It's often said that the Old Testament only has hints of a belief in an afterlife. Passages like Psalm 22, Isaiah 53 and Daniel 12 speak of a resurrection for God's people, but not with the clarity of the New Testament.
Now, certainly, the wonderful hope that God's people will be bodily raised from the dead is articulated most clearly, vividly and beautifully in the New Testament, grounded in the fact God has already raised Jesus from the dead.
And, certainly, the New Testament does not invent this from thin air but the idea is seminally present in the Old Testament.
However the idea that after we die we do not cease to exist but go to a good future starts earlier than many realise.
I have recently preached through Genesis 48-50, and somehow failed to notice these amazing details in Genesis 49:28-33.
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel, and this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him. Then he gave them these instructions: ‘I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.’ When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
With Old Testament narrative, it always pays to notice the way events and people are labelled. Sometimes someone is called something different from their usual name. For instance, they may be described as "the son of N" even though their own name has been used throughout the narrative. Indeed, we get this here. Jacob is almost always "Jacob" in Genesis, even though God gave him the name "Israel". Yet in Genesis 49:28, he is called "Israel" presumably because he has just blessed the twelve tribes and not merely the twelve sons of the immediate generation.
The closing chapters of Genesis regularly speak of people dying. This goes back to the litany of Genesis 5, but we also have the statement that Rachel died (Genesis 48:7), and that Joseph died (Genesis 50:24-26). Here, in Genesis 49:29 and Genesis 49:33, it does not speak of Jacob dying but being "gathered to his fathers". Jacob's death is his reunification with Abraham and Isaac.
That alone hints to an afterlife hope. But what makes this even clearer is that this passage is about Jacob giving instructions that he is to be buried not in Egypt but in the burial chamber Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite. One would naturally expect his body being placed in the family tomb to be the moment where the family is reunited at last. But, no! Genesis 49:33 says that Jacob died, and while his body is still in his bed in downtown Goshen he "was gathered to his people". The family reunion happens at the moment of death, not when his body is laid to rest next to Isaac's.
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