Bob Prichard

Topic(s): Eternity & Judgment, Old Testament

Yes, the Old Testament did speak of the resurrection and eternal life, but it was a gradual, progressive revelation, that would not be fully understood until the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As long as death stalks the land, men will ask the same question that Job asked, “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). From the very beginning, eternal life was a possibility, for man was created in the image of an eternal God, and God planted the tree of life in the midst of the Garden of Eden. The key to eternal life has always been the proper relationship to God. Enoch and Elijah were both servants of God who never saw death, and thus implied eternal life as a possibility for the faithful.

Many passages in the Psalms point to man’s desire for eternal life. David wrote, “He asked life of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever” (Psalm 21:4). Another psalmist wrote, “The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore” (Psalm 121:8). David speaks very clearly of eternal life in Psalm 133: “As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore” (Psalm 133:3).

The prophets also spoke of eternal life. Isaiah wrote, “He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it” (Isaiah 25:8). He also wrote, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead” (Isaiah 26:19). In the Suffering Servant Song of Isaiah 53, verse 8 says of the suffering servant, “He was cut off out of the land of the living.” Verse 10 says, however, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand” (Isaiah 53:10). Perhaps the clearest statement of the resurrection and eternal life found in the prophets is in Daniel: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).

Among the sects of the Jews, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees rejected the resurrection. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26). Christ proved all of His claims to be true in His own resurrection from the dead. We are fortunate to live this side of the cross, so that what was veiled in the Old Testament is clearly revealed to us in the New Testament and life of Christ. “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).