2 Samuel 12:11-23

David’s Sin, Nathan’s Judgment, and the Death of the Child

All right, Burt, will you open us up with a word of prayer? 2 Samuel chapter 12. We ended in verse 10, so I'm going to read from verse 7 of 12 through the end of the chapter, and then we'll try to finish the chapter today.

Why have you despised the word of the Lord and by doing evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household, and I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lay with your wives in broad daylight.

Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all of Israel under the sun. Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to David, the Lord also has taken away your sin and you shall not die.

However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to be blaspheming, the child also that is born to you shall surely die. So Nathan went to his house. Then the Lord struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David so that he was very sick, and David therefore inquired of God for the child, and David fasted, and he went, and he laid all night on the ground, and the elders of the house stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat food with them.

Then it happened on the seventh day that the child died, and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, Behold, while the child was still alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to our voice.

How then can we tell him that the child is dead since he might do harm to himself? But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead, so David said to his servants, Is the child dead?

And they said, He is dead. So David arose from the ground, and he washed, and he anointed himself, and he changed his clothes, and he came into the house of the Lord, and he worshipped. Then he came to his own house, and when he had been requested, they set food before him, and he ate.

Then his servants said to him, What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but when the child died, you arose and you ate food. And he said, While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who knows if the Lord will be gracious to me and that the child may live?

But now he has died. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me. Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba. He went into her and lay with her, and she gave birth to him, and he named him Solomon.

And now the Lord loved him and sent word through Nathan the prophet, and he named him Jedidiah for the Lord's sake. Now Joab fought against Rabbah, the sons of Ammon, and he captured the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David, and he said, I have fought against Rabbah.

I have even captured the sea waters. Now, therefore, gather the rest of the people together and camp against the city and capture it, and I will capture the city myself, or I'm sorry, or I will capture the city myself, and it will be named after me.

So David gathered all the people and went to Rabbah. He fought against it, he captured it, and then he took the crown off their king from his head, and its weight was a talent of gold. And it was of precious stones, and it was placed on David's head, and he brought out the spoil of the city in great amounts.

He also brought out the people who were in it, and he set them under saws and sharp iron instruments, iron axes, and he made them pass through the brickling. And thus he did all the cities of the sons of Ammon, and David and all the people returned to Jerusalem.

David’s Repentance and the Sword in His House

So last week when we stopped, we stopped at verse 10 because I thought we were going to finish the paragraph, and we didn't, but last week we left off that David had been confronted with his sin against Bathsheba.

It had been made known by the prophet Nathan that he knew that David had taken Bathsheba. It brought him into his home, had intercourse with her, she became pregnant, and then it became knowledge to him also that he had put Uriah on the front line to be killed.

And Joab even saying, hey, what a stupid tactical move that was. So Nathan comes to him, he confronts David in his sin, and when he gives this parable, and the parables are given to either reveal truth or to conceal it, in this case it revealed the truth to David that David had sinned against God with his with his actions against Uriah and Bathsheba.

And in doing so, when David realized he was pricked in his heart, however you want to say it was through the conviction of the the Holy Spirit, or however you want to use the coin in the Old Testament, he repented, and he said, forgive me.

Now what do we see different about the way Saul reacted in 1 Samuel? Remember when he was confronted in his sin, what did he do? He was like, hey, I know what I did was, you know, it might have been a little shady, it might have been, but I almost did what God wanted me to do, and why don't you don't worry about all that Samuel?

Why don't you just go in with me anyway through the city so that people still think we're tight? That's not what David did. David realized that he had sinned against God, and he had confessed when he said, you are the man.

So that brings us picking up at verse 10, and it says, now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. This is an act of judgment by God on the line of David, his whole house. He says the sword will never depart.

What does the sword mean? Anybody want to give any? Ma 'am? Sure, certainly could be death. I believe that's true, but when we think of the sword, it's an act of judgment. However that comes across, whether it be, and we're going to see just here quickly, it's not just going to mean somebody dying by the sword, although there will be some of his descendants that do.

In this case, the very first one that dies will be this child of seven days old. He said, it'll never depart from your house, and why was he putting on it? Because David despised the word of the Lord.

