Wednesday, April 24
Someone once asked the question: What’s the difference between humans and chickens in regard to the question of death? The answer is that, unlike chickens, who die, we humans, who die, too, know that we will die. Chickens don’t. And it’s this knowledge of our impending death that greatly impacts how we live now.
As we know, all relationships, including marriage, sooner or later come to an end in our greatest enemy: death. No matter how close a union, no matter the great love, the deep companionship, the time spent together, as human beings we (unlike chickens) know that sooner or later death will come (unless Jesus returns beforehand) and, when it does, all our relationships will cease. This has been our fate from the first sin and will be so until the return of Jesus.
The Bible doesn’t tell us which of the two, Adam or Eve, died first, but it must have been particularly painful for the other one, especially since death was never supposed to be part of life to begin with. If, as we saw in an earlier lesson, the death of a single leaf caused them to mourn, who could imagine what they went through with a death of a spouse?
The problem is that we are so used to death, we just take it for granted. But it was never supposed to be something that we as humans experienced. Hence, even to this day, we struggle to make sense of it, when, so often, we just can’t.
What do the following texts teach us about death and about how people struggle with it? Isaiah 57:1; Revelation 21:4; 1 Thessalonians 4:17, 18; Matthew 5:4; 2 Samuel 18:33; Genesis 37:34.
No question: not only do we all face the reality of our own death, we face the reality of the death of others, of loved ones, of maybe our closest companion. Hence, sooner or later, many of us will face a time, a season, of loneliness brought about by the death of someone else. It’s hard, it hurts, and at such times we can, and often must, just claim the promises of God. After all, in this world of sin, suffering, and death, what else do we have?
How can your church help those whom you know are suffering loneliness from the death of a loved one?
