Lesson 7
How should we view death: As an evil or as a blessing? In our culture today there are different views on what happens to us when we die. Most often people talk of going to heaven or hell at the moment they die. In ancient Israel the choice was not heaven or hell, but life or death.
Although death is common destiny for all humans, biblical writers considered it to be an evil. All who die go to the same place, which in Hebrew is called Sheol or the abode of the dead. Job 3:13-19 gives a description of that place. Humans and animals, rich and poor, wise and fool, strong and weak, all go to the same place. There is, however, a promise in the Bible that at the end of earth’s history, death, “the last enemy” will be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26).