[09/27/19]
Here I return to considerations of a portion of Creation that is of the spiritual realm. There are a number of terms in Scripture that may refer to this place called Hades, although the spiritual and moral aspects of that place don’t come into clear focus until we arrive at the New Testament. In the Old Testament, we encounter a place called Sheol, which is perceived as being under the earth somewhere. This was a pretty common perspective for those considering where the dead had gone, which in turn, recognizes that from earliest times, man had a sense of immortality.
This is an interesting matter; though not one I had thought to address here. From Job, the earliest written of the Scriptures, it’s already clear. “He who goes down to Sheol does not come up” (Job 7:9). There are hints, as well, of a moral component. “Drought and heat consume the snow waters. So does Sheol those who have sinned” (Job 24:19). Mind you, those are Bildad’s words, and not necessarily reliable. But, if we consider the use of it in Genesis, there is no strong connection to sin in the picture, only a reality of death coming to all. I suppose we can call this a connection to sin, as death is the sure wages of sin. But, sin is not in the picture for the most part where Sheol has mention. It is simply a recognition of age and sorrow. “Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son” (Ge 37:35).
Yet, by the time Israel is crossing the wilderness, associations have started to form. There is a time of trial for Moses in the form of Korah’s rebellion. His leadership is being questioned, and no less than that, his position as spokesman for God. God meets the test, giving Moses to speak. Moses says, “By this you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these deeds; for this is not my doing. If these men die the death of all men, or if they suffer the fate of all men, then the LORD has not sent me. But if the LORD brings about an entirely new thing and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol, then you will understand that these men have spurned the LORD” (Nu 16:28-30). So, then, we might suggest that it was perfectly natural, at least in the fallen state of creation, for the dead to descend to Sheol, but God’s judgment was demonstrated here in that the participants in this rebellion ‘went down alive into Sheol’ (Nu 16:33).
Coming into the Psalms, we begin to uncover a new sense to this place. David writes, “The wicked will return to Sheol, all the nations who forget God” (Ps 9:17). This is interesting. If there is a returning, there must have been a departing, but we have already read that those who go down don’t come back up. Here is a point of contrast. The psalmists often speak of the soul brought up from Sheol. For example, “O LORD, Thou hast brought up my soul from Sheol; Thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit” (Ps 30:3). Now, it’s pretty obvious that David, writing this for the dedication of the house, had not died and been resurrected. We would surely have record of the event if this were the case. This comes in answer to a cry for help and healing. Again, I note that we don’t find record of David having suffered any sort of life-threatening illness apart from old age. It would be surprising indeed if he escaped injury entirely as a man of war, but nothing noteworthy seems to have struck him. Yet, he speaks of healing. It would be well, I think, to accept that for David, healing was a spiritual matter, a matter of sin and repentance. “I cried to Thee for help and Thou didst heal me” (Ps 30:2). There is the lifting of the soul from Sheol. One gets the sense that the soul unrepentant is already making its way hence, and it is only by God’s grace that life is preserved, and we do not go down to the pit. There are shadows of Jonathan Edwards’ imagery of man hanging by a thread over the open fires of that pit, aren’t there? It’s a prayer of, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.”
Again in Psalm 86 I see this association of the soul delivered from Sheol and the grace of God towards a sinner. This, too, is a psalm of David. Once more he cries out, “For I am afflicted and needy” (Ps 86:1). “Make glad the soul of Thy servant, for to Thee, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive” (Ps 86:4-5). “Unite my heart to fear Thy name” (Ps 86:11b). There, I think, we arrive at the problem: For all that David is a godly man, even a man after God’s own heart, he knows in himself resides a heart divided. Like Paul, he has clear view of the battle raging within, and sees that that which he would do is not what he does. So, he prays for united heart, a cessation of this internal warfare, which leads to heartfelt response. “For Thy lovingkindness toward me is great, and Thou hast delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol” (Ps 86:13).
All that being said, Sheol retains a more general aspect to it, of being simply that place where life goes in death. If the soul has required rescue from its depths, it is because the soul has already had a taste of that death, whether through depths of sorrow that seem insurmountable, or through the weight of sin. It is not that ideas of Sheol as a place of punishment for sin are absent, it’s just that such use of the place seems to be but one aspect. Good (to the degree that there are any who are good), and evil alike descend to this place in death; the redeemed as well as the condemned.
