Uriah the Hittite
In my Bible reading time this morning, I was reading from 1 Chronicles 11. Part of this chapter is listing David’s “30 mighty men”. These men were instrumental in getting David “on his feet.” They were his inner circle in his army during the time that David was on the run from King Saul, and they helped David to establish his kingship over the entire nation of Israel.
Verse 41 of this chapter intrigues me. It’s just 2 names. I’m not even concerned about the second name. It’s just “Uriah the Hittite” that intrigues me.
If you remember your Sunday School lessons, you are undoubtedly familiar with the story of David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). If you checked out the link, you will notice that Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah the Hittite !
David is the only person referred to in Scripture as a “man after [God's] own heart”. After David’s death, he was the golden standard by which all other Israelite and Judean kings were measured. He loved God passionately, and ruled his nation honourably. That’s probably why the story of David and Bathsheba is such a shocking event! Such a vile act by such a godly man! I’ve always been saddened by this story – but now, reading that Uriah was one of David’s closest and most trusted men, the story takes on a new level of tragedy! It’s the simple fact that he destroyed one of his most loyal and deserving friends because of his lust for another man’s wife.
I suppose that this story can serve as a reminder to us that even the most godly are not immune to temptation. Even the most devout can stumble and fall.
On the other hand though, if we look at David’s story as it continues after the Bathsheba story, we see that even the most fallen cannot sink too deep for the loving hand of God to rescue!
The godly can only remain godly if they continue to walk with God!
I like this theme better.
Dangnabit, I’m always impressed when someone points out something in scripture that I never saw before. You are first-class, Bryn.
Great Post. However, let us not forget that there is a difference between God’s forgiveness in an eternal way and the temporal consequences of sin.
In 2 Samuel 11, we read of the sins of David. In chapter 12, we read of the consequences. First notice why David sinned. David’s sin of adultery began because there was a day when he did not keep his heart. There was a day when he did not sing God’s praises, when he did not pray. And on that day, he ended up at the wrong place, at the wrong time. That’s the background. He saw, he lusted, and he acted. He took someone’s wife, sending her husband to be slain in battle, and then he felt good, successful, and happy. He thought he had done nothing wrong. For a short time, David felt no remorse, no sorrow, no guilt. When we stop keeping our heart, when we stop praying and praising, we can sin with impunity, or we just might keep up certain rituals of religious duties to convince ourselves and others that everything is fine.
1. The Sword Shall Never Depart from Thy House.
“Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife” (12:10).
2. Your Sin Shall Be Revealed.
“For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel , and before the sun” (2 Sam. 12:12).
3. I Will Raise Evil out of Thine Own House (12:11)
4. Your Enemies Will Blaspheme the Lord. (v. 14)
5. The Child Born unto Thee Shall Die. (v. 14)
Let us never downplay or forget to mention the temporal consequences. I only mention this because “the rest of the story” is very important. The way God dealt with David’s sins helps to make this portion of scripture more understandable and prevents us from taking sin lightly because of God’s assume grace and mercy.
Thanks for your comments D.L.
Of course, one cannot cover everything in one blog posting, but you are absolutely right about the “rest of the story”.
I (and I presume you) serve a loving, compassionate, and forgiving God, but forgiveness does not, by any means, remove consequences. When Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, they were not cut off from God’s love, but their sin had consequences which we still feel today!
At the same time, if we ONLY dwell on the consequences of sin, we can miss out on the Grand Theme of forgiveness! It’s a balancing act of seeing God for who is in his entirety, not just one aspect that we “like”.
Thanks again!
You are so right! I have been thinking al lot about motivation for obedience and have come to the conclusion that it is usually one of three things: 1) The desire for reward; 2) the fear of punishment; or 3) wanting to please the one who loves us more than our own desire to sin.
Obedience is good for us regardless of our motivation. But, so much more joy can come from it when we desire to obey because we know it pleases the one who loves us and we love and brings honor and glory to His name when others see the power of His love for us and ours for him operating in our lives as we are victorious over sin because of LOVE instead of fear or reward.
Just thinking out loud.
Your Friend,
D.L. Kane
It does remove spiritual consequences. And often, his grace keeps us from all the temporal consequences that we deserve. But I do take your point.
May we all move closer towards “wanting to please the one who loves us more than our own desire to sin”!
Hello, I was inspired by a dream that I had last night. In the dream there was a woman who had named her daughter Uriah. I was so bothered by this dream that I began to search out the name “Uriah”, for I knew that it was a name that I had come across in the Bible. My question is why did God bring the name Uriah to me? God deals with me through dreams like the one that I mentioned about Uriah. I enjoyed reading your blogs….
I can’t tell you what your dream might mean as I am no interpreter of dreams. However, I can tell you that Uriah from the Bible was a male. I hope that God gives you clarity!