p a g e 1 #6 rebuilding the temple series unit 4 · 06.11.2014 · p a g e | 3 #6 – an affair to...

P a g e | 1

#6 – An Affair to Remember

Rebuilding the Temple Series – Unit 4 – The Lion of Judah, © 2014 Ta`Mara Hanscom

November 16, 2014

On the heels of a few missteps, David remembers his

promise to Jonathan, and Mephibosheth comes to

dine with the king on a permanent basis. This is a

significant event, as some of the players who are

introduced here will trickle into the story later on.

Ziba is one of them.

Ziba was a servant of the house of Saul, and more

than likely wound up as the steward of Saul’s

property once Saul and his sons died – the land,

however, was now owned by King David. More than

likely it was transferred to David’s ownership

because he was married to Saul’s daughter, Michal.

8 And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying,

‘If a man dies and has no son, then you shall

transfer his inheritance to his daughter. Numbers

27:8 esv

David promises Mephibosheth that it will all be

restored to him – and this is really in accordance

with the Law. Dining at the king’s table is not. That

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is special affection for this living relative of

Jonathan.

Ziba and his family sort of wind up on the short end

of the stick. They are all now servants of

Mephibosheth. So, instead of being a steward or an

overseer of the property, David rewrites Ziba’s job

description on the spot:

9 Then the king called Ziba, Saul's servant, and said

to him, “All that belonged to Saul and to all his

house I have given to your master's grandson. 10 And

you and your sons and your servants shall till the

land for him and shall bring in the produce, that

your master's grandson may have bread to eat. But

Mephibosheth your master's grandson shall always

eat at my table.” Now Ziba had fifteen sons and

twenty servants. 11 Then Ziba said to the king,

“According to all that my lord the king commands

his servant, so will your servant do.” So

Mephibosheth ate at David's table, like one of the

king's sons. 12 And Mephibosheth had a young son,

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whose name was Mica. And all who lived in Ziba's

house became Mephibosheth's servants. 13 So

Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always

at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet.

2nd

Samuel 9:9-13 esv

David here sets the perfect example of how Jesus

Christ will seat us at His banquet table. But as is

becoming David’s usual modus operandi, he

immediately lapses into a bad judgment call. But I

think there’s something already going on in David’s

private life that makes him trip and fall the way he

does…and when he goes downhill, he just picks up

steam.

Last year we studied 1st Samuel 11, where we saw

Saul take on King Nahash and really clean his clock.

According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, and

also Anthony Campbell and Mark Obrien, authors of

Unfolding Deuteronomistic History: Origins,

Upgrades, Present Text, Nahash, King of the

Ammonites had brought the tribes of Gad and

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Reuben under his subjection. His regular practice

with them was to gouge out their right eye. There

were hardly any Israelites living on the east side of

the Jordan River that hadn’t had their right eye

gouged out. About 7000 men had escaped Nahash’s

reign of terror and were living in Jabesh, and that’s

who Nahash is going after as 1st Samuel Chapter 11

opens.

So this is the history – I cannot explain why David

says here, “I will deal loyally with Hanun the son of

Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me.”

*Some scholars believe that this is evidence that

Nahash aided David in some way when he fled from

Saul.

So David sent by his servants to console him

concerning his father. And David's servants came

into the land of the Ammonites. 2nd Samuel 10:2

esv

Now, David doesn’t do any of this messaging – he’s

always sending these servants back and forth. His

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November 16, 2014

men are humiliated, and a huge war begins with the

Ammonites.

7 And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all

the host of the mighty men. 2nd Samuel 10:7

esv

So while Joab and the mighty men are duking it out

with the Ammonites, David is walking around on his

roof, looking at woman taking a bath.

And she isn’t just any woman. She is the wife of one

of his mighty men. Not only that, she is the daughter

of Eliam, he is also one of David’s mighty men, or

we see them referred to as The Thirty.

Let me be clear, David gets Bathsheba’s husband

and her father out of town. I think that’s interesting!

Here’s what else I think: This woman does not just

happen to be taking a bath on her roof at the same

time the king is walking around above her. I think

they were well acquainted with one another and had

had something going on in their heads for a while.

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David, however, had the power and the means to do

something about it.

2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose

from his couch and was walking on the roof of the

king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman

bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 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?” 4 So David sent

messengers and took her, and she came to him, and

he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself

from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her

house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and

told David, “I am pregnant.” 2nd Samuel 11:2-5 esv

This was more than just a late afternoon roll in the

hay. Very rarely does a woman get pregnant the first

time around. Bathsheba had stayed with David for a

while – while her husband and father are out on the

battlefield attempting to overcome the Ammonites.

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I can’t imagine what went through their minds. Their

sin was punishable by death, which they both knew,

and now the proof of what they’d done was on its

way. And apparently David has a sudden glimmer of

realization that it isn’t worth dying for. But, he has

the power and the means with which to formulate an

amicable solution.

