For approximately 6000 years of human history, our God has been calling out a people for His name and purpose. All these created ones are given a mortal body, a suitable medium in which, by God’s grace, they can live out their days. Those days are “even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” For those that God has called they are sufficient for the intake of the word and the development of a character.
The Reality of Death
Upon the reading of the Scripture, it becomes very clear that hope of eternal life has never been promised outside the body. Death is exactly as it seems to those witnessing it in another. It is a cessation of all thought, memory, and even awareness. God has not hidden this fact from us. Consider the following:
Psalm 146:3,4 “His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.”
Psalm 6:5 “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?”
Ecclesiastes 9:5 “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”
Isaiah 38:18,19 “For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.”
Only a false religion would promise anything else, as the serpent did when he told Eve the first and greatest lie in scripture—“Ye shall not surely die.” No, God had been very clear —“thou shalt surely die.”
Through nature, we are made familiar with the reality of death. As humans, we are among the longest-living land mammals, therefore normally outliving the creation around us. Even in societies where food is purchased at a grocery store, we are still in an environment surrounded by death. This is by design. God does not want us to be under any false allusions.
The inspired words of the preacher provide God’s rationale for this—“It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:2).
Falling Asleep
To further teach us and familiarize us with the process of life and death, God has designed us to go through the process at the end of each day: tiring, simply drifting to sleep, passing hours completely unaware of what has transpired in that time. If all goes well, we wake with the rising sun, regenerated, refreshed, and needing to check the news to discover what transpired in those passing hours! With the assistance of modern anaesthetic, deep sleep can actually be controlled so that our body can be opened and operated on, all with no awareness of the terrifying procedure.
Those promising an afterlife in the heavens may have many ideas of what that looks like, but few would describe it as sleeping. But that is exactly how God describes it: “And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers…” And again to David: “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers…” Job clearly understood this, as he informed his miserable friends: “Why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and thou shalt seek me in the morning, but I shall not be” (Job 7:21).
Job’s words in chapter 3:17 bring an honest and godly perspective of the grave: “There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.”
The Hope of the Bible
Although rest from the struggles of a hard life may be a blessing, God has offered much more than this.
The real hope of the Bible is the resurrection of body and mind together. Again, Job understood this: “After my skin is destroyed, this I know, That in my flesh I shall see God” (ch. 19:26 NKJV). In the case of Lazarus, Christ comforted Martha with the words, “Thy brother shall rise again.” Martha understood this and responded, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” This is the truth revealed in the Bible, that all sleep the sleep of death until the resurrection at the last day, when “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
Raising those that sleep in the dust of the earth is no more magnificent than what God did in creating the heavens and the earth, as Paul said to Agrippa, “Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?” The clarity of the apostle’s message is again demonstrated in the words of 1 Thessalonians 4:13,14—“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.”
This is a hope that we can understand. Not only do we go through the process each morning and night, but God has built the cycle into nature itself with its four seasons. In the northern hemisphere here in Canada, after months of winter, we are left with a brown, dead landscape with little sign of life. However, with the spring rains and the days quickly lengthening, life is starting to show itself once again. Birds are returning, building their nests, and filling the air with the sound of life. All the dormant bulbs and seeds hidden in the earth are opening up as life bursts out of the ground.
In the words of 1 Corinthians 15:42, we are “sown in corruption” and “raised in incorruption.”
Seeds Planted in the Earth
The picture of God planting His precious seeds in the earth, ready for the day of resurrection, is a beautiful one. For thousands of years, He has been calling out a people for His name. He has worked intimately with each one to correct them and shape them. The process for each seed is different, and yet each is formed through His word and the tears of hardship. As David writes in Psalm 56:8, “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” No, God is not unaware of the valleys we go through and the tears we shed. When it comes time for the breath of His saints to return to Him again and to plant one that He laboured over in the earth, He tells us, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). At death our Heavenly Father is laying His child to rest.
“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.
For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them” (Psalm 103:13-18).
Resting in Hope
For us who are trapped in these mortal frames, never having witnessed actual resurrection, death seems so final. For those who have not followed in God’s ways, it is—save for those who may be raised for judgment only to return to the grave again. As is said in Jeremiah 51:57, “a perpetual sleep”—a terrible thought. However, for those who have followed God’s ways, the sleep of death is just that, a sleep. As Christ famously responded to those who wept over the death of the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue (Luke 8), “Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth.”
Had Christ himself not been raised from the grave, all would truly perish (1 Corinthians 15:12-23). But Christ was raised. The tomb was empty, save for the napkin and linen clothes they had laid him in (John 20:7)—“He is not here, but is risen.” As prophesied in Psalm 16:10, “My flesh also doth rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in the grave: neither wilt suffer thine holy one to see corruption” (Geneva Bible 1560). That resurrection morning is certainly one of the greatest mornings there has ever been. Christ, “the first fruits of them that slept,” had been re-energized, never to die again! Another resurrection morning is promised for those that sleep in Christ, for Corinthians tells us, “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.”
