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A Prophetic Mini-Study
About Abraham’s Bosom
By Gary Stearman It begins with the Fall of Man, the event “And now art thou cursed from the
which established the Genesis prophecy. earth, which hath opened her mouth to re-
Someone asked a question the other day. The Lord, speaking to Adam, had earlier ceive thy brother’s blood from thy hand”
If started one of those discussions that led issued a commandment: “But of the tree of (Gen. 4:10,11).
to several more unanswered questions. It the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt From this, we must reason that the Lord
centered around the term “Abraham’s bo- not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest had accepted Abel’s blood as righteous,
som,” as used by Jesus in Luke 16:22, to thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17). and therefore his life as righteous. Though
describe the disposition of the righteous Both Adam and Eve ate the forbidden he had a sin nature, as did his father, Abel’s
dead under the Abrahamic Covenant of the fruit, and lived on, Adam dying at the age faith had been rewarded. He was not lost,
Old Testament. of 930. It is generally taught that God had but saved.
Here’s the question, and some of those originally intended for them to live for- Adam and Eve’s next child was named
that followed it: What happened to those ever. But their disobedience, as promised, Seth, which means “replacement.” Abel,
who died before Abraham? Since those resulted in their physical deaths. The ques- now deceased, was replaced by Seth. The
born before Abraham (around 2000 B.C.) tion is, did they die spiritual deaths? ungodly line of Cain continued alongside
would have been ignorant of the Covenant Their first child, Cain, became a farmer, the godly line of Seth, who became the pa-
of Promise, upon what basis were they who brought his produce for an offering to triarch of the pure lineage that extended all
saved? And why isn’t the term “Adam’s the Lord. Their second child, Abel, was a the way to the days of Noah and the great
bosom,” used to describe the redeemed shepherd, who brought the choicest lambs Flood.
before Abraham? Was redemption even of his flock. As is well known, the Lord re- “But Noah found grace in the eyes of
possible before Abraham? What, then, was ceived this latter sacrifice, while rejecting the LORD.
the spiritual disposition of those who lived Cain’s vegetable offering. “These are the generations of Noah:
and died between Adam and the institution This established the origin of the blood Noah was a just man and perfect in his
of the Abrahamic Covenant? sacrifice, later instituted in the Law of generations, and Noah walked with God”
To answer this question, we will begin Moses. How did Abel know that the Lord (Gen. 6:8,9).
with the oldest Messianic prophecy in the required a blood sacrifice? The answer to Here, we see that Noah was a “just
Bible: this question is not specifically given, but man.” That is, he was considered righteous
“And I will put enmity between thee and we must assume that Adam, who talked — he was saved by faith in the Lord. The
the woman, and between thy seed and her with God both before and after his great same was true of his family, all of whom
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou sin, must have been told what was pleas- were saved and carried through the Flood
shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). ing to God, and passed that information on aboard the ark. His son Shem fathered the
This prophecy foresees the virgin birth to his sons. line that came down to Abram.
of Christ, whose genealogy, as given by It is often forgotten that only after their Thus, we see a righteous lineage from
Matthew, extends back to Abraham. This, fall and Divine chastisement, did Adam Adam to Abram, who became Abraham.
His genealogy of royal lineage on Joseph’s name his wife, “Eve,” which means “life,” That line was to continue all the way down
side (Matthew 1:1-17), is given for the since “…she was the mother of all living” to Jesus. It has been called, “The Scarlet
purpose of showing that Jesus descends (Gen. 3:20). From this pronouncement Thread of Redemption,” representing the
from the first Hebrew, through the house alone, we observe that death, the physical human bloodline that would culminate in
of King David and the royal line of Judah. consequence of the Fall, did not necessar- Christ’s own blood, shed for humanity’s
On the other side of His family, Christ’s ily mean spiritual death. redemption.
genealogy of legal lineage is given in Luke Cain chose to go his own way, and re- The inheritors of the righteous lineage
3:23-38. It extends all the way back to acted to the Lord’s rejection of his offering from Adam to Abram formed the begin-
Adam, and is given to demonstrate legal with rage and jealousy. He killed Abel and ning of the Messianic line that ultimately
primogeniture (the inheritance right of the for that, was cursed. His descendants were brought forth the House of David and, fi-
first-born child). It, too, comes through the infamous for their wickedness. Assuming nally, Jesus. The bloodline from Adam to
House of David, and is given to document that the women in Noah’s household were Jesus was the slender thread by which hu-
Jesus’ blood title to the throne through all from the line of Seth, Cainite civiliza- manity clung to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Mary. The Gospel of Luke carefully docu- tion was wiped out in Noah’s Flood. Then and now, faith in that shed blood is
ments the virgin birth and early life of Je- Abel, however, had found favor in the the only way to salvation.
sus, in fulfillment of Genesis 3:15. eyes of the Lord, who spoke to Cain to in- This brings us back to the initial ques-
It must be emphasized that this latter form him that his brother’s blood cried out tion: Where did they go when they died?
genealogy goes all the way back to Adam. for vengeance: The Bible does not give us that detail.
