«Death will be destroyed forever. And the Lord God will wipe away every tear from every face». Isaiah 25:8, ERV
HOW DO YOU UNDERSTAND this statement from Psalm 116:15: «Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints?» What does it mean for death to be «precious?» Could it be that God likes or appreciates the death of one of His children? How can God regard death as precious when it contradicts everything He is?
The Hebrew word yaqar, translated as «precious» in Psalm 116, is also used in the Old Testament to refer to something beautiful, prized, and costly. The Good News Translation of the Bible renders it in a way that broadens its meaning: «How painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies!» The fact that the death of His children is «precious» to the Lord means it is very painful to Him; He pays a high price every time one of His saints dies.
Death is sometimes viewed as divine punishment, a ruthless vengeance of a God attempting to teach us a painful lesson. But it is not true that the Creator allows our loved ones to die in order to teach us unforgettable lessons. When one of His children dies, God suffers far more than any of us.
This is clearly proven by the death of Lazarus, Jesus’s friend. When the Master reached the home of Lazarus, the Gospel of John says Jesus saw Mary crying, «and He saw how the people with her were weeping also; His heart was touched, and He was deeply moved»; and then the shortest verse in the Bible adds that «Jesus wept» (John 11:33, 35, GNT). And then verse 38 underlines the concept again: «Deeply moved once more, Jesus went to the tomb» (GNT).
The death of Lazarus touched Jesus’s heart; He was deeply moved, and the death made Him weep; in other words, it had a big emotional impact on the Lord. He suffered together with Mary and Martha. Death causes God to also be a subject of the verb «to suffer,» just as you and I are. When one of us dies, tears run down the heavenly Father’s face, they touch His heart, they move Him, because «how painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies!»
And so as not to continue to pay that price, the Lord will soon keep His promise and «death will be destroyed forever. And the Lord God will wipe away every tear from every face» (Isaiah 25:8, ERV).
www.meditacionesdiarias.com
http://www.faceboock.com/meditacionesdiariass
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meditacionesdiarias.mobile
Taken from: Devotional Readings for Adults 2023
“I AM WITH YOU”
From: J. VLADIMIR POLANCO
Collaborators: Lorina Maya & Avineyda Hernández
