11. The Living God, and the Things to Come.
“THE Sadducees, who say that there is no resurrection,” came to Jesus, asking Him what they thought was a difficult question, as to the condition of man in the resurrection state. They based their perplexity, as infidelity is wont to do, on the circumstances of life known on earth, and on ignorance or forgetfulness of the fact, that God is not limited to the state of things existing on earth for the display of His power. They conceived their ideas from their earth-born reason, God’s power was not taken into account by their thoughts.
“Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God,” replied the Lord, and He showed that men when raised from death, will be no longer as they are now in their condition of life, but “as the angels of God in heaven.’ “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, “He taught,” have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matt. 22:23-3323The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, 24Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. 25Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: 26Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. 27And last of all the woman died also. 28Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. 29Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. 30For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. 31But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, 32I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. 33And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine. (Matthew 22:23‑33).)
It is but poor wisdom to apply to the future state, conditions which govern the present state of man, and to argue that the future must be a repetition of the present, or, Sadducee-like, because the present is what it is, and because the future is unseen, to deny what the Scriptures teach concerning it. The believer in the Almighty God, has wisdom not so to reason, and believing, the Scriptures he has the record of what God will do in the ages to come.
Death is the boundary of the island of man’s infidelity, beyond it is the ocean of the unseen, and faith has eyes to look out beyond the boundary, and to gaze on “the things to come.’
It lives, as it were, in hopes and expectations of what will be when this life is past.
The holy men of old looked beyond death, and trusted the living God for the fulfillment of His word as they departed hence. There is a bright cluster of such incidents of faith recorded in Heb. 11:17-2217By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. 20By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. 21By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. 22By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:17‑22), in which faith is seen triumphant in circumstances akin to death, and in death itself. Resurrection is there presented to us, and the God of resurrection is brought before us through the faith of Abraham, for he knew God as the living God, and His power as “able to raise up even from the dead.” Then, through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, faith is seen engaging itself, through the power of God’s promises in things yet to be made good to God’s people.
Let us single out the instance of Joseph. We do not forget his position in Egypt; his greatness and his glory there. “When he died,” he, “by faith, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.” “God will surely visit you” (Gen. 50:2525And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. (Genesis 50:25)), was his death-bed utterance, for he believed the word of God. His heart was far away from Egypt, and centered in Canaan, the land of God’s promise! The living God and the things to come filled his mind. Nor was Joseph strong only in the faith that God would fulfill His word for His people, but he was personally interested in the fulfillment of that word. “Carry up my bones hence,” he said. Had he been like the Sadducees, who said there is no resurrection, Joseph would have been indifferent to his burying-place, but his spirit was like that of Jacob, his father, who had said to him: “Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me.”
The land of Canaan was to these men the place where hope centered; it was precious to them because of the promises of God; they looked onward to the day when it should be peopled by their descendants. Hence in this their home on earth they desired to be buried.
Surely the unbelief of the Sadducees was a miserable thing—they said there is no resurrection! They knew not the Scriptures, which teach the resurrection, and which show the faith of God’s people in their regard of it; they knew not the power of God in fulfilling His own word. In our day there is much infidelity existent. It is popular to be infidel and yet to be professedly religious; it is popular not to know the Scriptures, nor the power of God, and to reason on the unseen from the standpoint of the seen, and to suppose that God is unable to fulfill His word. This may be called advanced thought, and the result of living in our enlightened age, but we should say that Joseph, though he lived in the early days of the world’s history, had the true light in his soul, and was immeasurably in advance of the ignorance of unbelief.
God will fulfill His word, and prove Himself to be the God of all who put their trust in Him. For us it is not the land of Canaan which is our hope, but the Father’s house above. And as Joseph could, when dying, hope in that which was beyond death, so can and does the Christian look for the things to come, which are his assured portion. The simplest believer has this privilege. Faith gives to him a nobler outlook than the highest peak of human intellect can afford. The intellect cannot extend its gaze beyond the domain of human knowledge; faith sees the things which are revealed by God to His people.
The things which are not seen are eternal; these are ours. Glory with Christ in heaven. Likeness to Christ in His glory as the Man risen from among the dead. The rest, the peace, the joy of being at home with the Lord are things to come, assured to us by the living God. As it was with the holy men of olden days when their faith looked beyond death and lived in the strength of God’s word, so may it be with us. May our future engage our hearts, and by faith may we rejoice in our God, who is the living God; the God of resurrection.