Repentance and Earthly Consequences: the Consequences of David’s Sins–including Jesus

Though God forgave David his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah, this sin had a traceable chain of earthly consequences which extends to the present and which includes the death of Christ on the cross.

As the previous post began to explain, although King David fully repented of both of his great sins, there was a marked difference between the earthly consequences that flowed from the sin involving Uriah and Bathsheba and the sin involving the census. Taking the census without collecting the required atonement offering resulted in the rapid death of a large number of people in a plague, but there seem to have been no other long-term consequences. To be sure, even the best of David’s successors as king of ancient Israel or Judah sometimes lapsed into pride and behaved as if they were the cause of their own success, with attendant consequences for their pride (not David’s). But it is never said that David’s pride in taking the census was the cause of his successors’ pride. Destructive pride is simply an occupational hazard of high office.

By contrast, David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband had both short term consequences and severe long term consequences which extend to the present. I have already mentioned some of the short-term consequences: even after David repented, Bathsheba was still pregnant, poor Uriah was still dead, and his army commander and cousin, Joab, was still implicated, had “dirt” on David, and had to be treated carefully. Further, in confronting David, Nathan prophesied the child of adultery would die, and this subsequently happened. (2 Samuel 12:13-19). Moreover, in the process of rectifying his sin with Bathsheba–and her father, Eliam the Gilonite, his mighty man, and Eliam’s father, Ahithophel the Gilonite, David’s chief counselor (2 Samuel 11:3; 2 Samuel 23:34; 1 Chronicles 27:33)–David promised that when he died, the throne would go to one of his sons by Bathsheba, in preference to any of his many older sons by his other wives. (1 Kings 1:17, 29-30). This promise caused trouble later!

But this gets us ahead of the story. When Nathan confronted David, he prophesied that, because David had unjustly killed Uriah “by the sword of the sons of Ammon,” the public consequence would be that “the sword” would never leave David’s house (2 Samuel 12: 1-12). This judgment affected David and all of his descendants who succeeded to his throne, and still affects the world today.

First came the manifestations of the sword against David’s own immediate family while he was still king. The first of these happened even before the soldiers returned from the campaign in Ammon. The army under Joab’s command conquered Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, and Joab rebelled: “Joab sent messengers to David, and said, ‘I have fought against Rabbah. Yes, I have taken the city of waters. Now therefore 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.'” (2 Samuel 12:27-28.) This forced David to muster the rest of his army and take Rabbah from Joab. Yet David took no further action against Joab for his rebellion. (2 Samuel 12:29-31.) He could not–because Joab knew too much! Joab remained the commander of David’s army until the rebellion of Adonijah, shortly before David’s death.

The sword next entered David’s family when his oldest son Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-20; 2 Samuel 3:2). This rape was exactly in the image of David’s sin with Bathsheba. David heard of it and was very angry, but did nothing. (2 Samuel 13:21).

However, David’s inaction against Amnon–with whom he shared similar guilt–ultimately led to rebellion by Tamar’s full brother Absalom. Absalom first carried out a plot to murder Amnon, after three years of quiet hatred. (2 Samuel 13:22-38). Doing justice for Tamar was David’s job, but his inaction forced her brother Absalom, who would have been third in line for the throne had not David promised it to Bathsheba’s son Solomon, to take his own revenge. Absalom’s and Tamar’s mother was a foreign wife of David, the daughter of the pagan king of Geshur (2 Samuel 3:3). There followed a period of years during which Absalom fled into exile in Geshur, where he was protected by his grandfather. He then obtained the help of Joab–who, it will be recalled, also knew David’s secret–to obtain his father’s permission to return to Israel and, ultimately, see his father. 2 Samuel 14. However, Absalom’s return to Jerusalem and meeting with his father were just a set up for an armed rebellion that nearly deposed King David. (2 Samuel 15:1-18:17). Bathsheba’s grandfather, David’s counselor Ahithophel, joined Absalom in his rebellion. (2 Samuel 15:31). In the process of advising Absalom, Ahithophel gave him advice that caused one of Nathan’s prophecies to be exactly fulfilled. Nathan had said:

This is what Yahweh says: “Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.  For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.”

2 Samuel 12:11-12.

During the rebellion, Ahithophel advised Absalom to “go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.” 2 Samuel 16:21. Absalom complied: “So they spread a tent for Absalom on the top of the house, and Absalom went in to his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.” 2 Samuel 16:22. Thus, Nathan’s prophecy about David’s neighbor taking his wives publicly, before the sun, was precisely fulfilled by Absalom.

