Good and Bad Death

For Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Proverbs 14:32

The wicked is overthrown through his evildoing,
but the righteous finds refuge in his death.

This is a recurring theme in proverbs. The wicked, who is seeking his advantage through evildoing, is actually causing his undoing. He is working against himself. Most of the wicked experience downfall in this life. They create enemies and make themselves enemies of the state, so that often they get caught and brought to justice, or are overthrown by other wicked competitors. Regardless of what happens in this life, all the wicked are overthrown in the next life. All receive their just reward, which is everlasting. God will not be mocked.

The righteous, however, finds eternal refuge in their death, for they enter into the eternal rest won for them by Jesus Christ. This, by the way, marks the real difference between a good death and a bad death. It is not the circumstance of what caused death, but the state of the person when death comes. A person who dies in a horrifying manner dies a good death if he is immediately ushered into glory; a person who dies peacefully in old age dies a bad death if he is ushered into damnation.

"Be near me when I'm dying; o show thy cross to me!" (from O Sacred Head, Now Wounded).