Tuff Stuff: Suffer the Children

And then they [who] were there brought unto him young little children, also infants, that he should put his hands on them, touch them and pray: but when his disciples saw it, [they] rebuked them that brought them

But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased, [and] called them unto him and said unto them, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven -- the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.”

And he took them up in his arms and laid his hands on them and blessed them, and departed thence. (Matthew 19:12-15, Mark 10:13-16, Luke 18:15-17)

One of my essays “Real Nightmares” (9/19/09) ended with the death of a child. She wasn't my child, but the sister of a friend and because she died going from my home, I felt guilt. The associated shock, nightmares and the guilt of the event eventually faded into the miasma of time.

The illustration on this post is the edge of a tombstone. It was for a baby who died at birth. He was the only child of an older cousin. I was very young myself when this happened, but I remember going to her home. Everyone was acting strange. They only spoke to each other in whispers and no one would tell me what was going on. People were crying. I was scared.

My wife and I were to endure seven tiny deaths of our own. Four were miscarriages, three - Sean, Michael and Amy - died in infancy. It is not easy to lose a child, but perhaps easier so early, before you have known their personalities, seen their aptitudes or heard their laughter. But it is still hard.

And it is natural to wonder where did they go?

Oh, sure, I was once an Atheist and perhaps those few real Atheists don't ask that question, but most people hold to some belief in an afterlife. Thus I think for the majority of people, they ask that question.

My answer is such children are in Heaven with the Lord.

The Apostles asked a question of Christ on a different matter once:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 18: 1-6

You might say, and rightly, these verses and the ones quoted at the beginning of the post, don't say young children who die automatically go to Heaven. But they show God has a special love and protective attitude toward children.

Yet, I don't base my premise on these verses. I base it on these:

But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the LORD your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, "The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, 'The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.' "

Then I said to you, "Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The LORD your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place."

In spite of this, you did not trust in the LORD your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.

When the LORD heard what you said, he was angry and solemnly swore: "Not a man of this evil generation shall see the good land I swore to give your forefathers, except Caleb son of Jephunneh. He will see it, and I will give him and his descendants the land he set his feet on, because he followed the LORD wholeheartedly."

Because of you the LORD became angry with me also and said, "You shall not enter it, either. But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it. And the little ones that you said would be taken captive, your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land. I will give it to them and they will take possession of it. But as for you, turn around and set out toward the desert along the route to the Red Sea." Deuteronomy 1: 26-40

Probably most people who heard the story of the exodus know the Hebrews wandered about in the wilderness for forty years. They certainly know some of the events, how the Red Sea was parted as they escaped Pharaoh's army, how Moses went up the mountain and God wrote the Ten Commandments into stone and how Aaron carved a golden calf and the people danced about it. We've seen all that in Cecil deMille's movie, "The Ten Commandments". We all know Moses looked just like Charlton Heston. But you want to know something that stuff all happened in the first year.

Granted they hung around one spot there at Mount Sinai for that year, but it is only about 200 miles from where they left Egypt to Canaan. If they only walked five miles a day it should have only taken them 40 days, not forty years. God was leading them. Was he lost? I've had some Mapquest directions that took me the long way around, but forty years of wrong turns? Naw, God didn't need Mapquest and he didn't miss any turns. When they left Mount Sinai, God led them on a beeline right to the Promised Land and said, it's your for the taking.

Except they didn't have faith. They were afraid. They said those fellows over there are too big for puny little us. They forgot God is bigger than anyone. They turned down the offer. And as a result, they never got to enter the Land of Milk and Honey. That's is why they wandered around in the desert for Forty Years, until every one of those who refused God's gift of Canaan dropped dead (with a couple exceptions, Joshua and Caleb) and the children.

So tell them, 'As surely as I live, declares the LORD, I will do to you the very things I heard you say: In this desert your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But you—your bodies will fall in this desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. Numbers 14:28-33

Although the children, and here we find children defined as those from o to 19 years of age, who also didn't enter Canaan when it was offered, are viewed by God as innocent by their youth -- "your children who do not yet know good from bad—they will enter the land".

There is a picture of us coming to salvation in the Exodus. Like the Hebrews, who were slaves in Egypt, we are in bondage to our sins. Like the first Passover lamb, Jesus shed His blood to pay for our sins and the Word of God goes before us offering us salvation and entry into Heaven if we only accept His gift. If we lack that faith, then we will die in the wilderness of our sin and not set foot in the Promise Land.

And if we accept the model of the Exodus as a model of God's offer of salvation, then we can accept the special Grace shown to children.

At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill, and Jeroboam said to his wife, "Go, disguise yourself, so you won't be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there—the one who told me I would be king over this people. Take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy." So Jeroboam's wife did what he said and went to Ahijah's house in Shiloh.

Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age. But the LORD had told Ahijah, "Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such and such an answer. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else."

So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news. Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I raised you up from among the people and made you a leader over my people Israel. I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back.

" 'Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone. Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. The LORD has spoken!'

"As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good. 1 Kings 14:1-13

I've seen it said Abijah died as a punishment on Jeroboam. This is not how I read it. It is true God promised disaster on the house of Jeroboam, but the LORD spared Abijah by letting him die as a youth. God found good in the boy, but apparently the state of Israel would be so evil it was better to take the boy out of it than allow him to grow to rule over it. I doubt God would have spared Abijah from the curse put on the males of Jeroboam to condemn him to the worse curse of Hell.

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD."


 Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die."

After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah's wife had borne to David, and he became ill. David pleaded with God for the child. He fasted and went into his house and spent the nights lying on the ground. The elders of his household stood beside him to get him up from the ground, but he refused, and he would not eat any food with them.

On the seventh day the child died. David's servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they thought, "While the child was still living, we spoke to David but he would not listen to us. How can we tell him the child is dead? He may do something desperate."

David noticed that his servants were whispering among themselves and he realized the child was dead. "Is the child dead?" he asked. 


"Yes," they replied, "he is dead."

Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate.

His servants asked him, "Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat!"

He answered, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, 'Who knows? The LORD may be gracious to me and let the child live.' But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me." 2 Samuel 12:13-23

This was the first child David had with Bathsheba, the offspring of that adulterous affair that resulted in murder. But the death of this baby was not a punishment on the child, but on David. Otherwise, God would be going against His Law: Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin. Deuteronomy 24:16

Now one could argue that David's statement to his servants merely means David will go to the grave as did his son; however, it is clear from David's life, and especially his Psalms, that David understood resurrection and salvation. No, I believe it was not just an acceptance of "that's that and nothing I can do about it, so I'll just get on with my life". I think David's ability to eat and snap back is because he knew that he would go to his son eventually, and to do that his son would also have to be in Heaven. And a child dead at birth has no opportunity to ask forgiveness.

But God is big enough to take to Himself those who have no ability to hear, understand or accept.

I believe someday I will go to those seven children we lost.

My grief for those children is for what I missed in not having them in my life, not for the life they missed, for their life is better than mine. My fear is for the children who are living and grown into the age of understanding. For the children who die too young we grieve for what we lost; for the children who die too late, we grieve for what they lost. Pray for all we children of the world that we do not die too late.