Therefore, because Christ has been raised, for those that are his at his coming, they never actually perished, not in God’s eyes (1 Corinthians 15:18). They only rest, and that in hope.
Anastasis
There is significant detail in Scripture about the process of resurrection. When pieced together a vivid picture is painted. In each of the literal resurrections, they are performed on a lifeless body. However, if the body has returned to the dust, it matters not. God remembers. Even the dust of Jacob is mentioned in Numbers 23:10. In the case of the resurrection of the nation of Israel (Ezekiel 37), the prophet sees only a valley of dry bones. In this case, God assembles the body first:
“I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.”
It now takes a second prophesying to bring life into the body:
“So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.”
Bringing the breath of life into the body is an incredible thought!
The first case of resurrection recorded is that of the widow of Zarephath’s son (1 Kings 17:17-24). Here, Elijah takes the body of the child to his room, stretches himself upon him three times, prays to God for the life of the child to return into him again, and “he revived.”
In the second recorded case of resurrection, after stretching himself on the Shunammite’s son, Elisha feels warmth return to the boy. Elisha needed to again stretch himself upon the child, after which the child sneezed seven times and opened his eyes.
When the prophet Daniel experiences a like resurrection, we are given the picture of what it was like for the one coming back to life. He says:
“I was in a deep sleep with my face toward the ground, and I heard the voice of his words, and behold a hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon the palms of my hands. And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling” (ch. 10:8-11).
In the cases of those Christ raised, the widow of Nain’s only son (Luke 7:11-17) and Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:35-43), it took only a touch of a hand with a few words to raise them; and with Lazarus, it took only the Master’s voice saying, “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:1-44). To the shock of all that stood by, “he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.” It was the same power of God’s voice at the beginning in the creation, when “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth… For he spake, and it was done.”
The last case we will mention is one of the most incredible—those who rose at the death of Christ, recorded in Matthew 27:50-54,
“And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,
And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.”
This would have been an extraordinary sign to those in Jerusalem. It is also a sign recorded for us, as it says, “many...which slept arose;” this is lifting the words straight out of Daniel 12, reassuring us that with the victory of Christ, the way is open! Surely, many more will hear the voice and be raised up!
“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28,29).
The Second and Glorious Stage of Resurrection
We have considered the first stage of resurrection in some detail; however, the second stage of the resurrection, promised and reserved for those who have done “good,” is what we truly dream of. For, “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption” (1 Corinthians 15:50).
The first stage is the raising of a natural body, as we have now. The second stage is being given immortality, as described in 1 Corinthians 15:51-53,
“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
The glorious picture of those who have overcome not only the world but also death itself is given to us in Revelation 7:13-15,
“One of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.”
A Better Resurrection
It is worth noting that all this new life coming up from the earth is made possible through the life of the plant the year prior. 1 Corinthians 15 tells us, “that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die…” And further still, what is bursting forth is the same in form and character as the previous year. So too at the resurrection; the characters that died and returned to the earth will come forth the same in character as they once were. A vital and sobering thought to remember is that upon resurrection we will face the judgment.
In Hebrews 11 we have a catalogue of those who endured and overcame the world in which they lived. They all lived detached from this world’s pleasures, looking for a better country. Many were persecuted for it:
“Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”
As Jacob wrestled with the angel not letting go, desperate for the blessing, so they fought for “a better resurrection.” Like Jacob, they were loved for this. May we cling to the “great and precious promises” that we, too, may receive a better resurrection.
Witness of Resurrection
Christ spoke of the Pharisees to his disciples (Luke 16:31), and he said: “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
If we will not hear the word of God, there is no hope. We are now living in an age that is a witness of a resurrection—the resurrection of the nation of Israel. Yet the world is not persuaded.
In Ezekiel 37, there are two stages of resurrection: first, the national body, and secondly, the spirit of God is breathed into them. That first stage is what we are now witnessing.
From the four corners of the earth and out of the ashes of the Holocaust, God’s chosen people have returned. Jews now live on Mt Gerizim, in Shiloh, in Bethel, in Hebron, in the lowlands, in the heights overlooking the Sea of Galilee—the Jews are home. The bones, sinews, flesh, and skin are coming together! We are in the era of resurrection.
In the Song of Solomon, there is a picture of the resurrection. It is spring, the winter is past, and the sound of the turtledove can be heard in the land, the land of the Bride and Groom, the promised land of Israel. In Scripture, the turtledove is a symbol of Israel (Isaiah 60:8; Hosea 11:11). With the children of Israel back in Judea and Samaria, it truly is the era of resurrection. May we, therefore, be found ready.
“Thy dead ones shall live, my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Isaiah 26:19).