Life Is Short!

Life Is Short
 

When we're young, we never seem to notice, except when old relatives die. In the parenting years, we're surprised by a few in our age group passing, but only some come to realize it. Finally, we come to grandparenting age, and a token few may say that time sped up when we finished schooling, but really, this is an illusion. Time moves at its appointed pace, but we notice it more as we age. God gives us an appointed number of days. One may be murdered in the womb by abortion, or live more than 100 years, but it's still very short compared to eternity. The Bible has things said of our highly valuable lifespan, and I would like to share what I've found.

David shared his observations in a number of his psalms; take this one; "LORD, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am." (Psa. 39:4) David asks to realize how much time he has, but note he says "to know how frail I am". This evokes two thoughts for me; time is of the essence, and humbleness. Humbleness, because God can take me any way or time. Time of the essence, because Jesus recommended to store up treasure in heaven.

"Nevertheless they did flatter Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues. For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they stedfast in His covenant. But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and destroyed them not: yea, many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath. For He remembered that they were but flesh; a wind that passeth away, and cometh not again. How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!" (Psa. 78:36 - 40) We are a sinful lot, every one of us, me included. I'm as far from sinless as the next. Like the Israelites, God has forsaken spilling His wrath upon us, but in knowing this, it behooves us to forsake iniquities and sinning, and replace it with working for treasure in heaven and serving God. This passage also notes we have a short time and gone. We are indeed like a short wind in the eyes of a timeless God!

David noted in his psalms also that generally, we all see death - "Remember how short my time is: wherefore hast Thou made all men in vain? What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah." (Psa. 89:47 - 48) Only Enoch and Elijah cheated death, but the rest of mankind has paid the price and died, and will continue to do so, until Jesus comes again.

"For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night...For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away...So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." (Psa. 90:4, 9 - 10, 12) Again it is noted how swift our lifespan is in God's eye, and it makes me see how awesome is He compared to puny me; very humbling. Does it do that for you? We should live 70 - 80 years, believers applying wisdom to our lifestyle. As we read God's word, it reminds us to live each day as precious, for so it is. Each day is an opportunity to love God and one another, to store up heavenly treasure Jesus promised would never be lost. What a marvel is each of us! Started from dust is each of us, and the fall of Adam and Eve demands we return our tabernacle, this robe of flesh, to whence it came. Our lifespan is fixed in time. "For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." (Psa. 103:14 - 16). We are indeed like grass and flowers. Have not men looked upon themselves as being in the spring, summer, fall, and winter of their lives? The last verse rules out reincarnation, yet we look to the promised regeneration! "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." (2 Cor. 5:1 - 4)

"LORD, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! Or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away." (Psa. 144:3 - 4) Here, David talks to God and asks Him a question that brings two things to my mind. How humbling it is to be a man and look on all that makes Him great, and what a blessing to each of us, sinful wretches all, yet He counts our hairs and bottles our tears! In His infinite greatness, He even sent His Son to be a sacrifice, that we might dwell with Him in eternity!

Job, predecessor of David, also made points of our swift arrival and departure. "My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good." (Job 7:6 - 7). He notes our days go swiftly, as a brief wind, our lives are. People see us for a moment, then no more. The grave is our new home, and our house goes to another whose life is just as short.

"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not...For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant. But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up: So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." (Job 14:1 - 2, 7 - 12) How true Job's words, that we issue forth from the womb into trial and tribulation! We find reason to cry as an infant, a child, a teenager, an adult, and even in our old age. Job notes we are different from the trees and flowers; cut them down, and they will rise again from the stump and root. But for us, it is not so.

James notes the folly of the rich man, chasing wealth as temporary as himself - "But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways." (James 1:10 - 11). The rich man is as his riches, there for the moment. "Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me." (Eccl. 2:18). Whatever we work for ends up belonging to someone else. For example, my grandmother's house, now belongs to someone else outside the family. It didn't even stay in the family!

"For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again." (Eccl. 3:19 - 20). Just like the animals all over the earth, we are born, breathe for a time, and if some disease doesn't take us, still death does. The life of animals is short, too.

Nobody has the power to stay in their body. "There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those that are given to it...But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God." (Eccl. 8:8, 13) The good and the wicked die when God calls. Failure to fear God doesn't gain the wicked any more lifespan. "For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them." (Eccl. 9:12). The unsaved tarry to repent, and are taken in death; too late!

The harvest is short from generation to generation; Lord, make more workers for the harvest, that none be lost. Because our life is so short!