Did you know that death can be used as a catalyst? What is a catalyst? A catalyst is something that provokes action or change. One of the best examples of this is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated April 4th, 1968. Just 7 days after his death, congress pushed out the 1968 Fair Housing Act in response to the unrest, rioting, and protest for justice across the country. His death became a catalyst for change. It pricked the authority figures in the nation to change the laws on the books producing equality in housing for all citizens no matter race, color, national origin, gender, or religion.
Previously, there was no urgency to pass this law. It was an afterthought or something approached in a melancholy way. Death has the ability to do this in our personal lives. It makes us question if we are living in our purpose as we should. What more does God want us to do here? It is a sobering experience to experience the loss of a loved one.
I’d recently been thinking about how the Bible mentioned death as a sting. When I begin to study the sting of death. I found something similar to death being used as a catalyst:
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. – 1 Corinthians 15:55-56
First, let’s properly exegete the above scriptures: Death exists because sin was introduced into the world by Adam and Eve. However, Adam and Eve would not have known about sin had God not given them the commandment not to sin. Thus, God continued his plan before the foundation of the world to extinguish sin and death by offering his only son as a man to pay the penalty for sin. This introduced everlasting life to man-kind again if we’d only trust in Jesus Christ. Thus, the sting, or prick of death and sin separating us from God no longer exists for those who trust in God.
This is the proper interpretation of the above scriptures for those who die in Christ. However, what about those of us who are still alive in Christ? Can death be used in a positive way to prick us to some form of action that can be used for God’s glory? I think it can.
We know the definition of prick in the sense to cause pain as if getting pricked by a needle, but there is another prick that takes that pain and wakes up to a greater purpose.
Prick in the above scriptures in Greek means the below:1. A sting
2. An iron goad, for urging on oxen, horses, and beasts of burden. i.e. here the proverb “to kick against the goad” i.e. to offer vain and perilous or ruinous resistance. (Thayer Greek Dictionary)
Follow me as I break this down:
Goad: To provoke or annoy (someone) so as to stimulate some action or reaction.
i.e. “He goaded her on to more daring revelations.”
Synonyms: Provoke, Spur, Prick, Sting, or Prod (Google Definition)The above term kick against the goad is from the conversion of Paul, whom the Lord asks why he kicked against the prick? I’d always wondered what that terminology meant. It means why is Paul fighting against the purpose of God for his life. God had to place him in an uncomfortable situation that would sting him taking his eyesight and stopping him in his tracks to prod him to submit to the purpose of God for his life. When Paul finally submitted, he was on fire for God taking the message of Jesus Christ far beyond his generation.
A goad is also a physical tool used to prod animals such as oxen who are used for a particular purpose. When the animal is struck with the goad, it prods him on the direction to go. My point is this sting is significant for being used in a manner as to provide a sting that doesn’t only result in discomfort and pain, but far more. It also results in direction, sobriety, action, and change.
God doesn’t allow anything to go to waste in our lives. He uses it all for his glory. In what ways might the Lord be prodding you for change through the loss of a loved one? In what ways might the Lord be providing direction on how to move forward through the loss of a loved one? In what areas might you have been fighting against the Lord or his purposes for your life? In what areas might you have been melancholy prior to the death of a loved one that you feel a fire or prod for change coming on? Think about these things and allow the Lord to walk you through them as you continue on knowing your deceased loved one is at rest.
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