”Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.“
II Samuel 11:4 NKJV
a. Then David sent messengers, and took her: In this the man after God’s heart went against his own heart, following through on a lustful impulse. David ignored every warning and way of escape God set before him. In doing this, David took her – he “took” Bathsheba, someone who did not belong to him through the covenant of marriage.
i. “In the expression he took her, and she came to him there is no intimation whatever that David brought Bathsheba into his palace through craft or violence, but rather that she came at his request without any hesitation, and offered no resistance to his desires. Consequently Bathsheba is not to be regarded as free from blame.” (Keil and Delitzsch)
ii. “We hear nothing of her reluctance, and there is no evidence that she was taken by force.” (Clarke)
b. He lay with her: David knew this was wrong, yet he did it. It’s hard to explain David’s thinking here because he wasn’t thinking. He acted on feeling and impulse instead of thinking.
i. If David had thought about all this, he would have seen the cost was so much greater than he wanted to consider at the time. If David had only known that this illicit pursuit of pleasure would directly or indirectly result in:
· An unwanted pregnancy.
· The murder of a trusted friend.
· A dead baby.
· A daughter raped by his son.
· One son murdered by another son.
· A civil war led by one of his sons.
· A son who imitates David’s lack of self-control, leading him and much of Israel away from God.
ii. At this moment David agreed with the world’s understanding of the purpose of sex, seeing it primarily as the pursuit of a pleasurable experience. With his many wives, David may have neverreally understood God’s purpose for sex: to be the “cement” that helps bond together a one-flesh relationship.
c. She was cleansed from her impurity: This confirms that Bathsheba had recently had her menstrual period and was not already pregnant when David committed adultery with her.
i. It seemed as though David “got away” with this sin. But David could only think this if he believed that his sin was something good that God did not want for David. In truth, David did something harmful and destructive to himself and others, and great harm and destruction would come of it. Just because David wasn’t caught at the moment doesn’t mean that he got away with anything.
ii. The phrase she was cleansed from her impurity leads some people to believe that bathing of verse 2 was Bathsheba’s ceremonial cleansing at the conclusion of her menstrual period. (Guzik)
Destructive Behavior!
The Bible lays out to good, the bad and the ugly for generations to see!
The acronym for Bible is, basic instructions before leaving earth.
David was a sinful man just like anyone else and his sin of adultery will lead to murder and cost him dearly.
Sin has a price!
“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. –” R Zaccharias
If we could see the cost of sin would we continue to pay the price?
Blessings
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