Bible Readings for the Home Circle Part 144

WILLIAM COWPER.

The Intermediate State

[Ill.u.s.tration.]

The Burial Of Sarah. "If I wait, the grave is mine house." Job 17:13.

1. By what figure does the Bible represent death?

"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are _asleep_, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." 1 Thess. 4:13. See also 1 Cor. 15:18, 20; John 11:11-14.

NOTE.-In sound sleep one is wholly lost to consciousness; time goes by unmeasured; and the mental functions which are active during consciousness are suspended for the time being.

2. Where do the dead sleep?

"And many of them that _sleep in the dust of the earth_ shall awake." Dan.

12:2. See also Eccl. 3:20; 9:10.

3. How long will they sleep there?

"So man lieth down, and riseth not: _till the heavens be no more_, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." Job 14:12.

4. For what did Job say he would wait after death?

"If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, _till my change come_." Verse 14.

5. Where did he say he would wait?

"_If I wait, the grave is mine house_: I have made my bed in the darkness." Job 17:13.

6. While in this condition, how much does one know about those he has left behind?

"His sons come to honor, and _he knoweth it not_; and they are brought low, but _he perceiveth it not of them_." Job 14:21.

7. What becomes of man's thoughts at death?

"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; _in that very day his thoughts perish_." Ps. 146:4.

8. Do the dead know _anything_?

"For the living know that they shall die: _but the dead know not anything_, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten." Eccl. 9:5.

9. Do they take any part in earthly things?

"Also their _love_, and their _hatred_, and their _envy_, is now _perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun_." Verse 6.

NOTE.-If one continued in consciousness after death, he would know of the promotion or dishonor of his sons. But Job says he does not know this. Not only so, but in death one loses all the attributes of mind,-love, hatred, envy, etc. Thus it is plain that his thoughts have perished, and that he can have nothing more to do with the things of this world. But if, as taught and held by some, man's powers of thought continue after death, he _lives_; and if he lives, he must be _somewhere_. Where is he? Is he in heaven, or in h.e.l.l? If he goes to either place at death, what then is the need of a future judgment, or of a resurrection, or of the second coming of Christ? If the judgment does not take place at death, but men go to their reward at death, then their _rewards_ precede their _awards_, and there would arise the possibility that some have at death gone to the wrong place, and must needs be sent to the other, after having been in bliss or torment for ages, perhaps.

10. What does the psalmist say about the dead praising G.o.d?

"_The dead praise not the Lord_, neither any that go down into silence."

Ps. 115:17.

11. How much does one know of G.o.d when dead?

"For in death _there is no remembrance of Thee_." Ps. 6:5.

NOTE.-There is not even a remembrance of G.o.d. As already seen, the Bible everywhere represents the dead as _asleep_. If they were in heaven or in h.e.l.l, would it be fitting to represent them thus? Was Lazarus, whom Jesus loved, in heaven when the Saviour said, "Our friend Lazarus _sleepeth_"? John 11:11. If so, calling him to life was really robbing him of the bliss of heaven that rightly belonged to him. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus, recorded in Luke 16, was given to teach, not consciousness in death, but that in the judgment riches will avail nothing unless rightly and beneficently used, and that poverty will not keep one out of heaven.

12. But are not the righteous dead in heaven?

"For _David is not ascended into the heavens_." Acts 2:34.

13. What must take place before the dead can praise G.o.d?

"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." Isa. 26:19.

14. When did David say he would be satisfied?

"As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, _when I awake, with Thy likeness_." Ps. 17:15.

15. Were there to be no resurrection of the dead, what would be the condition of those fallen asleep in Christ?

"For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. _Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished._" 1 Cor. 15:16-18.

16. When is the resurrection of the righteous to take place?

"For _the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven_ with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of G.o.d: _and the dead in Christ shall rise first_." 1 Thess. 4:16.

NOTES.-If, as stated in Eccl. 9:5, the dead know not anything, then they have no knowledge of the lapse of time. "Six thousand years in the grave to a dead man is no more than a wink of the eye to the living." To them, consciousness, our only means of measuring time, is gone; and it will seem to them when they awake that absolutely no time has elapsed. And herein lies a most comforting thought in the Bible doctrine of the sleep of the dead, that in death there is no consciousness of the pa.s.sing of time. To those who sleep in Jesus, their sleep, whether long or short, whether one year, one thousand years, or six thousand years, will be but as if the moment of sad parting were followed instantly by the glad reunion in the presence of Jesus at His glorious appearing and the resurrection of the just.

It ought also to be a comforting thought to those whose lives have been filled with anxiety and grief for deceased loved ones who persisted in sin, to know that they are not now suffering in torments, but, with all the rest of the dead, are quietly sleeping in their graves. Job 3:17.

Again, it would mar the felicity of one's enjoyment in heaven could he look upon earth and see his friends and relatives suffering from persecution, want, cold, or hunger, or sorrowing for the dead. G.o.d's way is best,-that all sentient life, animation, activity, thought, and consciousness should cease at death, and that all should wait till the resurrection for their future life and eternal reward. See Heb. 11:39, 40.