You and Nathan are right, David murdered Uriah with the sword of Amon. I don't believe David was guiltless, however Uriah could have done some things differently to preserve his own life, possibly went home or never sent Joab the orders. I see Nathan accusing David, I am unsure if Nathan's accusations could be prosecuted and if David would have been found guilty in a court of law. Afterall the Amonites did kill Uriah, maybe David would have been found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.
Scripture says that David MURDERED Uriah... HOW he committed murder is irrelevant. Murder is a sin.
Your line of though might have some validity had those orders said put Uriah at the front where the fighting is the most severe.... (I personally would still call it murder but an argument could be made that it might not be murder.)
Where it becomes and overt act of murder is when the instructions are to have everyone else draw back to INSURE that he is killed... that is murder and it doesn't matter if its with a hammer, poison or the sword (in this case, the enemies) The legal question is INTENT... David's intent was to INSURE that Uriah was killed so that he could take Bathsheba.
It is and was a vile act.
This to me is more about the mercy of G-d and David's true repentance. Make no mistake though, David knew exactly what he was doing and he knew it was wrong.
“Place _____ in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die.”
No military or civilian court would see those orders as anything but murder. The blank of course is Uriah and those are David's orders.
Your suggestion about Uriah is completely unlikely. First off despite your assertions to the contrary Uriah was sojourning with Israel and was so loyal to David and Israel that he refused the comfort of his wife because he considered as not right that those Israelite who were fighting for the king were unable to be with their wives.
Secondly, no soldier would EVER not deliver orders from the king unless he were a spy... the idea would never have crossed his mind... like EVER.
3rd and I take GREAT exception with this... is that your view of Uriah as the bad guy here is quite frankly, borderline obscene. There is absolutely nothing in scripture to even hint that Uriah is anything other than a faithful servant to David.
In fact Uraih in Hebrew means "the Lord is Light"
Uraih tells David "Uriah said to David, "The Ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord's men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"
I find it very disturbing that you would paint a man who by scriptural accounts is a LOYAL and FAITHFUL servant as the bad guy and when scripture CLEARLY points out David's very clear sin, you try and spin davids actions as basically no sin at all...
G-d certainly disagree's with that view as the penalty David pay's is very, very, very severe. 2 Sam 12
1 Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil
against you from
your own household; I will even
take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in [f]broad daylight. 12 Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and [g]under the sun.’” 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has [h]taken away your sin;
you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.” 15 So Nathan went to his house.
. That is, it is not only forbidden to write on Shabbat, but even to hold a pen. It's not only forbidden to build a fire, but also to handle kindling wood. It is not only forbidden to build a table, but also to hold a hammer. There are tools for doing work, and handling these tools on Shabbat is also forbidden. That is the entire concept of muktseh.