After this, however, God started to defeat Ahithophel’ advice. The forces loyal to David ultimately defeated those of Absalom. However, in the process, Joab became insubordinate again. David had ordered his forces to be gentle with Absalom if they were to capture him. 2 Samuel 18:5. Instead, when told by his men that Absalom was alive but stuck in a tree by his hair, Joab went to the location and killed Absalom on the spot, even though bystanders reminded him of the king’s orders. (2 Samuel 18:4-18). Once again, David failed to take any action against Joab. Joab’s insubordination, putting his private grudges ahead of the king’s orders, killing those who were at peace with the king, continued thereafter (see 1 Kings 2:5-6).

David next faced a rebellion led by Sheba the son of Bichri, who was a Benjamite, and thus related to King Saul. ( 2 Samuel 20).

Finally, literally on his deathbed, David faced the rebellion of his fourth son, Adonijah, seeking to prevent the crown from going to his ninth son, Solomon, as David had promised Bathsheba (1 Kings 1). Joab followed Adonijah in his rebellion, leading to his execution early in the reign of King Solomon. (1 Kings 2:28-35).

On the night after King Solomon dedicated the Temple, God appeared to him in a dream and gave him a promise and a warning:

 “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for myself for a house of sacrifice.

“If I shut up the sky so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to prayer that is made in this place.  For now I have chosen and made this house holy, that my name may be there forever; and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually.

“As for you, if you will walk before me as David your father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances; then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, according as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘There shall not fail you a man to be ruler in Israel.’

But if you turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then I will pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. This house, which is so high, everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall say, ‘Why has Yahweh done this to this land and to this house?’ They shall answer, ‘Because they abandoned Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and took other gods, worshiped them, and served them. Therefore he has brought all this evil on them.’”

2 Chronicles 7:12b-22; compare 1 Kings 9:3-9.

King Solomon started his reign as the wisest man ever, by God’s gift (1 Kings 3:5-15, 4:29-34; 1 Chronicles 22), but his first wife was a foreigner, the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh. ( 1 Kings 3:1 ). Recall also that his father David had nine named wives, one of whom was foreign (Absalom’s and Tamar’s mother) and one of whom was stolen (Bathsheba). David also had at least ten concubines. What David allowed himself in relative moderation, his son Solomon took to great excess. Solomon ultimately acquired 300 wives and 700 concubines, many of them foreigners, whom he followed into idolatry ( 1 Kings 11:1-13). He also hoarded massive amounts of gold and many horses and chariots (1 Kings 9:26-28; 1 Kings 10:14-29). This hoarding of wives and possessions was an extension of the same kind of pride his father David had shown–and quickly repented of–in taking the census. It was also directly contrary to God’s warnings in his Law. (Deuteronomy 17:15-17; 8:11-14). But Solomon did not repent. He gradually abandoned God in his personal life, instead favoring sensuality and indulgence. (Ecclesiastes 1:16-18; 2:3-16; 3:22).

This gradual slide away from God led to consequences, even during Solomon’s lifetime. Toward the end of his reign, Solomon faced domestic opposition and revolt, This started with another direct warning from God to Solomon:

Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him regarding this thing, that he was not to follow other gods; but he did not comply with what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, “Since you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will certainly tear the kingdom away from you, and will give it to your servant. However, I will not do it in your days, only for the sake of your father David; but I will tear it away from the hand of your son. Yet I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”

1 Kings 11:9-13.

The first two of Solomon’s adversaries were enemies of foreign nationality who had fled during the reign of King David. Hadad, of the royal family of Edom, had taken refuge in the court of the Pharaoh of Egypt when David conquered Edom. It will be recalled that Solomon’s first wife was the daughter of the Pharaoh, and that his acquisition of 999 other women both diluted her influence and rendered it quite unlikely that Solomon’s successor would be a grandson of the Pharaoh (which was the whole point of the dynastic marriage). This gradually made the Pharaoh into an aggrieved in-law rather than an ally. So, when the appropriate time came, Pharaoh was willing to permit Hadad to return to Edom to make trouble for Solomon. 1 Kings 11:14-22. The second of these foreign adversaries was Rezon, an exile from Zobah in Syria, an area conquered by David. Rezon, we are told, at first led raiding bands against Israel, then, during Solomon’ reign, God permitted him to set himself up as king of Damascus, taking Syria (Aram) out of Solomon’s domain and making it an active adversary to Solomon and all later rulers of Israel. 1 Kings 11:23-25.

