Do you fear death? When you ask many Christians this question, their response is no way! Jesus has defeated death when He rose from the grave, and death has no sting for me. However, when we are all honest, we know that we still fear the valley of death, regardless of sting or not. Death is the wrath of God on man for sin – who in their right mind would say that they do not fear the wrath of God? Why would it be so significant for the Lord, our Shepherd, to be with us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, if it is a walk in the park for Christians? No death is a fearful thing for all of us. Perhaps, this is why in John 12:18-19, the Apostle can record this:
“The reason why the crowd went to meet Him (Jesus) was that they had heard he had done this sign (raising Lazarus from the dead). So the Pharisees said to one another, ‘You see that you are gaining nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him.’”
There’s just something about a man that can raise the dead, right? This is the key to accepting Jesus as Christ and Lord of all things – “…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom.10:9). This was the very point the Pharisees attacked when he was on the cross, with reason I think, because they knew that if the people continued to believe that Jesus could save from death, then the “world would go after Him,” so they said, “He saved others, Himself He cannot save.” But He did save Himself; God raised Him from the dead. “No man takes my life,” said Jesus, “I have the power to lay it down and the power to take it up again.” And therefore, if He has the power to raise Lazarus, and He has the power, most significantly, to raise Himself from the dead, then He most certainly can show me the way through the valley of the shadow of death, and bring me through safely to the other side.
Job speaks in Job 17:13-14, “If I hope for Sheol (death because of his adversity) as my house, if I make my bed in darkness…where then is my hope?” He answers his own question in chapter 19, “For I know that my Redeemer (significant title – Redeemer from adversity, sin and death) lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God….” This is Job’s hope in death, that the Redeemer is living. This is our hope in the fearful valley of the shadow of death – that our Redeemer is, in fact, living and is holding our hand as we walk it. It is not that we do not fear death, it is that Jesus will overcome our fear of death by His life and presence when we experience it. Therefore, take hope, Christian brother or sister, if you still fear death and you feel guilty about it; in that day, when you walk the valley of death, Christ will be there to remove the fear and sting Himself, and replace it with hope and singing. In our days of life, we give Him all the praise and glory for this!
