Getting to the Finish Line
In this past Sunday's sermon we came to the end of the life of the Old Testament patriarch Jacob, who has been the focal point of our study this summer. Jacob's death was actually recorded in four scenes, all the way to his dramatic deathbed conversation with his son and grandsons. It was one of the longest descriptions of a person's death in all of Scripture.
Actually, the Bible spends very little time talking about most people's death, with the exception of Jesus on the cross--and He went on to defeat death in the end. One of the reasons, of course, is that the Bible is a book about life, more than about death. But that doesn't mean it ignores the subject. We are reminded in the New Testament that "it is appointed for a man once to die, and after that, judgment." (Hebrews 9:27) We all have an appointment with death.
So even as we come to Scripture seeking to learn how to live, we are also learning how to die. Hence, the focus of our message on Sunday was "finishing well" with the time we have left here on earth.
Ironically, after preaching that message on Sunday, the next morning in the daily devotional Bible study that I do online with several guys from our church there was a reference to a website called deathclock.com. You can go to that site, type in your birthdate along with your body mass index, and it will tell you your estimated date of death. For me, it looks like I am counting down till October 11, 2056, which is certainly more optimistic than I would have assumed. In fact, according to their calculations, I have more than 947 million seconds left to live.
Of course, none of that takes into account the possibility of me choking on a chicken wing at our next church picnic, or getting hit by a truck tomorrow. Life is short, as they say, and one never knows when his days will run out. And though at first glance that website may seem a little sadistic or overly morbid, in reality it is just a numbers game. Life insurance companies have long used actuary tables for life expectancy to estimate how long they think we are going to live, and then they bet on those odds. Effectively when you buy insurance, you are betting you are going to die and they are betting you are going to live, based on those odds.
So it's not a matter of if, but of when, when we are talking about matters of life and death. Our clocks are ticking and our days are numbered, and only the Lord knows when the ticking stops and our number is up. That's why the psalmist prayed, "Teach us to number our days, so that we might gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12) We count our days, so that we make our days count.
But that does not mean we live our lives in fear. Instead, we who know Christ and are secure in our eternal destiny, have a blessed assurance with which we approach life, because we know our lives are in His hands. And our concern is not so much when our life will end, but how we will live till the end.
Jim Elliot, the Christian missionary who famously died at the age of 28 at the hands of the Auca Indians in Ecuador he was trying to reach with the gospel, wrote somewhat prophetically in his journal: "When the times comes to die, make sure that all you have to do is die." In other words, you don't want to live your life with any unfinished business on your agenda because you never know when it's your time.
Even deathclock.com doesn't really know when that time is, but for all of us there is a finish line to this race. And if we are going to finish well, we had better start running the race now with the end in mind. What does that mean for you? How can you live your life now with eternity in mind? How do you want to spend your remaining time on earth so that your deathbed conversations are all that you would hope for them to be?
May you live your life this week without regrets, to the glory of the Lord. I promise, you won't regret that! I am praying for you, and I look forward to seeing you Sunday.
--Pastor Ken
