David then sent a message to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. When Uriah arrived, David asked him if Joab and the troops were well, and how the fighting was going. Then he said to Uriah, “Go on home and rest a while.”
Plan A. David brings Uriah back to the city, he sleeps with his wife, he’ll think that the kid is his. Simple. Problem solved.
Uriah left, and David had a present sent to his home. But Uriah did not go home; instead he slept at the palace gate with the king’s guards. When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he asked him, “You have just returned after a long absence; why didn’t you go home?”
Uriah answered, “The men of Israel and Judah are away in battle, and the Covenant Box is with them; my commander Joab and his officers are camping out in the open. How could I go home, eat and drink, and sleep with my wife? By all that’s sacred, I swear that I could never do such a thing!”
Plan A didn’t work. Time to move on to Plan B…
So David said, “Then stay here the rest of the day, and tomorrow I’ll send you back.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. David invited him to supper and got him drunk.
Plan B. David encourages Uriah half way to where he wants him to go by getting him drunk…
But again that night Uriah did not go home; instead he slept on his blanket in the palace guardroom.
Plan B didn’t work. What else could David do? Tell Uriah the truth?! The trap was sprung and he was like a fly caught in the spider’s web. Time to pull out all the stops…
The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by Uriah. He wrote: “Put Uriah in the front line, where the fighting is heaviest, then retreat and let him be killed.” So while Joab was besieging the city, he sent Uriah to a place where he knew the enemy was strong. The enemy troops came out of the city and fought Joab’s forces; some of David’s officers were killed, and so was Uriah.
First adultery then murder. Ouch. David was willing to go to seemingly any lengths to hide his sin. As for Job, he was a scheming politician (2 Samuel 14:18-21) who would have immediately recognized the scheming in another. With that, he sees his reflection in David and would now have leverage over him…
So the messenger went to David and told him what Joab had commanded him to say. He said, “…some of Your Majesty’s officers were killed; your officer Uriah was also killed.”
David said to the messenger, “Encourage Joab and tell him not to be upset, since you never can tell who will die in battle. Tell him to launch a stronger attack on the city and capture it.”
Success! But all the while the heavy hand of guilt was weighing down upon him… (Psalm 51:3-4). To note, Uriah acted with complete integrity and it cost him his life. Doing what’s good and right is not a formula for getting good things in return (Habakkuk 1:13). It doesn’t matter…
When Bathsheba heard that her husband had been killed, she mourned for him. When the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to the palace; she became his wife and bore him a son. But the Lord was not pleased with what David had done.
“Not pleased” would be putting in lightly… This truly is a sad chapter in an otherwise spotless spiritual journey (1 Kings 15:5). It’s like putting an asterisk next to his accomplishments to indicate “yes but…” Lord, may I finish my race asterisk free!