The Day After You Die

The ancient Babylonian legend called the Gilgamesh epic even referred to a resting place of heroes and hinted of a tree of life. The Romans believed that the righteous would picnic in the beautiful meadows of Alesia while their horses grazed nearby.

It is true, isn't it? Throughout history, one of the unifying themes of the human heart is the innate curiosity that there is life after death. What happens the moment after you die? Where will you be? What will it be like? What will you be experiencing? Will you be aware of what's happening or more in a state of slumber?

Are you nervous in thinking about it or do you approach it with confidence? God's Word provides insight to all of these questions. Today, Stephen Davey takes you to the Bible to find the answers.

This message will be very encouraging to you today. You've tuned in to Wisdom for the Heart returning to the Book of Job with a message called The Day After You Die. A recent article entitled Only in America that ran the news that at least 12 American multimillionaires are now planning to come back to life better, richer than ever. They are so confident in the progress of science and modern medicine that they've arranged for their bodies to be frozen at a cryogenic suspension plant. They have even set up, and I quote, personal revival trusts. That's a great new term for the banking industry. Personal revival trusts, which are designed to not only ensure but expand their wealth so that it will be waiting for them at the bank when they have been medically resurrected in, say, 100 to 200 years.

David Pizer, a 64 year old multimillionaire, was interviewed a few months ago, and he said that the 10 million dollars that he left to himself after all the compounded interest had been added in over the years would make him the richest man in the world when he woke up. I don't really blame this unbeliever. There is something in the heart of of man that that life is not the end.

This isn't all there is. Randy Alcorn chronicled in his book entitled Heaven about this inborn intuitive sense that human beings typically admit to that that they will live somewhere forever. Australian Aborigines picture heaven as a distant island beyond the western horizon. The ancient Mexican Peruvian and Polynesian empires believe they would go to the sun or to the moon after death. Native Americans believe that in the afterlife their spirits would hunt the spirits of Buffalo. The ancient Babylonian legend called the Gilgamesh epic even referred to a resting place of heroes and hinted of a tree of life.

The Romans believe that the righteous would picnic in the beautiful meadows of Alesia while their horses grazed nearby. It is true, isn't it? What Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse 11, that God has put eternity in our hearts. Throughout history, one of the unifying themes of the human heart is the innate curiosity, if not belief, that there is life after death. The question isn't so much, will you live forever? The question is, where will you live forever? What's going to happen to you the day after you die?

About the time your family is preparing your funeral, what will you be experiencing? These are the very same questions posed in the oldest book in the biblical record. Job asked the same questions about life after death, and he was driven to these questions because of one very obvious dilemma. He believed that his life would soon end.

And as we have been discovering together, his friends were making his last days miserable. Would you turn to the 11th chapter and let's rejoin our study. In Chapter 11, the last of Job's three counselors rises to speak. And I want to quickly work through their conversation before diving more deeply into Job's questions about life after death.

Zophar appears in verse one of Chapter 11, the Naamathite. He is the youngest of Job's friends, assumed so because of that culture, he was the one speaking last. Eliphaz was the eldest, he spoke first. Verse two is the opening of his response to Job. Shall a multitude of words go unanswered and a talkative man be acquitted? Look at verse five.

But would that God might speak and open his lips against you? Now, he obviously lacks the courtesy of Eliphaz, which prompted him to apologize before speaking. He doesn't have the cowardice of Bildad who hides behind his traditions.

No, Zophar, with him, it's an all out frontal attack. He pulls no punches. He doesn't know how. He's convinced, as are the other men, that Job is suffering because Job is a sinner and he doesn't couch his terms.

We'll see in a moment. He he has no compassion at all. It's interesting to study these men and and realize how much we're all a little more like them than we would like to admit. Job was one of the wisest, godliest men in the East, according to God's own words to Satan in that heavenly encounter recorded for us in Chapter one, verse eight, where he told Satan that Job is blameless.

He is a he's a righteous man and he hates sin. But we're like Zophar and Eliphaz and Bildad, no matter how wise and good a person may have been in the past. When some kind of misfortune strikes, we tend to wonder if it was due to some reason, some hidden sin, maybe some mistake on their part.

