David:The Shepherd King, #26
Facing Your Appointment With Death
1 Chronicles 28-29
By Dave Redick
Hwy 20 Church of Christ, Sweet Home, OR
"The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here... Yet the work itself shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author." - Benjamin Franklin
Introduction
Quite often, we human beings deal with the reality of our own inevitable death by resorting to humor. And while we should also at times be serious about it, I don't think it hurts to laugh once in awhile.
John Henderson lived in a small town and had been a staunch Republican all his life. Now, at age 90, his health began to fail. Day by day he got weaker. "You've had a full and rewarding life," his doctor said. "Just sit on your porch and enjoy your last days." One morning, Henderson asked his son to take him to the courthouse downtown so he could change his registration from Republican to Democrat. "But Dad," protested the young man, "you started this town's Republican Party and attended every function. Why would you want to become a Democrat?" "Son," replied Henderson, "If someone has to die, it might as well be one of them." (1)
Mrs. Melvin Turner wrote the following in READER'S DIGEST:
"My husband was a patient in a pulmonary hospital in the Los Angeles area. One day, while pushing his walker down the hall and doing his breathing exercises, he passed by the therapists station, where the following dialogue took place: Therapist (in a domineering voice): "Mr. Turner, are you breathing?" Mr. Turner: "Are you St.
Peter?" Therapist: "Of course not!" Mr. Turner: "Then, I'm breathing." (2)
At the death of Nikita Kruschev many years ago, a humorous story circulated in political circles. The Communist party that had cast
Mr. Kruschev aside was uncomfortable with the idea of burying his body on Soviet soil. They first called the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, and asked if the U.S. would take Kruschev's body. Nixon had his own problems at the time and declined. Then the Soviet leaders tried Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel. Mrs. Meir was agreeable but she added, "I must warn you that this country has the world's highest resurrection rate."
Woody Allen said what many of us have probably thought from time to time: "It's not that I'm afraid to die - I just don't want to be there when it happens."
And yet, we all know that death must come. Hebrews 9:27 says, "It is appointed for men to die once and then comes the judgement."
That one time appointment with death faces all of us, even though we belong to God. We can laugh about it and make light of it, but it is the one appointment that none of us will miss. We cannot cancel it and we cannot show up late. And once in awhile, before it is upon us, we need to talk about it. That is what I want to do in this message.
We have come in our series on the life of David to that point where he is facing HIS one time appointment with death. He is an old man who has seen much of life. He has been at the top and at the bottom, the beginning... and now, the end. We've seen him face life, now we will see him face death. It is my hope that we'll pick up a few lessons from looking at it.
Please turn to I Chronicles 28. We will take the message from parts of this chapter and the next.
As we look at this chapter, I want to point out three aspects of the way David faced his death that we can admire and strive for ourselves.
As we begin in verse one of chapter 28, we find David participating in what was probably his final act of state.
(Read v. 1)
What a meeting that must have been! All the leaders in Israel, from the King down, packed into Jerusalem for the last words of their aged King. Many of them were no doubt up in years themselves, perhaps some of his associates from his earliest days when he was king over Hebron. And with all of them present, David, perhaps even rising from his bed, stood to his feet and came to the podium with these words:
(Read v. 2-3)
Recall, if you will, that David's great ambition in life was to build the temple in Jerusalem. He longed for it. He lived for it. But God had flatly told him, "No." That gave David the very human potential of having a frustrated desire - the one thing he wanted most in life would never come to be.
Now, what did David do in the face of a life ambition that was frustrated because it was not the will of God? Did he complain? Did he resign his post? Did he allow his frustration to turn him away from the work of God? Did he die bitter. No. As a matter of fact, he gave himself even more fully to serving the Lord and His will in the areas where God said "Yes."
The first thing I want to point out to you in this account of the way David died is his
I. His Total Freedom from the Bitterness of Frustrated Desire.
I know that I speak to some of you this morning who either have had or someday will have expectations of life that will never come to be. Some of you are going to know the disappointment of seeing the end of life approaching, having never accomplished or received what you expected or hoped for.
How will you deal with that? I know how some people deal with it. They are frustrated and bitter. They live miserable, unfulfilled lives, and they die unhappy and discontented deaths.
