Read for This Week’s Study: Job 19:25–27; 1 Tim. 6:16;
Psalm 49; Psalm 71; Isa. 26:14, 19; Daniel 12.
Memory Text: “By faith Abraham, when put to the test, offered
up Isaac. He who had received the promises was ready to offer up
his only son. . . . He considered the fact that God is able even to raise
someone from the dead—and figuratively speaking, he did receive
him back” (Hebrews 11:17, 19, NRSV).
The Old Testament hope is grounded, not on Greek ideas about the
natural immortality of the soul, but on the biblical teaching of
the final resurrection of the dead.
But how could a no-longer-existent human body, cremated into ashes
or destroyed by other means, be brought to life again? How can some-
one who has been deceased, perhaps for centuries or even millennia,
recover again his or her identity?
These questions lead us to reflect on the mystery of life. We are alive
and enjoy the life that God graciously grants us every day. Even without
beginning to understand the supernatural origin of life, we know that
in the beginning God brought life into existence from nonlife through
the power of His word (Genesis 1; Ps. 33:6, 9). So, if God was able to
create life on earth the first time from nothing (Latin ex nihilo), why
should we doubt His capacity to re-create human life and to restore its
original identity?
This week we will reflect on how the notion of the final resurrection
unfolded in Old Testament times, with special focus on the statements
of Job, some psalmists, and the prophets Isaiah and Daniel.