What did David despise about the word of the Lord? What was David's infractions? Mike's not here today, but he said a few of them last week. What were they? First would be covenant. He coveted another man's wife, and what was the ten commandments?

What's the last one? Thou shalt not covet. Don't covet your neighbor's donkey. Don't cover your neighbor's stuff, his house, and it says don't covet his wife, and David coveted another man's wife. Therefore, when he coveted her, the progression of that sin, it says he looked, he took, and he lay.

That's what it said. Those were the verbs that he used concerning what David did with Bathsheba. So, he despised the word of the Lord by not obeying the command of God, summed up in the tenth commandment, thou shalt not covet, and he says, you have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

It's interesting that this is what he says to David is, hey, because you have taken her wife, it's more than that. He forced himself either by flattery or by force, and that we don't know, so I just want to be fair to the situation.

We don't know if he forced himself on her by flatter or by force, but he did it, and he doesn't use it so much as the act of adultery as in the fact of now you're trying to cover up your sin by taking her as your wife, and that's what he was doing, and that's the condemnation by God on him.

You've taken her to be your wife. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with them in broad daylight.

This is a prophetic word by the prophet Nathan that will take place in Absalom's rebellion. Remember, Absalom was one of his sons. It was actually his second son of the king of Jeshur. It was his daughter given to David, so he was actually married to a pagan woman.

Remember, we went through all his wives when we first started 2 Samuel, so it will be Absalom that will try to throw a conspiracy to overthrow his dad to take the throne, and in doing so, he is given the counsel, well, how should I go about so that the people see that I'm now going to be the king, and he tells him we'll set up a tent on top of the palace, and we'll have you go into all of your dad's wives and concubines, and that's exactly what happens.

He does it right in broad daylight, and that is exactly what will take place when we get towards the end. I guess it's around chapter 16, 17. Absalom dies in chapter 18, and you'll see that this prophetic word happens to the T of God saying he's going to embarrass David by letting him do this.

This was an act of embarrassment to David, and he says, why am I going to do it in broad daylight? Because of what you said in verse 12, what you did, you did in secret, and in some ways, it was secret.

In many ways, it was that everybody in the nation probably knew what had taken place. Probably not, but we do know this. There's no way the people in the palace did not know what had happened. I mean, he sent somebody over there, and I'm sure it wasn't sent over there just one person.

When kings send somebody to take someone, they usually send someone of an entourage. So he said, but what you did in secret, and basically what you tried to cover up, I'm going to do that it's not going to be covered up.

All we'll see, and it'll be done in broad daylight because of what you did, you did in darkness. That's basically what he's saying. In verse 13, then David says this, I have sinned against the Lord. Where have we seen that type of confession by Saul?

Other than Saul did recognize that what he did was a sinful act, he never responds in this way. He said, I have sinned against God, and Nathan then said to David, the Lord also has taken away your sin, and you shall not die.

It would be Psalm 51, which many of us know that David would write after his confession of his infraction with Uriah the Hittite and Bathsheba, and it is in reference to this right here where he says, oh Lord, it's you and you alone I have sinned against.

Do we think about David just sinning against David? I mean, when we go, all right, it's you and you only that I have sinned against. I go, wait a minute, did you sin against Bathsheba by taking her by force?

You want to coin how that happened? You sinned against Uriah, one, by taking his wife. Two, you sinned against Uriah by putting him out there, well let me back up, but getting him drunk to try to cover up his own sin.

Then he put him out there in the front line to get Uriah killed. So we'd say, yeah, he sinned against Bathsheba, he sinned against Uriah. David has sinned against his parents by dishonoring them. We would agree with that.

The command is to honor thy father and thy mother, correct? Was David's actions honoring Jesse and his mother? No, not at all. Then why is it that David says it's you and you alone I have sinned against?

Why? Why would David say that? Sure, so primarily his first offense is violating God's law. They are actually a secondary, I guess that would be a way of saying, a secondary offender. He sinned against God by breaking the law, and how did he break the law?

By sinning against Uriah and Bathsheba. So he recognizes before this, the horizontal, this way sin took place, the sin against God took place by not dealing with the lust and the covetousness in his own heart, and the murder within his own heart.

