Where did Abraham go when he died? How about Noah? Or David?
We tend to immediately think, “Heaven, of course” but an interesting problem arises when you consider what Jesus accomplished on the Cross - namely, the payment for the debt of our sins. So what about the people who died before that “payment” was made?
We know that Old Testament believers were saved by faith, just as we are, with the distinction that their faith was in a Saviour who was to come whereas ours in in the Saviour who has come - Jesus the Messiah. This is why David, a man who catastrophically failed countless vital areas of the Old Testament Law, still enjoys the legacy of being a man after God’s own heart (see Acts 13:22).
Jesus speaks to this issue in John 3:13, when He tells Nicodemus:
No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man…
Jesus explicitly states that, at that moment in time (around 31 A.D.), no one had yet “ascended to heaven”besides Himself (“the Son of Man”).
So where did they go? Let’s dig into the Bible and find some answers…
Firstly, it’s helpful to know that when you see the word “Hades” in the Bible, it does not refer to the Greek mythological version of Hell. The term “Hades”, in the Bible, simply means “death”.
Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, this dimension of Hades (death), was divided into two places:
Those who rejected God and His promise of coming salvation through a Messiah were sent to Hell and those who had faith in God were sent to a place called “The Bosom of Abraham” (yes, I’m aware that sounds like a shady nightclub for Orthodox Jews but stay with me on this).
We need to take a detour to Luke 16 to discover how we know this. This is where Jesus tells the parable of “The Rich Man and Lazarus”.
2 things to keep in mind:
1) It’s widely believed that this is not the same Lazarus that Jesus raised from the dead but rather another man with the same name.
2) This parable is taking place before Jesus dies on the Cross, so He’s giving us an insight into the afterlife before His death on the Cross (which radically changed things).
Let’s read verses 19-31:
“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
“Then he cried and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.’
“Then he said, ‘I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.’ Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ But he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead.’”
We clearly see the Rich Man, who rejected God, in active torment.
We also see Lazarus, the poor man, who had faith in God, and is in a pleasant place.
And there is nothing either one of them can do to cross the gulf that divides them.
Notice that the Rich Man begs Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn his 5 brothers about the reality of life after death. This tells us that this Hades and The Bosom of Abraham exist in real-time – parallel to our own world’s time continuum.
The Bosom of Abraham was the destination of every believer who died before Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Scriptures imply that Abraham was in charge of this place, which is interesting because Abraham’s legacy is that he is the “Father of the Faith”.
The phrase “the Bosom of Abraham” was used to describe this place not only because of Abraham’s status and presence but also to conjure up the image of somebody being comforted by having their head held against another person’s chest.
But why did anyone need the comfort of Abraham in this pleasant place?
Because of the unresolved issue of their sin at that time, they were unable to enter the presence of God. Their sin had not yet been paid for by Jesus on the Cross. So they were placed in this “holding place” to await the time when the blood of Jesus would cover their sins and make a way for them to ascend to God’s eternal presence.
Hebrews 11:13 speaks of the faith that saved Old Testament believers:
These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Jesus laid down His life and in His death, provided what only He could - the perfect sacrifice, sufficient to cover all sin, for all time, for anyone who would receive Him as Saviour. It was a Day of Atonement that reached back to the original sin in Eden and reaches forward to the end of the earth as we know it.
During the three days Jesus spent in the grave, what was He doing? Where did He go?
One of the places was The Bosom of Abraham.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison… - 1 Peter 3:18-19
In Ephesians 4:8-10 (ESV), Paul quotes Psalm 68 and elaborates…
Therefore it says,
"When he ascended on high,
he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men."
(In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
You’ll notice that whenever Heaven (the place where God dwells) is referenced in the Bible, it is always given the directional association of “up”. So where Jesus went was not “up” but “down” – to the dimension of Hades.
And Jesus lead forth this “host of captives” up to Heaven and into the presence of God because the sacrifice had now been made that made a way for their sins to be covered.
And now the Bosom of Abraham is as empty as the grave they placed Jesus in.
We Will Fail God
January 14, 2021