[AI translation] For months, we followed Abraham on the journey of his long life. It was a life full of events and blessings. At last, this life too has reached the final stage of its journey on earth. The closer it gets, the quieter everything becomes. Here there are no more great events, passions, storms, highs and lows, the ups and downs of life on earth become more and more subdued and at last it fades into eternity. Abraham, like fruit in the summer sunshine, is slowly ripening into eternal life. The life and arrival of the old man on his way home is presented to us in the Word. Let us see what we can learn from it!Here we read, "And Sarah died." (Genesis 23:2) A simple, short little report. It sounds like any obituary today: X.Y. died at such and such a time, at such and such an age. But how much heartache and how many tears fall inwards or outwards behind such a short report is known only to those who have sent out such a report to their friends. For Sarah was the other half of Abraham's life. If it is true that "the two shall become one flesh" (Mt 19,5) - and it certainly is - then Abraham was left here in his late old age like an old tree, half of which has been cut down by a lightning strike. Sarah was indeed his companion in life: for better or for worse, for better or for worse, in the waiting for the great promise and in its fulfilment. As the New Testament says of the wife: she is our heiress in the grace of life. (1Pt 3,7) Heiress in all God's blessings and graces. And behold, the one with whom she has been united in heart, soul, destiny, and prayer through a long, struggling life, is now dead. The moment has come, the irrevocable, irrevocable fact, which man is accustomed to acknowledge with that final word of surrender: he is dead. How deeply Abraham was affected by the death of his wife is evident from the continuation of the sentence, "And Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah, and to lament her." (Gen 23:2) "He went in" means he withdrew. The mourning and weeping of a believer does not belong in the street, in the sight of men. True grief does not seek publicity, but retires to be alone with God! Abraham did not go to the corpse to have his soul tormented by pain, but to God, to that "inner room" that Jesus speaks of in connection with prayer (Mt 6,6). To complain to Him of all one's pain, to weep tears before Him. The true solution to inner pain is always found in silence before God. It is here, in inner communion with God, that he learns to see even the most serious pains in a light that human words could never shed. It is only here that he can find consolation in the belief that, by taking his beloved into eternity, God wants him to become even more closely connected with that invisible world - for now a part of his life is there, thus confirming even more the reality, the intangible reality of what he hopes for! It is here that the grieving heart is convinced that there is also full pardon for the merit of Christ for all the conscience-grinding sins and omissions which he once committed against the departed, which he can never again make amends for. It is here, then, that man regains his inner equilibrium, here in inner silence and communion with God. Abraham knew this, and that is why it is written of him that he "went in... to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her." (Genesis 23:2) Would that all believers knew this and would do it in a similar situation! How good it is to have someone to go to and someone to weep before for all our sorrows! In such silence before God it is also true that "Blessed are they that weep, for they shall be comforted." (Mt 5,4)
And then we read, "And Abraham was an old man, and full of years, and the Lord blessed Abraham in all things" (Gen 24:1). He became an old, full man, and blessed in all things! In the original language of the Old Testament, there are two expressions for old age, but the meaning of these two expressions is very different. One of them means the exhaustion of vital forces, wasting away, darkening. The other means the gain, the achievement, the maturity, the maturity of the personality, the maturity of a life's work. Here, our Bible uses this term to describe Abraham's old age. This expression, then, 'he was a man of old age', does not mean a limp weariness, but a state of being a fruit fully ripe, but not yet fallen from the tree. It expresses that there is a life that does not grow old. And that is the life of faith, the life of faith. Although it is also born here, in this present world, it is not the life of this present world. The true life of faith arises, case by case, from the revelation of God, from the word of God heard. The true life of faith is inspired and sustained by divine power in all its actions, and is destined for eternity as to its purpose. That life which is nourished by eternal life, however feeble and human in its manifestations, does not grow old, for it is destined to eternal life. A life like Abraham's, which has found its rest in God, which has found its hidden resources in communion with God, such a life is not worn out by the passage of time, its strength is not broken in service, is not exhausted in struggle. That which in such a life wanes, fades, grows dark with age: it is only the physical strength, the bodily organism, in which man's true spiritual personality, as in a tent, dwells. And even if this life has been full of many services and struggles, even if many of its supports and hopes have crumbled, even if it has been subject to mistakes and disappointments, all of this was to mature the personality of man himself. As the apostle Paul said in his old age: "Even if our outward man is corrupt, yet our inward man is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor 4:16).
