Isaiah 38:17-19 (ESV)
17 Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18 For Sheol does not thank you; death does not praise you; those who go down to the pit do not hope for your faithfulness.
19 The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.
God is not dead! Only the living can praise Him! Is anything, including death mightier than God? How could death—or any other “enemy”—be stronger than “God Almighty”? according to 1 Corinthians 15:26, Death, shall be destroyed. God has the power to undo death by the resurrection, and he promises to do just that in his new world.
The loss of friends and loved ones invokes thoughts of the frailty of life and humanity that causes us to hope or at least wish for life beyond death.
In Mexico, they celebrate the Day of the Dead, on November 1st, a mix of traditions stemming from the Aztec civilization and All Souls Day in Catholicism. It is a family gathering to pray for the dead. The unsaved dead are eternally lost to God, and nothing can change their status, even prayer; hence God has no desire for any to die in sin says Ezekiel 18:32.
God is the God of the living and not of the dead. To God, no human being is dead, or ever will be but all sustain an abiding conscious relation to Him according to Luke 20:38.
The dead cannot praise God, their earthly journey is over, and their light has gone out for any physical activity.
Hezekiah regarded the disembodied state of man as one incapable of declaring the praises of God, he sees the grave as an unseen land of stillness; he states that only “the living” can praise God on earth.
The grave is the richest, most diverse, and static place in the universe, the earthly final place of every living being, the point of no return. Hezekiah came to understand after his sickness and recovery that God alone has power over life and death.
Scripture affirms the afterlife and the resurrection of the dead in Daniel 12:2 and Luke 16:19–31, but it does not give us details about what resurrected life will be like.
1 John 3:2 says we will be like Christ, but even he does not relay much about our resurrected state, writing that what we will be, will be complete without sin after His return.
The lack of specific information about our post-resurrection state, however, has not stopped people from speculating about the afterlife. People often assume that life in the world to come will be just like life on the present earth, only better. We tend to think it will differ from our life now only in degree, not in kind.
Deuteronomy 5:26 refers to the Lord as the “living God” not only because He is the only God who is alive—the other gods being dead because they do not truly exist as gods—but also because He is the God of the living. God’s relationship to His people does not end at their death, for they live on to worship Him in heaven according to John 10:28.
Jeremiah 10:10 says God is without beginning, and without end. This is true of no other god.
He is the living God and gives life to all. He is the very Fountain whence all life is obtained.
The dead in the grave is shadowy in existence, lacking hope, and can no longer praise God.
Praise the Lord whilst you still can.
Shalom