Turn with me this evening to 2 Samuel. If you're using the Bible in the chair, you'll find that on page 310. Page 310. We're going to look at 2 Samuel chapter 12. We're going to look at the latter portion of the chapter this evening. Looked at the first part of it last Lord's Day evening. But before I get to the reading of the text I want to say a couple of words but even before I do that I'd like to pray with you. So let's do that. Our gracious God as we bow before you this evening in your word we recognize that indeed it is your word and the scriptures recognize no difference between you and the word you've spoken. And so this evening we bow before you in this word. recognizing that you have spoken for our good. The things that we read about in the Old Testament are so that we might see Christ clearly and that our lives might be shaped according to his likeness. Father, as we look tonight to your word, we pray that we would be able to see Jesus Christ and also learn from the lessons that are in this text that are important for our Christian walk. So strengthen us, encourage us, sharpen our thinking, warm our hearts, and be with us by your spirit this evening, for we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Well, this is one of those texts that I think is very familiar. 2 Samuel 11 and 12. are stories that I think we have a tendency to maybe not know word for word, but we certainly know the story by heart. They're familiar texts, so we have a tendency to think we know them. And yet the trouble is that when you begin to think about texts like these, ones that are so familiar, you begin to realize that there are some questions that are left unanswered. We don't know the answers to some of the questions that we are met with in the text. But there are some things that are absolutely clear from the text. For instance, one of the clear things that's in the text is this, David will live, but his unborn son will not. The son that is going to be born to Bathsheba will not live. There's something else that's unmistakable about this text. It's the gospel that's in the text. It's the gospel that's in miniature in the text. For instance, when you think about that son We know Psalm 51 and recognize the fact that all, even the smallest child in the womb, still has Adam's sin imputed to him or her. So we recognize that we're guilty before God, even at that earliest moment of conception. And yet, when you think about actual sin, there's a sense in which there's an innocence for a guilty party. The sacrificial transactional aspect of God saying to David, your son's life for yours is unmistakably Old Testament imagery of sacrifice. It's there and it's clear. And David knows his son will die. And yet that picture of the gospel is one that presses us forward to think about not just a temporal redemption, this son of David for David's life, but there is a greater son of David who is coming and he will die and be innocent in his death. and his death will achieve eternal consequences for those who believe in him. It's a beautiful picture of the gospel. It's unmistakably there and it's worth meditating upon if you haven't done that yet. But I'll tell you what else this text is. It's just a simple text about grief. We enter into a man's grief in this text and we Though we don't see Bathsheba's grief, we certainly see David's. And we watch him, and we don't just watch him to observe him, we watch him and we learn from him. We certainly see the gospel, that's clear, but we also learn about the man himself and we learn about the grief that he is going through. And so with those things in the background, I want us to turn our attention to the text and look at 2 Samuel chapter 12. I'll start reading in verse 15. be and then read through the end of the chapter. So give your attention to the reading of God's infallible and inerrant and authoritative word. And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child and David fasted and went in and play all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him 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 were afraid 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 understood that 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 washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. 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 he was alive. But when the child died, you arose and ate food. He said, while the child was alive, while the child was still 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. And why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.' Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went into her, and lay with her, and she bore a son. And he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him, and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah because of the Lord." Now Joab, fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against Rabbah. Moreover, I have taken the city of waters. Now then, gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name. So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. and he took the crown of their king from his head. The weight of it was a talon of gold and in it was a precious stone and it was placed on David's head. He brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount, and he brought out the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them toil at the brick kilns. And thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem. You know, in some ways this