GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY
Ecclesiastes 3:1,2 (to “die”); 2 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Samuel 22:23 (from “for with me”)
I would like to encourage our hearts with these three verses. Ecclesiastes speaks of “A time to be born, and a time to die”. These are two events which man has no control over. “A time to be born, and a time to die” are God’s sovereign operations. God’s sovereign mercy has brought us into this world and in due time He will take us out of this world.
Our brother has spoken about age. God’s sovereignty includes every man, woman, boy and girl. He is able to give and He is able to take away. God has given us the breath we breathe; He alone is able to bring in life. What a wonderful God we have to do with. Here we have “A time to be born, and a time to die”. The “time to be born” is generally associated with joy. We have heard about joy in the life of our brother whom the Lord has called home. “A time to die” is associated with sorrow. Joys and sorrows both come into our pathways here – there is much sorrow and there is much joy. Our brother’s time is now complete and his pathway has been filled out. We have read about seasons – “To everything there is a season”, and these seasons would include joy and sorrow.
We have “A time to be born, and a time to die”, but what about the time in between? How is your life being worked out – this time of life now, in which we all are? Our brother’s life was formed in relation to God. God takes account of the life of each of us. Our lives are to be worked out here in Christ, and what is formed after Him will go through into the eternal day. Do we accept these things? Our brother accepted that the Lord was going to take him home. Death is not the end. The believer in the Lord Jesus knows that these things go on; our spirits go on.
We read in Corinthians, “as unknown, and well known”. We live in a world where our Lord Jesus was cast out; He was rejected, and it is still the same in this scene. There is much going on in this world which is not according to God: we see it all around. But what does it mean to be “unknown”? I suggest it refers to things which are unknown in the world, but are in the believer’s heart, experience being worked out and taken account of, “well known” to heaven. In the life of our brother, experience has been worked out with God, and He has taken account of that and been well pleased.
There are persons in scripture who were unknown – persons who are mentioned but with no reference to their names. There is the man carrying the pitcher of water, and secret disciples. Such persons go on, not making much of themselves; persons who will not be written about in the history books of men, but simply going on unknown, serving the Lord in a lowly, humble way. That is what God would recognise in the lives of one and another – those who simply carry out a service, who promote the name of our Lord Jesus. What a matter that is. Such service is well known to heaven and would be approved of and recognised in heaven.
We can read the verse in the first book of Samuel as referring to the Lord Jesus. David was a king, a future king, and at the time this was written he was rejected, and he is a type of the Lord Jesus in Scripture. David says, “with me thou art in safe keeping”. That is the wonderful hope of the believer. We are in an area of safety, where the believer has victory over the world. There are many influences at work in this world, but what a matter it is to draw near to the Lord Jesus in our present circumstances: “for with me thou art in safe keeping”. What a great matter for the believer to have this hope.
As I have said, for some, death appears to be a matter of finality (although of course it is not) but the believer has this wonderful, living hope. Our brother’s pathway in the body is now finished, but his spirit is now with Christ, and will never die or fail, and so we have this wonderful hope. The Lord says, “I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matt. 28:20, and the Lord says of the Spirit, “that he may be with you for ever”, John 14:16. What matters these are! The Lord also says, “Fear not”, Luke12:32. For the believer, there is nothing to fear in this world because we have this wonderful confidence: “with me thou art in safe keeping”.
I would like to encourage each of us by contemplating these scriptures I have read. May we be encouraged, and may the Lord bless the word.
Derek Walker
Words at a burial meeting, Brechin
11 June 2025