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Isaiah 57:1-2-The righteous perishes, And no man takes it to heart; Merciful men are taken away, While no one considers That the righteous is taken away from evil. 2 He shall enter into peace; They shall rest in their beds, Each one walking in his uprightness.
One of the great truths of the Bible is that there is conscious existence that continues after death. For the child of God, this is a reminder of the hope that we have in the face of death. Isaiah the Prophet describes how when a righteous person dies, he continues “walking in his uprightness.” Oswalt tells us:
“Here the sense would be that the righteous are being taken out of the society by God because of the increasing evil in the society and the evil end to which it is rushing. The typical usage of this compound preposition seems to favor the latter interpretation (cf. 20:6; 30:11; Gen. 7:7; Hos. 11:2; etc.). Evil has become so rampant in the society and its end is so near that God in his mercy is removing the righteous from it….The righteous will be taken away from the fragmented and evil society in which they live to a condition of harmony, serenity, and completeness. 69 They will rest on their beds. 70 Is this merely the sleep of death, or is something more intended? 71 Both the reference to peace and the reference to the righteous one as a person who walks in his uprightness suggest something more in the nature of a reward than the grim place described in ch. 14. It appears that the prophet thinks of those who have been righteous and faithful as being taken from this world to a better place where the unnoticed lives they lived here will be rewarded.” (John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 40–66 (The New International Commentary on the Old Testament), 470-471 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)
Those of us who are “left behind” when a saved loved one dies may rest assured that they are continuing with the Lord in a realm where their suffering has ended. They await that Day when God’s people will be joined together in sweet reunion, never to be parted again.
Thanks, Lord, for Your grace. Amen.