#227   SOME SOBER REFLECTIONS ON DEATH

A wise and due consideration of death is either to render us unduly sad, melancholy, disconsolate, or unfit for the business and offices of life.  But it is to make us more watchful, vigilant, industrious, sober cheerful, and thankful to that God who hath been pleased thus to make us serviceable to him, comfortable to ourselves, and profitable to others.  And after all this, to take away the bitterness and sting of death through Jesus Christ our Lord. In a survey of the Bible we find that life is like:

  1. a tale that is told, Psalm 90:9

  2. a pilgrimage, Genesis 47:9

  3. a swift post, Job 9:25

  4. a handbreath, Psalm 39:5

  5. a dream, Job 20:8

  6. a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away, James 4:14

  7. a fleeing shadow, Job 14:1-2

  8. a flower

  9. a weaver’s shuttle, Job 7:6

  10. water spilt on the ground, 2 Samuel 14:14

  11. as the grass of the field, I Peter 1:24

  12. the wind, Job 7:7

These figures teach the brevity, evanescence, and transitory nature of life. Decrepitude, death, and decay are written upon every living thing on earth.  The cradle and coffin stand side by side, and it is a melancholy truth so soon as we begin to live, that moment we also begin to die.  It is passing strange that notwithstanding the daily mementos of mortality that cross our path we will not more seriously consider our fate and eternal destiny.  The funeral bells toll in our ears and the funeral processions go about our street and highways.  But it usually is not until the angel of death puts his hand upon one whom we love or starts knocking at our door that we really pay attention to the subject.  Death is that fate which must sooner or later overtake us all and which no power, or station, no virtue of bravery, no wealth or honor, no tears of friends or agonies of relatives can avert.  Hebrews 9:27, is still final: "And ... as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment."

Some time ago the Russian, Dr. Alexander Bogomolets, who was the self-proclaimed discoverer of a "youth serum" that was suppose to length life to at least 150 years, died.  He passed away at the age of sixty-four!  The serum did not work for him.  Shakespeare has well said, "By medicine life can be prolonged, yet death will seize the doctor too." Death cannot even be bribed.  Some may remember Dutch Schultz, the well-known gangster.  While fatally shot he pressed $725 into the hand of the intern at the hospital and told him to take care of him.  But money cannot buy "protection" and he passed into the silent halls of death.

Death is the act of fact of dying: the total permanent cessation of all the vital functions of the body: or deprivation of life.  Death is a separation.  The scriptures say: "for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."(James 2:26) In death our spirits are separated from our bodies, we are separated from life in this world and our friends and loved ones.  The lexicographer Joseph Henry Thayer defines the Greek word for death, viz., thanatos as follows: "prop. the death of the body, i.e., that separation (whether natural or violent) of the soul from the body by which the life on earth is ended."(Greek- English Lexicon, p. 282) Paul uses a very picturesque word for his death in 2 Timothy 4:6; he speaks of it as a "departure".  This Word (anelusis) is traced by Thayer as follows: "(1) it is an unloosing (as of things woven); (2) a dissolving (into separate parts); (3) departure, metaphor drawn from loosing from moorings preparatory to setting sail; or (4) according to others from breaking up an encampment."

Joseph Franklin Rutherford taught unconsciousness between death and the resurrection, saying that to die is to go out of existence.  And though this view is held by Jehovah's Witnesses today, it is patently false.  Jesus said that killing the body does not kill the soul, Matthew 12:28.  He taught that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still lived, even though their bodies were dead, Matthew 33:32.  The spirit of man is not corruptible and consciously survives death, 1 Peter 3:4; Revelation 6:9-11; Luke 16:19-31.  Death is not a period to our existence, but a comma in our existence!  The body in death returns to the dust and the spirit returns to a God-ordained place to await the resurrection, or Hades, Acts 2:31; Luke 16; Revelation 20:13 and 1 Corinthians 15.

"And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her." Genesis 23:2) This is indeed a passage poignantly pathetic and it touches the heart with its simplicity and pathos to see the earthly parting of two great people.  Abraham felt the sorrow of death.  At the tomb of Lazarus Jesus "wept." (John 11:35) Paul admits that there is sorrow in death, and though the Christian does not sorrow as those who have no hope, we still have sorrow, I Thessalonians 4:13.  We who are preachers have often seen the shock and deep grief as we conduct funeral services.  Even the skeptic and intellectually proud get a reflective stare on their faces as they gaze into an open casket.  Death has a way of bringing us to our knees.

It is a paradox but for the child of God death is not only sad but sweet.  "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."(Psalm 116:15) Though the passing of a fellow worker in Christ is sorrowful for us, deep down we realize that it is better over there in the land where we shall never grow old.  Paul said, "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better."(Philippians 1:23) And John writes, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them, Revelation 14:13.  After we have left this life and have been raised, the Lord's people may walk through the gates of pearls, down the streets of gold, within the walls of jasper, by the tree of life and by the water of life, to really see God and have all tears wiped from our eyes.