For such old men, it is not death that will open the door to eternal life, but earthly life itself has become such a door for them. In death, all that they have gained does not crumble away, but rather they take with them the imperishable things they have already received in their fellowship with God during their earthly life. For it is not life itself that is broken for them in death, but only the earthly vessel, the material tabernacle with which life in the visible world is connected. A believing maiden, when she was dying, asked her brother, who was faithfully caring for her, to give her friends this greeting: 'Greet the dying in my name, I go home to the living.' His life hidden with Christ in God did not grow old or crumble in death, but only left the imperfect to enter into perfection and wholeness. For him who has received Christ into himself by faith, eternity has already begun here on this earth. In Christ this earth is already the scene of eternal life, the temple of God, in which the soul experiences the presence and glory of the invisible God. The Psalmist testifies to this: 'The righteous flourish like a palm tree, he grows like a cedar on Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the Lord; they flourish in the porches of our God. They shall bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and green." (Ps 92:13-15) Such was the old age of Abraham. "And the Lord blessed Abraham in all things" (Genesis 24:1b). For him, life was not without lasting gain. Rather, out of everything he experienced, out of every event, every fall, every joy, every sorrow, he received some blessing from the Lord. This made his old age rich and beautiful, full of peace and happiness. For the real blessing of a life is not that everything went well for a man, that he did great things and gained much, that he retained physical health and the joy of living - but that in everything he experienced, there was a blessing hidden for him from God!
Some people live in seemingly fortunate circumstances and yet feel as if they are in hell. There are those who seem to have succeeded in everything and yet lament their lives as a waste of time. But what the righteous have found God's blessing in does not oppress them, however heavy the cross, but inspires their hearts to glorify God. What a joy and happiness it must be, at the twilight of a life, to look back on the road travelled, and to say, with the assurance of a long life's experience, that "it is true that to them that love God all things are good" (Rom 8:28). (Genesis 25:8) The joy and glory of his arrival shine over this brief announcement, "He was cleansed for his people." This expression does not express burial, but the afterlife of the departed in the language of the Old Testament. But this faint glimmer of the afterlife is also illuminated by Jesus, who calls God the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, in his battle with the Sadducees who deny the resurrection, and adds that "God is not a God of the dead, but of the living" (Mt 22,32).
The story of Abraham's life, and the story of every true believer's life, ends not with the painful feeling that the disappearance of the last rays of the setting sun gives us on a summer evening - but with a glimpse of eternal glory as we look after his vanishing form! I have often wondered what this expression "full of life" means. And I realised that it doesn't mean being sick of life, tired of life, as one who is sick of it, but being quite ready to go home. We understand this expression even better against a dark background. I have read somewhere that Hobbes, a great philosopher, dying, cried out, 'Now comes the leap into the dark. If I were master of the whole world now, I would gladly give all I have to live just one more day!" He said this after he had lived seventy years, more than 25,000 days, each of which he had failed to prepare for his return home. This is the exact opposite of the phrase "full of life"!
Another famous thinker, Boehme, who was also full of life, rejoiced in his last moments, "Now I am going to paradise. I am inexpressibly happy." Calvin's last words were, "I long for the wings of the dove, that I may fly to the Lord!" What joy there is in death when one goes away "full of life". How much assurance that there is no eternal death for those who have Christ for their strength both in life and death. "He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," said the Prince of Life! Yes, he who believes in Him "shall not come to condemnation, but" has already "passed from death unto life." (John 5:24)
In this certainty - with Abraham's faith - not only can one die peacefully and happily, but in this certainty one can truly live, live profitably, work for God's glory, be a blessing already in this world! Yes: with Abraham's faith, in the grace of the Lord Abraham!
Let us pray to him!
O Lord of Abraham, Thy holy mercy to me
My joy, guide me on my way.
Thou art my friend, my God is thou:
Save me for the blood of Jesus and give me salvation.
I swear, Lord, And trust in your word,
That you will take your child to heaven on eagle's wings.
I will see my Jesus And dream of his power,
I'll sing the hallelujah of his holy grace.
(Canticle 425, verses 3-4)
Amen
Date: 18 January 1953.