1Chronicles 11.41 l AFFECTS OF ADULTERY

Today’s reading: 1Chronicles 11-13

1Chronicles 11.41 “41 Uriah the Hittite…”

As the chronicler continues on, he gives us the account of David becoming king over all of Israel (1Chronicles 11.01-03), the capture of Jerusalem and making it the political center of the nation (1Chronicles 11.04-09), and the failed attempt to make it the religious center of the nation as well (1Chronicles 13.01-14).

Tucked in between all this, we see more names! There is a list of David’s mighty men (1Chronicles 11.10-47), and those who defected to him (1Chronicles 12.01-40), knowing that it was the LORD who was blessing David and bringing him to the throne of Israel (1Chronicles 11.09).

In the list of the mighty men, we see a name jump out to us…Uriah the Hittite (1Chronicles 11.41)!

The name Uriah means “Flame of Yah”, Yah being a shortened form of the name Yahweh (or YHWH, LORD, Jehovah).

Uriah, the first husband of Bathsheba (2Samuel 11.03), was one of David’s mighty men. But if we were to compare the list of mighty men here with the one given in 2Samuel 23.08-39, not only do we see that Uriah is listed as one of the mighty men (2Samuel 23.39), but also a man by the name of Eliam, who was the son of Ahithophel (2Samuel 23.34).

Eliam was one of David’s mighty men, but he was also the father of Bathsheba (2Samuel 11.03; or Ammiel in 1Chronicles03.05).

So not only did David commit a grievous sin by committing adultery with Bathsheba (Exodus20.14; 2Samuel 11; Proverbs 06.32; Matthew 05.27-28), but he did it with the daughter of one of his mighty men (Eliam 2Samuel 11.03; 2Samuel 23.34), and that daughter was the wife of another mighty man of David (Uriah 2Samuel 23.39; 1Chronicles 11.41), whom he later murdered (2Samuel 11.14-17)!

But there is more!

We just saw that Eliam was the son of Ahithophel (2Samuel 23.34). Ahithophel was David’s most trusted counselor, and it was said of Ahithophel that when you sought his counsel, it was as if one inquired of the very Word of God (2Samuel 16.23)!

So David committed adultery with Bathsheba (2Samuel 11), who was the wife of a mighty man (Uriah 2Samuel 23.39; 1Chronicles11.41), the daughter of another mighty man (Eliam 2Samuel 11.03; 2Samuel 23.34) & the granddaughter of his most trusted advisor (Ahithophel 2Samuel 16.23)!

So when Ahithophel deserted David when Absalom, the son of David tried to revolt against his father and take over the kingdom, Ahithophel took advantage of the opportunity (2Samuel 15-18), and many feel that this is whom David was talking about being betrayed by a close friend (Psalm 41.09; Psalm 55.12-14).