To Encourage You

2 Samuel 12:24-25 “Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord.”

Do you know the definition of the word “grace”? The word means favor or lovingkindness.  Thayer’s Greek lexicon points out that throughout the Bible the word grace carries with it the idea of “kindness which bestows upon one what he has not deserved.”  We see one such example of God’s grace in the passage above from 2 Samuel 12.  This passage occurs immediately after the account of David’s sins of adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband Uriah.  Earlier in the chapter we read that God had confronted David through the prophet Nathan with the following words: “I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.”  In other words, David had rewarded God with evil for His goodness.  God had taken David from his place of tending sheep and had anointed him as the king of Israel. It was pure grace on God’s behalf.  He had blessed David’s life with one thing after another.

And so how did David show his “gratitude.” By doing what was evil in God’s sight. It was a smack in the face of this gracious God, and as a result, it brought God’s stinging rebuke and discipline.  Yet, despite all this, God continued to pour out his grace.  Actually, the pain David would experience throughout the rest of his life was an example of God’s grace, for it was a constant reminder to David of his sin and the consequences of it.  As such, it was a means whereby David would draw nearer to God, which was the best place for him, no matter what difficulty might come into his life.  And yet God blessed David with a son named Solomon. It’s a word that means “peace.”  In other words, you could call him the “prince of peace.”  And God gave him a second name, the name Jedidiah, a word that means “beloved of the Lord.”

So why did God do this? Why would he bless David and Bathsheba in this way? Was it a reward for their goodness, these two who had just sinned so grievously against Him? And why would he bless Solomon with His love? Was it because of something that the infant had done to merit it?   Obviously, the answer to these questions is “No.”  We see the answer to these questions in the message that God sent to David through the prophet Nathan, i.e., that the child’s name should be Jedediah “because of the Lord.” 

We should pay particular attention to this phrase, for Nathan didn’t say that it was “because of David,” or “because of Bathsheba,” or “because of Solomon.”  That’s the nature of grace.  It’s the blessings of God poured out on sinners in spite of who they are. It’s all because of the unmerited favor of the Lord.  unmerited – despite all our sins against Him.

You see, God continually pours out His love on the people of this earth, whether those people show any regard for Him or not.  It is in the birth of Solomon that we see one of the greatest shadows of this grace, for it was not just David and Bathsheba that were blessed with God’s gracious gift of a son.  Listen to these wonderful words of Isaiah as he speaks to you and me about another blessed son: “For to US a child is born, to US a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).  And why was this son born?  Why would God bring eternal peace to us through this Son?  It was a gift that was given in spite of the fact that the ones to whom He was given would murder Him for absolutely no reason on a cross.  Unmerited favor in response to unmerited evil.  What an awesome thing is the grace of God! 

And so this same Son, this Prince of Peace, calls us to follow His example by graciously loving others, not because they deserve that love, but because we’ve received His gracious love and He wants to pour out that same love through us, to others.  Listen to His words recorded for us in Luke 6:32-35: “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” 

May God help us to love like this, for it is like this that He first loved us (1 John 4:19).