David Sinned, And The Son Must Die: A Sermon For Christ The King Sunday

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