Intro

Recap

David responded to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Then Nathan replied to David, “And the Lord
has taken away your sin; you will not die.”

2 Samuel 12:13

How Was David Forgiven?

Yes, through the tabernacle, and through the sacrificial system, but those were only a shadow casting the outline of the Light of the World.

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year… for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.

Hebrews 10:1,4,10

The only way any sin can ever be taken away: by the blood of Jesus Christ. The only difference is that his forgiveness looked forward to Jesus’ sacrifice, while we look back (like we did last weekend)

Therefore, there is now no condemnation
for those in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

David hadn’t heard that verse yet, but it was coming,
and he was already living in its reality.

The reason I’m starting here this morning is that we have to get this right in our own minds/hearts to have any chance of properly understanding what comes next in David’s story, and when similar, heartbreaking things inevitably become part of our stories as well.

“And the Lord has taken away your sin; you will not die. However, because you treated the Lord with such contempt in this matter, the son born to you will die.” Then Nathan went home.

The Lord struck the baby that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became deathly ill. David pleaded with God for the boy. He fasted, went home, and spent the night lying on the ground. The elders of his house stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with them.

On the seventh day the baby died. But David’s servants were afraid to tell him the baby was dead. They said, “Look, while the baby was alive, we spoke to him, and he wouldn’t listen to us. So how can we tell him the baby is dead? He may do something desperate.”

When David saw that his servants were whispering to each other, he guessed that the baby was dead. So he asked his servants, “Is the baby dead?”

“He is dead,” they replied.

2 Samuel 12:13–19

How do we deal with this? We deal with it head on.

David spends a week on the floor. He is crushed. Ever been there? If you haven’t, just wait—all of us end up there eventually.

You will never avoid falling on the ground suffering… and based on everything that’s happened, it doesn’t seem like David would get up again.

So what happens? Let’s keep reading, starting in verse 20:

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. So they served him food, and he ate.

His servants asked him, “Why have you done this? While the baby was alive, you fasted and wept, but when he died, you got up and ate food.”

He answered, “While the baby was alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let me live.’ 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.”

2 Samuel 12:20–23

David gets up. But how? What did David know/learn that gave him the strength to get up off the ground in the worst moments of his life, and might God want to reveal the very same things to our hearts tonight? I think so.

1. This suffering is not punishment/payback.

It’s easy at first glance to think it is, but it’s not. That’s why we had to lay the foundation of justification—David’s sin was forgiven, taken away. That’s the same phrasing used all over the Bible. “As far as the east is from the west.” This is not God’s wrath.

Grace like this is so foreign to our hearts that we struggle to believe it’s true. The basic moral philosophy across the world, including SOIL, is:

I call it Sound of Music theology, from the song that Maria and the Baron sing in that garden/gazebo thing, when they finally admit their feelings for each other…

Nothing comes from nothing
Nothing ever could
So somewhere in my youth or childhood
I must have done something good

Beautiful scene, terrible theology.

The Bible, over and over again, pushes back against that notion.

  1. This suffering is not punishment/payback.

2. This suffering is accomplishing something.

If you’re in the middle of this, if you’re on the floor, I know it’s the last thing you want to hear. But it’s the truth.

When’s the last time we see David praying like this?

David had been taking God lightly—literally what “treated with contempt” means in verse 13.

This suffering wasn’t retribution, it was surgery. There was this thing in David, this cancer, that needed to be cut out. It would be painful, he would bear the scars the rest of his life, but it was necessary for his spiritual survival.

And you can see the effect it’s had on him already.

David has just emerged from an episode in which he has been all but oblivious of God, and cruelly indifferent to the people around him. Bathsheba was an object; Uriah was an obstruction; Joab a tool to get what he wanted. The “answer” to David’s prayer is his rehabilitation into a person capable of humble prayer before God and tender love for others.

Eugene Peterson

I wish it wasn’t the case, but there just seems to be a connection between suffering and growth. Sometimes it’s discipline, sometimes it’s surgery, and sometimes it’s just the pain of God’s plan and my plan not matching up the way I thought they would.

I have learned to kiss the wave that
throws me against the Rock of Ages.

Charles Spurgeon

You might be thinking, “Okay, so God wasn’t punishing David for his sin, but what about that sweet, precious, innocent little baby? It sure was unfair to him!”

I know this brings up a lot of questions. Some of them moral/ethical/theological, and others intensely personal.

Was God Unfair?

In fact, many people would read something like this and say, “This is why I can’t believe the Bible. I will not worship a God who would do such a thing.”

No, for a few reasons:

1. He doesn’t owe anyone anything.

“Does God have the right to take a life?” The Bible’s answer is always yes. God gives life, and as the author of life, He can take it away.

2. All our days are planned.

Your eyes saw me when I was formless;
all my days were written in your book and planned
before a single one of them began.

Psalm 139:16

I was born on Thursday, November 6, 1986. I counted it up this morning, and this is Day #13,310 of my life (not true, I used an online calculator!). I don’t know what day is my last, when my number is up, and neither do you—that’s up to God and God alone.

That baby perfectly filled God’s plan for his life—better than you and I ever could. Not once did he not do what God wanted him to. And then he died. Sounds like a pretty successful life to me, doesn’t it to you?

Yeah,

3. This life is not all there is.

The only way this is unfair to this child is if you believe that (a) this life is all there is, and/or (b) this life is the best there is.

Neither one of those are true biblically.

Last week, Easter, we spent a good portion of our time on the point that resurrection means “things are gonna get better.”

If we believe that’s true, then to skip all the sorrow and suffering of this world and go directly to better—that’s unfair? Not if it’s actually true.

Do Babies Go to Heaven?

Yes, I believe so, based primarily on Romans 1:

For his invisible attributes, that is, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

Romans 1:20

People are without excuse, because of their ability to comprehend God’s divine attributes through creation. Make sense? So then, apply that verses’ logic, but in reverse: if a person lack the mental capacity, from simply their young age or some sort of mental handicap, they do have an excuse.

ASIDE: It would be easier if there were just a verse I could point you to that says “All babies go to heaven.” But if that were the case, God knows there would have been many mentally disturbed people who would read that verse and conclude that the most loving thing they could do would be to kill their children, to guarantee them eternity with God.

  1. This suffering is not punishment/payback.
  2. This suffering is accomplishing something in me.

3. God not answering my prayer the way
I want doesn’t mean he doesn’t love me.

Join the community of those who did not have their prayers answered the way they wanted:

The severe judgment of God did not make him unapproachable as far as David was concerned. On the contrary, the grace of God that “put away” David’s sin gave him the confidence to seek him.

John Woodhouse

Conclusion

How are we to pray for healing?

It’s complicated. Anyone who doesn’t think that it’s complicated is just ignoring the issues at hand.

David is a great example for us here—for the first time in a while!

It won’t always be this way.

Easter, resurrection, new creation.

Famous passage, lion & lamb…

For I will create new heavens and a new earth… Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my people will bring me happiness. The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will never be heard in her again. Never again will one of her infants live just a few days or an old man die before his time.

Isaiah 65:17, 19-20, NET

It won’t always be like this. Things will get better.

Death will be swallowed up in victory.