Why did God punish David and Bathsheba's innocent child with death?

David, in this Psalm, is passing through the deepest exercise of soul, after his sin with Bathsheba, having been awakened to a true sense of it by the parabolic language of the prophet Nathan. The latter goes to him, and gets from him a righteous, and true judgment on the supposed unrighteous, and mean actions of another man (see 2 Sam. 12). Thereon the prophet, led by the Spirit of God, declares, "Thou art the man!" and then unmasks his wicked course. David, completely roused out of his state of spiritual torpor replies, "I have sinned against the Lord." This confession is met by grace, as he hears, "The Lord also has put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." But grace and government are two different principles. The former says, "The Lord has put away thy sin," the latter can only say — "The child also that is born to thee shall surely die" — for the wheels of God's governmental chariot never stay, and "whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap" (Gal. 6:17).

Then Nathan tells David: “Thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, even the child that is born to thee shall certainly die. And Nathan departed to his house” (vv. 13-15). “Thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme.” Such is the consequence that the world draws from our faults. Satan uses each of our sins to produce open aversion in men's hearts against God and against Christ. Look, the world says, what their religion leads them to do! — and God is blasphemed. Satan excites lusts in a Christian not only to be able to accuse him, but also to produce aversion to Christ in those who witness his fall, so that these may not turn to Him for salvation.

David had been told that violence and corruption would be found in his house as the fruit of his sin. The third judgment is the death of his child. Death does not strike down David, the guilty one, but rather his cherished son. It is necessary for God's judgment to fall on the king's house in a visible, immediate way before the eyes of all. The child falls sick; the poor father is distressed and fasts and supplicates God. If it were possible, may God show him grace! No, discipline must run its course. What anguish for David's extremely tender heart in the presence of the innocent victim of his sin!

The child dies. David rises from the earth, washes himself, anoints himself with oil, and changes his clothing. It is as though he were a new man beginning a new career. He goes into the house of the Lord and bows down. Is he mourning? No, he acknowledges the righteousness, holiness, and love of God as well as the clearing of His character through discipline. David rises up a restored man; he can go to his house and call for a meal to be served him. After having bowed down before the Lord he is on his way to renewed fellowship with Him.

His servants say to him: “What thing is this which thou hast done? Thou didst fast and weep for the child alive; but as soon as the child is dead, thou dost rise and eat bread.” David answers: “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I thought, Who knows? Perhaps Jehovah will be gracious to me, that the child may live. But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me” (vv. 21-23). “I shall go to him.” Now David is satisfied to bear the seal of this discipline to which the death of his son testifies till the end of his career. “He will not return to me.” David can never know this joy, but he accepts as necessary the path of death through which he must one day walk in order to find his son.

Yet the government of God is not displaced by the grace shown, nor would it be grace that did displace it. The throne becomes a "throne of grace," but is no less one may reverently say, all the more — a throne. God reigns, through Christ's work, in the joyful hearts of the redeemed. The knowledge of Him who reigns makes His reign to be the one necessity, and rest, and joy. His acts are light and love. If there be evil, He must be seen to be in opposition to the evil, even as He seeks in His love to deliver men from it. His chastenings are needed by His children, because they are children; they are needed, also, as witness to the world of what He is. Thus for David the government of God is not hindered but necessitated by the relation that David bears to Him: "because by this thing thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of Jehovah to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.".

To remove this sentence, therefore, all David's fasting and prayer are ineffectual. The king mourns but submits, and to the question of his servants as to his change of conduct on hearing of the child's death he answers by showing that it was not mere natural grief that had actuated him, nor would he fret against the Lord by useless sorrow. The child had gone whither David himself would follow, and where he would find him: in this certainly he expresses the comfort that remains for him of meeting in eternity the babe of a few days' existence upon earth.

Nathan knew that David's confession was real. He immediately assured David that the Lord had put away his sin, and he would not die, as justice would demand. Yet, while forgiveness is full and free, this did not absolve David from suffering the governmental results of his sin. As well as the ensuing trouble in his own house, he was told by Nathan that because his sin gave occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child that had been born to Bathsheba would die. Nathan, as a true prophet, has delivered only the message from God, then he leaves David alone with God.

Full and everlasting forgiveness, however, does not exempt the subjects of it from divine dealings with them in government. David had to experience that, even to the end of his life. The child born to him by Uriah's wife (for in that light Bathsheba was still regarded) must die, and the sword should never depart from his house. Of that, Amnon, Absalom, and Adonijah were examples. Governmental dealing, however, ends with this life. God's favour to us, based on the sacrifice of Christ, lasts for ever. Of this God assures His people.

David, now at his ease instead of fighting the Lord's battles, falls into great sin respecting Bath-sheba and Uriah. He had to hear that the sword should not depart from his house, and evil should rise against him in his own family. David confessed his sin, and was told at once that it had been put away; but God's government must be fulfilled, and the child should surely die. David, knowing how gracious God was, remained prostrate while the child lived, but the child died; and Absalom's rebellion followed: cf. Ps. 51: for the exercises of David respecting his sin.

