Numbers 23:10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous… When the indifferent and wicked reflect upon the change produced at death, and see that what appears dark to them is to the believer bright; when they see one of themselves racked with fear, and goaded by the stings of a too late awakened conscience, while the righteous is calm and resigned, they will readily adopt the language of the worldly prophet and say, "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." I. WHICH ARISES THIS DESIRE? I believe it arises from the conviction that those things on which we place our affections in this life are not such as will afford peace in the hour of death. They who are most blindly attached to the god of this world are among the readiest to confess the transitory nature of present things, and their utter inability to afford comfort at the last. You desire to "die the death of the righteous"; are you, then, resting your confidence on Jesus Christ as chief, and deriving happiness from other things, only as He shall be pleased to give them you? Do you look upon the world as something which must soon be left behind, and which will not, as your friends, exist in another state? II. WHAT THAT DEATH IS, AND WHEREFORE DESIRABLE. The death-chamber of the confirmed saint of God is a scene eloquent to all who have ever beheld it. It reveals the assured faithfulness of God's promises, and shows the firm foundation of their hopes, who have made those promises the rock of their salvation. The righteous is not without bodily anguish at his last end. He knows by experience the sorrows and sufferings that are the lot of man; but he knows that his Saviour has endured them too, and it is but fitting the disciple should walk in the steps of his heavenly Master. But how tranquil is his mind amid them all, as he draws near to the last moment of his earthly career! At that hour, when the false hopes of the wicked are shaken and proved worthless, then the hopes of the righteous are increasing in brightness. The dying Christian has his times of temptation when "the swellings of Jordan" rise up around his soul. Satan sometimes is allowed to buffet him sorely. Yet "as thy day is, so thy strength shall be." And hence, amid all his depression, amid all his conflicts, as the shinings of God's love fall upon his sinking soul, his courage revives, and he can rejoice with a joy unspeakable and full of glory. The stronger his faith, the brighter are his hopes, and therefore the higher and more heavenly his joys. What says He on this subject? "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee." "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me, Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me." "If a man keep My saying, he shall never taste of death." "Them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." "O death! I will be thy plague! O grave! I will be thy destruction!" "Right precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." These are the promises which lie thickly scattered in the pages of God's own blessed Word. Thus you have a faint idea of what the death of the righteous is — full of faith, deep confidence, and heavenly peace. Are you anxious to realise it for yourselves? well ye rosy be. How, then, is it to be gained? Not by putting off the work of salvation to the last. Though you desire the peaceful end of the righteous, are not some of you deluding yourselves in this way? Oh! what folly! How know you that your death will come preceded by a long sickness or affliction as your warning? (R. Allen, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! |
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