I know, I’ll call her husband back to the palace.

After all, he’s one of my top men. It’s perfectly

normal that I ask him questions about the battle. I

will then treat him like one of my own sons, who are

not on the battlefield, pretend that he is this special

to me, and then I’ll send him home to Bathsheba.

She’s a smart girl. She’ll know what to do and we’ll

make Uriah think the baby belongs to him….

But it didn’t go like that.

9 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. 10 When they told David, “Uriah did not

go down to his house,” David said to Uriah, “Have

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you not come from a journey? Why did you not go

down to your house?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The

ark and 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.” 2nd

Samuel 11:9-11 esv

David must be so blown away. Uriah has some

impeccable moral character. He can’t stand the

thought of his comrades fighting on the battlefield

while he luxuriates in the comforts of home and

woman.

I find it incredibly ironic that the man David sought

to remove from the city so that he could freely

pursue his wife, he now calls back to cover what

he’s done with her – and he can’t get Uriah to take

the bait!

Something else that points to Uriah’s character is his

personal self-discipline when it comes to the Law.

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November 16, 2014

He knows that if he has relations with his wife he’ll

be considered ceremonially unclean and have to wait

a day or so before he can rejoin the other soldiers.

David had to have been thinking, wow…what am I

going to do with this goody-two-shoes. I know, I’ll

get him so hammered he doesn’t know up from

down, send him down to the wife and Bathsheba can

take it from there.

But it didn’t go like that.

12 Then David said to Uriah, “Remain here today

also, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah

remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 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. 2nd Samuel 2:12-13

esv

Even getting him drunk did not make Uriah

compromise his faith. That’s some self-will.

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David is beyond freaking out at this point. The only

solution appears to be Uriah’s death.

When David realizes that Uriah stayed away from

Bathsheba he writes a letter to Joab – a man he

knows is brutal and beyond moral scruples – and

invites him into the plan to have Uriah killed. Uriah,

devoted soul that he is, unwittingly carries his own

death sentence and delivers it into the hands of his

executioner.

I love what George Williams wrote about this:

…and so this false step also led to the moral

wreckage of this chapter when David further

surrendered himself into the hands of Joab.

—George Williams, The Complete Bible Commentary

Joab does what’s expected, and through messengers

he and David basically congratulate one another on a

job well done.

Bathsheba mourned for her dead husband one week,

and married David the next. They’d gotten what they

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wanted. They were together at last, and no one could

stop them now.

Honestly, does this remind anyone but me of the

Lifetime Movie Network?

But the thing that David had done displeased the

Lord. 2nd Samuel 11:27

esv

26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after

receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer

remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful

expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will

consume the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has set

aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the

evidence of two or three witnesses. 29 How much

worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by

the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God,

and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which

he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of

grace? 30 For we know him who said, “Vengeance is

mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will

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judge his people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into

the hands of the living God. Hebrews 10:26-31 esv

David very much falls into the hands of the living

God.

It is generally believed that about a period of one

year passes between the end of Chapter 11 and the

beginning of Chapter 12. During that time, the

newlyweds are presumably living it up, celebrating

their new baby, and thinking they’ve gotten away

with murder…until that pesky ole prophet shows up.

And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him

and said to him, “There were two men in a certain

city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man

had very many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man

had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had

bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with

him and with his children. It used to eat of his

morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms,

and it was like a daughter to him. 2nd Samuel 12:3

esv

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Uriah was never afforded the chance to tell his side

of the story – and so God does, through the prophet,

Nathan.

Uriah had loved Bathsheba, affectionately and

deeply. He shared his own portions with her, and she

drank from his cup. They were like the young couple

you see in the restaurant, so gaga over one another

that they are feeding each other off their own plates.

Uriah was a man wholly in love with his wife, and

she was sacred to him. He held nothing back from

her. Furthermore, she was all that he had and he was

delighted to have her.

4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he

was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to

prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he

took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the

man who had come to him.” 2nd

Samuel 12:4 esv

A traveler came to the rich man. The Hebrew word

for traveler is hēlek, and it can also be translated as

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wayfarer. This is a person who travels from place to

place on foot.

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the

devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking

someone to devour. 1st Peter 5:8

esv

This traveler, this wayfarer, the devil, comes

prowling over to David’s place, looking for someone

to devour, and he finds it. David is not being sober-

minded. Judging from his actions over the past year

or so, we can just about guess where he’s at in his

Bible study. He’s supposed to study the Law every

single day, (Deuteronomy 17:18-20.) and he’s been

given a directive to shepherd the flock. Well, the

flock has been dispatched without its shepherd for a

considerable period of time now. David is still in

Jerusalem and the flock is still out there fighting the

Ammonites on their own.

