To Encourage You

2 Samuel 19:38-39 “And the king answered, ‘Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do for him whatever seems good to you, and all that you desire of me I will do for you.’ Then all the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. And the king kissed Barzillai and blessed him, and he returned to his own home.”

One of the starkest differences between a believer and an unbeliever (at least this SHOULD be true) are their priorities.  The natural desire of any person as they live in this world is that they live well.  Don’t you agree?  People want good health so that they can enjoy life. They desire enough money to have what they want, go where they want, and do what they want.  They desire pleasure, peace, joy; those kinds of things. However, if any person lives long enough, their ability to enjoy life will inevitably diminish. I see this in my own parents. At one time they both enjoyed relatively good health. They were hard workers. Although they’ve faced many trials throughout their life, life was good, certainly in comparison to what they’re facing now, when most of the time when they leave their house, it’s for one doctor visit or another. My father used to love to hunt and fish. He enjoyed working in the garden. He loved working with his hands. Sadly, those days are over for him. My mom loved to work in her flower gardens. She loved to can all kinds of fruits and vegetables. She was a wonderful cook. However, now these activities are either over for her because of her declining health and strength. 

I thought of my parents when I read the account of the man Barzillai in 2 Samuel 19 from which the passage above is taken.  He is described in the Bible as a very wealthy man. He had come to the aid of David during his civil war with Absalom at a place called Mahanaim (2 Samuel 17:27-29, 2 Samuel 19:32) and David was very grateful for it. Here in 2 Samuel 19, Barzillai is also described as a very aged man.  David, as he resumes his rightful place on the throne after the civil war had been put down, offers to bless Barzillai for the rest of his life. He says to him, “Come over with me, and I will provide for you with me in Jerusalem.”  What David was offering Barzillai was the opportunity to enjoy the finest things his kingdom could offer as he lived out the rest of his life, i.e., to live well, so to speak.  But listen to Barzillai’s very interesting reply: “How many years have I still to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day eighty years old. Can I discern what is pleasant and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats or what he drinks? Can I still listen to the voice of singing men and singing women? Why then should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king? Your servant will go a little way over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? Please let your servant return, that I may die in my own city near the grave of my father and my mother. But here is your servant Chimham. Let him go over with my lord the king, and do for him whatever seems good to you” (2 Samuel 19:34-37).  

This so reminds me of my parents – or of anyone, for that matter, who lives long enough to see their physical abilities diminish.  Barzillai saw the writing on the wall, and he knew he didn’t have much longer to live. So his greatest desire was not that he “live well” all the rest of his life, but that the blessings that he had experienced in life would be passed on to the next generation.  He wanted more than anything that Chimham (who was probably his son – although it doesn’t say this) would enjoy all the blessings of a relationship with the king. 

It occurred to me that Barzillai’s greatest desire, then, was not that he should live well in his latter years, but that he should die well.   It is this one thing that marks all believers, or at least it should.  They aren’t those who are clinging to life in this world with their fingernails, trying to get all they can get and live in selfishness until the moment they draw their last breath. No, their desire is that they die well and that they glorify God until that time. They want the glory of knowing their King while they lived on earth is passed on to those who are coming after them. Like Paul urged his protégé Timothy, as Paul entered the last moments of his life, “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). And what had Timothy heard from Paul? It was how to live to the glory of Christ so that when he, like Paul, came to the end of his life he could, like Paul, say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7-8).  Paul, like Barzillai, and like my aged parents, had the perspective of those who know Christ, who, as they grow older with all the inherent downsides, can say, “we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).  And so they can also say, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:21-23). 

So, are you like Paul? Are you like Barzillai?  Is the primary focus of your life that you live well hoping against hope for no trouble until the bitter end, or is your greatest desire that you die well, so that the life you live, no matter how your life ends, glorifies Christ as you near the time when you will live for eternity in His presence?  You see, God has told us clearly in His Word that “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). It’s just a fact of life. But for those whose greatest desire is the glory of God, no matter how things may go at the end of this life, there is coming a time when all troubles will eternally cease.  And unlike Barzillai who departed from King David in the last years of his life, those who die well in Christ will never be separated from THEIR King, for “He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).

May God help us to live our life with a great desire that we die well, and that the last moments of our life, though they may be a challenge physically, would be blessed spiritually as we look to a future where we will live in eternal fellowship with our great and eternal King.