seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Samuel 12:1 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.
4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’”
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”
15 After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, “While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.”
19 David noticed that his attendants were whispering among themselves, and he realized the child was dead. “Is the child dead?” he asked.
“Yes,” they replied, “he is dead.”
20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.
21 His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!”
22 He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”
24 Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; 25 and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.
26 Meanwhile Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel. 27 Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, “I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply. 28 Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise I will take the city, and it will be named after me.”
29 So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it. 30 David took the crown from their king’s head, and it was placed on his own head. It weighed a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones. David took a great quantity of plunder from the city 31 and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then he and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.
Here's the link to the commentary I use.You have killed Uriah... you have taken his wife: This is another way of saying, “You are the man!” God won’t allow David to blame anyone or anything else.
The wife of Uriah the Hittite: God didn’t even use Bathsheba’s own name. He wanted David to consider Bathsheba not only as an individual but also as the wife of Uriah the Hittite.
Have sinned: David didn’t use elaborate or soft vocabulary. He sinned. It wasn’t a mistake, an error, a mess-up, an indiscretion, or a problem.
The LORD also has put away your sin: God’s forgiveness was immediate. God did not demand a time of probation. You shall not die meant that David would be spared the penalty for adultery commanded under the Law of Moses.
The child who is born to you shall surely die: There is a difference in judgment for sin and judgment by sin. God forgave David’s sin, but He would not shield him from every consequence of the sin. David had to face the consequences of his sin, beginning with the death of the child born by Bathsheba.
The LORD struck the child: This is hard for many to accept. Sadly, often the innocent suffers because of the sin of the guilty. Since the sickness came immediately after the words of Nathan the prophet, it was received as from the hand of God.
David fasted... the child died: This shows that extraordinary prayer and fasting does not change God’s mind. It put David in the right place to receive what he must from God, but it did not “force” God to change His plan.
Extraordinary prayer and fasting are not tools to get whatever we want from God. They are demonstrations of radical submission and surrender to God’s power and will.
Went in to her and lay with her: This shows that God did not command that David forsake or leave Bathsheba, even though his marriage to her was originally sinful. He was to honor God in the marriage commitment he made, even though it began in sin.
So she bore a son... the LORD loved him: Here is the great forgiveness and tenderness of God. He did not hold a grudge against David and Bathsheba. The days of blessing and fruitfulness were not over for David.
So he called his name Jedidiah: The name Jedidiah means, “loved of the LORD.” It was God’s way of saying that He would love and bless this son of David and Bathsheba.
Joab fought against Rabbah and the people of Ammon, and took the royal city: This continued the war that began in 2 Samuel 10. Joab was about to complete the defeat of the Ammonites.
Lest I take the city and it be called after my name: Joab goaded David into returning to battle by saying, “I’ll take all the credit to myself if you don’t come and finish this war.”
Now before I go on... please look at verse 11. Someone was going to sleep with David's wives or concubines in broad daylight!“Absalom abused his father’s concubines on the house-top: and haply on that same terrace from whence he first looked, liked, and lusted after Bath-sheba.” (Trapp) [from the commentary]
I use the NIV translation of the Bible. It's easy to read and understand, I think. The commentary I use is in the KJV translation of the Bible. I like Guzik most of the time, and he uses KJV and then explains it. I never could understand the KJV with all its "thee"s and "thou"s. The story in this posting of chapter 12 of 2 Samuel is as plain as can be. David had Uriah the Hittite murdered to cover up the affair and the consequential pregnancy. It's one thing to send a soldier to war. It's quite another to set it up so that the soldier is at point and left all alone. The Ammonites had the sword that took out Uriah [Verse 9].
David realized that what he did was wrong. HOWEVER, just because David realized he did wrong, and confessed it before God, those sins still carried consequences.
The baby died. The baby dying was the consequence.
I've always thought this was an abortion. I've always thought Bathsheba drank something that resulted in the baby's illness and subsequent death.
Now Joab was fighting the Ammonites. The Ammonites worshipped the god Moloch. Moloch was a carved object that looked like a human sitting. The Ammonites would "sacrifice" their babies to Moloch. They would heat this huge carved object until it was glowing... then they would put the baby on the "lap" where it was fried to death.
Isn't it interesting that David went off to wipe out the worshippers of Moloch after the death of his baby with Bathsheba?
I guess today we might say that David went on a campaign against killing babies!!!!
Yes. God made Bathsheba's baby die. There's more to this punishment though. Look at verse 11. It'll be a few more chapters before we get to the punishment. David's son Absalom, will fulfill that prophecy in a couple chapters.
I still think this is abortion. He wasn't stillborn. He didn't have the ability to survive. He was only barely viable. [23 weeks?]
I still think this is abortion. It might have been partially botched, but the baby died.
I still think Bathsheba ate or drank something that caused her to go into premature labor while the baby was just at the point of viability.
I think this was an abortion.
Bathsheba's abortion?
