There is a story that shows the irrationality of our thoughts and fears about death.
As the story goes, a powerful Arab leader offered his prisoner a choice of his sentence for crimes committed. The choice consisted of an executioner with a beheading sword and a large black door. The prisoner could enter the black door, or choose execution. The prisoner wavered for a while in ambivalence, but finally chose death. A bystander asked the Arab chieftain what lay behind the big black door. “Freedom,” replied chieftain, “but few there are who choose it!” The God of the Bible offers His created people freedom. That freedom comes simply by trusting their Creator and His promises to deliver from death. (Pro 3:5-6; 2 Cor 5:1-8; Rev 3:20-21).
To refuse God’s offer of freedom, which is linked with eternal life, shows our sinful and distrustful natures. Like children resisting a parent’s encouragement to take healing medicine, we fail to recognize that what is best for us is what God promises to those who trust Him–eternal life, joy and peace. But we tend to choose solely on the basis of what we think we know–or don’t know–about death, rather than on the basis of what God knows and lovingly tells us. Here is a simple analogy to explain what I mean.
I have had multiple surgical operations in my later years. Each time I was “put to sleep” (anesthetized) by a doctor (anesthesiologist) whom I did not know and might have met just once prior to surgery. This doctor, whom I had just met once briefly, assured me that I would wake up from anesthesia in the recovery room, and soon see my waiting family. If I wanted receive healing, I needed to believe the promise of this unknown doctor, who assured me that he would “wake me up” after he “put me to sleep.”
But each time I was rolled through the chilly surgical suite hallways with their stark sterile walls and bright white lights in a flimsy hospital gown, I had serious pangs of doubt and apprehension about whether I might not “wake up.” I experienced an extreme sense of vulnerability, knowing I was totally dependent on the doctors’ promises and their skills and abilities to fulfill them. I knew that things could go wrong in surgery and that I might not “wake up,” and there would be nothing I personally could do about it. I was helplessly in another’s hands.
Upon arrival in the operating room, my sense of vulnerability and helplessness increased as my body was transferred to the operating table that would bend and move it into positions for the convenience of the surgeon’s task. The anesthesiologist was an unseen voice behind a clear plastic mask placed over my mouth and nose to deliver oxygen, but the mask felt like it was restricting to my breathing. Calm words encouraged me to take slow deep breaths while the anesthesia was injected into my vein. I knew I had given up all personal autonomy and control to this anesthesiologist, but if I wanted healing and life, I had to trust him to wake me from sleep.
I experienced no passage of time or darkness or any other sensation as I “went to sleep.” I went from operating table to recovery bed instantly, from “sleep” to wakeful life with all its sensations and healing challenges. I had made it, I had trusted the promises of the doctors, I was alive, I was me!
As I reflect on these anesthesia experiences I am struck by the similarity of them with “going to sleep” in death. Jesus refers to death as “sleep” (Joh 11:11-15), as does the apostle Paul (1 Th 4:13-14). Jesus demonstrated His supernatural ability to raise people from the sleep of death (Mar 5:35-42; Luk 7:11-15). He also taught that whoever believed in Him would not perish but have everlasting life (Joh 3:16) and a home in His heavenly kingdom (Joh 14:1-3).
How many are willing to trust a man, an anesthesiologist, who is fundamentally a stranger to them, to put them to sleep and wake them again? And how many of these are unwilling to trust the Almighty God when He promises to wake them from the sleep of death? Surely the living God’s word is more true than the word of a fallible man! The psalmist warned us not to be misled by earthly opinions about death, when he wrote,
Psa 118:8-9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. (9) It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.
Those who trust the grand and glorious Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, will not experience death, but only fall asleep and immediately wake up in the eternal presence and joy of their Savior.
2Co 5:1-2 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home [our body] is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. (2) For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling,
God need not be an unknown person to you. He has presented Himself, His real and loving Personality, in His book, the Holy Bible. If you want to get to know Him and trust Him to waken you from the sleep of death, read His message of love. The Gospel of John in the Bible’s New Testament is a great place to begin–“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Joh 1:1)
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