Six Feet Under

Psalm 90:3

3  You return man to dust

and say, “Return, O children of man!”

Six feet in the ground.  That’s the measurement historically used for the hole, dug into the earth, in which a coffin is placed at burial.  In the United States it’s actually now about four feet which is enough room for the concrete burial box.  This box secures the coffin and prevents cave-ins or the possibility of floating away.  I’m thankful for that.

Genesis 2:7 recounts the amazing creation of the first man:  “ . . . 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. 

Life was given out of the the very dust of the ground.  By virtue of our being created by God, we owe Him complete allegiance.  But mankind fell from its allegiance in Genesis 3, rebelling against the Creator and incurring, not only toil and hardship, but death; a return to the dust out of which he was created.  Genesis 3:19 promises,  “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  

It was not sin which returned man to dust, but God (via the curse) who returned man to dust.  It was because of sin that God set the curse of death in the first place.  Romans 8:20 says of the curse,  “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope . . .”  In other words, the earth itself undergoes the curse that God set.  All of the weeds, thorns, and thistles are set in place by the curse which God placed upon the earth.  But see the beauty of the curse - it was cursed in hope.  So too, man is sent to the dust by the means of the curse placed upon man, because of his sin, but by the hand of the Almighty.  But there is hope.

We could say that God de-creates His creation.  Where once He breathed life into dust to create man, He now de-creates by sending man back to the dust.  Acts 17: 26 tells us that God “determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their [mankind’s] dwelling place.”  Not only physical land is established in which we live, and boundaries set, but our very lives have boundaries set by the providence of God - our birth and our death.  

Psalm 90 verse 7 says that we are brought to an end by His anger.  The curse of death is a calling out against our sin.  In the garden mankind had everything it could possibly desire including close fellowship with his Creator.  But sin kindled God’s wrath. This wrath is mixed with mercy, grace, and hope.  For God did not leave mankind without hope.  It was in hope that, even in God’s anger, He brings a curse that is a catalyst for hope.  How?

Firstly, man only has to toil in a world of sin and misery (on earth) for a set amount of time.  It doesn’t last forever!  This is a hope for the individual as well as all of society as evil individuals come and go, rule and then die.  Secondly, the resultant effects of sin upon the world and mankind should drive us to look to God in Jesus Christ to reconcile all things in Him (Colossians 1:20).  The frustration of toil and sin should cause us to cry out to our Creator for deliverance.  We are pointed to the Lifter of the Curse.  Galatians 3:13 reveals that, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—”.  

This brings us to a point of application.  If God sets our boundaries by the curse of death for our sin, then are we trusting His Son the sin-bearer, the curse Lifter, on our behalf?  Have we despaired our sin and misery and run to our Living Hope?  Without Christ we may live in this sin and misery for a time upon earth, but we will live forever with misery apart from God and apart from hope if we do not come to the One who is our Redeemer (Luke 16:25-26).  For those who do trust in Him, we have a great hope of eternal life with our Creator, and that even within the boundary set for us, we participate with the Creator in bringing hope to others and seeing the curse lifted.