is a very straightforward text. As I said to you, there is the idea here of a father grieving for his son. And there's a lot we can learn about that, and I think one of the things that we can learn is that the characters of Scripture are not make-believe, they're real. I mean, these servants, and we're going to learn that there's a question here about how much the servants knew and about what they knew, but the interesting thing is this. The interesting thing is that David is portrayed before us as a real person. The servants are actually concerned that if he knows the child dies, he might harm himself. This is a real situation with real people and we really learn that this is a man in grief. And I wanna work through the text tonight. And I wanna work through the text tonight using this outline. I want you to think first of all about the fact that David is reminded of something. And then I want us to think about how David is restored. And then I want you to think with me about how David is routed. So David is reminded, David is restored, and David is routed. So first of all, David is reminded. Now here's the question, reminded of what? What is it that David is reminded of? I want you to think about a scenario that you probably know well. If you have a little girl, and if that little girl has a little brother or sister, You've probably watched this unfold a number of times. It could be that that little girl has an older brother, and the scenario still holds. But regardless, that little girl will begin to act like mommy. And the little girl will mother her younger or her older siblings. And every once in a while, mom has to sit down with that child and remind them, you're not mommy. You don't have the authority that you're taking. You can't tell them what to do. You're under mommy. That was really the situation with David. David was king, certainly. But David was acting as if he were the sole sovereign. In other words, he was acting as if there was no king above him. And that certainly wasn't the case. And remember, I pointed that out to you the last couple of times we were together. I said to you, just by the use of the word sent, David appears as if he sees himself as a man of authority. He commands and people go. He is the sovereign, and he appears to be the sole sovereign. Remember I said to you in verse one, David sent Joab, and in verse three, David sent to inquire at Bathsheba, and verse four, David sent and got Bathsheba, and verse six, David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite, and Joab, send Uriah to David, and then verse 27, David sent for Bathsheba, and then he marries her. And in this text, God is reminding David that he, though king, is a vassal, a servant of God. And our conclusion is confirmed in chapter 12, verse 1, where it says, and the Lord sent Nathan to David. David is not the master. God is the master. and God the master is calling his vassal to account. But how? How so? How is that taught? Well, I think it's taught through the sermon. I think that's where David first encounters the fact that God is speaking to him and saying to him, you are not what you think you are. Remember, Nathan goes to him and paints this picture for him of the rich man and the poor man. The poor man has only a ewe lamb, and the ewe lamb is loved by him and his family. He treats it as a daughter. It drinks and eats from his cup, sleeps with his children. Well, the rich man one day had visitors, and instead of taking a ewe lamb from his own flock, he goes and he takes the ewe lamb of the poor man. And remember how exercised David is about that. He said, this man must be punished. Four times over, he's going to give back or pay back the ewe lamb. And so he's taught, he's taught through the sermon, but I'll tell you what else. He's taught, he's taught through the experience of the text that we find before us. In verse 15b we read these words, and the Lord afflicted the child. And the Lord afflicted the child. You know we need to remember at this point that God's acts are not merely punitive because we could read it and we could come away thinking to ourselves that David did a bad thing. and that God is punishing David by afflicting this child. And yet I want to remind you that God's work, especially his work with regard to his family is not punitive. David is not acting like a good son at this point but God always acts like a good father and God is acting the part of a good father. And that becomes hard for us to believe at some level, doesn't it? I mean, at some level it becomes hard for us to embrace, especially a story like this one. You know, I remember a few weeks back, Dr. Truman was here and he was speaking to us and he was telling us about how, you know, sometimes we name certain losses, you know, and I got curious about that and I did a Google search on what do we call someone who has lost a child and there is a name for it. and I actually don't know how it's pronounced but do you know it's a word in another language I can't even remember now, it's been several weeks since I did it right after he was here, it's a word that means unnatural. And yet I got to thinking about that and I thought to myself that's really, That's really something that's a current description of the loss of a child because I'll tell you what, back 100, 200 years ago, 300 years ago, and certainly 400 and 500 years ago, it was natural to lose a child. In fact, I was reading The Broken Home, which Dr. York referenced at Tab's funeral