2 Samuel 12:22-23
The Death of the Child
There is also a direct punishment for sin, after confession, because of the blaspheming by the enemies of the LORD that was caused by David through his deed. That direct punishment is the death of the child born of adultery. The LORD could have killed the child immediately, but first he makes him sick to death for a week because of an incurable disease. Bathsheba is still called “Uriah’s wife [lit. translation]” (2Sam 12:15). It emphasizes that the child is attached to the sin David did.The death of the child is also grace of God. It forbears that David has to live with this son who would have constantly reminded him of the sin of adultery. This grace is not given to everyone in such a situation. That does not mean that there is no grace for such a person. If there is true repentance for sin, God has another form of grace for that situation. Where sin has entered, there is always grace with God that goes beyond sin when an appeal is made to Him.David cannot and will not accept what has been said to him about his son. What he hears leads him to an intense seeking of God because of the child. He is completely focused on this need. David knows that God’s heart can be moved. We learn from David what prayer is. David does not accept the message as a fate. He knows God as a God who can revoke a decision. This is not because the decision is not good, but because He wants to be prayed for it. Our prayers have a place in God’s plan. Our relationship with God determines our begging.As said before, the LORD does not take the life of the child straight away. It takes seven days before he dies. In those seven days David seeks God and fasts. He spends the night lying on the ground. This also means that after the confession of 2Sam 12:13 there will be a period of awareness of what really happened. This is also necessary in our lives. After failure and confession, we cannot move on immediately. Restoration takes time.David does not eat with the elders, i.e. he has no contact with them. God uses those seven days (a full period) to bring David to the awareness of what he has done. David will undoubtedly have seen his sin in all its awfulness in God’s presence. The child is the result. At the same time, he hopes for the grace of God to let his son live. God does not do that. This is not because He could not do otherwise. God has often let Himself be entreated. God does not do it now, possibly because He does not want to leave a memory of sin. If the child died on the seventh day, his servants do not dare to say it to David. Although they live close to him, they don’t know him very well. They look at the matter from a human point of view. However, prayer life cannot be viewed in a natural way. When David hears that the child has died, he takes it from the hand of God. This is trust. The fervent prayer must go hand in hand with a full confidence in God. Thus the Lord Jesus prayed in Gethsemane. After He had risen from His prayer there, He could continue His way in peace.When the child has died, David’s attitude changes (2Sam 12:20). He stands up, washes and anoints himself, changes his clothes and goes to the place where the ark is. There he worships. The one who prays is also a worshiper. After that he eats again. The servants ask him how this can be done. Their question testifies that there is a good relationship between the servants and their king.David tells them of his deep exercises in the presence of the LORD. The result is not that the child is healed, but his confidence in the LORD is strengthened. He does not speak of the death of the child as an inevitable event, but as a matter he accepts from the hand of the LORD. He rests in the will of the LORD, not because he cannot do otherwise, but because the LORD knows what is best. In so doing, he does not close his eyes to the actual situation. The child is dead. Fasting further makes no sense. No one can bring a dead person to life. What God has taken, a man cannot bring back, not even David. Something else is possible. In faith David speaks about going to the child. Such statements are rare in the Old Testament. It is clear to him that the child is in God’s glory. We may know this of all children who died young.
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