Truth and Consequences

The word of God, delivered to David by Nathan, does its good work, finally bringing the king to an acknowledgement of his sins of adultery and murder. “He says not a word to excuse himself or extenuate his sin, but freely owns it,” Matthew Henry notes. “This is enough to show that he was truly humbled by what Nathan said, and submitted to the conviction.” It is interesting to note that David is constrained to acknowledge his guilt against God, even though he has wronged Bathsheba, Uriah, and countless others. We will look more closely at David’s focus on his rebellion against God’s law when we study his prayer of confession (Ps. 51) in next week’s studies.

In response to this genuine confession, Nathan offers David an assurance of genuine forgiveness. God, he says, has “put away” David’s guilt. In other words, his sins in this case have been included in the list of transgressions for which Jesus will die. As one of God’s holy ones, all of David’s sins have been forgiven based on the promised work of Christ. And because of that, David will suffer neither the immediate physical death that he pronounced himself deserving to receive nor spiritual death, eternal condemnation as an enemy of God.

But despite this forgiveness, there still will be negative consequences because of David’s sin. Some already have been announced (v. 11). Now God tells of another—the child of his illicit union with Bathsheba will die. We find this difficult to understand. After all, David is the guilty one, while the child is “innocent” of the crimes committed by David. But David’s sinful actions, now revealed by the child’s birth, have given God’s enemies occasion to blaspheme, that is, to question the value of serving Yahweh. “The wicked people of that generation, the infidels, idolaters, and profane, would triumph in David’s fall, and speak ill of God and of His law, when they saw one guilty of such foul enormities that professed such an honor both for Him and it,” Henry writes. By taking the child to Himself, God will demonstrate His power and willingness to act in such cases. It is almost as if the child is to die in David’s place, the “innocent” for the guilty. Thus, this act of judgment prefigures the future “Son of David” dying for His great ancestor and for all of God’s people.