Posted in Encouragements and Exhortations

Comfort to the Grieving, Warning to us All

   March 12, 2012
We’ve been amazed to see that there have been around 1,100 page views of our previous post about Noah’s sudden death.  This plainly testifies to how loved and respected he was by so many.  Clearly, we all feel sad, but what else are we to feel?  How could the Lord be using his death for our good? In looking up a couple Scripture passages, we’re convinced that Noah’s death serves to remind us that…

Life is Brief

We still cannot believe Noah is gone.  We cannot believe that we will not be working with him and we will never see him again, and yet Scripture gave me a “heads-up” to this possibility.

Psalm 103:15-16   As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;  for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
James 4:13-14  Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”-  yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
Noah’s death has given our family a new, and more biblical, sobriety about life.  As we were driving to church today, we understood that we too could get into a car accident and die.  We are not guaranteed a tomorrow.

Death is Purposed by the Lord

Lamentations 3:38   Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
Job said that man’s “days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass.” Job 14:5

Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.

The Lord, as sews each of us together in our mother’s wombs, writes every day of our lives down in a book, including the day of our death.

And yet…

The Lord does not Cause Grief “Willingly”

Lamentations 3:33   He does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.

Psalm 116:15   Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.

The Lord delights neither in death nor grief.  He despises it so much that he himself took our grief and our sorrows on the cross. 

Jesus Understands Grief

When Jesus saw Mary weeping over her brother Lazarus’ death, he was moved to compassion and he grieved with her.

John 11:33-35  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled.  And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”  Jesus wept.

Without a doubt, Jesus weeps with every one of his children that are grieving over Noah’s death.

Jesus is able to empathize and understand the pain of death because he himself tasted death for everyone. (Heb 2:9)
In fact, Jesus was defined as being “A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3)
He actually bore “our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4)
Jesus understands pain.  He understands how it feels to be separated from a loved one (i.e. his Father, Lazarus).  He understands the sorrows that come with being human.  He understands that parents love their children, that wives love their husbands, that children love their fathers, and he cares deeply when death separates them one from another.  There is no one that is more empathetic than Jesus. 

We are to Meet King Jesus one Day

Yes, Jesus is sympathetic, but he is also a righteous judge who reigns over this world.  Therefore a sudden death can also remind us…

Hebrews 3:12-14  Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  For we share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.
Galatians 6:7-9   Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.  And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10  So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.  For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
So, we grieve, and all the while we are warned that how we live matters because what we reap in the next life will be directly related to how we lived in this one. 

And for those who continue believing…

Heaven is our True Home

The Lord strips away comforts, friends, ease, and temporal pleasures in this life to keep us living for the next.   This earth is not my Heaven, and that becomes clearer and clearer as friends die, as people grow sick, and as we walk through trials.  I saw this video on a friend’s FB page (thanks Kristine McMillan!) and thought it was a perfect reminder that Heaven is the hope that we are to hold onto during this sad time…

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Author: Stacey Hare

Stacey is a servant of Jesus Christ as well as a wife, mom, linguist, and Bible translator among the Kwakum people of Cameroon.

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