Category: death

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The Bones of Joseph

“By faith Joseph , when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones” (Hebrews 11:22).

Joseph was not writing a script for a horror movie. Nor was he giving a lecture on physiology. Joseph was giving instructions about his final arrangements, his burial. This is not as gruesome as it seems.

It is a remarkable statement of faith. He was saying he did not want to be interred in Egypt. When the Israelite nation would be liberated to go to their new homeland, he wanted his remains to go with them. He wanted to be permanently buried among his own people in the Promised Land.

“By faith,” Joseph believed that God would fulfill his promise to Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the desert sky. He believed that they would be a blessing to all nations of the world.

He believed the word promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that the land of Canaan would be given to them and to their descendants after them (Genesis 15:13-16). This promise included Joseph and his sons. Joseph believed that Abraham’s descendants would return to that place and claim it as their own.

Joseph believed that there would be an exodus from Egypt someday. He knew he would not be alive to see it. He believed it because the Lord had said so. He believed that God had purposes for the chosen people of Israel. Joseph was expressing his confidence in God’s word and his solidarity with God’s people.

So we read in Exodus 13:19, “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the sons of Israel swear an oath. He had said, ‘God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up with you from this place.'”

I believe a practical lesson for us is that when the time comes to talk to our loved ones about our final arrangements, we should express our faith, as Joseph did. When we let them know about our desires and wishes for our funeral and burial, we should talk openly about our faith in Christ, and our assurance of eternal life with him.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Faith in the Time of Death

I remember visiting a lady in the hospital who had received a diagnosis that her condition was terminal. She and her husband were facing this with uncommon courage and faith. When I arrived at her room I noticed that her husband had been reading a book at her bedside.

When I asked what he was reading he showed me a book on theology. In this desperate time the two of them had been contemplating and worshiping God!

As he was dying, Jacob “worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff” (Hebrews 11:21). This verse is poetic. It is a tribute to the man who was the father of the tribes of Israel. He knew he was dying and he was worshiping the God of his fathers.

Matthew Henry wrote, “Though the grace of faith is of universal use throughout the Christian life, yet it is especially so when we are dying. Faith has its great work to do at the very last, to help believers finish well.”

Genesis 49 describes how Jacob’s twelve sons filed in to see their dying father  The Bible records the prophetic blessing he imparted to each one of them. His words predicted and influenced the subsequent history of the twelve tribes of Israel.

In his youth Jacob had been a conniving trickster. But one night at Penial, Jacob had had a confrontation with God. In a wrestling match with the Angel of the Lord he had been broken of his self-sufficiency and pride. Ever after he had needed a staff because the encounter had left him crippled. He walked with  limp.

But his weakness became his strength because it caused him to depend upon God. The Lord changed Jacob’s name to Israel which means “prince of God.” Then his staff became a symbol of royalty, like a scepter.

As he was dying he leaned upon that staff which was at the same time a symbol of physical weakness and patriarchal authority. His sons’ last impression of their father was that of a worshiper.

I hope that when the  time comes for me to face death, that I will be a worshiper. This is the highest and noblest human activity, to offer praise and adoration to our Creator and Redeemer.

Some time ago I read the story of a young pastor who was diagnosed with cancer. Surgery revealed multiple cancers throughout his body. After months of chemotherapy it became obvious that he would not survive. Before he died, he returned to his pulpit to address his congregation.

With God-given courage he spoke of dying. “I’m not looking forward to the process,” he said. “I am looking forward to seeing my Savior, the one I’ve worshiped all my life!”

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Good News for a Hard Day

Today I received distressing news about a friend’s medical complications. I am praying for him. This has prompted me to meditate on Psalm 23.

I have spoken on this psalm many times in the past, mainly when presiding at funerals. It never ceases to be a support and comfort to those who are grieving. But today I am thinking of my friend and, frankly, of my own mortality.

