Okay, you can turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel chapter 12. We looked at the first 14 verses last week. We'll take up the latter half this evening. But I do want to read beginning in chapter 12 at verse 1.
Remember the scene? This is after David's fall into sin when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then he committed murder. of Uriah in order to cover up that particular sin. So we go into chapter 12, the last thing having read in chapter 11, but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, or was evil in Yahweh's eyes. So we come to chapter 12 beginning in verse 1.
Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said to him, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little lamb which he had bought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.
And a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die, and he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Then Nathan said to David, you are the man.
Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I appointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more. Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in His sight?
You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the people of Annan. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, behold I will raise up adversity against you from your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son.
For you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the son. So David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die.
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. Then Nathan departed to his house, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became ill.
David's Intercession and Fasting
David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them. Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died.
And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm.
When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes.
And he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. Then he went to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servant said to him, what is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.
And he said, while the child was alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? 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. Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went into her, and lay with her. So she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon.
Now the Lord loved him, and he sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord. Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the people of Ammon, and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against Rabbah, and I have taken the city's water supply.
Now therefore gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called after my name. So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah, fought against it and took it. Then he took their king's crown from his head. Its weight was a talent of gold with precious stones, and it was set on David's head.
Also he brought out the spoil of the city in great abundance. And he brought out the people who were in it and put them to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them cross over to the brickworks. So he did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
Amen.
Introduction: Nathan's Ministry Reviewed
Well, as we saw last week, God in mercy sent Nathan to David. That's how verse 1 starts. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, a great mercy and a kindness from God that David was not enabled to continue in his sin and rebellion and his unrepentance. loved David, so he sent Nathan to call him on this particular sin." Of course, Nathan gives him this parable, draws David in such that David is outraged. He is angry.
He's upset about this particular character in the parable. And then, of course, Nathan lowers the boom and says, you are the man. And God brings judgment to bear or God brings condemnation and conviction to bear upon David. David then says that he has sinned against the Lord.
And Nathan says to David in verse 13, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. So there is mercy and forgiveness and kindness to be had with God. But as we continue there in verse 14, we see that there are temporal consequences connected to David's sin.
Well, we see that as well in verse 11. If you look at verse 11, thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sod. So the sword would never depart from David's house, there would be this usurpation on the part of Absalom, and there would be this public defilement of David's wives. Consequences for this particular sin.
The immediate consequence is found in verse 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." Remember that David and Bathsheba had had a baby together, a baby boy, and that's what we pick up now in chapter 12. In verses 15b to 23, we see the immediate consequence of David's sin. In verses 24 and 25, we have the birth of Solomon in the wake of David's sin.
And then thirdly and finally, the victory over the Ammonites in verses 26 to 31. Remember, the Ammonite War is in the background. It's in chapter 11, when the kings went out to battle, that David stayed behind in the city of Jerusalem. He sent Joab out.
Well, that war with the Ammonites is still continuing, or perhaps it could have already been completed. We'll look at that in more detail when we get there. But
The Child's Illness and Death
note first, with reference to the immediate consequence of David's sin, the sickness of the child. Verse 15b, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became ill. We see in this a testimony concerning the sovereignty of God. We see in this, obviously, the reality that the forgiveness of sins given by God does not get rid of temporal consequences.
In other words, when we sin against God, we can have forgiveness and washing and cleansing by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but sometimes there is connected immediately to our sin a temporal punishment. Now, not always. There are instances in Scripture where somebody sins, they're forgiven by God, and there's no direct or immediate consequence applied. Now, God's not favorable ever toward us in our sin, but it's not the case that every time somebody sins, the Lord God strikes their child with illness and ultimately with death.
In this particular occasion, that was the means God used in terms of David's situation. And we ought to ponder that, the temporal consequences that come as a result of sin. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the Apostle Paul highlights this reality for the people of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 11, in terms of the Lord's Supper. He says we are to examine ourselves before we participate in the supper.
We're not to dishonor the Lord's body. Now in this he's not suggesting that we need to be sinlessly perfect because we would never take the supper. The idea is, is a conscience void of offense toward God and men. It's a context wherein we're not harboring iniquity.
We're not holding on to something. We're not cherishing sin. We're seeking by the grace of God to deal with those things. Notice what he says in verse 29, for he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
Verse 30, for this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world. So even in this chastening, there is redemption.
In other words, it's not the fact that God takes away their salvation. but they are affected temporally by their sin. And we need to appreciate that in this narrative concerning David. John Calvin in his introduction to this particular sermon on this particular section said, the first thing that we have to note about this story is that the threat made through Nathan was not in vain, and that David was punished for his sin by the death of his child. He says, ìWe have already explained how such a judgment of God seems strange to our fancy.
