Multitudes who
sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to
shame and everlasting contempt
(Daniel 12:2).
According to
biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann, this is one of only two clear Old
Testament references to the resurrection of the dead. The first is Isaiah 26:19
– Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the
dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the
earth will give birth to her dead (NIV 1984). He is careful to
connect this with Isaiah 25:6-10a.
Daniel, then, is the
second. Whereas the Isaiah text focuses on the joy associated with
resurrection, Daniel says there are two sides to that coin. Some will be
resurrected to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt.
Brueggemann writes
that we are mistaken to limit resurrection to a merely private experience…
reward or punishment, or even that of being restored to our loved ones. It’s
bigger than that. Let Brueggemann speak: “It is clear that the affirmation of
life-beyond-death that is only at the fringes of the Old Testament is able to
speak of resurrection as a function of ‘the end’ (12:13) that is also the
beginning of ‘new life.’ That is, resurrection is a vehicle for radical,
apocalyptic thought that bespeaks fearful endings and amazing beginnings, all
of which are wrought by the power of God”
[4].
TODAY’S MEDITATION
Reflect on the promise of
resurrection and its implications for your life.
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