1
The behavior and the preferences of people often express their condition
and in most cases, motivate their reputation; those who strive to optimize their
tasks, make themselves a name of laborious, while those who evade their
responsibilities, get the name of slackers.
Consciously or not,
everyone builds his a name or reputation before others, but also before God.
Those who claim to serve Him may honor his name through their words and conduct
and acquire before Him a name to be loved, but they can also discredit it with
their behavior. Paul writes: “You, who instruct
others, do you instruct yourself? You, who preach one should not steal, do you
steal? You, who say: you must not commit adultery, are you an adulterer? You,
who say to abhor idols, do you participate in the celebrations? You, who boasts on the Law, do you dishonor God by violating
His law? For things like this, the Scripture says: «because of your sins, the name of God is blasphemed among the
nations»”. (Romans
2:23..24)
2
King David was the inspired writer of many psalms that praise the name of
Yahuh, his justice and his mercy. In them he expresses gratitude for the fact
that He corrected him for his grave errors and then accepted his regret,
granting him His love and the privilege of representing the promised Messiah in
some of the prophetic verses. David accepted and appreciated God’s discipline
and made himself a good name, which provided him the hope to reach a
resurrection to an everlasting life; the resurrection that Jesus declared to his
disciples when he said: “the time comes when all who
are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good,
to a resurrection for life and those who have done evil, to the resurrection for
trial”. (John 5:28..29)
Now, if we really put
faith in Jesus’ words, the fact of obtaining a good name before God is actually
the very best investment that man can make; nothing yields a higher profit for
it not only provides the joy and the privilege of praising the Creator, it also
awards “an
incorruptible inheritance, without shadows and eternal”.
Peter exhorts Christ's followers: “Rejoice even if now and
for a short time, you must be distressed by several trials, because if the value of your faith, more
precious than gold, that perishes, stands the fire when tested, you will be cause for praise, glory and honor, at the time of the manifestation of Jesus
Christ”. (1Peter 1:4..7)
3
In keeping with this hope, King Solomon, reputed as the wisest man of his
time, writes: “A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of
death is better than the day of birth” (Ecclesiastes
7:1).
A birth means the
beginning of a new life and its day is usually happy for the family of the
newcomer, how could then the sad day of death be better? The words of Solomon
remind us that all humans are born to die, because as Paul writes, through
“the first man, sin entered the world and because of
sin, death spread to all mankind, because they all inherited sin” (Romans 5:12); but before dying, people
may have had the opportunity to acquire during their lifetime, what they did not
possess on the day of their birth: God’s justification and the everlasting life
He grants through the redemption of Christ. For this reason “A name brings more benefit than a great wealth”, (Proverbs 22:1) because “the reputation of the righteous leads them to
happiness”, due to the promised resurrection in God’s kingdom, “but the name of the wicked shall be forgotten”, due
to their eternal death. (Proverbs
10:7)
4
The text in Ecclesiastes goes on to say: “Better than going to a feast is to go to the house of
mourning, for that is the end of all men, and who is alive, will meditate this
in his heart”. (Ecclesiastes
7:2) In ancient Israel, the deceased's house became a house of mourning.
Friends and neighbors came to comfort the family with the reflection that at the
end of his life, the departed enjoyed before God, a worthy name that will
provide for him the resurrection to an everlasting life. This comfort was also
helpful for those who offered it, for it reminded them that they too had to die,
and that their only hope of recovering
life lay in making themselves a good
name before God during this life.
Jesus confirmed the
reliability of this hope when he warned: “Enter
through the strait gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to
destruction, and many are those who enter through it, but strait is the gate and
narrow the way leading into life, and few are those who find
it”.
(Matthew 7:13..14) And “For
he who delights in his life shall destroy it, but anyone who let his life perish
for my sake, shall find it. And which is the profit for man if ever he shall
gain the whole world and yet suffers the loss of his life? Because what can a
man give to ransom his life?” (Matthew
16:25-26)
5
Nobody likes to think about death, so the tendency is to unreasonably
assume, that even if thousands of people die every day our time has not yet
arrived. However, the fact of having taken the appropriate decisions is vital
when the time comes, and getting a good name is a path that takes time and
effort. A good name before God requires the effort of respecting all his commandments while living in this unfair world, as
Christ did, even if sometimes this might require some, perhaps difficult,
resignations. However, as Solomon says, “sorrow is
better than laughter, because through the sadness in the face, the heart will
improve”, because “the heart of the fool is in
the house of fun, but the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning”
(Ecclesiastes 7:3..4), and the fact of thinking about
death, predisposes to reflect about the value of life.