However, we should still adore Him by confessing that He is just in everything He does, even though He does not show us the reason but keeps it incomprehensible. We see how David was chastised, remembering what we say yesterday, that the faithful, although they may have been granted forgiveness, still need to be humble and need God to make them increasingly aware of the evil that they have committed so that in the future they will be more on their guard. I think that's very perceptive. Temporal consequences serve the believer as a tutor, as a schoolmaster to hopefully prevent any further instances in the future.
In other words, when God brings that rod to bear upon his erring children, hopefully we remember the rod. I hope that as you are parenting your children or are currently parenting your children, when you administer the rod of correction, you do it in such a way so as they'll remember it. When they go and reach for something that they're not supposed to have, hopefully they'll remember that season or that instance when they met with that rod of chastisement, and it will be a restraint upon them. It will be a guard over them.
Calvin says that is one of the reasons why temporal chastisement comes to the people of God. Now note, with reference to the illness of this child, notice David's intercession in verses 16 to 19. It says, David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. So the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground.
But he would not, nor did he eat food with them. Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. So we see David in response to this. Now, we might wonder at David's wisdom in this particular instance.
Nathan tells him that the child will die. The child is struck with illness and David prays. Well, it could have been the case that God was not going to carry out this particular execution. David wants to appeal to the Lord.
He appeals to the sovereignty of God according to verse 22. For I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? Some suggest that it was an enticement or an incitement for David to pray. This promise of chastisement from Nathan sent David to that place where he hadn't been for a long time.
Remember in that time, nine months, where David had committed adultery, David had committed murder, we made the observation that he was living away from God. Well, when adversity strikes, and when suffering comes, and when sorrow affects the people of God, what typically comes as a response? It is bowing to the Lord God Most High in prayer. It is fasting.
It is intercession. It is those things that David had lived comfortably without for that long period of time. We have no record in chapter 11 whatsoever of any felt communion that David had with his God. Well, here he's before the Lord.
Here he's praying. Here he's fasting. Here he is going before the sovereign king of heaven and earth. And I think it reveals to us something of his desperation.
I think that's one of the things that sorrows and trials and difficulties bring upon the suffering saint. And I think that's one of the lessons we're going to call out of here at the end of the time tonight. What does this teach us about suffering in the lives of God's people? It promotes, or it produces, or rather it causes us to recognize our desperation.
This is a difficult scene for David. I mean, this is a child whom he loves. He's a father. I mean, it's times like these we can read through narratives and say, well, you know, David had a right view of the sovereignty of God, and everything is great, and David knows it's all going to work out.
No, David was in pain. This was his baby. I mean, when you've got a baby that's sick, even with a mild cold or fever, it's a tough, difficult situation. David has a condition of desperation.
As well, David expresses dependence on God. David knows where to go when there's sickness in his home. David knows where to go when there's trials that have come upon him. He has tried and proven his God in the past, and so he goes with dependence upon this Lord now.
And as well, I think it shows us something of his determination. Notice, he prays, he fasts, and he keeps this up for a period of seven days. He is determined. The elders come along and they say, you need to eat, you need to take food to the king.
This is something that they wanted to make sure that he doesn't drop dead from starvation. And David resists that, he refuses that, and he continues in this particular pattern. And then we get the note that the child dies. We see the report in verses 18 and 19, and the servants don't want to tell David.
They saw that David was quite a mess when he knew that he was ill. They conclude that when David finds out that he's dead, he might do some harm. Whether it's harm to others or harm to himself, the servants have a fear based on what they've observed in this seven-day period. The king of Israel is bowed before God Most High.
He is in a desperate condition. He is showing his dependence. He is determined by doing so. And they are not wanting to go and tell him these things.
Verse 19, David knows what's going on. David asks the question, has the child died? Is the child dead? And they said he is dead.
Now, it's an intriguing turn of events here. In fact, it surprises the servants at what David does at this particular point.
David's Worship After the Child Dies
Notice in verses 20 to 23, he arose from the ground, he washed himself, he anointed himself, and he changed his clothes. This doesn't seem like the mark of grieving, does it? I mean, it seems like just the opposite. They are perplexed by this and puzzled by this.
But note what it says in verse 20 as well. And he went into the house of the Lord and he worshiped. You know, brethren, that is the mark of a faithful man. Calamity comes, sorrow comes, trial comes, difficulty comes.
You know what one of our tendencies or our temptations are? It is to blame God. And when we blame God, we're certainly not going to go worship God. We'll find a hundred reasons why we ought not to go to church on Sunday when we had a calamity strike us on Saturday.
We'll find many a reason why we ought not to go to the house of the Lord and celebrate the glory of God with the people of God because we've suffered this hardship in our lives. But that's not the case here. Then he went into the house of the Lord. and he worshipped. It's been my blessed experience to see persons who have gone through trial and tragedy and sorrow and difficulty show up at church on the Sunday that is closely connected to that trial or that tragedy or that sorrow.
