Last week I shared with you the horrific story of the tornados that landed in Rochester Minnesota in 1883. On the modern scale, these tornados ranged from categories F3 up to F5. It killed hundreds of people and decimated hundreds of homes and farms. It was the most tragic tornado event up to that point. One of the reasons why it was so devastating was that a lot of the people died, not from the tornado directly, but from injuries inflected by the event. See, at the time, Minnesota only had three hospitals in the state, and all of them were located in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area, a roughly one and a half hour drive today. A local dance hall called, Rommel Hall, became the emergency room. Local doctors worked to aid the injured, but they didn’t have the facilities necessary to treat them. Aiding the doctors were the nuns of the Sisters of St. Francis. In the aftermath, Mother Alfred Moes, led the charge to build Saint Mary’s Hospital which was established in 1889. Twenty-five years later, the campus had grown to many different buildings, with specialities in surgery’s and pediatrics. Today, this hospital has many facilities across the nation, and is considered to be one of the top clinics in all the world. In 1914, the name changed to what it’s known as today, the Mayo Clinic.
Though tragedy hit in 1883, many people have been cared for since. With many being saved from all sorts of diseases, than were lost in that series of tornados.
It’s this truth that God can bring goodness out of tragedy, that brings us back to our series in Second Samuel, chapter 12. Where we’ll be picking it back up in Second Samuel 12:24-31, as we finish off the chapter.
As we open our Bibles to Second Samuel 12:24, let’s review where we are so far. In our seventh week, we looked at how this whole situation started. David didn’t go out to war as was the custom, instead he stayed behind and allowed his eyes to linger on a woman taking a bath. From there, he let himself enter into adultery, and then murder, killing the woman’s husband. From that seventh week, we talked about how, God uses extreme language to call us away from sin, so that we understand that sin is not something to play with. God wants us to avoid sin, because it is evil, and it will destroy us.
Following David’s sin, we saw how God sent the prophet Nathan to bring judgment upon David. Nathan did this through a story, that led David to judge correctly about another’s sin. When David’s sin was exposed, Nathan revealed that there would be divine punishment on David’s house, which would start with the death of the child that came from David’s first union with Bathsheba. From that week, we recognized that, God will not allow sin in our lives to go unpunished, and will expose sin publicly if necessary.
After David’s sin was exposed, we read his response in Psalm 51. In that response we saw what confession, repentance and seeking cleansing by God looked like. And we understood that, God is calling us to a Psalm 51 attitude of confession, repentance and cleansing so that we would bring right sacrifices to him. Because, only when we are in a right relationship with him, can we truly bring the sacrifice of worship before him.
Finally, as we returned to the situation last week, we walked through the death of David’s child, because of David’s sin. We talked about how sin is not personal, but rather is interconnected in both the spiritual and physical realms. From this understanding, we walked away with the truth that, God is calling us to view sin as it is, an unfair wicked thing that needs to be repented of. Sin isn’t fair, only God’s judgment of it is fair. So instead of blaming God for our faults, let us acknowledge our part and seek his restoration.
This brings us to a moment of hope in between two points in God’s judgment of David. Let’s read together Second Samuel 12:24-31.
24 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 25 and sent a message by Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord.
26 Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and took the royal city. 27 And Joab sent messengers to David and said, “I have fought against Rabbah; moreover, I have taken the city of waters. 28 Now then gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called by my name.” 29 So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. 30 And he took the crown of their king from his head. The weight of it was a talent of gold, and in it was a precious stone, and it was placed on David's head. And he brought out the spoil of the city, a very great amount. 31 And he brought out the people who were in it and set them to labor with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them toil at the brick kilns. And thus he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Then David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.
v.24-25 - We see that after David mourns for his child, and worships God, acknowledging that his judgment was just, David again sleeps with Bathsheba. From this second union, they produce a second son, Solomon. We’re told that “… the Lord love him … v.24),” which shows that God has moved passed the initial judgment on David’s offspring from Bathsheba, because that judgment has been fulfilled. Of course this doesn’t stop the fulfillment of the rest of God’s judgment on David’s life, but it does end the judgment upon David and Bathsheba’s marriage. This shows us that God isn’t vindictive, or he would have continued the affliction onto the second child. God brought judgment and once it was fulfilled, he no longer held that punishment over David.
This relief is also understood by David. He names the second child, Solomon which means, peace. The second child’s name reveals the peace David experiences after his first child with Bathsheba dies. But then God sends Nathan to tell David of his love for Solomon. David then gives the child a secondary name, sorta like a nickname, of Jedidiah. This new name means, beloved of Yahweh. This reemphasizes the peace of God, and that no more judgment is upon Bathsheba’s offspring.
v.26-31 - The chapter then ends on a military victory. Remember, during the entire episode with David and Bathsheba, Israel’s armies had been besieging the royal city of the Ammonites. We’re told that Joab sends messengers to David that the king needs to come out and deal the final blow, or else Joab’s name would be attached to the city. This means that he would be seen as the conquer, and become its new king. This would put strain between David and Joab, as if Joab was trying to carve out his own kingdom. This is actually a good move on Joab’s part, and shows how loyal he was to David. So David goes out, conquers the city, receives the Ammonites’ king’s crown, and the chapter ends on a high note.
However, I want us to notice something here. Though it is God who gives the victory to David, because only by God’s sovereignty does Israel receive victories, God isn’t mentioned. This victory shouldn’t been seen as God doing away with the coming judgment. David’s not off the hook. Instead, it should be seen as God giving David one last victory before the judgment comes to his family. By giving David this small reprieve from judgment, God is showing that he loves David, and chooses to continue to use him to bring about judgment on the other nations. But judgment is still coming to David’s house, because of David’s sin. Which we’ll see next week.
But for now, we can understand this one central point of God’s love: though we might do evil, God’s intention is always to bring about his goodness.
We see this in the story of Jospeh, whose brothers sold him into slavery. For years Joseph had ups and downs. He was in a lavish house, then in prison, and finally, second only to Pharaoh. At the end of Joseph’s story, he confronts his brothers and tells them these words, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. (Gen. 50:20)”
Though evil was sought in Joseph’s life, God used that to bring about goodness.
The Apostle Paul would go on to recognize this central point of God’s love when he pens these words to the Roman Church, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28)”
God intends his goodness for us. In fact James writes, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (Jam. 1:17)”
God’s desire is for us to experience his good things. But those good things only come through following him. Just as the athlete receives the medal by working within the boundaries of the game, so too does God bestow upon us his blessings as we follow him. Even when we have done evil things, when we have sinned, and broken fellowship with him, by his great love for us, when we repent, he will lavish his love upon us once again, bringing back his goodness upon us.
It’s because of his desire to pour out his love and gifts upon his creation, that I want to challenge you this week to praise God for all the good things he has done after you’ve experienced something bad. This will take sometime and some thoughtful remembering. Think back on the times you experienced some sort of suffering, whether caused by your actions or the actions of another person. Then write down the good that came out of that situation. Praise God for it, thanking him for his work.
If you are currently in a bad situation, begin the praise now, anticipating what good things God will do from it.
Life is hard, evil surrounds us, but God is good all the time, and he desires to bring goodness out of the evil, that his people may experience his goodness. So let us be the people who do not look to our bad situations, but rather to our good God. Amen.
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