June 2

June 2

TREKKING WITH ABRAHAM

“It occurred that the man [reduced to] begging died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades (the realm of the dead), being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. He cried out and said, Father Abraham, have pity and mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime fully received [what is due you in] comforts and delights, and Lazarus in like manner the discomforts and distresses; but now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.”

“But Abraham said, they have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear and listen to them. But he answered, No, father Abraham, but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent (change their minds for the better and heartily amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins).

Luke 16:22-25. Luke 16:29 -30

 

If I was Abraham living without any direct revelation from God for thirteen years, if I was chewing over the necessary truth of resurrection, I would thereafter spend my personal meditations on seeking an understanding of where I am going to be, after my death, and before I am raised. In simple language; Where do I go when I die?

 

 

Strangely in the Old Testament, if one conducts even a cursory read, it is plainly seen that everybody goes to the same place. There is the Hebrew word “kehver” translated as “grave” more often than not. That means generally what it means in English. Everybody goes to the grave. Even Christ Himself went to the grave. But the issue is with the word “sheol” translated commonly as “hell”. That would not be a problem to our New Testament language if it was not for the fact that both righteous and unrighteous, faithful and faithless, all go to Sheol in the Old Testament. That definitely does not sound right to the normal Christian understanding. Jacob, after he was renamed Israel, talks about dying and going to Sheol (hell) (Genesis 37:35). David definitely went to Sheol (hell) (Psalm 16:10). There are other examples, but those two will do us for today. We also read that unbelieving idolaters went to “sheol” also. The wicked, says the scripture, are cast into Sheol (hell) (Psalm 9:7). Prostitutes are living on the road to “sheol” (Proverbs 7 verse 27). The wicked king of Assyria went to “sheol” in his death (Isaiah 14:4). Ancient idolatrous and occultic Assyria are in “sheol” (Ezekiel 32:21 – 23). The New Testament language of “saved” or “unsaved” is not used in the Old Testament, but the principle still held, that those who were in faith had their sins forgiven and were declared “righteous” by God Himself (see Genesis 15:6 re Abram), and the biblical teaching is that those whom God says are “righteous” go to be with him in death, and those declared “unrighteous” by God, go to hell, and “sheol” is “hell”. So what is happening here? Why, in the Old Testament do both righteous and unrighteous go to the same place.

 

The key to my own personal understanding is in the terminology of the older versions which use direct translation processes, as opposed to the “dynamic equivalents” often used by modern translators. Psalm 86:13 says in the old 1611 version, “…great is thy mercy toward me; and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell”. What? “Lowest hell” suggests lower as well as a lowest. So I ask: Are their two hells? In a context too long to delve into here, God declares in Deuteronomy 32:22 that His anger to the faithless and disobedient will start a fire that will burn “unto the lowest hell”. In Psalm 88:6 a man called Heman the Ezrahite is so full of woe, pain, and agony as he nears death he declares that God has laid him in “the lowest pit (sheol)”.

The illustrations today tell us in diagrammatic form what the article is saying.

So what do we do with this? We go to Luke 16 and Abram (now Abram) is seen in the place of the dead.  Jesus tells the story putting both Lazarus and the rch man in “Hades” which is the Greek equivalent of “sheol”. But Jesus refers to where the “saved” beggar was as “Abraham’s bosom”. In another place, Jesus refers to the place of the righteous dead as “paradise” (Luke 23:43). External to the Bible, I discover that what I am suggesting here is what is consistent with Jewish rabbinical writings about the afterlife. Hell in Old Testament times had a place for the righteous and the unrighteous. The lowest hell could see upwards into the place where the righteous dead were. But there was a “great gulf fixed” that prevented interaction between the two. It could be reasoned that Sheol is actually an interim place for the dead until the final judgement. Christ emptied “Abraham’s bosom” in his descent into hell, after his death. Jesus entered hell with the keys, and “lead captivity captive” (Ephesians 4 verse8) taking all the righteous dead to that point of time with Him in His ascent to heaven.

 

I am sure that in this space and time world Abram had not the slightest idea of what the afterlife would be like, nor would he have ever guessed that people would be referring to the place of the righteous dead as “Abraham’s bosom”.  The account of the rich man and Lazarus in Sheol overseen by Abraham allows us a glimpse into where Abram’s faith took him after death. Everything about Jesus Christ goes beyond the grave.

 

Abram was bringing up Ishmael for thirteen years believing him to be the promised seed, Abram’s heir. It is the longest period in the expectant years of Abram where, as far as we know, God did not directly communicate  with Abram. As the years passed, his libido, and Sarai’s capability to conceive utterly died. It seems only logical to assume that in Abram’s thoughts and meditations of resurrection, where he was to reside in the interim after death and pre resurrection must have been a query in his thoughts.

 

WHAT’S THE POINT? Rest in the fact that after death, and before resurrection, a believer is in constant conscious bliss.