"Jehovah-raah" The Lord is My Shepherd
*Isaiah 40:11, "He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young."
In the spring everything seems so fresh and new. After a long winter's sleep the parched ground that seemed so lifeless begins to burst forth with new life. Trees begin to awake from their winter's nap. Daffodils and violets begin to create a patchwork of yellows and whites and purples that fill dry fields.
The sun seems to be a little warmer and the breeze lingers fresh in our minds. Even the rain seems to fall a little softer bringing odors that permeate the air with fresh and revitalizing smells.
A mother's love for the first child she gives birth to compares to such a season as this. Experiencing the birth of a child is truly experiencing a miracle of God. We wonder and marvel at the tiny little creature that has been placed in our hands. Fragile and so small yet with every breath it breathes we sit and watch in amazement as it sleeps so securely nestled in our arms.
When that child is born with a fatal disease, miscarries, or is stillborn it can bring experiences into our lives that can crush and bruise the heart. Overwhelming us with what may seem more heartache than we can bear. The loss of a child is unexplainable. It is something that every mother fears. It is when it becomes part of our reality that we suffer more than the pains we felt during childbirth. It is a pain that will not go away and it strikes at the very core of the soul.
Now David reigned over Judah for seven years and six months in Hebron. At the age of thirty, all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and anointed him king over all Israel. At that time David captured the stronghold of Zion, Jerusalem, that is the city of David. *II Samuel 5:10, "And David became greater and greater, for the LORD God of hosts was with him."
David brought the ark of God up from the house of Abinadab to Jerusalem. His desire was to build a house for the Lord, but God sent Nathan the prophet to David. "Thus says the LORD of hosts, "I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be ruler over My people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make you a great name, like the names of the great men who are on the earth. I will also appoint a place for My people Israel and will plant them, that they may live in their own place and not be disturbed again, nor will the wicked afflict them any more as formerly, even from the day that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The LORD also declares to you that the LORD will make a house for you. When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever," (II Samuel 7:8-16).
David had all that God had promised him. The kingdom was now under his rule, he lived in his own house, and he had rest from all his enemies. However, in an effort to show kindness and comfort to the new king of Ammon after his father died, the Ammonites humiliated David's servants thinking they were spies. Now they were in battle array against the armies of the Ammonites and the Arameans.
*II Samuel 11:1-5, "Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Now when evening came David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" And David sent messengers and took her, and when she came to him, he lay with her; and when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. And the woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, "I am pregnant."
Oh the shame and disgrace of this situation. David was bound by a law that demanded a penalty for what he had done. All that God had promised him all that God had given him was now in jeopardy and the only way David found to rectify the situation was to cover it up. Conceal what had happened.
Now when David knew that Bathsheba was pregnant he sent for her husband in an effort to have him come back from the heat of the battle and have marital relations with her. But Uriah refused to go to his own house to be with his wife and lay at the king's doorstep. Realizing that Uriah was an honorable man and extremely loyal to his kingdom David sent him back into the battle with a message to have him placed at the front line hoping he would be killed. When news came that Uriah had been killed in battle David made arrangements and took Bathsheba as his wife.
When news of what David had done reached the ears of Nathan God sent his word once again to David. Because of what he had done the child would not live. So the child was born and became extremely ill and David fasted and prayed all the days of his child's life. When the child died God comforted the heart of Bathsheba and she became pregnant again. She gave birth to a son who they named Solomon.
One of the most heart wrenching scriptures ever recorded in biblical history yet one that is most sincerely and poignantly displayed. There was a penalty involved in what David had done. The promise that God had given him of a lineage and kingdom that would have no end had been tainted. "I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever," *II Samuel 7:12-13. In a moment of passion David brought sin into his heritage bringing the curse of the law into his household.
Bathsheba's heart was broken because of the death of her child. The pain was unbearable but David comforted her and God gave her another child that would become the wisest king of all the kings of Israel. His fame would spread to the farthest kingdoms of the known world. His wealth would be surpassed by none and he would build the temple of God in Jerusalem. His name was Solomon but Nathan called him Jedidiah, 'beloved of Jah', because God loved him.
We have a loving God who has provided a way of escape. He has given us the opportunity to step into the life of grace He has offered us through Jesus Christ His Son. Through our acceptance and belief in His Son we no longer live under the curse of the Law. But bad things do happen to good people. We often don't understand why but as long as we live in this world we are subject to the curse that is in the world. That curse is death.
In the account of the sin of man God said to the woman, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth, in pain you shall bring forth children," (*Genesis 3:16). Often we only see this as being in painful labor but it goes much deeper than that. There have been many children that never breathed a breath of life. There have been many who have died shortly after childbirth. But because God's plan of redemption is at work in this earth through Jesus Christ we have a way to escape that pain. God offers us a refreshing and a door through which we can cross over the threshold of pain into His arms and be comforted.
We have been given this sure and precious promise that through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ the sting of death has been removed and those who die in Christ are present with the Lord. No baby, no new born child, has suffered the loss of his soul because his angel always stands before the face of God. We may loose a child in this earth but know this precious one, that that child has done nothing to deserve death. You have done nothing to cause the death of that child. God is not guilty of taking your child from you.
The heart of a mother is something that no one can understand in this world or in the world to come except an almighty, most holy God. He can breathe life and comfort into our lives when we feel there is no way to escape the pain. He can bring deliverance from an intolerable emptiness of a womb that has rejected the life it carried. He can bring healing to the soul from the loss of what was to be the beginning of new life.
He is right there with His arms outstretched waiting for you to run to Him for comfort. When your heart is breaking there is no greater comfort than the arms of a loving Savior. He desires to bring peace to your soul and to pour out the oil of joy for healing. He is the balm of Gilead. So put your trust in Him and He will wipe away every tear.
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P The scripture in Psalms 27 tells us that children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is his reward. Happy is the man whose quiver is full of them. David was a man who had fought hard for everything that God had promised him. Yet not all of his sons followed his example. Some turned against him and did not follow the Lord.
*March 4, 2006
