Resurrection in the Old Testament

Narrator: Chris Genthree
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Though the word “resurrection” may not be found in the Old Testament scriptures, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was clearly taught, and the fact known. Our Lord went back to the books of Moses, when meeting the Sadducees, who denied there was any resurrection, to establish the doctrine from Scripture. He said, “Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For He is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto Him” (Luke 20:37-3837Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. 38For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. (Luke 20:37‑38)). Job also said, “Though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:2626And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God: (Job 19:26)). Abraham accounted also that God was able to raise up Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:1919Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. (Hebrews 11:19)). In Psalm 16, the resurrection of our Lord — the path of life after death — was plainly foretold: “My flesh also shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades]; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life” (vss. 9-11). We know that His flesh saw no corruption, and that “He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:44And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: (1 Corinthians 15:4)). Other people in Old Testament days were also acquainted with the fact of resurrection, for not only was a man “revived, and stood upon his feet,” when he was let down and touched the bones of Elisha in the sepulcher (2 Kings 13:2121And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet. (2 Kings 13:21)), but “women received their dead raised to life again” (Heb. 11:3535Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: (Hebrews 11:35)), as, for example, the widow’s son and the Shunammite’s son.
C. H. Mackintosh