14 July 2022

Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise.
   O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a radiant dew,
   and the earth will give birth to those long dead.

From Isaiah 26:7-9,12,16-19, NRSV

At the end of psalm which begins with some thoughts about how to live righteous lives and progresses through a confession of sin, we hear this statement about life after death. This belief was not commonly held at the time. The commonly held belief was that the souls the dead would enter a place called Sheol – an underworld place of darkness. And yet we hear the prophet promising life to the dead – a prophecy that would come to fulfilment in the Resurrection.

• • How do you suppose the prophet was able to envisage bodily resurrection so may years before Christ?
  • What does this promise of life after death mean to you? 

You may like to pray today for all those who mourn the loss of a loved one – and especially for those struggle to accept any hope of the eternal life.