Hebrews Chapter Six, Resurrection In The Old Testament

 

Hebrews 6:2c of resurrection of the dead,

 

The veracity of the resurrection of the dead has been heckled and questioned by critics since the beginning. In the time of Christ there was a sect of Jewish religious leaders called the Sadducees. Having become a sect during the Maccabean period of Israel’s history, they derived their name from Zadok, one of David’s priests and claimed descent from him. 

The name means, “righteous ones.” Essentially atheists, the Sadducees denied the afterlife, spirits, angels or demons. Their doctrine portrayed God as largely uninterested in man’s moral government, which liberated them to pursue material gain.

 

They clashed with Christ when our Lord taught in Jerusalem, assailing Him with what they must have believed a clever riddle that Jesus effortlessly dismantled. The error of the riddle was that its premise was faulty, so all of the logical conclusive points made by it were flawed. Jesus demonstrated the error in their thinking by revealing this faulty premise. The error began with their concept of marriage. Marriage, we are informed, is an earthly institution God ordained for the purpose of peopling the earth. But to those who are sons of the resurrection, they no longer marry and stand now on equal footing with the angels, being sons of God, like the angels are through an act of direct creation, Luke 20:34-36.

 

Finally, our Lord revealed that through Moses the resurrection of the dead was taught. God, when speaking to Moses out of the burning bush, said, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Then He further explained, “For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him,” Luke 20:37, 38. God addressed Moses in the present tense. He is Abraham’s God, alluding even then, prior to the Exodus, that Abraham lives still, and Yahweh was still his God. Those who through faith obtained many things from God likewise obtained the greatest of things: eternal life. The patriarch Job, inspired by the Holy Spirit, knew this amazing truth. “And after my skin is destroyed (literally: struck off), this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God,” Job 19:26. King David was also acutely aware of this divine truth. “As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness,” Psalm 17:15. David contrasted himself with the wicked, whose lot in life was in this world and its material gain, Psalm 17:14. David, however, wanted more than wealth. He would “wake” in God’s likeness, when he beheld his God face to face, see 1 John 3:2.

 

A final witness of the resurrection of the dead is found in Daniel. More could be expounded, but I believe these four provide testimony enough that the resurrection of the dead was an established and accepted doctrine in the Old Testament. Daniel, faithfully recording events in the end times, relates that after a great tribulation from which Daniel’s people are delivered, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and contempt,” Daniel 12:2. The angel Gabriel conveyed to Daniel this vision of time to come, assuring the prophet his place in its fulfillment: “But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days,” Daniel 12:13. Daniel is told with an angel’s authority that has been sent by God that the dead will rise again, and Daniel will be among the number that enter into an inheritance. This inheritance, Gabriel explains, is “at the end of the days.”

 

Moses, Job, and David all provide testimony out of the Old Testament demonstrating the reality of the resurrection of the dead. Jesus our Lord stated that God is not a God of the dead; He governs the living. The patriarchs still lived, and they did so because they trusted in the One capable of preserving life. Jesus told Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live,” John 11:25. The Sadducees (and all atheists/materialists) willfully misunderstand our purpose for existence. God did not create the universe so mankind might abandon restraint and all faith in the reckless pursuit of hedonism.

 

Returning to Job’s wisdom, we read, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord,” Job 1:21. Solomon, in his exploration of the human condition outside of God’s providential care, wrote, “As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came; and he shall take nothing from his labor which he may carry away in his hand,” Ecclesiastes 5:15. Finally, Paul contributes by saying, “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out,” 1 Timothy 6:7. If life’s purpose was material acquisition, how pathetic life truly is. If humanity is summarized by what we possess in this brief life, and attaining said things was the apex of our ambition, “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” Isaiah 22:13.