by Benjamin Robert Palmer. They lost five children, five children. And they were from the various ages, from the very earliest of life until 20. And what was really interesting was that they understood that it was natural. that this was a natural thing to face the loss of a child. What was interesting to me was at the end of the book when they described that loss of the last child that they looked at one another and Palmer says we looked at one another and said at least it's not you. Because they recognized that they had each other to lean on throughout those losses. Throughout losses that were anything but unnatural in those days. But we struggle with that. And we struggle with a text like this one because we think to ourselves in our present moment that the worst possible loss is the loss of a child. It's unnatural that we would lose a child. And so how could it be anything but? And how could God afflict a child? And yet I want to remind you that that this is not punitive. God is redemptive and is working and we may not be able to understand his ways but we need to take on board the truth of the matter. God is redemptive and working redemptively in David's life. I want you to know that word afflicted can be afflicted. It can mean that very thing. In fact, it's used in Exodus 8-2 and in 12-13 where God is described as plaguing or afflicting the Egyptians. But interestingly enough, it's also translated defeated. In Judges 20 verse 35, but also in 1 Samuel chapter four verse three, it's translated defeated. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, why has the Lord defeated us today? That's our word. We might say that the Lord defeated the child in order to defeat David. And that's a hard lesson to learn, isn't it? David had to learn the lesson that God is king and he is not. And though that was a hard lesson to learn, it was a redemptive lesson. The second thing I want you to notice is this. David is restored. But first I want to ask a question. And this is one of those questions that's not immediately answered by the text. How much do the servants of David know at this point? Ever thought about that? How much do they know? If you actually look at the text, this is a fairly difficult question to answer. In other words, do they know that this is David's child through an affair, or are they thinking that this is Uriah's child, and David just seems abnormally obsessed with the well-being of this child? Maybe it's because Maybe it's because Uriah was lost and Bathsheba's alone and David the king is just such a good shepherd that he stepped in as a father figure and he's sort of coming alongside of this woman. Maybe that's it. But I'll tell you what, the interesting thing is that it's not actually answered for us. We assume things about the text. but it's not actually stated. Our tendency is to think everybody knows, but that's not actually the case. There's ambiguity in this text, and I think that we have to take that on board. Let me ask a question, let me ask another question. If David had been told that the child was going to die, and he was, God says, you're not going to die, but the child is going to die. If that's the case, why all the fuss? You ever wonder that? Why all the fuss on David's part? What was David doing? I mean, we oftentimes think of him praying, Lord, just spare the child. Is that what he's doing? Well, I actually think that we have to think to ourselves that the answer has to be no. He's not just praying, Lord, spare the child, like we might pray, Lord, spare a child or spare a person. That's not what he's doing. You see, David knows what God is doing, even if his servants don't. He's not just crying out, spare the child. What he's crying out is, Lord, spare the child and take me. The child's committed no actual sin. Yes, we're all conceived in Adam's sin, but this is my sin. And he recognizes, I think he recognizes the sacrificial nature of the exchange that's going on here. You're not going to die, though you deserve it, but your son is. And I think he's saying, change your mind on that. It was his sin after all. And so David fasts, and he prays, and he lays on the ground, and he weeps, and he's all exercised. Lord, change. And you can understand that. How could we not? But after seven days, the child dies. And the servants are afraid to tell him. I mean, he's been acting awfully strange. I mean, especially if you take it as he's just a good king coming alongside a woman who lost her husband and now seemingly is about to lose her child. And he says to them, is the child dead? And they say, wouldn't you love to know the tone of this? How reluctant to speak would you be if you were one of those servants? And they say yes. And so David gets up and he washes, he anoints himself, and he goes to worship. And then he goes to his house. And in one sense, he does the very opposite of what everybody expects him to do, right? I mean, think about this. Why would you stop mourning and fasting after the child dies? I mean, that's the very moment you begin to mourn and fast. That's when all these exercises begin to happen. But he says this to his servants. Now, I think if there is a moment where we begin to think that the tendency is that David's servants knew what had transpired, it's this moment. Because it's at this moment that David explains to them, he tells them, let me tell you, let me explain to you my actions. He says to them, when the child was alive, he might have changed his mind, right? and allowed the child to live, but now the child is dead and I'll go to the child. And I think that one of the things that's absolutely beautiful about this text is the atonement theology that's built into this answer. I mean, you see, David recognized, you know, David's not just saying, oh God, little children are dear to God. