Skip to main content

God is an Undertaker








I recently came across this article about Chloe McKnight one of the youngest female funeral directors in the UK. She was inspired at the young age of 12 to one day become a funeral day after visit the local funeral home on work placement. She remembers that on arrival, she was confronted with a corpse in the chapel of rest and felt "strangely comfortable with it".  It is quite a thought - being comfortable with death.

I was very assured though when she later says that the job has tonnes of sadness : "When the police call you to remove a body on behalf of a coroner, you don't know what you're going to see – an accident victim, a suicide …It can be overwhelming at times – even now I sometimes have to take a deep breath – and it's always unsettling when the person is younger than I am". 

 This double tension of anundertaker - comfortable and yet unsettling is worth bearing in mind as we come to one of the most interesting descriptions of God in the Bible. According to Nahum, God is apparently an undertaker.   
The Lord has given commandment about you: “No more shall your name be perpetuated; from the house of your gods I will cut off the carved image and the metal image. I will make your grave, for you are vile.”  (Nahum 1:14) 
The prophet Nahum was raised by God to declare an oracle against Nineveh for its long list of sins, especially subjugating God's people. At the time of this prophecy, Nineveh is materially prosperous culture. In fact earlier on, Nahum reminds Nineveh that though it commands a mighty army in the end its military might will prove futile against God's judgement.

 So while everyone sees the wealth and power of Nineveh, God sees Nineveh as a worthless nation. It is nation full of idolatry and God's assessment simply says "you are vile”. Being vile in the sight of God can only lead to one thing : total destruction. Nineveh shall be cut  down and its reputation and fame will come to an end. God will bury it as an undertaker puts the coffin in the ground. To this day Nineveh has been buried into historical extinction. 

We are living in age when we only want to see God as one who gives us stuff. T D Jakes last year tweeted a comment by Jasmin Sculark where she says, "We don't need an undertaker because God is our upper-giver, He's going to resurrect some stuff!" The hashtag was #DontBuryItJustYet. 

 There is certainly room for trusting God to keep things in our lives going. But the warning for us from Nahum is not only that God is an undertaker who specialises in burying those who oppose him, but it is also that we are at risk of the undertaker's shovel. Our modern societies are really no different from Nineveh. We may be materially rich but we are really a funeral already hapening, we just don't  know or refuse to admit it!

 Many of us are only living for ourselves. Individually, our lives are graves of the idols of money, sex, power, technology and worship of the self. Nationally,we have built economic models that promote oppression of the poor and promotes social relativism. Many rich countries continue to turn a blind eye to millions of poor people dying across the globe from starvation and poverty. They have also turned their backs on followers of Jesus who  are being persecuted at the hands of tyrants in the Western Sahel, Middle East, Afghanistan, Somalia and many other places. 

Nahum reminds us that God is not silent! He is an undertaker who has prepared the grave of sinners of all shapes and sizes. He has appointed the day of the Lord when full justice will be done!  This should comfort all followers of Jesus. But most importantly it should move us to share the good news of Jesus around the world because only though Jesus is the grave an empty tomb. If we trust in him though we are buied we still live! It should also challenge to live lives that honour God and does not promote vile and worthless societies. To live as those who have escaped theshovel of the Great Udertaker through Jesus! 
Series Post:


 Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2014

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Do Not Be Anxious

Do not be troubled if you are poor - Christ Himself had no place to lay His head. Do not let the prospect of future hard times make you anxious about how you will endure, for "you will not be ashamed in evil days, and in times of famine you will be satisfied." God has said (Psalm 37:19) therefore, you must believe it. Do not be overly concerned with securing provisions for old age, for by all appearances, you may not live to see it. It is more than likely that you will reach your journey’s end sooner than expected. Your body is frail - it is already declining, greeting decay as its mother before it has even fully entered the hall of this world. The supports of your earthly tent are being loosened little by little. Take courage, O my soul, for soon the devil, the world, and the flesh will be crushed beneath your feet, and you will be welcomed into eternal mansions.   But even if the Lord prolongs your days to old age, He who brought you forth from your mother's womb will n...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

The Shame of Worldly Joy

Only a Christian can be joyful and wise at the same time, because all other people either rejoice about things that they should be ashamed of (Philippians 3:19) or things that will disappear. A Christian is not ashamed of his joy, because he is not joyful about something shameful. That is why the Apostle Paul in [2 Corinthians 1:12] defends his joy. He says, I don’t care if everyone knows what makes me happy, because it is the ‘testimony of my conscience.’ He means, let other people can be happy about base pleasures that they are afraid to admit; let other people rejoice in riches, fame, or popularity; they can be happy about whatever they want, but my joy is different. ‘I rejoice because of my conscience.’ A Christian has a happiness that he can stand by and prove. No one else can do that. They will feel embarrassed and guilty if their happiness is found in something that is outside of themselves. They cannot say, ‘this is what makes me happy’. But a Christian has the approval of his ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →

The Wound of Sin

Bless the Lord, O my soul, that when you were playing with the bait, unaware of the hook like so many others, He opened your eyes—allowing you to see your folly and danger so that you might flee from it. And now, be careful that you do not grasp at any of the devil's temptations, lest he ensnare you with his hook. For though you may be restored by grace, it will not be without a wound—just as a fish sometimes escapes the hook but swims away injured. That wound may bring sorrow and take long to heal. And you have already known this to be true. THOMAS BOSTON  ( Source : The Art of Man-Fishing) A sobering truth from Thomas Boston. Sin always damages. God always restores His children when we fall but it is never without the wounds. We often carry the scars of our sins. This is another m reason for us to avoid sin altogether. Sometimes in our presumption of His grace, we tend to be antinomian. Boston is warning that such an attitude is foolish since sin always damages. It always leaves ...
Post a Comment
KEEP READING →