One of my favorite Old Testament passages is Job crying: “Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book! That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever! For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

Just like biblically misinformed people will tell you hell is strictly a New Testament “device,” they’ll tell you the “concept” of bodily resurrection doesn’t come on the scene until Christ.

The fact is, the word redeem (in its various forms) appears 139 times in the Old Testament and only 22 times in the New Testament.

In one of the most plainly stated Old Testament verses on resurrection, Daniel 12:2 reads, “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.”

Similarly, Isaiah 26:19 states, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.”

David prays in Psalms 17, “Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
[14] From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.
[15] As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”

Jordan explains, “Notice what David says about himself so clearly: ‘I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.’ David’s saying, ‘In spite of all the persecution, my hope is I’m going to be resurrected. I’m going into the kingdom. I’m going to get my portion, Lord, because you’ll give it to me.’ ”

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As Bible scholar Charles Baker writes in his 1994 book A Dispensational Theology, “The valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37) has been interpreted both as a resurrection of the bodies of the Israelites and as a national restoration. Whichever is the correct interpretation, the idea of a bodily resurrection is plainly taught.”

Baker makes the point that while most world religions teach the existence of the soul after death, the Bible is unique in its teaching of the resurrection of the body.

He explains, “Many religions have taught that the body is a prison of the soul, that the body is evil, that it is the cause of sin, and that redemption consists in being freed from the body.

“All of this is contrary to scriptural teaching concerning man. Apart from his body, man is an incomplete being. God’s salvation provides redemption not only for the soul, but for the body also.”

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Baker continues, “That the Greeks were ignorant of the idea of resurrection is seen from the fact that Paul preached Jesus and Anastasis (Acts 17:18) and the Greeks supposed that Anastasis was another god; for they said: ‘He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods.’

“Even the apostles did not appear to understand much about the resurrection at first, for as they came down from the mount of transfiguration Jesus told them to tell no man what they had seen until He was risen from the dead, and they questioned ‘with one another what the rising from the dead should mean.’ (Mark 9:10)

“The Sadducees denied both resurrection and the existence of the spirit (Matthew 22:23-31; Mark 12:18-23; Luke 20:27-36; Acts 23:8). Apparently (though), the great majority of the Jews of Christ’s day believed in the resurrection of the body.

“When Jesus told Martha that her brother would rise again, she replied: ‘I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” (John 11:24).”

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On this same subject, here’s a great passage from Jordan: “Christ rests by faith in His Father’s word to Him. The Father had said He would raise Him from the dead. That’s why in Luke 24, Christ opens to (the disciples) the Scripture that they might understand how Christ had to suffer and be raised again.

“That’s why in Acts 1, He spends 40 days with the apostles teaching them the details of all these things; opening the Scriptures and showing them. That’s why in Acts 1, Peter can quote over there in Psalms some little obscure verse and say, ‘This is a reference to Judas Iscariot.’ No Hebrew commentator had ever known that!

“Peter could go back and quote the Psalms and say that David prophesied of the Messiah and it was really Christ to whom God was saying, ‘I will not leave your soul in hell and your flesh shall not see corruption.’

“God had spoken to Adam about resurrection and Christ says on the Cross before He gave up the ghost, ‘Into your hands I’m gonna rest by faith in your safekeeping, understanding the purpose and the program.’ ”