Grace From the Rubble: The Jedidiah Principle Text: 2 Samuel 12:24-25
Introduction: The Scandal of Electing Love
We live in an age that wants a tame God, a manageable God, a God who plays by our rules of fairness. We want a God of grace, certainly, but we want it to be a sensible grace, a grace that rewards the penitent in a proportionate and predictable way. We want a grace that tidies up, not one that builds a palace on top of a toxic waste dump. But the God of Scripture is not this tame God. His grace is not sensible; it is scandalous. It is offensive to the self righteous and bewildering to the sentimental.
And nowhere is this scandalous grace more potent, more shocking, than in the verses before us today. We have just come through one of the most sordid and foul episodes in the life of any saint. David, the man after God's own heart, has committed adultery with the wife of a faithful soldier. To cover his sin, he has arranged for that soldier's murder. He has lied, he has schemed, he has taken the Lord's name in vain. And when confronted by Nathan the prophet, God's judgment is swift and terrible. The sword will never depart from his house, and the child conceived in this adulterous union will die.
The child dies. The judgment falls. David repents, a true and gut wrenching repentance that we have recorded for us in Psalm 51. And this is where our modern, tidy view of religion would like the story to pause. David is forgiven, but he must now live quietly with the consequences. He is on probation. He has a long road of earning back God's favor. But that is not what happens. What happens next is a thunderclap of sovereign grace that demolishes all our neat and tidy categories. God does not just restore David; He blesses him in a way that is utterly disproportionate and, to the world, utterly unjust. He takes the very ground zero of David's sin, the marriage bed with Bathsheba, and makes it the soil from which the golden age of Israel will spring. This is not a story about God making the best of a bad situation. This is a story about God displaying the glorious riches of His grace for His own name's sake.
The Text
Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon. Now Yahweh loved him and sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah for the sake of Yahweh.
(2 Samuel 12:24-25 LSB)
Covenant Comfort and Restoration (v. 24a)
We begin with the first action after the grief.
"Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon." (2 Samuel 12:24)
Notice the first thing David does after his own repentance and the death of the child. He comforted his wife. This is not a minor detail. This is covenantal leadership. David, as the federal head of his household, had led Bathsheba into this sin and disaster. Now, having been restored to God himself, his first duty is to lead her toward restoration. Comfort here is not cheap sentiment. It is the application of the grace David himself had received. He is functioning as a husband, as a priest in his home. He is bringing the gospel of forgiveness to his grieving wife. The sin was shared, the grief is shared, and now the comfort must be shared.
And this comfort is immediately followed by the restoration of their marital union. "He went in to her and lay with her." The world would say this relationship is tainted, polluted beyond repair. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The very act that began this whole catastrophe is here redeemed and sanctified by repentance and forgiveness. God does not tell them to live as brother and sister for the rest of their lives in shame. He honors the marriage covenant. He blesses their physical union. This is a powerful statement against a gnostic view of spirituality that would separate the spiritual from the physical. God's grace cleanses all of it, right down to the marriage bed.
And from this restored union comes a son. Not a curse, not another judgment, but a gift. And David names him Solomon. The name means "peaceful." After the violence, the turmoil, the intrigue, and the judgment, God's answer is peace. David, the man of war, names his son "peace." This is an act of faith. David is acknowledging that any peace they will have is a gift from God. He is looking forward, not backward. He is claiming God's promise of grace, not wallowing in his past sin. To name a child is an act of dominion and prophecy. David is declaring what he believes God will do through this child.
The Divine Declaration (v. 24b-25)
But David's faith is immediately met with a divine confirmation that goes far beyond what he could have asked or imagined.
"Now Yahweh loved him and sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah for the sake of Yahweh." (2 Samuel 12:24-25 LSB)
Here is the heart of the matter. "Now Yahweh loved him." This is one of the most staggering statements in all of Scripture. This love is not a reaction to Solomon's potential. It is not a reward for David's repentance. It is a sovereign, electing, initiating love. God sets His affection on this child, the second child of this tragic union, simply because He chooses to. This is the doctrine of election in miniature. God's love is the cause, not the result, of any goodness in us. He does not love us because we are lovely; He makes us lovely because He loves us. This love is a fiat, a creative act. It is a direct refutation of any theology based on merit or karma.
And God does not keep this love a secret. He sends a messenger, and notice who it is. It is Nathan the prophet. The same man who came with the terrifying word of judgment, "You are the man," now comes with the astounding word of grace. This is the nature of true biblical ministry. The law exposes the sin, and the gospel declares the pardon. Nathan's first visit brought David to his knees in terror. His second visit must have brought David and Bathsheba to their knees in wonder. The same God who judges sin is the God who delights in showing mercy.
And God gives the child a name of His own. "He named him Jedidiah." This means "Beloved of Yahweh." God is not content for His love to be an abstract feeling. He makes it an objective declaration. He puts His own name, His own reputation, on this child. David named him Solomon, "Peaceful," which was an expression of faith and hope. But God names him Jedidiah, "Beloved of Yahweh," which is a statement of divine fact. This is God's seal of approval, His covenant name placed upon this child. This is a picture of what God does for us in Christ. We are accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:6). God looks at us, sinners from a ruined line, and because we are united to His Son, He calls us "Jedidiah."
The final phrase is the key to the whole passage: "for the sake of Yahweh." Why did God do this? Why this lavish, scandalous grace? He did it for His own sake. To display His character. To show that His covenant promises to David were not dependent on David's faithfulness, but on God's. To demonstrate that His grace is not a repair job but a resurrection. He was putting His own glory on display. He was showing the world what kind of God He is, a God who raises life from the dead and calls into being things that are not.
The Gospel of Jedidiah
This story is our story. It is the gospel in narrative form. Like David, we are sinners whose transgressions are grievous. Our sin has brought death into the world. We stand under the righteous judgment of God, and the consequences are all around us. We are born of a broken covenant with Adam.
But God, in His mercy, does not leave us in the rubble. He comforts us with the promise of forgiveness. He restores our broken fellowship with Him. And He gives us a Son. Not just a Solomon, but a greater Solomon, the true Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
And what does the Father say of this Jesus at His baptism? "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). Jesus is the ultimate Jedidiah, the eternally Beloved of Yahweh. And the miracle of the gospel is this: when we, by faith, are united to this true Jedidiah, the Father looks at us and says the same thing. He declares His love for us. He gives us a new name. He accepts us, not for our sake, but "for the sake of Yahweh," for the glory of His Son.
The birth of Solomon from the ashes of David's sin is a staggering preview of the cross. At the cross, the greatest sin in human history, the murder of the Son of God, became the very instrument of our salvation. God took the ultimate evil and turned it into the ultimate good. He brought the greatest glory to His name out of the greatest shame. That is the Jedidiah principle. It is the principle that God's grace is not just for our small and respectable sins. It is a grace powerful enough to invade the darkest, most shameful corners of our lives and build a throne room there. It is a grace that is utterly and wonderfully scandalous.