Deuteronomy 31:14 And the LORD said to Moses, Behold, your days approach that you must die: call Joshua… I. THOSE WHO LIVE CHIEFLY FOR THIS WORLD TRY NOT TO THINK OF DEATH, BECAUSE THEY WOULD LIKE NOTHING BETTER THAN TO LIVE ON HERE FOREVER. But the shutting of our eyes to the approach of death does not make him turn away from us, and therefore our wisest and safest course is to prepare for his coming, whether it be near or far off. II. DEATH DOES NOT OCCUPY THAT PLACE IN THE WORD OF GOD WHICH IT DOES OCCUPY IN THAT RELIGION OF OURS WHICH PROFESSES TO BE DERIVED FROM THE WORD OF GOD. In the New Testament death is simply treated as an abolished thing. The second coming of Christ is always, in the exhortations of the New Testament, substituted for death. Death, in the eye of faith, is not the end, but the beginning, of all; it is the commencement of the "life that knows no ending." III. IF CHRIST HAS ROBBED DEATH OF ITS STING, IT DOES NOT BEHOVE US TO LOOK AT DEATH AS IF HE HAD NOT DONE SO. Let us view the approach of death as something which He means should bring us nearer to Him. We must pray Him, since the days approach in which we must die, that death may not find us unprepared. And as we look forward to the future we must commit our way and ourselves into His keeping. (F. E. Paget.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation. |
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