It Is Appointed Once to Die

It is appointed to a man once to die. Some people believe that is an absolute; in other words, Lazarus died once, but Jesus resurrected him, so He either has been translated, or he is still alive on this earth, somewhere. Certainly it is a fact that Jesus only died once, and later He ascended into Heaven. I think that it’s safe to say that has more to do with who He was than that He was appointed once to die.

Well, to be honest, I’m not sure that the rule is absolute. For one thing, Enoch and Elijah never died, so there are at least two exceptions. It seems to me that, if some men are allowed not to die at all, then it is not a stretch of the imagination that some men might die twice. Even if I did believe that the rule was absolute, I would have to presume that Lazarus was translated, rather than still breathing. I think a two-thousand year old man would attract some attention. If he is still alive, then I hope that he will read this and contact me, because I’d love to sit down with him and spend a few days (or weeks) getting him to tell me what he has seen.

Let us consider, though, Enoch. We are told in Genesis that Enoch walked with God, and then he was not, for God took him. In Hebrews, we are told that he was translated that he should not see death, because his faith pleased God. The Bible doesn’t tell us what Enoch did that he so pleased God, other than the simple statement that he walked with God. Considering how many other people in the Bible have walked with God, though, without being translated, Enoch’s walk with God must have been pretty extraordinary.

On the last day of Elijah’s life on earth, Elisha refused to be separated from him, even for a moment. Twice the sons of the prophets asked Elisha if he knew that his master was to be taken away from him that day, and Elisha responded, “Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.” The Bible gives us a number of examples of the kind of things that Elijah did in his lifetime, but the fact that everyone in Israel with the gift of prophecy knew that it was his last day on earth tells us something about the kind of man he was.

Of course, Lazarus was not the only one in Scripture that was brought back from the dead. In 2 Kings 4, Elisha revived a boy that had died suddenly. In 2 Kings 13:21, a young man was revived by touching Elisha’s bones. In Luke 8, Jesus revived Jairus’ daughter after she died. There was a young man that Jesus brought back from the dead during his funeral procession…Interestingly enough, out of all of these, Lazarus is the only one mentioned by name (of course, the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man is the only parable that has a character with a name—I don’t think that is a coincidence, particularly since the tag line for the parable talks about one being raised from the dead).

The bottom line is, that in general, any given person will die only once. I guess it would be safe to say that it is only possible for a man to die once. God, however, does the impossible on a fairly regular basis, and to resurrect a person from the dead would then make it possible for them to die again. I personally think that I would rather not be resurrected than to have to die twice; I just don’t think I would want to go through that again.

The Answer Is in Your Hands

There is an story about a wise old man in a village that always seemed to have the right answer to every situation, and to every question. One day, a young man decided to challenge the old man, and prove that the wise man was not so wise. He held a songbird behind his back, and asked the old man to say whether the bird was alive or dead. The plan was, that if the old man answered dead, then he could produce the live bird, and prove the old man wrong; but if the old man answered alive, then he could wring the bird's neck, and produce a dead bird, again proving the old man wrong. The old man looked the young man in the eye, and said, "The answer is in your hands."
Many times we fret about what we don't have, and don't pay nearly enough attention to what we do have. In 2 Kings 4, there is a story about a widow woman, the survivor of a man that was faithful, who has two sons, and a great deal of debt. She asks Elijah to help her, and he asks her what she has. She tells him that all she has is a pot of oil. He tells her to go and borrow vessels from her neighbors, as many as she can get, and pour the oil into the vessels. She filled all of these vessels, and still had oil in her pot. She sold the oil, paid the debt, and then returned the borrowed vessels. God has a way of making the things that we have stretch to meet the need.
In 1 Kings 17, there is a similar story with Elijah the prophet and a widow woman who had a little bit of meal in the bottom of barrel and a small portion of oil in a cruse. Because she was faithful, and prepared food for the man of God before feeding her son or herself, God blessed the barrel and the cruse, and they didn't give out until after the draught ended.
Let me add a cautionary note. I know that there are "ministries" out there that will implore you to trust God, and give to their cause more than you can really afford. I would implore you to trust God, and follow His leading. If He leads you to overextend yourself to support a ministry that you believe in, that's one thing; if a ministry pressures you to overextend yourself to support them, that's a very different thing. If you follow God, you can't go wrong, but there are an awful lot of people that claim to represent God, and are trusting that they will never have to give an account for what they have asked of you. Not only are they putting their trust in the wrong things, they are asking you to, as well. If the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch, but you don't have to be blind. The book of James says that if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. If it comes down to a choice between paying your light bill or giving to a ministry, well, if it's of God, then God will find a way to pay your light bill, but if it's not of God, then you're going to be sitting in the dark, wondering how God could let this happen to you (but if you had sought God about it, He would have warned you not to give that money to those people). Don't sign your light bill money over to some preacher unless you know with absolute certainty that it's what God wants you to do (It’s okay to fleece the Lord, Gideon did it).
God can do a lot with a little, and sometimes we feel that we just don't have enough. If we let God have His way, though, a little can be plenty. Just as Jesus said that if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can move mountains, so can you do a great deal with just a little time, or a little effort, or a little bit of money. Remember the widow with the two mites? It didn’t seem like much to the disciples, but God saw how much it was to her—it was all she had. Pray for God's direction, and the leading of His Holy Ghost, and He can make a lot out of whatever little you have, too, provided that you are willing to use it for His glory.

