2:3 “I cried by reason of man’s affliction, unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of the hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.”
We should see that in death there is no loss of memory, but total recall of all things. The rich man who died and lifted up his eyes in hell not only knew Abraham and Lazarus but he remembered his living brethren. Our Lord Jesus in death recalls all that He has had to pass through, how all the billows and the waves of the flood tide of the wrath of God against sin swept over Him. There is a bitterness of soul in the cry, a glad confession of loneliness in the fact that God hears Him in the belly of hell. The author of eternal life lies in death, His trust stayed yet in the Lord His God. The soul in death forgets nothing of life, but by its very remembering makes death more terrible still. If all we have done in life, or neglected to do, is remembered by us in death, how glad then we will be to know that God has not forsaken us. We will await the resurrection with longing eagerness, we will look for the Lord’s return as prisoners await the day of their release. Our spirits will be with God, our souls must go into the place of death to await His coming and our resurrection. If then we do remember that we were sent to preach repentance to the wicked but we disobeyed God and fled from His presence in our lifetime, how exceedingly bitter will our recollection be in the place of death. The Lord is recalling Calvary in Jonah’s prayer, He is in the kingdom of death, awaiting His resurrection as we must do.
2:4 “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.”
Death removes us from the scene of life, so that we may indeed say, I am cast out of thy sight. The Lord on the Cross was forsaken. But that is not the end. God has said to us, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee, and so we go into death with a confident hope that we will again look toward the temple. The holy temple spoken of here is the body of Jesus which He will reinhabit at the end of the three days and three nights. He looks forward to it in the place of death. We too will have holy temples to look forward to, bodies of resurrection like unto His glorious body, for we shall see Him as He is. But we will have an even more wonderful temple to look forward to, the temple of God in the holy city, New Jerusalem, where the streets are paved with gold and the gates of the city are pearls, and nothing sinful or defiling can ever enter there. It is our glorious hope, prepared for us by our Lord Himself. He could look forward in death to an imminent return to His own holy temple, but we must look forward in death to a new temple. If there is remembrance in death there is also hope in death. There is hope in death for all who die in Christ, who trust God, who look for the resurrection. But for them who die without hope – how terrible that is! Should we forbear to cry unto them in life, “Repent,” as God directs us?
