How many sons of David died?
While David was alive three of his sons died before he did. The three sons of David that died while he was alive, died in the following order:
- The unnamed child born to Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:18).
- Amnon (David’s eldest son) when he raped Tamar (David’s daughter) by the hand of Absalom (2 Samuel 12:29).
- Absalom after his revolt against David (2 Samuel 18:15).
Then not long after David died, Adonijah (David’s eldest after that Amnon and Absalom perished) also died after trying to subtly take the throne from Solomon (1 Kings 2:34).
Interestingly, four sons of David died, and David had pronounced upon the rich man a fourfold payment for the death of the little ewe lamb!x
What did David say at the death of his first child?
2 Samuel 12:22
David implored the Lord to have mercy upon the life of his child. David did everything he could to plead for the child, David sought God’s grace as David states in this verse – “…God will be gracious to me…”.
David knows the nature of the Lord, and he knows even when the Lord has pronounced judgement upon someone, such as himself, that David still intercedes.
Yet the Lord did not grant that which David requested.
Sometimes the answers from the Lord will be no, and we need to be content with those responses when the Lord responds in such a way.
Why did God kill David and Bathsheba’s first child?
The Lord pronounced judgement upon David by stating:
2 Samuel 12:14
The act that David had done had caused the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme , note that it doesn’t say the enemies of David, or the enemies of Israel. No doubt the enemies of the Lord would be the same as the enemies of David and the enemies of Israel, and perhaps this is why the Lord responded with such a broad statement.
However, it speaks very highly to how the Lord esteems blasphemy. We tend to think it’s a trivial matter, but not God, and what David had done would cause great occasion for the enemies to blaspheme against the Lord and therefore making a hardened heart even further harder.
We know even when Christ Jesus came on this earth, that there were Pharisees who blasphemed against the Holy Spirit from the mighty works Christ had done. An excellent account of this story is seen in Mark 3 where we see more of the issue underlying Christ’s statement regarding the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:
Mark 3:28-30
Unfortunately this passage has been maligned greatly and men wrestle mostly with verse 29, than with the amazing grace at the start of what Christ stated in verse 28, namely, All sins shall be forgiven .
However, to our point the reason why blasphemy is so serious is because of the condition and direction of where it leads:
Further and further away from Christ
Prior to the reference quoted above in Mark 3, Scriptures tell us of the condition of their hearts, as seen here:
Mark 3:5
Jesus was grieved at the condition of the hardness of their hearts. Upon seeing a miraculous work done, they do not want to seek the purpose and opinions of the healer, instead they immediately want him removed and condemned (see Mark 3:6 on their reaction).
So serious is the crime of blasphemy that we even see a boy, possibly of teenage age, who strove against a man in the camp, and blasphemed (Leviticus 24:10-14). As a result of his blasphemy the boy had to be taken out of the camp and stoned because of his transgression.
It’s also the charge the Jews raised against Christ to kill him, not only by stoning (John 10:33), but also the charge they used against him to condemn him to death on the cross (Mark 14:63-64).
Why did God kill David and Bathsheba’s first child?
2 Samuel 12:15
Due to the act of David, the Lord states that such an act had caused a great occasion for the enemies to blaspheme against the Lord. Many would state at how unfair the treatment of king David from God would be, especially when contrasted against king Saul – whom the Lord has rejected: did king Saul such an evil act??
What is blasphemy?
Blasphemy is the name given to those who disobey the third commandment:
Exodus 20:7
Even when God gives this third commandment there’s an additional note where those who do contravene this commandment are not guiltless. Therefore, any utterance of the name of God was to be dealt with strict carefulness. The Jews themselves even cleansing themselves upon writing the name of the Lord in Scriptures.
Why is blasphemy such a serious offence?
If you were to use the name of your mother as a curse word what would that say about the relationship you had with your mother? It obviously wouldn’t be a positive relationship. Nobody would want their name, or the name of somebody they love, to be used as a by-word or filth word.
Therefore, if the name of the Lord has been blasphemed, treated with contempt, then everything about the Lord has been held in similar contempt.
How difficult it is to reach the lost, when someone already has such discontent or hatred against the Lord? You can tell when witnessing to someone whether you’re the gospel seed sown in the heart of the listener will stay.
And this is why even Christ Jesus cautions us to be casting pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6).
Example of a blasphemer in Scripture: Shimei
Let’s look at an example of blasphemy in Scripture: Shimei. When David flees Jerusalem because of the impending rebellion of Absalom, on the way of his retreat he bumps into Shimei:
2 Samuel 16:5-8
Notice the descriptions used, what does Shimei do? Is he silently protesting his disgust of David? No, he’s quite public, in fact so public he’s even cursing David to his face !
David’s men know how serious and condemning this is act is, and as they love their king, they hate seeing what Shimei is doing to him. Abishai wants to defend his king by going over and taking off his head (2 Samuel 16:9).