Perhaps with Solomon we begin to sense a bit of a divide. “The path of life leads upward for the wise, that he may keep away from Sheol below” (Pr 15:24). There is at least the suggestion of two courses for life here, the one ascending in righteousness towards heaven, the other descending in sinfulness toward Sheol. Yet, for all that, he seems clear enough that either way, Sheol is going to be the endpoint. “Whatever your hand finds to do, verily, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going” (Ecc 9:10).
[09/28/19]
The sense of Sheol as the place for punishment for sins seems to strengthen with the prophets. Isaiah sets it in parallel with exile. “Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge, and their honorable men are famished, and their multitude is parched with thirst. Therefore, Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure, and Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry, and the jubilant within her, descend into it” (Isa 5:13-14). Later, he writes, “Your pomp and the music of your harps have been brought down to Sheol. Maggots are spread out as your bed beneath you, and worms are your covering” (Isa 14:11). “You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High.’ Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit” (Isa 14:13-15). There again is this contrast between the upward ascent of life an influence, and the downward descent of death.
These two, the upward/downward and the life/death contrasts, are set as parallel ideas. To live is to ascend. To die is to descend. To live is to approach heaven above. To die is to enter Sheol below. The one is the rarest of rare rewards for a life of righteousness, the other, a punishment for a life of sin. So it is that so very few in all the record of Scripture evade the latter course. Elijah, the first of the prophets, of course, is amongst the exceptions, and Enoch who was no more. We are left to suppose that Melchizedek is to be accounted amongst the exceptions. Some would posit that Moses is also in that number, but I observe that Scripture records “the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the sons of Israel before his death” (Isa 33:1). It doesn’t leave us to question what became of him, only the exact location. Given the propensity for idolizing men, and particularly for idolizing holy men, this merely demonstrates the wisdom of God. Let the leader who has passed, pass entire, that the man of God who is to succeed him may succeed.
As an aside, this is very much a part of the code of ethics governing pastors in our own denomination, and I would suppose in others as well. The pastor who has departed particular pulpit is not to hang about ministering to those sheep over which he had previously had charge. They are now shepherded by another, and to continue in a shepherds role over those sheep would only produce confusion and distress, whatever small comfort might be found along the way. It is the wisdom of God that He so arrays His servants. It is the folly or at least the weakness of man that occasionally, a departing pastor feels the need to continue his role in regard to some select few individuals. I allow that it may merely be the weakness of the flesh, for who does well when faced with a loss of longstanding companionship? How does one go forward, maintaining friendship, but not allowing it to shift over to ministering? It becomes needful, for the sake of sheep and shepherd alike, to let that break be substantial, and perhaps entire. To maintain proprieties otherwise, where friendships have been particularly close, would be too great a burden to be borne.
At any rate, Moses died, as did every other man and woman of the Old Covenant. To a person, barring those few exceptions already noted, they went down to Sheol, at least insofar as they tasted death, even if only for a season. But, I do not suppose that all who went down to Sheol went down for punishment. Some went, as I say, for a season, and we learn that Jesus, having completed His work upon the cross, descended into that place, albeit now called by another name, and ascended once more, having taken with Him those whose place in Sheol was but temporary. That may feel a bit overly interpretive of events, but it is my sense of what transpired in that action. I recall a sermon suggesting that this is exactly what Isaiah saw when he saw the Lord high and lifted up, and His train filling the temple (Isa 6:1). That train, though identified with His robe by Isaiah, was suggested to be that train of saints led out of captivity in Sheol. It seems a bit of a stretch, perhaps a bit fanciful and even eisegetical, but I don’t know that I’d put it completely out of the realm of possibility. However it was that He did it, there remains the fact that His death and resurrection put paid to sin not only for the saints then living, or those yet to be born, but for the saints in all ages; past, present, and future alike.
In this passage, perhaps we come to an understanding of the association of Sheol and the curse upon sin. “I said, ‘In the middle of my life I am to enter the gates of Sheol; I am to be deprived of the rest of my years’” (Isa 38:10). It is sorrowing for time cut short, as it seems. Of course, the LORD knows perfectly the number of our days, and they are never cut short except as considered in our own limited light. For some, particularly in modern times, it seems that any termination of life is too short a time. Of course, such a mindset, while it seems merely to be a bit too attached to life, is in reality a fearful realization of death and death’s reason for being. The hunger for life unending in this form is a hunger to avoid the inevitable day of judgment, and a desire to avoid the need for repentance. But, this is not to be.
