Death is a subject many do not care to discuss. Yet no one will escape death. The brevity of life is a fact that confronts us more and more as our years go by. When the number of our family members and longtime friends dwindles, we can’t help but think of death more frequently.
Our “giants of the faith” in the Bible knew the reality of life’s frailty. David said in Psalm 39, “Each man’s life is but a breath.” Moses wrote in Psalm 90 that our days “quickly pass, and we fly away.” Paul cried out in Romans 7:24, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
Did these men rely on their imagined strength? Perhaps they did when each one of them plotted or carried out murder. But undoubtedly they came to grasp eventually that in their own weakness, this is when God shows Himself to be strong. Each of these men succumbed to the grave in time. Moses, David, and Paul—sinners like any of us—knew the frailty of life. The shadow of death is near, but the light of Jesus is nearer still!