Why People Die

Why People Die

Yehudah ben Shomeyr (Kris Shoemaker)

When a young person dies we say God is unfair.

When young or old suffers a lingering death due to illness we say God is unfair.

When a child dies we say God is unfair.

When someone dies under tragic circumstances we say God is unfair.

When a person dies in their sleep of old age we say God is good.

Why do people die at all ages under various circumstances?

·       The Fall of mankind through Adam and Eve:

Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned. - Rom. 5:12

 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment. - Heb. 9:27

·       One’s time is simply up:

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” – Gen. 6:3

Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people. – Gen. 25:8

Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. – Deut. 34:7

·       Stupidity:

 Next Abimelek went to Thebez and besieged it and captured it. Inside the city, however, was a strong tower, to which all the men and women—all the people of the city—had fled. They had locked themselves in and climbed up on the tower roof.  Abimelek went to the tower and attacked it. But as he approached the entrance to the tower to set it on fire, a woman dropped an upper millstone on his head and cracked his skull. Hurriedly he called to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and kill me,so that they can’t say, ‘A woman killed him.’” So his servant ran him through, and he died.  When the Israelites saw that Abimelek was dead, they went home. - Judges 9:50-54

·       Willingly and unrepentant evil:

Judah got a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar.  But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the Lord’s sight; so the Lord put him to death. - Gen. 38:6-7

·       Sickness whose root is sin or not taking care of yourself:

Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”  “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ” So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”  The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well. – John 5:1-14

·       Ones task on earth is finished:

Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. – Gen.5:24

As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. – 2 Kings 2:11

·       Mercy to the old:

Joshiah the Good King: Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place. – 2 Kings 22:20

Ahab the Evil King: “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.” – 1 Kings 21:29

·       So as to escape future evil:

The righteous perish,
    and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
    and no one understands
that the righteous are taken away
    to be spared from evil. – Isa. 57:1

·       So as to escape future corruption:

Abijah (God is my Father) Jeroboams son: All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good. – 1 Kings 14:13

·       Stillborn:

Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child,
    like an infant who never saw the light of day? – Job 3:16

 A man may have a hundred children and live many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he cannot enjoy his prosperity and does not receive proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. – Ecc. 6:3

When a person we think is unworthy of life lives instead of a good person we say God is unfair.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. - 2 Peter 3:9

When a godly person dies we question God’s rational:

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Psa. 116:15

(Stephen’s martyrdom led Paul to conversion)

 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance  and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’ “‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you.  And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’ “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ” - Acts 22:17-21

Paul became one of the greatest missionaries of all times!