Daily Devotional for Tuesday, January 2

David’s Testimony

“And he 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? 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,” 2 Samuel 12:22, 23.

When we think of America in the nineteenth century, we think of large families, lots of children, hard work and grit. The reality of life on the frontier could be quite brutal. The child survival rate was around forty- five percent. This means that a family with six living children had also probably lost four. It is hard to fathom that kind of grief and suffering.

David found himself in a place of suffering very much like that. After his first child with Bath-sheba was born, God pronounced judgment upon David’s sin. Part of that judgment involved the taking of the life of that child. David prayed and fasted, hoping that perhaps God might relent. He did not, and the child died.

David did an odd thing, though, following the death of his child. He got up, cleaned up, worshiped and ate. It shocked his advisors, so they asked him what this meant. His response was shocking. David said that he could not bring the child back, but someday he would go to him.

His response can bring us comfort in at least two ways in times of our greatest loss. (1) We know that small children we lose are in the arms of Jesus. I am very thankful for this verse which has brought so many people comfort during the loss of a child. (2) This life is not it. David knew, as a believer, that this life was not all there was. David knew there would be a resurrection and a time for seeing the child again.

REFLECTION: The resurrection is our hope. It is what helps get us through the day. Apply the truth of the resurrection to life’s greatest problems and see what a difference it makes.

Jason Rutherford