Unit 4- Dark Times of Death

Lesson: Death is a Snare and a Sorrow
Read: Psalm 18

“The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears” (Psalm 118:4-6 NKJV).

Reflect:

1. What does David say he will do in Psalm 118:1-3?

2. What was David’s situation in Psalm 118:4-5?

3. What happened when David called out to God (Psalm 118:16-19)?

Answer Key:

1. Love the Lord, trust in God, and call upon the Lord.

2. Death surrounded him, he was afraid, sorrowful, and the snares of death confronted him.

3. David was drawn out of the waters, delivered from his enemy and those who hated him, supported by the Lord and brought to a broad place.  He was delivered.

Most all of us have attended at least one funeral. Family and friends gather to remember one who has died. If we are to survive the dark times of the death of a loved one, we must recognize death for what it is.

Solomon wrote death is a snare in Proverbs 14:27: “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn away from the snares of death.” The purpose of a snare is to capture, to snatch an unsuspecting prey. But a snare captures anything or anyone without respect of persons. Death clearly lives up to its metaphor of a snare. It ensnares everyone.
Death creeps into a baby’s crib, robs us of our youth, removes cherished grandfathers and grandmothers from our presence and takes faithful pastors from their pulpits. Death snatches missionaries from far-off fields and snares our best friends. One day, should the Lord Jesus wait in His promised return death will ensnare us all.

We can foil this snare. “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life.” The fear of the Lord will not ultimately keep us from the snare, but it will protect our way and keep us from prematurely being ensnared by death. The fear of the Lord is our strong confidence in Him and our powerful respect for who God is. We can survive the dark times of death if we have made reverence for the Almighty God a habit of life. That reverence will not diminish when death’s snare snaps its powerful jaws.

Death is also a sorrow. In Psalm 18:4 David admitted, “The pang of death surrounded me.” He was overwhelmed with sorrow. Throughout his life death struck hard at David’s family and friends.

Jonathan, David’s closest friend in the whole world, was slain by the Philistines (1 Samuel 31:2). His body was sadistically treated after death. When he received the news, David wept bitterly (2 Samuel 1:12). When David sinned with Bathsheba, God punished that sin by the death of their first child. Again David wept bitterly and fasted, but his infant son died anyway (2 Samuel 12:16,17,22). Years later, David’s favorite son, Absalom, died in a rebellion against his father. Once more David wept bitterly (2 Samuel 19:1).

Television brings the world to our living room. We have all seen men and women in the Middle East grieving over the loss of loved ones. These people show their sorrow more visibly and dramatically than we do in the West. But regardless of where we live, death brings sorrow, for death is sorrow. We must not deny the grieving process. We must not repress our sorrow.

When tragedy struck Job and he lost all his children in a single calamity, he vented his sorrow (Job 1:20). When Jesus arrived at the tomb of His close friend Lazarus, Mary, sister of Lazarus, was weeping, and the Jews with her were groaning in sorrow (John 11:32,33). John 11:35, says, “Jesus wept.”

Death is our enemy and leads to sorrow. It is appropriate for us to sorrow. It is appropriate for us to weep and show affection and concern for others as they weep. These are emotions God has put in us. But it is never appropriate for us to allow godly sorrow to fester until it becomes bitterness towards God. 

After David mourned the death of his infant son, 2 Samuel 12:20 says, “So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.”

Let’s not hide our grief. After all, death is a snare, and a snare brings loss and sorrow to us. But let’s remember we have a way to survive the dark times of death. We can go on with our lives. Let’s follow the example of Job and David and Jesus. Faith in God, not anger at God, is the way to survive the dark times of death.

Apply:

1. Are you grieved by the loss of a loved one?  Remember Jesus is the one “who comforts us in all our tribulation” (2 Corinthians 1:4 NKJV). Ask Jesus to help heal you right now and give you the strength to go on.

2. Are you angry at God over the death of a loved one?  Ask God to help you follow Job’s example, who, after losing all his sons and daughters “did not sin nor charge God with wrong” (Job 1:22 NKJV).

 

Express:
Pray for those suffering—specifically those who recently lost a loved one or are facing death right now. Consider how Paul said prayer helped him when he faced death (2 Corinthians 1:11).  Pray that those suffering would be able to have the attitude of Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:9-10. Paul wrote that God is the One “who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.”

Additional Help in Prayer:
Father, I pray for those who are hurting, for those who have felt the suffering of death of one close to them or who feel the snare of death approaching their own bodies.  I pray You would give them peace and the ability to see You already conquered the enemy of death and You will deliver us.

