TEXT FOR REFLECTION
But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed shall be remembered against him; for the righteousness that he has done he shall live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die. 18:21-24
REFLECT
A recently widowed old lady was harassed by well-meaning but insensitive friends who kept asking her, "So how did your late husband die?" After the umpteenth time, she retorted in exasperation, "How did my husband die? He stopped breathing. That's how he died!"
I chuckled the first time I heard this story from the widow. I pictured her fending off insensitive busy-bodies with this witty retort. Of course 'failure to breathe' is the ultimate cause of every death. But beneath this very self-evident statement is a truth that is so obvious that we often take for granted: we die the moment we stop breathing.
The text for reflection today seems unjust at first glance: nothing in our past is taken into consideration in God's judgment of our conduct. The passage tells us this: regardless of how bad we were in the past, when we turn around and obey God, we will live. Conversely, no matter how good our lives had been in the past, if we turned against God, we will die.
The latter statement seems very harsh. How can God refuse to consider all the good that I had done in the past, just because I was living in sin in the present? Come to think of it, the former statement seems unfair as well. How can a person who had been living in sin all his life but who turns around at the last moment live, while another who had lived righteously all his life but had at the last moment turned against God, die? Why are we judged by our final act while disregarding all the good or bad we had been doing in the past?
This truth begins to make sense when we look at life, not as cumulative events of good and bad, but with the analogy of a person breathing. A person lives when he breathes and dies when he stops breathing. Walking with God is like breathing; while we walk with God, God's breath is in us. The moment we turn away from God, we cut off God's breath, and we die.
The concept of God's breath being our source of life is first mentioned in the creation story. Genesis 2:7 relates that "then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." Adam the first man lived when God breathed into him.
In one of the Prophet Ezekiel's visions, the prophet was brought to a valley which had thousands upon thousands of dry bones. The prophet was told to command the breath to be breathed into the dry bones: Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. Ezekiel 37:9, 10.
We live by God's breath and die when deprived of God's breath. We live when we walk with God, and die when we walk away from God.
RELATE
After Jesus had risen from the dead, He visited His disciples. During one of his visits, our Lord commissioned them to go into the world. When he had commissioned them, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit." (John 20:22).
The first disciples were given new life when Jesus 'breathed' the Holy Spirit into them. Without the Holy Spirit, they were to do nothing; in fact they could do nothing. It is the breath of God that gives life.
We live only when we draw life from God. What does this mean? It means that we are totally dependent on God to live, both physically and spiritually. It means that we need to seek to be 'with God' in all we do, that we do not walk away from God. It means that in every situation that we find ourselves, we ask God to guide, comfort, and empower us to live obediently. That God's will be done in our lives. Only then will we truly live.
REST
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
Till I am wholly Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.
Breathe on me, Breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.
From the Hymn "Breathe On Me Breath Of God" by Edwin Hatch 1878
Chiu Ming Li
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