2 Samuel 12:15b-23 “Wasting Time or Moving On?”
“Then the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s widow bore to David, so that he was very sick. David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.” (15b-16). When encouraged by elders around him, David persisted in fasting and seeking God for his son. When the child died, David’s servants were afraid to tell him because of his emotional state and feared he’d harm himself. When David observed them there whispering he figured out the child had died and asked them about him. When they affirmed the child’s death, his reaction puzzled them. “So David arose from the ground, washed, anointed himself, and changed his clothes;’ and he came into the house of the LORD and worshiped…..” (20a) After this he went home and had a meal. This confused his servants and they asked him about it. David explained that while the child was alive he was appealing to God for grace, but now that he died it would be a waste of time to fast. “…Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” (23b, c). There are things we cannot change so we must learn to move forward even in great sorrow.