Practice this Unit:

1. Could you use that time of hurting you have felt in the past to comfort others?  Consider 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also abounds through Christ.”  Challenge yourself to comfort someone else this week.

Lesson: Death is a Shadow and a Sting
Read: Psalm 23; 1 Corinthians 15:55-57

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4 NKJV).

“O Death, where is your sting?  O Hades, where is your victory?”(1 Corinthians 15:55 NKJV).

Reflect:

1. What did the Lord do according to Psalm 23:1-3?

2. Though David is walking through the shadow of death when he wrote this psalm what does he say he will not fear?

3. What is the sting of death (1 Corinthians 15:56)?

Answer Key:

1. Made David not want, made him lie down in green pastures, led him by still waters.  God restored David’s soul and lead him in the paths of righteousness.

2. Evil (Psalm 23:4).

3. Sin.

One of the great discoveries of childhood is learning that our shadows are not real. Our shadow follows us everywhere on a sunny day, but it cannot harm us. Shadows are not to be feared. In fact, shadows indicate there is a light.  If there were no sun, there could be no shadow.

By the same token, if there were no life, there could be no death. But we survive the dark times of death when we view death as a shadow. The Bible does. Amos referred to the shadow of death (Amos 5:8), so did Isaiah (Isaiah 9:2) and Jeremiah twice (Jeremiah 2:6; 13:16). The Psalms refer to death as a shadow four times (Psalm 23:4; 44:19; 107:10,14). But Job, who knew more than anyone that death is a shadow, referred to it that way nine times (Job 3:5; 10:21,22; 12:22; 16:16; 24:17; 28:3; 34:22; 38:17).

Psalm 23 causes many emotions to well up in our hearts and minds, and surely one of them is the confidence that death is but a shadow. It isn’t the real thing.

Shadows overhang the rugged wilderness of Palestine, making travelers afraid. But this is not the case with the shepherd. He walks through those shadows, knowing that they have no substance. When faced with the dark times of death, hold tightly to the hand of the Good Shepherd. The presence of the Lord and the knowledge that death is only a shadow will help us survive the dark times.

The crypt of the Allegheny Observatory at the University of Pittsburgh contains an inspiring inscription. It reads: “We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” Fondly loving the Bright and Morning Star—the Lord Jesus—and walking with Him through darkness will insure your survival during the darkest of times.
 
Death is still a sting, yet Jesus removed its power. Paul reminded the Corinthian Christians that their mortal bodies would one day become immortal. Once we are raised from the dead, we will be suited up with an eternal body, a body that will never tire, never ache, never decay. Why? Because “death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Corinthians 15:54). Then the apostle challenged death and asked, “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

Death is a sting, worse than the sting of any scorpion or viper, but it is not a permanent disaster. We can survive the dark times of death if we remember that Jesus Christ has removed the sting out of death by His own death and resurrection from the dead. Jesus conquered death, removed its sting and has made it possible for us to conquer death as well.

Does this mean death won’t hurt anymore? Not at all. Death hurts plenty. But death is not what it used to be; death is not the end. It is not the finale. Death has been defeated by new life in Christ. And it’s that new life in Christ that enables us to survive the death of a dear friend or family member.
 
If you have received Jesus as your Savior, you can look death in the eye and know the sting is gone. And if the one you have dearly loved knew Jesus Christ as Savior, you will still experience the sorrow of death, but God has taken away the sting. Don’t put back what God has removed—you can survive the dark times of death.

Apply:

1. Can you say like the apostle Paul “O death where is they sting” (1 Corinthians 15:55)?  Ask God for help in being able to say this.

2. Do you fear death?  Remember that God holds you in his hand and will not let you leave this earth prematurely.  Ask God to deliver you from this fear. “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4 NKJV).

Express:
Tell God your faith is in Him.  Ask Him to help you trust and praise Him even in the face of death. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31 NIV).

Additional Help in Prayer:
Lord God You know every thing about me, every strand of hair.  My faith is in You Lord Jesus and I pray that I would be able to trust You with my full heart.  I thank You for Your love of all creation and that You especially cared so much about me that You sent Your Son to conquer death so that I could have real life in You and do not need to fear death.

Practice this Unit:

1. David Livingstone said “I am immortal until my task is done.”  What are some of the tasks you are doing on this earth? Consider what Paul said in Acts 20:24.  “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace. Pray this week that God would show You how to serve him during this life until He calls you home.