2 Samuel 12:14-25

CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES

2 Samuel 12:14. “The enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” “Transgression of God’s command by the king himself must lead the heathen to heap shame and reproach on Israel and its God; and there must therefore be expiation by punishment.” (Erdmann.)

“Not only to the heathen, but also to the unbelieving among the Israelites.” (Keil.) The external sufferings of David would be to all such blasphemers a witness to the holiness and justice of God. “David was also to discern in it a distinct token of the grace of God.” (Keil.)

2 Samuel 12:15. “The Lord struck the child.” It appears that Nathan did not visit David until after the birth of Bathsheba’s child, and therefore that David’s impenitent state of mind lasted for many months.

2 Samuel 12:16. “Besought God.” “In the case of a man whose penitence was so earnest and so deep, the prayer for the preservation of his child must have sprung from some other source than excessive love of any created object. His great desire was to avert the stroke, as a sign of the wrath of God, in the hope that he might be able to discern, in the preservation of the child, a proof of Divine favour consequent upon the restoration of his fellowship with God.” (Von Gerlach.) “Went in.” Rather, “he came,” not into the house of the Lord (2 Samuel 12:20 is proof to the contrary), but into his house, or into his chamber.” (Keil.)

2 Samuel 12:17. “The elders.” As in Genesis 24:2, his oldest and most trusted servants.

2 Samuel 12:21. “What thing is this?” “This state of mind is fully explained in Psalms 51, though his servants could not comprehend it.” (Keil.)

2 Samuel 12:15. “In this short passage the Divine names are used with greater variation than usual. 2 Samuel 12:15 has “Jehovah” (the Lord); 2 Samuel 12:16 has “God;” and in 2 Samuel 12:22 the Hebrew text has “Jehovah,” where in our version is God. Whether the sacred historian was guided in the employment of these names by some unknown principle, or he used them indiscriminately it is difficult to decide.” (Jamieson.)

2 Samuel 12:23. “I shall go to Him.” Wordsworth sees in these words “an evidence of David’s belief in the personal identity of risen saints, and in everlasting recognition in a future state.” It seems quite evident that at least “the continued existence of the child’s soul in Sheol is here assumed, and the hope of re-union with it expressed.” (Erdmann.)

2 Samuel 12:24. “She bare a son.” “In all probability Solomon was not born until after the capture of Rabbah and the termination of the Ammonitisli war. His birth is simply mentioned here because of its connection with what immediately precedes.” (Keil.) “Solomon,” i.e. the man of peace (Keil.) It was probably given “from the wish that peace might be allotted to him as God’s gift, in contrast with the continual wars of his father’s life.” (Erdmann.) Or as Keil and others remark, “because David regarded his birth as a pledge that he should now become a partaker again of peace with God.”

2 Samuel 12:25. “He sent.” Expositors differ as to whether Jehovah or David is the subject here. It seems most in keeping with the construction to read with Kiel and others, “Jehovah loved him, and sent,” etc.… and he (Nathan, in obedience to the Divine direction) called,” etc. Some however make David the first subject, and understand the verb sent in the sense of delivered; i.e., David committed the child to the care of Nathan, and Nathan gave him his higher name. Others again make David the subject of both verbs. “Jedidiah,” i.e., beloved of Jehovah.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 2 Samuel 12:14

DAVID’S PUNISHMENT

I. A sinful deed committed by a child of God must be punished to vindicate the justice of the Divine government. The human king and father who claims to be the representative and executor of law is bound to begin at home, and exact strict obedience from the members of his own family before he deals with those outside his household. For if his home discipline be lax, and he overlook transgressions in his children that he would punish in other men, he loses his reputation as a just and impartial ruler. Indeed, those who stand most nearly related to him are rightly counted more blameworthy than others if they violate the law, inasmuch as their near relation implies a more perfect knowledge of what ought to be done, and therefore a more binding obligation. It is especially needful, therefore, that their sins be visited with the deserved penalty, and such a visitation is quite consistent with personal forgiveness of the offender. God, who claims to be the supreme ruler of all the nations, chose the Hebrew people as His especial inheritance, and selected David from the rest of the nation to stand in a peculiar and intimate relation to Himself. All the nation was under special obligation to obey the laws of God, and David was bound to obedience by even stronger ties than any of his subjects. As an Israelite he was called upon to show to the heathen around an example of godly living, and as the chosen king of Israel, and the professing servant of Jehovah, he was bound to be a living revelation of God’s law to his own people. If his great sin had not been openly punished, and if the punishment had not been heavy, the reputation of the Divine Law-giver would have suffered. Therefore, although his sin was “put away” upon confession, justice demanded all the suffering that followed. This law is of necessity in constant operation in the government of God. “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.” (Amos 3:3.) Peculiar privileges and distinguishing marks of Divine favour are not licences to sin, but reasons why it cannot be lightly passed over.

