2 Samuel 12:15-31

¹⁵ And Nathan departed unto his house. And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare unto David, and it was very sick. ¹⁶ David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth. ¹⁷ And the elders of his house arose, and went to him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, neither did he eat bread with them. ¹⁸ And it came to pass on the seventh day, that the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead: for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would not hearken unto our voice: how will he then vex himself, if we tell him that the child is dead? ¹⁹ But when David saw that his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was dead: therefore David said unto his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. ²⁰ Then David arose from the earth, and washed, and anointed himself, and changed his apparel, and came into the house of the Lord, and worshipped: then he came to his own house; and when he required, they set bread before him, and he did eat. ²¹ Then said his servants unto him, What thing is this that thou hast done? thou didst fast and weep for the child, while it was alive; but when the child was dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. ²² And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? ²³ But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. ²⁴ And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon: and the Lord loved him. ²⁵ And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord. ²⁶ And Joab fought against Rabbah of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city. ²⁷ And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and have taken the city of waters. ²⁸ Now therefore gather the rest of the people together, and encamp against the city, and take it: lest I take the city, and it be called after my name. ²⁹ And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it. ³⁰ And he took their king’s crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David’s head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance. ³¹ And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick-kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.

F. B. Meyer once wrote, “The better the man, the dearer the price he pays for a short season of sinful pleasure.” There is a price to be paid for sin by way of consequences and there is a greater price to be paid for sin for someone in leadership (James 3:1). Such was true in the life of King David. While David stands out in the Old Testament as having more written about him and by him than any other Old Testament figure, being known as a man after the Lord’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14), and being God’s anointed king, he was no exception to the dire consequences that are reaped when sin is sown. His sin with Bathsheba, next to the fall of Adam and Eve and the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus Christ, stands out as the most recognized of sins in Scripture. He committed adultery, deceived, and murdered in the process. Yet, for all of this we can see clearly that the Lord forgave his sin and showed him immeasurable grace and mercy. While there would be terrible consequences that would come throughout the rest of his life, through it all the Lord would humble David, restore Him, and fulfill all of His good promises to him. This week, we will learn about the wages of sin as we look into the most immediate consequence for David’s sin with Bathsheba; the death of the child that they conceived. In recognition of sin’s wages, we see three ways in which you and I are called to respond.

First, we see that we are to humbly trust in the Lord’s grace. When it comes to sin’s effects and consequences in our lives and in the world around us, we have but one thing we can do and that is trust in the Lord to be gracious. We cannot control the effects of sin any more than we can control the tides. Only the Lord has power over these things. Psalm 51 contains David’s prayer of repentance before the Lord. It is likely that when David fasted, prayed, and prostrated himself in 2 Samuel 12:15-17, that he prayed that prayer to the Lord. In Psalm 51:4, we read “that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” where David expressed his resignation of the consequences of his sin to the Lord. Whatever the Lord decided to do would be right and would be far better than he deserved. The most immediate consequence that David faced in the aftermath of his sin was the death of the son that he had conceived with Bathsheba in his adultery. The child became sick and during the child’s period of sickness, David pleaded with the Lord for the life of the child. Some may ask: “Why would God punish the child for David’s sin?” The simple answer to that question is that He didn’t. The child was sick and died as a consequence for David’s sin, but was not being punished for what David did. Exodus 34:7 tells us that the sins of one generation can have consequences for generations to come. The remarkable thing about that verse is not that sin has lasting consequences, but that Yahweh, in His grace and mercy, limits the consequences and impact of sin at all. Ever since the fall, we have all been impacted and suffered for the sin of Adam and Eve and throughout the ages mankind has endured the impact of countless sins. The child would foreshadow the Lord Jesus who would come and truly suffer and die for the sin of the world (1 John 2:2; Romans 3:25-26). In our world, sin impacts even those that do not commit the specific sin that brought about the consequences and that was true for David’s son. While each of us are individually accountable to God for our own sins and not the sins of others (Ezekiel 18:20) that does not mean that the sins of others will not bring consequences that impact others that didn’t commit the specific sin. This child suffered for what his father had done, but was not being punished by God. This happens every day in our world. Countless children suffer from the sins of parents. Adultery, immorality, drug abuse, neglect, etc., bring immeasurable harm to children raised in those environments. That is not God punishing those children for their parent’s sins, but those children endure consequences brought by the parents’ sins. The child’s life, like all of our lives, was in the Lord’s hands. David prayed and besought the Lord for the child, not because he was unwilling to accept the Lord’s Word, but because he knew the character of the Lord. Throughout the Bible, there are times when the Lord warned of coming judgment or disaster, the people against whom the disaster was foretold turned to the Lord in repentance. And the Lord heard and relented of the disasters (Jonah 3:3-10; 1 Kings 21:27). By humbling himself, David was submitting himself to the Lord’s will and trusting the Lord to be gracious, regardless of the outcome.

