What a dreadful thing death is, bringing sorrow and trouble to the hearts of men. It severs for ever the ties that bind us in nature, and robs us of the affections, help and counsel of those who are dearest to us. Advances in medical science may postpone for many the day of death, but sooner or later it lays its chilly hand upon the strongest and oldest, nor does it spare the young and fairest. Men have spoken of death as “the king of terrors,” and well they might, though “the terror of the Lord,” the judgment which men must face is a greater terror. Two men have escaped death, Enoch and Elijah, for God took them to heaven without dying.
The Christian, like other men, feels the loss of his loved ones, being deprived of their love and company; but death for the Christian does not hold the terror that others feel, for the Lord Jesus Christ has taken the sting out of death for them, and death has become the servant of the believer to conduct him into the presence of Jesus in the heavenly paradise. It is the death of Christ that has done this, a death in which there are many wonderful things for the Christian to learn.
It is in the death of Christ that we learn the love of God, even as it is written, “But God commends His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). Christ’s personal love for us is also revealed in His death, for “Christ also has loved us, and has given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour” (Eph. 5:2). The death of Christ takes all our sins away, and through it God is able to justify the ungodly, and communicate eternal life to the one that believes on His Son. God has purchased the church by the blood of His own, has secured the new covenant through which Israel will be blessed in a coming day, has received fresh glory in redemption in which the foundation has been laid for the accomplishment of all His counsels of love.
Among the many wondrous things to be learnt in Christ’s death is the mighty personal triumph of God’s Son, and also the great victory of God over all the power of His adversary and ours, Satan. Men have not seen the display of Christ’s triumph, but angels have, for it is written that Christ, “having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them publicly, leading them in triumph” (Colossians 2:15). It is in connection with the great victory of Christ over Satan that the believer has been delivered from the fear of death.
Hebrews 2:14-15
The first thing that comes to our notice in this Scripture is that the Son of God has come into Manhood because those upon whom His affections were set were partakers of flesh and blood. Our Lord Jesus “took part” in flesh and blood, that is He became a Man, entering into the conditions in which men were, becoming a real Man, having the body and nature of man, but still unique, for He could never cease to be what He ever was, God over all, blessed for ever. It is not for men to pry into the manner in which the divine and human natures are united in Jesus, but Scripture makes it perfectly plain that the Manhood of Jesus was real and full, so that He could be tempted in “all points such as we are, sin apart,” for there was no sin in the nature of the Son of God incarnate.
Then we learn that the Son of God became Man “that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” There were many reasons for God’s Son becoming Man; here, one of the reasons is that He might die. How great is the grace of our blessed Lord! He came for the express purpose of entering into the dark domain of death. The sentence of death lay upon the whole human race, and Satan might be robbed of his power to put the fear of death upon His own.
It was only as Man that Jesus could die, and He has died, and through death He has secured a glorious triumph. The devil no doubt thought that if he could only procure the death of Jesus he would upset all the plans of God. Instead of doing so, he only brought about his own defeat. For entering into death, the Lord Jesus broke the power of death in coming out in resurrection, and completely annulled the devil who used the power of death to keep the saints in the bonds of fear. The devil is not yet destroyed, but he has been vanquished, and scripture unfolds what lies in store for him. He is to be cast into the bottomless pit for the millennium, then after being let loose for a little season, he is to be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity.
Now that the power of death has been broken, the devil can no longer hold in fear the saints of God. It was to deliver His own that the Lord Jesus became Man, and this great result, among the many more has been accomplished by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Instead of fearing death, the Christian can face it with calmness and confidence, knowing that it is but the entry into Christ’s presence in the paradise of God.
In the Old Testament, long before the Lord Jesus came into the world, there were types of what would be accomplished through His coming and death. This was ever before the mind of God, and now we are able to look back on the things that were written aforetime for our learning, and see what God had written on the pages of inspiration for the instruction and delight of His saints.
The Red Sea
Although Israel had been sheltered from the sword of the destroying angel by the blood of the paschal lamb, they were not yet delivered from the power of Pharaoh. Their oppressor was found pursuing them after they left Egypt, saying in his heart, “They are entangled in the land, the wilderness has shut them in” (Ex. 14:3). He was utterly unaware that the God he had challenged was about to deal with him in judgment, destroying him and the power with which he held His people in fear.
As the children of Israel saw the hosts of Egypt pursuing them, they said unto Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness…it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness” (verses 11, 12). The fear of death was upon them because of Pharaoh and his power, but Moses “said unto the people, Fear ye not, and see the salvation of the Lord: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace” (verses 13, 14).
