Teach Us to Number Our Days

By Rev. Joel Fritsche

What happens when a person dies? What is it like? Is there really a white light?

I remember being at my grandfather’s bedside when he died. I was already a pastor. I had studied theology. I knew God’s promise of eternal life through faith in Christ. That doesn’t mean it was easy. I’ve spoken those promises at the bedside of the dying before. It’s not always the same. Sometimes I cry tears of joy for the dying, knowing their suffering will soon be over. Sometimes I shed tears for the family left behind, sharing in their grief. My grandpa’s death sticks with me. Although he had been mostly sleeping before he died, his eyes opened up wide as he breathed his last breath, as if he saw something amazing. What did he see? I don’t know.

We can ask those who died and were resuscitated, but we won’t know what is fully experienced at death until we experience it ourselves. However, let me return to the bedside of the dying. It’s at the death of a loved one when we especially crave answers. I remember one particular time holding the hand of a church member hours away from death. Off and on for over 24 hours with the family I read Scripture, prayed and sang hymns. His grandson asked me, “Pastor, what is heaven like?” So we turned to Revelation, particularly chapters 7 and 21. I could see the comfort on his face as we heard about the holy city, the new Jerusalem and God dwelling with His people.

Now, for the most part, when Scripture speaks about heaven and eternal life, it speaks about the new heavens and earth at the final resurrection on the Last Day. St. John comforts us in His epistle, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). That’s amazing comfort for us. But what of those who die before that? Scripture is rather quiet on the intermediate state of the soul. What did Jesus say to the thief on thief on the cross? “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). When St. Paul was faced with his own impending death or continuing his apostolic work, he said, “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Philippians 1:23). In other words, we know that at the moment of death, the believer is with Christ. That’s real comfort as well. Is there a white light? Scripture doesn’t really say that. Ultimately does it really matter? No.

Scripture does address death specifically. Make no mistake about it, death is God’s wrath, pure and simple. Moses acknowledges such in Psalm 90, “For we are brought to an end by your anger; by your wrath we are dismayed” (90:7). Moses was well acquainted with the horrors of death. Even as Pharaoh decreed the death of all Hebrew male children, baby Moses was placed in a little ark by his mother and set afloat in the reeds along the bank of the Nile. Soon after, he was snatched from death’s grip and drawn up out of the water by Pharaoh’s daughter. Moses became God’s instrument to set His chosen people free from the shackles of slavery in Egypt and to lead them to the Promised Land. Nevertheless, death always loomed close.

God, in His wrath against hard-hearted Pharaoh, allowed death to have its way in Egypt. In the fifth plague, all the livestock of the Egyptians died. In the tenth plague, the Egyptians lost their firstborn sons. Finally, Pharaoh let Israel go. But the death toll wasn’t over. Changing his mind, Pharaoh and his army pursued Israel to the Red Sea. What happened? God parted the waters, allowing Israel to cross on dry ground, but let the sea fall upon Pharaoh’s army to their death. Still, death wasn’t done. Countless Israelites perished in the wilderness under God’s judgment for their wickedness.

After reflecting on the brevity of human life and the reality and depth of human sin and God’s wrath over it, Moses prays, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). Death is our teacher. When death takes a loved one, God calls us who remain through his Word, to repentance and faith. We recognize our own sin, our own frailty and our own death that surely looms in the distance. We recognize anew the brokenness of this sinful world, that we ourselves are broken. Our brief days are numbered.

However, in the midst of God’s wrath over sin, Moses prays for and clings to God’s mercy, His favor, His steadfast love. He prays, “Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children” (90:16). That’s exactly what God has done and still does, even for you today. He freely gives you His work of salvation in Christ. Like Moses, you were snatched from the clutches of death, drawn out of the water in your baptism. You were brought to safety in the ark of the Holy Christian Church, where Christ, who took your place in death on the cross, now lives to serve you. If there’s a white light at all, it’s the light of His righteousness that you now wear.

Death teaches us and prepares us for our own collision with mortality. But the comfort of God’s promise of eternal life in Christ is the ultimate preparation. Every death points us to Christ’s death and resurrection where you are made certain that death can’t truly touch you. You’ll close your eyes in death and awaken to see Jesus, and even more so at the final resurrection, when you will be like Him and see Him as He is in all His glory, death undone forever!

Rev. Joel Fritsche and his family are LCMS missionaries to the people of the Dominican Republic. He is also the secretary for Higher Things.