Next, we see that we are to take comfort in the Lord’s mercy. When the child died, David’s servants were naturally fearful to tell him about it. They reasoned that if David responded so intensely while the child was alive that he would be inconsolable with the news. Seeing the cautious activity of his servants, David reasoned correctly that the child had passed, but instead of continuing on in prayer and fasting, verse 20 reveals that David did what was unthinkable to his servants. He got up, washed himself, changed his clothes, ate food, went to the tent where the ark of the covenant was, and worshipped. Perplexed by this behavior, the servants questioned David as to why he acted the way he did. In verses 22-23, he revealed that he had concluded that, while the child was alive, he did not know whether the Lord would be gracious and spare the child’s life if he humbled himself before the Lord, but since the child had passed, he knew that the Lord had made the decision and that the child was safe in the arms of God. He was able to cease his mourning for the child, not because he wasn’t saddened by the passing, but because he knew that the child was with the Lord. One day, David would “go to him, but he” would “not return to” David. David’s response was one of faith and trust. First, it was faith and trust in the Word of the Lord. The child had died just as the Lord had said. David accepted what he knew to be the Lord’s revealed will in the matter. He knew that he had sown sin and was reaping the corruption that it brought (Galatians 6:7-8). Second, it was a response of faith and trust in the revealed character of the Lord. David knew that the child itself was far better off in the Lord’s hands than his own. He knew that the child was securely in paradise with the Lord, the place that he would one day go to at the end of his own life. The final line of his most famous psalm says, “I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (Psalm 23:6). The destination of an infant was as secure in his mind as his own destination as a man who walked with the Lord. We see God’s attitude toward infants and children (Psalm 10:14; 68:5; Exodus 22:22-23; Jonah 4:9-11) and Jesus’s special love for children (Matthew 18:1-6, 10-14; 19:13-14) throughout the Bible. While all people are born with a sin nature and are in need of God’s redeeming grace, the character of God is revealed very clearly to make every provision for the care and salvation of those not cognizant of right and wrong. The oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job, reveals that even Job knew that “infants,” even those that “never saw light” are in a place where “the wicked cease from troubling” and “prisoners rest together” (Job 3:16-19). 2 Samuel 12 is one of the clearest examples of the confidence that God’s people can have in regards to the eternal destiny of infants and children who have not reached the capacity to discern right from wrong. David could “sorrow,” but not “as others which have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Likewise, while we may endure the most terrible of consequences for sin (whether our own or otherwise) in this fallen world, you and I can take comfort in God’s mercy.

Lastly, you and I are called to go on faithfully serving the Lord’s purpose. After the death of the child, David went about fulfilling two roles that the Lord had given him. First, he fulfilled his role as a husband and he “comforted Bathsheba his wife” (v. 24). From this relationship that began in sin, the Lord brought forth a child that would be the fulfillment of His promise made back in 2 Samuel 7:12-16. Solomon would be the son of David that the Lord promised to walk with and discipline as His own son. The name Solomon comes from the Hebrew word shalom which means “peace” and Solomon’s name means “peaceful” or “wholeness.” His name was a testimony to the “peace” that David had with the Lord. Despite the consequences he would endure for his sin, the Lord had forgiven David (Psalm 32:1-2). The name also comes from the Hebrew word shelomo which means “replacement.” It was a testimony to the reality that God had brought death where there should have been life just as He did in Eden (Genesis 3:15-21). He was also given the name “Jedidiah” by Nathan the prophet “because of the Lord” (v. 25). That name means “beloved of God.” It was an affirmation that would become clear in time to the fatherly love of God that He had promised to show to the son of David in 2 Samuel 7:14-15 where the Lord would never remove His mercy. Solomon was that promised son and would serve as a sign that the Lord was not finished with David and he. His covenant would indeed be fulfilled and the Lord still had work for David to do. The second role that David would fulfill would be his role as king. He would return to the responsibility he had neglected that led to his sin in 2 Samuel 11:1. When victory was won in war and an opposing city or kingdom was taken, it was the king’s responsibility to come and publicly claim the victory. When the city of Rabbah was about to fall, Joab sent for David to come and do just that. Israel’s victory over the Ammonites was a sign that the Lord would not only fulfill His promises to David regarding His everlasting lineage, but also that the Lord still had work for Him to do as the king of Israel. Our God is a God of second chances. You and I are called to faithfully serve His purposes.

Despite being restored by the Lord, David was far from perfect. His life would bear the marks of the sin that he committed in 2 Samuel 11-12, but, through it all, God’s people are able to see the amazing grace, mercy, and fulfilled purposes of God in David’s life. From his example, we might take hope and remember that “a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again” (Proverbs 24:16). This is because those that belong to the Lord are ultimately upheld, not by their own strength or righteousness, but by the Lord Himself. Trust in His grace, take comfort in His mercy, and serve His purpose.