Warranty

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8 NASB

Remember – One thing we have learned from the text of Job is the absolute necessity of an other-worldly solution to the temporal limits of human living.  Without the promise of redemption from this mortal domain, religious zeal becomes elective ethical duty, ultimately rendered pointless by the specter of the grave.  If there’s nothing after this life, then all we can hope for is some sort of personal integrity while we struggle in the broken world.  That’s really Job’s dilemma.  How can you make sense of this world if everything is swallowed up by death?

Yeshua’s resurrection is the guarantee of an answer.  It’s not the answer.  The answer waits for God’s full redemption of creation.  The resurrection is the guarantee that this isn’t the end, and on that basis we can hope for the arrival of another world, or at least the full repair of this one.  Of course, this raises another question.  If the ancient followers of YHVH did not know of the resurrection, what gave them the motivation to continue?  We’ve noticed that there is very, very little about life after death in the Tanakh.  A few hints, maybe, but nothing like the developed ideas post Captivity.  I believe the shift toward a more elaborate eschatology occurred because of the influence of Hellenism; in particular, the Greek resolution of the problem of injustice in this world.  Once adopted, the rabbis fully embraced the notion of a coming world.  And when they looked back at Israel’s historical record, they found justification in the Sabbath.

“The Sabbath’s role in imbuing our soul with infinite longings for spirituality and the World to Come is illustrated by the Midrash:

            At the Revelation of the Torah, God called Israel and said, ‘My children, I have an unparalleled gift that I will give you to keep forever if you accept My Torah and observe My mitzvos.’

They asked, ‘What is this precious gift?’

God answered, ‘The World to Come.’

Israel then asked God to allow them a glimpse into the World to Come.  He replied, ‘The Sabbath is one-sixtieth of the World to Come’ (Berachos 57b), . . .”[1]

The Sabbath becomes the precursor of the final redemption.  Without a resurrection event as guarantor, the weekly honoring of God’s creation becomes the placeholder of hope.  I would argue that, while sufficient, it is not as powerful as one returned from the dead.  How blessed are those who witnessed the true Guarantor of our ultimate redemption.  They could touch and hear and see what was for them still a promise to be fulfilled.  And still is for us.  Perhaps we need to rethink the impact of John’s words, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life—and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was revealed to us—what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:1-3 NASB).

Topical Index: World to Come, Shabbat, guarantee, Berachos 57b, 1 John 1:1-3, Exodus 20:8

[1] Rabbi Michael L. Munk, The Wisdom in the Hebrew Alphabet: The Sacred Letters as a Guide to Jewish Deed and Thought (Mesorah Publications, Ltd., 1983), p. 110.