2 Samuel 12 Footnotes

12:13 The law of Moses required the death penalty for adulterers (Lv 20:10; Dt 22:22) and murderers (Gn 9:6; Lv 24:17; Nm 35:33), yet David was spared that penalty. Being king, of course, he had the ability to forestall action by whichever human authority would have dared to enforce the law. But the Lord’s hand was also at work in the situation, for he could have overridden any such efforts. The Lord is a God of grace (Ex 34:6), and chose to spare David’s life. In so doing he transformed David into a historic object lesson of divine grace. David’s immediate readiness to confess his sin, when confronted with it by the Lord’s spokesman Nathan (2Sm 12:1-7), proved that he still had a heart deeply devoted to God. The Lord gave David better than he deserved; he would not die. But the consequences of his sins would play themselves out in the history of his family, as Nathan predicted (12:10-14,18; 13:28-29; 18:14-15; 1Kg 2:24-25).

12:14 Why did the son born to Bathsheba die, since it was David who committed the sin? Behavior that ignores the Lord’s purposes and precepts always hurts others, including the “innocent”; this is one of sin’s most terrifying realities. As an example, an inebriated driver rams his car into a church van full of young people on the way to a conference. David’s high-handed and sinful behavior toward Bathsheba and Uriah led to turmoil and great sadness within his own family, including the death of this newborn son.