A Funeral Sermon For An Infant

Funeral For An Infant

“David replied, ‘I fasted and wept while the child was alive,

for I said, “Perhaps the LORD will be gracious to me and let the child live.” But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.’” - 2 Samuel 12:22- 23 (NLT)

In Samuel 12 we read the sad story of David’s child by Bathsheba becoming ill. David spent six days in prayer and fasting for the health and healing of the child. On the seventh day the child died and as David’s servants told him. When he stopped praying and fasting, they asked him why. He replied, “I cannot bring him back, but I can go to be with him.”

How can we face the loss of a little one with the courage and assurance David did? We must seek comfort in the presence of God.

These verses indicate that through prayer, David came to be comforted by God’s presence in his life.

1. Through the comfort that can come only through communing with God in prayer, David found assurance that all would be well.

HE MAKETH NO MISTAKE

My Father’s way may twist and turn, my heart may throb and ache,

But in my soul I’m glad I know, He maketh no mistake.

My cherished plans may go astray, my hopes may fade away,

But still I'll trust my Lord to lead for He doth know the way.

Tho’ night be dark and it may seem that day will never break;

I’ll pin my faith, my all in Him, He maketh no mistake.

There's so much now I cannot see, my eyesight’s far too dim;

But come what may, I’ll simply trust and leave it all to Him.

For by and by the mist will lift and plain it all He'll make.

Through all the way, tho’ dark to me, He made not one mistake.

A.M. Overton

2. Through the comfort that can come only through communing with God in prayer, David found peace in the midst of his grief.

In Philippians 4:7, God’s word speaks of “peace which exceeds anything we can understand.” In other words, in the midst of circumstances where one would not think it possible to have peace, God can provide peace.

But how does such peace come?

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.” - Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)

“Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” - Philippians 4:6-7 (The Message)

3. Through the comfort that can come only through communing with God in prayer, David found hope in the life to come.

David was confident that his child was in heaven, a place to which he knew he was also headed.

The Scripture teaches that all who reach a point in life where they recognize their accountability before God for their actions are responsible to acknowledge their sin and accept God’s provision for our forgiveness, which is the sacrifice God made in the person of Christ at Calvary.

But a child, who has never reached that point of maturity and awareness is graciously accepted into God’s presence. That is the truth taught to us here.

Through faith in God’s provision for his sins, David knew he would one day dwell in God’s eternal presence, where he expected to see his child, who had died, never having matured to the point of recognizing his accountability before God, yet who, by the grace of God, had been welcomed into God’s presence and was waiting for David to join him.

THE OTHER ROOM

No, not cold beneath the grasses,

not close-walled within a tomb;

Rather, they’re in my Father’s mansion,

merely living in another room.

Shall I doubt my Father’s mercy?

Shall I think of death as doom?

Or the stepping over the threshold

into a bigger, brighter room?

Shall I blame my Father’s wisdom?

Shall I sit overwhelmed with gloom?

When I know my love is happy; and

waiting for me in another other room?

Robert Freeman

4. Through the comfort that can come only through communing with God in prayer, David saw purpose in his child’s life.

David understood that God had a purpose he is working out in each and every life, and that all life, no matter how brief, has eternal value in God’s economy.