Adam Sinned, and the Son must Die
2 Samuel 12:9-14
Sin has dire consequences. It not only affects the sinner but also everyone around him. In this case, David's newborn son with Bathsheba is struck down by the LORD, even though David is allowed to live. But an even greater Son must die, not just for David's sin but the sins of the entire world.
So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”
We come to the last Sunday in the Christian year which is called Christ the King Sunday. The eternal reign of Christ is the final word. At the end of time, his rule shall be openly manifest in all the universe even as it is in heaven. So, you might think it odd that we are reading this morning from 2nd Samuel. And whereas the passage from 2 Samuel 7:1-14 might seem to fit the occasion, what does this passage about the judgment brought upon David for his adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah the Hittite to cover it up. Truly the life of David soars to the heights as well as plunges into the depths. So, let us see what we can learn from this passage.
Sin has dire consequences. For one, an innocent man died for David’s sin, Uriah was one of David’s most loyal soldiers. We notice that he was a Hittite. the Hittites were one of the groups of people which were slated for extermination in the Book of Joshua. Uriah would have had every reason to fight against David rather than for him. Yet, his name ending in “Yah” tells us that he had adopted the God of Israel as his God and had married an Israelite woman, Bathsheba. He showed how honorable he was by refusing to sleep with Bathsheba in an attempt to cover up the pregnancy. He was involved in holy war against Ammon. His fellow-soldiers did not have the luxury to come home on leave and sleep with their wives. So, David resorted to sending a sealed letter to Joab, the commander of Israel’s army. Uriah did not know he was delivering his own death sentence. Uriah is remembered by the LORD in two places afterward. The first is in 2 Samuel 23:39 in which he is listed as the last of David’s mighty men. There were two sets of three mighty men whose exploits were catalogued. Then there was a set of thirty. But Uriah is listed by himself and is last in the list. But this does not mean that he was least. Uriah got the last word on this matter. Because he is listed last and by himself, those who read 2 Samuel will especially remember Uriah and what had happened to him.
The second occurence is in Matthew 1:6 in the genealogy of Jesus. It was odd that women be included in genealogy lists, but here we have Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. All three were Gentiles. Tamar played the harlot to get Judah to fulfill the promise of children which rightfully belonged to her through Judah’s son. Rahab was a harlot whose faith in Yahweh and the hiding of the Israelite spies. Ruth was not notorious. She was a good and faithful woman before Yahweh. Yet, she was a Moabitess. Deuteronomy 23:3 says this:
Deuteronomy 23:3 NKJV
“An Ammonite or Moabite shall not enter the assembly of the Lord; even to the tenth generation none of his descendants shall enter the assembly of the Lord forever,
There is a fourth woman, but she is not named. Instead she is called “who had been the wife of Uriah.” This gives the honor of inclusion in the genealogy of Jesus to a Gentile Hittite. In a way, one could see David as performing the duty of producing a son in his place. This son would be Solomon the King.
The innocent dies for the guilty. We read in Deuteronomy 24:16 that the sin of the man is not to be punished by punishing someone else. In this case, it says the son is not to be put to death for the sins of the father, nor the father for the son. Instead, everyone is to die for their own sin. So, it is troubling to see that Uriah dies for the sin of David, the innocent for the guilty. But this does not mean that Uriah was sinless. We read in Ecclesiastes 7:20:
Ecclesiastes 7:20 NKJV
For there is not a just man on earth who does good
And does not sin.
Uriah was a good man. But he was also a sinner. The wages of sin are death, so Uriah must have died for his own sin. He could not die for the sin of others.
The prophecy of Nathan told David of the disasters which would come to his children as a result of his sin. We see the rape of his daughter Tamar by his son Ammon. then we see the murder of Ammon in revenge by another of David’s sons, Absalom. then Absalom is killed by Joab after Absalom’s insurrection. then Adonijah, yet another son, had to be executed when he rose up against Solomon. We do see how the sin of one can have disastrous effects on others. But these were sinners as well. It is true that they were victims, but the sons of David made victims of others. They would die for their own sin, not that of David. Likewise, we cannot excuse our own moral failings on that of our parents, the government, our teachers, or anyone else. We must accept responsibility for our own sin. “The “devil made me do it” defense will not stand when we appear at the judgment seat of Christ. We need to find relief from our sin elsewhere.
Even Solomon failed to be the son prophesied in 2 Samuel 7:1-14. He started out well, but he had many strange wives in rebellion against God. Deuteronomy 17:17 prohibited the king from having many wives. This is especially true of women of other nationalities. These marriages were often contracted amongst Ancient Near East culture as a means of treaty between the nations. Israel was not to trust in other alliances, nor in the strength of its armies, but the LORD. 1 Kings 11:1-11 tells us that these women turned Solomon’s heart from the LORD. He build temples for their gods for them to worship. Solomon, also would be judged, first by being invaded by the Pharaoh, who removed much of the riches Solomon had gained. His treaty with Pharaoh by marriage obviously did not help him. Here was a man who had three hundred wives and seven hundred concubines, but only one worthless son, Rehoboam. Finally, Israel was divided into two kingdoms.
