Why did God kill David’s and Betsheba’s baby (2 Samuel 12:14 | 2 Samuel 12:19?
Answer:
2 Sam 12:
13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
14 Howbeit, 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.
In the previous chapter, 2 Samuel 11, we read that David lied with Bathsheba while she was still married to Uriah. Hence they committed adultery. Then after some time she found out she was pregnant. Some time elapsed between her pregnancy until Uriah was killed in battle. During that time, Uriah remained loyal to his garrison and did not go home to be with Bathsheba. Hence, Uriah did not know her wife was pregnant. We do not know how progressed her pregnancy was by the time we get to chapter 12.
In chapter 12, prophet Nathan gave the explanation for dropping the death penalty to the child. Verse 13 says David’s sin was put away, and therefore David did not die for the adultery he did (Le 20:10, Num 35:31,33). However, the curse/negative consequence of that sin still took effect, because through that adulterous deed David has given a great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. It is not clear what this blasphemy means. Matthew Henry’s commentary explains it as follows:
The wicked people of that generation, the infidels, idolaters, and profane, would triumph in David’s fall, and speak ill of God and of his law, when they saw one guilty of such foul enormities that professed such an honour both for him and it. “These are your professors! This is he that prays and sings psalms, and is so very devout! What good can there be in such exercises, if they will not restrain men from adultery and murder?” They would say, “Was not Saul rejected for a less matter? why then must David live and reign still?” not considering that God sees not as man sees, but searches the heart.
It is possible that news/rumors of David’s adultery already spread by the time prophet Nathan spoke to David. Why? Because there were people who knew about it. When David saw Batsheba bathing the first time, he inquired about her and someone told who she was (11:3). David also used messengers (plural) to bring her to him (11:4). Other messengers were involved in his correspondence with Joab (11:6, 11:18-19, 11:25). Joab knew about David’s peculiar interests towards Uriah and his intent to harm Uriah (11:6, 11:14-15). Other soldiers knew the strange occasion of Uriah, an ordinary soldier on the battlefield, to be summoned by David and received gifts from him (11:7-8). They knew David’s unusual interest when he asked whether Uriah went home to Bathsheba (11:9-10). There was a possibility some people noticed Bathsheba’s pregnancy and morning sicknesses. In the end, people knew that David took Bathsheba as his wife after Uriah died (11:27). It was possible that word got around that David had committed adultery and murder, some Israelites would probably have said to themselves, “If the king can do those things and not face any consequences, why can’t I?” People in other nations who heard of it wouldn’t see it as reason to follow Israel’s God, but if they heard of the consequences they would know that God saw and dealt with David’s sin.
For that reason, although God put away David’s sin, He allowed the curse of that sin to remain and the child died. The curse of the sin was known by David and all Jews since it was written in their Mosaic Law, i.e., intergenerational curse in general (Exodus 20:5, Exodus 34:7, Deut 5:9) and that the womb of the woman who committed adultery shall be barren in particular ( Num 5:20-22 ). However, since Bathsheba was already pregnant and the pregnancy possibly was already developed, the curse took effect after she gave birth so it would not harm her. Hence, the baby died after birth. The curse did not last forever, as Bathsheba later on gave birth to Solomon who would become David’s successor to the throne.
It is important to note that we believe dead babies go to heaven because they do not commit sins. We also believe God does not punish someone in the afterlife for their parents’ sins. Hence, Bathsheba’s baby went to the Lord in heaven and did not experience the intergenerational curse of harsh adversities within David’s household (12:11).
Conclusion: God allowed the curse of the adulterous sin to take effect because what David did had caused people to blaspheme. The baby went to heaven and was not punished in the afterlife for David’s sin.
