THE RESURRECTION HOPE IS SURE!

Resurrection -A Long-Standing Hope

When on trial before Roman Governor, Felix, Paul  testified:  "I believe all the things set forth in the Law and written in the Prophets; and I have hope toward God . . . that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous."  (Acts 24:14, 15)  How do parts of God's Word, such as "the Law," point to the raising of the dead?

God himself alluded to a resurrection when he gave the first prophecy in Eden.  When sentencing "the original serpent," Satan the Devil, God said:  "I shall put enmity between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel."  (Revelation 12:9; Genesis 3:14, 15)  Bruising the heel of the woman's seed meant the killing of Jesus Christ.   If that Seed was  to bruise the serpent's head thereafter, Christ would have to be raised from the dead.

Jesus declared:  "That the dead are raised up even Moses disclosed, in the account about  the thornbush, when he calls Jehovah 'te God of  Abraham and God of Isaac and God of Jacob.' He is a God, not of the dead, but of the living, for they are all living to him."  (Luke 20:27, 37, 38; Exodus 3:6) Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were dead, but God's purpose to resurrect them was so sure to be fulfilled that to him they were as good as alive.

Abraham had reason for hope in the resurrection, for when he and  his wife Sarah, were very old, and they were dead as regards ability to produce children, God miraculously restored their reproductive powers.  This was like a resurrection.  (Genesis 18:9-11; 21:1-3; Hebrews 11:11, 12)  When their son, Isaac, was about 25 years old, God told Abraham to sacrifice him.  Just as Abraham was about to strike Isaac dead, however, Jehovah's angel stayed his hand.  Abraham had "reckoned  that God was able to raise [Isaac] up even from the dead; and from there he did receive him also in an illustrative way." -Hebrews 11:17-19; Genesis 22:1-18.

Abraham hoped in a resurrection under the rule of the Messiah, the promised Seed.  From his prehuman vantage point, God's Son noted Abraham's faith.  As the man Jesus Christ, he therefore told the Jews:  "Abraham your  father rejoiced greatly in the prospect of seeing my day."  (John 8:56-58; Proverbs 8:30, 31) Abraham now sleeps in death, awaiting a resurrection to life on earth under God's Messianic Kingdom. -Hebrews 11:8-10, 13.

Next time: Testimony From the Law and the Psalms

Watchtower, 2000