Why do some die young and some old
That is a great question, and one that has had people from every generation wondering about. You see at times people that commit the most heinous crimes and they live to be 80 plus years old,.. and then you see other people that for the most part seem like such niece people, and they die in an accident,.. or of some disease and you are left wondering why? I remember somewhere around eight years of age I sat on a porch with my best friend at the time talking with him,. and my mother called me to come in the house to eat dinner. So, I left my friend there sitting on that porch next door to us alone. While sitting there eating dinner I heard a cars racing down the street, followed by a loud bang. When we went to the window to see what had happen a drunk driver had hit the curve, went airborne and landed on top of my 8yr old friend and killed him. I have often thought, why did God spare me that day and allowed me to live on right up to this very day. I have come to the conclusion that the plans of God, and the purposes of God are well beyond anything we as human beings could ever fully conceive with the limited capacity of our human minds. God is busy about working out His plans in each generation on a world level, on a national level, on a local level, on a religious level, on a family level, and yes even on an individual level. Nothing happens in Heaven or on the earth unless God allows it or brings it about, even the day of your birth. Think about that a minute:
I don’t know what time of the day or night it is where you are at this moment. If it’s nighttime step outside or look through a window and look up at the night sky a moment and think about this as you look at that sky,
Before there was ever a star that you see in that night sky,
Before there was ever a moon that you see in that sky,
Before there was ever a Sun that you see in the sky,
Before there were ever planets out there in space,
Before there were ever mountains that you see,
Before there were ever birds that you see in the sky,
Before there was ever an ocean or lake or anything in them,
God ordained that you and i would live at this time and in this generation, and..let this one sink in a miniute,..Even the family you and I would be born in. And God ordained that you would meet the people you have met and will meet in your lifetime, and God has even ordained before time began that you would hear these words. None of this is happen chance. An all wise, all-knowing God ordained before the world was, that you would live in this generation, and that you would live right up to this point in time. That same God has a number on the days each one of us will live to see. The Psalmist David as he thought about all this said,
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them…(Psalms 139:16)
Just a few verses earlier The Psalmist as he thought about the Lord’s perfect knowledge of him says this,
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it…(Psalms 139:6)
There’s another example that the Scriptures show us about God’s purposes for each individual life in Luke, chapter 7. John the Baptist a prophet of the Lord, who lived during the time the Lord Jesus Christ walked on this earth, is in prison, and soon will be killed. Look at what Jesus Christ has to say about John,
For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”..(Luke 7:28)
Jesus said there has not risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but this same John is in prison and about to be killed so he’s beginning to wonder if in fact Jesus Christ is the One that the Scriptures promised would come and rule the world. Although Jesus is God in human flesh and the promised one that the Old Testament prophets said would come, He is not stopping what’s going to end up being John the Baptist’s death in prison, and so John has got questions. He sends two of his disciples to Jesus in hope of getting answers. In Luke, chapter7, and verse 19 it says this,
And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to Jesus, saying, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”…(Luke 7:19)
John the Baptist is in his early thirties at this time, but it is in the plan and purposes of God for John’s life at this time to end, and to bring John home to glory in Heaven. He had fulfilled his God ordained role of preparing the way for our Lord Jesus Christ by proclaiming Him as the Savior of the world and calling men to repent and turn to God through placing their faith in the one that was coming after Him, Jesus Christ. God had a predetermined time for John’s ministry to end.
What God wants us to understand as we are shock at times by the death of someone, or saddened as we have to endure those difficult times together and individually is this, “God has a purpose and plan for this world that is going to culminate in the return of Jesus Christ and a New Heaven and New Earth”, and everything God is allowing to happen, and at times even causing to happen, on an international level, on a national level, and yes, even on an individual level, is moving toward that end. There are people who came into this year alive that are now dead that had no idea this would be the last year of their life. Because you and I don’t know the day God has appointed for us to depart from this life, God call’s us to look to Him, to call upon Him for the forgiveness of our sin against Him because He wants you and I beloveth to live forever with Him in that heavenly city. He alone grants forgiveness to us individually through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we,.. just like John the Baptist can live forever with Him in Heaven when our time is up here on earth. There is nothing more important to God, and it is the very reason God says,..
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion…( Hebrews 3:7-8)
Seek the LORD while He may be found,..Call upon Him while He is near…(Isaiah 55:6)
Let the wicked forsake his way,..And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the LORD,..And He will have mercy on him; And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon….. (Isaiah 55:7)
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,.Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,..So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts….( Isaiah 55:8-9)
I want to end this post on that thought. It is true that the Scriptures teach that God may at times shorten people’s lives due to a judgement for their sin. That truth is taught all over the word of God, but even in those cases it is God that has determined that person’s end. The apostle Paul once ask, “who has known the mind of the Lord, Or who has become His counselor? ..(Romans 11:34). There are somethings about God’s dealings that we will never know on this side of eternity. They are the secret things. God actually said that.
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law…(Deuteronomy 29:29)