accursed evil of the universe!

IV. IN SEEKING TO ESCAPE HUMAN EXPOSURE , THE FIRST CONTRIVANCE IS TO SIMULATE THE ORDER OF PROVIDENCE ; i.e. to create, by innocent natural means, an order of events that shall have in them and their results an appearance of providential succession. David does not commit another positive sin to cover up the first. The sin-stained soul again, notwithstanding its degradation, pays homage to righteousness, in its deliberate effort to hide its past deed by deeds that are within the province of right; for David had a right to send for any officer to give him information as to the progress of the war ( 2 Samuel 11:6 , 2 Samuel 11:7 ), and it was only generous to allow him to go and rest at home ( 2 Samuel 11:8 ). Lord Bacon has taught us that, by carefully studying the processes of Nature to see how she works, we, on submitting to her ways, become her conquerors, by being able to set her at work in circumstances of our own creation. The scheme of an impenitent sinner, when wishing to hide his sin from the knowledge of man, is very much of that kind. He knows the order of providential events, and he tries to create circumstances by which, in the judgment of men, Providence shall be credited with the deed he himself has done. Uriah, not David, shall be made to appear as the father of the child. How this perverse ingenuity works still is familiar to all who know only a little of mankind. The cleverness with which trains of events are set in motion so as to assuredly direct attention from the doer of evil, is amazing. The devil was always a great schemer, and his dupes catch his spirit.

V. THE FAILURE OF SCHEMES INVOLVING NO POSITIVE SIN IN THE DETAILS IS SOON FOLLOWED BY DEEDS DISTINCTLY EVIL . If Providence cannot be simulated, because of the uncontrollable nature of its agents ( 2 Samuel 11:9-11 ), then homage to righteousness must cease, and positive evil must be done ( 2 Samuel 11:13-15 ). The one desired end—escape from human exposure—must, by good or evil means, be secured. The knowledge that God knows and is angry counts for nothing. The despair of escaping God, combined with a mad identification of one's interests with the evil committed and still cherished in the heart, seems to operate on the mind in such a way as practically to banish him from thought or care. All thought is on man, and at any cost man must be kept in ignorance. It is against even the conscience, stained and hardened as it is, to do definite evil, if possible—so mighty is the moral law in the worst of men—but preservation of self from exposure is now the first law, to which right, generosity, every true and holy sentiment and obligation, must bow.

VI. IN HAVING RECOURSE TO DESPERATE MEASURES OF EVIL , THERE IS SOME REGARD TO APPEARANCES . It is only the very uttermost moral degradation—that, perhaps, of fiends in hell—that can perpetrate fresh evils with utter freedom, and without any reserve of decency or tacit recognition of the majesty of law. Every hour spent by David in elaborating his scheme brought him more within the coil of iniquity, and gradually reduced his moral sensibilities towards zero; but even when in his despair he meditated the death of the man whose life might lead to exposure of his sin, he could not slay him with his own hand, he could not say even to Joab, "Slay him." Appearances must be saved, and some homage paid, by the lingering sense of right, to the Law of God, by a contest being created in the interests of the kingdom, so that in fighting for his country the doomed man might die by the hand of the enemy. Of course, David did not kill him! Of course, it was an incident in the natural order of warlike events!

It was not the King of Israel that raised the arm to slay, but the wicked Ammonites! Such is the crooked logic of sin. Our Saviour has described Satan as a liar as well as a murderer ( John 8:44 ). It is evidently very difficult to crush out all light from the conscience. There is a continuous protest in the performance of guilty deeds; but so obstinate and desperate in alliance with sin is the heart of an impenitent man, that this protest, this remnant of light, is only used to grace the performance of positive evil with a semblance of naturalness and innocence. The crooked ways of sin are traversed by all men who in any measure hug their iniquities, and try to avoid the consequences which it is feared would come were the deeds of darkness exposed to view. There are many acting in this way every day.

GENERAL LESSONS .

1 . Men in positions of power have many means at hand for hiding their sins from public view ( 2 Samuel 11:6 ); but they should be warned of their corresponding peril and increased guilt if they use those means.

2 . Real hypocrisy lies in doing things with the appearance of right and to give an impression of right conduct, when the real aim is evil, and the present motive is subordinate to that aim ( 2 Samuel 11:6-11 ); consequently, just pains should be taken in exposing to men the horrible wickedness of their course, and in getting them to recognize more distinctly, as a governing power in life, the perfect knowledge of God.

3 . There are always forces working unconsciously against the designs of hypocritical men, rendering, as the action of Uriah did ( 2 Samuel 11:11-13 ), the way of transgressors hard. It is vain to fight against God.

4 . The man who, in the day of success and real goodness, scorns the unprincipled and hardhearted ( 2 Samuel 3:29-39 ), may so fall as to be glad of such men to carry out his evil designs ( 2 Samuel 11:15 )—a warning this to him "who thinketh that he standeth."

5 . He who makes use of another as his instrument of evil henceforth becomes weak in all his relations to him. Masters who employ their servants to carry on evil transactions lose influence over them, and virtually place themselves in their power.