David's grievous failure in his adulterous association with Bathsheba, followed by his shameful and treacherous behaviour towards her husband Uriah, present the blackest spot in David's life. His fall was the fall of Eve in the Garden of Eden. She saw; she coveted; she took. David saw the beautiful woman; he coveted her; he invited her into his house and seduced her. When Bathsheba eventually confided to David that she was pregnant he acted in the most despicable manner towards Uriah. He arranged for Uriah to come home hoping that his love for his wife would result in David's child being attributed to Uriah. This failed because Uriah was an upright and loyal soldier. David tried to get Uriah drunk that Uriah might go to Bathsheba. That failed too. David decided on extreme measures. When Uriah returned to the battle that was being waged, Joab, David's general, was ordered to place him where the fighting was most dangerous. Joab obeyed and as David hoped and anticipated Uriah was slain. David was an accessory to murder. David, when he received news of Uriah's death, took Bathsheba for his wife after her period of mourning for her husband had been completed. All was well. Uriah was dead and Bathsheba was David's wife. But was all well? David had cunningly and heartlessly achieved his evil purposes but he had forgotten one important consideration — God! What David had done was evil in the sight of Jehovah.

Nathan the prophet was sent by God to David and by telling him a simple story of selfishness and unfeeling greed he was able to convict David of his sinful behaviour. “Thou art the man”struck right into the heart of David's conscience. David immediately confessed his awful guilt. Nathan was able to tell David that God had forgiven him but governmental consequences would result because of his gross failure. David had despised Jehovah and the enemies of Jehovah had been given an opportunity to blaspheme Him. David was to feel God's government in his own house and the child that would be born to Bathsheba would die. The sins were forgiven, but the consequences of them would follow nevertheless.

The Lord was displeased with what David had done. Nathan comes with his message in the form of a parable. His outburst of anger and condemnation of the injustice done to the poor man shows that he did not think of his own case. Yet sorrow and unrest were his portion; he tried to cover up his sin and as a result was in the deepest agony. Psalms like the sixth, the thirty-eighth, the thirty-second and others tell us of the deep soul exercise through which he passed. Then Nathan pointed at him with his soul piercing, "Thou art the man!" First the prophet tells him all the Lord had done for him; he reminds him of all God's kindness. What had David done? He had despised the Lord's commandment; had killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and taken his wife. Then the chastisement is announced. He had slain Uriah with the sword of the children of Ammon--the sword should now never depart from his house. He had taken Uriah's wife--others should take his wives. He had done it secretly--but, said Jehovah, I will do this thing before all Israel , and before the sun. We shall find the sentence executed in chapters 13:28-39; 16:21-22; 18:14.

Then the King's heart broke. "I have sinned against the LORD." It was at that time that, his soul filled with deepest sorrow, and yet illumined with the light from above, he uttered that wonderful penitential Psalm, the fifty-first. "Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest." All the inward corruption now is revealed to him, as many a saint after him has found out by bitter experience that in our flesh there dwelleth no good thing. "Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5). And when he prayed "take not Thy Holy Spirit from me"--he must have had a vision of Saul, the mad King, when the Spirit had left him and an evil one possessed his heart. But David knew God and God knew David. He is in the light and uncovers all in His presence. Then Nathan announced the divine mercy, "the LORD hath also taken away thy sin." And Nathan added "because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die." That was the bitterness of it. Up to the present time infidels and rejectors of the Word of God point to David's sin and blaspheme, though the very things they sneer at are the things which they practice. The child died and David's grief was great. All his fasting and night long prayer did not change the divine sentence. But he also knew the comfort of hope and expresses it beautifully. "I shall go to him, but he shall not return unto me."

Listen! “The Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bare to David” (2 Sam. 12:15), and it died. His son, Amnon, forced his sister, Tamar, and was murdered by another son, Absalom. Absalom, the murderer, brought back in unrighteousness, rose in rebellion against his father, went into his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel, and was himself slain by the hand of Joab, the very man who sought his return unrighteously. Surely David in God’s government reaped what he had sown.

This was full deliverance. And the same deliverance awaits every sinner who, like the poor adulteress here, will come and be alone with Jesus. As sinners (as I have observed before), we have to do only with God. We may do offence or wrong to others, and they may complain and challenge us. But, as sinners, God must deal with us alone; and the discovery of this is the way of blessing. David discovered it, and got blessing at once. His act, it is true, had been a wrong to another. He had taken the poor man's one little ewe lamb. But he had in all this sinned against God also. And in the discovery and sense of this he says, "I have sinned against the Lord." But the effect of this was to leave him alone with God. As a wrongdoer, Uriah might have to do with him; but as a sinner, he had not. God must deal with him; and the moment his sin thus casts him alone with God, he, like the poor adulteress here, listens to the voice of mercy: "The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." He suffers chastening for the wrong he had done, but the wages of sin are remitted.