Chapter 12
God's first step in response to David's sin is to send Nathan the prophet to David. Nathan tells David the story of a rich man who steals and serves a poor man's lamb. A beloved lamb, raised in the family as we raise pets today. David is incensed about the death of this little lamb, and orders the lamb restored four fold. (NKJV says David said the man "shall surely die". ESV says he "deserves to die". Literal translation says the man "is a son of death". My guess is that David did not pronounce a death sentence on the man. It might have been necessary for that to be carried out. David would have condemned himself to death. Since that isn't how it plays out, and since he says the theft is to be repaid, we should think of this as what David thought should be done, but not what the law required. I am sure I would like to see severe punishment on the people licking the Blue Bell Ice cream at the store and putting it back. But my punishment is more severe than what the law says.
The next verses tell first why David's sin is so terrible in God's sight, and then tell about the consequences to David. The consequences last a lifetime.
1. The sword shall never depart from your house. Violence and death on David and those he loves.
2. Evil will rise against David from his own house.
3. His wives will be taken from him in plain sight. Not secret adultery, but stolen wives in plain sight.
4. His neighbor will get his wives and lie with them, not in secret, but with the full knowledge of all Israel. The whole country will know that other men are openly sleeping with David's wives, and that David was powerless to prevent it, and is still powerless to stop it. What a crushing, awful thing to live with. Unable to protect those you love, and laughed at by your enemies because of your weakness. And this was to go on and on. This reads as if David is to be disgraced as a king and as a man for the remainder of his life. Many of the Psalms about enemies laughing, and asking that they be silenced and that God avenge David on them may in fact have to do with the removal of this curse. Maybe David believed that there would be an end to this curse, that eventually God would consider the consequences adequate to the crime. But I don't know that he ever did. But God "puts away" Davids sin, and David does not die. Having your sin forgiven does not, however, release you from the consequences of your sin. David accepts the just punishment of God.
The child of adultery gets sick, as would be expected from this verse:
14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the LORD, the child who is born to you shall die." [2Sa 12:14 ESV]
David fasts and prays that he will get well. The child dies. This is frightening. That little child died because of what David and Bathsheba had done. God removed his shielding of David's family, but the verse above says it was God's will that the child would die. This consequence to a little child was God's own doing. No other way to read it. MSB does not address it other than to say God would begin his judgement with the death of Bathsheba's baby son. Perhaps we can get a little more "explanation" for why the child died from the phrasing in the NKJV:
14 "However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also [who is] born to you shall surely die." [2Sa 12:14 NKJV]
All knew what David had done, and that it was an affront to God himself. Lest the enemies of Israel think that the God of Israel had been made the fool in all this, something very drastic - something very public - was needed. And that public vindication from God was the horrible, terrible, consequence of a dead child.
After the child dies, David gets up, goes to church, and asks for something to eat. His servants are astonished. David's reply is in 12:23b:
23 ...I shall go to him, but he will not return to me." [2Sa 12:23b ESV] David knows that he will meet this son again, but not on this earth. What will he say to that son when he meets him? What will we say to those we didn't tell about Jesus? What will we say to those we know and see every day that we never got around to inquiring about their souls? Think they won't blame us?
2023 - Here is a most astounding thing, and it amazes me that I had not heard anyone say it until I read one of the chapters in Systematic Theology by Grudem. This child died unsaved. The child was born, but died as an infant, and David says that he will see that child again. "I shall go to him...". This seems to be profound evidence that babies don't go to hell. The child dies on the seventh day. On the eighth day, he would have been circumcised. I do not think that this external ritual is what determines the age at which a child is held responsible for their actions. I think it is more individual than that, but even if not, there is that verses where the youngsters below a certain age in the wilderness would get to go into Canaan, though their parents would die. Here is that verse: 39 And as for your little ones, who you said would become a prey, and your children, who today have no knowledge of good or evil, they shall go in there. And to them I will give it, and they shall possess it. [Deu 1:39 ESV]. Having no knowledge of good and evil would seem to suggest an age of accountability.
((((People who have decided to hate God because they resent his authority over them, will continue to hate Him, in fact may hate Him even more, when He demonstrates that the last word is always His. When he demonstrates that all power is His, and that there is no defense against the consequences that He sends for sin. In Revelation, there are lost people who know beyond a doubt that the worldwide death and disaster is coming directly from God. They know that God exists, and that He is dispensing His justice, and that He has the power to do it against all attempts to mitigate it. And it just makes them madder. They are not atheists. They know God is real. They "believe" in God, and they understand His position. And still they rage against Him. We shouldn't be surprised when we encounter this same attitude today.))))
Bathsheba has a second son, Solomon. God loves this son, and calls him Jedidiah - Beloved of the Lord.
Rabbah, the capital city of Ammon, has been weakened enough to fall, so Joab has David come and lead the final attack. Joab wants David to have the glory for this conquest. David does so, and brings out a huge amount of spoil from the city. The rest of Ammon's cities also fall in due time.