“The Way of All the Earth”
The phrase "the way of all the earth" is a common biblical idiom that refers to death, as in, "to go the way of all the earth" means "to die". This phrase has been heavy on my mind the past week, since I watched my mother-in-love die. Actually, it has been a bit longer than that.
Dying, it seems, becomes a bit easier, if life has been a struggle and difficult to handle. I would imagine that would be the impetus for suicide attempts and successes.
"The way of all the earth" in the Bible, meaning death, is found in many locations. These sightings are phrases that have caught my eye over the years. I only imagine that they remind me of the fact that we were truly created in equality, from the perspective of the Creative Designer of us all.
1 Kings 2:2 and Joshua 23:14 are a couple good architects of this reminder that we all walk through this temporary land, but not one of us knows when would be our final breath. Biblically, our days are numbered, but only the Father of Life and Death is aware of that moment, and the manner.
"I am about to go the way of all the earth; be strong, therefore, and prove yourself a man" -1 Kings 2:2
"…and now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your GOD promised concerning you" -Joshua 23:14
Pressing on with the life that remains can be a rather arduous and lonely task, once someone we adored or loved leaves the land of the living. I have felt the pain of imagining life without my ‘self’. When I was younger, I was terrified of dying. I would actually shut down emotionally. I was and sometimes is troublesome and rather tough imagining myself not being alive.
This idiomatic phrase is a really comforting and reassuring collection of words. ..at least to me. misquotation
Eventually, I will go the way of all the earth as well. I pray that anyone who I beat to the soil would be as the writer said here, “be thou strong therefore, and show thyself a man (strong individual); and keep the charge of the LORD thy GOD, to walk in His Ways…”
1 Kings 2:1-4
“As David’s time to die drew near, he commanded his son Solomon, saying, “I am going the way of all the earth. So be strong and prove yourself a man. Do your duty to the Lord your GOD, to walk in His Ways, to keep His Statutes, His Commandments, His Ordinances, and His Testimonies, according to what is written in the Law of Moses, so that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn, so that the Lord may fulfill His promise which He spoke regarding me, saying, ‘If your sons are careful about their way, to walk before Me in Truth with all their heart and all their soul, you shall not be deprived of a man to occupy the throne of Israel”
Job 21:23-26
“One dies in his full vigor, being wholly at ease and secure, his pails full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist. Another dies in bitterness of soul, never having tasted of prosperity. They lie down alike in the dust, and the worms cover them”
Every man will taste of the first death, but not every man will taste the second. Some will live eternally with the One Who created them and the One Who died to grant them that opportunity to live eternally, after the resurrection.