There is something in our minds that feels better when a person grows old and has experienced all of life and then dies. We say that they have lived a full life.
In Acts 13, Paul is being sent out
on his first missionary journey. He is sent out by the elders of the Antioch
church, and he makes a significant statement about death when he is asked to
give a word of encouragement in the synagogue in Pisidia. (As a side note, I
love how Paul is geared up and just already has something on his heart to share
with this group.) As the text reads, Barnabas and Paul are asked, and then Paul
just stands up and goes. As someone who preaches most Sundays, I love the idea
of no outline, just God speaking to you and you speaking to people. Paul was a
man who was hooked up to the well and out flowed the things that God put there.
Notice:
Acts 13:36. For
David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell
asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption,
Paul says something implicitly
about life that could be helpful for us. Paul says that David dies after he had
served his purpose to God. Essentially after he had done what God wanted him to
do, David died. For some people, this may seem like harsh treatment by God to
his servant. Why wouldn’t God give David a long, good life after how David
served Him? David gave his life to God. Shouldn’t God give David a retirement
package? You know like 20 years where David could do what he wanted or do the
things he hadn’t gotten to do because he was busy serving God.
I don’t think David was just living
for the Kingdom. I think David’s primary motivation in this life was the glory
of God. Once David had done what he was supposed to do for that purpose, he
died. You see this in elderly people quite often. As long as they have a
purpose in life, they continue to live. But often when that purpose is removed,
their health tends to deteriorate. This could be part of how God made us.
I think we undervalue how great it
is that we are to serve God according to the purpose that He gives to us. Purpose in
this verse could also mean plan. God has had a plan for the world of redeeming
it and glorifying it and making it new. In the same way, He has started this work
of making things new by resurrecting Jesus and then started the process of
making us new by making us new creations in the Messiah and giving us new hearts. We get to take part in God’s plan and
purpose for this world that is thousands of years old and ends with everything
made new and God glorified.
It feels all too fitting that once
we have fulfilled our role in God’s purpose and plan that we would die. The
intended purpose for our lives is God’s glory (Isaiah 43:7). It feels proper and
good that when we fulfill our intended purpose, we would pass away whether that
is as a young or old or somewhere in between.
I am not trying to be insensitive
to people who have lost friends or family members young. I know that hurts, and
I’m sorry if you have. I’m trying/hoping to reconcile life and death as a
Christian.
I lost my brother many years ago. He didn't make it to the millenium. He asked me a week before he died of canser what would happen when he died. He knew, but he wanted me to say it to him again. I said that when he closed his eyes and died is would feel like a split second and he would experience rising up the meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds, because as the dead know nothing he wouldn't know how much time had passed since he died. He died a week later and I closed his eyes that were wide open. I can't wait to see him in the resurrection! I am still allive because God has something more He wants me to learn, or something His wants me to do for Him at 80 years of age. Praise Yehovah my God and Father.
No comments:
Post a Comment