I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Samuel 8-11.

    The story of David and Bathsheba shows us how one small mistake can lead us to make ever greater mistakes. David’s first mistake was to send the army out to war without going with it. There are two places where the author expresses his unhappiness with David’s decision not to lead the army. In chapter 11, verse one the author writes

In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight…

Then later the author expresses his dissatisfaction with David in the reason which Uriah gives for not going home to his wife. Having failed to do his duty, David was exposed to the temptation of seeing Bathsheba bathing. David succumbed to that temptation, then, to cover it up, he conspired to have her husband killed. It is worth noting that Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband was one of David’s most loyal followers.
    I want to make one last point. I have seen some people suggest that Bathsheba knew what she was doing when she went out to bathe that night when she caught David’s attention. While this is certainly possible I want to point out that nowhere in the Bible does any writer condemn Bathsheba for her affair with David. This is despite the supposedly misogynistic (anti-woman) characteristics of the Old Testament.