Ethan: Welcome to Immerse: the daily bible reading experience.
Day 200 and 2
In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war,
David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites.
They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah.
However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.
Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was
walking on the roof of the palace.
As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.
He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, she is
Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to
the palace, He slept with her.
She had just completed the purification rites after having her menstrual period.
Then she returned home.
Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent
David a message saying, I'm pregnant.
Then David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite.
So Joab sent him to David.
When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting
along and how the war was progressing.
Then he told Uriah, Go on home and relax.
David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace.
But Uriah didn't go home.
He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king's palace guard.
When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him
and asked, What's the matter?
Why didn't you go home last night after being away for so long?
Uriah replied, The ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in
tents, and Joab and my master's men are camping in the open fields.
How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife?
I swear that I would never do such a thing.
Well, stay here today, David told him, and tomorrow you may return to the army.
So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next.
Then David invited him to dinner and got him drunk, but even then he couldn't
get Uriah to go home to his wife.
Again he slept at the palace entrance with the king's palace guard.
So, the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver.
The letter instructed Joab, Station Uriah on the front lines where
the battle is fiercest, then pull back so that he will be killed.
So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the
enemy's strongest men were fighting.
And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah
the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.
Then Joab sent a battle report to David.
He told his messenger, Report all the news of the battle to the king.
But he might get angry and ask, Why did the troops go so close to the city?
Didn't they know there would be shooting from the walls?
Wasn't Abimelech son of Gideon killed at Thebes by a woman who threw a
millstone down on him from the wall?
Why would you get so close to the wall?
Then tell him, Uriah the Hittite was killed, too.
So the messenger went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David.
The enemy came out against us in the open fields, he said, and as we
chased them back to the city gate.
The archers on the wall shot arrows at us.
Some of the king's men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.
Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged, David said.
The sword devours this one today and that one tomorrow.
Fight harder next time, and conquer the city.
When Uriah's wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him.
When the period of mourning was over, David sent for her
and brought her to the palace.
And she became one of his wives.
Then she gave birth to a son, but the Lord was displeased with what David had done.
So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story.
There were two men in a certain town.
One was rich and one was poor.
The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle.
The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought.
He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children.
It ate from the man's own plate and drank from his cup.
He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter.
One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man.
But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he
took the poor man's lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.
David was furious.
As surely as the Lord lives, he vowed, any man who would do
such a thing deserves to die.
He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he
stole and for having no pity.
Then Nathan said to David, You are that man.
The Lord, the God of Israel, says, I anointed you king of Israel and
saved you from the power of Saul.
I gave you your master's house and his wives and the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
And if that had not been enough, I would have given you much, much more.
Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed?
For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites.
And stolen his wife.
From this time on, your family will live by the sword, because you have despised
me by taking Uriah's wife to be your own.
This is what the Lord says.
Because of what you have done, I will cause your own
household to rebel against you.
I will give your wives to another man before your very eyes, and he will
go to bed with them in public view.
You did it secretly, but I will make this happen to you openly
in the sight of all Israel.
Then David confessed to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
Nathan replied, Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you, and
you won't die for this sin.
Nevertheless, because you have shown utter contempt for the word of the Lord
by doing this, your child will die.
After Nathan returned to his home, the Lord sent a deadly illness to
the child of David and Uriah's wife.
David begged God to spare the child.
He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground.
The elders of his household pleaded with him to get up and
eat with them, but he refused.
Then on the seventh day, the child died.
David's advisors were afraid to tell him.
He wouldn't listen to reason while the child was ill, they said.
What drastic thing will he do when we tell him the child is dead?
When David saw them whispering, he realized what had happened.
Is the child dead?
he asked.
Yes, they replied.
He is dead.
Then David got up from the ground, washed himself, put on
lotions and changed his clothes.
He went to the tabernacle and worshipped the Lord.
After that, he returned to the palace and was served food and ate.
His advisors were amazed.
We don't understand you, they told him.
While the child was still living, you wept and refused to eat.
But now that the child is dead, you have stopped your
mourning and are eating again.
David replied, I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for
I said, Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to me and let the child live.
But why should I fast when he is dead?
Can I bring him back again?
I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.
Then David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and slept with her.
She became pregnant and gave birth to a son, and David named him Solomon.
The Lord loved the child and sent word through Nathan the prophet.
that they should name him Jedidiah, which means Beloved of the Lord.
As the Lord had commanded.
Meanwhile, Joab was fighting against Rabba, the capital of Ammon, and he
captured the royal fortifications.
Joab sent messengers to tell David, I have fought against Rabba
and captured its water supply.
Now bring the rest of the army and capture the city.
Otherwise, I will capture it and get credit for the victory.
So David gathered the rest of the army and went to Rabbah, and he
fought against it and captured it.
David removed the crown from the king's head, and it was placed on his own head.
The crown was made of gold and set with gems, and it weighed seventy five pounds.
David took a vast amount of plunder from the city.
He also made slaves of the people of Rabbah, and forced them to labor
with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, and to work in the brick kilns.
That is how he dealt with the people of all the Ammonite towns.
Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem.
This concludes today's Immerse Reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.