The Times And Seasons Are God’s

The Times And Seasons Are God’s

What a difference a year can make.

ON November 3, 1745, David Brainerd, a twenty-seven-year-old missionary to the Indians of Crossweeksung, New Jersey, baptized fourteen converts. This was part of what he called “a remarkable work of grace” with which God had blessed his labors among the Native Americans of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

David Brainerd was born in 1718 in Haddam, Connecticut, and orphaned at the age of fourteen. He was planning to farm the land he had inherited until he experienced a profound conversion in 1739. That same year he entered Yale, aspiring to the Congregational ministry.

At Yale he became a leader in the Great Awakening, a revival then sweeping New England. In his third year he was expelled from the university when he was overheard questioning the salvation of a faculty member. After his expulsion, he continued his studies for the ministry, living with a local minister. Subsequently he was licensed to preach and ordained as a Presbyterian minister. He became a missionary to the American Indians of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

On that Sunday, November 3, 1745, Brainerd joyously baptized six adults and eight children. One of them was an eighty-year-old woman. Two of them were fifty-year-old men who were notorious drunkards before putting their trust in the Lord Jesus. One of the men was a murderer as well. Because of the terrible lives these men had led, Brainerd delayed baptizing them until he saw a radical change in their lives. But changed they were, and Brainerd finally felt at peace about baptizing them.

The baptisms of this day brought the total of baptized believers to forty-seven. Brainerd wrote in his journal, “Through rich grace, none of them have been left to disgrace their profession of Christianity by any scandalous or unbecoming behavior.”

A year later this remarkable work of God among the Indians continued, but the work of David Brainerd was coming to a close. Brainerd, at the age of just twenty-eight, was dying of tuberculosis. He sadly realized that he must return to New England, where friends and family could care for him during his last days.

Desperately weak in body on November 3, 1746, Brainerd spent the day bidding farewell to his beloved Indian flock. He visited each family in their home and exhorted each person from God’s Word. Tears flowed freely as he left each house. His farewells took most of the day, and in the evening he rode off, his mission completed.

A year later David Brainerd was dead at the age of twenty-nine.

Reflection

Our lives often have seasons. There are times when we are active in what God is doing and even see people put their faith in Christ. But there are other seasons when we are laid aside while others do the laboring. Ultimately all of us will come to a final season when we will die. We do not know the order or the length of our seasons, but what a comfort to know that Jesus is Lord of every season!

There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to rebuild. A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-4