“Last Words” – FBC Morning Light (4/29/2024)

What a good Monday morning to you, hope you had a good weekend and enjoyed gathering with God's people yesterday and worshiping the Lord in his house. Well today in our Bible reading we're in 1 Kings chapter 2 and then a parallel passage in 1 Chronicles 29 and then reading the first two Psalms, Psalms 1 and 2.

Final Words in Scripture and the Weight of Last Instructions

You know one of the things that's different about our modern medicine age is the final moments or hours prior to a person's death. Now I don't complain about the pain medications and so on that are given to people in those final days.

I was in the room when both of my parents passed away and I can appreciate that they weren't suffering in a great deal of pain. But one of the things that happens because of that is that our loved one when they pass are not conscious and so therefore if there was something that they wanted to communicate to us as like final important words, they can't do it.

Hopefully they were able to do so prior to getting to such a state of pain where they were just basically put out of things. But that's quite a bit different from what we see in some of the Scriptures.

Jacob's Burial Request and Joseph's Hope in God's Promise

So for example at the end of Jacob's life he knew he was going to die and we read in Genesis 49 that he charged his children to say, I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephraim the Hittite.

He says there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife, there they buried Isaac and Rebekah and his wife, and there I buried Leah. He says the field that is there, he says when, you know, bury me there.

Now when Jacob said this he was in Egypt with his offspring. So he said when I die, take me back and bury me in the land of Canaan. And then it says when he had finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed, he breathed his last and he was gathered to his people.

It was like the last thing he said was take me back to Canaan and bury me in the family burial spot. And same with Joseph, at the end of Joseph's life we read in chapter 50 that Joseph said to his brethren in verse 24, I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

And he took an oath from the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry my bones up from here. Now what both of these men were communicating is something that was extremely important to them.

They considered it to be important not only to them personally, I mean they were going to die, but to their descendants. And that is that they get buried in the land of promise, that it was very important that they not lose sight of that land that God promised to give to them.

David's Charge to Solomon to Keep the Lord's Ways

So those final words indicate something that was very important on the heart of those two men, Jacob and Joseph. And we see the same thing in 1 Kings chapter 2, the first three verses. David is about to die.

We read in verse 1, it says the days of David drew near that he should die. And so what did he do? He called Solomon to himself, Solomon whom he had already declared to be the king in his place, and he said to him, I'm going the way of all the earth.

All right, now what did he say? What were the last words that David said to Solomon that indicate what was really important in his heart and mind? This is what he said, I'm going the way of all the earth, be strong therefore and prove yourself a man.

Okay, well, that doesn't sound like something that would be all that unusual for a dying father to tell to his son, be a man. But how? How could Solomon prove that he was a man? How could he demonstrate his manliness?

Not by warfare, not by physical prowess and physical might and beating up people. And things of that nature, no, he goes on to say, he says, keep the charge of the Lord your God. Here's how you will be a man.

You will be a man by keeping the charge of the Lord your God. And what is that charge? He continues, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, his judgments, and his testimonies as it is written in the law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn, that the Lord may fulfill his word, which he spoke concerning me.

So what's clearly important to David is that his son, who is reigning on the throne in his place, be a man who follows the ways of the Lord and is obedient to the commandments of the Lord in all of his ways, in all of his ways.

What We Should Pass On If We Knew Our Time Was Short

So I wonder, if we knew that 24 hours from now we would not be here, what would be the most important thing that we would want to pass on to our offspring, to our children, to those around us? What would that be?

It's something to think about, isn't it? Our Father and our God, I pray that you would remind us, help us to remember that we don't know when that day is coming. So I pray that we would have in the forefront of our minds the things that are really important, not only for us, for our lives, but for those who come after us.

And maybe we'd be able to communicate those things before we pass off the scene, we pray. In Jesus' name and for his sake, amen. All right, well I hope that wasn't too morbid of a devotional for the beginning of your week, but it does help us to put some things in perspective and to think about what's really important, doesn't it?

All right, well listen, you have a good rest of your Monday, I hope your week gets off to a great start. Good day.