6
Then he writes: “To heed the rebuke of the wise
is better than to listen to the songs of fools, for the laughter of the fool is
like the crackling of thorns under the pot”. (Ecclesiastes 7:5..6) Critical comments or reprimands are
often difficult to accept, even if they come from wise people; but a reproof may
stimulate to reflection and be thus more useful than the compliments, the jokes
and the laughter of fools, which as Salomon says, are as useless as “the crackling of the thorns under the pot”, because
in spite of the noise they make, produce little heat and become quickly
consumed. Besides the fact of
acknowledging the committed errors and repent, reflects a positive attitude that
approaches us to God and helps to reorganize our feelings, urging us to correct
our path.
7 For all those who have faith in God's design, the day of death should
therefore be better than the day of birth, assuming, of course, that death
reaches them. But, is it possible to avoid the inherited death of mankind? It
must be so, because Paul writes: “Behold, now I tell you a sacred secret: not all of us shall sleep in death, but we shall all be transformed in an
instant, in a blink of the eyes, at the last trumpet sound. The trumpet will
blow and the dead shall rise again incorruptible, and we shall be transformed”; (1Corinthians 15:51..52) “because
the Lord himself will give the command with the voice of Archangel and shall
descend from heaven at the sound of the trumpet of God, rising in the first
place those who died in Christ, while
those of us who still remain, who
are alive, will be later caught
towards them”. (1Thessalonians
4:16..17) Indeed, Paul says that
many of those who are alive at Christ's return will never see
death.
8
Speaking of the disciples that at the time his return, would be waiting
for him, Jesus said: “Wherever the corpse is, the
eagles will gather”. (Mathew 24:28) Eagles fly high and
their life depends on keen eyesight that allows them to recognize their
prey, and also the lives of the
followers of Christ depend on a keen spiritual sight that allows them to
recognize the events indicated by Jesus
and by the declarations of God in Scripture.
But do we have eyes that really see? If we seriously consider the time we
live in, we shall certainly realize that this world plagued by unsteadiness,
terrorism and confrontation, ignorance, hunger, disease and natural disasters,
has entered a really critical and complicated period; we will also see that a
large part of humanity, tends with arrogance, to dismiss the intervention of God
in man’s destiny and even, to deny His very existence, while the natural moral
laws are distorted to suit different moral standards and personal choices. We
will also be aware of the deep hypocrisy in society and of the proliferation of
all kinds of drugs, intended to seek an escape and to forget the lack of
objectives and long-term expectations.
Do our eyes really see
the meaning of all these things? Do we consider the fact that they were foretold
by Jesus as a sign when his disciples asked him: “Tell
us when this will happen and which will be the sign of your arrival and of the
conclusion of the world?” (Matthew 24:3)
9
Paul says that in keeping with the promises of God, “Christ, after offering himself once in order to abolish all
the sins of many, will manifest again a
second time but not in regard with sin, but with those who are waiting for him, to be saved”. (Hebrews 9:28) We may therefore be certain of his second coming to us, but do we
remain attentive to the meaning of the things we see worldwide? Or deep down, we
think: «Who knows? Perhaps all these things did
always happen».
When Peter writes about
the days leading up to Christ's return, he says: “You
must know in advance that in the last days mockers will come, and walking after
their own wants, will say: «Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the
day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation»”. (2Peter 3:3..4) But is this true? Are all things as
they ever were? For even if we only consider the abundant, widespread and
heterogeneous contamination of our planet and its atmosphere, it is easy to
discern that everything is not is as
it was at the beginning of creation.
10 Men
never had as nowadays, the power and the means enabling them to make the Earth
an inhospitable planet. Science provides a technology supposedly meant to bless
humanity, but which has been also used to improve all kinds of weapons for
warfare, and has in a relatively short time, created serious consequences in the
air, land and seas by causing a toxic waste generation difficult to remove,
assaulting dangerously the balance of nature. Thus, rivers and lakes are now
dangerous because of their contamination, and the oceans have become
international dumps, while on earth, the deserts are advancing, the forests are
dwindling and thousands of plant and animal species disappear forever. And
besides, most current crops are not able to fend off pests without the use of
insecticides that poison the subsoil, the wells and the water sources, causing
thus the death of animals, birds and insects.
What's more, trapped
under the ice masses of the Arctic, there are million tons of methane gas, which
is for the global warming, some 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, and
that due to the continued ice declining, is now rising from the seabed into the
atmosphere.
11 Do
you realize that the danger of the Earth cannot sustain life, is it real? These
things never happened before; the detractors of the promises of God cannot
ignore or downplay this fact, saying things have always been so. Scripture show
us that this global destruction that the Earth suffers is part of the signal of
the last days of an unfortunate human society.
