The words "shadow of death" in the Old Testament are from the Hebrew word "Tsalmaveth," which literally means the "grave" or, figuratively, "calamity." The grave has been artfully removed!
Now Job in his struggles never has to face death. He only faces some kind of internal "darkness." If he was alive today, he could simply get a prescription drug to avoid this challenge. The valley of the shadow of death of Psalm 23 has disappeared, into a footnote.
Our body begins to die around our 25th year. Our Creator is preparing us, after only two and a half decades of life, to enter a glorious world where there is no death. Our duty as Christians is to "take" as many of those around us on the trip by sharing the everlasting gospel with them. We do not need to be shielded by a miserably comfortable religion, existing in what I call a "numbed down" Christianity!
(Tom White, Voice of the Martyrs, May 2011)
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