2 Samuel 11-12
11 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
Battle or war is not sport that one does as a custom for the gain of plunder. David realized this and tried to stay away from the battle to avoid wrongdoing. The remainder of 2 Samuel 11 described how David was captivated by the very beautiful married Bathsheba, took here and conceived a child with her. David tried to cover up the pregnancy from Uriah, Bathsheba husband but could not and David put Uriah in a dangerous battle position causing Uriah’s death.
This is an excellent discussion of Karma in that when one acts wrongly one will continue to act wrongly in other ways.
2 Samuel 12 describes the remarkable courage of the messenger Nathan dealing with David's sin by starting with a parable of a poor man nurturing an ewe lamb. This represents how David should have treated his neighboring countries while the rich man taking the poor man’s ewe lamb to feed a wayfaring man represent the plundering by David’s armies.
David sees the rich man’s wrong in the parable and becomes inappropriately angry (Karma).
Nathan points out David’s sins and David admits that he has sinned. True confessions and repentance does lesson the Karma of sinning.
The Bible says the sin is against the LORD and the LORD puts away the sin so David will not die but his son will die.
The use of the LORD as a supper arbitrator may be easier for people to accept as people cannot see how wrong doing causes one to continue with wrongful actions but this concept is not as effective in getting people to act correctly when one sees that wrongdoing increases wrongdoing and eventually causes one to suffer more.
10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
Matthew 1:17
So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity
in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations.
War continues as described in 2 Samuel 12 26-31 and as Matthew 1:17 describes David as a pivotal spiritual king of Israel and connects to Christ (descendent of David) and Christianity, one of the dominate religions of the world.
The “sword” not “departing” from the “house” of David lingers in the world.
In traditional spirituality the sword is a basic tool of prayer and meditations (one tries to cut off inappropriate thoughts) but transforms (see) to the flame of wisdom (one tries to dissolve inappropriate thoughts) and then to Ushnisha Cakravartin a central figure in the mandala of universal peace (one tries to transform the thoughts of all beings into appropriate conduct).
War continues to this day and people continue to suffer from the effects of war as few wars are justified and planned to bring lasting peace as war brings only a short opportunity to build lasting peace.
War grows in the numbers engaged, power of weaponry and the numbers of fatalities and injuries.
Now, with nuclear weapons, life as we know can become extinct.
Note that this is not a criticism of the judicious use of force by authorized police and military bodies but an effort to evoke discussion and implementation on spirituality being a greater force for peace in the world.