For instance, a wife lives with a difficult husband and has the dream that someday something will happen and he will suddenly become all that she has wanted. But as the years turn into decades and decades into a lifetime, that doesn't happen. Now, as the shadows of life lengthen into afternoon and then turn to evening, she begins to realize that the guy is never going to change. He will always be the way he is, and God is not going to intervene. What will she do? Will she turn bitter? Will she walk out on her husband and God? There is something to be said her for the maturity of learning to accept life as it is rather than as we would like it to be. The sooner we accept our circumstances and learn to live successfully with them, the sooner we will cease to be miserable. And we won't set ourselves up for bitterness later in life that continues right up until death.
Elizabeth Elliot lost her missionary husband while she was in the early part of married life. He was murdered by the Auca Indians while trying to contact them for Christ. Like many women widowed while young, she longed for the companionship of a husband. But years went by and she remained single. It certainly could have been a case of desire frustrated as, year after year she prayed earnestly to God to take away her loneliness by finding her a godly partner, with no apparent results. Yet, though she was lonely, she did not become bitter in her loneliness. Rather, she wrote and lived by these words:
"Learning to stop pining for the ungiven and to give thanks for the given is the gateway to happiness."
In the same way this woman learned to accept what God allowed and did not allow to happen in her life, David accepted God's plan for his life without bitterness. He let go of what God would not allow (his dream of building the temple) and clung to what God did allow in his life.
(Read v. 3-4)
In essence, what David is saying here is this: "God said 'No' to my being the one to build the temple, but He did allow me to be King!" He accepted what God did not allow and clung to and developed what God did allow. And now, as he neared the time of his death, he was a contented man.
Ken Keyes, Jr., wrote: "To be upset over what you don't have is to waste what you do have."
How many are the ones who squander the happiness of their lives in this way! They set the minimum circumstances for which they are willing to be happy beyond what God allows. Then they spend the rest of their lives pining for what isn't rather than appreciating and developing what is.
One observant man put it this way: "When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings with toys at Christmas. Why are we not grateful also to the One who fills our stockings with legs?"
You see, the one who lives a miserable life and dies a miserable death is the one who determines he will not be happy without the stocking full of goodies. And all the while he overlooks the joy that could come in the realization that God has given him a stocking full of legs!
The Apostle Paul said it this way: "For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am." (Philippians 4:11).
Paul did that by dwelling on what he had, not what he lacked.
He spoke to the young man, Timothy, about this subject as well. He wrote to him, "But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment." (I Timothy 6:6).
Are you content with what is or are you frustrated with what isn't in your life? Your answer to that question spells the difference between happiness and misery.
An ancient Persian legend tells of a wealthy man by the name of Al Haffed who owned a large farm. One evening a visitor related to him tales of fabulous amounts of diamonds that could be found in other parts of the world, and of the great riches they could bring him. The vision of all this wealth made him feel poor by comparison. So instead of caring for his own prosperous farm, he sold it and set out to find these treasures. But the search proved to be fruitless. Finally, penniless and in despair, he committed suicide by jumping into the sea. Meanwhile, the man who had purchased his farm noticed one day the glint of an unusual stone in a shallow stream on the property. He reached into the water, and to his amazement he pulled out a huge diamond. Later when working in his garden, he uncovered many more valuable gems. Poor Al Haffed had spent his life traveling to distant lands seeking jewels when the farm he had left behind were all the precious stones his heart could have ever desired.
What a are we talking about? We're talking about contentment. And as David nears the end of his life, he has it, not because he got all he wanted out of life, but because he chose to be content with what God had given. And my point is that you and I should do the same. If God gives you the whole world as a platform for pursuing his will, them develop your message to the whole world. If he reduces you to a tiny plot of land not far from home, then determine that you will work that land and bring it to its fullest potential for Him. If you are married to a mate who isn't a Christian, then show the world what Christ would be like living with a non-Christian!
The second thing I want to point out to you about the way David died, is
II. His Awareness of the Unique Opportunity A Dying Person Has to Influence People for God.
David is speaking to the people of Israel some of his very last words. And notice, they are not words of frustration or disappointment. They are words of encouragement for others to serve God.
David isn't focused on himself here. He is focused on the needs of his people.
(Read v. 8)
When a man speaks from his deathbed, people listen. They know that he will not speak trivia. What he says will be important.