He should have dealt with that and all that other stuff would never have come about. Then he says in verse four, I'm sorry, let me get to the end of verse 13. He says, and you shall not die. I understand this to be this, and if you can disagree with me, that's fine.

I do believe that God had intentions of striking David dead. And we see this type of statement back in when Moses had not yet circumcised Gershom, his wife Zipporah. He was going back to Egypt to call God's people out, and David, I mean David, Moses had not yet circumcised Gershom.

Zipporah, his wife, did it. She circumcised him, and then she threw the foreskin on him and said, you're a man of blood, and it says that God was going to strike Moses dead. Well, why? Because he had sinned by not putting his son under the covenant of the Abrahamic covenant, under the covenant of circumcision, and in this case, David was on the threshold of being struck dead by God because of his sin, just like Moses.

But when the condemnation that comes out of being called to repentance, called out for his sin, David recognized his sin and then repented, therefore God staying his act of judgment. We see that happen all through Scripture as well.

Just think about Nineveh when Jonah went and he preached. What was the message? It was in 40 days Nineveh will be overthrown. We don't know if he said anything else. We don't know how it happened, but God said, I'm going to destroy the city.

Did God destroy the city? No, it was an oracle of judgment that was to create an act of repentance by the people. Then God would withhold his judgment. Now, are there times when God says, I'm going to smoke that city, and he does.

Think about Sodom and Gomorrah. When I studied that early on in my Christian life, it was difficult for me. Sodom and Gomorrah never had repentance preached. Not one time. We don't have anything in Scripture that says that Sodom and Gomorrah had the opportunity to repent.

No prophet went in there and preached. If you even go back to when Jesus says, hey, if I would have preached in Tyre and Sidon and Sodom and Gomorrah, if what's being preached today would have been preached, then they would have repented.

In other words, they had no opportunity. Those angels went in, they smelt the corruption of the city, and God says, I'm going to smoke it. And he rained hell down from heaven, pounding that city to pieces.

In this case, he was given the opportunity to repent by the oracle of judgment. And he did. That brings us to verse 14. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to be blasphemed, the child also that is born to you will surely die.

And then Nathan went to his house. Not only is there a judgment on David, the sword's never going to leave from your house, this child that she will bear will be struck dead. That's hard. That's hard.

But God says exactly why. Let's just say, was the child at fault? Was the child at fault? The child is actually going to be a casualty of this terrible situation. But God gives a specific reason why he's going to strike that child dead.

He's not going to have his name blasphemed. And because of what David has done, because this child was basically born in iniquity, it was conceived in iniquity, and everything around this child has been sinful, God says, I'm going to strike that dead because I'm not going to have my name blasphemed, although it was David's fault.

I'm not going to have my name blasphemed because of what happened with you among the nations, David. I'm going to, I'm going to strike this child dead. Now, David's understanding of what he is saying, okay, is, okay, he's going to strike this child dead, but maybe this is a, this is an opportunity for me to plead to God for my case for grace.

That's what he even says when he actually, when the child dies, and they question him about him, him being, uh, being fasting and laying on the ground prostrating. So the child that will be born to you will surely die.

And then Nathan went to his house. Imagine what Nathan did at this point. Comes in, he drops the oracle of judgment and just be like, all right, dude, I'm going home. All right, I'm done. I'm done. Yeah.

I mean, Nathan is actually a man of character and a man, a godly man. He comes in, he does. Remember one time he's already had to come in and tell David, hey man, uh, uh, you, you screwed up wanting to build the house.

It's not your fault. He had to go in and fix up his wrong judgment. In this case, he walks in, he has thus saith the Lord, he drops the hammer and then says, I'm gone. He goes his way. I do wonder, did Nathan have a broken heart like Samuel had towards Saul?

You know, remember when Samuel would go to Saul, he was just distraught. He was grieved. Remember when they had taken the kingdom from him, it says that he was grieved over Saul and even God's kind of somewhat, some people think it was a rebuke to him.

I see it as an act of compassion of God reaching out to Samuel saying, hey, there's no reason for you to continue on in this grief. I've got something else down the pipe. So get your horn and go anoint another king.

