Concerning Death

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

Job 30:23

For I know that you will bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.

Job suffered from a terrible sickness, which filled him with pain both day and night. He says in the eighteenth verse, "By the great force of my disease is my garment changed: it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat." When our God by our affliction calls upon us to number our days, let us not refuse to do so. Yet Job made a mistake in the hasty conclusion which he drew from his grievous affliction. Under depression of spirit he felt sure that he must very soon die. But he did not die at that time. He was fully recovered, and God gave him twice as much as he had before. It is a pity for us to pretend to predict the future, for we certainly cannot see an inch before us. It is the part of a brave man, and especially of a believing man, neither to dread death nor to sigh for it; neither to fear it nor to court it. Job made a mistake as to the date of his death, but he made no mistake as to the fact itself. He spake truly when he said, "I know that Thou wilt bring me to death." "Oh," saith one, "but I do not feel called upon to think of it." Why, the very season of the year calls you to it. Each fading leaf admonishes you. Oh! you that are youngest, you that are fullest of health and strength, I lovingly invite you not to put away this subject from you. Remember, the youngest may be taken away.

I. I call your attention to a piece of PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE: "I know that Thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living." A general truth here receives a personal application.

1. Job knew that he should be brought to the grave, because he perceived the universality of that fact in reference to others.

2. He knew it also because he had considered the origin of mankind. We were taken out of the earth, and it is only by a prolonged miracle that this dust of ours is kept from going back to its kindred. If we had come from heaven we might dream that we should not die. Thus we have affinities which call us back to the dust.

3. Further, Job had a recollection of man's sin, and knew that all men are under condemnation on account of it. Does he not say that the grave is a "house appointed for all living"? It is appointed simply because of the penal sentence passed upon our first parent, and in him upon the whole race.

4. Once more, Job arrived at this personal knowledge through his own bodily feebleness. Those who die daily will die easily. Those who make themselves familiar with the tomb will find it transfigured into a bed: the charnel will become a couch. The man who rejoices in the covenant of grace is cheered by the fact that even death itself is comprehended among the things which belong to the believer.

II. Having thus discoursed upon a piece of personal knowledge, I now beg you to see in my text the shining of HOLY INTELLIGENCE. Job, even in his anguish, does not for a moment forget his God. He speaks of Him here: "I know that Thou wilt bring me to death."

1. He perceives that he will not die apart from God. He does not say his sore boils or his strangulation will bring him to death; but, "Thou wilt bring me to death." He does not trace his approaching death to chance, or to fate, or to second causes; no, he sees only the hand of the Lord. Let us rejoice that in life and death we are in the Lord's hands.

2. The text seems to me to cover another sweet and comforting thought, namely, that God will be with us in death. "I know that Thou wilt bring me to death." He will bring us on our journey till He brings us to the journey's end: Himself our convoy and our leader.

3. It may not be in the text, but it naturally follows from it, that if God brings us to death, He will bring us up again.

III. I pass on to notice the QUIET EXPECTATION which breathes in this text. I want to reason with those disciples of our Lord Jesus who are in bondage from fear of death. What are the times when men are able to speak of death quietly and happily?

1. Sometimes they do so in periods of great bodily suffering. I have on several occasions felt everything like fear of dying taken from me simply by the process of weariness.

2. The growing infirmities of age work in the same way, beloved, without falling into sickness.

3. By being filled with an entire submission to the will of God. Delight in God is the cure for dread of death.

4. Next, I believe that great holiness sets us free from the love of this world, and makes us ready to depart.

5. Another thing that will make us look at death with complacency is when we have a full assurance that we are in Christ, and that, come what may, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Live in such a way that any day would make a suitable topstone for life. Let me add that there are times when our joys run high, when the big waves come rolling in from the Pacific of eternal bliss; then we see the King in His beauty by the eye of faith, and though it be but a dim vision, we are so charmed with it that our love of Him makes us impatient to behold Him face to face.

IV. I conclude by saying that this subject affords us SACRED INSTRUCTION. "I know that Thou wilt bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living."

1. Let us prepare for death.

2. Live diligently.

3. Next to that, let us learn from the general assembly in the house appointed for all living to walk very humbly. A common caravansary must accommodate us all in the end; wherefore let us despise all pride of birth, rank, or wealth.

4. Be prompt, for life is brief.

5. Men and women, project yourselves into eternity; get away from time, for you must soon be driven away from it. You are birds with wings; sit not on these boughs forever blinking in the dark like owls; bestir yourselves, and mount like eagles.

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