Then, finally, one of Solomon’s own officers, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, rebelled against him. Jeroboam was the officer in charge of Solomon’s forced labor levies from the northern tribes, 1 Kings 11:28, a fact which becomes of vital importance during the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam. God himself directly instigated Jeroboam’s rebellion, by sending the prophet Ahijah to him with a message:

And it came about at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Now Ahijah had clothed himself with a new cloak; and both of them were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which was on him and tore it into twelve pieces.  And he said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces; for this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to tear the kingdom away from the hand of Solomon and give you ten tribes  (but he shall have one tribe, for the sake of My servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel), because they have abandoned Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My sight and keeping My statutes and My ordinances, as his father David did. Nevertheless I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of My servant David whom I chose, who kept My commandments and My statutes; but I will take the kingdom from his son’s hand and give it to you; that is, ten tribes. But to his son I will give one tribe, so that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen for Myself to put My name. However I will take you, and you shall reign over all that you desire, and you shall be king over Israel. Then it shall be, that if you listen to all that I command you and walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight by keeping My statutes and My commandments, as My servant David did, then I will be with you and build you an enduring house as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. So I will oppress the descendants of David for this, but not always.’”

1 Kings 11:29-39

When Solomon heard of this, he tried to have Jeroboam killed, but Jeroboam took asylum in the court of the king of Egypt–now firmly Solomon’s enemy–until Solomon died. 1 Kings 11:40-43.

After the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam was presented with two important choices–1) he could listen to his pride or listen to the people and to good advice, and 2) he could lead the people back to God or continue in idolatry. Rehoboam made the first choice very badly. When the people came to him to ask him to reduce the taxes and forced labor levies (which, you will recall, Jeroboam had once administered) imposed by his father, he rejected good advice and went with his pride instead, promising instead to increase the burden his father had placed on the people. 2 Chronicles 10:1-14. As a result, the northern ten tribes rebelled, setting up Jeroboam as their king, just as Ahijah had prophesied. 2 Chronicles 10:15-18. From that time on, the northern kingdom of Israel was an adversary of the descendants of David reigning in Judah, until the northern tribes were carried into exile by the neo-Assyrian Empire centuries later. 2 Chronicles 10:19; 2 Kings 15:32-16:9 .

Rehoboam’s record as to the second choice was more equivocal. For the first three years of his reign, Rehoboam worshipped the true God. 2 Chronicles 11:16-17. But, then, “when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the Law of the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 12:1. He led them into all of the same idolatrous practices as the nations around them. 1 Kings 14:22-24. As a result, Egypt and its North African allies attacked Judah, taking all of the fortified cities except Jerusalem. 2 Chronicles 12:2-5. God sent the prophet Shemiah to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah with the message that “you have abandoned me, so I also have abandoned you” to the Egyptians, and Rehoboam and the princes “humbled themselves” and admitted that “the Lord is righteous” in bringing Egypt upon them. 2 Chronicles 12:5-6. God’s response granted them some relief, but predicted they would continue to be servants of foreign kings:

When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them; and I will grant them a little deliverance, and My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak. But they will become his slaves, so that they may learn the difference between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”

2 Chronicles 12:7-8 (WEB)

The king of Egypt took the treasures Solomon had stored in Jerusalem, then left Judah with Rehoboam as a vassal king. 1 Kings 14:25-28. But, despite the brief moment of humility and remorse, Rehoboam after that time continued to do evil, “because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.” 2 Chronicles 12:14.

Rehoboam’s loss of the northern tribes and reduction to an Egyptian vassal not only directly fulfilled the warnings God had given to Solomon and the prophesies of Ahijah and Shemiah, but it was also another direct confirmation that the “sword” of his enemies, which David had admitted into his house by having Uriah murdered by the Ammonites, would “never leave” David’s house. From the time of Rehoboam on, all of the kings of Judah had wars–wars against the northern kingdom Israel, against local enemies like Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Syria (Aram/ Damascus), and often also against regional powers like Egypt, the neo-Assyrian Empire, and, later, the Babylonian Empire. All of Judah’s later kings remained in power at least in part by the grace of foreign kings or empires with which they were allied, and most of them were explicitly vassals of some foreign power and had to play a delicate game of power politics balancing the interests of their neighbors and of the current competing regional powers. This was all a result of the “sword” David had let into his house, which God had said would never leave it.