Nobody knows for sure when David wrote this psalm. Was it as an old man, looking back over his life? Was it in his youth, surrounded by his father’s sheep? Was it in midlife when he was beset by threats to his life and kingdom by Absalom? Did he sing this psalm to King Saul to ease his emotional torments?  Maybe the psalm came out of his experience in the Valley of Elah, where he faced Goliath.

Psalm 23 is David’s description of a contented life, a courageous death, and a confident eternity. Read in the light of Jesus’ words it helps believers live with assurance of the Lord’s provision, presence, and protection.

A contented life

“The Lord is my shepherd,” David affirmed. The Lord is the one who identified himself to Moses as the I AM, the eternally self-existent God, known as Jehovah, or Yahweh. Jesus freely took this title upon himself when he declared to his detractors in the religious community, “Before Abraham was born, I AM.” He was stating clearly that he is the  Jehovah of the Old Testament and that to know God one must believe in him.

David knew God. He made it personal when he said, “The Lord is MY shepherd.” Jesus said he himself is the Good Shepherd who gives his life for the sheep. It is one thing to see a sentimental picture of  Jesus the shepherd holding one of his lambs and to believe that he is a good shepherd. It is something else to believe that he is your personal shepherd. Can you say that by faith?

“He restores my soul” is another way of saying “He brings back my soul.” That is the point of Jesus’ parable of the shepherd who goes out into the wilderness to find his lost sheep. He returns with joy having rescued the sheep. The Lord compared this with the rescue of a sinner who repents. Jesus came to earth on that kind of rescue mission, “to seek and to save what was lost” (Luke 19:10). He is the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the sheep.

Because of this relationship, David could express contentment: “I shall not be in want.” Or as the little girl in Sunday School misquoted it: “The Lord is my shepherd and that’s all I want!”

A courageous death

“I will fear no evil,” said David as he contemplated death. It was because of his assurance that the Lord would not forsake him but would be with him. The New testament puts it this way: “To go and be with Christ is better by far.” To be absent from the body in death is to “be present with the Lord” for the Christian.

The last and greatest enemy is death. In the presence of death the believer has the promise of the Lord’s provision of every grace that is needed for that hour. The Lord will be there with his rod to ward off every enemy of our souls, and with his staff to shepherd us safe home to the Father’s house.

A confident eternity

The Lord’s goodness and mercy mean that God is faithful to his promises. Mercy is steadfast love, or covenant love, which binds God to his commitments. That is why David (and you and I) can be so sure about eternal life. God’s covenant love never fails. There is no end to his faithfulness to his word.

“I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever” makes us think of Jesus’ word that he is preparing a place for his people in the Father’s house. He is coming again to take us there, either by death or by rapture.  Paul summed it up: “I am persuaded (confident) that neither death nor life . . .  will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Amen.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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Through the Valley

Connie and I have said goodbye to several friends who have died this year. We will attend memorial services for two more of them this weekend. We hope that somehow our presence and assurances of our prayers will be of some comfort to their families.

An old proverb says that “death carries a king on its shoulders as well as a beggar.” Another says, “Death answers before it is asked.” These tell us that death is as inevitable as it is unexpected.

The Twenty-third psalm has a familiar statement about death: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (v.4). David, who wrote this shepherd psalm, was thinking about his own mortality (as we all do). He knew he was setting forth a profound theological affirmation. This is more than merely a poetic sentiment. It is a statement of faith in an ultimate reality.

“I will fear no evil.” David gives us some reasons not to fear death.

  1. Believers experience the shadow, not the sting of death. “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting?” ( 1 Corinthians 15:55).

F. B. Meyer wrote, “Christ met the substance, we encounter but the shadow. The monster is deprived of its teeth and claws. Our Shepherd has destroyed him who has the power of death, that is the Devil. . . . A shadow is the exact counterpart of its substance but it is not in itself harmful. The shadow of a dog cannot bite. The shadow of a giant cannot kill. The shadow of death cannot destroy.”

David is not denying the darkness and gloom of death. In fact the Hebrew word for “shadow” in Psalm 23:4 is the strongest word for darkness. Job 3:5 uses this word to refer to the underworld, the realm of the dead. But the valley is not called the valley of death. It is the valley of the shadow of death. This is an important distinction. The power has been removed from death for those who are in Christ, who conquered death to give us eternal life.

