One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

2 Samuel 11:2-5

Afternoon rest was normal, but it was evening (v 2) before David got up from his bed! He had clearly not sent Joab off to war because he was concentrating on other kingly tasks. His lust leads to adultery, which, given the imbalance in their status, was probably, in effect, rape. When Bathsheba became pregnant, he tried to avoid responsibility by deceiving, cheating, and eventually murdering an honorable and innocent man. At the same time, he made himself vulnerable to undue influence, if not blackmail, from Joab. No wonder the thing, or indeed things, ‘David had done displeased the Lord’ (v 27).

CLOSING PRAYER: Holy Spirit, humbly and earnestly ask to plant the words of Scripture deep in my heart. Help me to think and feel and do what is right as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise.

(Edited from Encounter with God)