Yet David is extremely gracious and allows Shimei to curse, hoping the Lord would see David’s affliction and require him for good (2 Samuel 16:12).
And yet even as David continues past, Shimei does not stop:
2 Samuel 16:13
It’s not until David returns where we see what may be a repentant and sorrowful Shimei, realising what he had done before was indeed wrong:
2 Samuel 19:18-20
And yet, Abishai still hot from Shimei’s initial outburst, still wants to go over and take off his head – Abishai is possibly showing us how he doesn’t perceive Shimei’s repentance to be genuine (2 Samuel 19:21).
Abishai even tries to bring the Lord onto his side with his argument against Shimei stating that he had cursed the very thing the Lord had established as king – therefore, isn’t Shimei’s attack against the very Lord, should he not be condemned for cursing against God?
But again David is exceedingly gracious and Shimei is permitted to live (2 Samuel 19:23).
Again we wouldn’t think more of this character Shimei, however, it’s not until we get to the end of David’s life where he is giving his final discourse to his son Solomon where we read his very last words and they interestingly enough talk about Shimei:
1 Kings 2:8-9
Notice here how his crime was not to be held guiltless .
So Solomon sends for Shimei and instructs for him not to leave from his house in Jerusalem. It wasn’t a difficult thing to do, as Shimei consents to the conditions:
1 Kings 2:36-38
However, after the space of 3 years, two servants of Shimei depart from his house and run away to Gath. Shimei then breaks the covenant he had with Solomon to fetch his servants and brings them back to his house.
When king Solomon has been informed of what Shimei had done, he confronts Shimei about it reminded him of the pledge he had with the king and the Lord. What is most interesting about this passage is the concluding piece about him:
1 Kings 2:44
What therefore can we conclude about a blasphemous heart?
It stems from a heart that is privy to all manner of wickedness. It certainly isn’t obedient to any authority as we have seen now several times with Shimei’s own life – he didn’t esteem the authority of king David, nor of Solomon, and let alone the Lord!
Without any authority man esteems himself as king and Lord.
Why did the child have to die for the sins of his father?
Even though David had confessed his sin, and the Lord had put away his sin, there were consequences of his sin. This can be difficult for us to fathom, and instead of being aware of the fact that we will be hurt because of the sins of others, we cannot point the finger at Adam, and blame him for all the problems of the world.
Yet this is the reality of life today – there are consequences of our sins and others will be affected by it.
Jesus himself was asked about the consequences of sin in Luke:
Luke 13:1-5
Here Jesus had been asked if those who had perished died because of the sins of others. Yes, they all perished because of the act of someone else. Why then should they have been punished? Bad things happen all the time to what we perceive as good people, however, what we should be asking is why good things happen to bad people?
Why are we still allowed to live even though we are not good?
The child of Bathsheba and David had died because of their sin. The child would not have been born if David had never done such an act. Yet as a consequence, he was born.
Does the death of David’s son contradict Deuteronomy 24:16?
Deuteronomy 24:16
The child had not done any wrong, the adulterous act should have been the death of his father. Was the child’s death as a result of the sin of David? Yes it was. In the place of the guilty party, David, the guiltless died – does this remind you of anything similar in Scripture?
But on a broader picture, we could also bring in another passage that would somewhat appear contradictory to Deuteronomy 24:16 and this is:
Exodus 34:6-7
Exodus 20:5-6
Wouldn’t both passages appear contradictory?
It appears that the sins of the father can translate into the sins of the children as they carry the same behaviours and attitudes of their parents. We have seen this previously with the generation of the Amalekites – upon their fathers rejecting God (Deuteronomy 25:18), their children do likewise, and it only continues to spiral out of control until God has had enough and completely instructs for their destruction (1 Samuel 15:3).
However, this is not to state that the children are without an opportunity to repent and turn to the Lord, the Lord being gracious to any and all who call upon him:
Leviticus 26:40-42
Where do children go when they do?
One comforting factor about the death of Bathsheba and David’s child, as tragic as it was about the death of the child, was that Scripture tells us where that child had gone to:
2 Samuel 12:23
David announced to his servants that while his child was alive he wept and fasted, pleading on the Lord’s grace, but when the child had been taken by the Lord, he knew he could not bring him back from the dead.
However, even though the child had been taken by the Lord, he knew he would seem again. David knew the child would not come back to him (i.e. be risen from the dead), but that when David dies he would be with him in the presence of the Lord.
This is a great comfort to any parent who has had to go through the painful experience of burying their little one. While the Lord may not answer our prayers the way we would like, we can rest assured they are in the presence of the Lord and are no longer in any more pain.
Matthew 19:14
Conclusion
Within this small passage in 2 Samuel we read of God’s great mercy towards David, we see the pattern of the guilty being pardoned, and the guiltless being punished, and we learn of the seriousness of God’s holy name in the crime of blasphemy.
While there are difficult aspects within this passage we can be rest assured of God’s sovereignty and deliverance, His grace and mercy.