Before God nearly annihilated the human race because of human wickedness with the Great Flood, He declared to cut off man’s years to 120 years. I suspect that due to the kindness of God that He did such a thing, that man may not heap up more sinful deeds and vain thoughts.
Life is short, the Psalmist declared, “Behold You have made my days as short as handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing in Your sight. Truly every man at his best is merely a breath.” In another instance, he wrote “Man is like vanity and a breath; his days are as a shadow that passes away.” A breath. Vanity. Such words depict how abrupt the time we live our lives. Yet, we live like we have an eternity to spend. We give much time to misplaced priorities, to secret vices and to temporal things. We overlook the really most important things – things concerning our soul’s salvation.
The Preacher writes, “There is no man who has power over the spirit to retain the breath of life, neither has he power over the day of death.” We all know this to be true, nobody knows the day of his death; nevertheless, we often forget that in any day, in any minute we may relinquish our earthly life to the messenger of death. We are not invited into Sheol but by law of nature we all go there. The same Preacher cried, “Vapor of vapors and futility of futilities! All is vanity, what profit does man have left from all his toil at which he toils under the sun?” This is the natural man who lives apart from God. But we are people God set apart for Himself, we were “recreated in Christ, that we may do those good works which God predestined for us, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Our Lord Jesus Christ calls us to a life of obedience, obedience to the divine will for our lives even if it would cost us our comfort and life; that in everything we do, we seek God’s glory and not the glory of men. We are not of this world; we are told that the Lord will come like a thief. We only have one life to live; let us live not like the natural man but live the life we are called to live – as children of God. Let us live consecrated and holy lives while we wait and long for the coming of the day of our Lord.
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