a) Narrate the story of David's sin against Uriah. [11 marks] (b) What two lessons can Christians learn from this incident? [4 marks]

Answer Details

(a) David's sin against Uriah (2 Samuel 11)

• In the spring, when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and the army to besiege the Ammonites at Rabbah, but David himself remained in Jerusalem.
• One evening David walked on the roof of his palace and saw a very beautiful woman bathing. He enquired and learned she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his soldiers.
• David sent for her, lay with her, and she conceived and sent word to him, I am with child.
• To cover the sin, David summoned Uriah from the battlefront and urged him to go home to his wife, but Uriah, loyal to his comrades, refused to enjoy such comfort while the ark and the army were in the field, and slept at the palace gate. David even made him drunk, yet Uriah would not go home.
• David then wrote to Joab, ordering that Uriah be set in the forefront of the hottest battle and then abandoned, so that he would be struck down and die.
• Joab carried out the order, and Uriah the Hittite was killed in battle. When Bathsheba had mourned for her husband, David brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

(b) Two lessons Christians can learn

1. Sin often begins with a small failure and grows; David's idleness and lustful look led to adultery, deceit and murder, so we must guard our thoughts and shun the first step into sin.
2. No sin is hidden from God, and no rank exempts anyone from His judgment; even a king was called to account, so Christians must live uprightly and repent, knowing that wrongdoing always displeases God and brings consequences.