Here we find the stubborn sinner who has postponed making a decision to follow Christ, approaching death, his body may be full of pain and his soul filled with the fear of death. Death (the skeleton) has come at an unexpected and unwanted time. The false pleasures of sin have disappeared, and the awful reality of the high and dreadful cost of sin now has to be faced. The agonies of hell are becoming real to him. Although he now longs to pray, he finds he cannot communicate with God whose love he has rejected for so long. His friends are afraid to stand at his bedside, and their empty words of comfort cannot help him now. His riches can neither lengthen his life, nor save his soul, nor reduce the agony of his soul. He finds it impossible to concentrate on God because the devil does not give him an opportunity to do so.
Everything he once loved and lived for, seems to mock him and even his unreliable, probably unsaved minister, priest or church leader cannot help him now, as he has rejected the love of God and has come under His judgement. He begins to realise that “it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God!” (Heb. 10:31). He had hoped to give his life to God when it suited him, or on his deathbed, but now he finds it is too late. Thousands of people die suddenly, without having a chance to turn to God on their deathbeds. It is therefore essential to turn to God while He is near. Instead of hearing the comforting and saving words of God, this dying sinner who rejected the forgiveness and love of God during his lifetime now has to hear the voice of his Judge, the Saviour whom he rejected, saying “Away from me, you that are under God’s curse! Away to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels!” (Matt. 25:41). “Everyone must die once, and after that be judged by God” (Heb. 9:27).