That is a great encouragement in terms of where their soul is at when a man who has suffered such loss and such grief, nevertheless goes to the house of the Lord in order to worship, we would identify that man as a man of faith. I think you can think of another one, at least in the Scriptures, that responds in like manner. What does Job do when he receives the news of great calamity in his own home and family? Does he whine?
Does he grumble? Does he complain? Does he say, I'm never going to worship God again? Lord, how could you ever treat me like this?
Lord, how could you ever deal out such a blow to me? He doesn't do that. He worships God most high. He confesses that he came into this world naked.
He confesses that he will leave this world naked. And he says, blessed be the name of the Lord. Brethren, that is the response of God's people when trial, calamity, sorrow, hardship, difficulty fall upon us. We need to respond with the worship of the living and true God.
Just a bit of a snapshot of the future of our time tonight. Calvin says, for to pray to God and yet to resent it if things do not go according to our wishes is not true prayer. So if David prays this and he doesn't get the answer that he is seeking, and he absents himself from the worship of God, it gives an indication that his prayer wasn't legit. His prayer wasn't real.
His prayer wasn't heartfelt. Because how do the people of God pray? They pray, thy will be done. And we need to understand that thy will is always the best for everyone involved.
And it may not appear that way. It may seem grieving and difficult and hard. And we don't understand what God is going to do in terms of His glory and our well-being. But the faithful worship.
The faithful say what Job said. The faithful do what David did. They don't absent themselves. And again, just on a real practical level, how many times have you or I missed church for much lesser reasons?
David loses a son, and he clothes himself, anoints himself, and then he goes into the house of the Lord, and he worships. And then notice, in the middle of verse 20, he goes back home, he asks for food, and they set it before him, and he ate. And then, of course, the servants. Again, they're perplexed by this.
They have seen David fasting and praying for a period of seven days while the child was ill. The child dies, and now David is wanting to eat. He's got some aftershave on. He's ready to roll.
And they're curious about this. And note David's response, this is beautiful, verse 22, and he said, while the child was alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? You see, David trusted in the sovereignty of God. David understood the power and the majesty of God.
David cast himself upon God. David expressed his dependence upon God. And he says this very clearly. Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live?
I am going to go to the Lord. I am going to seek His blessing. I'm going to ask Him specifically. But if the Lord chooses not to answer the way that I want, I'm still going to resolve to worship and praise the Lord.
That's the mindset that David has in this passage. Ralph Davis says that explains David's relentless intercession. David thought that maybe Yahweh's sentence in verse 14b was not his last word. Maybe David thought he's stirring me to pray.
It all rests on David's thinking, his assumption about God. I thought, who knows, Yahweh may show grace to me. See how well David knows his God. Showing grace is Yahweh's forte.
I love that. That's what our God does. Again, banish the thought, if you've ever heard it, or if you ever come across it, that the Old Testament is devoid of grace and mercy, kindness and compassion. This Old Testament saint, David, the king of Israel, lived by grace.
He regulated his life according to God's grace. Davis goes on to say, and who can tell what a God like that may delight to do in this case? Who can imagine how gracious a God of all grace wants to be to us in our sins and messes? He says, for David, grace is not a doctrinal concept, but the peculiar bent of God's nature.
That's why David prays thus. He says to them, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? Insofar as the child is breathing, David is going to pray. David is going to intercede.
David is going to fast. David is going to keep this up. He is going to be importunate at the throne of grace. He's going to ask.
He's going to seek. He's going to knock. Why? Because David thinks that his asking and his seeking and his knocking is going to secure this answer.
Not at all, because he knows that God is gracious, and when we appeal to the God of grace, who knows what he might do. But now the answer comes that God says, no, the child dies, and so David responds in that light in verse 23. But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?
You see, David understands the reality at this particular point. The Lord God has rendered verdict. The Lord God has made His decision. The Lord God has taken the little one from David.
All of the fasting in the world and all the praying in the world is not going to restore that little one unto David. And then he says, at the very end, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. Now I believe there are persons that take this as a statement that the little baby went to heaven. I'm not here to get into all of that.
What David is asserting here, more than likely, is his own immortality. David understands that he is going to die one day himself. And it is intriguing because David, up to this point, hasn't really shown us that side of his character or that being. Sometimes sorrows and trials and difficulties and hardship reveal something about a man we hadn't learned before.
Not that David wasn't in fear for his life when he was on the run from Saul, but David now speaks as a man that seems to be humbled Not that he was especially proud before, but he understands that he shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. He will go to the grave. David will visit that place. John Gill states, and he deals with both elements, the physical and the spiritual.