A child runs away from home. And we assume that the parents must have been a little less committed in the home behind the scenes than they appeared to be in public. We just figure that they were they were blowing it behind the scenes. A man has a heart attack and we just assume he was working too hard. Zophar wasn't taking care of himself, maybe taking time away from his family. A neighbor goes bankrupt and we think, well, he probably had it coming. He probably wasn't doing everything he ought to be doing.

We naturally assume some kind of error or failure or perhaps even some sin that would be the answer to the suffering of the person we're watching. Zophar just adds his assumption on Job and Job is already beaten down. He says, in fact, in verse six, that God hasn't punished Job for all of his sins. He says, Look there, know then that God has forgotten a part of your iniquity.

In other words, Job, you're actually getting off light. Then he reminds Job that he is no match for God. Verses 7 to 11, he delivers this condescending speech about how God is higher and deeper and longer and broader than the sea.

Anything we can imagine. He reminds Job in verse 11, note that God knows false men and he sees iniquity without investigating. I mean, we can't see it, but we know it's there. And I'm here to tell you, God sees it all.

That is true. As it related to Job's life. He was wrong. Job is delivered this rather unkind, almost hard to imagine, insult by Zophar in verse 12. An idiot will become intelligent when the foal of a wild donkey is born a man. The Hebrew word translated idiot refers to someone who is morally, if not intellectually, hollow or empty, a man of no reason or sense discernment.

In our colloquialism, we would call him a blockhead or an airhead. It could be expanded to give the full brutality of this insult by let me amplify the translation to to give it to you would read this way. Job, an empty, airheaded idiot like you will no more get understanding than a wild donkey will give birth to a human being. Now, just stop here for a moment. Let that scene sink in.

Try to imagine yourself in Job's place, sitting on the ash heap at the town dump. You've lost nearly everything. You haven't been able to sleep or eat for days.

Your skin is itching uncontrollably and you're running a high fever that persists. You're devastated. You're nearly delirious over the loss of your children, your family, your financial support is gone and your closest friends have turned against you. Now this man comes along and says, you're an idiot. You will never have understanding. In fact, you're so far away from wisdom that the time you'll get it would be the time when a donkey will deliver a human being.

What a crushing blow. Warren Wiersbe writes insightfully how sad it is when people who should share ministry end up creating misery. Zophar says in verses 13 and 14, basically repent.

Job, come clean, confess your sin, and if you do, you get your life back. If you don't, he ends by warning Job in verse 20, the eyes of the wicked will fail and there will be no escape for them and their hope is to breathe their last. Their only hope is to die. And with those final words, he just sort of sucks the life right out of Job's soul. He condemns him to die without hope of escape.

Unless Job follows his advice and repents of secret sins and Job doesn't have any. All three friends have now spoken. It's been edifying to read their words. Hadn't it been? Hadn't it been encouraging?

One by one, they took him further and further away. Not only from the truth, but from hope. Job responds to all three now with his own bitter words. Chapter 12 verse 2, he says, Truly then you are the people and with you wisdom will die. In other words, you men evidently have all the wisdom in the world and when you die, there will be any left on the planet.

But then he fights back. Look at verse 3. But I have intelligence as well as you. In other words, I am not an empty headed idiot. I know I'm a joke to you. You're you're actually laughing up your sleeve at my attempt to stand for the integrity of my character.

Look at verse 4. I am a joke to my friends. I mean, here I am, the one who called on God. He answered him. This just and blameless man is a joke.

It was all hypocrisy. Go ahead and smirk, he says. Go ahead. But I'm not inferior to you. Look at Chapter 13, verse 2.

He repeats it again. What you know, I also know I am not inferior to you. Job says, in effect, I know as much about God as you do. Back in Chapter 12, he launches into his own description of God's character and power in verses 13 to 22.

Wonderful truth. With him are wisdom and might. To him belong counsel and understanding. Behold, he tears down and it cannot be rebuilt. He imprisons a man and there can be no release. Behold, he restrains the waters and they dry up.

