“And (David)
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).
The death of a
loved one is always a time of great sorrow, but the death of a beloved child is
perhaps the keenest sorrow of all.
Nevertheless, for
the Christian believer, we “sorrow not, even as others which have no
hope” (1
Thessalonians 4:13).
Out text verse makes it clear that, when a
child dies (even one born of a sinful relationship such as this child of David
and Bathsheba), that child goes to be with the Lord in heaven.
Jesus said: “Suffer
little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the
kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).
Heaven is thus a
place where there are many “little children.”
Their inherited
sin-nature never yet had generated acts of willful sin, and their maker is
Himself “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” so
they are safe in Him (John
1:29).
Although there are few specific Scriptures
on this subject, what we do know, both from the love of God and the Word of
God, suggests that the souls of all deceased little children are with the Lord
in heaven, but also those who died in early childhood (and even before birth)
from every time and place since the world began.
There they, along with all those who were
saved by personal faith in Christ and are now awaiting the resurrection, will
receive new bodies when Christ returns to Earth.
The old and lame
will be young and strong again, and the children will grow to perfect maturity,
for all will become “like Him” (1 John 3:2).
“God shall wipe away all tears” (Revelation 21:4).
And all will say: “As
for God, His way is perfect” (Psalm 18:30).
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