He says, to the state of the dead, to the grave, where his body was or would be, to heaven and eternal happiness, where his soul was, as he comfortably hoped and believed. I love what he says here, "...from whence it appears that the Old Testament saints did not suppose an annihilation at death, but believed the immortality of the soul, a future state after death of eternal life and bliss." So you see, with reference to the immediate consequence of David's sin, it is sharp, it is severe, it is a heavy consequence. as a result of adultery and murder. The sword will not depart from your house. There will be adversity within your own house.
Your wives will be publicly violated before all Israel. And then Nathan announces to them, the son that has been born to you shall die. David goes to prayer, he fasts, he pleads with the father, and God takes that little one. And David then gets up, he goes, he worships, and he explains himself.
While he was alive, I trusted in the power, and in the majesty, and in the sovereignty of God. But now that he is dead, I still trust in the power, and in the sovereignty, and in the majesty of that God, who has executed his divine will, I need to move on at this particular point.
Solomon's Birth: Grace in the Wake of Sin
Now notice in the second place, the birth of Solomon in the wake of David's sin. I mean, this is incredible. You talk about grace. Don't miss grace in these two short verses here.
I mean, look at what David and Bathsheba had done. Look at their crimes, look at their sins, look at the heinousness of it. Why would God ever bless them? Why would God ever give them another son?
Why would God do this? Because God is gracious, because God is merciful, because God is kind. Notice the identity of Bathsheba in verse 24. You might say, that's an interesting title because we know who Bathsheba is.
She's Bathsheba. But up to this particular point in the narrative, look at how Bathsheba has been identified. In 11.3, she is called the wife of Uriah the Hittite. In 11.26, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead.
In 12.9, you have taken his, Uriah's, wife to be your wife. And now note even closer with, I'm sorry, 12.10, it says, and you have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. And note in the immediate context at verse 15, and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David. She's continually identified as the wife of Uriah.
Now David was married to her, Uriah was dead, but I think the narrator is doing this to keep at the forefront the sin of David. I think the purpose is that we, the reader, do not lose sight of the gravity of the situation. that we do not just assume that this is another addition to David's harem. It's just another wife, the way he's collected them along the way. We have been told that David has added to his wives, we've been told their names, but we have not been told that David's added a wife to his collection the way that we're told in this particular instance.
And so the author is continually presenting before us the reality that David sinned. He took another man's wife and he murdered that man to cover it up. Here, notice verse 24, then David comforted Bathsheba, his wife. I don't think this is when she became his wife.
I think, as I said, the narrator wants us to keep in mind the reality of David's sin. But here, David comforts Bathsheba. I would suspect she needed some comforting about this time, wouldn't you? I mean, we're probably about two or three months later after the death of the baby.
But imagine what's happened to Bathsheba in the space of however many verses. Actually, it's been a period of time, to be sure. But David has taken her as his own. David has killed her husband.
I would imagine there was some sort of an attraction or a love that she had for Uriah. She's lost a husband. She's lost a child. This woman stands in need of comfort.
And so David comforts Bathsheba, his wife, and he went into her and lay with her. So she bore a son and he called his name Solomon. Solomon is relative to the word peace. Shalom.
That's the identifying mark of Solomon's reign in Israel. He extended the boundaries. He provided stability and security. He ushered in a period of peace.
In this, he was typical of the Messiah, who would usher in a period of peace. He would bring security. He would extend the boundaries of the kingdom of God, and he will indeed stabilize the people of God. So Solomon is born.
Now notice, Verse 24, now the Lord loved him. Talk about God's favor and grace and confirmation after a very difficult season. Perhaps David, I don't see any hint or any whiff of it here, but maybe you and I. If we had heard from the Lord God in verse 13, or we had heard from His prophet, the Lord also has put away your sin, you shall not die.
And then we had to bury a little baby, we watched a little child die, we might be tempted to conclude that God was not favorable toward us. Might we? I mean, if we don't get two donuts, we might be tempted to think that God isn't favorable toward us, right? We oftentimes are very challenged to maintain faithfulness in our Lord God in the best of circumstances, but then in the most difficult of circumstances, it becomes doubly difficult.
But if, not suggesting that this is what happened with David, but just as a way of affirmation, confirmation, and a token of God's favor, they have this son Solomon, now the Lord loved him and he sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet, So, he called his name Jedidiah because of the Lord. Now, Solomon's throne name and Solomon's name was Solomon, but Jedidiah was a title that bespoke the kindness of God toward David and Bathsheba. Vanoy says, it does not appear that the purpose of the secondary name was to supplant the name Solomon, the name by which the child was publicly known throughout his life. but rather that it was given as a reminder to David and Bathsheba of the special place that this child would hold in the eyes of the Lord. It's almost like Solomon is a sacrament.
