What a powerful statement!
King David wrote psalm 17 when he was downcast and needed God's promise. Can we imagine being totally satisfied? Not in this life with all its disappointments. But what shall we be like in eternity, after the resurrection. Man has his own ideas on man's life hereafter, but are they scriptually based? I hope that you will be blessed and enlightended by what God has revealed to me.
All quotes are from the King James version, unless otherwise noted.
First, lets look at man, and how he was created.
Genesis 2:7
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
" Genesis 2:7
Notice that God didn't create man with a soul, but He created him a living soul, or a living being. Before that, Adam was a dead soul. Adam was made from the same matter that the earth is composed of. When Adam and Eve sinned, God drove them from the garden of eden. "...for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." Genesis 3:19. God knew what man was, and where came from. He also knew where man would end up at the end of his short life.
"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God gave it."Ecclesiates 12: 7.
What spirit is the writer referring too here? Notice that when God made Adam, he breathed into him the breath of life. But Psalm 146: 4 helps to clarify this. " His breath goeth forth, he returnedth to the earth.: in that very day his thoughts perish." Compare this verse with ecclesiastes 12:7. It is clear that the spirit refers to the breath of life in man. For when are breath leaves us, we die.
The opposite of life is death.
So we have established through God's word, that man is a living soul, but he does not have an undying soul within him.
But where does man go when he dies?
Death is very often referred to as sleep in the old and new testament.
"So man lieth down, and riseth not till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remeber me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change comes. Thou shalt call, and thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands."
Job 14: 12-15.
Job knew what the end of his life meant.
His breath would go back to God, and his earthly body would be buried and await the return of our Lord Jesus.
Compare Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12:2.
The Apostle Paul describes the difference between our earthly body, and the spirtiual body of the resurrection. Our mortal body when it dies is as a seed planted in the ground.
The seed must first die, then a plant (our spiritual body) grows from the seed. The mortal body is sown in corruption, but raised into a incorruptible spiritual body. It is weak now, but will be brought back in power to eternal life. (I Cor. 15: 35-44). It will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.
The same power that raised our lord and Saviour, shall fashion these vile bodies into a glorious body. (Phil. 3:10-21). This body shall shine as brightly as the stars in heaven. (Dan. 12:3) We shall be as the angels in Heaven. We shall not marry. Neither can we die anymore.(Luke 20: 34- 38) being a child of the Resurrection. We shall be able to eat, though we will not need fu replenish our spiritual bodies as we do now. (Luke 24: 41-43). Physical laws of this world will no longer bound us.
It will be then that all of God's children will be satisfied!
by: Greg Belcher January 2002
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