The King's Blessing and the King's Blind Spot Text: 2 Samuel 5:13-16
Introduction: When Blessings Become Snares
We come now to a portion of David's story that is, for the modern evangelical mind, somewhat awkward. We like our heroes clean, our narratives simple, and our sins obvious. But the Bible is not a modern book, and it refuses to offer us such sanitized saints. In the previous verses, David has been anointed king over all Israel. He has conquered Jerusalem, the stronghold of Zion, and established it as his capital. We are told plainly that "David went on and became great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him" (2 Sam. 5:10). Hiram, a gentile king, sends materials and men to build David a palace. David perceives, rightly, that the Lord has established him as king for the sake of His people Israel. Everything is going right. The blessing of God is as plain as the nose on your face.
And it is right here, at the high-water mark of God's manifest blessing, that we find David disobeying a clear command of God. We see him doing precisely what God told the kings of Israel not to do. This is not a secret sin, hidden in a corner. It is a public, royal, and expansive sin. And the text records it for us in a very matter-of-fact way, almost like a footnote to his success. But with God, there are no footnotes. Everything is part of the main text.
This presents us with a profound theological lesson, one that is absolutely essential for our spiritual maturity. The lesson is this: great blessing and great sin can, and often do, coexist in the same man at the same time. We have a tendency to think that if God is blessing a man's ministry or work, then that man must be walking in near-perfect obedience. Conversely, we assume that if a man is entangled in significant sin, the blessing of God must be absent. This passage demolishes that simplistic framework. David is being blessed, and David is sinning. God is establishing his throne, and David is simultaneously undermining it. This is not a contradiction; it is a revelation of the profound complexity of God's grace and the stubborn persistence of our sin.
This passage is a warning to us. When God blesses you, when your business thrives, when your family grows, when your reputation expands, that is precisely the moment to be on your guard. The devil loves to fish in the warm waters of our prosperity. Our greatest victories often contain the seeds of our most humiliating defeats. David's strength became his snare, and the very blessings of stability and power became the occasion for his sin of indulgence.
The Text
And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David. Now these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada and Eliphelet.
(2 Samuel 5:13-16 LSB)
A King's Disobedience (v. 13)
We begin with the straightforward, and troubling, statement in verse 13.
"And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron; and more sons and daughters were born to David." (2 Samuel 5:13)
Now, we must be clear. In our culture, which has made an idol of romantic monogamy on the one hand and sexual libertinism on the other, this sounds like unvarnished hedonism. And it is a sin. But we must define the sin as God defines it. The sin here is not primarily about lust, though that was certainly involved. The sin is one of direct disobedience to God's explicit command for Israel's kings. In Deuteronomy, Moses lays out the rules for any future king, and he says this: "Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away" (Deut. 17:17). He is also forbidden from multiplying horses (military trust) and multiplying silver and gold (materialistic trust). The king was to be set apart, trusting in God alone, not in the standard tools of pagan statecraft: political alliances through marriage, military might, and massive wealth.
David, now secure in his capital, does exactly what he was told not to do. He multiplies wives. He already had multiple wives from his time in Hebron. Now, in Jerusalem, the seat of his power, he expands his harem. This was standard practice for any oriental monarch. A large harem was a status symbol. It was a way of making political alliances and projecting power and virility. David was acting like a king of the nations, instead of the king of God's people. He was adopting the metrics of the world.
This is a subtle but deadly form of worldliness. It is not that David threw off the worship of Yahweh. He is still the sweet psalmist of Israel. But he is compromising. He is blending the patterns of the world with the calling of God. He is building God's kingdom with one hand and his own carnal empire with the other. And this is the constant temptation for successful Christians. We start to believe that the tools and techniques of the world are necessary to advance the kingdom of God. We begin to trust in political maneuvering, marketing savvy, or financial strength, rather than in the simple power of the Word and Spirit. David's sin here is a sin of syncretism. It is a failure to remain distinct.