But was Nathan broken hearted? And it's hard to say. We don't know. I would say that he was somewhat happy that David repented because now he knows the king's not going to die. I mean, imagine if David would have died at this point.

The kingdom would be in jeopardy. There's no heir at this point to stand up. So then we'll go into the rest of verse 15. And then the Lord struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David so that he was very sick.

David therefore inquired of the Lord God for the child. David fasted and he went and he laid all night on the ground. This is how I understand David would say, hey, the child's going to die. This is David's opportunity to plead to God for grace.

He's like, okay, just like the oracle of judgment was to come, hey, you've sinned against God and you should die. He should die under the Mosaic legislation. David should have for being a murderer, for being an adulterer, he should have been put to death.

He's not going to be. And the oracle of judgment created that act of repentance. Now in David's mind, maybe what Nathan said by the Lord was for me now to intercede on the child's behalf that God would be gracious.

And he even says that. David therefore inquired of God for the child and David fasted and went and he lay all night on the ground. The elders of the house stood beside him and ordered to raise him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat any food.

We understand, man, that David's in great grief. Great grief. David, the child that regardless of how it took place, we understand that David wanted the child that was in Bathsheba's belly to be under his care, custody, and control.

And God says it ain't going to happen. So he's going to reach out. He's like, look, anytime someone lays themselves flat before the Lord in treating, it is one, an act of submission and it is an act of grief as he is just crying out day and night.

Look, my understanding and Bert may have another understanding of this because he studied this as well. I don't think this was one time. I don't think he laid, this was one night. Because it says that the child was born and was sick for seven days.

So my understanding is this was an extended period of time between the time that the child was born to the time that the child dies on the seventh day that David was prostrate before the Lord and he fasted.

I don't think it was just one night. So it says the elders of the household were 17. The elders of the household stood beside him in order to raise him up from the ground. Okay, here's David in great grief and anguish, probably getting weak from not eating or drinking.

And they want to try to help him up to give him some sustenance, whether it was to give him some sustenance, so he could continue to entreat of the Lord. Or was it just, hey man, we got to get this guy some food.

He is the king. He's getting weak. What if he has to perform in his duties? And he wouldn't get up. It says he would not eat. And in verse 18, it happened that on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead.

For they said, behold, while the child was alive, we spoke to him and he would not listen to our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead since he might do harm to himself? Interesting that on the seventh day, this child dies.

Anybody remember what the significance of the eighth day with a child, male child? Yep. Interesting that this child is struck dead. I don't know the connection. I'm just looking at time. I'm not, I don't know.

I just go, okay, the child is normally taken to the priest. He is circumcised on the eighth day. In this case, he doesn't even make it to the point of circumcision. The child is never put under the Abrahamic or the Abrahamic was in and laid into the Mosaic law, but never put under the law, the covenant as being a circumcised male child.

And I don't know what the significance is. Bert, what do you think? Well, I think one was that, hey, okay, if I wait to the eighth day and he's not circumcised, he's broken the Abrahamic covenant. I've got to bring judgment.

Yep. At seventh day, I can bring mercy. I think that's where we get pretty well a concept. I all of us believe that a newborn child, if something happens, they depart and go to heaven because they're not accountable yet.

Yeah, and I'm going to get to that when we get to the tours. You can take it that far. Yeah, but we are going to get into that and we ain't going to finish today. Sorry. Go ahead. That is a good conversation.

What does the seventh day mean? What.

Was the reason that he went through the seventh day and not the sixth or the fifth day? Mosaic.

Legislation said on the eighth day, my understanding is that was the new beginning. That's how, because you have the seventh day of rest. Go ahead, Bert. Yeah, on the eighth day was basically a new beginning because you had the six days of creation, day of rest.

So they would not have circumcised children on the Sabbath. But it is interesting too that the eighth day as a new beginning is also that it was on the eighth day that Jesus rose from the grave. That's how we understand it.

And that's the only answer I have for you. That's how it was set up in the Mosaic legislation. And I can't remember right off the top of my head, but I'll understand that was actually what was told to Abraham under the circumcision.

