And it came to pass, at the return of the year, at the time when kings go forth, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they laid waste the [land of the] children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David abode at Jerusalem.
Spring came, the army marched, and the king stayed home. That one quiet line — David remained at Jerusalem — is where the story of his fall begins, and commentators treat it as the hinge of everything that follows.
The verse names the season, names the war, and then names David's location. Nothing more is said, and nothing more is needed.
At the time when kings go forth to war, and there being war, David remains at Jerusalem. Scripture puts these facts side by side, and set together like that they tell their own tale. David was seeking ease and comfort when circumstances called for activity and energy. What a contrast with the behaviour of the Hittite soldier, whom he soon condemns to death for his faithfulness!
Commentators differ on the reason. One writer notes the unfinished war with Ammon, then allows that David's own men may have urged their king to keep out of danger. He answers that the safer place proved the more dangerous one.
The account with Ammon was by no means settled, and in the spring David sent Joab and the armies of Israel to fight the Ammonites and to besiege their capital city, Rabbah. It is possible his servants advised this so that their king would not face danger (ch. 18:3). But David's energy of faith had weakened, and staying at home put him in greater danger.
Another writer sees more than one bad decision here — a change in the man himself.
David is no longer acting by faith in God's service. When the time comes at which kings go forth to war, he stays at home at his ease, and sends others in his place to fight Jehovah's battles. At ease and idle, he falls easily into sin, just as he did when he looked for rest among the Philistines. He was no longer standing by faith.
Measured by itself, staying home looks like almost nothing. That is the danger.
It may seem to be a small thing, but it is enough for the enemy of his soul. Soft, relaxing habits quickly come in, for the next moment we see him, instead of having strapped the sword to his thigh, lying on his bed at evening. The outposts stood unguarded, and the fortress itself becomes an easy prize for the enemy... Jerusalem, dear friends, was David's place for himself, when the field of battle was God's place for him. Little as that may seem, it is enough to lead to adultery.
The point is not that David went looking for sin. It is that occupation itself holds the flesh down, and idleness lets it up.
Work for the Lord, whatever the work may be, keeps nature under pressure. But at ease, nature starts to stir, and outside things act on it. We should think hard about this. Satan will always find mischief for idle hearts, as well as idle hands. David came to feel this. Had he been at Rabbah with his army, his eye would never have fallen on a sight able to stir the corrupt principle inside him. Staying at home is the very thing that gave the enemy an opening.
David had authority and responsibility from God, and rest was not what either was given for.
He rested at the season when the kings of the earth go forth to battle; for men of the world often put out greater activity to accomplish their purposes than Christians do to serve Christ. Believers think that they can rest for a moment and sit down by the side of the road. But we have not been engaged as servants in order to be lazy slaves.
The neglected post is repaid years afterwards, when David is driven from Jerusalem by his own son.
The true value of sorrow and trial is to lead the soul into simple, felt reliance on God. David had failed in this. He had neglected his appointed work, and so laid himself open to temptation and sin (2 Sam. 11:1). Now he must go through a war with his own son. When we shrink from the service we are called to, trouble comes upon us. Like Jonah, we also show that we need deeper testing of soul to make us fit for our calling.
The lesson is turned outward: refusing worldly ambition is not the same as having nothing to do.
If there was no need to gain anything for himself, did he forget that there was yet much to gain for God? But laziness will lead to real sin... Are we truly active in the things of God? Not settling down in selfish contentment, but using our free time to store our souls with the truth of the Word of God... If we allow laziness in our lives, the world has its thousands of attractions ready to excite our natural senses. If we were properly busy, we would simply have no time for them, and no desire either.
- Place — God's place for David was the battlefield. David chose Jerusalem instead, and that one swap opened the door to everything else.
- Ease — work keeps nature under pressure; the moment a man leaves his post he is weak, and the enemy finds an opening.
- Use — free time is not free of duty: fill it with the Word of God, or the world will fill it with its own attractions.
- Faith — he sent others to fight the Lord's battles. He was no longer standing by faith.
- Harvest — the neglected duty came back as a war with his own son. Shrinking from our calling brings trouble, and testing that makes us fit for it.
And it came to pass at evening time that David arose from off his couch, and walked upon the roof of the king's house; and from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful;
David's army is away at war. He is at home instead — up from his couch, walking on the palace roof in the evening — and one look from that roof leads him into sin.
Walking on the roof in the evening was an ordinary thing to do.
Some roofs were more solidly built, with a low wall around them for safety. People went up on such roofs for private conversation and for prayer (1 Samuel 9:25; Acts 10:9), and in the evening for coolness (2 Samuel 11:2).
David should have been away at the war. He was resting at home instead, and that choice came before the look.
David is no longer acting by faith in God's service. When the time comes for kings to go out to war, he stays at home at his ease. He sends others in his place to fight the LORD's battles. At ease and in idleness he falls readily into sin, as was the case when he sought rest among the Philistines. He was no longer standing by faith.
One writer sets David beside a man who had decided in advance what he would look at.
"I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?" — so Job said (Job 31:1). David knew no such covenant. He looks where he should not have looked, and sin soon follows. It is a solemn illustration of James 1:14-15: "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." The king of all Israel had become another Achan: I saw — I coveted — I took (Joshua 7:20-21).
The woman had a husband — one of David's own soldiers, away at the war and fighting for his king.
David is at his house, and on his couch, and then walking on the roof of his house, when he is trapped through his eyes. The woman he finds is a wife, and the wife of one of his own heroic men, now at the war for Israel and for him; but nothing stops him. He is a king, and everything yields to him with the ease that is the curse of power.
We cannot help every sight that meets our eyes. What we do next is ours to decide.
How quickly we are defiled by a look! How quickly we are distracted by what our eyes see... The apostle Paul tells us, "make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (Romans 13:14). Someone has said that it is the "second look" that is sin. He meant that when you walk in the street and see an unclean thing, a pornographic picture, you cannot help that. But when you stop, or turn to look again, that is deliberate.
David held the highest place in Israel. That is where the warning lands.
No honour that God puts on us can preserve us. There is no possible way for any soul to be kept from sin against the Lord except by self-judgment and dependence. So the more exalted a man is, the more liable he is to fall. Where the eye turns away from the Lord — and this was the case with David — we are all liable to it. I am not speaking of eventual recovery, or of the Lord's preserving grace at the end. But there is no security against dishonouring the Lord along the way, except by continually looking to Him.
One writer measures the David of this verse against the David of earlier days.
There was a time when David would not have been lying on his couch while the armies of the Lord were at war with the enemy. But such is man — even the best of men. When pride swells the heart, or lust dims the eye, who can set a limit to human depravity? Who can define the fearful lengths that even a David can go to when out of communion? Blessed forever be the God of all grace, who has always proved Himself equal to all the demands of His wayward children!
- Place — David was on a roof when he should have been at the front; the wrong place came before the wrong look.
- Look — Job had decided in advance what he would look at. David made no such decision, and looking led to wanting.
- Power — nothing stood in the king's way. One writer calls that ease the curse of power.
- Everyone — honour from God guards no one. Self-judgment, dependence and a steady eye on the Lord do. The higher the place, the greater the danger.
- Grace — no one can measure how far a believer out of communion may go, or how far God's grace reaches to bring him back.