Thoughts from Morning Prayer: Wisdom 1:13-16

Where death does, and does not, come from, and what we can do about it

"God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things so that they might exist; the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal.

"But the ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death; considering him a friend, they pined away and made a covenant with him, because they are fit to belong to his company." (Wisdom 1:13-16)

God is not the author of death, but of life. We have to look elsewhere, much closer to home, for death’s origins. God’s purposes for the world he made, and the fundamental nature he endued it with, are inherently wholesome, designed to enable true human flourishing (Genesis 1:31: "And behold, it was very good").

But for defiant sinners who have sold ourselves to the alien dominion of Hades, there is One who is capable of redeeming us out of slavery. There is One who received in his sinless Body the destructive poison of sin and died the death that humanity introduced into divine Creation. God the Son received the death we summoned, so that we might share in his immortal life. Glory be to thee, O Wisdom from on high!