II. The result of an unlawful deed soon changes from a source of pleasure into one of pain. The thief who succeeds in capturing his booty congratulates himself upon all the enjoyment he hopes to purchase with it. But it may be that he presently stumbles beneath its weight, and so enables the officer of justice to overtake and capture him, and thus the very largeness of the gain that he secured for an hour becomes the means of days and months of sorrow. It is not always, nor generally, that retribution follows so quickly upon the heels of wrong-doing, but whether its results be enjoyed for a longer or shorter period, they will one day be the cause of bitterness. David was allowed to enjoy, so far as a guilty conscience would permit him, the fruits of his sinful union with Bathsheba for a short time. It is evident that the child that was born to him was a source of joy to his heart. But soon that very source of his gladness was smitten, and the fountain whence the streams of pleasure had flowed now sent forth only bitter waters. From what we know of David we may conclude that the sufferings of an innocent child would have given him pain under any circumstances, but how great an addition to his mental suffering must it have been to remember that, in this instance, his guilty passion was the cause of all. This leads to the remembrance—

III. That those who commit the sin are not the only sufferers from it. This is an inevitable, although sad, consequence of that relativity between human creatures which is also the cause of so many blessings. As none can say where the effects of sin will end in relation to his own soul, so it is impossible to calculate how far its evil influence will extend in relation to others. Sometimes, as in the case before us, only bodily suffering is entailed upon the child by the transgressions of the parent, but often, alas, the sin of the father bears more deadly fruit in the moral contamination which it communicates to the children. David’s infant child suffered bodily pain and death because of the iniquity of its parents, and no man—especially no parent—can sin without bringing misery of some kind upon those related to him. Our children, and others connected with us, can, by Divine help, free themselves from the moral consequences of our wrong-doing, but the law which binds our sin and their bodily or mental suffering together is one which cannot be broken in the present life. Blessed be God it can reach no further; but surely it reaches far enough to furnish an all-powerful motive to every man to pray, “Lead me not into temptation.” If men will not hear the voice which cries “Do thyself no harm,” and will contend that they may do what they please with their own souls, can they find even the shadow of an excuse for bringing pain and loss upon others, even though that pain and loss be only temporal?

OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS.

2 Samuel 12:14. This observation gives us an insight into the whole position of David. In him the good principle had attained to supremacy; the godless party had seen this with terror; and now they mocked piety in its representative, who, because he held this position, ought to have kept watch over his heart the more carefully.—Hengstenberg.

2 Samuel 12:15. It is solemnizing to think that the one sinless member of the family—sinless as to actual sin—is the first to reap the deadly wages of sin. It leads the thoughts straight to the doctrine of imputed guilt; it makes us think of mankind as one great tree with ten thousand branches; and when the faithless root sends up poison instead of nourishment, it is the youngest and tenderest branchlet that first droops and dies.—Blaikie

2 Samuel 12:16. We like to read these words, for they tell us that David, though an erring-son of God, was yet a son. A godless man would have been driven farther from Jehovah by these troubles, and might have been led to make proclamation of his utter atheism; but David went to God. The more heavily he felt the rod, the nearer he crept to him who used it. He fled from God to God. He hid himself from God in God. This shows that his sin was out of the usual course of his nature. It was like the deflection of the needle, due to certain causes which at the time he permitted to have influence over him; but, these cause: removed, his old polarity of soul returned, and in his time of trouble he called on Jehovah. This was his habit. Repeatedly in his Psalms has he employed language which clearly indicate that God was regarded by him as a strong rock, whereunto, in time of trial, he continually resorted. Thus we have him saying, on one occasion, of his enemies: “For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer;” and again, “From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.”—Taylor.

2 Samuel 12:18. Repentance may come too late—is respect of temporal chastisements, which are yet not penal, but medicinal. (1 Corinthians 11:32.) Thus Moses and Aaron were kept out of Canaan for their disobedience at the waters of Meribah.—Trapp.

