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“… SO HE GIVETH HIS BELOVED SLEEP”(Psalm 127:2)

When a loved one dies, those of us left behind need to have the comforting knowledge that our God is “… not the God of the dead, but the God of the living …” (Mark 12:27).

He giveth his beloved sleep. The dead in Christ are in fact asleep in Jesus!

The truth is recorded in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, “… I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Be assured that only the body is asleep. Only the body is subject to death and corruption. According to 1 Corinthians 15, the body will be changed and raised. It is sown (buried) a natural body; it will be raised a spiritual body, putting on immortality, death being then swallowed up in victory!

1 Corinthians 15 unfolds the truth of resurrection. “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” (vv. 17-20).
1 Corinthians 15 tells us the fact of Christ’s resurrection, the importance of His resurrection, the order of the resurrections, the method of resurrection and finally in verse 51, it is then said, “… we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”

The soul and spirit are not asleep, but fully conscious being “Absent from the body … present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). The Lord said to the repentant thief who was crucified beside Him, “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:7, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God, who gave it.”

When Jesus “… yielded up the ghost … the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose” (Matthew 27:50-52).

There were three persons that had died, who were raised by the Lord Jesus Christ when He was on earth, they were:

1. Jairus’ twelve year old daughter.

In Matthew 9:24, Jesus said, “… for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth.”

Mark 5:39 says, “Why make ye this ado, and weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.”

Finally in Luke 8:52 and 54, it is recorded, “… weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth … And [He] took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise.”

2. The Widow of Nain’s son.

This is recorded in Luke 7:11-15 only: “… And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, arise.” In the original Greek language, it is recorded thus: “Youth, wake up!” Whether it be “arise” or “wake up,” it would imply that he was simply asleep.

3. Lazarus.

This too is only recorded once, in John 11:11: “… [Jesus] saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.”

In connection with David, it is recorded in Acts 13:36, “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers ….”

In connection with Moses, when the Lord was telling him that he must die, it is recorded in Deuteronomy 31:16, God said, “Thou shalt sleep with thy fathers ….”

Further, it is recorded concerning Stephen, when he was stoned and martyred, he called upon God, saying, “… Lord Jesus, receive my spirit … when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:59,60).

When there must be discipline in the Church, it is said of those not discerning the Lord’s body, “For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep” (1 Corinthians 11:29,30).

Even the mockers in the last day acknowledge that there is no death for a believer; their words are, “… For since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2 Peter 3:4).

Our Savior, Jesus Christ, has abolished death! He has “… brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him” (1 Thessalonians 5:9,10).

Our Lord, in John 11:26, said, “And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. Believest thou this?”

So to His very own beloved, when they pass through death, Jesus has promised “… If a man keep My saying, he shall never see death” (John 8:51), and further, “If a man keep My saying, he shall never taste of death” (John 8:52). We perhaps see our loved one die, but be assured, they never see nor taste death,”

“He giveth His beloved sleep.”

Love in Christ,
Julia Parker

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15)

“As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied, when I AWAKE, with Thy likeness” (Psalm 17:15)

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