All my life I’ve heard plenty of sermons about David and his sin with Bathsheba. I’ve heard about how he slept with Uriah’s wife and then had Uriah murdered. This story has been told over and over, as it should be. It reminds us of the dangers of sin and also of the relentless forgiveness that God offers David. Yes, it is good to talk about David and Bathsheba but why doesn’t anyone talk about Uriah?
Uriah “the Hittite” was an amazing man. I don’t know many Uriah’s but here is a guy who is loyal to his own death. Loyalty is something that our culture doesn’t talk about very much but it is one of the most beautiful virtues in my humble opinion. Uriah was a soldier who was fighting for his country. David was the King who should have been leading the country into war but instead decided to relax in his temple. David liked how Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife) looked and so he slept with her. The Bible is silent as to whether or not she had a choice in sleeping with him, but the bottom line is that he ended up getting her pregnant. Bathsheba sent David a note, letting him know that she was pregnant. David came up with a masterful plan to bring Uriah home and have him sleep with her so that he would think that the child was his. Jerry Springer status. Uriah gets called home from war by David. David thinks that he can cover up his sex scandal with Bathsheba but he runs into a problem. Here is the account found in
2 Samuel 11: Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house……” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. 10 David 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?”
11 Uriah 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!”
12 Then 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. 13 At 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.
In my opinion, Uriah was a mans man. He could not eat and drink and enjoy his wife while his fellow soldiers were out fighting a war. One of my favorite rock band singers says “Today we eat and drink while tomorrow they die” and this is true of our society. So many of our fellow human beings suffer through intense pain on a daily basis and yet I feel a strong sense of nonchalant attitudes among my peers. I’m amazed at how hard it is to find ways of helping the disenfranchised other then giving money.
In a word you could say that I am frustrated over the lack of loyalty. I wish I was more like Uriah and that I lived less for pleasure and more for peace.
The story goes that King David sent Uriah back to war and had him murdered on the front lines. Uriah carried the note which commanded his own death. Uriah didn’t open the personal note to the commander out of respect for the King yet the King had no respect for him. He was an honorable man.
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