Here's the situation: Our nine year old, Joseph, came to my wife today perplexed. He asked why, if my mother (his grandmother) kept the fifth commandment, did she die at 56 years of age?

This is a boy who holds what bible knowledge he has very strongly - he already talks of being a missionary to Iran (and the idea of martyrdom is not a big deal to him). He's a great son.

A simple "God's sovereignty" lesson is not, I think, what is called for. This, I am afraid, is a 'defining moment' sort of a question to him, where the bible is either the literal word of God and we can hold fast to every word, or it is prose and poetry easily trumped by God's whims and caprices (which may or may not be congruant to scripture) on the fly.

His mother (my wife) told him to ask his father (me). He will likely ask tomorrow over dinner and I have neither the wisdom nor the words to answer him in the way that I think is required.

My mother was a godly woman and did indeed honor her father and mother - to a fault even. There are some theological questions from my wife and children that I can rise to and answer well, with some confidence.

This one hits too close to home.

Help, please.

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Kevin
Far East
Deacon, Int'l Church

Kevin, that promise in the fifth commandment, pointed, for the Israelites, to a typical prosperous life in the earthly promised land.

For us, as Christians, the promised land is heaven. Her being a godly woman, she is now enjoying a long life in the promised land, with Jesus.

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Bert Mulder
Elder of the First Protestant Reformed Church of Edmonton
Edmonton Alberta Canada

Also, maybe give him the G-rated version of the news about kids who get involved with gangs and crime, and point out that learning to obey when young may literally save your life when dealing with authority as an adult.

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

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I agree wholeheartedly with Bert's post. I would only add that, on the typological level, the promise is not an absolute guarantee. If one keeps the Sabbath, that does not mean that other factors may not impinge on the life-span of someone. Also important here is that the woman did not live one minute shorter than God had decreed. She was not, in the ultimate sense, cut off young. She also has a resurrection body to which she can look forward.

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Rev. Lane Keister
Teaching Elder, PCA, North Dakota (working out of bounds in a CRC and an RCA church)
http://greenbaggins.wordpress.com
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This was a general promise to the group not the individual, as Bert explained. They would be ale to stay in Israel if they kept the family in good shape with proper respect going to the parents. IT gave strength to the family unit and society at the core.

If it seems unfair that she died early and she was a godly, respectable and worthy of imitation, I would say 1. She is living forever now (as said earlier). 2. She "still speaks today" as a witness to keeping God's 5th command and in that sense lives, too, but 3. so that he does not get confused thinking that the spirit of the grandma is around I'd remind him that to be absent with the body is to be present wit the Lord.

Let us know how it goes. God will help you.

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Bryan Wiley
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Reformed Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky

Sometimes the righteous are taken away to be spared trouble--forgot the reference but I think it's Isaiah. This may also impinge on the lifespan.

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Mary Vanderkooi
Kale Heywott Church (KHC)
Soddo, Ethiopia

The apostle applies the fifth commandment promise to earthly life, Eph. 6:3. He also notes elsewhere that godliness has promise for this life as well as the life to come, 1 Tim. 4:8. It is important to remember God's promises for this life lest one faints and gives up before they have finished their course, Phil. 1:22; 2 Tim. 4:7, 8. The Psalmist often prayed to be delivered from death in order to continue declaring God's truth to the world, Ps. 6:4, 5; 30:9.

The Shorter Catechism wisely notes that the promise annexed to the fifth commandment is conditional on whether prolonged life and prosperity serves for God's glory and our good. When a believing soul passes before the allotted seventy years it can truly be said that it is for their benefit. At the very least an early death safeguards them from evil to come, Isa. 57:1. It also marks the completion of their labours and that it is their time to rest, v. 2a, as a labouring man goes to his bed after a hard day's work, v. 2b. But, best of all, it means they can now walk in perfection and no longer groan under a sense of their shortcomings in God's service, v. 2c.

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Yours sincerely,


"Illum oportet crescere me autem minui."