(Isaiah 57:1-2) “The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.”
I well remember when my spiritual father in the faith passed away due to throat cancer. When I was a 22 year old Bible College student he was in his early sixties. He was closer to me than my father ever was. He was there for me during the hardest time in my life. We remained very close for many years after that and I was involved with him in a Prayer Conference Centre Ministry for some time. Many times he would listen to me and help me spiritually when things were very difficult for me. Even today I can still hear his godly counsel even though he has long gone, “being absent from the body but present with the Lord!”
When he was in a coma I and his family members stood around his bed and prayed for his healing and restoration but he never regained consciousness but fell asleep in the Lord Jesus and went to be with Him. I had been really close to him for many years and had never thought that he would pass away as he did. It is interesting that when I presided at my father’s funeral I was not really moved emotionally. He was a good man and in his later life gave his life to the Lord Jesus but we were never close, neither was there an emotional bond. However, when I attended my mentor’s funeral I cried uncontrollably. That dear saint of God, an old- fashioned Salvation Army man, was the nearest I have ever experienced of God as a loving Heavenly Father.
Some days later after the funeral, I was working at my desk, as I was an advertising artist at the time and was drawing and colouring with texta pens. In those days we drew everything by hand. As I reflected on what had happened I asked the Lord “Why did he have to die as he did?” I believe the Lord spoke to me in a still small voice but very clear. He said to me; “Do you remember how Alex loved Me so much and always wanted to be with Me?” I replied “yes Lord.” Then the Lord said to me “He was at the point of passing from this life into the next and I gave Him a choice to stay or to come home and he chose to come home.” After this the emotions subsided and I understood. Why he contracted Cancer was never a question after that because I knew he was with the Lord which is far better.
Ill health and even death itself can come to any of us as we live in a fallen world and are subject to sickness and old age. As believers in the Lord Jesus we are destined to fall asleep in Him unless we are still living here when He comes back. God gave my spiritual father a choice and he chose the better way. (Philippians 1:23) This is what the Lord does with some of His saints, who, while even in a coma, are hovering between this life and the life to come and choose to go home. As it is also written; “Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His saints.”
Another more puzzling thing to understand is why a man like Keith Green, with an exceptional evangelistic music ministry in the prime of his life and calling should suddenly die in a plane crash? Another one who was the Lord’s man was the late David Wilkerson who died in a head on car crash on the freeway. Even though he was in his eighties he was still an anointed servant of the Lord. It would seem that Isaiah asked this question of the Lord and as he asked also knew the answer when he said; “The righteous perish, and no one takes it to heart; the devout are taken away, and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.”
Sometimes, in His foreknowledge, God sees that down the track a righteous believer in the Lord Jesus who is serving Him faithfully will encounter a situation they will not be able to handle. Possibly it may even spiritually disable them in some way, or lead them to stray from the path of righteousness. God sees this and wants to spare them from heartbreak and so He takes them to Himself. In the case of Steve Green and David Wilkerson one asks the question, “Did Satan arrange their deaths because of their effective work for God and the impact their ministry was having on others?” Why they died as they did, we cannot know this side of eternity, but it was their time within the sovereign purposes of God to go to be with Him.
We do know that God allows martyrdom and has clearly said this will be the experience of many of His faithful servants according to what we are told in His Word and Church history shows this to be true. This life is temporary and we cannot hold on to it indefinitely or hang on to the things of this world. We came into this world naked and we take nothing with us when we leave this world as naked as the day we were born! Having said this we see in God’s Word how Job responded to the news that all of his children had been killed and that by Satan. Job lost everything except his health and even Satan was to take his health but not Job’s life because Job was in God’s hands.
When Job heard this tragic news his emotions and his metal affliction was great and yet in the midst of this traumatic experience, which it was humanly speaking, we are told that “Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” (Job 1:21-22)
Later we read in the Book of Job where he saw things in the light of the resurrection of His Messiah and his part in it as well. Out of that deep tumultuous emotional turmoil and physical affliction Job was able to say; “But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27) In Job’s case, he had passed though the darkest and deepest valley of his life but in the end God restored him to full health, gave him a new family and prospered him in all things way beyond anything he had ever had previously. (Job 42:12-16)
Right now multitudes are facing this Coronavirus in their lives and many on the very brink of eternity and there are believers as well who have this virus and undoubtedly very sick with it. While scripture encourages us to pray for God’s protection over us and our loved ones, and we should do this, there are some who will recover and some who will not recover. However, as believers no matter what happens to us in this life God will take some of us to actually spare us from evil that lies ahead that would spiritually disable us and God would spare this happening. Why? because He loves us and wants us to be with Him forever. (John 17:24; 24:2)
Those who fall asleep in the Lord Jesus “enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.” It is in times when we experience “the dark night of the soul” that we will come to see the clearest. Even when dark clouds hide the sun it is still shining and giving off its heat and when the clouds disperse, as they will, the light shines once again for all to see and its warmth is felt. As David said to the Lord; “Even the darkness is as light to you!” This was Job’s experience when he looked up and by the revelation of the blessed Holy Spirit saw His Messiah resurrected and saw his own part in that resurrection. This is where we are headed if we belong to the Lord!
We are here only until we have done God’s will and then we go to be with Him, “having served our generation in the will of God!” We also need to keep in mind that walking in God’s will is the safest and securest thing we can do in this life especially at this time when the Coronavirus is sweeping the planet and taking many away in death. Always remember as bond-slaves of the Lord Jesus we are as strong as the will of God! His will is always good, acceptable and perfect when we are fully yielded to Him. (Romans 12:1-2) Added to this if we really want to do God’s will for our life then we won’t be leaving here until we have done it! Once it has been done we are out of here and heaven bound!
The yearning of our heart to be with the Lord Jesus, to be free from this body of corruption, and to be clothed with our heavenly, immortal, undefiled glorified body free from sin, sickness and sorrow, will be ours in abundance forever. It will be even beyond our wildest expectations! When we pass through the portal of this life into eternity there we will find the ones that have gone ahead of us, lined up as far as the eye can see, to welcome us home with open arms and hearts into eternal dwellings.
