2 Samuel 10 – 14

This is the story that causes problem with Israel for some time. The dysfunction of the family can be seen and the damage of David’s sin is apparent. Verse 11:1 lays out one fundamental issue:

In the springtime of the year, the season when most kings took their soldiers out to fight, David stayed in Jerusalem and sent Joab out as general in charge of David’s men and the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and put the city of Rabbah under siege.

First campaign David stayed back and got himself in trouble. He lusted after Bathsheba and got her pregnant. To cover up his sin he ended up killing her husband Uriah by ordering him to the front lines and having everyone else fall back, leaving him stranded.

Everyone points to this as the downfall of his dynasty, but I suggest it was just a symptom. David was a “ladies man” right from the start with a harem of wives and just women for sex (concubines). He had lustful urges and could not contain them, eventually those urges ended up in his affair. The only difference between this one and the others was this was with a married woman. Why was it ok for David to have sex slaves that he was not married to, but it was not ok for him to have the affair? Neither were ok, just one lead to murder.

Verse 12:4 is the end of a story the prophet Nathan told David:

Now a traveler came to the city to visit the rich man. To offer a proper welcome, the rich man knew he needed to fix a meal, but he did not want to take one of the animals from his flocks and herds. So instead he stole the poor man’s ewe lamb and had it killed and cooked for his guest.

This was a story about what David had just done, my question is was the ewe Uriah or Bathsheba?

Now the dysfunction of his family continues with Tamar sister of Absalom. She was tricked to help her half-brother Amnon who raped her and ruined her life. In return Absalom waited, but eventually too revenge and killed Amnon. This was just another sign of David’s lust.

Now I am not saying “blended” families are wrong, this was not a “blended” family. This was David’s lustful urges creating multiple off spring that he could not or would not raise and teach the ways of the Lord. He just assumed they would learn by example and they did. They did by learning not controlling their urges and taking revenge. Unfortunately this dysfunction is rampant among the family with it continuing through the generations. But one could say it’s not David’s sins, but rather our nature that caused these problems.