Death is Swallowed Up

Many people live in fear of the future and what will happen to them. When I was young, the main focus of people’s fears was atomic warfare and that some political leader would push a button and release destruction upon the world. Endless speculation went on in the newspapers of the day and in discussions on TV.

When my husband was given a year’s work assignment in Yokohama, Japan, we had to go and live in a very different environment. I wasn’t a Christian believer, and I was frightened by the earth tremors which happened every week. I was afraid of dying. When we returned to South Africa, I heaved a sigh of relief that I was safe. I had no idea that the following year my life would change as I asked Jesus to be my Saviour and committed my life to Him.

It was about five years later that we went to live in Japan again, but this time to Tokyo, and I was in a different position spiritually. Now I had no fear of dying. In fact, whenever the room shook, things rattled, and the floor swayed like a ship at sea, I would pray.

There are many kinds of fears that dominate people’s minds, and most of them are things which are beyond our power to change in any way. Can we surrender those fears to God and find a peace that passes all understanding?

The prophet Isaiah was able to look forward in time to when God would intervene in history, ‘He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces …’ (Isaiah 25:8).

In 1 Corinthians Chapter 15, the apostle Paul quoted the message from Isaiah and wrote in absolute assurance that God gives us victory over death in our Lord Jesus Christ. ‘When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory”’ (1 Corinthians 15:54).

The writer to Hebrews wrote of how Jesus won the victory over death and the devil and delivered us from the fear of death, ‘Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery’ (Hebrews 2:14-15).

And the apostle John was also able to give us complete confidence that God’s plan was to destroy death, ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away’ (Revelation 21:4).

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, thank You that Jesus has overcome the enemy of my soul and the one who once held me in fear of death and pain. Thank You that I can leave the future in Your hands and put my trust in You. Amen.