After he became king of the northern tribes, Jeroboam forgot Ahijah’s promise and warning, and lead his kingdom into permanent idolatry, placing two calves their king could manipulate in the place of the true God “who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” He also made appointment to the priesthood of his new gods a royal prerogative, likely as a source of both influence and revenue:

Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will return to David’s house.  If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in Yahweh’s house at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”  So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” He set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. This thing became a sin; for the people went even as far as Dan to worship before the one there. He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.  Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. He went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense.

1 Kings 12:26-33 (WEB).

King Jeroboam is the clearest example in the scriptures of the politicization of religion–the establishment of a false religion that contains some elements of the truth (the true God really did bring Israel up out of Egypt) but that exists to support the current human regime. Jeroboam was not alone in this–all of the other nations have always had official cults for the same purpose (see Idols=Gods we can Manipulate), a fact which is unfortunately true to the present day. The northern tribes, as a whole, never returned to the true God, though God always preserved a few faithful ones among them. 1 Kings 19:18.

The people of Judah also rushed into idolatry in Rehoboam’s day (1 Kings 14:23).

All of Rehoboam’s successors had wars, often with Jeroboam’s successors.

Many of the later kings of Judah were “bad” kings, who “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” and followed the lead of the kings of the northern kingdom or of their predecessors, leading their people in to easily manipulable idolatry: Rehoboam, Jehoram/Joram son of Jehoshaphat (who married Athaliah daughter of King Omri of Israel, the father of King Ahab, 2 Kings 8:16-18), Ahaziah (son of Joram and Athaliah, also married wife from Ahab’s house, 2 Kings 8:24-26), Joash after the death of Jehoiada the High Priest (he had been a “good” king before that; his was a case of inverse repentance–2 Chronicles 24:17-22), Amaziah after his victory over Edom (another case of “inverse repentance,” he worshipped the gods of the Edomites he had just defeated, 2 Chronicles 25:14-16), Ahaz (2 Kings 16:1-4, 9-16; 2 Chronicles 28:1-4, 16-20), Manasseh (2 Kings 21:1-15, who after a dissolute reign repented in captivity and was restored, 2 Chronicles 33:10-19), Amon (2 Kings 21:19-22), Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:32), Eliakim/Jehoiakim (2 Kings 23:37), Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:8-9) and Zedekiah (2 Kings 24:18-20).

Of all of the kings from Solomon to the Exile, only four died peaceful, natural deaths in Jerusalem under honorable circumstances: Rehoboam, Abijam/Abijah (though he only reigned 3 years) (1 Kings 15:1-8), Jehoshaphat (1 Kings 22:50), Jotham son of Azariah (Uzziah) (2 Kings 15:38, 2 Chronicles 27:9) and Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:21, with high honor 2 Chronicles 32:33). Manasseh died under unspecified, but apparently honorable, circumstances (2 Chronicles 33:20), but only after repenting of his wickedness in captivity and being released to return to Jerusalem. ( 2 Chronicles 33:10-19 ). Jehoiakim died in an unspecified manner, but under dishonorable circumstances (2 Kings 24:6).

Josiah, the last and best of the “good” kings, was the only one of Rehoboam’s successors to die honorably in battle–and, even then, it was in a battle he had been warned to avoid (2 Kings 23:29-30; 2 Chronicles 35:20-24).

All of Solomon’s other successors died violently or under circumstances evidencing obvious judgment.

Three later kings of Judah died by slow, painful illnesses that are described as judgments from God. Asa died of a painful disease in his feet, after becoming angry with and imprisoning a prophet who reproved him for entering into an alliance with Damascus instead of trusting God (which was a form of idolatry, trusting in Syria rather than God, though Asa did not lead the people into worship of idol images) and also “oppressing” some of the people at this time. (1 Kings 15:14-24, 2 Chronicles 16:1-14). Jehoram died of a bowel disease that lasted two years and ultimately caused his bowels to come out, as prophesied by Elijah, following his murder of his brothers and his open leadership in idolatry. (2 Chronicles 21:12-15, 18-20, “he died to no one’s regret”). Azariah (Uzziah) lived many years as a leper, after he became proud, tried to be a priest, and became angry when rebuked by the priests (2 Kings 14:21-22, 15:5-7; 2 Chronicles 26:1-5, 16-23).