2 Samuel 12:20. A godly man saith Amen to God’s Amen; and putteth his fiat and placet to God’s. (Acts 21:14.)—Trapp.

It is worthy of particular observation that the first step of the Psalmist in the day of his sorrow is “to the house of the Lord.” His conduct is worthy of imitation. I know not where the children of sorrow should go, if not to the house of their heavenly Father. It is in the holiness of the sanctuary that this “beauty” is found which the prophet was to give instead of ashes to those “who mourned in Zion.” It is in the sacred vessels of the temple that the “oil of joy” is kept which God’s people are to have “for mourning.”—Bp. Dehon.

2 Samuel 12:22. God was gracious to him in that the child did not live. How could he ever have looked upon him without grief and shame? How oft do God’s children find themselves crossed with a blessing! and ont he contrary.—Trapp.

2 Samuel 12:23. We may learn from David’s words here, that we may cherish the most unwavering assurance of the salvation of those who die in infancy. Even in the comparative darkness of the Jewish dispensation, the Psalmist had the fullest persuasion of the eternal welfare of his baby-boy; and, under the Gospel economy, there are many things revealed which tend to make the doctrine of infant salvation perfectly indubitable. Not to refer to the fact that, as they have committed no actual transgressions, little children do not personally deserve condemnation, and may, therefore, presumably be regarded as included in the provisions of the covenant of grace, there are certain things which to my mind place the doctrine to which I refer beyond all question.

In the first place, there seems to me a moral impossibility involved in the very thought of infants being consigned to perdition. For what are the elements in the punishment of the lost? So far as we know, they are these two, memory and conscience. But in an infant conscience is virtually non-existent. Moral agency and responsibility have not yet been developed, and so there can be no such thing to it as remorse.
Again: memory has nothing of guilt in an infant’s life to recall, and so it seems to me to be utterly impossible to connect retribution of any sort in the other world with those who have been taken from the present in the stage of infancy.
But, in the second place, there are positive indications that infants are included in the work of Christ. I grant at once that there is no one passage which in so many words makes the assertion that all who die in infancy are eternally saved; but then we may not wonder at the absence of such a declaration, since it would have been liable to great abuse; and we do not need to regret that we have it not, because there are many passages which very clearly imply it. Thus Jesus said of infants, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven.” This does not mean only, as some would have us to believe, that the kingdom of heaven consists of persons resembling little children. The word translated “of such” has evidently a definite reference to children themselves, and has elsewhere been employed in that way by the Saviour himself.—Taylor.

The issue of things doth more fully show the will of God than the prediction: God never did anything but what He would; He hath sometimes foretold that for trial which His secret will intended not: He would foretell it; He would not effect it; because He would therefore foretell it that He might not effect it. His predictions of outward evils are not always absolute; His actions are. David well sees, by the event, what the decree of God was concerning his child, which now he could not strive against without a vain impatience. Till we know the determination of the Almighty, it is free for us to strive in our prayers; to strive with Him, not against Him: when once we know them, it is our duty to sit down in a silent contentation.—Bp. Hall.

Whether David clearly expressed faith in the immortality of the soul or not, we know that the thing is true; and … even the heathen derived consolation from the reflection that they should meet their friends in a conscious state of existence. And a saying in Cicero, De Senectute, which he puts into the mouth of Cato of Utica, has been often quoted, and is universally admired: “O happy day” (says he) “when I shall quit this impure and corrupt multitude, and join myself to that Divine company and council of souls who have quitted the earth before me! There I shall find, not only those illustrious personages to whom I have spoken, but also my Cato, who I can say was one of the best men ever born, and whom none ever excelled in virtue and piety. I have placed his body on that funeral pile whereon he ought to have laid mine. But his soul has not left me; and without losing sight of me, he has only gone before me into a country where he saw I should soon rejoin him.”—A. Clarke.

2 Samuel 12:24. Yea, sons, and David’s best sons came of Bathsheba, because they were the fruit of their humiliation. Nathan, of whom came Christ (Luke 3), is ranked before Solomon (2 Samuel 5:14; 1 Chronicles 3:5; 1 Chronicles 14:4), but Solomon was the elder brother by Bathsheba, and a notable type of Christ, both in his name and in his reign. This may be for comfort to such as have leaped rashly into marriage; yea, have entered into that holy ordinance of God through the devil’s portal, if for that they be after soundly humbled. Trapp.