2 Samuel 12:1-31
For
those who may not have heard the message from last week, we are in the middle
of the story about David and Bathsheba.
At the beginning of chapter 11, the army is fighting against the
Ammonite city of Rabbah. David though
remains at home in the city of Jerusalem in spite of the fact that it is
spring, “the time when kings go off to war.”
While
at the palace one evening, David goes out for a walk on the roof. He sees a beautiful woman bathing. Rather than turn away, rather than go to his
own wives, David inquires after the woman and has her brought to him. David knows that she is married and knowingly
commits adultery. Bathsheba becomes
pregnant and sends word to David.
Bathsheba’s husband is a soldier in David’s army and is stationed at
Rabbah. In fact, Uriah, her husband, is
one of David’s mighty men (2 Samuel 23:39), one of his 30 bravest and strongest
warriors.
To
make matters worse, David recalls Uriah from the front and tries in vain to get
Uriah to go home to his wife. Uriah is a
man of character and honor. He is not
willing to disrespect or dishonor his commander Joab or his fellow
soldiers. He will not go home to the
comfort of his own bed or the arms of his wife while his comrades-in-arms are
still sleeping in tents.
Things
go from really bad to worse still. David
then sends word to Uriah’s commanding officer by Uriah’s own hand that Uriah
should be put into a compromising situation on the battlefield so that Uriah
“will be struck down and die.” (2 Samuel 11:15)
And that indeed is what happens, and Joab sends word to David that Uriah
has been killed.
2
Samuel 11:27 says that after the time of mourning was over, David had Bathsheba
brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. That time of mourning may not be as long as
we might imagine. Other times in the
Bible when an observed time of mourning is mentioned, it is seven days. We don’t know for sure, but it is certainly
plausible that it was only a week after Uriah had died that Bathsheba became
David’s wife.
This
is the point at which 2 Samuel 12 begins.
Let us pray and ask God to speak out of a difficult passage.
Father
God, we do pray that You would speak to us from Your Word. I pray for each one who is listening to this
message. Please give us attentive
hearts. Help us to hear what You want to
teach us. Help us to walk in Your light
we pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
The LORD sent Nathan to David. – 2 Samuel
12:1
Nathan
is a prophet of God. He first appeared
in 2 Samuel chapter 7 when David expressed his desire to build a house, a
temple for God. David shared his big
plans, and Nathan consented. But, that
night the Lord told Nathan that David was not the one to build the temple. Instead, it would be the responsibility of
David’s son.
Now,
in this situation, the Lord gives Nathan another message for David.
When he [Nathan] came to him [David], he
said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The
rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had
nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up
with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even
slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the
rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle
to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the
ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come
to him.”
David burned with anger against the man
and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this must
die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and
had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the
man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over
Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house
to you, and your master's wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah.
And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. Why did
you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in His eyes? You struck
down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You
killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will
never depart from your house, because you despised Me and took the wife of
Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own
household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will
take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep
with your wives in broad daylight. You did it in secret, but I will do this
thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ”
Then David said to Nathan, “I have
sinned against the LORD.”
Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away
your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have shown
utter contempt for the LORD, the son born to you will die.” – 2 Samuel 12:1-14
After
the parable of the lamb, David unknowingly passes judgment on himself. “As surely as the Lord lives,” is a
frequently voiced oath of certainty. The
judgment should come without a doubt.
“The man who did this must die!”
The
Lord’s words to David must be one of the most stinging rebukes of all
time.
“You
are the man!” How those words must have
struck David?
If all
the Lord had given him had not been enough, He would have given David even
more.
“Why
did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes?” In this affair, David has broken the sixth
(murder), seventh (committing adultery), ninth (giving false testimony against
his neighbor) and tenth (coveting his neighbor’s wife) commandments, at least.
God
declares, “You killed him … You despised Me.” Then, the Lord renders His judgment.
“I am
going to bring calamity on you. I will
do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.”
“The
son born to you will die,” and “the sword will never depart from your
house.” Part of that judgment is that
three of David’s older sons will come to violent deaths.
David
recognizes his guilt and confesses his sin.
He displays humility. He does not
blame shift or attempt to justify his actions.
He does not attempt to bargain with God.
It is a beautiful confession even in its simplicity, “I have sinned
against the Lord.” Is it that easy? Yes, God has made it that easy. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and
just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (I
John 1:9) This forgiveness offer from God is scandalous. It is also true. If you come to God and confess your sin, He
forgives you, too. If you have confessed
your sin, the Lord has taken away your sin as well, and you will cross over
from death to life.
David
pronounced judgment against the man in the parable that he should die. The Lord though pardons David and releases
him from the death penalty for adultery and murder in accordance with the Law. It is heartbreaking to us and to David, but
the child is not spared. In Hebrews
9:22, it says that “without the shedding of blood there is no
forgiveness.” Jesus though shed His
blood for the forgiveness of sins, past, present, and future. Could God have spared the child? Yes, in Christ, God could have spared the
child. Why didn’t He spare the
child? I don’t know exactly. Perhaps it is to make clear the immediate
consequence of this sin. David is
spared, but that does not negate the consequence. Instead in part, it is placed on the
child. There is a bitterness in it.
