The Reason We Must Live and Not Die

 

The reason we must live and not die is, as the passage above says, that we must declare the works of God. Since we are people created by God, all of us have the duty to make widely known to the world the things God has done.

 

Psalm 148:1-5 “1Praise ye Jehovah. Praise ye Jehovah from the heavens: Praise him in the heights. 2Praise ye him, all his angels: Praise ye him, all his host. 3Praise ye him, sun and moon: Praise him, all ye stars of light. 4Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, And ye waters that are above the heavens. 5Let them praise the name of Jehovah; For he commanded, and they were created.”

 

Psalm 96:1-5 “1Oh sing unto Jehovah a new song: Sing unto Jehovah, all the earth. 2Sing unto Jehovah, bless his name; Show forth his salvation from day to day. 3Declare his glory among the nations, His marvellous works among all the peoples. 4For great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised: He is to be feared above all gods. 5For all the gods of the peoples are idols; But Jehovah made the heavens.”

 

In the beginning, God made man in His image and after His likeness, and He caused man to have dominion over every living thing He had made. And when He saw this, He said it was “very” good.

 

Genesis 1:26-31 “26And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food: 30and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. 31And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

 

Thus, man was not only created in the image and likeness of God, but also received the blessing to fill the earth and rule over every living thing. Then is it not fitting that man should declare the glory of God and His marvellous works?

 

Isaiah 43:6-7 “6I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back; bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the end of the earth; 7every one that is called by my name, and whom I have created for my glory, whom I have formed, yea, whom I have made.”

 

As this passage says, because we were created for the glory of God, He has caused us to be called by His honorable name. Therefore, so that God may see us and say that it is very good, we must declare the glory of God and praise His name.

 

Isaiah 43:21 “The people which I formed for myself, that they might set forth my praise.”

 

Hebrews 13:15 “Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to his name.”

 

Yet there were people who forgot the reason for their existence and asked to die.

 

When Job’s children died in one day, he did not sin with his mouth.

 

Job 1:20-22 “20Then Job arose, and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped; 21and he said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: Jehovah gave, and Jehovah hath taken away; blessed be the name of Jehovah. 22In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”

 

But when a severe disease came even upon his own body, he cursed the day of his birth.

 

Job 2:11-13, 3:1 “11Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: and they made an appointment together to come to bemoan him and to comfort him. 12And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his robe, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. 13So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great. 3:1After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.”

 

After the great victory on Mount Carmel, the prophet Elijah fled when Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, tried to kill him. Thinking that he alone was left, he sat under a juniper tree and asked that he might die.

 

1 Kings 19:2-4 “2Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time. 3And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beer-sheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. 4But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper-tree: and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough; now, O Jehovah, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.”

 

Jonah was displeased and angry when God turned from His purpose and did not bring calamity upon Nineveh, and he asked to die.

 

Jonah 3:10, 4:1-3 “10And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them; and he did it not. 4:1But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2And he prayed unto Jehovah, and said, I pray thee, O Jehovah, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I hasted to flee unto Tarshish; for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repentest thee of the evil. 3Therefore now, O Jehovah, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.”

 

Judas Iscariot, who sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, felt remorse and hanged himself.

 

Matthew 27:3-5 “3Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4saying, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. But they said, What is that to us? see thou to it. 5And he cast down the pieces of silver into the sanctuary, and departed; and he went away and hanged himself.”

 

What do we see here? God made man in His own image and after His likeness and blessed him. Yet because of ignorance, man instead asks to die, and even chooses death for himself. Each person may have his own reasons. But in truth, no one can ask the Creator God for such a thing, can he?

 

Isaiah 45:9-10 “9Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker, a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? 10Woe unto him that saith unto a father, What begettest thou? or to a woman, With what travailest thou?”

 

That is right. We are like a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth. Therefore, we cannot ask the Creator who made us, “Why did You make us?” nor can we ask Him to let us die. This is because we, as creatures, have no such authority. Job later realized this and repented as follows.

 

Job 42:1-3 “1Then Job answered Jehovah, and said, 2I know that thou canst do all things, And that no purpose of thine can be restrained. 3Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not, Things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.”

 

Moreover, in order to save us sinners, “Jesus, who is the Creator God (John 1:1-3),” Himself died on the cross in our place (Phil. 2:5-8). This was so that we might live for Jesus, who died in our place, because this is the only way for us to become a new creature.

 

Romans 14:7-9 “7For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself. 8For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. 9For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:15 “and he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again.”

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.”

 

Amen. Therefore, now we are the people of Jesus, that is, Christians, who live for Jesus if we live, and die for Jesus if we die. Therefore, we must not die, but live, and declare the glory of the name of Jesus to the end. This is the reason we exist in this world. And by doing this, we will ultimately receive “eternal life,” by which we will never die forever.

 

Matthew 19:27-29 “27Then answered Peter and said unto him, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee; what then shall we have? 28And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And every one that hath left houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life.”

 

Amen.