thoughts out !oud

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To God the glory (even when difficult)

Posted by Mathew | 3 May 08

After my last post, When God says ‘No’, it seemed an obvious step to share some other learnings on 2 Samuel 12:13-23. To some, this passage can be difficult to accept; to the skeptic, it’s a verse they pull to label the God of the Bible as a cruel and unjust God. Why? Well, because God takes the life of David’s son - seemingly without just cause.

In all our Bible reading we must understand that the wages of sin is death and that this entails justice. We see this requirement met for us by the substitutional death of Jesus on our behalf - Jesus paid the full ransom for our sin by taking the punishment we ourselves deserve. In David’s case, is it that the child’s life was substituted for his? I don’t hold that the child is innocent (for we are all born with sin), but what was God doing here? It seems to me that David, having confessed his sin, also knew that he himself should be put to death for his crimes. Yet God spares him and we ask ‘why?’

This must surely be an expression of God’s mercy. Yet, though David lives, he must live out the consequences of his sin - i.e. the sword will not be spared from his household. There is much trouble in store for David, despite having repented and having been forgiven.

What, then, of the child who did not cause these crimes?

I don’t want to fall into conjecture on this one. (i.e. that the boy would have been branded a bastard child all his life in a very unforgiving culture, that this would have made life tough and unbearable, etc. - which just amounts to a mercy-killing. I don’t think that’s what God is on about here (and it would be pure speculation anyway)).

The child cannot be punished for no reason, because that is unjust. (But the child is inherently a sinner.) However, Jesus was certainly punished for sins He did not commit, yet He was crucified anyway. Mercy triumphs over justice. And Jesus mercifully gave His life with full consciousness.

It seems clear from the passage that the child’s death is directly attributed to God. It is also clear that David’s love for the child was great and that the death of his son was very difficult to bear - he perhaps would have preferred his own death over the child’s - what parent wouldn’t?

Yet higher than our individual lives is the value of God’s own Holiness and Righteousness. These cannot be compromised. Should God relieve David of any consequences for his sins would show the neighbouring kingdoms that the God of Israel has no power. Already, David’s sins were before the world and these other kings were blaspheming God because of him. So here is the point - that God struck the child with sickness is simply an object lesson: 1) God’s sovereignty trumps all things (His absolute right to do all things according to His own good pleasure (Daniel 4:25, 35; Romans 9:15-23; 1 Timothy 6:15; Revelation 4:11)); 2) forgiven sin still has a price that must be paid (paid for us now by Jesus, paid for David then by his own son). God will exemplify His power to all nations; there was a greater lesson in the world seeing how David suffers under sin’s consequences for the remainder of his life than for David to have been killed for his sin. The neighbouring kings would stop their blasphemy and respect the God of Israel.

God is wisdom.

For the irksome, residual feeling that some might still have over the child’s alleged ‘needless’ death, who of us can judge the Judge of the world: Will not the Judge of the earth do right? (Gen 18:25).

Though the child died, he went to glory; the chastisement of David’s sin was not born by the child but in reality was meted out to David and Bathsheba. It is to God’s glory that He makes an example of David. He who is the Creator of the earth and the law cannot be bound by what He has created - He is outside of it and He is sovereign and He is most certainly worthy of worship and does all things for the good of His people.

For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

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