Comfort Given, Received

Returning now to our studies in 2 Samuel, we find two postscripts to the story of David, Bathsheba, and Uriah. The first of these, which we will consider today, is personal for David. The second, which will be the subject of tomorrow’s study, is national in scope.

David obviously is grieved over the death of the child Bathsheba bore to him. But to his credit, he is able to look past his own grief in this loss and see that Bathsheba is in mourning, too. So David takes time to comfort her. “Bathsheba, no doubt, was greatly afflicted with the sense of her sin and the tokens of God’s displeasure,” Matthew Henry writes. “But, God having restored to David the joys of his, salvation, he comforted her with the same comforts with which he himself was comforted.”

In time, Bathsheba conceives another child, and eventually gives birth to a boy. This is a significant event for David, as we see from the name the king (or Bathsheba) initially gives to the child—Solomon. This name literally means “Peaceful” (1 Chron. 22:9), which may indicate that David sees the birth of this son as evidence that he has indeed been reconciled to God. The name also may mean “Replacement,” and if that is the case, it may imply that David sees Solomon as a gift of God to replace the child He took in His judgment against David’s sin. Thus, both of these meanings may point to a renewal of David’s assurance of God’s favor and blessing. But God has an even clearer assurance for David. He sends Nathan the prophet to tell David the wonderful news that this child—”a seed of evil-doers,” as Henry puts it—is loved by God. This is a crystal-clear indication that God’s promise to establish David’s “seed” on his throne, to be his Father, and to show continual mercy to him (7:12–15), has not been annulled. To David’s great joy, God’s covenant with him remains in force, and his throne will be established forever.

And so David gives Solomon an alternative name—Jedidiah, or “Beloved of the Lord.” Henry writes, “In this name, he typified Jesus Christ, that blessed Jedidiah, the Son of God’s love, concerning whom God declared again and again, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”