When Godly People Die

 I had a good friend in elementary school and high school. She lived up the street from me. She was in my first grade reading group, and I had a crush on her then. I even went a gave her a plastic ring at one point. We remained friends, but she was never my girlfriend later on. She was a Christian and a sweet young lady. I was totally surprised to hear that she died suddenly from acute leukemia at Christmas after we graduated. I wondered why that happened to such a sweet, godly girl.

The Lord explained this to Isaiah so he could give us good insight into this dilemma. I believe it will help all of us to meditate on what the Bible says. (Isaiah 57:1,2) "Good people pass away; the godly often die before their time. But no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For those who follow godly paths will rest in peace when they die." See what I mean? This gives us a lot to think about today.

Yes, good godly people pass away. They often die before we think they would die. Since we don't know why things happen, often people don't care why they died. They just accept it and move on. That is not the most healthy way to look at the death of the godly. We need to grieve their passing, but we also need to consider the goodness of God in all He does.  God always has a reason for allowing our life on earth to end. This is especially true for the godly people, as we see in these verses.

When the godly die, they go to the presence of the Lord immediately. There they are protected from the evil they would have encountered in their world or even in their personal lives, if they had lived longer. God knows the future, so He picks the right time for His godly ones. He doesn't want us to have to endure any more suffering in this life than is necessary for us to become like Jesus. Once we have reached our maturity and the time is right, He takes us home to rest in His perfect peaceful Heaven. Therefore, the death of the goldy should be seen as a merciful act by a loving God, not a punishment or anything like that.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Isaiah 58-60.