We read in the Scriptures, “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:15-17). We all know how that turned out. Adam sinned and death has been every man’s (and woman’s) final appointment since that time. In fact, the author of Hebrews calls it just that, i.e. an appointment. He writes “it is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgement” (Hebrews 9:27).
Death is inevitable and yet few of us actually give it the consideration that it merits. Solomon, the Preacher of Ecclesiastes, shared this admonition. “It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2). Death is all around us. We all come into close contact with it sooner or later. Solomon urges us to use the opportunity to “lay it to…heart.”
There is profit in reflecting on that encounter. That is why he tells us “it is better to go to the house of mourning.” We are to use the occasion to reflect on the solemnity of the event. Paradoxically, there is an element of both finality and eternality bound in death’s arrival. It is the final event in one’s life while at the same time it ushers its guests through the door of eternity. We shall all find ourselves standing at the door eventually. Because death is irresistibly certain each of us would do well to heed Solomon’s advice and give earnest consideration to that appointment.
Daniel Webster, a 19th century American lawyer and statesman made this pointed observation. “The most important thought that ever occupied my mind is that of my individual responsibility to God.” He clearly understood the implications of “after this the judgement.” This life is brief and just as our appointment with death is inescapable, so is that judgement. None shall escape that. Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Romans 14:12; emphasis added).
We would all do well to let our hearts be stirred unto earnest contemplation by the house of mourning. Death is a cruel master, but there is one who has overcome death – Jesus Christ! Our Lord suffered death on the cross for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. In victory He declares “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die” (John 11:25-26). And what he said to Martha, he says to each of us today, “Believest thou this?”
From the Chaplain 