There was never a godly king in the entire history of the Northern Kingdom. The Kingdom of Judah had a mix of good and bad kings. But even the good kings had flaws. Asa sought the doctors of Egypt to heal his diseased feet rather than the Lord. Uzziah got leprosy when he tried to offer sacrifice, something the LORD had reserved for the priests. Josiah made the foolish attempt to prevent Pharaoh’s army from marching against Assyria and perished at Carshemich. The long ant short of this is that no king could be found that would measure up to the requirements of the Law. We must look elsewhere.
We could look at David’s infant son. Is there anything more innocent than a newborn baby? Can guilt have been imputed to this child? Why did he have to die and David live? Even in human law, it is rare to charge young children with a crime except for the most heinous crimes. They are not considered competent before the court as their reason has not developed so that they can understand the consequences of their actions. Truly, a seven day old child is not culpable. God’s law as well as most human laws forbid punishing someone for the crime of another. David sinned, and the son must die.
This is certainly a difficult issue. so we need to look at the issue further. We have to deal with the imputed guilt and the punishment of Adam which passed through all his descendants. This is expressed in the doctrine of original sin. Adam sinned for all of us. We all sinned in Adam. We are all going to experience physical death. So, even if the LORD had let this boy live, he still would have died. We also realize that there is a spiritual death as well with eternal consequences. We are not born culpable of this death. But, sooner or later, we come to realize that we are sinners, and then we become culpable to spiritual death as well. As Paul puts it in Romans 7:9:
Romans 7:9 NKJV
I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
So this child only was subjected to the first death which all of Adam’s race are sentenced. When we also realize that there is life to come, we realize that this child went to a better place. He did not go into limbo like some theologians assert. They believe this is what happens to unbaptized infants who die. I can not think of a more terrible doctrine. Look at David’s son. He was only seven days old. He was not made part of the covenant by circumcision which happens on the eighth day. As circumcision on the Old Testament is related to baptism in the new, this child would have gone into some sort of nebulous world in which there is not the pain of hellfire. But neither are the joys of heaven. So we should think of better things for this boy. When David says that he would go to him, but the boy could not come back to him, he is not saying that he would join him in the shades of Sheol. Peter reminds us at Pentecost when he quotes the 16th Psalm written by David and acknowledging him to be a prophet that one of his sons (descendants) would die but not suffer the corruption of death. Peter tells us that this Son was none other than Jesus Christ who rose from the dead on the third day. Because he arose, we also shall rise again. Death does not have the final say. We need to remember this.
David sinned, and the Son must die. The infant that David and Bathsheba had who died could not atone for the sin of David, even though he was as innocent as a lamb. But God provided a far greater Son who would die for and atone for David’s sin. This is Jesus Christ who is the promised son of David who would rule over the Kingdom, world without end in 2 Samuel 7:1-14 as well as throughout scripture. David sinned, and the Son died. The Son arose from the dead and David would meet him there.
David was not the first king. The first king appointed by God was none other than Adam who was given dominion over all the earth (Genesis 1:28). He would have continued as kin of an everlasting earthly kingdom. But Adam sinned. And because Adam sinned, all of his sons (and daughters) must died. We can see the beginning of this tragedy in the story of Cain and Abel. Cain sinned, and the innocent Abel died. Yet God did not permit anyone to harm the wicked Cain. But in the long run. Abel is with the LORD, and if Cain did not repent, he is in hell. Justice comes slowly, but it comes.
Adam sinned, and the Son must die. The first promise of this is in Genesis 3:15. Eve would bear a descendant (Son) who would suffer his foot to be bruised. But Satan is told that this Son would bruise his head. This promised Son is Jesus Christ who was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life. But because he was born human, he, too, must die. This was not only because of his humanness, but because He was decreed to be slain from the foundation of the world.
Christ died for all our sin. He bore the universal curse of Adam as well as the individual sins of people. He stood for us all. Adam once stood for us all, and the result that we all have to physically die, sometimes in the most horrific of circumstances. But Christ stands for us all now in life for all who will believe on Him. I like the German word for resurrection, aufstanden, which means “to stand up.” He stood up for us all. In this is our hope. We live in Him.
Consider this Jesus who now sits at the Father’s right hand awaiting his physical return to earth to receive His people at the end of this age. This is Christ the King. As the Son, through whom the universe was created, He is King of not just the earth but the universe from before time. He was King when he became flesh and lived amongst us. He was King even on the cross. How little did Pilate know this when the title “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews” was affixed over the cross. He was King in his death. He was King when He arose and ascended. And He shall alway be King. We remember this on Christ the King Sunday. It, indeed, is the final word. Think upon this King who loved His subjects so much that He was willing to die for them to free those who believe on Him from eternal judgment and the second death.
The promise given to David that he would not die, having committed murder and adultery, is a promise given to us all who confess our sin and believe on Jesus. We sinned, and the Son died. He paid the price we could not pay. And because He lives, I can face tomorrow (Bill and Gloria Gaither song title)
We will conclude this morning’s message with a hymn by Charles Wesley. We could have selected another on titled “Rejoice, the Lord is King.” But instead we will sing “And Can it Be.” In is a hymn which expresses the wonder of our salvation.
1 And can it be that I should gain
An int'rest in the Savior's blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
Refrain:
Amazing love! how can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me!
2 'Tis mystery all! Th'Immortal dies!
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine!
'Tis mercy all! let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more. [Refrain]
3 He left His Father's throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam's helpless race;
'Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me. [Refrain]
4 Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth and followed Thee. [Refrain]
5 No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th'eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own. [Refrain]
Amen.
Text copied from hymanry.org
