2 Samuel 11:1-13
In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2One 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, 3and 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.” 4Then 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. 5The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
6So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
11Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
12Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
Today’s passage tells the first part of the David and Bathsheba story. A striking contrast arises between the integrity and honor of Uriah and the manipulation and deception of King David. Notice the opening sentence: “It was spring when kings went to war” (2 Samuel 11:1), and yet David was not with his army, but isolated and idle.
One of the weekly rhythms of The Foundry is to participate with other believers regularly in a group. The benefits of this are not only community building, but to protect us from isolation. In a group, we are accountable and protected by the prayers and companionship of others. Alone, we are vulnerable, just as a zebra separated from the safety of the herd is vulnerable to lions, hyenas, or crocodiles, we are vulnerable to the enemy's attacks.
David belonged with his troops, accountable and duty-bound, but instead he was isolated, bored, and easily susceptible to the temptations he saw wandering around on rooftops. Who can you partner with for accountability and protection to help avoid being alone and isolated when temptation arises?