All male children are to be circumcised on the eighth day, once they were born. So that brings us to where he says, the servants of David, I'm sorry, on the seventh day, the child died and the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead.

Why would they have been somewhat apprehensive to tell David the child was dead? Why? Overwhelmed with grief. Overwhelmed with grief. Go ahead. You want to say something? Yeah, that's fine. Yeah. Overwhelmed with grief.

Anybody that's ever lost a child understands that that overwhelm. And I don't know what it's like to lose a child in infancy. And we often make comparisons. Well, you know, and I do, there is something to be said when you lose a child in infancy, where there's been no lifelong developed relationship of rearing and loving and spending time.

But I don't think for one second that that minimizes the amount of grief that happens when a child dies, whether it is in the womb, or whether it is 60, 70 years old, a person lives old enough to see their 60, 70 year old child.

There's still grief in that. Now, is there levels of grief? Well, certainly. And we could get into the levels of grief and what that looks like and memories and all that. And in this case, David's looking at his offspring.

And under the Mosaic legislation, your offspring being cut off was considered a judgment of God. And this is what God's saying, look, what God said was going to come to pass has come to pass. David's child died because of the sins of his own heart.

Now, you say, well, wait a minute, the Bible says that the sins of the children, or the sins of the parents don't be, are not punished by the children. That is speaking of eternal punishment. Luke, if I died in unbelief, Luke cannot pay for the sins in hell for me.

That's the understanding. But if I do something foolish, and it causes, the repercussions cause his life to be taken because I was an idiot, it's not his fault. It was the consequences of my actions. And that is what has taken place here.

The child was condemned in the sense of to death because of David's actions. Let's just take, for instance, our puppet president decides he's going to launch a missile at China, North Korea, or Russia.

Will we not bear the consequences of his foolish decision? Okay, that's this, that's kind of how this works. So they said, we spoke to him, behold, while the child was alive, we spoke to him and he would not listen.

How then can we tell him that the child is dead since he may do harm to himself? I do believe that they were concerned that David in an outburst act of grief would possibly hurt himself. You say, how can that be?

Well, I know the amount of grief and losing a child is unbearable. And there are times that you go in your mind, man, it would just be better for me to be dead. It'd be over. I mean, even think of Job.

What did he say? No, I know this ain't Job, right? It's exponentially worse. But what did Job say? Man, it'd be better for me to not have been born than to endure this type of grief. And I do believe that's what they were concerned with David.

Legitimate concern that this man may do something to harm himself. Also the way they grieved. Yeah, but they threw themselves on the floor. Yeah, I mean, it'd be seven days of rolling around on the ground, screaming, hollering.

I mean, they would even have paid mourners come in. I don't know if y 'all know that in history. They would have paid mourners come in dressed in black. And I mean, what they would do is wail for seven days.

If you go back when Uriah last week, when Uriah was killed, it says after the time of mourning, he took her as his wife. Well, the time of mourning could have been the seven days of whatever the wailing was that they did.

And I'm sure David put on, it doesn't say, okay, all right. I'm sure David put on some theatrical stuff for Uriah. He was his man of valor. He's got to make this thing look good. So I'm sure he indulged in the ceremonial funeral service.

It says, the end of 19 is the child dead. And he said, he is dead. So David arose from the ground. He washed and anointed himself. He changed his clothes and he came into the house of the Lord and he worshiped.

And then he came to his own house where he requested food before him and he ate. Okay, David hears the child's dead. Imagine here, laid out on the ground, crying, weeping, hungry, dirty, because it says he had to anoint himself to basically clean himself up.

He's laid up. Hey, the child's dead. He hops up, dried up, suck it up, straightens up, puts a crown on, and he goes home. Says he changed his clothes and he anointed himself. That's why I believe that it was longer than one night.

I believe he was on the ground for multiple days and nights on the dirty ground, grieving, weeping. It says he changed his clothes. He got out of his dirty clothes. He anointed himself, meaning the way that they did, they didn't take baths the way that we would.

The way of anointing oneself would normally be just take some olive oil. It would wipe their face, clean up, put it in their hair and their beard. And that was basically freshening it up. And an interesting thing here, and then he came into the house of the Lord and he worshiped.

