David's Experience with Child Loss - Part 1

Training for Today: Run 3 Miles

Devotion: David's Experience with Child Loss - Part 1

For the next few days, we’re going to look at how David experienced child loss and how he responded to it. First, a little background . . .


The kings and armies, including David’s, were off to war. David stayed at his palace in Jerusalem during this time and sent Joab with his army to destroy the Ammonites and attack Rabbah. One evening, David saw Bathsheba from the palace rooftop. Because of her beauty, David sent for Bathsheba and slept with her. She conceived and sent word to David.

David plotted and schemed to cover up this sin. He sent for Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband who was fighting in David’s army. David got him drunk, hoping that Uriah would then sleep with Bathsheba and cause the pregnancy to look like a direct result of that encounter. This plan failed. David plotted again, this time to have Uriah put on the front lines of battle, where his death was a certainty. Uriah was killed, and Bathsheba eventually became David’s wife. This plan succeeded in David’s eyes, but 2 Samuel 11:27 says, “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.”

The Lord sent Nathan to confront David about this sin. After recognizing his guilt, David confessed his sins. Nathan said, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show utter contempt, the son born to you will die” (2 Samuel 11:13-14). To be continued . . .

I know it’s difficult to pause at this point in the plot, but it forces us to dig deeply into those first emotions we experienced after we realized our child would not be with us any longer. As I put myself in David’s shoes as he listened to this news, I wonder if my thought process would have gone something like this: Lord, thank you for your forgiveness! I’m not going to die? Thank you for preserving my life, Lord. How gracious! Wait . . . my son . . . Take me! Take me! Spare this little life! In those moments of realizing what was to come, do you think David felt guilty that his own life was spared? Did you ever wish you had been able to take the place of your child, that he or she might live?

While you contemplate those questions, check out Romans 14:8-9: “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” We are still here. We still have a purpose in the Lord. We are united with our children in Christ, Lord of both the dead and the living!

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending your Son to wash my sins away and give me the gift of eternal life. Help me to live my life for you, knowing that you still have a purpose and a calling on my life. Amen.