Assassination within the royal family was common: Kings Joash (2 Kings 12:20-21, 2 Chronicles 24:25), Amaziah (2 Kings 14:18-20, 2 Chronicles 25:27) and Amon (2 Kings 21:21-23, 2 Chronicles 33:22-24) were assassinated by their own courtesans. King Jehoram killed all of his brothers, the other sons of King Jehoshaphat. (2 Chronicles 21:4). In turn, all of the sons of Jehoram older than Ahaziah were killed by Arab raiders after the death of Jehoram (2 Chronicles 22:1-2). King Ahaziah of Judah was assassinated by King Jehu of Israel at the same time he assassinated King Joram/Jehoram of Israel during a coup and ended the dynasty of Omri (2 Kings 9:22-28). Thereupon, Ahaziah’s mother, Athaliah the daughter of King Ahab of Israel (thus, the last survivor of the dynasty slaughtered by Jehu), made herself Queen in Judah by killing all of the royal offspring at the time of Ahaziah’s death except Joash (an infant who was hidden in the Temple by his aunt). (2 Kings 11:1-3) . This was a family that frequently liked to kill each other to solidify their own power.

Starting with the death of Josiah, the southern kingdom went into exile, in two shifts. The people of the land made Josiah’s son Jehoahaz king, but he only reigned briefly, until the retreating armies of Egypt–which had killed Josiah but still lost in battle (along with their Assyrian allies) to the Babylonians at Carchemish–reached Jerusalem. The Egyptians wanted to appoint their own puppet king in Judah. They took Jehoahaz into imprisonment in Egypt, and appointed his brother Eliakim as king, renaming him Jehoiakim. Jehoahaz died as a prisoner in Egypt. (2 Kings 23:31-34; 2 Chronicles 36:1-4). Jehoiakim reigned for eleven years as an Egyptian vassal, and did all the same evil as his worst ancestors. He remained in office until the Babylonian emperor decided it was time to put an end to Egypt’s power. Jehoiakim, under pressure, first changed his allegiance from Egypt to Babylon, and became a Babylonian vassal. But three years later he rebelled, provoking an invasion in which Jehoiakim was taken away in chains to be brought to Babylon, but may have died before he reached that city. (2 Kings 23:34-24:6; 2 Chronicles 36:4-8). The throne then passed to Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin/ Jeconiah/ Coniah (all three names are used at different places in scripture). Jehoiachin was quite young when he became king, did all the same evil things his father had done, and reigned for only three months–until the king of Babylon had dealt with other matters and had time to pay attention to the administration of conquered Judah. When the Babylonians returned, they carried Jehoiachin and most of the important people of the land into captivity in Babylon, leaving only the poorest of the people to tend the land (this was the first Exile). (2 Kings 24:6-16; 2 Chronicles 36:8-10). The Babylonians then appointed Mattaniah, one of Josiah’s sons and, thus, Jehoiachin’s uncle, as puppet king of Judah, renaming him Zedekiah. Zedekiah also did evil during the eleven years of his reign, and rebelled against the king of Babylon in the eighth year of his reign, leading to an extended siege, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the carrying away of the rest of the people and wealth of Judah to Babylon (this was the second Exile). (2 Kings 24:17-25:21; 2 Chronicles 36:10-21). Nebuchadnezzar killed all of Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, then had him blinded and taken captive to Babylon. (2 Kings 25:6-7). Thus, Zedekiah’s line did not survive, and the most legitimate royal line after the second Exile was that of Jehoiachin, who was at that time imprisoned in Babylon.

However, Jehoiachin’s line had a problem. The prophet Jeremiah declared that the Jews carried away in the first Exile–the one that occurred at the end of Jehoiachin’s reign–had God’s favor, would return to God with all their hearts and would ultimately be restored to the land, but he appeared to make Jehoiachin himself an exception to this. The promise to those taken in the first Exile was:

Yahweh showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were set before Yahweh’s temple, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.  One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Then Yahweh asked me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”

I said, “Figs. The good figs are very good, and the bad are very bad, so bad that can’t be eaten.”

Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, “Yahweh, the God of Israel says: ‘Like these good figs, so I will regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good. For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land. I will build them, and not pull them down. I will plant them, and not pluck them up.  I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Yahweh. They will be my people, and I will be their God; for they will return to me with their whole heart.'”

Jeremiah 24:1-7.

And, further,

Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the captives whom I have caused to be carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit.  Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished.  Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to Yahweh for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”  For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you. Don’t listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.  For they prophesy falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them,” says Yahweh.  For Yahweh says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.  You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You shall seek me, and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,” says Yahweh, “and I will turn again your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says Yahweh. I will bring you again to the place from where I caused you to be carried away captive.”

Jeremiah 29:4-14.

But of Jehoiachin (a/k/a Coniah) himself, and his descendants, Jeremiah said:

 “As I live,” says Yahweh, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, I would still pluck you from there. I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. I will cast you out with your mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die. But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there they will not return.”

Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel?
    Is he a vessel in which no one delights?
Why are they cast out, he and his offspring,
    and cast into a land which they don’t know?
O earth, earth, earth,
    hear Yahweh’s word!
Yahweh says,
    “Record this man as childless,
    a man who will not prosper in his days;
for no more will a man of his offspring prosper,
    sitting on David’s throne,
    and ruling in Judah.”

Jeremiah 22:24-30.

At first blush, this prophecy appears to be saying that Jeconiah will have no children. And, in fact, he seems to have had no children when he went into exile. But, on closer reading, it actually presupposes that he will at some point have some children (“he and his offspring”). It would also be easy to read the prophecy as saying that no one descended from any of his children–if, in fact, he had any–would sit on the throne. But this is also not what the prophecy literally says. It allows that some of his descendants may later take the throne, but says that none of them would “prosper” in that capacity. The sword David let loose in his family, which was continued and amplified by the sins of his descendants and the people they ruled, including those of Jehoiachin himself, would prevent his descendants from “prospering,” until it was taken out of the way. Yet Jehoiachin’s descendants were the rightful heirs.

And the people were in exile, outside their land.

But this wasn’t the end of the story. God had promised David a kingdom that would last forever.

Thirty seven years after Jehoiachin went into exile, God gave him favor with Nebuchadnezzar’s successor as king of Babylon. Jehoiachin was then released from his imprisonment, given a measure of honor as one who ate daily with the king of Babylon, and given and a pension. (2 Kings 25:27-30; Jeremiah 52:30-34). After his release from imprisonment, Jehiachin had seven sons, the oldest of which was Shealtiel. (1 Chronicles 3:17-18). More than 600 years later, the Apostle Matthew updated the line of Jehoiachin and Shealtiel as follows:

After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel.  Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim. Eliakim became the father of Azor. Azor became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim. Achim became the father of Eliud. Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

Matthew 1:12-16.

Jesus, though fathered by God, was adopted into this line, which had the hereditary right to rule Israel.

Meanwhile, David had fathered sons other than Solomon, who became his successor, and the three older sons who had died in civil wars during David’s life. Indeed, Solomon was David’s tenth son; his ninth son–thus, older than Solomon–was named Nathan. (2 Samuel 3:2-5 and 5:13-15; 1 Chronicles 3:1-8 and 14:1-7). Nathan’s line also survived to the Exile and beyond: Luke 3:23c-31 presents the genealogy of Jesus, from his grandfather (or possibly an earlier ancestor?) Heli back to “Nathan, the son of David.” The first part of verse 23, however, has always presented some problems, in that it seems, as a matter of first impression, to say that Joseph’s father was Heli, a different person with an entirely different pedigree than the Matthan identified in Matthew’s genealogy. While some scholars argue that both Matthew and Luke present genealogies of Joseph, with one or the other (though probably Luke) leaving out the name of a female ancestor who belonged to one of the two lines and married into the dominant line, I believe it is more natural to follow the scholars who think Mathew is presenting he line leading to Joseph and Luke is presenting the line leading to Mary–so the female ancestor left out of the presentation in Luke 3 is Mary (who is discussed in detail in the preceding two chapters of Luke). The arguments on all sides of this problem are well-summarized in R.L. Thomas and S.N. Gundy, The Genealogies in Matthew and Luke and D. Miller, The Genealogies of Matthew and Luke (Apologetics Press) (both online resources, at the links provided).

