Question: I was taught by my parents that when we die, we go to be with the Lord. Now I am told by others, that all go to sleep in death till the resurrection. If you can, please enlighten us about this? What does Ecclesiastes 9:5 mean, “The dead know not anything?”
Answer: The death of the Christian is often spoken of as asleep. (See Matt. 27:52; Acts 7:60; John 11:11; 1 Cor. 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20, 51; 1 Thess. 4:13, 14, 15; 5:10), but asleep refers to the bodies, so that they know not anything under the sun—they are away from all that is going on here on earth. Ecclesiastes is wisdom under the sun. We need to get what the Lord Jesus and His apostles tell us, to know the full truth.
We find clear evidence from them that neither saved nor unsaved are unconscious as to the spirit. Death in Scripture is NEVER, ceasing to exist. There is no death to the soul or spirit.
Man, the highest of the animal kingdom, is a responsible being, and his existence is for eternity; the body goes to decay at death, but the soul or spirit has gone either to be with Christ in paradise; or to the prison, under chains of darkness, awaiting the day when the body will be given again, to stand at the Great White Throne to receive the sentence—the wages of the sins the person was guilty of.
The saved are seen in Luke 16:23; 20:38; 23:43, 46; Acts 7:59; 2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:21, 23; Revelation 14:13, and another picture of the martyrs in Revelation 6:9-11.
The unsaved are seen in Luke 16:23; and in Luke 12:5. They are warned to “Fear Him who after He has killed has power to cast the person into hell.” Notice it is after He has killed. We see the unsaved, who would not listen to Noah’s preaching, are now in prison (1 Peter 3:19); and we see them chained up (2 Peter 2:4, 9).
When the Lord Jesus comes for His own, the dead in Christ will rise first; then the living ones changed (Phil. 3:20, 21), will be caught up together to be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:15-18). These will also stand at the judgment seat of Christ, now glorified in their resurrection bodies, to receive their reward, and be appointed to the place each one is to fill for Him.
Question: Please explain explicitly, “The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up” (John 2:17). S. E. W.
Answer: It means that the Lord Jesus, seen here as the Messiah in His burning zeal for God’s glory in His house, rises above every other thought. “Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God” (Psa. 40; Heb. 10). If anyone spoke against God, the burden of it fell on Him. “The reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen on Me.” (Psa. 69:9). Here we have the Lord’s sufferings from the hand of man (He took it all from the Father). It is not atonement here. This is seen in Psalms 22. It is some of His inward sufferings, in which other Godly men might share. It is like Psalms 102:1-11.
He knew, to carry out the will of God would lead through death (John 12:27). This earnest desire to fulfill all the will of God, brought suffering and reproach upon Him.
There are three prophetic days: John Baptists’ day (chap. 1:1-36). Jesus’ day, with the godly remnant of the Jews (37-51). The marriage day, pointing to Israel’s restoration (chap. 2:1-22).
Jesus comes to the house of God, but it must be cleansed (14, 15). There the disciples remember (Psa. 69:9). Then we see in the same shadowy way, that He is to go through death, into resurrection life and glory, before all these things can be fulfilled (verse 19-22). This was the sign He gave them.
This scene foreshadows the purging of the kingdom in the latter days before the Lord as King can take possession of it.
May it be our earnest desire while we wait for Him, to have a little of that zeal, that we also may learn, and do His will (Rom. 12:1, 2).