The Shadow of Death

The Shadow of Death

 

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

PSALM 23.4, NIV

 

He will remove the cloud of gloom, the shadow of death that hangs over the earth. He will swallow up death forever!

ISAIAH 25.7-8

 

The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. And for those who lived in the land where death casts its shadow, a light has shined.”

MATTHEW 4.16

 

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse was one of America’s greatest preachers. His first wife died from cancer when she was in her thirties, leaving behind three children under the age of twelve. He had been searching for the words to help his children understand that death is not final for the person who knows Jesus, when a moving van drove by their car. As it passed, the shadow of the truck swept over the car. He turned to his children and said, “Would you rather be run over by the truck or by its shadow?”

His children said, “Well, of course, Dad, we’d rather be run over by the shadow. A shadow can’t hurt us.”

Then he explained that the truck of death ran over Jesus so that only death’s shadow can run over us. He said, “Mommy went through the valley of the shadow of death. There is no pain there.”

The “shadow of death” is the experience of physical death that sweeps over every person who lives and dies in this world. But the reason death is only a shadow for the believer is because the darkness of death is something we pass through, not something that destroys us. For the believer, death is just a passageway into a fuller, richer life in the presence of God.