Nathan is saying to David here, the devil came to

you with some carnal desires and had to be fed. And

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instead of going to your own harem, you exploited

the sacredness of good man.

Make no mistake, these carnal desires will demand

to be fed, and if we’re not sober-minded and

watchful somebody is going to get devoured.

5 Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the

man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the

man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall

restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing,

and because he had no pity.” 2nd Samuel 12:5-6

esv

David is so moved with compassion at the story that

he blasts, he deserves to die.

Isn’t it funny…we can always see the gravity of sin

in someone else, but we’re completely blind to our

own. Didn’t Jesus say something about that?

Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the

judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and

with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's

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eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own

eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me

take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log

in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log

out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to

take the speck out of your brother's eye. Matthew

7:1-5 esv

David invokes the Law with which to punish this

guy Nathan is talking about – God’s penalty for such

a crime is to return the stolen property fourfold

(Exodus 22:1). And in that, David prescribes his

own judgment.

7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says

the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king

over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of

Saul. 8 And I gave you your master's house and your

master's wives into your arms and gave you the

house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too

little, I would add to you as much more. 9 Why have

you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil

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in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite

with the sword and have taken his wife to be your

wife and have killed him with the sword of the

Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never

depart from your house, because you have despised

me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be

your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will

raise up evil against you out of your own house. And

I will take your wives before your eyes and give them

to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in

the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I

will do this thing before all Israel and before the

sun.’” 13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned

against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The

Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have

utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to

you shall die.” 15 Then Nathan went to his house. 2nd

Samuel 12:7-15 esv

And in the weeks to come we will see how David’s

own judgment plays out in his personal life. He will

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pay back that lamb he stole fourfold…and judgment

begins immediately.

And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife

bore to David, and he became sick. 16 David

therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And

David fasted and went in and lay all night on the

ground. 17 And the elders of his house stood beside

him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not,

nor did he eat food with them. 18 On the seventh day

the child died. And the servants of David were afraid

to tell him that the child was dead, for they said,

“Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to

him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we

say to him the child is dead? He may do himself

some harm.” 19 But when David saw that his

servants were whispering together, David

understood that the child was dead. And David said

to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He

is dead.” 20 Then David arose from the earth and

washed and anointed himself and changed his

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clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and

worshiped. 2nd Samuel 12:15-20

esv

David worshiped. David was trying to come back to

the Lord. He’d been on his face before God for

seven days, possibly writing Psalm 51. In his

repentance he recognized the work of the Lord in his

life. The baby died, but look what David

acknowledges here:

He then went to his own house. And when he asked,

they set food before him, and he ate. 21 Then his

servants said to him, “What is this thing that you

have done? You fasted and wept for the child while

he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and

ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still

alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows

whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the

child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I

fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him,

but he will not return to me.” 2nd Samuel 20:20-23

esv

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In the whole lesson, my greatest comfort comes

from verse 23. Let me tell you why.

Thirty years ago at Thanksgiving time Jim and I lost

a baby. This verse gives me hope that I will go to

that baby someday. David believes he will see his

little one someday, though he knows he can’t bring

him back to this place. I know that too.

That David possessed a deep understanding of

God’s character is evident by the way he

responded to God’s judgment. Before the blow

fell he prayed, knowing that Jehovah was a God

of mercy. After the blow fell, he worshiped

knowing that Jehovah was a God of

righteousness. He forgot the things that were

behind, accepted the divine discipline, and

looked ahead to the future. He did not despair

because he knew that God would yet bless him.

He was right.

—William McDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary

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24 Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba… 2nd

Samuel 12:24 esv

The Hebrew word for comforted is n am, and this

is the definition from Vine’s Concise Dictionary of

the Bible:

“to repent, comfort.” [… ]to bring acts of

kindness and favor, and encouraging words to

another. David “comforted” Bathsheba after the

death of her child born in sin […] this probably

indicates his repentance of what had happened in

their indiscretion.

Put simply, David repented of his sin against God,

but also how he’d sinned against Bathsheba. He’d

seduced her away from the arms of a man who’d

loved and cherished her, and now here she was

grieving the death of her child. David was sorry for

what his sinful actions had brought to her life. As a

result, he went to her with kindness and

encouragement, and repented of his actions, and God

blessed him for it.

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[David] went in to her and lay with her, and she

bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And

the Lord loved him 25 and sent a message by Nathan

the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because

of the Lord. 2nd Samuel 12:24-25

esv

This new little one, Solomon, has been conceived

not in the sinful will of the flesh, but within David’s

tender repentance toward Bathsheba. This is an

important aspect of repentance.

David acknowledged that he’d sinned first against

God Almighty, and then he went to the injured party

and repented – and God blessed David’s sincere

actions with a new life. With Solomon, and the Lord

loved him.

p a g e 1 #6 rebuilding the temple series unit 4 · 06.11.2014 · p a g e | 3 #6 – an affair to...

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