Speaking of those days,
the apostle John wrote almost 20 centuries ago: “The
nations were angry, but your indignation came, and the time for the dead to be
judged, to reward your servants the prophets and the saints, and the humble or
powerful who show respect for your name, and to destroy all those who destroy the
earth”. (Revelation
11:18)
If we recognize the
signs of the times, we must not forget that speaking of the signals that would
foretell the time of his return, Jesus told his disciples: “Hear a comparison with the fig tree: When its branches are
tender and the leaves come forth, you know that summer is near. So you also,
when you see all this things, know that it is near at hand. I assure you that
this generation will not pass till all these things happen. Heaven and earth shall pass away but my
words shall not pass”. (Matthew 24:32..35)
12 But
in spite of the repeated warnings of Jesus, the vast majority of those
professing to follow his teaching do not discern the meaning of his words. Most
retain the same attitude of the people of Israel, which loved above all their
own traditions and that under the guidance of their religious leaders, often
involved in the political intrigues of the Judea, did not want to accept Jesus
as the Christ of God, in spite his wisdom and the mighty signs and miracles he
performed.
For this reason, Jesus
applied to them this prophecy of Isaiah, as well suitable for today's
Christianity, and said: “Looking, they look in vain,
and hearing, they hear in vain for they do not grasp the meaning. The prophecy
of Isaiah is fulfilled in them, for he said: «Even if they hear, they will not
understand; even if they look, they will not see; because the heart of this
people has become numb. They have blocked ears and closed their eyes not to hear
or see; so that they do not understand and turn to me, and that I do not heal
them»”. (Matthew 13:13..15) Then, turning to those who listened and trusted in his words, he
added: “However, you are fortunate because you have
eyes that see and ears that hear”. (Matthew 13:16)
13   If
your eyes do see, your ears do hear and your heart is not numbed by life's daily
concerns and by the ambitions of the world, you will understand that we live in
that unique time that Jesus compared to the days of Noah, when he said: “It will be like in the days of Noah; as in the days before
the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving themselves in
marriage until the day Noah entered the ark, and they did not discern anything
until the flood came and took them all away, so shall be at the return of the
Son of man”.
(Matthew 24:3..39)
However, just as Noah
and his family were kept alive through this destruction, those who act wisely,
honoring the name of Yahuh and making themselves a good name before Him, shall
survive the destruction that will take place during what Scripture calls the
“war of the great day of the Almighty God”. (Revelation
16:14)
So, the fact of thinking
that maybe some that are now alive might never see death is no nonsense, for it
expresses confidence in Scriptures, in the words of Christ and in the apostles'
teaching.
14 Even
if nothing like this has ever been seen, we may trust the “hope of eternal life that the God who cannot lie, promised from old
times”. (Titus 1:2) This
expectation that was later ratified by Jesus and preached by his apostles, shall
be fulfilled without fail, because “for God nothing is impossible”. (Luke 1:37) So those
who have today eyes to see the present events under the light of Scripture, have
ears to heed the warnings and the teaching of Jesus and his apostles, and have
hearts to put faith in God's purpose, may feel truly happy and fortunate.
Jesus says for them: “When these things begin to happen, take courage and raise your heads, because your redemption is
near”. (Luke 21:28) However,
he also warns them against the fact of rushing into conclusions and go beyond
what is written, and says: “of that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels of heaven nor
the Son, only the Father... Then keep watch! You don't know in which moment your
Lord will arrive”. (Matthew 24:36 and 42) And Peter writes for the disciples:
“Most beloved, you that are aware of all these things in advance,
remain vigilant lest you be swept into the error of the ungodly and go less in
your steadfastness; continue to grow in the favor and knowledge of Jesus Christ,
our Lord and Savior. To him is the glory now and forever”. (2 Peter 3:17..18)
15 While
waiting for that day, let us make that our deeds and thoughts give praise to our
Creator, because as Paul writes: “you have learned from us the behavior you must keep in order to
please God, and we wholeheartedly exhort you by the Lord Jesus, to fully apply his instructions, which
we have transmitted to you… God has
called us to holiness, not to dishonesty, and who ignores this command is not
ignoring a man, but the God who has
set his holy spirit in us”. (1Thessalonians
4:1..8)
Even if many people
believe they will always have time to make themselves a good name before God,
nobody really knows if he shall ever have a chance to do it. So let us listen to
this wise advice of the apostle Paul: “You must carefully watch your behavior, so that you do not to walk as foolish people but as wise persons.
Take advantage of the favorable
times because the days are hard, and do not be negligent, try to find out the will of
Yahuh”. (Ephesians 5:15..17)
There is no better
future for man, than what God has prepared for him; but we can only achieve it
in this life. So let us strive to make us a good name before
him.