Scroll to the bottom for thoughts/discussion questions!
One-sentence summary: David sleeps with a man's wife and has him killed, Nathan the prophet confronts David, David repents, and the Lord forgives David but also judges him.
In spring, at the time "when kings go out to battle," David sends Joab and his servants out, "but David [remains] at Jerusalem." One evening, he arises from his bed and goes on the roof, and from there he sees a beautiful woman bathing, so he asks about her, and he is told that she is Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite. So David sends messengers to take her for himself, and he lays with her, and then she returns to her house. Afterward, she sends word to David that she is pregnant, so David sends to Joab and asks him to fetch Uriah, her husband. When Uriah comes to David, David asks him how Joab and the people are faring and how the war is going, and David tells him to go to his house and wash his feet- thinking that he will sleep with his wife- and David gives him a gift of food. However, Uriah sleeps at the door of David's house and will not go in to his own house. When it is told David, he asks Uriah why, and Uriah replies that the ark of the Lord and Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents, and Joab and the people are lying in open fields, so why should he go to his house to eat and drink and lie with his wife; he swears by David that he will not. David tells him to wait in Jerusalem until the next day. Then, David has him eat and drink, and he makes him drunk, thinking perhaps he will lie with his wife. That night, Uriah still does not go down to his house, so asks Uriah to deliver a message to Joab for him. And the message tells Joab to put Uriah "in the forefront of the hottest battle and retreat from him that he may be struck down and die." Uriah delivers the message, and Joab puts him in the front of the battle, and he dies. Then, Joab sends a messenger to David to tell him everything that has happened in battle, and tells the messenger that if David gets angry when he hears the battle strategy- because some servants have died- to then tell him that Uriah is dead. David responds favorably and tells the messenger to encourage Joab to strengthen himself. Bathsheba hears her husband is dead, and she mourns. Then, she comes to David's house and bears him a son. But the Lord is displeased at what David has done.
The Lord sends Nathan the prophet to David with a message that comes through a story. He tells him that there were two men in a city, one rich and one poor. The rich man had many flocks and herds, but the poor man had only one lamb that he bought and nourished, and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man who refused to prepare one of his flock for the wayfaring man, but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it. Upon hearing this, David is very angry against the man, and he says the man must die and restore fourfold for the lamb, since he had no pity. Nathan says to David, "You are the man!" He tells him that the Lord says He gave David everything, and that if it had been too little, He would have given him still more. But David despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight by taking Uriah's wife and killing him. Therefore, the Lord says, "the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised Me." The Lord says he will raise up adversity against him from his own house and take his wives and give them to his neighbors who will lie with them before his own son. He says all Israel will see it; because David did this thing in secret, the Lord will do it in the open for all to see. David admits he has sinned before the Lord. Nathan tells him that the Lord has also put away his sin and that he will not die, but because by this sin he has given "great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme," the child born to him will die. Then, Nathan leaves, and the Lord strikes the child, and it becomes ill. David fasts all night and pleads with the Lord for the child, and he refuses to come out. On the seventh day, the child dies, and his servants are afraid to tell him. They wonder that if he wouldn't listen to them before how they can tell him that the child is dead. They think he may "do some harm." He hears them whispering and knows the child is dead. He asks them, and they say yes, and then he arises and washes and anoints himself and changes his clothes and goes to the Lord's house and worships. Then, he returns to his own house and eats. His servants wonder at why he is not mourning any more, and he says that he fasted and wept to see whether the Lord would have mercy on him, but now that he is dead, he can't bring him back. He says "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." He comforts Bathsheba, and she bears him another son named Solomon. And the Lord loves Solomon and sends word by Nathan the prophet, who calls him Jedidiah, meaning blessing. Joab sends messengers to David that he has almost taken a city and that David should come so he can get the credit. And the crown of the king is set on David's head. All the people of Amon are defeated, spoil is taken, and the people are forced to work for Israel.
The same story of war against the Ammonites is repeated in 2 Samuel and 1 Chronicles. War also breaks out with the Philistines, and they are subdued. It happens a second time, and Goliath's brother is killed. There is war again, and there is a man "of great stature" having six digits on eat hand and foot, and he defies Israel, and David's nephew kills him.
Thoughts/discussion questions:
One thing I noted while listening to this is that had Uriah slept with his wife as David had planned, David would have kept this thing a secret all his life; that was his plan. You may have heard that God cannot forgive willful sins, but this is not true. Much of sin is just that.
David still loved the Lord, but he had not conquered a part of himself. He was holding that part back of himself from God.
David also had too much time on his hands, and he was also alone. That is when the enemy will try to work against us the most.