May 16, 2021. II Samuel 11:18-27

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DONE, BUT NOT OVER.  II Samuel 11:18-27. 05/16/2021. #22.

2 Samuel 11:18-27 [New King James Version]

¹⁸ Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, ¹⁹ and charged the messenger, saying, “When you have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, ²⁰ if it happens that the king’s wrath rises, and he says to you: ‘Why did you approach so near to the city when you fought? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? ²¹ Who struck Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Was it not a woman who cast a piece of a millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you go near the wall?’—then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ” ²² So the messenger went, and came and told David all that Joab had sent by him. ²³ And the messenger said to David, “Surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field; then we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate. ²⁴ The archers shot from the wall at your servants; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” ²⁵ Then David said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So encourage him.” ²⁶ When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. ²⁷ And when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displease] the Lord.

1. The cover-up completed
   1. Joab does as David had commanded
      1. Uriah was put in the front of the troops as they attacked the city gates
      1. Uriah and several other soldiers were killed by archers, who were on top of the wall
      1. The military strategy was unsound and everyone in army knew it
   1. Joab sends his messenger to David with 4 points:
      1. Details of the war
      1. Details concerning the battle at the city gate
      1. An acknowledgement that coming so near the wall in pursuit of the enemy was a foolish tactic
      1. Uriah, David’s servant, is dead
   1. The messenger must have thought that this was an odd message, especially since Uriah is the only soldier noted
      1. The messenger is instructed to acknowledge the foolishness of the attack that place troops in unnecessary danger
      1. If David were to ridicule the act and remind Joab of how a woman killed Abimelech by casting a stone on his head at Thebez, then the messenger was to mention that Uriah also was dead
2. The foolish military move
   1. Joab’s army, particularly Uriah, would have puzzled over the army’s attack at the gate
      1. This occurs immediately after Uriah’s return from seeing David
      1. The episode at Thebez (Jud. 9:50) whereby a woman casts a millstone down on Abimelech’s head from the city tower
   1. Joab’s message to David is poignant
      1. Other soldiers died in this attack that did not need to die
      1. Joab obviously understood that Uriah was being killed due to David violating Uriah’s wife
      1. The messenger would obviously understand the implication just by the way Joab instructed him
      1. Since this was David’s plan, Joab was letting him know that the defeat and loss of life were David’s fault
      1. Joab calls Uriah “your servant”, letting David know that he had inflicted a great injustice on him
      1. Joab implies that he knows David’s secret
3. David’s placid response
   1. The messenger does not wait to divulge that Uriah is dead, but tells David straight up what Joab has said
      1. Had David become angry, the messenger would know that David was innocent of this tactic
      1. David’s tepid response implied relief and not rage
   1. David’s response is disgraceful
      1. He instructs the messenger to console Joab
      1. David states the sword devours arbitrarily in war
      1. Don’t worry about it, just finish taking the city
   1. After a mourning period, David takes Bathsheba as his wife
   1. God is displeased with what David did
      1. David had forgotten about the holiness of God, who sees and judges all things
      1. David isn’t exempt from judgment (more account.)
      1. God always settles accounts in his time (Psalms?)