The Resurrection of the Sleeping Saints
The voice of the Son of God is heard calling forth the sleeping saints and, as the prophet beholds them coming from the prison house of death, he exclaims, “Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew is as the dew of the herbs, and the earth shall cast forth her dead.” “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing” (Isaiah 26:19; 35:5-6).
In the visions of the prophet, those who have triumphed over sin and the grave are now seen happy in the presence of their Maker, talking freely with Him. “Be glad - the Lord bids them to rejoice forever in that which I create, