Who Knows

2 Samuel 12:21-25 – His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!” He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.

Jonah 3:9 – Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

Isaiah 38:3 – “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Nehemiah 13:26 – Was it not because of marriages like these that Solomon king of Israel sinned? Among the many nations there was no king like him. He was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel, but even he was led into sin by foreign women.

Application:

• ·         God often responds in mercy to human repentance by cancelling threatened punishment.
• ·         Like David, Hezekiah was truly faithful.
• ·         The giving of the name Jedidiah suggests that the Lord’s special favor rested on Solomon from his birth. It provided assurance to David that the Lord also loved him and would continue his dynasty.

All Scripture verses taken from NIV