Cancer Blog #67
By Brian Zimmerman
Begun on July 31, 2021
Email: dyingman1@yahoo.com
My Dying Words
Entry #67– The Earth Gives Birth
January 17, 2023
[Isa 26:14, 19] 14 The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out all remembrance of them. … 19 Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew [is as] the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.
Here we see once again a contrast we have seen often before – the difference between the wicked and the righteous. And, here the difference is stated in terms of the fate of the dead. When death occurs the wicked will find that it is the end of hope: “The dead will not live; the departed spirits will not rise…” When the wicked die, their lives – though not their existence – is at an end. They will not rise to a better existence, nor will they acquire a new and immortal life. In fact, Isaiah makes God’s plan clear: to punish and destroy them, a destination we know (from elsewhere in scripture) is unrelenting, eternal. It is no wonder, then, that the wicked fear when their death approaches. Who would not with such a vision pronounced upon them? God proclaimed their curse in the Garden of Eden: “You shall die.” And, here we see it repeated again by the mouth of the prophet receiving it from the mouth of God.
Yet how different is the fate of the righteous! First, we notice that these people are not designated, “the dead” as the wicked were in vs. 14. Foremost they are claimed as “Your dead…” These dead belong to someone who cares about them. Here the Creator also speaks as the Redeemer and His dead are not without hope; they “will live”! New and glorious life is given to them. Their corpses may decay for a time, but at the end, those bodies will rise again, with eternal health and strength. These dead are called from the grave to stand and shout for joy as they experience this new and unabated life. Their dew portends the beginning of the dawn, the initiation of a new and unending day. The earth now plays a new role in their existence. Far from just a grave holding them in, it becomes a womb giving birth to a new race of men and women with only joy and hope and life spread out before them. No wonder they are called to stand at this birth and shout for joy!
Next: The Covenant with Death