"Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death."
Revelation 20:14 (NIV)
This headline caught my eye on the editorial page this morning: “This is the year we choose death over indignity.” I didn’t bother reading the article, because I was sure that I would read an article congratulating Canadians on being ‘progressive’ or ‘sophisticated’ enough to believe that every person should have the ‘right’ to end their own life. The headline was enough for me! My father died this June and his last days on earth were filled with pain and the desire to die that Job expressed. His last 48 hours in particular stripped any dignity from him that he had left.
I feel that I have a glimpse of understanding of the ability of pain and disease to strip away our dignity - a glimpse only - but for sure I have been very close to it, not only with my father, but with other family members and church family. I don’t want to argue using the strong case contained in the Word for submitting to God’s timetable for a person’s death - as a matter of fact - I don’t want to argue about it at all, I just want to point out to myself and whoever reads this post, that there is no dignity in death - in any death - in any type of death. Job voices that he thinks being stillborn is better than going through misery before death, yet talk to a mother about the death of her stillborn. We read of Moses death at 120 years, still strong and vital, wouldn’t that be a death with dignity? Moses didn’t think so, for he was being humbled before his people for his pride.
There is no dignity in death. It is a terrible terrible state of affairs that we live under, this sentence of death and we are powerless to stop it, or to somehow make it more dignified (really!) by cutting short the pain that our bodies suffer as we fight to live. This is one of the most amazing truth about God’s Only Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches that He willing surrendered to indignity for you and me! Not just the indignity of death, but also of suffering a humiliating shameful, painful death! He did this willingly for you and me, that we might have true Life in His Name, and that one Day - one glorious Day - we will stand at His side and watch Him destroy death forever!
Come Lord Jesus Come!
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