Investigating the Bible: When a child dies

By DAVID CARLSON PASTOR

Claire Aagaard had two children, 4 1/2-year-old Christian and 20-month-old Eric. Early on the morning of November 1984, little Eric sat on the potty and successfully produced solids for the first time, bringing laughter and joy. Then they traveled to a friend’s farm home for a visit.

As they prepared to leave, Claire remembered Eric’s jacket was in the house, so she returned inside and soon found it. Going outside, she expected Eric would be playing with his older brother and others, but he wasn’t. After long minutes of searching, farm workers found lifeless and blue Eric in the backyard pool, which had been covered for the winter with floating plastic.

He survived at first, but had no brain function and died 11 months later. Ms. Aagaard has written a book for grieving parents with the same title as this article. The Bible also offers hope for parents when their child dies.

David enjoyed success as Israel’s king. He trusted God, defeating the giant Goliath and many enemies of Israel. God gave him great wealth, power, and multiple wives. However, one spring while his armies were out fighting, he remained at his Jerusalem palace. In the afternoon, as he strolled on his rooftop walkway, he saw a beautiful woman bathing. His servants told him she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, a soldier.

He summoned the woman and slept with her. “And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, ‘I am pregnant.’” (2 Samuel 11:5, English Standard Version used throughout.) King David attempted to hide his adultery by calling Uriah back from battle and said to him, “…Go down to your house and wash your feet.” (2 Samuel 11:8). This meant intimacy with Bathsheba. Uriah, loyal to his comrades in the battlefield, said, “Shall I then go to my house, to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live…I will not do this thing.” (2 Samuel 11:11). David’s sin became murder. He had Uriah killed when soldiers abandoned him at the front line of a fierce battle.

The prophet Nathan exposed David’s treachery. King David repented, but Nathan said, “…the child who is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:14). The child was born and immediately became ill. David fasted and prayed to God days and nights, sleeping on the ground, asking God to spare his son. However, on the seventh day, the child died. When David learned of the child’s death, he “…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…they set food before him and he ate it.” (2 Samuel 12:20). This appalled his servants. David explained that while the child was alive, he sought God’s mercy, but the child died: “… Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” (2 Samuel 12:23). David knew that at his own death he would be reunited with his lost infant. He trusted in God’s care of children.

This is the same hope the apostle Paul offered all believers: “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep (died). For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be always with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18).

David Carlson Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div.)