Day 74: December 3, 2025 – II Samuel 11-15 and Psalm 51

David is at the height of his rule over Israel, to the point where he is able to send out his most trusted general, Joab, and go into battle without the king. The Scripture makes it a point that David remains home in Jerusalem while the soldiers are out in the field fighting, simply because they no longer need David to win the battle. The battle belongs to the Lord and the Lord is winning the battle over and over again. But David sees Bathsheba and forces her to come to him and he rapes her. He then calls her husband into town to sleep with her because she is pregnant. He refuses to leave David’s side, he was so loyal. He send a letter to Joab by the hand of her husband to have him killed on the battle field, and it happens.

One of David’s own sons does something similar and sleeps with his sister and then flees. Another of David’s sons kills the brother, Amnon, who did this thing and then he flees. We don’t see any of this mess before David rapes Bathsheba, but now it seems that there is a lot of trouble in David’s family because of this egregious act that he committed against Bathsheba. David forgives Absalom but then Absalom makes moves to take the throne and succeeds. That is where we leave it. Look what happens from the time that David is at the height of his power to the sin that he commits because he is king and thinks he can do anything, to now he is forced out of his own home by his son. What a warning to us as we think that as life goes on we can be independent of the will of God. That is simply a false narrative.