Neither is death to be that ‘sweet surcease’ where all consciousness and indeed, all being terminate once for all, and no further consequences for past action need be contemplated. Suicide is not painless, contrary to the old song, and it will not end the pain. It may succeed in putting you in the grave, but the soul continues, and in the grave all hope of reconciliation with God is come to an end. The decision is made, and awaits only the sure judgment to come. “For Sheol cannot thank Thee, Death cannot praise Thee. Those who go down to the pit cannot hope for Thy faithfulness. It is the living who give thanks to Thee, as I do today” (Isa 38:18-19a). This comes in a request for restored health, continuing that expression of sorrow for a life cut short. And, to the degree that life can be cut short, which as I have said, is something of a misstatement, it is indeed cause for sorrow when a righteous man passes early to the grave. Even when one who has reached venerable age passes, we feel the loss, who continue on. But, what of them? I wonder, did R. C. Sproul feel short-changed in death? I rather think not. Did Moses? He might have felt he had reason, given long years of service in leading those contentious tribes out of Egypt and up to the borders of the Promised Land – twice. But, he accepted God’s determination with grace. If it was not to be that he led the people into that land, then so be it. He was a man who knew his sins well enough, and knew his God well enough to trust himself to Him even in this matter of death. If it’s time, it’s time.
Some time later, Ezekiel records God’s review of Assyria’s judgment. “Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches and forest shade, and very high; and its top was among the clouds” (Eze 31:3). It had been a mighty empire, if not a particularly pleasant one. But, it had its arts and its majesty, and it certainly had its say over the nations of the region. But, no more. God observes, “On the day when it went down into Sheol I caused lamentations. I closed the deep over it and held back its rivers. And its many waters were stopped up, and I made Lebanon mourn for it, and all the trees of the field wilted away on account of it. I made the nations quake at the sound of its fall when I made it go down into Sheol with all those who go down to the pit; and all the well-watered trees of Eden, the choicest and best of Lebanon, were comforted in the earth beneath. They also went down with it into Sheol to those who were slain by the sword; and those who were its strength lived under its shade among the nations” (Eze 31:15-17). Sheol: The place of the dead, the place of punishment, but also of reserve for all who shall yet live again. For these prophets, it seems the primary association for Sheol is with punishment, and particularly for punishment of God’s enemies. Yet, all men are destined once to die, and apart from that generation still living when Christ returns, that death involves a stay in Sheol; righteous and unrighteous alike, near as I can tell.
I think I shall allow Hosea the last reference on this topic of Sheol, although there are a few mentions further on in the Old Testament. Writing to Ephraim, representing Israel particularly in the northern kingdom, he writes God’s message. “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up. The pains of childbirth come upon him. He is not a wise son, for it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb. Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight. Though he flourishes among the reeds, an east wind will come, the wind of the LORD coming up from the wilderness; and his fountains will become dry, and his spring will be dried up; it will plunder his treasury of every precious article. Samaria will be held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open” (Hos 13:12-16).
This is not a happy or a hopeful message. It is a gruesome punishment announced. I give it its place here because those words about death and Sheol are familiar to us, but from another, more hopeful setting. And that shall serve as our transition to the New Testament perspective of hell or Hades.
[09/29/19]
It intrigues me that Paul takes this verse, which is so clearly spoken as a judgment on sin, and in particular, on the sin of God’s people, and applies it in a manner that proclaims certain hope. “This perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Co 15:53-57). The assurance of the resurrection, and of that full renewal in body and soul alike which that resurrection signifies, declares an end to sin’s power over us. It declares that, while we may be in the grave for a season, we are not, in fact, in Sheol, or Hades as it comes to be known in the New Testament.
We need to understand as well that for the redeemed, the grave is not entrance into hell, but into Paradise. Jesus, from the cross, informed the thief who hung beside Him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43). Now, there’s a verse that is also prone to causing trouble for us, as we seek to understand. First, from our understanding, Jesus did not ascend to heaven for some time, perhaps as long as forty days, during which he appeared to many at different points. See, for example, the summary that begins 1Co 15. So, how was He in Paradise ‘today’? We also have the understanding that in those few days He spent in the tomb, He descended into hell. Is Paradise in hell? Is this not referring to heaven, but rather to some intermediate, Limbo like place?
