I was talking to Bro. Martinson yesterday, and missionary David Brainard came up. Bro. Chris was just finishing re-reading Brainard’s biography – which is taken from notes in his journal. The man died quite young from the effects of tuberculosis. But it might be said that it wasn’t disease which took his life; it appears that the man wore himself out. In his love for the Lord and his service for Indian souls he worked himself to death. Suffering through his long illness, he repeatedly expressed his wish to leave this world to be with Christ. I’m not going to say that he wanted to die, but he was ready to die, and he was willing to glorify his Saviour even in death.
That sort of attitude is rare today. Christians are far more interested in remaining in this life than to begin to enjoy the future life. And the reasons are legion. Some of them are good, but they aren’t great. “I want to see God’s blessings on my grandson.” On the other hand, some Christian’s reasons to remain in this world aren’t good at all. They are sinful. Then there are Christians who are simply fearful of the dying process – just as our unsaved neighbors are
What is the difference between the average person and David Brainard? Our scripture speaks of what some people think is the most terrifying event in life. Yet there seems to be a smoothness, calmness and pleasantness in Abraham which is unnatural. There is no hint that Abraham died in fear or in anger – two of the most common attitudes about death. Abraham died content, if not actually happy. Notice how the text repeats itself: “Abraham died in a good old age.” “Abraham gave up the ghost” – his spirit left him. “Abraham was gathered to his people.” Maybe he died peacefully because the man was old according to the calendar; and certainly old in the context of modern health care. But it wasn’t his age.
Abraham did not die content because he lived longer than 99% of all his descendants. Nor was it the fact that he was a very wealthy man – his riches meant nothing, especially in death. He had been a world traveler, but this wasn’t what made his life full. Nor was it because he was a sort of pioneer, a trail-blazer and pathfinder. It wasn’t his children who made his heart glad and ready to die – there were questions in that department. The key to Abraham’s peaceful departure are found in the three short words of Romans 4:3 – “Abraham believed God.”
We live in a materialistic age, when many of our neighbors ridicule any thoughts of things spiritual. Many refuse to accept or believe anything which can’t be explained by a MRI or a lab test. So when it comes time for them to leave life, they look at their own death like they do the death of a butterfly or a hog in the slaughter house. Some cling to the philosophies of some other foolish and faithless man. Nine times out of ten, those philosophies only make them more miserable than they were before. So many turn to more materialism, trying to raise their “happiness score” from a three to an eight or nine. Pleasure, more pleasure, might cover up my fear of the unknown. Give me more pain medicine, more alcohol, more marijuana, more football, more distraction.
Thank God for the example of Abraham. How much oxycodone did he have? How often did he visit Silverwood or Dollywood to perk up his spirit? Do you suppose he took extra Vitamin D during his dismal dying days? “Abraham believed God.” But what sort of faith did Abraham have?
Of course he had saving faith.
“What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Chapter 4 is a little plateau in the Book of Romans – it’s been a climb to get to this point. Step by step Paul had been proving that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And then he proved that this sin is damnable. But now he has reached the Abrahamic Plateau. Do all sinners – all the children of Adam have to die only to be cast into Hell? No, look at Abraham who “believed God and his faith was counted unto him for righteousness.” Paul’s initial conclusion in Romans is that what’s good for Abraham is good enough for us.
The first step toward dying contently is dying in saving faith. For Abraham and for us, it is faith to trust the promise of God. Jesus’ expression of this was: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” If the fear of eternal condemnation has been removed by the promise and application of Christ, then the believe should be able to die with ease, no matter how painful the death might be. “It is appointed unto men once to die and after this the judgment.” But if the judgment has already been laid upon our substitute, paid by our Saviour, then, like Abraham, we may die without fear. Abraham could see the death angel coming, but by God’s grace he could say, “Even so come vile death.”
But Abraham had a second kind of faith which made his passage easy.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
Abraham had a separating kind of faith. His was not the kind of faith found in the average modern church or the city-wide evangelistic crusade. When most people are “converted” today they apply their faith to Heaven, but nothing else. They don’t apply it to their day-to-day lives or to their hearts. We don’t have all the details, so there is some debate, but I think that Abraham was an idolater, living in an idolatrous land, when he first came to trust the Lord. If nothing more, he was an idolater just like you and me living in this “Christian” country of ours. But upon his conversion, his idolatry was cast aside.
When Jehovah revealed Himself, He said, “come out from among them and be ye separate” Abraham. And that is exactly what he did. Abraham saw that faith in God was not just for his dying days – but also for his most dynamic days. And he could eventually die easily, because he was already well practiced in his faith. Today, the man would be called a foolish, narrow-minded eccentric – an evil fundamentalist. By faith he followed the will of God. He left behind, all the things which most people call “dear” – he was a lunatic, a nut case, a fanatic. But offsetting the things which he gave up, there were all the things which the Lord gave to him. Without holding a legal title to the land upon which he lived, he was a wealthy, wealthy man. He was secure in the favor of God. He was called “the friend of God” – and there was so much more .
When he reached his 174th year, he could look back and see all kinds of mistakes and sins. But his heart had been given to Jehovah, and over-all he lived his life in basic agreement to God’s will. His days weren’t spent pleasing priests or political parties; he strived to please the God in whom he trusted. He could die with a smile on his lips. In fact he probably did.
His was a satisfying faith.
He “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.”
Did you hear the word “mindful” in verse 15? “And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.” We might paraphrase it with the idea of “homesickness.” Abraham was not homesick for Ur of the Chaldees – for the place of his nativity. It might be said that he was homesick for a place he had yet to visit – but is that really so? When we are with the King, does it matter whether or not we are in the throne room? Abraham found full and complete satisfaction in walking through life by faith – with the Lord beside him. Every night was spent in a camel-skin tent, because he wasn’t home yet. But “home is where the heart is” – in the presence of his God.
The pleasures of the world never satisfied that man. And he may have had as much opportunity for those pleasures as Solomon. And as Solomon suggested, no matter how much of the world we possess, if that is where our heart lays, then we will never have enough. Addicts are never satisfied, unless they are addicted to Christ. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, He pointed to the place where Jacob drew water, saying, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” That is one way of saying, “in Christ is satisfaction.”
Abraham could have gone home to Ur anytime he wanted, he certainly went a great many other places. But that man had no desire to return to the vomit of his former life. He is a picture of what is experienced by anyone who is truly “born again.” Abraham never had a real home on earth, but he had promise of one in Glory. His faith filled the void which might have been in his heart. He died satisfied – content – and so can we.