And he sends them out and they inundate the earth. Verse 16 of Chapter 12. With him are strength and sound wisdom. The misled and the misleading belong to him. He makes counselors walk barefoot and makes fools of judges. He loosens the bonds of kings and binds their loins with a girl. He makes priests walk barefoot and overthrows the secure ones. He deprives the trusted ones of speech and takes away the discernment of the elders.

He pours contempt on nobles and loosens the belt of the strong. He reveals mysteries from the darkness and brings the deep darkness into light. Job, in effect, says, I know all that. I know and believe in this awesome creator God. But you're telling me I already know.

Chapter 13, verse 1. Behold, my eye has seen all this. My ear has heard and I understand it. This isn't new stuff. I mean, let me remind you, as you counsel people, don't feel like you've got to say anything. In fact, watch that you don't just say stuff they already know. He calls them all, in verse 4, worthless physicians.

Interesting. In other words, you're using treatment that doesn't help. You're prescribing medicine for my soul and you're only making things worse. But no matter how bad it gets, no matter what God does to me, in fact, if God were to actually put me to death, I would still claim him as my God and I would still hope in him. That's the amazing declaration of verse 15 of chapter 13.

And you ought to underline it. This is the verse most recall when they think of the perseverance of Job. Though he slay me, I will hope in him. Wow.

At this point, having studied the first 12 and a half chapters, I am now even more amazed. I am even in more wonder at his response than ever. Even though he slay me, I will put my hope in him. Job passed the test. He passed the test. At his lowest moment, he refused to curse God.

Even further, if he passed the test, then we can too. There is such a thing as unconditional trust in God. There can be obedience without guarantees from God. There can be faith without healing or prosperity.

It is possible, though it isn't easy, it's possible to trust God in the midst of your most difficult trial. Even though Job utters this great statement of faith, he is still overwhelmed with the belief that his life will soon end. Even though he will reference later the fact that he knows his redeemer lives. Here in Chapter 14, at this point in his pain, when the counselors have spoken and he's reduced to emotional rubble, he is deeply unsettled and penetrating questions come from his lips. He frankly doesn't know if God is indeed going to slay him or not. In fact, he asks God in verse 13 of Chapter 14 to hide him in Sheol until God's anger against him subsides. But wait, if God were to put me in Sheol, he evidently is thinking, if I were to die, what happens next? And in this chapter, he will ask two very critical questions that mankind has been asking ever since. These are the questions of life after death.

Look at verse 10. But man dies and lies prostrate. Man expires.

But here's my question. Where is he? Where is he? Job wants to know where he'll be the day after he dies.

He's not concerned so much about the transition as he is the destination. Now that the Old Testament saint, death was murky. The grave was troubling. Job didn't have the record of scripture that you're holding in your lap.

In fact, most believe that Job is the oldest book of the Bible. He couldn't pull up his Bible software and do a word search on death and life after death. He couldn't pull down his strongs and do a cross-reference on anything. He couldn't open a commentary and get added insight.

He couldn't take a lexicon and do a word study. He only knew what he had heard, what God revealed to him. We not only have a completed record of scripture, we have volume after volume after volume of detailed explanations regarding the record of scripture.

So you need to understand that in Job's day there were more questions than answers. And so he asks in total sincerity in verse 10, when someone dies, where do they go? Now Job mentioned a place called Sheol in verse 13. We know that he has some revelation from God. What is Sheol?

What is it like? Well, the Hebrew word Sheol appears nearly 70 times in the Old Testament. Much of the confusion about this word comes from the fact that translations translated differently at different times for no apparent reason. Sometimes it's translated hell.

Sometimes it's translated the grave. Sheol is not hell. And though the word can refer to the grave, Sheol isn't the grave either.

Sheol is a place. It is the place where the departed spirits went of those who died. The prophet Isaiah wrote, Sheol from beneath you is excited over you to meet you when you come. It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth. It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones.

Chapter 14, verse 9. So first of all, we need to understand that Sheol and the grave are two separate places. The grave is the place where the body is laid. Sheol is the place where the spirits of the deceased are living as alive as ever. The immortal soul never perishes. Those souls are in Sheol.

