Most of us have intentions of keeping our appointments. It could be a doctor’s appointment or for you ladies a hair appointment. (Deb can be dead-dog tired and drained, but she’s keeping that hair appointment.) However, there are appointments that get canceled or rescheduled all the time. It may be a trip to Israel because of extenuating circumstances or an unexpected illness that happens quickly. That is a part of our lives. However, there are divine appointments that are fixed. No matter how much we would love to change or alter them, we just can’t. What are they? Both are found in a single verse for our consideration. Hebrews 9:27, “And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” There is a specific hour of a specific day when the death angel will visit us. We can be treated by the greatest doctors known to mankind, yet when our days are done, the appointment will be kept.
It is humorous and sad when I read articles and see interviews with people, mostly men, who are billionaires that are investing massive amounts of money grasping for immortality. In just the past month, I have read at least three news stories of billionaires that are deep into cell revitalization, anti-aging methods which include up to 100 supplements a day, strict diets, and ridiculous exercise regiments. One of these men is taking blood and certain tissue from his own teenage son in his quest for eternal youth. Artificial Intelligence is also being employed as billions of dollars are being thrown at the hope we can beat death. Let me make a prophetic utterance at this point. Remember, I’m not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but they will not succeed no matter how much cash they spend. Every one of them will die! That is my prophecy. “It is appointed unto men once to die”, period. Ecclesiastes 8:8 screams this truth to us. No matter how powerful the person, no matter the popularity, one day there will be flowers arriving possibly in honor of their remembrance. “There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death.”
Christians die differently that non-Christians. A convert from Islam to Christianity was asked why he converted. I have never forgotten his answer. “I have seen many people die. Christians die better.” As believers in the Lord Jesus, we don’t have to fear. Psalm 23 calls death but a shadow. When Christ saves us, He takes the sting of death away. We don’t die alone; we die with the sweet Holy Spirit inside us every step of the way to glory. Our eyes close in death, and we open our eyes in Heaven, beautiful beyond anything we can imagine. I Corinthians 2:9, “But as it is written, eye hath not seen, or ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
The second appointment is also mentioned in our verse. Judgment. Biblically, there are two distinct judgments for people. There is a judgment for Christians and a judgment for the unsaved. They are 1000 years apart. For the Christian, we will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and give an accounting of our life. What did we do for Christ after we were saved will be the question. II Corinthians 5:10 declares, “For we (the Christians in the church at Corinth and also us) must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” The other judgment is found in Revelation 20:11-15. This Great White Throne judgment is the last stop for the unsaved before they are eternally damned.
There is a choice that must be made. It is either trust Christ and His salvation work on the cross or forever be separated from God, the second death. Preparation had better be made, and that right early. We don’t know when the first appointment will knock. But it is coming. Let me share a humorous poem/story off a tombstone. I first heard this decades ago.
“Pause stranger, when you pass me by; As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you will be; So, prepare for death and follow me!” A passerby read those words and underneath scratched this response: “To follow you I’ll not consent, until I know which way you went!”
One of the famous old cemeteries in America is in Tombstone, AZ. It is called Boot Hill. It is claimed that over 250 people are buried there. Babies, criminals, and the law abiding all died and were buried in Boot Hill. One man who was a Wells Fargo agent named Lester Moore was in a dispute with another man. Both men died while in a gun fight of some type with each other. I don’t know the other man’s name, but on Lester’s headstone these words were written. “Here lies Lester Moore – Four slugs from a .44 – No Les, No More.” Dying is a reality and just as sure as dying, there is a judgment to follow. Living for Christ is the only sane way to live.