This shouldn’t be “news” to us, and this shouldn’t scare us. Jesus took the fear out of death when He died for us on the cross.
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (25) For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. ~I Peter 2:24-25
All we have to do is confess our sins…believe in Him…and live for Him.
…that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. ~I Peter 2:24
Once we have declared Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, there is no fear in death because there is eternity in after-death with the Lord.
Or–should we say that there is eternity in our afterLIFE with the Lord.
“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ~John 5:24
It’s going to be okay.
But back to the fact that we will all die…OR…the Bible points out and recognizes:that we might, one earthly day, be “no more” on earth, because God will take us away.
While I was reading the very first book of the Bible today (Genesis), God gives us a reminder of the 100% chance that we will all die, as His Word lists many in the Genesis time-period that lived-and-died.
(P.S.: Please do not get hung up on the length of years that they lived. God shortened the lifespan of people once our sins got the best of us. But back in the early Bible days, people did live this long, and then they died.)
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. (2) He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.
(3) When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth…. (5) Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died…
…(8) Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died…
…(11) Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died…
(14) Altogether, Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died….
(23) Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. (24) Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
(27) Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died… ~Genesis 5:1-3, 5, 8, 11, 14, 23-24, 27
Did we catch something different in there? Something special? Something spiritual? Something foreshadowing for the faithful?
The Lord, in His sovereignty, mercy, and creativity… also throws in Enoch in the listing of lives and deaths, to remind us that we might die…or…we might just be “no more” because God could take us away.
Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. (24) Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. ~Genesis 5:23-24
This happened with Enoch, but God (also) says that it will happen with others of us as well.
- For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. (17) After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. (18) Therefore encourage one another with these words. ~I Thessalonians 4:16-18
- “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. (37) As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (38) For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; (39) and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. (40) Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. (41) Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left. (42) “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ~Matthew 24:36-42
We don’t know on what day our Lord will come, or on what day we will go to see our Lord, but there is a 100% chance, and also a 100% certainty…that we will die-to-this-world and enter eternity with the Lord, one way or another.
Our ending, and end-date is not up to us, but (if we had our druthers) wouldn’t we prefer to “go” just as Enoch did: then he was no more, because God took him away (Genesis 5:24).
But–our ending is not up to us. However, what is up to us is: today.
Death…or being “taken away”: neither are fears-for-tomorrow if we are walking faithfully with God today.
Let’s be an Enoch during our epoch.
Blessings,
sarah
