Last week we left David handing a note to Uriah to take to Joab. "Good luck, old chum, back to the front, God bless and all the best, glad you could have a little rest. Oh, by the way, could you deliver this note to Joab, a request for your commander from your king?" It was Uriah's own death sentence: Send Uriah to the forefront of the battle and then draw back from him, so that he might die.

Last week David left us wondering about his situation: to take Uriah's wife, Bath-Sheba, to discover that she is pregnant, to bring Uriah back so that Uriah might go to Bath-Sheba, and then to have his royal scheme thwarted by Uriah, who, as David's foil, will not break the law of purity befitting a soldier in a royal war. Uriah does not go near his wife. So David sends Uriah back to the front to be ki…