Grumpy-looking elderly man
PROBABLY SOMEONE’S GRANDPA. Why do so many good grandpa’s die young, leaving us with the grumpy grandpas who keep outliving our dogs? One prophet serves up an answer. But he says it with a poem, which leaves some to wonder if he was just whistling dixie. Photo by Thomas8047 / flickr.
EVER WONDER why our favorite relatives and friends often seem to die first, leaving us with the Grinch who stole Christmas, Cruella de Vil, and the Wicked Witch of the West?
Conventional Christian wisdom might explain it this way. God wants sweet people first, for the Sweet By-and-By. When it comes to sour souls, heaven can wait.
The prophet Isaiah, however, didn’t explain it that way. Here’s his take.
Good people pass away;
the godly often die before their time.
But no one seems to care or wonder why.
No one seems to understand
that God is protecting them from the evil to come.
For those who follow godly paths
will rest in peace when they die. (Isaiah 57:1-2)
A Toddler Named Tragedy
Ephraim, the father of one of Israel’s 12 tribes, had three sons. Two were rustlers. They got themselves killed when they tried to steal livestock. Tragic.
Sometime later, Ephraim’s wife gave him another son. Ephraim was still in mourning for his two dead sons. Perhaps in their memory, he named his newborn “Beriah because of the tragedy his family had suffered.” (1 Chronicles 7:23)
Beriah sounds like bera’ah, a Hebrew word that works for tragedy, disaster, trouble, and similar nouns most of us wouldn’t have wanted our mother calling us when she tucked us into bed at night.
“Happy dreams, my little Disaster.”
What you’ve just read are two excerpts from Strange and Mysterious Stuff in the Bible, coming in September.
The book features 250 of these strange stories and teachings from the Bible. For a sneak peek at more than two dozen of them, take a look at the flip book I’ve put together for you.
The video below…The day the sun stopped…is a promo featuring another story in the book.
Have a wonderful day ahead.
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More to read:
Where did the devil come from?
Moses body count
The day the sun stopped
Why I have to translate Bible scholars
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