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Death has its sting, Western society tries to avoid any realization of the limits of our lives. We try to cheat death, reverse the signs of aging, etc. The rituals of mourning like we see at the beginning of the Torah reading חיי שרה Chayei Sarah (“Sarah’s life,” Gen. 23:1–25:18) are not only for those who survive but they also help us look forward to the resurrection, where we have our hope.
The Egyptians loaded up the burial site of the deceased with that they would need for the afterlife, including food, chariots, gold, etc. but the Jewish and Eastern Orthodox do not do these things at all.
In the Jewish community these societies are called chevra kadisha (Aramaic for “holy society”).
The similarities between the Orthodox Jewish and Orthodox Christian burial process are very similar:
- Reading of the psalms in the presence of the deceased
- Bathing the body and washing hair
- Giving the deceased a final manicure, pedicure
- Drying and styling the hair
- Anointing the body with olive oil and essential oils
- Dressing the body in their “Sunday best” — dress the person as though they are being prepared to meet the King, because in reality, that is the next thing that will happen to them.
Baptized for the dead
We see in 1Cor. 15:13-32 New Testament justification for these respectful practices regarding the body of the recently deceased. When we are respectful with the final affairs of the dead, we are living out our faith of the resurrection. We are putting that faith into action.
“Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them?”
1Corinthians 15:29 NASB
The “baptism for the dead” is not an salvific act by one person for another. Rather as seen in the preserved tradition in Judaism, it is the bathing of the body of the deceased itself in preparation for burial (Acts 9:37; m.Shabbat 23:5). We are treating the person with respect because of the promise of and the hope in the Creator of Heaven and Earth.
We mourn and grieve the loss of companionship with our parents, siblings, friends and children. We have hope that the one who created us will resurrect all of us and that the separation, which seems permanent, is in fact, temporary and those compaionships will be restored.
“But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”
1Thessalonians 4:13–14 NASB
Death has no power over God. Rather, God is the one who has power over death, but as our culture has lost its faith in God, our world has also lost its hope. This is partly why practices such as cremation are so popular.
How many lives did Sarah live?
Jewish sages and rabbis noted on Genesis 23:1–2 that Sarah was one of a very few women’s whose age, death and burial were recorded in Scripture. Her age much have been recorded for a very important reason and generations of Jewish sages pondered the possible meaning of this piece of information.
Rabbi Akiva saw a parallel between Sarah’s 127-year life and the 127 provinces that Esther ruled as queen of Persia. He saw Sarah as “princess” of time and what happened in it, while Esther was a ruler over peoples and land.
The medieval sage Rashi riffed on the Hebrew construction of her age — “a hundred years and twenty years and seven years” — that this referred to different stages of Sarah’s life, the characteristics of which she carried with her from one to the next.
“It was written that way so each of the number’s three parts could be interpreted separately: At 100, Sarah was as free of sin as a 20–year-old (for a 20–year-old is not subject to punishment for sin); and at 20 she was as beautiful as a 7–year-old. Such were ‘the years of the life of Sarah’—all of them equally good.”
The Hebrew word for “life” is often rendered plural — חיים chaim/khaiyim — like “water” appears as the plural מים mayim. Here are the uses of the singular and plural forms in the TaNaKh (Torah, Prophets and Writings):
- חי chai = 122 hits
- חיים chaim = 130 hits
While it can be enlightening to think of Sarah’s age as communicating something spiritually, it’s important to remember the Pashat (basic) level of reading Gen. 23:1: Large Hebrew numbers often are rendered additively — “W thousands and X hundreds and Y tens and Z,” or sometimes in reverse order — as seen in Sarah’s age at death.
But one can easily see that Sarai and Sarah were two “lives” for that important matriarch, as were the “lives” of Abram and Abraham, Ya’akob and Israel, Shimon (Simon) and Peter (Tzur in Hebrew), and Sha’ul and Paul.
Indeed, it’s important to see our lives as B.P. (Before Passover) and A.P. (After Passover), when Heaven delivered us from our house of bondage to life “far off.”
Patterns of Pesakh (Passover)
Pesakh is an annual memorial of a singular time when God freed Israel from the “house of bondage” in Mitzraim (Egypt) under Moshe’s leadership.
- Greater Exodus: “forget the former things” (Isaiah 43:18–19; Jeremiah 23:5–8).
- And when we overcome, we get a new name, one that only we know (Revelation 2:17; 3:11–12).
When we read through the book of Revelation, there’s one important truth to keep in mind:
History never repeats itself, but it rhymes.
John Robert Colombo, “A Said Poem,” 1970, attributing the quip to Mark Twain
Thus the Heaven-directed motifs (repeated patterns) of the lives of Israel’s patriarchs (e.g., Abraham’s and Isaac’s claims that their wives were their sisters to avoid being murdered for their spouses’ great beauty) and Israel itself (e.g., descent and deliverance from bondage) are reminders for us to learn the causes and solutions.
So in Revelation, we read that there will be call on the Day of the LORD that “Babylon is fallen” (Rev. 14:8; 18:2; cf. Isa. 21:9; Jer. 51:8, 47, 49) and “come out of her, My people” (Rev. 18:4–5).
When those called by God leave Babylon, we have to be in tune with the Creator of Heaven and Earth. We don’t want to be lead away by someone we don’t know. The Messiah came as “the end of the law” which means He is the one who allows us to see where we are going, what is up ahead of us in our journey of faith. The Law shows us why Messiah is needed. He is not a mere “plot twist” to keep our attention. He is the essential part of the Law. Without Him, there is no real purpose to the Law.
David gets cold feet; Adonijah gets a hot head (1Kings 1:1-18)
Just like Yitzkhak rather than Yishmael was the chosen successor of Abraham, Solomon was the chosen successor for David over Adoniyah (Adonijah). The leadership of Israel made the same mistake with Adoniyah as they had with Sha’ul, gravitating to the most attractive person, rather than reflecting on the what’s right.
In our day, salespeople, media personalities, etc. have that combination beauty, confidence and authority to attach attention and an audience. TV anchors are trained to speak with the lower end of their vocal range to give an air of authority and honesty in the delivery of information. Adonijah appears to have that as well.
The kingdom of God, on the other hand, is not about glitzy packaging but about Torah, the Word made flesh and living up to those standards.
Interestingly, Abishag was picked to “warm” David for her beauty, not for her healing skills or other merits.
David’s wavering (indifference) over Absolom and Adoniyah and Shlomo’s supporters having to intervene to put the right person on the throne have hints of the wavering of Yitzkak over Eysau and Rivkah’s maneuvering to put Ya’akob in the right position.
Sadly, Adoniyah didn’t live up to his name, “My lord is Yah.” Instead, Adoniyah was his own lord.
Today, we can get worked up over who is in this or that public office. Our choices do have consequences, but ultimately, God is the one who puts up and takes down kings (Dan. 2:21). However, we have to make sure that when we support a leader that we are supporting their ideas, rather than the person himself. We want to avoid idolizing our leaders.
Adonijah had gathered a cult of personality around himself. Even some of the leaders of the people had supported his efforts to take the throne away from his own father.
“… in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution …”
Thomas Jefferson, Oct. 4, 1798, draft of the Kentucky Resolution, on restraints of the power of the president following the Alien and Sedition Acts, National Archive (founders.archive.gov)
The U.S. Constitution purposefully limits the power of the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches to discourage tyrants from getting power, because the founders knew the wicked hearts of mankind needed to be kept in check . If we get too attached to a particular person, rather than the ideas we are fighting for, we can get dragged into a cult of personality.
Summary: Tammy