THIS PARASHAH DEVOTION SHOWS THAT THERE IS A TIME TO DIE. FOR THE CHRISTIAN, AS IT WAS WITH JACOB, THIS IS A HOMEGOING.
Genesis 47:28-31:
“And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years: so the whole age of Jacob was an hundred forty and seven years.
“And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt.
“But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. And he said, I will do as thou hast said.
“And he said, Swear unto me. And he sware unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon the bed’s head.”
As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die….”
As Paul told his spiritual son in 2 Timothy 4,
“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:
“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”
I love his appearing. Every night as I lie down to sleep, I pray, “And Lord, if you should come before morning, may I be accounted worthy to go with you, dear Jesus. Amen. I thank you for it. Amen.”
Our Lord himself said to the disciples in John 17:11, 13-24,
“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are….
“And now I come to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
“As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
“And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
“And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”
We too are gathered to the Father at the end of our sojourn in this world.
I have contemplated the nearness of departure from this world. The current plague has made the realization immediate. But I know that my time is in the hands of the LORD. Therefore, I will not fear. I know where I am going when my moment comes.
May the grace of our LORD Jesus calm your mind. Let not your heart be troubled. Let his peace and the knowledge of his purpose keep your mind secure in the bundle of his love and power. You will live and not die until you run your race, finish your course, and hear Him call you home.
