December 24, 2023

Passage Read: Numbers 4-7
Meditation Verse: 6:11

Thought

Being in the presence of someone who dies suddenly is counted as a sin to the one who makes the vow of the Nazarite, even though it is completely out of his control who dies and when. If he just happens to be near a person who died suddenly, he is guilty and it is counted as sin. God sees this differently than I would be inclined to see it. Death is repulsive to God; it was not supposed to be part of His Creation, even though it is necessary for atonement. He has no love for it, perhaps because He must ask His own Son to endure it for our sake. If we had just done what was right, it never would have entered the universe. But it is here, and it is repulsive to God, and should be to me also. Death is an enemy, though necessary for forgiveness, it remains an enemy.

Application

Death is to be hated. It was not supposed to be part of God's good creation, and one day it will be unknown again. It is a doorway into the presence of God for so many of us, so it is not to be feared by any true believer, but it is a corruption of God's good universe. Being in the presence of death should repulse me. The person has departed; the body that remains behind is a decaying shell.