It's almost like he's a living embodiment of God's goodness to David and Bathsheba. This is grace, isn't it? I mean, would you deal with David this way? I don't think I would if I was God.
I don't think I would be this favorable or kind or gracious to him." He goes on to say, this is the son who would become David's successor on the throne of Israel, who would build the temple as the Lord had promised, and who would establish conditions of peace and security for the nation. So God Most High gives them this son. Now, we return to the battle with the Ammonites. It's kind of an interesting narrative, the way it kind of goes.
In chapter 10, we see the Ammonites and the Syrians. We see the Syrians flee, and they're no longer going to help the Ammonites. We know from 11.1 that Joab takes a battalion of troops to go fight the Ammonites, and we don't hear anything more about this particular war. Well, just by way of conclusion, the author wants to tell us what happened in this Ammonite War.
And it's an interesting thing. If you look at these two chapters, where is the bulk? The bulk is upon David. The bulk is upon his life.
The bulk is upon his conduct. The bulk is upon his sin and his wickedness and his abominable activity. Readers today would want to know what happened in the war, but God wants to show us what happened with his servant. God is underlining for us the basic requirement of kingship in Israel is faithfulness.
And David didn't express that. Nevertheless, God overruled that. He gives them the son Solomon and he gives them victory in battle over the Ammonites. Notice.
Rabbah is captured according to verse 26. Joab sends messengers to David. According to the prevailing custom, Joab sends to have David come to get the closing blows. Because if Joab does it, then Joab will receive the crown, and Joab will be the one who gets the victory over in this particular battle.
So he has David come, and then notice in verse 29, so David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah, fought against it, and took it. Then he took their king's crown from his head. Its weight was a talent of gold with precious stones. Now, a talent of gold is a lot.
And for a man to hold a talent of gold on his head would be most difficult. So there's a whole host of explanations concerning verse 30. Go read John Gill or John Calvin or some of those other brothers. It was a big, heavy, valuable crown that David put on his head.
I don't think we're to surmise David had extra special neck muscles and was able to hoist this crown in a way that no other man could. That's not the point. The point is they got victory over Rabbah, the capital city, thus they had rendered null and void the Ammonite threat. Now, if you remember last week, I said that this chapter contains some difficult things.
I mean, the death of a baby boy is a difficult thing. Verse 31 is notoriously difficult, both in translation and in theology. In terms of translation, if you compare it with 1 Chronicles chapter 20, especially in the Greek translation called the Septuagint, and if you compare it with sort of the older versions, there's a difference between even the New King James and the King James version. Now, I'm going to go through this material because I think it's important that you at least know that this verse is in here and that what this verse says in other translations and in terms of the history of interpretation, we ought to have some understanding.
Now,
The Difficult Question of 2 Samuel 12:31
in verse 31, according to the New King James, the NIV and the ESV, the Ammonites were put to forced labor. You see that in the New King James, and he brought out the people who were in it and put them to work. Notice, them to work, that's in italics. That means it's not in the original text.
That means it's supplied by the translators. Everybody knows that, right? In your Old and New Testaments, if you have words in italics, not in the New Testament when it quotes the Old Testament and that's italicized. But there are words that are put because there's not a direct translation.
The target language and the language that is being translated, sometimes words need to be supplied to sort of smooth it out. Well, this is an interpretive call. This put them to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them cross over to the brickworks or brick kilns. Now, the King James Version, the American Standard Version, and the New American Standard Version reads this way.
Well, this is the King James. And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln. And thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. It's a different interpretation, isn't it?
On the one hand, you've got forced labor, new King James, N-I-V-E-S-V, and on the other hand, you have brutality in terms of ridding the earth of Ammonites, the King James the ASV, and the New American Standard version. As I said, a comparison with 1 Chronicles 20, verse 3. The Septuagint has it, and sawed them asunder with saws, and cut them with iron axes and with harrows. Now, not being an agricultural boy myself, I had to look up harrow.
And here's what I found. It's an implement consisting of a heavy frame set with teeth or tines that is dragged over plowed land to break up clods, remove weeds, and cover seed. So you get the difference. One is forced labor.
The other is the extermination of ammonites with sharp weaponry. Now, again, I'm only introducing this because sometime you're going to meet some pagan that says, oh, in 2 Samuel 12, 31, one of your heroes took harrows and wiped up the Ammonites with them. How do we deal with this? Well, it is intriguing.
Most of the modern commentators take the new King James interpretation that it's forced labor. The older commentators, of course, working with the King James Bible, would take it in that way of brutal death. The Geneva Bible not working with the King James. You all know that the Geneva Bible or the King James Bible was done in part because they didn't like the notes in the Geneva Bible.
The Geneva Bible contained some notes that King James thought were sort of anti-state. And so we needed to do a new translation. The Geneva Bible had been the standard Bible that persons used, and they read, and they preached, and all that sort of thing. But the Geneva Bible contains study notes, and it says this on this passage, signifying that as they were malicious enemies of God, so he put them to cruel death.
