From the Pastor: Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.
“The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness.” (Is. 57:1-2)
The fact that all men shall come to death is an undeniable reality that has been fixed upon the minds and hearts of men since the fall of father Adam. However, when God, not man, targets and brings death to a certain category of individuals, one would suppose that folks would take notice of this unusual turn of events. But, this would be a false assumption, because fleshly awareness and spiritual awareness are not common to all without exception. When God begins to remove the righteous the unrighteous do not have a clue, for they are blinded in all spiritual discernment. It is as Sodom and Gomorrah; they had no spiritual familiarity with true righteousness, thus, they could not perceive that not even ten righteous men dwelt among them, which they could have cared less anyway. Righteous and merciful men are dreadful to the depraved conduct of men.
The words “taken away” carry the idea of a gathering up by removing. In essence God is gathering the righteous up by removing them from this world. It is as in the days of Noah; with the exception of Noah and his family, all the righteous were removed by the means of death prior to the pouring out of the wrath of God. It is possible that not even one person fully comprehended until Noah and family were sealed in the ark and the wrath of God flooded upon them. They were swept away in blissful unrighteous ignorance.
The righteous are gathered up into a place of holy peace, of mental, physical, and spiritual rest, and of complete tranquility. We cannot fully grasp this side of our gathering up and removal the unspeakable things in the paradise of the third heaven. It was unlawful for Paul to reveal the gloriousness of the eternal resting place of God for those justified and vindicated in the Lamb’s blood.
It is said that in death we can take nothing with us, but, in this passage we discover the righteous shall depart in their uprightness wrought by the Potter’s hands saturated with the blood of Christ Jesus. O, sweet peace and rest is the righteous’ escape from evil!
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