Home                                                                                                                                          Contents  

David & Bathsheba

Felonious Conduct                              

In the narrative recorded at 2Sam 11:1-27 is told the story of when David committed the death-penalty crimes of premeditated murder and adultery; and along with the story is told the Lord's reaction.

†. 2Sam 11:27 . . The thing that David had done displeased Yhvh.

Moses' covenanted law permits neither forgiveness nor atonement for David's crimes. The perpetrator has to be executed: no exceptions.

†. Ex 21:13-14 . . If a man schemes and kills another man deliberately, you shall take him away from my very altar and put him to death.

†. Num 35:31 . . Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die. He must surely be put to death.

†. Lev 20:10 . . If a man commits adultery with another man's wife—with the wife of his neighbor —both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

†. Deut 22:22 . . If a man be found lying with a woman married to an husband, then they shall both of them die— both the man that lay with the woman, and the woman —so shalt thou put away evil from Israel.

No doubt David was fully aware of the principle underlying Cain's rejection.

†. Gen 4:7a . . If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?

Well, David obviously had not done what was right; hence his comment below:

†. Ps 51:14-16 . . Rescue me from blood-guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

At the time of David's writing that Psalm, he was freshly guilty of pre-meditated murder and adultery in the matter of Uriah and Bathsheba. However, in spite of his heinous acts, David was a very spiritual man and knew only too well the principle underlying Cain's rejection. There was no way he was dumb enough to try and slip a sacrifice past God. Better not to sacrifice at all than to offer one with wicked hands only to have it insult God's integrity.

†. Pro 15:8-9 …The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright pleases Him. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but He loves him who pursues righteousness.

†. Pro 21:27 …The sacrifice of the wicked man is an abomination, the more so as he offers it in depravity.

Students of Moses' covenanted law are stuck with a very thorny legal question: How was Yhvh able to let David live after committing those unpardonable crimes without compromising His reputation as a jurist of the highest possible integrity?

†. 2Sam 12:13 . . And David said unto Nathan: I have sinned against Yhvh. And Nathan said unto David: Yhvh has taken away your sin; you will not die.

I wish I could have seen David's face. His jaw must have dropped a foot as he stared wide-eyed and stunned at Nathan's words because God granted David a very, very illegal pardon, making God not only guilty of obstructing justice; but also the biggest, double-standard hypocrite in the whole Bible: except for the fact that God had a judicial ace up his sleeve.

Having already decreed it well in advance (1Pet 1:18-20, Rev 13:8); Christ's crucifixion; put God in a position to postpone David's punishment and nail it smack into the flesh of His own kin.

†. Rom 3:23-26 . . All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are adjudged innocent free of charge by His kindness and generosity through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who acquits those who have faith in Jesus.

"sins committed beforehand" refer to Old Testament sins committed many years prior to Christ's crucifixion.

†. Isa 53:6 . . All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and Yhvh hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

"All we" and "us all" leaves no one out beginning with Adam and Eve and culminating wherever and whenever the human race comes to an end.

  Confutatis