Kyle and Dalich say he also had the inhabitants executed, and that with cruel tortures. Matthew Henry affirms that particular position. Matthew Henry suggests, and Gill even alludes to this, that the actual battle that takes place here isn't chronological. It's not the case that the child dies and then Rabbah is captured.
What Gill at least alludes to and what Henry suggests is that David functioned this way, this verse 31 way, during that period when he was in sin. During that period when David had committed adultery and had committed murder. David was not living close to the Lord. David wasn't knowing the mercy of God, so David wasn't expressing the mercy of God.
Matthew Henry said, and a sign that David's heart was not yet made soft by repentance, else the bowels of his compassion would not have been thus shut up. A sign that he had not yet found mercy, else he would have been more ready to show mercy. So Henry acknowledges that this is the way the Ammonites were taken out, but he attributes it to that period of time when David was living afar from God and he was not showing mercy to even his enemies. Now Gil says, it wasn't all of the people of the Ammonites, but rather the princes of the children of Ammon and the counselors of Hanun.
Remember what they had done to David's ambassadors. Remember when David sent his ambassadors to Hanun? This wasn't long ago. And instead of Hanun receiving these ambassadors as a gift and a kindness of David, they shaved off half of their beards and they shaved off their cloaks so that their private parts were showing.
So Gil says it was the counselors of Hanun that he dealt with. He said it was to strike terror into other nations that they might fear to use his ambassadors in such like manner. Gil also notes this is thought by most to be done when under the power of his lust with Bathsheba. Speaking of that Matthew-Henry sort of view, I don't know if he's dealing with Matthew-Henry, but he says, this is thought by most to be done when under the power of his lust with Bathsheba.
You see, verse 31 could prove a bit embarrassing when you read that David is a man full of mercy and grace and compassion and wants to spread the love of Jesus throughout the world. And he takes harrows and deals with his enemies, or he takes these axes or the brick kilns. The brick kilns, he meant them to go into the fires. So Gil says, this is thought by most to be done when under the power of his lust with Bathsheba. in an hardened and impenitent state, when he had no sense of mercy himself, and so he showed none.
But Gil goes on to say, which is injurious to his character, for this was a righteous retaliation of this cruel people. And then he ends his discussion by saying, but the charge of cruelty in David will be easily removed by following the translation of a learned man, which I think the words will bear. So Gil gives the positions and then says, but, we can translate it, the way the new King James does. So, not a lot of help from John Gill there.
I mean, help in terms of the prevailing options, that's always a good thing. Calvin affirms the severe manner and then highlights the just judgment of God upon them. Calvin says that they had it coming to them because they had been born along with by God. Remember that Israel was given a specific prohibition against doing harm to the Ammonites in Deuteronomy chapter 2.
Calvin argues that they had experienced the kindness of God, the long-suffering of God, the goodness of God, and they continued to abuse God's goodness, and they continued to abuse God's people. Calvin says, with reference to this situation, Hence, let us not doubt that after God exercises long patience with those who persecute his poor children, his judgment will be awful enough to make heaven and earth tremble. Remember the Ammonites themselves were pretty nasty people. Remember the first foray that we, or when Saul meets with Nahash the Ammonite?
What is the deal that Nahash wants? He wants Israelite eyes. He wants Israelite eyes and he wants them subjugated to himself. In 1 Samuel 15, when Samuel is about to hack Agag to pieces, one of the justifications of the rationale for it is because Agag and the Ammonites were vile and wretched to women and children.
Amos 1.13 repeats the same sort of thing with reference to these people. So all that to say, I don't know if it's forced labor or if it was this vengeance of God via David. If it was indeed the reality that these men were put to a brutal death, they did have it coming. And in many respects, brethren, verse 31 is a walk in the park compared to what sinners will face on the day of judgment.
This has always surprised me. that persons will affirm the sorts of things the Bible teaches concerning the judgment of God temporally, and then they'll balk at the temporal judgments of God and yet affirm hell. There's evangelicals today that preach and teach and believe the doctrine of hell, but trip and stumble and have all sorts of problems with the execution of God's just judgment in old covenant passages. You remember Korah's rebellion in the book of Numbers? How does God deal with him?
He opens up the earth and he swallows them up. I mean, people don't like that. I'm not talking about pagans. I'm talking about Christians.
We get embarrassed about God. Now, I'm not embarrassed if that's what they did. I'm just, I'm not the grammarian and I don't know all the particulars of the ins and outs of the text. But it is intriguing to me that it's the moderns that have a forced labor view, and at least as far as I can tell, the older brothers held the particular position.
