Do not be overwicked, and do not be a fool— why die before your time? Ecclesiastes 7: 17, NIV.
Holy Father, we thank You for the study of Your Word. Please help us as we sit at Your feet today, to learn of Your ways, and to walk in them. In the blessed name of Jesus we humbly pray. Amen.
To some, this text might bring a lot of questions to your minds. Perhaps the most prominent would be, “Can someone actually die before their time?” Most people believe that this is not possible. Perhaps we base our conclusion on Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 2a, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die[.]” Emphasis provided. But there is another side to this story. There are also texts in sacred Scripture that read as follows: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20: 12, emphasis provided). Is length of days, or the shortness thereof, dependent on certain factors such as decisions, behavior, or obedience?
I believe that there are stories in the Bible from which we could draw conclusions to answer that question. The story of Aaron’s sons, and Eli’s sons seem to speak very clearly to this issue. It was the act of offering “strange fire” before God that caused the death of Aaron’s two sons. “And Nadab and Abihu died, when they offered strange fire before the LORD” (Numbers 26: 61). They were just beginning to serve as priests in the tabernacle of the LORD, and in a moment of thoughtless carelessness, they were cut off at a fairly young age. In my reckoning that was an untimely death!
“And the LORD said to Samuel: . . . ‘At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them’ . . . . So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died’ ” (1 Samuel 4: 10, 11). Here is another story of two sons from a priestly household, whose lives were brought to an abrupt end because of sin that was left without rebuke, until it was too late. Theirs was not death from old age. Theirs was death as a consequence of divine judgment.
Perhaps one of the Bible stories in which this is most clearly seen is the story of Absalom, the son of David. Absalom rebelled against his father, and was able to convince many of the Israelites to side with him. On the day of the final battle between the two factions, David, pleaded with the commanding general of his army, Joab, to spare the life of his son. Not even his pleading was enough to save his life. Absalom died in the prime of his life. When his days could have been “long in the land [of] the LORD [his] God. ”
Our choices can cause death that could be averted! It can cause our untimely death. The wise man warns us against excessive wickedness, and foolishness! Sin and folly can be deadly! They will destroy us, and in many cases, before our allotted time. May God help us to flee from them – and prolong our lives.