Although David became great within his kingdom, he alsosinned with Bathsheba, murdered Uriah, and wrongfully ordered a census. Thefirst two of these sins were linked, and we shall see that David’s sin led to corrosion within the kingdom.
Let’s look, first of all, at how David sinned with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah. This took place because David stayed home from battle, saw Bathsheba bathing, called her to his palace,and adulterously impregnated her. In trying to cover up the situation, he conspired her husband Uriah’s murder, all of which displeased the Lord (2 Sam 11:1–26;cf. 1 Chron 20:1–3).
In response, God sent Nathan to tell a parable to condemn David for his murder, taking Bathsheba, and murdering by way of the Ammonites. David’s punishment would be threefold—he would have evil against him in his house, his wives would be defiled, and his child through Bathsheba would die (2 Sam 12:1–15a).
As foretold, the child did die (2 Sam 12:15b–23). Bathsheba then had Solomon through David (2 Sam 12:24–25), and David rejoined Joab in battle to conquer the Ammonites (2 Sam 12:26–31).
As time went on, David indeed experienced evil in his house as foretold by Nathan. It began when David’s firstborn son Amnon (his mother was Ahinoam) raped his half-sister Tamar, incurring the wrath of her brother Absalom (their mother was Maacah; 2 Sam 13:1–22). Absalom orchestrated the murder of Amnon to avenge Tamar and fled to his grandfather, Talmai, king of Geshur (2 Sam 13:23–39).
Absalom later tried to usurp David’s throne. In the events leading up to the matter, Joab used a wise woman to persuade David to bring back Absalom from Geshur. Two years later, Absalom forced the attention of Joab to let him back into David’s favor (2 Sam 14:1–33).Absalom then stole the hearts of Israel for four years, conspired to take David’s kingship while in Hebron, and forced David to shamefully flee from Jerusalem (2 Sam 15:1–16:14).
God providentially arranged for Absalom’s demise, however. Instead of listening to the advice of Ahithophel to immediately go after David with 12,000 men, Absalom chose the advice of Hushai and waited to gather many men and attack David with a stronger force. Seeing that David would have time to recover from the attempted coup, Ahithophel hung himself, likely to avoid execution (2 Sam 15:15–17:29). Ahithophel had been the one to instruct Absalom to violate David’s concubines in the sight of all Israel, fulfilling one of the three judgments foretold by Nathan (2 Sam 16:21–22).
David gathered his men and fought back, and against David’s orders, Joab killed Absalom along the way (2 Sam 18:1–18). This was not only a death of a son of David, but also by the hands of a nephew of David, Joab, the son of David’s sister Zeruiah (cf. 2 Chron 2:13–16). David was told of Absalom’s death and mourned in response (2 Sam 18:19–33). Joab rebuked David for shaming Israel over Absalom’s death by mourning for someone who acted as an enemy, and then David promised Israel Amasa as general to sway the tribes back under his kingship (2 Sam 19:1–15), which would lead to trouble, as we shall see in the weeks ahead.
From the above, the evil in David’s house included a number of events: Amnon raped Tamar; Absalom murdered Amnon; Absalom fled his home; Absalom attempted a coup when he returned; Joab killed Absalom; and David had friction with Joab. Surely evil had come to his house.
From the above, we learn some very practical lessons.
First, idleness can lead to sin if we are not careful. David should have been fighting with Joab. Instead he was walking around with an ability to see what he should not see, leading him to trouble.
Second, sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. Such was the experience of David for his sins of adultery and murder.
Third, even the best of men are at best, men. David was the standard by which later kings would be measured, but he was not the greatest of kings, Jesus, who is the greatest of our examples. And not only is Jesus our greatest example, we take hope that He is the greatest King who is our Savior and one day coming again.