The Brevity of Life

Like a Shadow

1 Chronicles 29:15 We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land as our ancestors were before us. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.

Only a Handbreadth in Extent

Psalm 39:5, 12 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man's life is but a breath. Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom.

Like a Vanishing Vapor

James 4:14 How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it's here a little while, then it's gone.

Death and Divine Providence

Our Days Are Numbered

Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? Are not his days also like the days of an hireling?—that is, strictly numbered.

Job 14:5 Man's days are determined; you have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.

Acts 2:23-24 This Man (Jesus), was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.

Jesus died according to the purpose of Divine providence, not the whims of cowardly men. Just so, you and I will die, not according to the will of cancer or heart decease, not according to the will of an erratic drunk driver, not according to the will of a painful disease or a tragic accident. We will leave this world according to God's clock, not the timetable of random fate.

All the hatred of men and all the enmity of Satan and his hosts could not speed up Christ’s appointed death. Until God’s foreordained hour struck, and the incarnate Son bowed to His Father’s good pleasure, He was immortal. And so we are assured that the hand of death cannot strike us down before God’s predestined “hour” has arrives for us to leave this life. The enemy may come against us, and he may be permitted to ravage our bodies; but shorten our lives he cannot, anymore than he could Job’s.

No disease or sickness can take you unless it is His will, no matter what the doctors say. The keys to life and death are in His hands. Thus I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God, in Him will I trust.

The Hope of the Resurrection

1 Corinthians 15:13-24 For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can't be true if there is no resurrection of the dead.

And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. But there is an order to this resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back. After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power.

The Security and Hope of the Believer even in Death

Romans 8:35-39 Can anything ever separate us from Christ's love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, "For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.")

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Philippians 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.