Hope When Tragedy Strikes

2 Samuel 12:13–24 ESV

David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” Then Nathan went to his house. And the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child. And David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him, to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them. On the seventh day the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.” But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead. And David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.” Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. He then went to his own house. And when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate. Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” Then David comforted his wife, Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her, and she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon. And the Lord loved him

The Big Truth 2 Samuel 12:13-24

Death and tragedy comes to all of us and nothing in this life occurs outside of God’s providence and overruling sovereignty.

God’s Providence - God’s interaction with the world and people, often involving divine care, direction, or intervention.  God's providence is His divine plan or purpose. 

God’s Sovereignty -  God's sovereignty is His dominion; His legal claim over all things. God is the most perfect and preeminent of all beings. He is before all things and rules all things. Therefore, He is sovereign.

https://www.puritanboard.com/threads/difference-between-providence-and-sovereignty.59542/

Big Idea # 1 - 2 Samuel 12:13-15

Pain - The pain of death and tragedy come to every person at some time in our life.

Death and tragedy comes to us all

Our world was broken when Adam and Eve made their choice in the garden

No one is untouched by death and tragedy

Though we know it will come, it is most often difficult to accept

Tragedy exposes itself to us in different ways

Tragedy comes expected

Tragedy comes unexpected

However tragedy comes to us, it brings us grief and mourning

The Godhead understands our pain

God sent His only Son - Jn 3:16

jesus was acquainted with grief, surely he has borne our sorrows - Is. 53

The Holy Spirit comforts us in our grief

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” CS Lewis , The Problem of Pain

“When pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.”

Big Idea # 2 - 2 Samuel 12:16-22

Prayer and Personal Worship - Prayer and personal worship brings our grief to a God who is good, who loves us, who listens to our cries for help and who knows what is best for us.

Prayer is our cry out to God when we first hear the news or experience the pain

Prayer is our cry out to God when we grieve for loss

Lament can be a our grief process

Lament: the act of crying out or wailing in sorrow that is often accompanied by weeping or crying; the passionate and demonstrative activity of expressing grief

Lament is a cry out to God for help

Lament can be questions - why?

Lament can be anger

Lament can be wonder why God is not acting in a way we would want or expect

Prayers of lament can be songs and Psalms

Psalm 42; Habakkuk 3;

The greatest cry to God was Jesus’ prayer in the garden for the sins of the world and the cup he must drink

Worship brings us closer to God as we grieve.

David’s first action after he was certain his child died was to worship

We draw closer to God in times of pain than in times of pleasure or “good times”

We both lament and praise in our personal worship - we share our mourning and our joy with a Holy God who knows our pain

Worship acknowledges:

God’s goodness

God’s graciousness

God’s lovingkindness

God’s understanding

Big Idea #3 - 2 Samuel 12:23

Promise - God keeps His promises to His people.

David’s found hope that he would see his son again, not on this earth but in eternity

God’s promises are true and sure

God’s promises are eternal

We can find hope in God’s promises

Big Idea #4 - 2 Samuel 12:24

Purpose- God exercises his sovereignty for the purposes he wants to accomplish in the world, in history, in your life and mine.

In this life we come face-to-face with the reality of God’s sovereignty

It is over all things - Col. 1

It is personal and specific to our situations

It is always for God’s purpose, to accomplish his plan, to glorify His name

There may be occasions where God’s sovereignty in the way He acts is very clear and the reason is known. However, there may be times when the answer is not clear and the reason is not known and we may never know why. Sometimes it may simply be that we are part of a broken world and life that comes with a sinful nature, suffering, disappointment, failures and death.

Ps 139:16-17 says, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” Alistair Begg speaks in a sermon in regard to “How precious are your thoughts to me, O God!” - that the translated meaning of the word precious means “weighty” or “heavy” or “perplexing” or “painful.” He goes on to say the following: “When we seek to affirm with David here, ‘Your thoughts are precious, they are praiseworthy” -- But God your thoughts are puzzling to me because only you know the end from the beginning, you realize how vitally important this is. For the believer to acknowledge that God’s sovereignty extends to our genetic code, therefore we have to be prepared to say, ‘I don’t know why this would be’ - ‘I don’t know how this works’ and ‘I don’t like it’ - Your thoughts are painful to me. God cannot be sovereign over some things if He is not sovereign over all things.

I would close with something that has been a great help to me. In JI Packard’s book, A Grief Sanctified, the book details the story of Puritan Richard Baxter and wife Margaret, her life and death. The book ends with a chapter by Packard on the grieving process. In regard the grieving process he writes,

“Of what truths particularly should the bereavement experience remind us? Said the Puritans characteristically, the three that follow:

The reality of God’s sovereignty - that we, like everyone else, are always in His hands, and neither bereavement nor anything else occurs apart from His overruling will.

The reality of mortality - that we, like everyone else, are not in this world on a permanent basis and must sooner or later leaving it for another mode of existence under other conditions.

The reality of eternity - of heaven and hell - that we leave this world for one or the other, and that we should use the time God gives us here to ensure that as saved sinners we shall go to heaven, rather than as unsaved sinners go to hell.

To what exercises of the mind and heart (attitudes and actions) should the bereavement experience lead us? Said the Puritans characteristically, these three:

The exercise of thanksgiving for all that we valued and enjoyed in the person we have lost and, in the case of a believer, for the happiness to which we know that he or she has now been promoted.

The exercise of submission to God, as we resign to him the loved one he has taken from us, confess to him that we had no claim on the continuance of that loved one’s earthly life, and consciously put ourselves in His hands for whatever future experiences he has in mind for us.

The exercise of patience, which a compound of endurance and hope, as we live through our bereavement on a daily basis.