2 Samuel 12: Consequences

“You are the man!”
This was the prophet’s indictment of King David—the one who was so incensed by Nathan’s parable of the avaricious rich man. Yet David himself had been the thief in the allegory, for he had stolen Uriah’s wife. Thus all the anger that David mustered against the fictional protagonist fell back upon his own head.

Sometimes sin can bring us so low that we stop recognizing our own corrupt nature despite horrific manifestations. Even after we have put on the “new man” that Paul describes, we must still battle against the desires of the flesh. David had fallen to that state of self-deception, for he could not even see the wickedness of his ways when it was told to him in the simplest of tales. God was nevertheless gracious and brought the stinging word of rebuke from the prophet—the only thing that would get the king’s attention and break his trance of self-pleasuring sin. How wonderful that God loves his children so much that he will not allow us to languish in our own sin, but restores us!

And yet restoration is often not without consequence. David’s son died within a week of birth. The tragedy of the child’s death was compounded by David’s knowledge that he had caused Uriah’s death. David, like Jesus, prayed that punishment for sin would be taken from him, and yet the Lord did not relent. The child died. But with such death came a period of refreshment for David, because (we must somewhat read between the lines here) he had done everything he could, offered every prayer, fasting and act of self-denial he could, to protect the child’s life. Yet still the Lord had chosen to take it. David’s profound feats of devotion would clear his conscience not of the sin that had led to his judgment, but of any doubt that his repentance was not genuine.

Is there perhaps a double meaning in verse 23? David says of his child, “But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” In the broadest of senses, David states the obvious: the line between life and death can be crossed going forward but not going backward. But perhaps the meaning is more nuanced. Perhaps David is declaring a special knowledge that God gave to him that his child was in God’s care, enjoying the eternal bliss of divine love. And if so, what a comfort to parents bereft of their children at a young age that they are safely in God’s bosom. It certainly appears that God’s love for Solomon was made known at a young age (vv. 24-25). Perhaps David was similarly informed concerning his dead son.

Blessings would still come upon David’s house, for so the Lord had sworn. But tragedy and scandal would also encroach. So is our life in Christ. Our eternal blessing and position in Him is secure, although we must sometimes pay earthly penalties for our sins in this life.