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Death, Dying and Precious Promises
The past three weeks have been difficult ones for me. My eldest brother died on the 21st of December. Because of the season, his burial was delayed until this week. Jackie and I have spent these past few days in travel and other duties related to a family death.
At this stage in our journey, we have come to know and appreciate the Providences of our Creator. There are duties that attend the momentous sorrows to which our race is prey on this side of Eden. All of these take time and effort. Recall how it was that Abraham was required to leave the side of his beloved Sarah in order to purchase a place for her burial.
How kind that He has made the hours to be an ally in our healing! While there are some wounds that never entirely mend, during this earthly dwelling, our Maker has designed us so that each tick of the clock effects an incremental betterment. The pain will be less tomorrow! The wound will cease to bleed! Someday only the scar and the memories will remain as a reminder of our hurt and loss.
One wonders how those outside of Christ can cope with the grim finality of death! How could we except for the hope that is ours in Christ? Faith draws the redeemed soul to recollection of precious promises. These are our consolation and strength! Even death has no triumph over us when these are recalled and believed!
Ps 49:15
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. (KJV)
There is a sense in which the great power over men is the tomb. It marks an end that comes to all alike. Every trapping and distinction in life is surrendered in the grave. All are drawn to it. In the darkness of that place what matter that one was rich and another poor? Of what significance that great beauty adorned one and not another? Grand oratory is silenced in that precinct. Power is surrendered, and altogether passed to another. The reaper sets at naught every plan. He dashes every hope. He drains every joy. He is no respecter of persons. The cold scythe reaps each and all.
Spiritual standing, so unimportant to many in time, is of essential significance in eternity. Many a rich person received only comfort in life, but decease brings only merciless torment. For the believer the ending of life is the portal to eternity with Christ. The constraints of sin and the flesh are lifted and the soul is freed to love Christ purely and to enjoy Him perfectly.
The believer’s body is said to sleep. Christ does not forget our mortal frame. He marks the place where each has fallen and He will call us forth to glory and victory in the last day. He has saved us – and that in our entirety. Our bodies do not belong to death for Christ is the God of the living. So, the dust of each saint awaits the trump of God. Its quickening note shall float upon the air of the world’s last dawning. Like the germ of a beautiful flower, we were buried in decay. Perhaps many a wintry gale will have swept over the sleeping seed. But nothing can forestall the arrival of that eternal spring when the dead in Christ shall come forth in new and unimagined beauty. We will be received by Him, and His glory will be forever extolled by all his creation in recognition of our eternal magnificence!
George Moore
Elder Emeritus