Besides, it makes no difference to the subject of this article–the long term consequences of David’s sin involving Uriah and Bathsheba–whether the line of David’s son Nathan reached Jesus through his mother or through a female ancestor on Joseph’s side. In either case, Mary was also almost certainly a descendant of David through one or more lines–as was every Jew living a millennium after David–even if neither Matthew nor Luke gave us a listing of that pedigree. One of those lines was that of Jehoiachin, leading to Joseph, a line which had the hereditary right to rule, but which could not “prosper” on the throne due to the curses that accumulated between Solomon and Jehoiachin. The other line, regardless of whether it led to Mary or to Joseph, was also derived from David, but was free from all of these curses except the prophet Nathan’s words that the sword would never depart from David’s house because of his sin against Uriah.

Initially, in speaking to and through Mary, Joseph, and Mary’s cousins Zechariah and Elizabeth (the parents of John the Baptizer), God did not speak directly about a “sword.” Instead, he first confirmed that Jesus had been conceived by the Holy Spirit, would be called the son of God and Immanuel–God with us. Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:32, 35. God also affirmed to and through them that Jesus would sit on David’s throne forever–victoriously–delivering his people out of the hand of their enemies, without mentioning the “sword.” Matthew 1:22-23; Luke 1:32-33, 51-55, 68-75. They were also told that Jesus would bring forgiveness, delivering his people from their sins–without elaborating how that would happen. Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:54-55, 72-73, 77-79.

It was only on the eighth day after Jesus was born that the “sword” was mentioned by another prophet, the elderly Simeon, when Joseph and Mary took the baby Jesus to the Temple for his circumcision and to offer the sacrifice required by Leviticus 12:8. Simeon first said of Jesus:

“Now you are releasing your servant, Master,
    according to your word, in peace;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
     which you have prepared before the face of all peoples;
a light for revelation to the nations,
    and the glory of your people Israel.”

Luke 2:29-32 (WEB)

He then told Mary:

“Behold, this child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which is spoken against.  Yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

Luke 2:34b-35

Jesus was born to be King of Israel, sitting on David’s throne. This was revealed not only to his parents and relatives, but also by angels to the shepherds around Bethlehem and by the stars to the Magi who later came to visit him, Matthew 1:20-21; Matthew 2:1-2, 9-11; Luke 1:32-33, 69; Luke 2:10-14. It was also–most shockingly–revealed to his enemies: King Herod, the Pretender to the throne and the “chief priests and scribes,” through the by then ancient prophecy of Micah which the “chief priests and scribes” found for Herod after the visit of the Magi to Jerusalem prompted him to ask where the Messiah would be born. Matthew 2:1-7; Micah 5:2.

But, from the very beginning, at his first coming Jesus did not prosper on the throne of David, fulfilling the curse on Jeconiah’s house. The sword released by David’s sin with Uriah pursued him his whole earthly life. Herod, whose power was threatened, sought to kill Jesus as an infant, ordering all of the young boys around Bethlehem to be killed, a fate from which God protected Jesus by telling his parents to flee to Egypt for several years, then return to Galilee–not Judea–after Herod died. Matthew 2:13-21. Jesus then grew up far away from the halls of power, in the village of Nazareth in “Galilee of the Gentiles.” Matthew 4:12-16, 2:22-23. When he came to his own people bearing his Father’s words and power, his own did not receive him. John 1:9-11, 5:36-42, 10:24-26. During his earthly life visibly among us, he was never a reigning monarch, but, instead, an itinerant preacher. Matthew 8:19-23. The political and religious leaders of his time viewed him as a rival and a threat and hated him. Matthew 12:10-14; Matthew 27:18; Luke 13:30-32; John 11:45-53, 12:19, 37-43. The fickle crowds loved his miracles, but were prone to turn against him when he started talking about his purpose to live in and through them. See, e.g. John 6. Even his closest disciples did not understand the real purpose for which he had come–to create a kingdom within them, not an ordinary political kingdom that would oust the Romans–until after he was raised from the dead. Acts 1:6-8.

In the end, the Sanhedrin agreed with the Chief Priest, Caiaphas, who said:

You know nothing at all, nor do you consider that it is advantageous for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.

John 11:49b-50 (WEB)

Even though Caiaphas spoke out of pure jealousy and hatred, the Apostle John says he “prophesied” in saying this, indicating, among other things, that Jesus’ death would, among other things, be the key to the restoration of Israel:

Now he didn’t say this of himself, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day forward they took counsel that they might put him to death.

John 11:51-53 (WEB).

Jesus was not proclaimed King until he was hanging on the cross:

They began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man perverting the nation, forbidding paying taxes to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.”

Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

He answered him, “So you say.”

Pilate said to the chief priests and the multitudes, “I find no basis for a charge against this man.”

But they insisted, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee even to this place.”

Luke 23:2-5.

Pilate therefore entered again into the Praetorium, called Jesus, and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered him, “Do you say this by yourself, or did others tell you about me?”

Pilate answered, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done?”

Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.”

Pilate therefore said to him, “Are you a king then?”

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”

When he had said this, he went out again to the Jews, and said to them, “I find no basis for a charge against him. But you have a custom, that I should release someone to you at the Passover. Therefore, do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?”

Then they all shouted again, saying, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

John 18:33-40

Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, “Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him.” Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the man!”

When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, “Crucify! Crucify!”

Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him.”

The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”

When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid. He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, “Aren’t you speaking to me? Don’t you know that I have power to release you and have power to crucify you?”

Jesus answered, “You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin.”

At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, “If you release this man, you aren’t Caesar’s friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!”

 When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called “The Pavement”, but in Hebrew, “Gabbatha.” Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold, your King!”

They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!”

Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?”

The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar!”

So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away.  He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called “The Place of a Skull”, which is called in Hebrew, “Golgotha”, where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle. Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, “JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘he said, “I am King of the Jews.”’”

Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

John 19:4-22.

So, in keeping with the curse on Jehoiachin’s line–which Jesus himself bore on the Cross–Jesus did not prosper on the throne of Judah during his earthly ministry. It was only in his death that Pontius Pilate, the representative of the Gentile empire that ruled Judah at the time, proclaimed Jesus King of the Jews! And what he has written, he has written! (Pilate wrote it intending to mock the Jews, but God, who certainly has a sense of irony, intended it literally). Jesus was crowned with thorns. He also himself fully bore the force of the “sword” David had unleashed in his house through his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, and the curses that many of David’s descendants down to and including Jehoiachin had brought on the house. Gpd turned the sins of King David and his line for good, bringing in the Gentiles, that without us, David himself would not be made complete. Romans 11:11-32; Hebrews 11:32, 40.

But, as far as the history of the human race is concerned, King David’s sin is still having visible effects. Jesus has not yet returned to take his throne as earthly King of Israel and to prosper in it. The world is still disturbed by the “sword” David unsheathed, as Palestine, the ancient land of Israel, has been at the center of wars and conflicts repeatedly in the centuries since Jesus was proclaimed King on the Cross, and remains a center of conflict today. These conflicts will continue to simmer, until he returns visibly to rule.

NEXT: You Are Not the One to Build, Part 1: God’s Work, God’s Reputation, and My Acclaim

Series (Future): Sin, Great Sin, Prayer, Repentance and Consequences: The Penitential Psalms:

Traditional liturgical psalm collections list only seven psalms as “pentential” psalms–i.e., psalms suitable for routine prayer by penitent believers in recognition of their sins. These seven psalms are Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143. However, a number of other psalms contain elements of open recognition of the sins of the psalmist–along with some combination of pleas for God’s forgiveness, lamentation over guilt or consequences of sins, pleas for healing from resulting affliction, pleas for deliverance from worldly consequences–including consequences unjustly visited upon the penitent by others after God has forgiven–and even pleas for vengeance against those who are oppressing the penitent unjustly using a forgiven sin as an excuse for doing so. I think I give a complete lit of these below, and will treat each one separately in future articles. I will start with the two “classic” Davidic penitential psalms that deal almost exclusively with sins as offenses against God–Psalms 51 and 32–and move forward from there.

Individual sin and repentance:

Psalm 51 (David)

Psalm 32 (David)

Psalm 25 (David)

Psalm 34 (David) (especially verse 14)

Psalm 6 (David)

Psalm 39 (David)

Psalm 38 (David)

Note about repentance , forgiveness and unjust consequences

Psalm 40 (David)

Psalm 41 (David)

Psalm 69 (David)

Psalm 31 (David)

Psalm 102 (“Prayer of an afflicted person”)

Psalm 103 (David)

Psalm 130 (Anonymous; a psalm of ascents)

Psalm 139 (David)

Psalm 143 (David)

Collective sin and repentance:

Psalm 74 (Asaph)

Psalm 77 (Asaph)

Psalm 78 (Asaph)

Psalm 80 (Asaph)

Psalm 85 (Sons of Korah)

Psalm 89 (Ethan the Ezrahite)

Psalm 90 (Moses)

Psalm 106 (Anonymous)