PerryDox – BeJustAChristian

There is one reality where it is easy to deny God’s existence, where answers are not solutions, just numbing sounds to a soul wanting to be numb. Some questions can only be answered and accepted outside of and before “then and there;” outside of the hospital, before the accident; outside of the pain; before the questions of “why God?” I have not been there. Maybe you have. David has been there too.

David and Bathsheba’s baby is dying, the most unthinkable and unbearable parental reality. The child is innocent. David is not. To make David suffer, the child suffers death. I don’t understand. I don’t even know if what I said is true. Did God do this to make David suffer? What kind of God would do that? Maybe I am wrong. I hope I am wrong. God forgive me for thinking it. But what I am doing is exactly what goes through the mind of someone…”then and there.” There is no denying God is causing the death: “The LORD struck the baby that Uriah’s wife had borne to David and he became ill” (2 Samuel 12.15). There is no unforeseen accident in birth; no unexplainable Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. God is not hidden, not far way. God is painfully there and pain makes us wish He were not. I wonder where my faith would be.

David pleads, fasts, spends all night on the ground, and refuses to eat or get up. When the baby dies, they refuse to tell him, afraid, “He may do something desperate” (12.18). I wonder how many have. David’s reaction to knowing is unthinkable to many: “Then David got up from the ground. He washed, anointed himself, changed his clothes, went to the LORD’s house, and worshiped. Then he went home and requested something to eat.” (12.20). So unthinkable is this, his servants are confused: “While the baby was alive, you fasted and wept, but when he died, you got up and ate food” (12.21). Pained people can become numb. But David had already felt all his pain.

David’s answer is considered by some matter of fact and by others as hope springing eternal. The first part is filled with hope that God is willing to be petitioned: “While the baby was alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ‘Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let him live’” (12.22). In the darkest of dark, David accepted God. The second part says, “But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I’ll go to him, but he will never return to me” (12.23). Is David speaking of the grave or hoping in eternity? God heals the hurt as only He can (12.24).

Preaching an infant’s funeral, unable to answer why, I repeated, “I do not pity Seth.” Death is painful for those alive. For children and children of God, death is nothing. Pain can question God’s existence when only God can give answers to pain. That’s reality. That’s why worshiping God is the solution before, during, and after “then and there.”

Prayer Challenge: Before “then or there,” prepare here and now to see as God sees here and in eternity’s “there.”

Tags: Prayer, Praying through the Bible

This entry was posted by PHall on Tuesday, October 29th, 2013 at 9:51 pm and is filed under II Samuel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.