If
anything, I fear that the affluent and powerful and maybe any of us in any age
are at risk of underestimating the damage and corruption of sin. A loving God doesn’t allow people to
perpetrate or commit sin without seeing some of the damage it causes. Maybe we don’t see it immediately ever time,
but God does want us to know and understand that sin is evil. The only way we can understand that is to see
at least some of the consequences.
This
kind of flips my common way of thinking on its head. I think through the years, I have often felt
it was unfair if I thought someone was “getting away with” something unethical,
immoral, or just plain wrong. Instead
though, we should realize that those cases where someone “gets away” or appears
to get away with sin, those are times when we should have pity on and pray for
those who cannot see sin as sin. These
are the ones who cannot experience the forgiveness of God.
David
sees his sin in all its horror. He
experiences loss from it now, and he will experience damage from it for years
to come and even the rest of his earthly life.
It may be hard for us to accept it, but there is justice in the death of
David and Bathsheba’s child. We must
keep in mind that in addition to taking life, God is capable of giving life,
too. This child is with the Lord.
After Nathan had gone home, the LORD
struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David
pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in
sackcloth on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get
him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with
them. – 2 Samuel 12:15-17
This
was an agonizing time for David. Psalm
51 recounts David’s feelings during these days.
As in many of David’s psalms, there is a mixture of emotions and bedrock
truth. He cries out to God for mercy and
recognizes God’s unfailing love. He
appeals to God’s great compassion. He
not only asks for forgiveness, David asks God to cleanse Him. Even though Nathan told him that God had
taken away his sin, David still wrestles with his guilt in this Psalm
ultimately giving himself over to God.
Importantly,
David recognizes that his sin is against God.
He acknowledges God is right and justified in His judgment. He sees his sin as a part of his life even
from his conception in his mother’s womb.
Only God can deal with this reality.
There is nothing we can do to fix our sin problem on our own.
David
importantly expresses confidence in God’s ability to cleanse and restore. If God cleanses, then we will be clean. If God washes, we will be whiter than snow. This is the cleanness that comes from
God. In the forgiveness of God through
Jesus, you are spotlessly clean, whiter than snow.
David
appeals to God in Psalm 51 to renew his life, to let him hear joy and gladness,
to let his crushed bones rejoice, to create in him a pure heart, to renew a
right spirit within him, to sustain him.
David
sees well what the impact of God’s restorative work in his life will be. He then looks forward to teaching others
God’s ways so that they too will turn back to God. Through forgiveness, David will be released
to praise God.
David
realizes that there is no payment he can make for his sin. There is no offering that would bring God
pleasure or delight. David’s committed
sacrifice to God is his own broken spirit, a broken and sorrowful heart. David realizes that God will not despise such
a heart.
I
encourage you to set aside some time and read freshly Psalm 51 today or
sometime this week and reflect on it and what God has done for you. And then, to reflect on letting your own
heart sing and declare God’s praise.
On the seventh day the child died.
David's attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they
thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn't listen to us when we
spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something
desperate.” – 2 Samuel 12:18
It is
interesting here to pause and reflect on the understanding of David’s
attendants. They extrapolate David’s
behavior while the child is alive to assess how he might react now that the
child has died. We will see that David’s
reaction is quite different and for good reason.
I
don’t know how much opportunity David’s attendants had for relationship with
their king, but I see this as a good reminder to us that it is important to
maintain relationship with others even in the midst of hard times. When we are going through difficult times, we
should seek to be open to relationship.
When we know people close to us are going through difficult times, we
should seek to stay in relationship with them.
It is hard, really hard, sometimes.
If we do know where people are, then we are better able to pray for, to
support, and to be there for them.
David noticed that his attendants were
whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child
dead?” he asked.
“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”
Then David got up from the ground. After
he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house
of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request
they served him food, and he ate. His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting
this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the
child is dead, you get up and eat!”
He answered, “While the child was still
alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me
and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting?
Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” – 2
Samuel 12:19-23
David
goes up to worship God. In this, we
again see evidence of David’s humility.
He clearly demonstrates that he has accepted the disciplinary results of
his sin. We can also see the separation
between Saul’s reaction in his sin compared to David. Saul at the moment of Samuel’s confrontation
(I Samuel 15:24-25, 30) persists in pressing Samuel to “keep up
appearances.” Saul wanted Samuel to stay
with him. Saul wanted Samuel to honor
him before the elders. David fasts and
prays before his elders and attendants and then rises to worship the Lord on
his own.
David
demonstrates the reality that in death the child has gone to God. He speaks to his attendants in a way that
makes it clear that the child is still a distinct person, alive beyond this
earthly life.
Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba,
and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they
named him Solomon. The LORD loved him; and because the LORD loved him, he sent
word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah. – 2 Samuel 12:24-25
While
their first child had died, God allows David and Bathsheba to have another
child together. It is Solomon. In I Chronicles 22:9, David tells Solomon
that God told him that he would have a son by that name. The name Solomon is taken from the Hebrew
word for peace, shalom. Solomon is also
given the name Jedidiah which means loved by the Lord. There is something exceptional about this
child to be given a name from God at his birth.
The name David comes from the Hebrew word beloved. The name which God gives to Solomon also
includes David’s name. There is an
assurance in this name from God that the Lord also loves David and will
continue his family on the throne.
Maybe
it doesn’t occur to you, but some have thought I wish God gave me a special
name. We shouldn’t be envious of
Solomon’s special name though. Each one
who places their faith in Jesus will be given a new name known only to
themselves according to Revelation 2:17.
Meanwhile Joab fought against Rabbah of
the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel. Joab then sent messengers to
David, saying, “I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply. Now
muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise I
will take the city, and it will be named after me.” So David mustered the
entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it. David took the
crown from their king's head, and it was placed on his own head. It weighed a
talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones. David took a great quantity
of plunder from the city and brought out the people who were there, consigning
them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at
brickmaking. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then he and his entire
army returned to Jerusalem. – 2 Samuel 12:26-31
Joab
reminds David of his responsibility (maybe in a bit of a cheeky way) to get the
army and come to the battle, and David shows humility in responding immediately
and fully to Joab’s request.
The
Lord ultimately gives Joab and David the victory over the Ammonites, a people
who had attacked and raided Israel again and again since the early days of
Judges despite the fact that the Israelites had not attacked or raided them
before. The conflict from I Samuel 10
was also with the Ammonites. David had
shown kindness to previous king of Ammon.
But, when the old king died and David sent a delegation to express
sympathy, the new king disgraced them cutting off their beards and cutting off
their robes at their gluteus. Then,
Ammon had hired mercenaries and gone to war against Israel. That war has continued into at least 2 years.
Rabbah
was the capital of Ammon. Their people
had been established in that region since the time of Abraham, 1000 years. They had built up considerable wealth in
their citadel over the generations. The
plunder is great. The people of Ammon
are conscripted as workers in building David’s kingdom.
It is
interesting in light of David’s humility to also consider the lack of humility
of Nahash king of Ammon. He fights to
the last and ultimately loses control of his nation and his people. He could have been an ally of David like
Hiram king of Tyre. How many times in
two years or more of conflict were there for Nahash to seek terms of
peace? David placing the crown of Ammon
on his head was not only a sign of victory but also a symbolic transference of
the sovereignty over Ammon from Nahash to David.
Rabbah
is the same city where the army had been when this entire affair with Bathsheba
and Uriah began. It is maybe astonishing
what has been required in the battle there.
2 Samuel 11:1 said that the Israelite army besieged Rabbah. Active battle had become a siege. The army most likely had been in place there
for well more than a year, before, during, and after one and possibly two
pregnancies. No wonder David had been
tempted to remain in Jerusalem rather than going out with the army in the first
place. I’m not saying that as an
excuse. I just think it makes it easier
to understand David’s wrong decision which created the opportunity for his
great fall.
We
would be prudent to think about what our responsibilities are. It is easy to think something may not be
“God’s will” if it looks difficult. This
is an area where great discernment is required.
Sometimes it is the right thing to take on the difficult challenge. Other times, a difficult challenge we see may
not be our responsibility to take up. In
this case, it is clear. David is God’s
ordained king of Israel. It was his
responsibility at this time to go out with his army. He didn’t do it. What are your responsibilities right
now? What should you be doing? Are you doing that? If not, why not? If so, good for you!
We
should have confidence in the Lord equipping us to face the challenges He sets
before us. Ephesians 2:10 tells us,
We are God's handiwork, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. –
Ephesians 2:10
Those
challenges you face in your areas of responsibility, the opportunities God has
given you wherever you are, He knows about them. In fact, He prepared them for you. He knows what you need in order to overcome
them. He is constantly preparing the way
before you to walk in His plan for you.
The LORD himself goes before you and
will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do
not be discouraged. – Deuteronomy 31:8
When you pass through the waters, I will
be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over
you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will
not set you ablaze. – Isaiah 43:2
What, then, shall we say in response to
these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? – Romans 8:31
Don’t
forget to reflect on Psalm 51 this week.
Look at what God has put before you, and ask Him to give you strength to
do the good works he has prepared for us to do, even ones which may not look so
pleasant or easy at first. Let us
persevere in doing what is right, and...
Let us
pray:
Lord
Jesus, give us courage. Help us to walk
in the light as You are in the light.
Thank You that You hear our prayers, that You forgive sins, that You
renew and give life. We rejoice in You in
Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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