Secondly, Sheol is comprised of two different regions. In the Old Testament, it's clearly taught that both the righteous and the unrighteous went to Sheol after dying. In fact, David had further revelation about death and the future life of those who died when he wrote in Psalm 49, the foolish, that is the unbeliever, are appointed for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd, but God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. In other words, David, a believer, expected to go to Sheol when he died, as well as the unbeliever who would go there. But David didn't expect to stay there forever. Throughout the Old Testament, then the term Sheol was a general term for the region of departed spirits.

B.B. Warfield, a scholar from the past, commented, Israel from the beginning of its recorded history had the most settled conviction of the persistence of the soul in life after death. The body was laid in the grave and the soul departed for Sheol. And that is consistent throughout progressive revelation in the Old Testament. Now, before Jesus Christ appeared on the planet in the form of man, the Old Testament had been translated into the Greek language. We call that translation the Septuagint. Christ himself quoted from it often, as well as the apostles.

The Septuagint or its word simply means the 70 in reference to its supposed 70 translators. Whenever the word Sheol appeared in the Greek Old Testament translation, it was translated with the Greek word Hades. In fact, later, whenever the New Testament Greek text quoted from an Old Testament passage, the word Sheol was always translated Hades. Hades and Sheol are in the same place. Again, Hades, then, is not a reference to the grave. It is a reference to the place of departed spirits.

Bodies are in graves. Souls are in Hades or Sheol. Paul said, of those who believe the gospel, we are confident, Paul wrote, that to be absent from the body is to be where?

Present with the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5.8. We are also given some form of intermediate body before that resurrection glorified body that's going to come out of the grave and reunite with our souls. When we come back with Christ, should we die before the rapture?

We will have lips to speak and sing and we will be able to drink and rejoice and eat. Paul said, effectively, for the soul to be absent from the body is for the soul to be present with the Lord. Paul told the Thessalonian believers that when believers who've died are now with God, they will come with Christ when he raptures the church. But now let me ask you a question.

We've got to end as quickly as we can. What happened to all those along with Lazarus in the Old Testament economy prior to the ascension of Christ who went to Hades, the comfort side, Abraham's bosom, paradise? How come those who now die in Christ, Paul says, go to be with the Lord, whom we know is seated in the heavenlies? Paul writes that when Christ ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, Ephesians 4.8. That is, he led in a triumphant procession those believers out of the comfort side of Hades into heaven, prepared by his word in an instant. Paul goes further to say in Ephesians 4.9, now this expression, he ascended. What does it mean except that he also had descended into the lower part of the earth? I believe a reference to Sheol or Hades. He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might complete all things. Ephesians 2 hints at this historic event when Christ descended into Hades, not to suffer in some form of hell, but for a purpose, to deliver the news of this triumph over Satan and to make, Paul writes, a public display over the defeated foe through his triumph. So then Hades is no longer a holding place for the believer. He's no longer a place for the believer to go, they are in heaven and everyone who dies in Christ will be in heaven as well. Job asks the second question and I'll just quote it for the sake of time so you don't have to turn back. Chapter 14 verse 14, if a man dies, will he live again?

And we've already pretty much answered it and let me just say again, absolutely yes. Forever. Jesus Christ gave the answer to that question bound up in the heart of mankind when he said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. John 11 25, for those who place their faith in Christ, they will have this future, this everlasting life in a new heaven and a new earth as their eternal home. So again, the question is not, will you live forever?

The question is where? Where will you be the day after you die? The question Stephen asked, where will you be the day after you die? is rooted in God's word and your response to the good news of the gospel. In yesterday's lesson, Stephen rehearsed some important principles about the gospel.

If you missed that lesson, I encourage you to go back and listen. You'll find it on our website, which is wisdomonline.org. While you're there, we have a resource that helps you understand the gospel and the salvation God offers you. It's called God's Wisdom for Your Heart. You'll find it at wisdomonline.org forward slash gospel. Be sure and share that with others. And join us back here next time for more Wisdom for the Heart. .