2 Samuel 12:23 But now he is dead, why should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. Whenever it pleases God to take away front us one whom we love there are several sources of consolation open to us. 1. First of all, there is the thought which is expressed in the words of Eli: "It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good." It is the will of God which is done, that will which has been for many a long year the subject of daily prayer whenever prayer has been offered, "Thy will be done." 2. But another topic of comfort is opened in such words as were borne from heaven to the listening ears of St. John the Divine: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours." Here the prominent thought is not the will of God, but the blessed state of the departed, not God wills, but "they rest." In the former case the mourner is exhorted to resignation by the thought, "it is the will of God;" in the latter he is comforted by the assurance of the rest and peace which is the portion of his beloved. 3. It was, however, to yet another source of comfort that David betook himself in his bereavement when he gave utterance to the words of the text — "I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." But it was not only submission to an inexorable law which made him yield to his lot. He was buoyed up by the thought of a blessed future. The words, however, appear to contain far more than a mere assurance of a future meeting of parted friends. The human heart, with its strong affections, craves for something more definite. The parting is so real, the void is so real, that it longs to know of a surety that the reunion will in like manner be a reality. There has been such a close, intimate knowledge of each other, such interchange, of thought, such an intense love, that nothing short of a renewal of these happy relations can satisfy the yearning of the soul. It is not enough to say, "You shall meet again." Still less bearable is that uncertain word of comfort which says, "It is possible we may know each other in heaven, but so little is known about that unseen world that none can say for certain that it will be so." One step further, and you hear it asserted as a fact that we shall not recognise each other in the future state. Christ, it is said, will be all in all, and we shall be as the angels in heaven, where they neither marry nor are given in marriage. But I often think that any uncertainty about this matter, and still more any such sad certainty as that to which I have referred, would add very greatly to the bitterness of parting from those we loved. True, Christ will be all in all to those who shall be counted worthy to enter into that kingdom, but surely it is because they are in Christ that these relationships are so true, and deep, and sacred. In Christ hearts are bound together; in Christ the members of His mystical body are joined not only to Him but to each other, so that when one member suffers or rejoices all the members suffer or rejoice with it. Living in Christ, they live one with another; parents are bound up in their children, and children in their parents; brethren and sisters love each other with a pure heart fervently, and when they fall asleep in Christ there is nothing to cause a severance in their love, but everything to intensify and deepen it. In Christ shall all be made alive, and who can for a moment imagine that love of the brethren, love of parents and children, of husband and wife, shall ever die out in those living ones? Death would indeed be a terrible thing if it had the power to put asunder and estrange from each other those who have been made one in Christ. True, "they shall be as the angels in heaven," but I have yet to learn that those holy beings who do the will of God are unconnected and unknown to each other, each one in his own separate isolated individuality doing his appointed service. — (J. J. Blunt.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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