Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
"I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, 'Live!'
Yea, I
said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, 'Live!'"
Ezekiel 16:6
In 1931, ninety-year-old retired Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes gave a farewell address via the novel invention of "radio" to an admiring nation. In that address, he quoted the admonition penned by an ancient Latin poet who wrote, "Death plucks at my ears and says, 'Live! I am coming.' " There is wisdom in that saying; but the ancient poet, being ignorant of the God of Israel, could only "almost" tell the truth.
I say "almost" because the truth is that death is not what is plucking at men's ears; rather, it is Jesus, lovingly calling men. He is the one who is coming, and he is the one who is pleading with men to live while they can. In Jesus' hands are the keys of both death and hell (Rev. 1:18), and it is his displeasure that wise men fear instead of death. "Kiss the Son," David said in Psalm two, "lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him."
The writer of Hebrews told us, "It is appointed unto men to die, and after that, the judgment." We could re-write those wise words in this manner: "It is appointed unto men to die, and after that, the judgment of Jesus." For Paul said that God "hath appointed a Day in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man [Jesus] whom He hath ordained" (Acts 17:31).
Yes, death is coming, but there is something far more serious to contemplate than the coming of death, and that is, the coming of Jesus, the righteous Judge of both the living and of the dead. He holds the keys of death and of hell in his hands (Rev. 1:18), and he is the one who plucks at the heart of man and says, "Live! I am coming!" And the life to which he calls us is a pure, eternal life of peace and holy joy.
You are not yet dead. Jesus is still calling to you. Rejoice in that! Take him up on his precious offer, and live.