Israel’s fear of death was to be taken away by the Lord’s intervention for them; His power was to be manifested in the defeat of Pharaoh and his host. Moses, and his rod, were the instruments used of God to make a way for His people through the Red Sea, but it was by “a strong east wind all the night” that a path was made through the sea for Israel to cross on dry land. The strong east wind surely brings before us what the Lord Jesus endured to make a way for His own through the waters of death. And the Red Sea, which was the means used of God to deliver Israel from the power of Pharaoh, was the means of the destruction of Pharaoh and his power. God used that which was typically death for the destruction of Israel’s foes, and the deliverance of His people.
Following their deliverance, every one in the hosts of Israel could join with Moses in singing, “I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea” (Ex. 15:1). In delivering His people, God not only removed all fear from them, but He made them a praising people, ascribing all the honour and glory to His great Name who had effected for them this great deliverance.
David and Goliath
When Goliath of Gath challenged the hosts of Israel, “all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid” (1 Sam. 17:24). Like Israel, with the hosts of Pharaoh behind them, the fear of death was upon them. The king of Israel, and all the mighty men of Saul’s forces, were unable to meet the giant in his imposing panoply. They measured the power of the champion of the Philistines against their own strength, and felt themselves to be powerless, and so were “sore afraid.”
But there was one who did not fear the giant, and who said, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine” (verse 32). Yes, there was One who was not afraid of the power of Satan, and Jesus, the Son of God, pictured in David, came down to where His people were in all their weakness and fear, to meet in deadly, single-handed conflict the enemy who had held them in the grip of the fear of death.
Refusing the armour of Saul, this fearless servant of the Lord met the foe in apparent weakness, for he had no weapons with him save a sling and five smooth stones. When Goliath had been brought down by one of the smooth stones, “David ran, and stood upon the Philistine and took his sword, and drew it out of the sheath thereof, and slew him, and cut off his head therewith” (verse 51). The very sword that Goliath used to terrify the people of God was the weapon David used to slay him and cut off his head.
Do we not have in this a very wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus gaining for His people a great triumph over Satan and his power with which he held them in bondage? Like David, He went to meet the foe in apparent weakness, for “He was crucified in weakness” (2 Cor. 13:4); but He used the enemy’s own weapon, death, to overcome him; and through death the Lord has delivered His people from the bondage in which the fear of death has brought them.
This great victory was celebrated “when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine” with “singing and dancing” (1 Sam. 18:6). There was joy in the hearts that had lately been filled with fear, and the praise was rightly ascribed to David in the words of the women, who answered as they played, saying, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” David’s victory was but a faint foreshadowing of that of his Greater Son, who annulled the devil and his power, and has produced a people delivered from the fear of death who praise and worship Him.
Mordecai and Haman
In Haman we see one bent on the utter destruction of the people of God, and who had set up a gallows, fifty cubits high, for the removal of his chief object of hatred, the man that God had decreed to be the saviour of His people. Moreover, he had caused the sending out of a decree for the wiping out of the nation of Israel. It is little wonder that when the decree that all Jews, “both young and old, little children and women,” were to perish, was sent out, “there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes” (Esther 4:3). Haman had indeed brought the fear of death upon all God’s people.
The Lord, who heard the cries of His own, was not indifferent to all that was going on, even if His Name does not appear in this remarkable book; and working behind the scenes He brought before the Gentile monarch, just at the right moment, what His servant had done in saving him from the hands of his enemies; and Haman was made the unwilling instrument of exalting the man whom the king delighted to honour (Esther 6:6). Haman’s hatred of Mordecai and the Jews was his undoing, for it brought him to the gallows he had erected for him whom he regarded his greatest foe.
Satan would fain have destroyed the people of God, but unable to do this, he kept them in fear of death; and when the Son of God came into this world, all the hatred and power of Satan was brought against Him. Using men as his instruments to get rid of the Lord Jesus, the devil brought about his own undoing, for the Lord went into death and through death broke the power of the enemy, and completely overcame him. The gallows was the instrument designed to get rid of Israel’s saviour, Mordecai, but through it Haman was destroyed; so it was with death, that Satan thought would get rid of the Saviour of God’s people.
The destruction of Haman and his power brought relief to the Jews, and they were no longer held in the fear of death. Instead, they were filled with joy and gladness, and they celebrated their deliverance with “feasting and gladness,” and ordained “that these days should be remembered and kept throughout every generation” (Esther 8:17; 9:17-28).
These types very blessedly tell us of the great victory of the Lord Jesus over Satan and his power, but the joy described that came to the nation of Israel is but a feeble presentation of the joy that belongs to God’s people now, who, in truth, have been “delivered from the authority of darkness,” and who have been delivered from the fear of death through the mighty victory of the Lord Jesus.
R. 27.10.66.