 |
|
| Home / Bible / Thoughts | |
 |
A Time To DieEcclesiastes 3:2 says there is a time to die. Sometimes this seems frightening, but we all know it is true. The passage is not here to frighten us, it is there to remind us ... and maybe even to comfort us. Hezekiah had a time to die. It scared him immensely. So he cried to God and begged to live longer. God relented, although perhaps reluctantly. God granted Hezekiah fifteen more years of life. 1 The scriptures don't follow up on whether or not Hezekiah had exactly fifteen years, but if God promised it, there is no doubt that it happened that way. Fifteen years after Hezekiah was supposed to die, he actually did die. When he died, his twelve- year-old son Manasseh became king. 2 If you do the math, you find that Manasseh must have been conceived and born during Hezekiah's extra years of life, during that time when Hezekiah was supposed to be dead. Manasseh went on to become the worst king in Judah's history, not because he was a bad politician, but because he turned the country so thoroughly to idols that years later God said because of the sin of Manasseh the country was beyond redemption. 3 And to think, if Hezekiah had died fifteen years earlier than he did, this might have been avoided. Speaking of bad kings, the first king of Israel, Jereboam, was so sinful that God decided to wipe out his family completely. The prophet said that those who died in the city would be eaten by dogs, and those who died in the fields would be eaten by birds. 4 It may seem like a harsh punishment, but since Jereboam was the one who introduced idolatry to this northern kingdom it is a little easier to understand God's wrath. Jereboam had a son who was sick before all this destruction happened, and perhaps before he even knew it was coming. His wife went to the prophet of God to find out whether or not her son would live. The prophet said her boy, Abijah, was the only one in the house of Jereboam in whom the Lord had found anything good. And, so, the boy would die as soon as the mother got home. 5 That verdict may sound odd, but the prophet explained that Abijah would be the only one in the house of Jereboam who would be mourned and properly buried. And, although the scripture doesn't mention it, allowing the child to live through the slaughter of his entire family does not sound like a great blessing. God had found something good in the boy, so he allowed him to rest in peace. So Hezekiah had a time to die, which if he had adhered to it may have prevented a lot of trouble. And Abijah had a time to die, which spared him the grief that was to come. If you keep looking you find that Moses had a time to die when God took him up to that mountain. And Jesus had a time to die, so that prophecy might be fulfilled. And we have a time to die. There are a lot of choices we make in this life, and some of them very difficult to make. At the same time there are a lot of life-determining choices God makes for us. We do not choose our gender, or our parents, or our year of birth, or our day of death. God has reserved these major decisions for himself. It is a relief that God has taken care of these big decisions for us. After all, if we had to choose our time to die, how many of us have enough wisdom to know when the right time would be? References Restricted access |