LEAH FARISH|GUEST

Abraham was called to leave his birth-land and go to a new place, to be the father and founder of a great nation.  After a long life on this mission, he “died in a good old age” (Genesis 25:8).  Then Scripture says he was “gathered to his people” (Gen. 25:8).  What people?  He was the first of a new people.  True, his wife Sarah had preceded him in death, but that’s not much of a crowd awaiting him on the other side.  He was buried far from his earthly relatives, so the phrase doesn’t just refer to being buried in a family cemetery.

Quickly we wade into theological depths I am not able to navigate.  But what’s clear is that Abraham was gathered to people who are alive in God.  Isaac and Jacob are also said to have been “gathered to [their] people.”

Much later, Jesus was talking to the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in the resurrection, in Luke 20:38.  He said that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.  Then He followed with a surprising statement: God is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” All three were dead at the time!  The Pharisees twice said that Abraham was dead (John 8:52-53).  Why didn’t He say, “God is the God of you, and me, and Caesar, and the shopkeeper over there”?   Instead, Jesus explained this paradox to the confused Sadducees in Luke 20:38: “for to God all are alive.”  These are the people Jesus calls “sons of the resurrection,” who “cannot die anymore” (Luke 20:36).  These are our people.

We believers are members of a people, some of whom live this side of death on their way to glory, and some rejoicing on the far shore.  Hymn writers and preachers have derived comfort for centuries from this truth.

One pastor-poet described an imagined walk into heaven:

“…Every step
Some fondly loved familiar face was seen,
Whom I had known in pilgrim days unchanged,
And yet all bright with one similitude:
One Lord had look’d on them.”

Perhaps the writer was thinking of I Corinthians 15:49: “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”

Last year I was talking with a godly man who was close to death and whose sufferings had taught him much. (As Scripture would say, his outer man was decaying, but his inner man was being renewed.)  Heaven looked very near to him, and he said, “I almost feel that the people in heaven are more like me than the ones I am leaving behind.”  He yearned to be there, to be with “his people,” the ones who had seen Him face to face, who were living “the life that is truly life.”

As I John says, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

Whether in this earthly body or apart from “this mortal tent” (2 Cor. 5:4), God is one, who is preparing us, and preparing a place to be with all our people: the truly living.

How do we prepare to be with our people forever? Paul instructed Timothy: “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life” (I Tim. 6:18-19, NIV).  In numerous Old and New Testament verses, living an obedient life of holiness is mentioned in connection with being God’s people (for example, Jer. 7:23, 2 Chron. 7:14, Lev. 20:26, Col. 3:12, Eph. 5:3). In doing this, we will become “their people,” for other saints, and for Jesus, “My people.”

This life of holiness won’t be popular with worldly folks. I recall a flamboyant picture of a woman in a large, ornate hat with the caption: “You will be too much for some people. These are not your people.” Just a few verses before Abraham’s death is described, Scripture says that Ishmael, not a son of the promise, was “gathered to his people.” I’m pretty sure that they are different people from Abraham’s.

Jesus, with “the power of an indestructible life,” has made a new people possible. Romans 9:25-26 says, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and he who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’  And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God’” (emphasis mine).  According to Revelation 5:9, all this has been accomplished through Christ’s death and resurrection: “And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.’”

Let us rejoice that we are God’s people!

Photo by Meredith Spencer on Unsplash