“Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.” 2 Samuel 11:14
This part of the Bible is always a difficult one for me. At the beginning of the Chapter we read, “Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle…David stayed at Jerusalem.” Do you see that? “When kings go out to battle”! But this time, David stayed home, and the story goes downhill from there! It’s nighttime, David can’t sleep, so he gets up to walk around on his roof. Then, he sees a Beautiful Neighbor Woman, probably on her rooftop, bathing. He makes some inquiries about her and finds out, she’s the wife of one of his Soldiers; and not just any Soldier, he’s listed as one of his Mighty Men. And as King, he sends some servants to fetch her to his Bedroom; they sleep together, she finds out she’s pregnant, and then she let’s David know.
So David, the man after God’s own heart, has just committed adultery with one of his Top Soldier’s wives. Now, he plots to have him put to death with instructions to General Joab on how to accomplish it. And then, with a cynicism not seen anywhere else in the Bible, he sends it by the very man he plans to murder. This is Just Staggering!!!
How can we reconcile this? This seems IMPOSSIBLE!!! Then I’m reminded of the Amazing Grace of God. How the Apostle Paul says in Romans, “where Sin abounded, Grace abounded even more”! How true this was for David! How true this is for all of us, who are guilty of “much more” than we will ever see, or understand. May God be Praised as we join with John Newton in that Wonderful Hymn, “I once was LOST, but now I’m FOUND, was BLIND, but now I SEE”!