Marriage Bond Severed By Death (And Other Lessons)

This morning I was reading 2 Samuel 12, the chapter wherein Nathan says to David, “Thou art the man.” David essentially condemns himself, confesses his sin and repents. The Lord is merciful to him in putting away his sin (2Sam.12:14) that he should not himself die. But the child born to him of Bathsheba will die, he is told, and indeed, despite David’s earnest plea for the child’s life, he dies. We know that the Lord hears the prayers of the righteous, and though David had sinned, he had also confessed (2Sam.12:13) and the Lord put away his sins (in Christ), thus David stands before God righteous (in Christ, Gal.2:20-21). Yet here his prayer is not answered. Indeed, the Lord does hear the prayers of the righteous that are in accord with his will ( 1Joh.5:14-15). In this case it was the Lord’s will that the child should die and David, while he earnestly prayed that it might not be so with the child, yet when he learned of his death he cleansed himself and worshiped the Lord (2Sam.12:21-22). He, in a sense, said with Job, “the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21) This leads us into the topic of my email, namely that after the child died and David worshiped the Lord, he moved on with his life and even lay with Bathsheba again and she bear him a son whom the Lord loved (2Sam.12:24). This is interesting for a number of reasons, a few of which are:

1. After David had confessed and repented of his sin, he moved on with life knowing he was forgiven by the merciful God. He trusted that, as Nathan said, the Lord put away his sin. He didn’t sulk through the remainder of his days in agony over his sin, for to do so would have been to doubt the putting away of his sin by the Lord.
2. Bathsheba, her husband now dead, had become David’s wife (2Sam.11:26-27) and though she was a snare unto him (actually his own lust ensared him, Jas.1:14-15) he had repented and did not at all find it necessary to put her away. In fact he took it upon himself to comfort her in the loss of her child (2Sam.12:24) and enjoyed her as the wife that she was to him.
3. Moreover, the Lord was pleased with the second child that was born unto them, Solomon. This underscores that God had put away David’s sin and David trusted in that fact and, I think it’s safe to assume, Bathsheba had also forgiven David.
4. It also shows that David was free to marry Bathsheba once her husband was dead, she thereby being free from her bonds to him (Rom.7:3)