And notice the result: "more sons and daughters were born to David." On the surface, this is a sign of God's blessing. Children are a heritage from the Lord. But these children are born into a tangled, chaotic, and deeply dysfunctional family environment. This multiplication of wives will lead directly to the heartache, rebellion, and bloodshed that will plague the rest of David's reign. Amnon's rape of Tamar, Absalom's murder of Amnon, and Absalom's treasonous rebellion all grow in the polluted soil of David's polygamous household. Sin always bears fruit, and the fruit of this sin will be bitter.
A Roster of Grace (v. 14-16)
The text then gives us a list, a simple genealogy of the sons born in Jerusalem.
"Now these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada and Eliphelet." (2 Samuel 5:14-16 LSB)
Why does the Holy Spirit include this list? It seems like a dry interruption to the narrative. But in Scripture, genealogies are never just filler. They are roadmaps of redemption. They trace the line of God's covenant promises through the mess of human history. And this list is particularly potent, for it contains within it a stunning display of God's sovereign grace, which works in, through, and despite David's sin.
Two names on this list should leap out at us: Nathan and Solomon. Let's consider them in turn.
First, Nathan. One of the sons born into this compromised household is named Nathan. Later in David's life, after his horrific sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah, God will send a prophet to confront him. That prophet's name is also Nathan. It is a beautiful irony of God's providence that the name of the son born out of David's compromised indulgence would be the same as the name of the prophet who would call him to repentance for his ultimate indulgence. God was planting a witness against David right in his own nursery. It's a reminder that God's grace to us includes not just blessing, but also rebuke. The grace of Nathan the prophet was just as necessary for David as the grace of his victories. And we should not miss that the Gospel of Luke traces the lineage of Jesus back to David, not through Solomon the king, but through this very Nathan, the son of David (Luke 3:31).
Second, and most famously, we have Solomon. Solomon is listed here. Now, we know from the later narrative that Solomon was the son of Bathsheba, born after their first child, conceived in adultery, had died as a consequence of David's sin. His inclusion in this list, born out of the fruit of David's multiplying of wives, is a staggering testimony to the grace of God. God had promised David an heir whose throne would be established forever (2 Samuel 7). And who does God choose to fulfill this promise? He chooses the son born from the most scandalous and sinful union of David's life. He doesn't pick a son from a more "respectable" wife. He sovereignly reaches into the wreckage of David's sin and pulls out the man who will build His temple and carry the royal line.
This is the Gospel in miniature. God does not wait for us to clean up our act before He works. He writes straight with crooked lines. He takes our sin, our disobedience, our compromised messes, and He weaves them into the tapestry of His perfect plan. The presence of Solomon in this list is a shout from the heavens that God's covenant is not dependent on our faithfulness, but on His. Our sin is great, but His grace is greater.
Conclusion: The Greater David
So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we must take the warning to heart. David was a man after God's own heart, and yet he was capable of this. Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Do not trifle with sin. Do not think that God's blessing on your life gives you a license to disobey His clear commands. David's sin led to untold misery for his family and his kingdom. Sin has consequences, even for the forgiven.
Second, we must marvel at the grace of God. This passage shows us a flawed king, a disobedient king. And in his flaws, David points us to the king we truly need. David multiplied wives, whose hearts would eventually be turned away. But Jesus, the greater David, has one bride, the Church, and He purifies her, making her holy and without blemish. David built a harem out of self-indulgence. Christ builds His church out of self-sacrifice.
The genealogy here, rooted in David's sin, ultimately leads to the genealogy in Matthew 1. And that genealogy is also filled with scandalous grace, with names like Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and "the wife of Uriah." The royal line that leads to the Messiah is a trail of grace, marking the spots where God intervened in the lives of broken, sinful people to accomplish His unstoppable purpose.
This passage, then, forces us to look away from David and to look to Christ. David, in his strength, failed. David, in his blessing, sinned. But Jesus Christ, the Son of David, never failed. He was tempted in every way, yet was without sin. He is the perfect king. David's throne was established despite his sin, but Christ's throne is established because of His perfect righteousness. And because He is our king, we who are part of His kingdom can find forgiveness for our own compromised and messy lives. We can bring our own disobedient hearts to Him, and know that just as He brought Solomon out of David's failure, He can bring righteousness and redemption out of ours, all for His glory.