2.  Believers go through the valley, they do not stay in it. The Bible says that death is not an end to life, but an entrance to life. It is not a terminus, but a transition. Death for Christians, is not just a route to the grave, but a passage into eternal glory.

The valley is dark. It may be difficult to follow the path of the Shepherd. It may be lonely and disorienting. There may be pain. There is no denying or avoiding the fact that every one of God’s sheep must pass through this valley. This reminds me to say that it is vitally important to prepare for death by making sure you are in a right relationship to God through his son Jesus Christ.

“God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:11-13).

C.H. Spurgeon wrote these comforting words for those who are trusting in the Lord Jesus as their Good Shepherd. “The dying saint is not in a flurry; he does not run as though he were alarmed  or stand still as if he could go no farther; he is not confounded or ashamed. . . . We go though the dark tunnel of death and emerge into the light of immortality. We do not die, but sleep to wake in glory. Death is not the house, but the porch, not the goal, but the passage to it.”

3. Believers are not alone. The Shepherd is nearby. David has been talking about the Shepherd. Now he talks to the Shepherd: “You are with me.” If there is a good purpose in the darkness of the valley, it is that it causes us to draw closer to the Shepherd and depend more fully on him.

Psalm 23:4 is a promise that is reaffirmed elsewhere: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). ‘Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). “The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5).

So this weekend, as I pay my respects to the families of my friends who have gone to be with the Lord, it will be with the confidence that they have passed through the valley of the shadow of death into the light of eternity. I am encouraged by the promise that the Lord, who is their Good Shepherd, accompanied them through the valley, safe home to the other side.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

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I Shall Not Want

Last week I met with a friend who has been diagnosed with incurable cancer. She has been receiving hospice care. Before we prayed together, her husband, she and I joined hands and recited Psalm 23 as we remembered it from our childhoods. There was no better spiritual therapy for us in that moment.

This is why the 23rd Psalm is a favorite of many people. It is a source of strength for people who are troubled by anxiety, overwhelmed by difficult circumstances, or facing the reality that life is coming to an end.

“The Lord is my shepherd,” the psalm begins. This is personal. This is relational. King David, who wrote the psalm, wrote from his personal knowledge of the Lord. He had been a shepherd boy in his youth, and he knew what it was like to care for sheep. He knew how dependent the sheep were on the shepherd’s care. As king of Israel, he knew he needed the guidance and care of his (“my”) heavenly Shepherd.

“He makes me lie down in green pastures.” The sheep need nourishment, rest and protection. God’s people need spiritual nourishment from the Word and regular times of fellowship with the Lord in prayer. David knew this and his psalms are filled with prayers and praises. “He restores my soul” expresses the healing, renewal and forgiveness we experience when we come to God in transparent faith and honest confession.

“He guides me along the right paths.” I have read that there are animals that have a homing instinct and they are able to find their way back home even over many miles of separation. This is not true of sheep. They have no internal compass, no sense of direction. Sheep can only find the right places if they follow the shepherd. The psalm is teaching us to follow in the steps of Jesus the Good Shepherd.

“I will fear no evil.” When facing the last enemy, death, that lonesome valley will hold no terror for the believer who knows and follows the Shepherd. Even people who do not think of themselves as especially brave, are promised supernatural courage because in that in that dark and lonely place they discover they are not alone. The Lord Jesus himself is with them.

“Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life.” The believer who lives by faith and daily dependency upon God will find that his promises are faithful and true. He takes care of his own sheep, loves them and provides for them. David is describing the personal relationship of the sheep to the Shepherd. All through this psalm we see the personal pronouns “I,” “me,” and “my,” teaching us that the Shepherd wants us to know we are significant to him and that the concerns of our lives are important to him.

“I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” This assurance of an eternal home with the Lord is the reason the psalm opens with the phrase “I shall not be in want.” I shall not want for provision, guidance and care throughout life. I shall not want for the protection and presence of the Good Shepherd in the hour of death. And after death, I shall not want for the comfort and security of a home with the Lord.

