Let’s briefly review the main texts related to the hope of the resurrection in the Old Testament. Yesterday we noted Job 19:25–27. It can be argued that there is no more powerful and more outstanding text on the personal certainty of resurrection than that of the patriarch Job. This primary book is a stunning and an eloquently expressed confession of faith. The verses within contain one of the most beautiful expressions of hope in a bodily resurrection.

In Job 19 we find a declaration that one can find engraved on many Christian tombstones: Job’s powerful statement that he will see God in his flesh after death is the oldest in the Bible and sets the tone for this incredible hope of what God will do at the end of earth’s history. Job states: “I know that my Redeemer lives” (v25). He knows his God, who is alive, and he calls Him the “Redeemer” (or goel in Hebrew, meaning kinsman redeemer, defender, vindicator, protector), as Boaz was for Ruth (Ruth 4:14). Job continues with assurance that his Redeemer “lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last.” (v2525, NLT) to resurrect him to new life.

Unfortunately, people know and quote usually only verse 25, but what continues is equally crucial: “ ‘And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes— I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!’ ” (Job 19:26, 27, NIV). Notice the personal tone of Job’s solemn declaration: my, I, myself, my own. He firmly believes in his heart that in his flesh with his own eyes he will see God even though he will die, and his flesh will be destroyed. This personal assurance of a future resurrection day cannot be expressed in a better and more emphatic way.

Psalm 16:9, 10 (NIV) says, “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead [sheol, grave, death], nor will you let your faithful one see decay” While the KJV often translated ‘sheol’ as hell, modern translartions Like the NASB and NLT translate it as the place of the dead or the grave. Here the Hebrew term sheol should be translated as “grave,” as it is in many other passages. This term is found 66 times in the Hebrew Bible and, in the majority of cases, its meaning is synonymous with the grave. Both the wicked and the righteous descend to sheol (Gen.37:35; Gen. 42:38; Gen. 44:29, 31; Num. 16:30, 33; 1 Kings 2:6, 9; Job.21:13; Ps. 49:17; Ps. 89:48; Eccles. 9:10; Isa. 14:9, 11, 15; Isa. 38:10; Ezek. 31:15–17). In addition, the Lord redeems the faithful from sheol (Hos. 13:14); no one can hide from God in sheol (Ps. 139:8, Amos 9:2), and there is no work or other activity in sheol (Eccles. 9:10). Nowhere in the Bible is sheol described as the shadowy underworld where the dead live or where human souls or spirits continue their existence. The word sheol is a designation for the grave, the place of the dead (see, for example, the consistency of the NIV translation, where, in the majority of cases, the word sheol is translated as grave [57 times], but also as death [five times], realm of death [once], deepest depths [once], gates of death [once], and depth [once]). David rejoices that after death he will rest in peace and will be not forgotten by the Lord but will be resurrected to a new life and will not experience lasting destruction (shakhat means destruction, corruption, decay, pit).

This text transcends the experience of David and has a deeper Messianic meaning. The Faithful (Hebrew khasid, Devoted, the faithful One, the Holy One, i.e., the Messiah Jesus Christ) will not rot in His tomb, His body will not decay, because He will be resurrected after resting three days (counted inclusively) in the grave (sheol). The New Testament quotes this text as a prophetic announcement of Christ’s resurrection (Acts 2:25–28, Acts 13:35).