Shepherd the Flock

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die…

It was John Calvin who recommended that we take periodic walks through the graveyard so that we (and our children) are constantly reminded of the reality of death. To me that sounds like very wise advice.

Death in this society is anything but in the forefront of our minds; real death, that is. Of course Hollywood has its glamorous version of death, as does the every-present 24hour news channels feeding into our living-rooms and PCs. But the fact of the matter is that our society’s infatuation with fun, entertainment, wealth, ease, and comfort betray the notion that the digitalized ‘death’ around us is having any sort of real effect.’Death’ has become a video game, a form of entertainment (in news and in show), and is something that happens to other people; it’s certainly not something many of us think can really happen to us.

I must say, thinking about dying is no fun; it’s actually very depressing. Depressing in the Ecclesiastes sort of way, if you know what I mean. But death is a reality, for the Christian and non-Christian alike, and given the great account we must give at the end of days, death is something that should be vitally important to all of us.

With that in mind, the point of this post is to simply remind you (and myself) of this reality so that we do not forget it or neglect reminding ourselves of it. Let us tremble at the Divine response to the rich man who set aside his soul as ‘having its goods laid up’ (he thought he was right with God) while he pursued earthly endeavors: ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ - Luke 12:20

Thus, consider a sad but necessary reality about death can be found in Ecclesiastes 2:

I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

Do you realize that you could be replaced at any moment? Have you duly consider the phrase ‘he will be MASTER of all‘? Think about where you’re sitting right now. If you were to die, someone else would fill that chair. Someone else would be using your computer. Someone else would eventually fill your job and do what you are doing for a living. Someone else would take your role in your family –whether that be provider, homemaker, etc., maybe even husband or wife, father or mother. Those jobs would fall to someone, somehow, who would master them as you do right now.

If you were to die, someone else would be driving your car, spending your money, wearing your clothes. If you were to die, someone else would be comforting/loving your husband, or your wife, your children, your family.

Who knows whether that person(s) would be wise or a fool? How would they treat your wife, your kids, your family? What kind of work ethic would they display at your job? What would they spend your money on –the money you toiled to get? How would they treat your things; would they use them for good or evil, for selfish pleasures or for serving?

Of course, immediately after your death there would be a time of mourning –3 months maybe. After that things that you owned and the positions in life that you held would slowly but surely fall into other hands. Your friends and family, though they do love you very much, would start to forget you in day-to-day life, and they would get on with their own lives. The world that’s not immediately around you, things like sports, media, politics, culture, etc., would continue on and not even notice your death unless it was of uncommon circumstances.

That’s reality, folks. And as painful as it may be to write/think about these things, it will do you great benefit to consider them deeply. Life isn’t all about us, even in our own personal world and families. Life can and will go on just fine without you.

Depressing? Sure is. But let us not forget that there are treasures in heaven. There are treasures that you will not lose, that others will not take over, that thieves will not steal and moth will not destroy.

That eternal treasure is Jesus Christ. The treasure are the robs of His righteousness that He grants to all those who come to Him in faith. The treasure is not something we earn on our own, or something that is given to us for our goodness –and I believe the vanity of all this life is shown here in Ecclesiastes to demonstrate that very thing. What is lasting you cannot gain in your own power; what is lasting is not to be found in this physical realm.

You are empty; Christ is full. You are naked; Christ will clothe. You are blind; Christ gives sight. You are deaf; Christ speaks. You are sinful; Christ is righteous. You have broken the Law with your deeds; Christ has perfectly obeyed the Law with His. You are dead; Christ gives life.

I pray that you will read this post and utterly despair at the vanity of all this life has to offer and all that you can produce in your own power. Whatever it may be that you’re living in or living for, it isn’t your’s and you cannot keep it. Someone else will sooner or later be master. Then what will become of you? But I pray, once you’ve despaired of even life itself, and have realized that nothing, absolutely nothing is all about you, look to Jesus Christ. Oh, behold His sympathy and His beckoning calls to give you rest. He has defeated death and all the vanity contained within; seek the Treasure that will not fade away…