Remember, David had made a new style tabernacle when he brought the ark into the city. There was a tent where the dwelling place of God was at. And it says that David then went in, into the house of the Lord, meaning wherever this little tabernacle was that was the tent, and he worshiped the Lord.

And reading that, I go, man, he's worshiping the Lord after God has struck his child dead. That's tough. You know, we're supposed to be thankful in all things, aren't we? We're supposed to be thankful in all things.

I experientially, these last 10 months of my life, it's been hard to be thankful in the situation with me and my family. I imagine, Meg, for her and her parents and you, that's not something to be thankful for.

But we see that David's not thankful for the situation. But what does David do regardless of how he feels about the situation? He knows that God is to be worshiped. He knows that God is a sovereign God.

He's working out his purposes. And he knows that what has taken place is by divine design. And David says, okay, it's time for me to get myself together. This is the way God has said it was going to be.

And he goes in and he worships God. For why? Because God did what he said he's going to do. We should be thankful for that, at least in one thing, that we never have to worry about God reneging on something that he says.

If he says he's going to do something, his word is faithful and true. His word is faithful and true. We may not like how that works out. Think about a funeral. We don't like to think about funerals in this way.

But when someone dies, that is an act of God being faithful to himself. The wages of sin is death. I'm not saying we should be thankful when someone dies. I don't want to sound morbid. But we should be thankful that God's word is not going to be broken.

A man sins. The soul that sins will surely die. So that when a person dies, it's God's word being fulfilled to its fullest. Hey, look, God says this is the way it's going to be. These are the consequences that I have put in place because of the fall of man.

And every man will die because he's conceived in sin. And David worships the Lord. He said he came to his own house and he requested that they set food before him and That's interesting that all this time they've tried to minister to him and David said no.

Now he's worshiped the Lord and he said, you know what? I think I could use something to eat, give you something to drink, and I want you to bring it to me, bring it to my house. His servants said to him, rightfully so.

What is this thing you have done? I mean, imagine their frustration. Dude, we tried to minister to you when you were at your weakest point and now you're wanting us. You're up popping around like no big deal anymore.

And they're like, hey, what is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept. But when the child died, you arose and now you eat food. I do understand that. In a sense of, okay, here it is.

The child was dying. It was sick. You fasted and you prayed in hopes that God would do something. Now that God's not done what you want, he's basically, from their perspective, he's moving on. And I go, man, that is hard to understand because with the loss of a child, man, you just don't move on that quick.

And I go, man, David is somewhat stronger in this situation than we may realize. He has accepted the fact that God has done this and there's nothing he can do about it. Do I believe that David continued to grieve?

Of course I do. Do I believe that David continued to hurt? Yes. Do I believe that David continued to think about his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah and the loss of his son, this son, to the day he died?

Yep, sure do. Matter of fact, when Shemaiah, we'll get to that, when he's the dust flinger, rock flinger guy, and he's cussing out David and Abishai says, why don't you let me go there and cut that guy's head off?

David said, no, no, no, no. What he's saying has come from the Lord because David in his mind knew that the condemnation that Shemaiah was giving him was, although Shemaiah was doing it one way, David heard it rightfully.

He was saying, man, what that guy's saying is true about me. I'm a man of blood and what my sins have followed me even to now. And he said, in verse 22, he said, while the child was still alive, basically, all right, while I was alive, I fasted and I wept.

But who knows, because he said, who knows what the Lord would be gracious to me. Look, he was entreating of the Lord through fasting. He was pleading with the Lord. Maybe God would be gracious to me and save the child from death.

So he did not know. He's basically, I don't know what God would do, but I know my role as a worshiper of God, as a repentant man, is to entreat the Lord. Look, the condemnation on that child is not that child's fault.

It's my sin. Let me bear that. And he entreated the Lord in hopes that he would not do that. And he said, he knows that the Lord would be gracious. Who knows if the Lord would be gracious and that the child may live.

But now that he has died, why should I fast? Okay. This tells us exactly the reason why David was fasting. Was he fasting out of grief? Or was he fasting in hopes to turn the heart of God away from the killing of the child?