ellauri156.html on line 497: Uriah's words should have shocked David into a realization of the depth of his sin. The author uses these words in an ironically pivotal way. Uriah has just told David that he will not go to his own house, that he will not eat and drink and sleep with his wife.41 He has put this matter emphatically: “By your life, and the life of your soul, I will not do this thing” (verse 11). In the very next verses, David compels Uriah to “eat and drink” with him, with the hope that he will lie with his wife. And when Uriah swears by the life of the king that he will not do so, the king ends up taking Uriah's life. How ironic! How tragic! How hilarious!
ellauri156.html on line 620: 41 Is this, by any chance, a clue as to what the “present” was that David sent after Uriah in verse 8? Was the present some “food and drink”? I wonder. 42 Uriah’s actions raise some interesting questions about those who get themselves drunk. It seems to me that our text strongly implies that even drunk, a man cannot be forced to violate his convictions, unless of course he wants to do so. I wonder how many people get drunk because they want to do what they do drunk, and they think they can blame alcohol for their own sin? It seems like another version of, “The Devil made me do it.”
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