2 Samuel 11:14-27
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
18Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ‘Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21Who killed Abimelek son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman drop an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ‘Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’ ”
22The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance of the city gate. 24Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.”
25David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ‘Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.”
26When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
We read about King David’s sin and first attempts to cover it up in yesterday’s passage. David’s attempts at deception failed because of Uriah’s honor and his refusal to break the warrior code of purity during battle (1 Samuel 21:5-6). Undeterred, David drifts further from God with an elaborate scheme to have Uriah killed in battle.
This sin, just like so many of our own, has collateral damage. Not only is Uriah killed in battle due to the “strategic” placement of the troops, but other warriors placed around him were also killed. David’s reckless attempt to cover up his sin was a tragedy because it showed just how far he had fallen from the “man after God’s own heart” that characterized him in 1 Samuel 13:14. What began as a compromise of integrity became a slippery slope of accumulated sin. Reputation, which takes years to build, can be eroded by a single act.