“Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.” Psalm 23 has comforted many people as they face satan’s “nuclear option” of death.
In looking closely at this verse it has always interested me that death is referred to as a “valley” and a “shadow”. Death is no doubt the deepest valley we will ever encounter and yet we are told not to fear its dismal and frightening gloom, because God will be with us every step of the way as we pass through it.
The Bible also refers to it as a “shadow”.
Hmmm… As I think of a shadow the terms: “follows me”, “harmless”, and “fleeting”, all come to mind. A shadow occupies the space behind an object with light in front of it. I picture Jesus and I holding hands and walking along through this valley towards heaven’s radiant light. There is a shadow behind us, but we don’t even notice because its harmless and no one’s looking back anyway.
As we enter through the pearly bejeweled gates and arrive in heaven, the shadow flees and completely disappears as no shadows exist in heaven because God’s glory surrounds and fills all of heaven with its radiant dazzling light. God’s light eliminates the shadow and death is gone forever and the question in 1 Cor. 15:5 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” can be put to rest, (RIP).
Yes this world is screwed up. Mothers kill their two year old children and not only get away with it, but are rewarded with millions for book deals, television interviews, and contracts for porn movies. Children are forced to learn in schools that homosexuality is acceptable, hard working people are taxed to give to those who are either too lazy to work or shrewd enough to steal from our incompetent government, brave soldiers get maimed and killed defending countries whose inhabitants despise us, children die young and old people struggle in poverty to survive. What is right is considered wrong and wrong is right by a world full of rage.
According to the Bible there will be a Day of Reckoning. Some folks claim that God wouldn’t really send anyone to hell because He is too loving. I read the following excerpt by Tim Keller the other day and thought it debunked this theory pretty well:
“Today many of the skeptics I talk to say, as I once did, they can’t believe in the God of the Bible, who punishes and judges people, because they “believe in a God of Love.” I now ask, what makes them think God is Love? Can they look at life in the world today and say, “This proves that the God of the world is a God of love”? Can they look at history and say, “This all shows that the God of history is a God of love”? Can they look at the religious texts of the world and conclude that God is a God of love? By no means is that the dominant, ruling attribute of God as understood in any of the major faiths. I must conclude that the source of the idea that God is Love is the Bible itself. And the Bible tells us that the God of love is also a God of judgment who will put all things in the world to rights in the end.
The belief in a God of pure love—who accepts everyone and judges no one—is a powerful act of faith. Not only is there no evidence for it in the natural order, but there is almost no historical, religious textual support for it outside of Christianity. The more one looks at it, the less justified it appears.” – Tim Keller, The Reason For God
The world is becoming more and more wicked and not surprisingly there is widespread disbelief that there will ever be a Day of Reckoning for its sins against God as evidenced by the Wikipedia definition of it on the World Wide Web: “Day of reckoning is a term used to describe the Last Judgment in Christian mythology.”
Jesus Christ doesn’t think it’s a myth, He described hell and judgment often during His lifetime on earth as being very real; however He said that He did not come to judge nor to condemn, but to save those who are lost. He demonstrated that He is a God of love when He sacrificed His own life on a cross suffering unimaginable agony. The Bible states that there is no greater evidence of love than for someone to lay down their life in exchange for another, and that is exactly what Jesus, the God of love, did for you and for me.
Jesus also stated unequivocally that the next time He returns to earth He will come as a fearsome Holy Judge and that there will be weeping and gnashing of the teeth for those who have rejected His blood sacrifice. That my friends will be the “Day of Reckoning”, and on that fearsome day all things will be made right by a totally righteous and Holy avenging God!
The Bible makes clear that no one knows the exact time that this event will occur aside from the Father, but it states that we will recognize that it is getting towards the end when certain events occur. This ardent Bible student sees those things as already having occurred for the most part, and I sincerely believe the time is near.
On the other hand it might be another 1000 years for all I know, but one thing is certain, no one is going to live for 1000 years and sooner or later we will all visit that valley. I don’t want to linger there one second longer than I have to and I want God right by my side. I assume you do too. If so, ask Him into your heart this very moment – today – Won’t you?
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday and if you just made a decision for Christ, make it public and follow Jesus in Baptism.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”