Sermon Central
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Some Thoughts On The Death Of A Child
Contributed by Jonathan Spurlock on Nov 1, 2024 (message contributor)
Introduction: The death of a loved one is never easy to bear. The death of a child is no doubt even worse. Not counting wars, murder, enslavement, or any other heinous act, there were a number of people in both the Old and New Testaments who suffered the death of a child.
Thanks be to God, I have never had to go through this but my heart goes out to those who have. I know personally some mothers who have suffered miscarriages, others who have given birth to stillborn babies, and a few whose infants died of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) but never discovered the real cause. Still others have seen children grow for a while, only to see them lose their lives to any number of diseases.
We can take comfort that all of these children are safe with Jesus in Heaven. David, king of Israel, knew about this reality: his child who had died would never return to him, but when David died, he knew he and this child would be united.
Text: 2 Samuel 12:22-23, KJV: 22 And [David] said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live? 23 But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
The story of David and Bathsheba, and the results of that incident, are one of the darkest stories in the Bible. No need to review that history here, as we’re focusing on the loss of something maybe more dear to David’s heart than much of anything else. To be sure, he had fathered several children and no doubt loved all of them. This child, however, unknown and unnamed, was one of the few who died while still an infant.
All we know of this child is that he was a boy—notice David referring to “him” and “he” in verse 23. We don’t see his name although surely David would have given him a name. I am reminded of a death notice in my hometown newspaper way back in the mid-1960s. Of course in those days, things moved at a much slower pace, and there were no personal computers to share information quickly, and there were deadlines to meet, but that may have been small comfort to the family whose child was listed as, and I’m not making this up, “Infant (name)”—I still remember the infant’s surname but out of respect to the family choose not to disclose it.
The one comforting thread in all of this is that these children, some unborn, others dying before birth, still others dying soon after birth, are among the saints in Heaven, enjoying a pain-free, tear-free, disability-free everlasting life with our Lord Jesus. To know that we have loved ones waiting for us in Heaven should give us all hope and assurance. Maybe this could be a seed, so that anyone reading this who is not yet a Christ-follower might believe and be saved.
The loss of a child is painful, there’s no doubt about it. But to lose your own soul? Much worse.
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
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