Bible Question: In 2 Samuel 12 God strikes the child of David and Bathsheba and the child dies. Deut. 24:16 speaks about children not being put to death for their fathers and that a person shall be put to death for their own sin. This verse seems to be echoed in Ezekial 18:20 along with the rest of that chapter. I'm having trouble reconciling these passages.. What am I missing? |
Bible Answer: Hello Truthfisher, Welcome to the forum. I just completed a rather lengthy response to your post, but after clicking "Preview Answer" and then the back button every word was gone. Very frustrating. Anyway, I don't have time now to go through it all but I want to offer some feedback. The gist of what I had to say was that I don't believe that the child's death in 2 Samuel was a direct result of David's sin, but rather a consequence. In other words, it doesn't appear to have been a "wage" of David's sin, but a necessary consequence. notice that Nathan said "...by this deed you HAVE GIVEN OCCASION TO THE ENEMIES OF THE LORD TO BLASPHEME...(emphasis added). I elaborated on this in my prior post, but let me just say this here. Could it be that God was protecting the lineage; the throne? If the child would have been allowed to live, would he have succeeded the throne of David? I see the child's death as a "consequence" rather than a "wage". Regarding Deut. 24:16 we have a completely different context. Here, the parameters of man's justice are set. God determined what would be legitimate concerning man taking the life of man. But man has no authority to hold God to those same standards. Again, I elaborated on this and will again if necessary. Finally, Ezekiel 18:20 needs to be considered in the context of the whole chapter. A significant amount of space was used to make a point here. It's important here to recognize that the passage always refers to accountability. In other words, each person referred to (son and father) is referred to in regard to their own accountable behavior. That is, faithfulness or wickedness. The message appears to be that one is not condemned by his father's sin. We surely can not conclude that a father's sin will not result in the death of his child. A drunk driver with his child in the car would be a good example. The father crashes because he is too impared to drive and the child dies. Hope this adds to your consideration on the topic. Sorry I lost the more in-depth post. Jeff |