Here, I return to another, rather speculative sermon once heard. Considering the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, we find mention of Lazarus dead, and carried by angels to Abraham’s bosom (Lk 16:22). The theory proposed was that this indicates a region in Hades wherein reside the souls of the redeemed as they await the resurrection of the dead. It sees this image of the rich man spying Abraham and Lazarus at some great distance, and supposes what may be a greater degree of literality to the parable than is appropriate. At any rate, Abraham speaks of a great divide, a chasm between that place where he is, and the place where the rich man is, ‘in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us’ (Lk 16:26).
A few cautions, then. First, this is indeed a parable, and as such, is not intended to be pushed and prodded as to its every detail. Second, Abraham’s bosom is not presented as a place per se. It’s not as if Lazarus is now protruding from Abraham’s chest, and at the same time, Abraham is clearly visible. It seems to have more to do with the nature of that place where Abraham is, and where Abraham is, is not the place of the condemned. If there is in fact anything pertaining to heaven or hell proper that we ought to draw from this parable, it is simply that there is between them an uncrossable chasm. Those who would go to the damned in their compassion are restrained from doing so, for compassion thus expressed would in fact be opposition to the express will of God. Likewise, the condemned are prevented from entering into the place of the redeemed, which they surely would do, given the chance. Who would choose to remain in torment, given leave to enjoy the full bounty of heaven? But, it is, at that juncture, too late for a change of heart, and as for those who are determined, by the will of God, to become residents in that place of torment, quite frankly, nothing is going to dissuade those individuals from making their way hence. That is the final message to the rich man. “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead” (Lk 16:31).
What can we make of that chasm, if anything at all? Again, the clear thrust of the message is there is no crossing over. The decision is made and sealed at the grave. The time for repentance has passed. I am not, at this stage, in position to suggest that this place where Abraham is depicted is heaven, nor am I prepared to grant that it is a region of hell. What, then, is being shown to us? Is it Limbo? No, for the concept of Limbo, at least as the Catholics have brought it forth, is that of a place from which one may yet gain redemption. What we are being shown is two regions in which that determination of redemption has already been either firmly granted or firmly rejected. There is no crossing over, no get out of jail free.
If I return to Jesus’ words on the cross, which words do not appear to be of a figurative nature, then from death, the soul proceeds to Paradise. Paradise, while not yet heaven (for Jesus had not yet ascended to satisfy His declaration of ‘Today you will be with Me in Paradise’) is a place for the redeemed. His ‘Today’ did not extend to that other thief who died unrepentant, only to the one who believed. Between those two, in death, we may assume there is fixed a great chasm. There will be no crossing over. This, then, is not hell that is in view. Yet, it can’t be heaven, can it?
Paul seems certain enough that Jesus descended ‘into the lower parts of the earth’, thereafter ascending ‘far above all the heavens’ (Eph 4:9-10). We have a pretty clear view of when these two things must have happened, the first coming subsequent to His death on the cross, and presumably prior to His rising from the grave; the latter after that period when He was risen and encountering various believers. But, what is in view with the lower parts of the earth? Clearly it envisions a place of the dead, as is only natural, given that the dead are invariably returned to the earth, if not in fact buried within it. Where else might one expect to find them, then? But, that does not require us to suppose that hell is in fact some fiery cavern deep within the planet. Indeed, it does not require us to suppose that hell is involved yet, at all.
[09/30/19]
Whatever is to be understood of the region or regions of the dead, hell is clearly reserved as a place of punishment. In Matthew’s telling of the gospel story reference to hell as the ending place for sinners is often on the lips of Jesus. The one who calls another a fool ‘shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell’ (Mt 5:22), as is the one who commits adultery, even if it is pursued no further than the lust of the eye (Mt 5:28-29). There are words to strike fear in the heart of modern man and modern woman! The whole of the world order around us seems intent on enticing and exploiting the lust of the eye. We are encouraged to look upon one another as little more than eye candy. But, Jesus has one thing to say to all this: “If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out, and throw it from you. Better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
Indeed, hell even serves as inspiration to faithfulness. “Don’t fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mt 10:28). Luke offers a clarifying take on this message. “Fear the One who after He has killed has authority to cast into hell” (Lk 12:5). I say this comes as inspiration not because the message is particularly comforting, but because of the setting. It comes with the reminder that not even a worthless sparrow dies apart from the Father, and He knows you so well He knows exactly how many hairs are on your head in any given moment. You have no cause for concern, for He has your life well in hand. Don’t fear those who threaten bodily harm. Serve Him in whose hands your true life resides. There’s the message.