This being the case, we must establish the “And he said, What hast thou done? the But we do know that the line from Seth
legal basis for Jesus’ claim to be the prom- voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me to Noah was considered Godly. Noah
ised King. from the ground. worshiped God after the Flood, and God
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made a covenant with him. His son Shem Here, the word “gathered” is a transla- It is also used of John, and his close re-
fathered the Godly line that came down to tion of the Hebrew asaf [;xt], meaning, lationship with Jesus:
Abraham. “to take up into association with others.” “Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bo-
The first time the Bible actually de- These, of course, would be his righteous som one of his disciples, whom Jesus
scribes the destination of a righteous man, progenitors who had lived, died and gone loved” (John. 13:23).
following his death, is seen in the life of Ja- to sheol long before Abraham was ever Since the term “Abraham’s bosom” in-
cob, the patriarch of Israel. He once made born. vokes the name of Abraham, the first He-
a comment about what he expected to hap- There is no reason to believe that the brew, it is a term specific to the Israelites.
pen after he died. His favored son, Joseph, generations of the righteous who lived But before that, the righteous dead from
had been sold into Egyptian slavery by his prior to Abraham, had any different ex- Adam onward had also gone to the same
brothers, who then falsely reported to their pectation about an afterlife than he did. place, since there is no reason to believe
father that he was dead, eaten by a wild “Abraham’s bosom,” a later term, simply that sheol was created specifically for the
animal. Jacob was inconsolable: refers to the place of the righteous that al- line of Abraham’s descendants. It must,
“And all his sons and all his daughters ready existed from the days of Adam and therefore, have existed since the beginning
rose up to comfort him; but he refused to Seth. There, they had awaited their final of humankind.
be comforted; and he said, For I will go disposition, until the coming death, burial It exists today. Since Christ’s resurrec-
down into the grave unto my son mourn- and resurrection of Jesus. After Abraham’s tion, the righteous dead have gone to be
ing. Thus his father wept for him” (Gen. arrival, they had lived in close relationship with Him. The lost still go to the under-
37:35). with him. The idea of “bosom” simply re- world … sheol … or, to use its New Testa-
Here, we discover Jacob’s expecta- fers to intimacy, as in a hug or embrace. ment name, hades. There, they await the
tion after death was to “go down into the It is used in this way to describe the re- final judgment.
grave.” This is the first time that this term lationship between Jesus and His Father: Abraham’s faith was in the “seed” – Je-
is used in the Bible. Here, the word for “No man hath seen God at any time; sus Christ – long before He ever inhabited
“grave” is the Hebrew sheol, commonly the only begotten Son, which is in the bo- this Earth. Many generations before Abra-
believed to be “the underworld.” This is som of the Father, he hath declared him” ham, the Lord had promised that coming
the place referred to throughout the Old (John. 1:18). seed … the seed of the woman. u
Testament as the place of waiting in the
afterlife. It has two compartments – one
for the righteous and one for the wicked.
Note that Jacob did not refer to the place
as “Abraham’s bosom,” even though
Abraham had already passed on.
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That term is never used in the Old Tes- Watch us on the
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tament. In fact, Jesus is the only one who
used it, as recorded by Luke:
“And it came to pass, that the beggar
died, and was carried by the angels into
Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died,
and was buried;
“And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in
torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom” (Luke 16:22,23).
Here, in the words of Jesus, we see the
two compartments of sheol. There is noth-
ing in the Bible that tells us that this same
condition in sheol didn’t exist before Abra-
ham. In fact, it must have existed before
he lived, since there were many righteous
men who lived before him. So this place in
the underworld must have existed before
he lived, and we have no reason to believe
that it functioned any differently before his
life than after his death. Angel One - Channel 262
Where did Abraham go when he died?
The Genesis account of his death perfectly Thursdays 3:00 AM (CT)
answers this question:
“And these are the days of the years of &
Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred
threescore and fifteen years.
“Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and
CTN - Channel 267
died in a good old age, an old man, and
full of years; and was gathered to his peo-
Saturdays 1:30 PM (CT)
ple” (Gen. 25:7,8).
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