Naaman

I started to mention Naaman the leper on Thursday, when the subject at hand was water, and we got into the rite for recovering a leper, but I realized that the story of Naaman would have taken up a lot of space, and not contributed that much more to my point. However, yesterday, my pastor preached the story of Naaman, so, now I will blog about Naaman. If you haven't read Thursday's post yet, though, you might want to read that before you read the rest of this.

Naaman was a general with the Syrian army who also happened to have leprosy. He was also married (with kids? the Bible doesn't say), and his wife had a Hebrew slave girl. I have to believe that Naaman was a benevolent master (for more than one reason). The girl (what was her name? the Bible doesn't tell us that either, even though she is very important to the story)told him that, in Israel, the man of God could heal the leprosy. Naaman, being an important man in the Syrian military, gained audience with the king, and asked permission to go to Israel to try to be healed. The king, who would have liked to have had this general healed, gave permission, and Naaman went to Israel. Naaman first went directly to the king of Israel. The king believed that this was a trick, and bemoaned the 'fact' that the Syrians were trying to pick a fight. Elisha the prophet sent a messenger to the palace, and told the king to send Naaman to see Elisha. The king, afraid that he was going to have a war on his hands if Naaman was not healed, sent Naaman to Elisha. Elisha then had his servant, Gehazi, tell Naaman to dip himself seven times in the river Jordan. Naaman was, at first, upset. I can imagine the thoughts running through his head: "What? we don't have any good rivers in Syria? There's something special about the Jordan river, I had to come all the way to Israel to take a bath? Are you suggesting that I am a leper simply because I don't wash enough?" But one of his servants said, "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith unto thee, 'Wash, and be clean?'" So Naaman relented, and went and dipped himself in the river Jordan, according to the words of the prophet. Now, he went under once, and came up still a leper. He went under a second time, and came up still a leper. After he obeyed completely, and dipped himself the seventh time, then he came up clean. So then Naaman went back to the house of Elisha, and tried to give him presents for the healing. Elisha told Naaman that God had healed him, and that he should be grateful to God, and wouldn't accept any gifts. Gehazi, meanwhile, is thinking, "What? Are you crazy? He's got all this stuff that he brought specifically for this healing, and you won't take any of it?" So Gehazi snuck off, and ran and met Naaman's chariot before he had gotten very far, and told Naaman that Elisha had some unexpected guests, and could he just get a little something for them? Naaman was only too happy to give Gehazi whatever he wanted (which, to be honest, was still only a fraction of what Naaman had expected to pay for his healing), and wished Gehazi and Elisha well, and went on his way. When Gehazi returned to Elisha (after hiding the stuff), Elisha asked him where he went. Gehazi didn't think Elisha had even noticed him being gone, and replied, "Thy servant went no whither" (I didn't go anywhere). And Elisha told Gehazi exactly where he had gone, and what he had done, and then told him that Naaman's leprosy was now Gehazi's. Gehazi looked, and he was leprous.

Now, I mentioned that Naaman was a benevolent master. The Hebrew girl might have told her master about the greatness of God even if she didn't like him, but the one servant called Naaman, "My father." I have heard some people say that that servant was Naaman's son, but I don't think so. I know that sometimes slave owners have taken advantage of their female slaves and wind up with little ones, but they generally either brought those children up as slaves, and never acknowledged that those slaves were their own children, or they brought them up as their own children, and not as slaves. It seems to me that this servant was basically using shorthand: He was saying, "Master, you know that I love you and respect you as my own father..."

I think that it is very telling that Naaman went to the king of Israel and the king didn't have a clue what to do. A lot of times we get into situations, and we may pray about the situation, we may believe that God has the answer, but we try to work it out on our own anyway.

When the man of God told Naaman what he needed to do, at first Naaman didn't like it; but, when he realized that what he had been asked to do was simple (maybe a little weird, but easy to do), he went and did it. Once his obedience was complete, then he was healed, but it wasn't a question of, well, I'll dip myself three times, and then be about half healed, and that will be good enough. Okay, I admit it, that's kind of stupid: Why would anyone settle for being half healed of leprosy? But so many times God gives us something to do, and we either do it half way, or we do it half-heartedly, and then we wonder why we don't get the reward. If you were washing cars for a living, and only washed half of each car that came through, would you expect a whole paycheck? Keep it up, and you won't get a paycheck at all...

Naaman can be forgiven for thinking that the gift of God can be bought with money. God owns everything, he doesn't need money-but churches have expenses, and God has given parishioners to churches, and he's given jobs to those parishioners, and he blesses those that pay their tithes...

Gehazi, on the other hand, tried to turn a profit just because he was present when a miracle took place. To be honest, out of all the people in the story, Gehazi is the one that I can identify with the most. I probably would have fallen for that. Naaman's got all this stuff that he wants to give away, and you won't take it because you didn't do anything... Can't I at least have some of it? Yeah, I know I don't deserve any of it; I didn't do anything either, but he wants to give it away... But, you know, God has so much for me that I already don't deserve.