April 3 - 2 Samuel 12-13

Continuing on from yesterday's reading...
We know that the Lord is very unhappy with David at this point.  He sent Nathan to David to tell him a story about a rich man and a poor man.  He explained that there was a rich man that had plenty of livestock and a poor man that had only one little lamb.  The poor man took such great care of his lamb and treated it like a child.  He then explained that a traveler came to visit the rich man, but instead of taking one of his own livestock to feed the visitor, he killed and prepared the poor man's lamb. 
This infuriated David and said this rich man deserved to die.  Then Nathan told David that the "rich man" was him.  He continues to tell David the message from the Lord and shares the Lord's anger with him.  Nathan tells David that the Lord will punish him by bringing calamity upon him.  He says he will take all of his wives and give them to men that are close to him and allow them to sleep with each other.  He chooses this punishment saying that David was trying to be sneaky by sleeping with Bathsheba and then having her husband killed.  David confesses his sins to the Lord, and Nathan tells him he will not die but because he has made enemies with God, his son will die.  Soon after Nathan left, the son that was born to David and Bathsheba became very ill.  David begged for the Lord to spare his sons life, but on the seventh day, the child died.  David had been fasting and grieving before the child died, but as soon as he found out he was gone, he left the house and went to get something to eat.  This confused his servants and they questioned his intentions.  David explained that he fasted and grieved in hopes that the Lord would save his son, but now that he didn't, what more could he do?  He knew he couldn't bring his son back, so he comforted Bathsheba.  They had another son named Solomon.  The Lord loved Solomon and sent a message through Nathan to David, and said he was to be called Jedidiah.  Hopefully when we start reading more about Solomon/Jedidiah we will remember they are one in the same. 
In the meantime, David's people had fought against many and once all their fighting was done, David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.