April 7, 2025

David’s Adultery with Bathsheba
11 In the spring when kings march out to war, David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman. 3 So David sent someone to inquire about her, and he reported, “This is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
4 David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to him, he slept with her. Now she had just been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Afterward, she returned home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to inform David: “I am pregnant.”

Kenny Brooks
There certainly are a lot of distractions in our day and age...and many of these can lead us down a path of sin and self-fulfillment. We are most vulnerable when we are either idle or in a place we shouldn’t be. Both of these were true for David. Wars in biblical times were fought when the weather was good...typically in the Spring. And kings weren’t just figureheads who directed troops from their palaces. They were on the front lines with their men of war. But David had just come from a previous battle (see chapter 10) and was likely weary. It was as if he chose to “sit this one out”. Ecclesiastes 10:17-18 teaches that there is an appropriate time for nobles to feast, but the roof caves in because of laziness. David neglected his duties as king and because of this his roof was about to cave in. Perhaps his physical weakness, being in the wrong place, and his idleness all contributed to his opportunity for lust and wrong use of power to follow through with his sin with Bathsheba.