BEARING UP UNDER BEREAVEMENT

BEARING UP UNDER BEREAVEMENT
Genesis 35:16-29
Dr. Rick E. Ferguson

The Bible says there is-

Ecclesiastes 3:2 "A time to be born, and a time to die . . .

The Bible says-

Hebrews 9:27 ". . . it is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment."

The fact of the matter is that death is a very
real part of life. We all live with the constant
awareness of our own mortality, as well as the
mortality of those around us. We are all going to
die; we are all TERMINAL!

Without a doubt, the most difficult trial and
pain we must bear in all of life is the pain of losing
someone we love very dearly in death. There is
nothing--absolutely nothing--harder to do than to walk
by the casket of a husband, wife, child, parent,
brother or sister, very dear friend,
and say goodbye to them--knowing you'll never see them
again for the rest of your life. The loneliness and
emptiness that follows the death of a loved one is
sometimes almost unbearable.

This pain, indescribable pain, is universal.
All of us, if we have not done so already, will
certainly, at some time, face the hurt and horrors of
having death take from us someone we love more than we
love our own lives.

We've been following the life of the Old
Testament patriarch Jacob. We've followed him from
his birth, to his betrothal, to his blessing; and
today we are going to follow him through his
bereavement. We will read where Jacob buried his
beloved wife Rachael and his father Isaac.

Let's look once again to the Word of God to
learn how to bear up under bereavement.

TEXT--Genesis 35:16-29

Those were dark days in Jacob's life. He had
Just come through a time of personal revival and
renewal with God in Bethel. And no sooner had he come
through that wonderful spiritually exhilarating
experience (I mean no sooner had he come off the
highest mountain peak he'd ever experienced in all his
life) he immediately entered the deepest, darkest
valley of ...

---

There are 22987 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.