And the text does, again, when you compare it with 1 Chronicles 20, and you see the way the Greek translators dealt with it, and you even compare the verbs that are used here, as I said, put them to work, is implied, or it is supplied rather. It is put them under saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them cross over to the brickworks. Excuse me. So verse 31, just keep that in your mind for the next time some pagan says, wow, 2 Samuel 12 31, your hero David did these dastardly things.
Our hero David did what was necessary to extend the kingdom of God most high in this old covenant, theocratic situation. Remember in the new covenant, we don't extend the kingdom through harrows or through tines or through brick kilns or anything like that. But you remember the Ammonites were people that worshiped Molech and they offered their little ones to Molech, that pagan deity, and they'd bounce into the fire and the flames. So it was a fitting destruction for a lawless people.
Well, brethren, in terms of the emphasis, I've already mentioned this. Let me just read a quote by Dale Ralph Davis. He says, yet coming back to the Ammonites after reading all of 11.2 to 12.25 does strike a reader as anticlimactic. Perhaps that is intended.
After the writer has walked you through the sin and shame and severity of the whole story, perhaps he wants you to think that the Ammonites really don't matter that much. Comparatively, of far more weight is the obedience and holiness of Yahweh's anointed. The conflict with Ammon was won, but the real battle was lost. he hones in on and focuses upon David and the sin that he had committed and the necessity for Yahweh to deal the way he dealt with him.
God's Sanction of the Marriage
Secondly, I think we ought to appreciate the sanctioning of this particular marriage. I think there's oftentimes confusion about, you know, divorce and remarriage and, you know, if a marriage is contracted under less than desirable situations, then that marriage is somehow null and void. Well, that's just not true. That's just not accurate.
I mean, this started off in the worst possible way ever, and God sanctions it, and God gives them increase. He gives them Solomon. He gives them a future king, a type of Jesus Christ. We may do things, and we may engage in things.
I'm not suggesting we go out and do them, but we may contract a sinful marriage, but God can overrule that and even bring good from it. Again, don't leave here tonight saying, I'm going to go do horrible things because I want to see God do great things. Don't ever argue that way. Don't ever reason that way.
And don't ever think that way. But never disbelieve the reality that while this was contracted in the most heinous circumstances, God sanctions it. We learn that David comforted Bathsheba, his wife. He had relations with her.
She had a baby. They named him Solomon. And he would reign as king.
Sovereignty of God and the Suffering Saint
And then finally, the sovereignty of God and the suffering saint, kind of focusing in on that center section, not particularly, but this text I think does suggest to us some things that we ought to consider when we are tried and when we have difficulties.
Suffering Saints Must Know God
In the first place, I think suffering saints must remember theology proper. It's just amazing to me, in my own heart, and at least from what I hear from others, when bad things happen, it's like our doctrine of God goes out the window. Right? I mean, something bad happens to me, and it's like, wow, how does that happen?
Wait a minute, Romans 8.28 is still in the Bible. Romans 8.28 is still an affirmation that God is causing all things, even the bad, to work for your good. You see, I don't believe Romans 8.28 has in view good things. I think it includes that, but none of us need convincing that God works out us finding bags of money for our good.
We just know that intuitively. It's the bad things that are in view in Romans 8, 28. We need to be reaffirmed or reconfirmed in that reality, that God is working these things out for His glory and for our good. The suffering saint must remember theology proper.
They must be a David who said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? Where does the suffering saint go? He goes to his doctrine of God. He understands that the Lord God Most High is good.
This is how Asaph starts Psalm 73. That Psalm where he rehearses, but as for me, my foot nearly slipped. Asaph starts off with, God is good to Israel. And then he traces it down and he says, but as for me, my foot nearly slipped.
I saw the wicked prosper. I saw the righteous suffer. And I had a crisis of faith. until I went into the sanctuary, until I renewed my theology proper." Brethren, the best thing that will carry you through suffering, trials, and hardship is to know your God, and to realize that Romans 8, 28, and Psalm 46, 10, and every single other promise that is afforded to the people of God is for our good. So when suffering comes, don't just vacate your mind of the doctrine of God.
Know and understand that even my suffering is regulated under the sovereignty of God.
Suffering Saints Must Know Themselves
A second thing that I think we need to come to grips with is anthropology. It's the opposite of theology. It's the study of man. Our doctrine of man needs to be up to snuff.
I mean, brethren, why do we think we deserve great things? Why do we think we deserve, you know, long, sunny, 75-degree days? Why do we believe that we are entitled to three squares a day and a nice warm bed at night? Why is it, in light of our sinfulness, do we actually expect that any good will ever come to us?
There was a man who wrote a book called The Problem of Suffering, and his whole argument was, why in the world, when there's a good God, do people suffer? John Gerstner wrote a rejoinder called The Problem of Pleasure. The problem of suffering in a sin-cursed world ought to give us no problem whatsoever. I mean, you sin, you get punished.
