Death as The Grim Reaper came to us via the black death and Europe. Death has been with us from the pronouncement of judgment against Adam and Eve there in the garden of Eden. So people have been dying since that moment, yet the phantom of death still haunts our everyday lives. I see people biking, hiking, exercising, eating vegetables and paying a fortune for organic food. Even consuming cage free chickens do not stop Death from accomplishing his mission. On and ever onward he goes. He is ever obedient and committed to fulfilling the judgment against mankind.
Does Death take a sabbatical, a personal day? Does Death get PTO or vacation time? He has soldiered on by every means imaginable to collect souls at the appointed time. The Lady with the Shears there measuring out every lifetime a colleague with Death. The Sirens who lurk below the oceans depth luring sailors to their murky ends. The trance of witches who weave spells to encapsulate their targets into blindly gliding into the arms of Death without thought or defense soaring off buildings, bleeding into a bubble less bath, stepping off platforms, or stepping into the path of wayward bullets… All colleagues of Death ever working to fulfill the pronouncement of God the Almighty upon the humans made by Them in Their Image who listened to the words of the serpent. Why?
Eve wanted to be like God. God who met with Adam in the cool of the day. God who spoke to Adam but not to her. Eve left alone to speak to the serpent who was wise and deigned to speak to her while Adam was away naming animals that God would bring to him. There Adam was, naked, naming animals before God. There Eve was, naked, visiting with the serpent…
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
Genesis 3
There it is, the moment Death was pressed into service and He has not stopped through to this very moment. Even so, every time we see Death’s handy work our hearts are shattered. Our grief remains yawning in our every day life in every second.
Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
The Apostle Paul, Romans 7
The fight to overcome Death through pursuing health of the body and resisting sin by controlling urges to break all the commandments of God… Intellectually, we understand what we must do – the law is plain as, “Don’t touch that tree in the middle of the garden nor eat it’s fruit. If you do you’ll die.” Period. Got it. Easy enough.
The desire though to be “like God”, the flesh although perfect wanted what was not intended for it. I think it is a side effect from being made from the dust of the ground. Earth is a curious, chaotic place. The dirt beneath our feet is full of so many elements. Elements that belong together, oppose each other and can destroy each other depending on how they are combined. Some flesh is laced with granite while others gold, diamonds or limestone. So here we all are alive under the judgment of sinful flesh begetting Death.
Who will deliver us from this body of Death?
Messiah.
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.
23 And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there: and they came, and were baptized.
24 For John was not yet cast into prison.
25 Then there arose a question between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purifying.
26 And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all men come to him.
27 John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
28 Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before him.
29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
31 He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.
32 And what he hath seen and heard, that he testifieth; and no man receiveth his testimony.
33 He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
35 The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
John 3
A reprieve from Death. A mercy from God upon those who believe in Jesus Christ, however, for those who have rejected Jesus Christ shall not see life but the wrath of God remains upon him.
So, that is what they mean when they say at a funeral that this person died with Christ. Did you know that those who believed in Jesus Christ are buried in consecrated ground? Did you know that believers are not buried with unbelievers? I didn’t know that. When my Joseph was killed, do you know there was no preacher that spoke over him? I called my pastor, Pastor Proctor, Church by the side of the Road in Tukwila, Washingon. I attended regularly. I sang in the choir. I attended Bible Study. When I called the church the Pastor did not come. The Pastor ignored me. The other members of the church did not come except for 3. An older couple and one deacon – that was all. I don’t even know their names. They did not speak at all – they were just there lurking.
Who did speak? The Church of the Latter Day Saints. They heard about what happened to Joseph and they found out the details and they came and they spoke. One of the missionaries was heart broken to see such a young person die. One of the other missionaries held my hand through out the funeral and accompanied me to Joseph’s gravesite.
They went on with their missions. I have gone on with mine. Even so, Death has remained busily at work accomplishing His mission. The only difference is “those who die in Christ” aka accept Christ as their personal Savior and those who reject Christ as Death lurks nearby…
There has been exceptions though. There were two regular humans who never saw Death. They were “taken”.
Elijah – Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 2 Kings 2:11
Enoch – After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis 5:22-35 NKJV
Now rest assured that I believe God took many people in this way even entire towns have been taken with no explanation.
Think of all the missing people all over the world who vanish without a trace and are never heard of again. I believe it’s because they were “taken” by God and never saw Death at all.
What do you think? Do you think you will be “taken” by God and not see Death?
Are you like Enoch and Elisha? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Or Not?
“He had Death on him”
“I heard the Death Rattle”
He had Death on him meaning the person was unconsciously getting their “house in order” mentally preparing to die. Sometimes they are behaving in reckless ways, taking chances with their life that they normally wouldn’t do. For example, a straight laced square who begins hanging with polar opposites of himself. A person who completely changes who they are for the worse. Some people call this tempting fate or taking fool hardy risks.
I heard the Death rattle… this is a noise coming from a person laying down. It is the sound of fluids in the chest and throat that is very loud. This is usually heard in persons up in age, there are exceptions to be sure.
This is what it sounds like:
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