Matthew 22:23-28 English Standard Version

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

If they do not believe why ask?

The same thing could be said of anything and everything within the bible. The simple answer is that we do not understand everything perfectly. Those of us in Christ understand resurrection.

Or is our understanding imperfect?

Revelation 20:5-6

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Since God’s Word is true, then is it possible that the millions of us that are hoping for the rapture to happen any minute now are to be disappointed that if it happens it isn’t a resurrection?

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

What we commonly call the Rapture is not identified as a resurrection. Risen to be with the Lord is not described here as coming to a new life. Lazarus has risen to his old life, not a new life.

Matthew 28:6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.

We call that Sunday Resurrection Sunday but according to His Word Jesus has risen, not to a new life but rather to the life He had with the Father in the beginning. Maybe we do not have a proper understanding of resurrection. Or are we right? God only knows.

I did not copy all of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 I left out some words. These; “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

The demonstration of our incomplete understanding of the resurrection was not meant to discourage or confuse anyone. Those comments were given so that we would not be overly confident in what we think.

“The Bible reveals some things to us that are “hard to understand” (2 Peter 3:16). We recognize some of these things in our experience, but when we try to define or explain their essential nature or how they actually work, we find ourselves utterly perplexed.” Quote for Jon Bloom

I quote here the words of Jon Bloom because it is a realist expression of what we might discover during our studies.

Revelation 18:14

And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

What we know and what we think we know does not matter in the eternal and only has a momentary encouragement in this time of life. We have not entered into His Sabbath Rest.

What we lust after only matters now.

Isaiah 26:9 My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

Why isn’t learning righteousness enough? Why do we think we need to understand everything perfectly?

Perhaps it is hidden in our innermost emotions that says knowing righteousness does not make us righteous.  Or once again is our understanding of righteousness imperfect?

1 Corinthians 7:7 I wish that all were as I myself am.

Who among us has read Paul’s words of his personal desires and made them our own?

We should want what God has made us to be and be encouraged that He is not done yet. What that might be is not for anyone else to say.

What does our soul yearn for in the night?