What's the problem, right? It's the fact that any sinner ever gets a stake. It's the fact that any sinner gets rain falling on his crops tonight. It's the fact that any sinner gets any goodness whatsoever.
So in this theology of suffering, we need to remember who God is, and we need to remember who we are. As well, we need to understand this point that I brought home at the very beginning, the forgiveness of sins does not remove the temporal chastisement for sin. I tried to show as well, the commission of sin does not always result in a direct immediate judgment of God. In other words, when I sin, I don't necessarily get struck with some disease.
But it can be and is the case in the situation here with David. The forgiveness of sins does not remove the temporal chastisement for sin.
Sovereignty Is the Ground of Prayer
Another thing I think suffering saints need to take into consideration. Maybe you have heard this before. If you've ever had a discussion with people and you've told them you're a Calvinist, and you start to explain sovereignty and predestination, and you give them both barrels, and they respond with something like, well, why in the world would you pray? I mean, if God has purposed all things that whatsoever comes to pass, why in the world would we pray?
It's because He's sovereign that we do pray. It's because He has decreed that we do pray. It's because He is who He is that we pray. This is the ground and the comfort and the consolation of the praying saint.
Verse 22, For I said, Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live? I trust in the sovereignty of God, therefore I pray. That is what Scripture teaches, not if you trust in the sovereignty of God, be a hyper-Calvinist, sit on your couch and just hope everything goes well. No, those who understand sovereignty are those who typically tend to pray more.
Those who understand God's eternal decree, not understand it fleshed out, but the definition of it, pray. They go to this God, they present their supplications and their prayers and their intercessions and their givings of thanks to Him for all men, and that with confidence. As well, we ought to understand that the suffering saint does not pray, and even fast, in order to somehow twist God's arm so He'll spit out the answers. David didn't fast and pray as if, you know, God was some cosmic slot machine.
He was dropping in the quarter, pulling back the handle, and out come the blessings. That is not the disposition that the saint has at the throne of grace. We don't come to God saying, well, I fasted and I prayed, so you need to lift this illness, or you need to make everything but that's not the disposition it's not formulaic it's not two plus two equals four it's not I pray I fast seven days and God gives us blessing because he didn't did he seven days of fasting and prayer from a man after God's own heart and God said no God answers. He always answers.
This is another thing that bugs me. Oh, God doesn't answer. Yes, you just don't like the answer. No is as much an answer.
If my son said, Daddy, can I have this? And I said, no, I've answered him. He just doesn't like the answer. And I've often thought that's what's happened with the people of...
Well, he's not... Now, I'm not saying we stop praying or, you know, we become, you know, hyper-Calvinist. No. But if God has given us a decisive answer of no, let's be a David, get up, wash ourselves, anoint ourselves, go to the house of the Lord and worship as well.
Suffering Saints Must Not Cease Worship
We need to understand the suffering saint does not leave off the worship of God. I mean, that's just inconceivable, right? Calvin, again, I've already quoted him, for to pray to God and yet to resent it if things do not go according to our wishes is not true prayer. It's just not, and we cannot fake it, and we cannot try and make it sound otherwise if we pray to God, we don't get what we want, and we pout, we whine, we grumble, we complain, and we don't worship God.
We give evidence to the fact that our prayer was never legit to begin with. I said that was the final thing. This is the final thing. The typical significance of the passage.
You ever heard about the father and his son in a sermon and the preacher said, finally, and the little kid says to dad, what does finally mean? And the father says, nothing, son. Nothing. In this particular passage, we learn or we are reminded of 2 Samuel 7, 14 and 15.
Sin does not destroy the promise of the Davidic Covenant. Sin does not destroy the promise of the Davidic Covenant. If you ever doubt 2 Samuel chapter 7, wherein God says that sin will not destroy the Davidic Covenant, then just read 2 Samuel 11 and 12, because you will see sin after sin after sin after sin, and then the birth of Solomon. The Davidic covenant marches on, and as well, finally, the reader is reminded of the Messiah through David's failures and through Solomon's birth.
Well, let us close in prayer.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word, and even these difficult passages, difficult because they're hard for us. As creatures, when bad things happen, we are hurt, and there is grief, and I don't ever want to minimize such things, God. Help us to deal with this hurt, and deal with this grief, and deal with these sorrows in a way that is pleasing to You. Help us, God, to be worshipers in the good times and in the bad times. to help us to see and learn from brethren who have gone through things, and to see how You have sustained them, and to see how You have encouraged them.
And God, may the church truly be a place where the people of God are educated experientially, not only from Scripture, but from the sufferings and the sorrows of the people around them. We ask that You would sustain us by Your grace and for Your glory, and go with us now, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.