[One-Verse Meditation]

2 Samuel 11:11 (ESV)

“Uriah said to David, ‘The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live, and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.’”

(Meditation)

Chapter 11 begins like this:

“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle”

This means that winter had passed, spring had come, and the season for war had begun again. In the ancient world, wars were often fought in the spring, when the rains had stopped, the roads were dry, and supplies could be carried more easily. On the surface, that is the plain meaning of the verse. But between the lines, it also points to the place where a king ought to be—in other words, the place where David ought to have been.

David was not in that place. He remained in the palace. There he saw the wife of Uriah the Hittite bathing, and in his desire he took her. Soon he heard the shocking news that she was pregnant. In order to cover his sin, David called Uriah back from the battlefield and tried to send him home. But Uriah did not go to his house. He slept at the entrance of the king’s house.

Today’s one-verse meditation is Uriah’s answer to David’s question, “Why have you not gone down to your house?”

“The ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field.”

Verse 11 stands in exact contrast to verse 1. Unlike David, Uriah knew where he was supposed to be. He was not even an Israelite, but a Hittite. Yet he feared the Lord, loved Israel, and remained in his place.

This scene speaks powerfully to us as well. To remain where we are meant to be—that is true faith. Jesus is the one who kept that place perfectly. The first Adam left it, but the second Adam, our Lord, kept it to the very end. Therefore, to rely on Christ Jesus alone and to hold fast only to his better righteousness—that is the place where every believer is meant to stand.

(Prayer)

Lord, let me not forget that the only way to overcome countless temptations is to remain where I am meant to be. Grant that today I may keep that place, fixing my eyes only on Christ Jesus. Amen.
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(Daily Meditation)

2 Samuel 11:2–20