WORDS OF COMFORT
Isaiah 38:1-5,18,19; Psalm 102:23-27;
I want to say a few words which will be for comfort and solace at the present time – for those near to the one whom the Lord has taken home to Himself, and for the assurance of us all here, that what has transpired is under God’s hand. If we did not have that assurance, how hopeless things would seem at this time. But the Lord would assure us through His word that He knows all about this matter. The sickness of this beloved sister, the sufferings that she has gone through, the breaking of the natural links and all that enters into this – the Lord knows. He feels it too, feels this matter as no other could. You will remember that when Jesus arrived at the tomb of Lazarus, and saw his sisters and others round the grave weeping, it says “Jesus wept”, John 11.35. Oh, what feelings are in the heart of the blessed Lord Jesus. He knows all about the tears that have been shed, he knows each one here and about the feelings of desolation and anguish that we have at this time. He has the perfect ability to intercede and strengthen us in His own way. What would we do if we did not have Christ? He is in heaven, looking on and interceding for us, knowing full well the enormity of what transpires in our hearts and souls at a time like this.
I read about this king who was told that he was going to die. God gave His word; the whole matter was in God’s hand. He sent the prophet to this king Hezekiah and told him that he was going to die. It is like our sister – she had known for some time that she probably would not live. When she went to Australia some months ago, the doctor asked her about facing death, and she said, ‘I am not afraid to die’. What comfort that is to our souls; she was fully prepared for what might lie ahead of her.
Of Hezekiah it was said that he turned his face to the wall and wept much. How many tears have been shed for our beloved sister. The Lord knows all about our tears; the psalmist asked Jehovah to put his tears into His bottle (Ps.56:8). What a God we have. It says too that in a day to come, God shall wipe away those tears. The Lord Jesus came into manhood, God blessed forever, that He might take up our cause and die for us, so that the love of God in Christ might be known by us. Jesus is the Same, He does not change, and He feels all this as He did when He was here on earth. And now in this time in which we are found, He is able to come in and comfort us and assure us that the whole matter is under His control.
So Hezekiah received the word, and he prayed to Jehovah. How many prayers have gone up! Hezekiah was only a young man of twenty-five when he made a covenant with Jehovah. He set the house of God in order. He made a covenant with God publicly. Oh, have you made a covenant with God? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ – that is how you can make a covenant with God. If you have not made a covenant with Him, let this be the day! The Lord is available for everyone. Our sister knew that – she made a covenant with God many years ago when she was a very young woman. How fine that is. Hezekiah was a young man when the word of God came to him that he was going to die.
The marvellous thing is that God gave Hezekiah more time because of his tears. God has not seen fit to give our sister more time. Every one of our lives is in His hands. He knows the day of my death; I do not know it, no one knows it but God. Meantime, let us make a covenant with God as our sister did, and be here as Hezekiah was – he said that he had walked before Jehovah in truth and with a perfect heart (2 Kings 20:3), doing what was good in God’s sight. The Lord has seen to it that our sister is fit for glory. She was ready to go home. That is a most mysterious matter. The keys of death and of hades are in the Lord’s hands. He has taken the power of death out of the hands of Satan by rising from among the dead. The Lord Jesus has done that. He will come for us – maybe today! What a sight it would be if we were here in this graveyard when the Lord came. All the graves of those who have believed on Him will be opened. Just as He gathers up all our tears, He will gather up all those who believe on Him. He knows each one who has died in faith. The scripture says that of certain persons (Heb.11:13); how wonderful to die in faith, and also to live in faith. Faith, hope and love (1Cor.13:13); three wonderful and important ingredients for believers. Faith and hope are no longer needed by our sister; she goes into eternity with the love of God in her soul, with the knowledge of God that she has acquired.
Let us turn to the psalm. It is a most affecting psalm, speaking prophetically about the Lord Jesus, the Spirit of God speaking through David about Christ long before He lived here. Who could have written a script like Psalm 102? It says, “take me not away in the midst of my days!”. Hezekiah could have said that, many others have said that, but prophetically these are the words of Jesus. Then “Thy years are from generation to generation”. We each live in our generation; God has placed us in it just as He placed our sister in it. That is all in His ways and in His wisdom. We do not live in the days of the Lord Jesus or the apostle Paul, we live in this day. Who arranged that? God did. You might say that our lives are threads that God put in, and which you and I weave in faith, hope and love. Faith in God, hope in Christ, and love for God, for Christ, for the truth and for one another. That is what we weave into the fabric of our lives.
It refers prophetically to Christ, the perfect Man, cut off at thirty-three years of age. His life was taken from the earth. He always did what was right, and every step which He took was perfect in the sight of God. Yet He was taken in the midst of His days. How our sister must have felt that too, taken away in the midst of her days. How we feel that too. I understand that the word “midst” can mean ‘meridian’ – the very noontime, the brightest part of her life, and she has been taken away. She knew something of suffering that none of us knows, but Christ did. She has faced that, experienced that, and such experience builds the fabric in our souls that goes on to eternity. The answer to the Lord Jesus being taken away in the midst of His days is in this verse; “but thou continuest”. The Lord Jesus continues on to eternity. Will you be there with Him? Our sister will be there because of her link with Jesus. She loved Him, she adored Him. She believed on Him as her personal Saviour. Let us all be believers, and we will continue with Him in eternity as our sister will.
I read from Matthew about the feelings of Jesus in Gethsemane, as He faced this matter of being cut off, taken away in the midst of His days. He went there with His disciples. He knew what it was to be sorrowful. The Lord was going to suffer and die, not on His own account but for you and me, that we might have an eternal redemption. The matter was real to Him. He did not try to escape it; He stayed there although He knew that the band of His enemies would soon take Him. He said, “My soul is very sorrowful” then prayed, “My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me; but not as I will, but as thou wilt”. How much we have all had to learn that in the suffering that our sister went through – ‘if it be possible’. It was God’s will that Jesus should suffer and die, should sustain the judgment on behalf of all who put their faith in Him. So it was not possible. Our sister and her family have experienced a little of what the Lord went through – “but then, not my will, but thine be done”, Luke 22:42. We have all had to submit to God’s will. The Lord said, “if this cannot pass from me unless I drink it, thy will be done”. I trust that everyone here knows that the Lord Jesus drank that cup for you so that you might share the “portion of the saints in light”, Col.1:12. That is what our sister will have eternally. What we have in this life is for a few years, but what we have in Christ is eternal.
May we be comforted and encouraged at this time, solemn as it is. The Lord would assure us that He is over this whole matter. He would have us to understand His feelings, something of what He has been through for us, that we may be here for His glory, even as our sister has gone through so much. May it be so for God’s glory eternally.
Word at a burial meeting, Los Angeles
31 December 1993
H.W. Jensen
Edited and Published by John Brown and Paul Martin
36 Laverock Park Linlithgow EH49 6AT
email notesofministry@virginmedia.com or paul@nofm.co.uk
Printed by Crystal Print, 22 Western Road, Billericay, Essex CM12 9DZ Tel: 01277 650 661