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As you read this, I am on vacation. As a result, I’m writing this before Brent has preached his sermon about David, Bathsheba, and Nathan the prophet. I hope I don’t reiterate what Brent highlights in the text! But I’d like to connect this story with something we read earlier this fall - something from all the way back in Exodus 20. This is the Covenant Weekly for October 27, 2026.

In Exodus 20:17, we read, in part, “You must not covet…your neighbour’s wife.”

In the story of David and Bathsheba that is exactly what is happening. David sees the woman’s beauty and asks who she is. He is then told her name, her father, and her husband. And yet David demands that she be brought to him for his pleasure. Throughout the story, David never uses her name. He sees her pregnancy as something to be solved. And, to highlight that this was a direct breaking of the tenth commandment, Bathsheba is referred to as “Uriah’s wife” in both 11:26, by David himself in 12:10, and 12:15. She is referred to as Uriah’s wife more times than her name is used.

Throughout the story David treats her like property. Her name is used when David is told who she is. And she is not named again until after the first child dies and David sleeps with her again to conceive Solomon.

David sees. David wants. David alters his life to pursue what he wants and tries everything he can to get out of dealing with the consequences. This is coveting to the extreme. It costs a woman her well being. It costs a man his life. It costs a baby the chance to live. And it costs David his connection with God.

David pursued what he desired without counting the cost.

Notice that the issue here wasn’t that he saw Bathsheba was beautiful. It was his de-humanizing of her and his reckless pursuit of his own desires. He went after something, using the considerable resources at his disposal, but never stopped to count the cost.

None among us have the power of a king. But it is easy for us to get caught up in pursuing something, working for something, prioritizing something without counting the cost of our efforts. Like in the classic song “The Cat’s In the Cradle,” we get what we think we want, but lose something far more important.

Jesus put it this way, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

David’s story is a cautionary tale. It invites us to consider what we are prioritizing in our lives, in our pursuit. What are our resources going towards? Unlike David’s covetousness, the things we are going after may be good and beautiful things. But that doesn’t change the importance of the follow up question we should consider. “What is our pursuit of these things costing us on the journey?” Asking this may be far more clarifying that simply following our desires, or someone’s advice, or even what our religious communities have told us we should prioritize. Because some things we may be losing without noticing aren’t worth the cost.