This idea of people, perhaps family and friends, gathering around a dying patriarch, listening to his last words is something that has been largely lost in our culture - probably to our expense. Many people today die in hospital beds apart from those over whom they have had influence. Now, I'm not saying that is bad, I'm just saying that perhaps we are missing something when grandfather is drugged for pain to the point that he cannot speak last words to those he is leaving. In Bible times, when men didn't hide and minimize death like we do, it was more common.
I would hope that, if the circumstances preceding my own death allow it, I could say a few words to those with whom I have shared life. And I would hope that my words at that time might be similar to David's here: "Observe and seek after all the commandments of the Lord your God in order that you may possess the good land and bequeath it to your sons after you..."
When Benjamin Franklin was about to die, he asked for pen and paper and wrote the epitaph that was to be put on his gravestone. It read this way: "The body of Benjamin Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding, lies here... Yet the Work itself shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author."
Franklin realized that, even as he passed into death, there was opportunity to influence people to follow God.
Let me ask you: If you could plan some of the events of your own death, how would you set it up? Would you want to speak words that would build faith and encourage the faithfulness of others to God? I believe that there is potential for good in things like that, even in the face of death.
Go back sometime into your Old Testament and read the dying words of men like Isaac and Jacob and Moses and Joshua. Each one of them charged those they were leaving behind to serve God with all their heart. Coming from the lips of dying men, their words carried much weight and influence.
The third and final thing I want you to see about the way David died was
III. His Determination in Passing the Torch of Service to the One Who Would Take His Place.
(Read v. 9)
What tremendous words to pass on to a son! The aged, battle scarred patriarch, veteran of many battles of life and serving God, giving last minute words of instruction to his young, inexperienced son. Do you think Solomon remembered those words? You'd better believe it! Those are the kind of words that are remembered for a lifetime.
Perhaps one day, years later, Solomon would share with one of his own sons what his Dad had shared with him in his final days.
And look at these next words. Though David had been denied the permission to build the temple himself, he had not lost the hope that it would be built. And he was not angry that someone else would build it. You almost get the impression that both father and son are down on the floor with the plans unrolled, Dad saying to the son, "Now son, here is how it is to be done..."
(Read v. 10-20)
There is a boy living in New Jersey who waits expectantly every year for the mailman to deliver a special letter to him on his birthday. You see, when his father was dying years ago of a terminal disease, he knew that his boy would not have the benefit of his personal guidance and help as he grew into manhood. So he wrote him a letter each year, with instructions about annual delivery, the last to be delivered on his wedding day. Now each year, the boy goes to his mailbox to receive and read the last words of his father, written from his death bed.
You know, the reason I am bringing these things out is that so many people are obsessed only with themselves as they near the end of their lives. They become depressed and irritable. And they miss a golden opportunity! Now, sometimes that cannot be helped as the physical condition deteriorates, but sometimes selfishness at the end is nothing more than the result of a lifetime of selfishness. An oft repeated theme in the stories of the deaths of men of God in the Bible is their concern for those who would carry on after them. And that should be a concern of ours as we face our deaths as well.
Well, the whole thing was very moving to Israel. So moving, as a matter of fact, that they took up a huge offering to be sure that the temple project that Solomon was inheriting would be successful.
(Read 29:6-9, 21-25)
And then, perhaps in a matter of days or weeks, the end came for the old Patriarch, David.
(Read v. 26-28)
Conclusion
You know, all kinds of things come out when a man or woman faces the end of life. William Barclay tells of an old man who, as he lay at death's door, was obviously troubled. When asked what was disturbing him, he replied, "One day when I was young I was playing with some other boys at a crossroad. We reversed a sign post so that its arms were pointing in the wrong direction, and I have never ceased to wonder how many people were sent in the wrong direction by what we did."
When you and I face the end of our lives, may it not be that we have to wonder whether at some point in our lives or at our death, we reversed the signs on the road by our actions and sent another soul in the wrong direction, away from God. May it always be that, even on our deathbed, we are concerned with pointing men and women in the right way - to Jesus Christ - heaven's way. So may we live, and so may we die. Amen.
1. Laughter The Best Medicine, in READER'S DIGEST, March 1991. [Back]
