Bathsheba’s sandals crossed the cedar floors of the palace, past the audience chamber, down a long, winding hallway until she found herself in the king’s private gardens, adjacent to his bedchamber. The messenger would have announced her presence, but he had disappeared before her eyes fully adjusted to her torch-lit surroundings. When the king appeared, the charged atmosphere pulsated between them. Uncertain, Bathsheba knelt at David’s feet. He grasped her slender fingers, pulling her close.
Imagine what would have happened if she had said, “On me, my lord, on me let this iniquity be! And please let your maidservant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your maidservant,” as David’s wife, Abigail, had done years earlier. She could have admitted her error in bathing in such a way that he might see her from the palace, and begged leave of his presence, pointing out that if they did not follow through with their desire, “that this will be no grief to you, nor offense of heart to my lord,” – as Abigail had done. (See 1 Samuel 25)
But Scripture tells us “Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her…” Bathsheba had little in common with Abigail at this point in her life.
James 1:14-15 states: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
David and Bathsheba followed this exact pattern on their path to adultery. They were drawn away by their own desires and enticed. Desire conceived, giving birth to sin.
And sin brought forth death…in more ways than one.
