2 Samuel 12:15

THE DEATH OF DAVID AND BATHSHEBA'S CHILD

"And the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and it became sick. David therefore besought God for the child; and David fasted and went in and lay all night upon the ground. And the elders of his house stood before him, to raise him up from the ground; but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David feared to tell him that the child was dead; for they said, `Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us; how then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.' But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived the child was dead; and David said to his servants, `Is the child dead?' They said, `He is dead.' Then David arose from the earth, and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped; he then went to his own house; and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, `What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was yet alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.' He said, `While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, `who knows 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 will not return to me.'"

This well-known passage, read at many funerals, is incapable of being misunderstood and, "Needs but little comment."[14]

To us, it seems strange that David was so touched by the death of this child. In the normal run of things, the death of some infant in the harem of an Oriental king would have rated little or no attention. Why the difference here? David knew that he deserved to die, according to God's law, and he identified himself, in some sense, with this child, and it was doubtless the acute realization of his gross wickedness and the inevitable consequences of it which God had revealed to him that sent David into this frenzy of fasting, praying, and hoping that God would spare the child.

David's response to the infant's death, considered strange by the servants, was exactly correct. All mortals should respond in a similar manner when death strikes a loved one. As DeHoff said:

"This is the attitude that all of us must take when our loved ones have died. We must get hold of ourselves emotionally, arrange for the funeral, and resume the normal activities of life. We are obligated to ourselves, to those who are still alive, especially to those who still love us and depend upon us; and above all we are obligated to God to dry our tears and to get on with the business of living. We should not act as if the whole world had ended when some precious loved one dies, regardless of our broken hearts."[15]

Many years ago, in my commentary on Matthew, I wrote that, "It is a marvel of the Providence of God that this guilty and unfortunate wife of Uriah the Hittite should have found a place in the ancestry of our Lord."[16] We were reminded of this error on our part when we ran across this comment by Tatum, "The overcoming grace of God in spite of the sin of man is seen in that God chose to use Solomon; and that Jesus was born of the line that came from David and Bathsheba."[17] (See my commentary on Luke 3, for the proof that the Virgin Mary descended not from Solomon but from Nathan, another one of David's sons.) As for God's using Solomon, there was a remarkably good reason for that, which we shall cite later.

"David lay on the ground" (2 Samuel 12:16-17); "... the earth" (2 Samuel 12:20). It amazes us that some very learned man would write, "The ground here means the floor of his chamber as opposed to his couch."[18] Is it not a dirty shame that the blessed Holy Spirit could not think of the word for "floor"?