And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel 12:2
Where John and I played as boys on the banks of a ravine in River John was an old cemetery, with old mossy tombstones whose writing was sometimes hard to understand. An old lady who lived nearby expressed her concern about that cemetery, because it was too close to the banks of the ravine and some of the graves were in danger of tumbling into the creek as the ravine walls eroded year by year. Old cemeteries sometimes get forgotten or neglected as people abandon communities, and there are many people buried in graves that do not even have any markers. Even so, vast amounts of land in this world is set aside for the bodies of those who have gone before, and almost every culture on earth has some form of honour for the burial places of the dead. But someday, every grave, forgotten or marked with great monument, will be emptied as the dead, small and great, stand before God.
Daniel speaks of those who sleep in the dust of the earth. The God Who raised up dust to be Adam’s frame will again raise up the dust of Adam’s descendents. Our text does not make it clear that there will be two very different times of awakening, but it does make it clear that there will be two very different forms of awakening. As old as some of earth’s graves are, and as forgotten as most of them probably are, these graves are only a temporary sleeping place for mortal bodies that perish because of sin. Resurrections, one of the just, the other of the unjust, will mark the end of sleep and the beginning of eternal occupation. We rejoice that we are to be in the resurrection of the just. We pity those who await the resurrection of the unjust.
The eternal life we await means life with our Lord, and to forever praise Him for His grace. The shame and everlasting contempt that the unsaved await means endless pain, sorrow, and loss. This is what we deserved, but grace has spared us. This is what the unsaved will surely be surprised to find, or else they had sought a refuge while in life and health. They must face the shame of standing at the White Throne to face judgment for sins that were already judged at Calvary. They must bear the everlasting contempt of a God Who loved them with an everlasting love.
What a stark difference between the saved and lost! Can we refrain from praising God for His salvation? Can we refrain from pleading with others to accept the gift of God? -Jim MacIntosh