As for the unbelieving rejecter of Christ? “You shall descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day” (Mt 11:23). What are we learning? Hell is a place of fires and torment. There is association with the valley of Hinnom, wherein the vile idol of Topeth was cast in its destruction. Here was a place where Israel, in the depths of its sins, offered her children on the altar. This great evil was cast down in the days of King Josiah (2Ki 23:10), significant reversal from Ahaz, of whom it is learned that he actually participated in this horrible practice, burning incense in the valley of Ben-hinnom, and burning his sons in the fire (2Chr 28:3). Is it any wonder that judgment fell? Jeremiah announced it when it finally came. “Therefore, behold days are coming when it will no more be called Topeth, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of the Slaughter; for they will bury in Topeth because there is no other place” (Jer 7:32). The message is so significant as to deserve repeating in Jeremiah 19:6.
This was the state of affairs when Jesus came to Jerusalem. The valley of Hinnom had indeed become a place of death. It was the burial ground of the poor and of the criminal. It was also the city dump. As such, it truly was a place whose fires were never quenched, and whose worm never slept. The fires were kept going to consume that which would otherwise putrefy, and there would of course be those creatures who serve creation by consuming and converting decomposing matter into soil. The image of hell that Jesus portrays before His listeners is drawn directly from their daily experience. It’s as if He pointed to that valley, with all its history and all its present condition, and said, that’s but a foretaste.
This is as near to a picture of hell as we are given, and it is perhaps just as well that it is so, for this is picture enough. It is a place of punishment. Indeed, in the visionary language of the Revelation, it is again a place beyond that of death, a place into which death itself is condemned to go. “And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:14-15). This might give some small cause to reconsider the matter of Hades and its relationship to an abode of the dead. Death and Hades are both personified in this apocalyptic vision, and presented as coming out to war against the Christ and His legions.
Whatever has been the place of death during the course of this created order, it seems that it, too, undergoes something of a radical transformation in that final act of re-creation. Death has been vanquished at the cross; that great destructive weapon of sin and the devil who relishes sin’s impact on man and creature. Here, we are seeing that defeat played out in final victory for Life, and death itself is cast into what we would call hell, if hell were not cast in right beside death. Death and hell are consumed by something worse, something ceaseless in its destructive impact. “This is the second death.” It is a lake that burns with fire and brimstone (Rev 21:8), into which are cast not only death and Hades, but also, the cowardly and unbelieving, the abominable, the murderer, and the immoral person, the sorcerers, idolaters, and liars. That’s quite a crowd, and it would be hard not to find oneself mentioned in there somewhere. Our only hope lies in our Savior and His choice of election, His work of redemption, and His effort of sanctification in us.
This is a place that promises the exact opposite of the new heavens. In the new heavens, a complete absence of cause for tears, of death, of mourning or pain. How is this? It is because all that is cause for tears and death and mourning and pain has been cast into this other place, wherein to fester in agony for all eternity. It is no place of surcease, this second death. It is not oblivion. It is an eternity in which to rue the choices made in life. It is that place where the rich man finds himself, who enjoyed his full reward in the current life, only to discover himself with an infinity of time on his hands to contemplate how he could have spent that life better. It is a place where the condemned shall share company with demons and devils, the fallen angels together with fallen humanity. It is an end too terrible to contemplate, and it is just as well that Scripture really doesn’t paint us any better picture than the valley of Hinnom. That place, particularly as it was at the time, is horrible enough to consider; and certainly no living being wishes to contemplate the possibility of making its home amongst such surroundings. Every day must be an agony of soul and of senses alike. And this, as I say, is but the foretaste of what awaits those who reject the living King of kings.
Having descended to these depths of sorrow, I cannot let things end here. I find it needful, as did the one guiding John through these visions, to revisit the hope of heaven. That angel says, “Come here, I shall show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God” (Rev 21:9-11a). “And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev 21:22-23). “And nothing unclean and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev 21:27).
I could continue, as John’s vision continues. But, there it is! God with us, Immanuel. “They shall be My people, and I shall be their God, and I will dwell among them.” Indeed, God has come down in this final image, and tabernacled with man, with those created in His image, and grown into the fullness of the image of His Son, the Lamb. Glory!
