DAVID REMAINED IN JERUSALEM.

Homily for January 29^th, 2016: 2 Samuel 11:1-41, 5-10a,13-17.

          “David sent out Joab along with his officers and the army of Israel. David, however remained in Jerusalem.” How often had he taken the field against Israel’s enemies, and emerged victorious. Now, however,David has gone soft. He prefers to let others do the fighting for him. It proves his undoing.

          Rising from his afternoon nap, David goes out onto the roof terrace to take the sun and air. In a walled pool, but from that height clearly visible, he sees a young woman bathing. She is beautiful. Summoning a servant, he asks who that is. “That’s Bathsheba, Sir,” the young man tells him, “the wife of the Hittite Uriah, who’s off fighting for you.”

          “Shall I?” David thinks. “Uriah will never know: oh, just this once.” David is powerful now. He can have whatever he wants. He sends for Bathsheba. She comes, and David fulfills his desire.

          “That’s the end of it,” David thinks. Some weeks later, however, Bathsheba sends word that she is pregnant. “I must act fast,” David thinks. He sends orders to have Uriah return to Jerusalem to report on the siege of David’s enemies. Upon Uriah’s arrival David debriefs him, gives him a good dinner, and sends him home to his wife. “That’ll do it,” David thinks. When the baby is born, Uriah will assume that the child is his.

          At breakfast the next morning, the servants report that they’ve had an unexpected overnight visitor. “Who was that?” David asks. When they tell him it was Uriah, David knows he’s in trouble --  big trouble. When Uriah comes to take his leave, David asks him why he has not slept at home. “My companions are sleeping in the open, Sir” Uriah replies. “How can I sleep with my wife when they are daily risking their lives for you?”

          David has Uriah stay the rest of that day, gives him an even more lavish dinner at which the wine flows freely, and again sends him home to his wife. Learning the next morning that Uriah has once more bedded down with the servants, David sends him back to the army carrying a sealed letter ordering Uriah’s arranged death in battle.

          In coming days we shall learn the consequences of David’s crime. For now we note three things. First, David’s adultery was a sin of passion. Uriah’s arranged death was far worse: cold, calculated murder. Second, Uriah was a Gentile. He did not have the Ten Commandments. Yet he was on a far higher moral level than David, who enjoyed all the benefits of the Jewish law. Third and finally, all this happened because David had let himself go soft. Temptation to sin is lifelong. To withstand temptation we must remain faithful in self-discipline, good works and above all in daily prayer.e did not hve the Ten Commandments. Yet

.. et he wa.., who hd all the benefits of the Jewish law. . … …. Once we let up, we’re lost