3 Tips for Surviving the Apocalypse
Before my grandmother passed away, she knew the end was near and she began to get her affairs in order. She was prepared. Before Grandpa died, they had hired a lawyer to draft a will for them, but even a will doesn’t list absolutely everything. Oh, it covered the bank accounts, the house in Detroit, the cabin up north, but it didn’t cover the painting in the living room or the china cabinet in entryway.
So, Grandma grabbed a pad of post-it notes and started writing names on them. She’d jot down “Karen” and stick it on the painting over the mantel. She’d jot down “Norine” and put it on the power recliner. She’d jot down “Brenda” and put it on the buffet.
Grandma knew that her end was near, and she wanted to prepare for it.
How should you prepare to face your Maker? Moses has 3 tips for us. They all come from our Psalm for the day, Psalm 90. It may not be marking the stuff in your house to make sure it goes to the right person when you die, but you can write these 3 things down on post-it notes and put them around your house as a reminder.
Tip #1
To find out the first way that you can prepare for the end, I want to read the first 6 verses of Psalm 90:
1 Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.
2 Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.3 You turn people back to dust,
saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
4 A thousand years in your sight
are like a day that has just gone by,
or like a watch in the night.
5 Yet you sweep people away in the sleep of death—
they are like the new grass of the morning:
6 In the morning it springs up new,
but by evening it is dry and withered.
From the first verse, Moses makes a contrast: God is eternal; we are mortal.
God was there before the creation of the world. He’s the one who brought everything that you see into existence. He birthed the mountains and brought forth the whole world. Everything that exists has been made by God, which means that God makes the rules. He’s the one who invented gravity. He’s the one who orders the seasons and sets the stars in the sky.
God is eternal, but we are not. We are mortal. We die. And Moses tells us why:
You turn people back to dust,
saying, “Return to dust, you mortals.”
The God who gives life is also the one to take it.
The harsh reality is that there is only one cause of death in this world. It’s not COVID or any of its comorbidities; it’s not COPD, coronaries, cancer, or car accidents, etc… The only cause of death in this world is sin. There would be no death if there were no sin.
That’s why Moses says “You turn people back to dust.” It’s a reference to something else that Moses wrote from Genesis chapter 3 – To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you… By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”[1]
When Adam and Eve first disobeyed a direct command from God – when they first sinned – they brought death into the world. Death was never God’s plan, but as Paul says to the Romans, “Sin entered the world through one man,” – that’s Adam – “and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.”[2]
Your parents may not have put a post-it note on it when they passed it down to you, but you inherited a sinful nature from them, just as they did from their parents, and they from theirs all the way back to the Garden of Eden. And because of sin, we all share a common fate. We all die. We are mortal.
So, if we are small and mortal, and God is infinite and eternal, there’s a warning in these words to steer clear of presuming that we know better than God. Instead, let God be God. That’s post-it note #1 – Let God be God. Let him be in control. Let him be the judge of right and wrong.
Tip #2
And this is especially important when we read what Moses has to say next:
7 We are consumed by your anger
and terrified by your indignation.
8 You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9 All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
10 Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
11 If only we knew the power of your anger!
Your wrath is as great as the fear that is your due.
12 Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
I told you before that there is only one cause of death in this world. It’s sin. What I didn’t tell you is how sin makes God feel. Moses tells us here: anger, indignation, wrath.
We probably don’t talk enough about how absolutely terrifying that is. There is a real place called hell and it’s not the butt of a joke or a four-letter word you say when you’re frustrated. It’s eternal suffering; the lake of burning fire; the second death; eternal punishment; everlasting destruction; being shut out from the presence of God; gloomy dungeons with insatiable worms that eat you from the inside out and unquenchable fire that can never be put out.
That’s what’s waiting for sinners after we die. And that’s why Moses prays the way he does:
Teach us to number our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Life is short. The after life is forever. What we do with the time we have is a matter of eternal life and death. Jesus talks about this exact thing. He says;
What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?[3]
If you spend 70 or 80 years in politics, you could land a position that would allow you to change the course of a nation. If you spend 70 or 80 years practicing medicine, you could save hundreds or thousands of lives. If you spend 70 or 80 years championing environmentalism, you could change the face of the planet for generations to come.
But if you neglect your soul and spend all your energy and effort chasing after only earthly things, you waste your life and you jeopardize eternity. Not even the mountains will last forever, but the eternal God who made them will. And if you are not right with God when you die, then your soul will suffer forever in hell.
That’s why Moses prays the way he does. Life is short. Time is precious. What we do with our time matters. So use it wisely. Learn to count your days. That’s post-it note #2 – Learn to count your days.
Tip #3
When it comes to our eternal life, wisdom is important, but mercy is imperative. While Moses does pray for wisdom, he doesn’t rely on it. What he does rely on is God to relent:
13 Relent, LORD! How long will it be?
Have compassion on your servants.
14 Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love,
that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
15 Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen trouble.
16 May your deeds be shown to your servants,
your splendor to their children.17 May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
establish the work of our hands for us—
yes, establish the work of our hands.
It’s easy to overlook, but there’s one word that turns this whole psalm around. It’s only 4 letters but it makes a world of difference. It’s the “LORD.” That’s the name God uses to remind us of his free and faithful love. It’s his covenant name, i.e. the name he would sign on the dotted line of a contract. It’s a testament to God’s commitment to keep his promises.
And while God is the one who gives and takes life – while God is the one who condemned Adam and Eve and all their descendants to mortality and death for our sin, he is also the one who promised to send a Saviour from sin. And because he is the covenant God, i.e. the LORD, he kept that promise. He sent us Jesus.
God did relent, which is just another way to say that he had mercy on us. He does not treat us as our sins deserve, but instead he acts according to his unfailing love. He sent Jesus, the Son he loved, to be the sacrificial Lamb for sinners like us, to endure for us God’s anger, indignation and wrath over our sin. He gave us Jesus to be our Saviour from sin and death and hell. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice for you, you don’t have to fear the fires of hell. You get to live in the favor of God forever.
Forgive me if I scared you with the description of hell before. Let me make it up to you by describing the heaven that Jesus won for you: It’s the Father’s house where there’s a room with your name on it; it’s the unshakable city of God where you’ll be free from fear and danger; it’s a place where people from every tribe and nation and language will be gathered in praise to our God; it’s a place of peace and joy where there will be no more weeping or mourning or crying or pain; it’s the wedding feast of the Lamb; It has pearly gates, streets of gold, the tree of life. But best of all, it’s the place where you will live with God forever because of the Lord’s compassion and love and grace for you in Christ Jesus your Saviour.
And that’s post-it #3 – Lean on God’s grace.
The end is near. But you don’t have to fear. You are living in the relenting compassion and unfailing love of God in Jesus your Saviour. Life is short. Time is precious. You should use it wisely as you pursue a better relationship with God. But at the end of the day – or on Judgment Day, whichever comes first – know that God pursued a better relationship with you.
So, put post-it notes on all the furniture in your house if that helps you prepare for the end, but remember: Let God be God; Learn to count your days; and Lean on God’s grace. Amen.