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is he recognizes that there is sacrificial imagery, that is, there's innocence that's offered for the guilty. And you see, David is not only a good, can I say, Christian of the Old Testament, but he's a prophet and he knows what's coming. And so he knows that there's going to be a great exchange that's going to happen on the basis of a greater son. and there is redemption, there's resurrection, and he will see this child again, and that's the beautiful thing about it. And so when David gets up, and he washes, and then he worships, and then he goes to his house, you're reminded almost of Old Testament purification rites. Something like Leviticus 14, though not exactly of course, but you're reminded of something like that. And so you get it, you understand that David gets up, the atonement has been made, he's been forgiven. He understands that. And it's interesting how the author wants us to see that. You know, I mean, when you look back at the text, There's this beautiful, there's a beautiful exchange here. It's in verse 13 of chapter 12, David said to Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord and Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin, you shall not die. I mean, that's, there's nothing more simple than the simple gospel, it's beautiful. But the author builds into the story ways that we can see things have changed. God has forgiven and life is moving forward, not backward. How so? It's the word lay. The word lay here, think about this. Think about the way this word has been used and the way that it's moved forward in its use. Listen to this. And I'm not gonna give you verses. I just want you to see the, I want you to feel the flow of it. David lay with Bathsheba. Uriah, when he was summoned home, and David tried to get him drunk and go lay with his wife, it says, Uriah lay with the servants. Likely on the ground, you know, he's sleeping on the ground, he's not sleeping in his house. So David lay with Bathsheba, Uriah lay with the servants, and then this, the next use is David lay on the ground. And then the next usage is David lay with Bathsheba, his wife. And there's an interesting progression there. Just that simple use of the word lay is helping us to understand that there's been sin, there's been repentance, there's been forgiveness, there's been restoration. God brought David low. And David learned that he was not absolute. God is. God is king. And then thirdly, David is routed. David is routed. I want you to remember how the story begins. The story begins with David at home. He's supposed to be out in the field of battle. It's when all the kings go out and fight their wars. But David is at home. And then David gets himself involved in a terrible mess. And of all people, if anyone knows the mess that David has gotten himself into, it's probably Joab. Joab, his commander, probably knows the mess. And what is more, when you think about it from Joab's perspective, Joab looks the fool. I mean, think about this. He lost a battle that he should have won easily, and he lost men in the process so that he could allow a weaker army to kill one man at David's command. Now when all of it's said and done, when all of that mess is sort of settled, it says that Joab won a victory and it tells us he won that victory in one verse. Isn't that striking? It's like, all right, now I got down to business and I'm winning this thing. And the victory's described in one verse. And then he writes a letter. Dear David, come gather the troops. bring them here or I'm going to conquer this city and name it after me. That's interesting. And so David gathers his troops and he goes out onto the field of battle where he belongs, where the story started. And there's a lesson here. The lesson is had David been there in the first place, right, dot, dot, dot, but there's a greater lesson. And the greater lesson, and there is a greater lesson, but the greater lesson comes with a lot of heartbreak because of human sin. But there is a greater lesson here. And the greater lesson is that God saves. God saves. And there's even another lesson and it's this God not only saves but those he saves he disciplines as sons and daughters and disciplines them because he loves them. There's a lot of carnage in this text that sin has brought in its wake but God rises above that in a in a beautiful way. And that's a lesson I think that's worth not only our evening but also our entire lives. Father thank you for the day that you've given and for the blessing of life in Christ and thank you Lord for the great grace that you give to us day by day. Thank you Father for your spirit who indwells us and who encourages our hearts and who makes us to realize after time, after time, after time of reading your word, that these words, though true, absolutely, seem to grow in their impact upon our lives, seem to encourage us more and more with each reading, and seem to minister to us in ways that we couldn't possibly expect but certainly hoped for. Father, we're so thankful and we praise you for the love that is in Christ for us. We pray these things in his name. Amen. Well, let's take up our