Why Does The Righteous Die Young? – Part 2

CALL TO PRAYER

By: Stephen Osei Kuffour

Date: 03.12.2023

Title: Why Does The Righteous Die Young? – Part 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.  (Isaiah 57:1 NLT)

In last week’s call to prayer, I began sharing on the topic, “Why Does The Righteous Die Young?”. We learnt that the sudden depart of young godly men from the earth can bring a lot of questions and even cause the Faith of other believers to be shaken. It is therefore important to understand from the perspective of the word of God why such situations happen. We learnt that the reasons why the righteous may depart the earth early is because their time on earth is up and also that the Lord wants to save them from an upcoming temptation or evil (Eccl 3, Is 57:1). Today, I would like to add other reasons why such may happen.

The righteous may die young due to their lack of sensitivity to the leadings of the Holy Spirit and disobedience to the voice of the Lord. The Lord always speaks to His people through various means. The Lord speaks to us through people, visions, dreams, desires, leadings of the Holy Spirit, etc. When the Lord who is All-Knowing finds out that the evil one is planning to take your life before your time, He will warn you so you can escape the devil’s plans. For example, when King Herod wanted kill Baby Jesus, the Lord warned his father Joseph through a dream, and they escaped to Egypt (Matt 2:14). One day, a certain man of God was traveling by Flight and as soon as he was about to board, the Lord asked him to stop and take the next one. He later found out that, that Plane had crashed. One Ministry I know also missed their Flight and later found out that the Flight crashed.

When the Lord speaks and the righteous does not hear, it can result in his/her death. That’s why it is important for us to mature in Christ and access all our inheritance we have in Christ. If not, the enemy will eliminate us as mere men although we are “gods” (Ps 82:6-7). There are some who hear the voice of the Lord about an upcoming danger, but they will rather choose to disobey and trust in their gifts and abilities.

Also, the truth is that the Lord takes no delight in the death of an evil person. His desire is for those evil men to repent and turn from their evil ways (Eze 33:11, 2 Pet 3:9, 1 Tim 2:4). The normal human expectation is for evil men to die early while the righteous live long. However, this does not always happen because the ways and thoughts of the Lord are not like ours (Is 55:8). That’s why the righteous can depart the earth at a younger age while some evil men live long.

Beloved in the Lord, the righteous might die young for various reasons stated above. In such situations, our faith should not be shaken and let’s not also listen to mockers. Let’s rather be encouraged because we know that they are with the Lord and all their good works they did will surely follow them.

Prayer Point:

Let’s thank God for His Word today. Let’s ask the Lord to comfort all Believers who have lost loved ones. Let’s also ask Him to help us to be sensitive and obedient to His voice and the leadings of the Holy Spirit.

God bless you all