I enjoy singing in the choir at church. We are preparing an anthem based upon Psalm 23, “Shepherd Me, O God,” by Marty Haugen and Mark Hayes. It is beautiful and its message is strong: “Shepherd me O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.”

One reason this is important to me right now is that just this week I received the unwelcome news from my doctor that I have Parkinson’s Disease. Obviously this means that Connie and I must begin to learn a whole new way to live. To paraphrase Michael J. Fox, I have no choice about whether I have Parkinson’s, but Connie and I have lots of choices about how we respond to it.

I choose to respond by following and trusting my Good Shepherd. His goodness and love have accompanied me for 75 years, and I know he will be a faithful Presence in the major adjustments and limitations that lie ahead. I shall not be in want.

Pastor Randy Faulkner

 

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Intimations of Mortality

I am not sure why, but the words to a famous nineteenth-century hymn have been spinning around in my head for several days.

“When ends life’s transient dream/ when death’s cold sullen stream shall o’er me roll;/ blest Savior, then in love, fear and distrust remove;/ O bear me safe above, a ransomed soul!” (“My Faith Looks Up to Thee,” by Ray Palmer)

I have been asking myself, “Why this sudden preoccupation with death? Where is this coming from?”

Maybe it is the repeated images on TV news: hospital ICUs crowded again with patients struggling against the resurgence of COVID-19 and the daily reports of the number of COVID-related deaths.

It may be the recent death of the young son of a friend of mine who died under tragic circumstances. His passing has been on my mind a lot as I have prayed for his family in their anguish.

Or it may be because I just had my 75th birthday and I realize the distance to the finish line is getting closer by the day.

I rather think it is because I have been studying the book of Ecclesiastes. One of the persistent themes in this ancient book is the fact that life is short and death is inevitable. This is not a morbid thought. Nor is it pessimistic. It is realistic. It is the inspired wisdom of God.

The writer says: “So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. All share a common destiny — the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good so with the sinful; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them. . . . The same destiny overtakes all . . . and afterward they join the dead. . . . For the living know that they will die” (Ecclesiastes 9:1-6).

This is, of course, the language of appearance. It is how things seem to be to limited human experience. The author of Ecclesiastes is not commenting on life after death. For the exposition of that glorious theme we must fast forward to the New Testament. Here he is taking a somber look at life “under the sun.” In a hundred years the majority of us will have been forgotten (v.5).

What happens at the time of death is worth pondering. The writer asks, “Who knows if the human spirit rises upward, and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth”(Ecclesiastes 3:21)? On our own we cannot know. Yes, God has put “eternity in our hearts” (Ecclesiastes 3:11). This is the universal hope for immortality. But who can know apart from a revelation from God?

The writer of Ecclesiastes answers his own question: “The dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to the God who gave it” (12:7). This is an intimation, a hint of continued existence with God after death. These words of wisdom were “given by one Shepherd” (12:11). The writer is conscious that he was inspired by God to write about the destiny of the sprit of believers at death. “The Lord is my Shepherd” (Psalm 23:1).

Ecclesiastes says the prospect of death produces one of two responses. On the one hand there are those who say, “Let us eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.” On the other hand there are those who “fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it be good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

The book of Ecclesiastes  teaches us to live life to the fullest as long as we have life, to enjoy it while we can. “Go, eat your food with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart for God has already approved what you do” (9:7). This life-affirming word is a reminder that the blessings of life are to be enjoyed as gifts from God: food and drink, love and marriage, vocation and purpose (vv. 8-10). We should not let the fear of death hover over us like a dreaded specter.

Those who are in Christ can look death in the eye without fear. Jesus takes away the fear of death because he has broken the power of death (Hebrews 2:14-15).

I have attended several funerals lately. Every funeral I attend is a reminder of my own mortality. But my faith is in Jesus the Savior. So, I can be sure that “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

Pastor Randy Faulkner