Lent 2025 Day 15: Fri 21 Mar
2 Samuel 12:13-18
13 Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’
Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.’
15 After Nathan had gone home, the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill. 16 David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground. 17 The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.
18 On the seventh day the child died. David’s attendants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, ‘While the child was still living, he wouldn’t listen to us when we spoke to him. How can we now tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate.’
David admits his sin. It has been brought out into the open through Nathan and David has no other response to give. There’s absolutely no point in arguing with God on this one.
David’s statement is both a confession and a repentance. God forgives David for the way he despised God’s law. The sin he’d committed has been wiped away as far as God is concerned. This is an amazing, gracious God who loves the wretched David and is prepared to put aside his sinful behaviour.
Still, there are loose ends that have to be tidied up in order to clear the scene. David’s contempt for God has to be dealt with. It will not be pleasant for David. We hear that the child has just been born. God waited for this moment before he acts. This child will not survive. David’s response is to wear robes of penitence. He does everything in his powerlessness to plead with God for the life of the child.
The child does not survive. God takes him. He dies without even being given a name. It all started when David had let his eyes linger on another man’s wife.
Was God cruel to take the child?
Where is the child now?
Is there anything you need to bring before God in secret?
How penitent do you have to be to receive forgiveness from Father God?
Father God, your righteousness does not bend nor your judgement waver. Thank you that through Jesus you give us the offer of complete forgiveness in repentance. Amen.
57:00 So ist mein Jesus nun gefangen (Arie)
27a. Aria SA (Chorus I) and Chorus II
Thus my Jesus is now captured.
– Leave him, stop, don't bind him! –
Moon and light
for sorrow have set,
since my Jesus is captured.
They take him away, he is bound.
Ends at 1:00:07
Paul