November 27 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

Bad poetry and bad religion have tried to make death soft and innocent. They suggest that to be "enshrouded by the cloak of night" means we can sleep without the need to wake up for duty.

But human honesty and biblical realism hate death. No matter how many flowers and flowery phrases we use, we cannot hide its horror. Therefore when the voice says: "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on," we are receiving a revelation. We are learning something that we would not know without the special Word of New Testament prophecy.

The early Christians did not teach that humans have an immortal soul and a body made for the grave, as many people think today. They viewed themselves as one undivided being, and they regarded death as a judgment on our sinful existence. Yet they believed that in Christ they had escaped from the realm where sin and death rule. To them, dying was like bowing to your defeated enemy instead of sharing in the victory of your Lord.

If we don't share some of that feeling, we don't have an authentically Christian view of life and death. Submission to death is always like allowing a stranger to take what does not belong to him; it is like giving up what has already been claimed.

But now comes the Word we must accept in faith. The revelation says: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord."

"Blessed are the dead"?

That sounds ridiculous. But "blessed are the dead who die in the Lord" makes sense. "Dying in the Lord" is "from now on" a blessing. From now on, we bury those who die in the Lord in the good confidence that they will rise again. It only appears that they have been surrendered to the wrong master. They are the Lord's because they died in the Lord. They are not—and cannot—be beyond the power of Jesus.

Death is strong, but Jesus is stronger. Once we belong to Jesus, he does not let us go. Therefore there is sweetness in the death of God's children. But the sweetness is in Jesus—not in death.

REFLECTIONS

How is the view of death in today's Scripture and reading both realistic and comforting?

Andrew Kuyvenhoven's Daylight, a modern devotional classic, was originally published by Paideia Press in 1977. This updated edition is copyright 2009 by Faith Alive Christian Resources. You can order a copy of this revised version of the book directly from the publisher.

A man of many accomplishments, Andrew Kuyvenhoven is probably best known for his contributions to Today (formerly The Family Altar), a widely-used monthly devotional booklet associated with the Back to God Hour. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations for this updated edition of Daylight are from the Holy Bible: Today's New International Version copyright 2001, 2005 by the International Bible Society.