LECTURE 2
OF THE MODE AND LOCATION OF DEATH : DOES IT MATTER?
Not long ago, we saw the disaster that hit the city of Accra. This tragic event, we all know, did happen on the evening of June 3, 2015. Over 150 lives were lost that night; some were carried away by flood and others burnt to death by fire. It was the only night we saw water and fire in perfect harmony and jubilation.
Upon looking back at that incident, many dread to die in such a manner. In a recent conversation with my sister, she did also confess the same fear to me. She told me how much she dreads to die either through fire or water as that will be no easy death. Honestly, I must confess that it was also my fear some years back, but not now as I write. In fact, should God discharge it to me as my lot, I will joyfully embrace it with urgency and immediacy! I, in the torment and affliction of that instrument, will only hail, “Thy Will be done O Lord. Receive my soul I pray!”. Goodness! What an awesome dispensation of providence that will be! How and where we die is not as important as where we spend eternity.
I once heard the plea of an old convict, who was soliciting for mercy that he be released to go home. All he feared was to die in jail. He lamented sorrowfully and said, “Please allow me to go spend my last days at home. I want to go home and die at home, so my children can see my mortal remains and give me a befitting burial. I just do not want to die in this place.”
Well, I must confess that I sympathize with this man in his plea but not with his reason. Death in jail and death at home is still death. The one is not more honorable than the other, neither is the other more befitting than the first. It is still death either way and nothing can moderate its power. Wisdom appeals that we make ourselves ready to embrace it whichever way it comes. Because we never know when and how it will come.
The burdens and sorrows of many have not being in the substance of death itself. Their deepest fear and sorrow have all been in the mode and location of their death. But that, I say, is also vanity or should we say a vain imagination or fear. If truly we are pilgrims, then that wouldn’t matter too. All that would matter, will be the place we will be spending eternity; not the place of our demise or burial. Until we are sure and hopeful of a blissful place for the soul in eternity, we ought not to worry over how or where the clay will be crushed.
It is only when we are sure and hopeful of the first, that we are to proceed with the second. For so did Jacob. Being sure of eternal rest for his soul in Abraham’s Bosom, did proceed to charge his children saying, “ . . . I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of E-phron the Hit’-tite for a possession of a burying place”.
Joseph also did the same. He, after securing a ticket for his soul in Heaven, did long to have his remains in the land of his ancestry even as his departure drew near in Egypt. But being in a foreign land, and having little hope of sharing in the sacred graves of his fathers, he fetched his brethren to his frail body and sworn them saying, “God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones away hence with you.”
So yes, it is never wrong for dying men to make requests with regard to the handling of their remains. However, it contradicts reason when men make such wishes having no definite destination for their soul in eternity. In fact, until we have first anchored our souls in Christ and thus hopeful of heaven, petitioning our earthly contacts for favors regarding the body is reckoned vain and foolish. It is almost comparable to that man who endures pain and suffering to procure expensive furnitures and decoratives for a leaky and dilapidated house; a house almost at the verge of collapsing.
Truly, the mode and location of our death is not the real deal. The principal thing is where and how we spend eternity; as to whether it will be in Heaven or in Hell, in joyfulness or in sorrow. We are never to sorrow over the location and mode of our death. It is as vain as the word vain. That said, the one thing we all should fear and dread above measure is the death in sin. For with that, we trample down the blood of His son Jesus and render His death vain.
“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Ezekiel 33:11
RESTING
By Adolph Moraht, translated by Jane Borthwick
I rest with Thee, Lord! whither should I
go? I feel so blest within Thy home of love!
The blessings purchased by Thy pain and woe,
To Thy poor child Thou sendest from above.
Oh! never let Thy grace depart from me:
So shall I still abide, my Lord, with Thee.
I rest with Thee! Eternal life the prize
Thou wilt bestow, when faith's good fight is won;
What can earth give but vain regrets and sighs,
To the poor heart whose passing bliss is done?
For lasting joys I fleeting ones resign,
Since Jesus calls me His, and He is mine.
I rest with Thee! No other place of rest
Can now attract, no other portion please.
The soul, of heavenly treasure once possest,
All earthly glory with indifference sees.
Poor world, farewell! thy splendors tempt no more-–
The power of grace I feel, and thine is o'er,
I rest with Thee! with Thee, whose wondrous love
Descends to seek the lost; the fallen raise,
Oh! that my whole of future life might prove
One hallelujah, one glad song of praise!
So shall I sing, as time's last moments flee
Now and for ever, Lord, I rest with Thee!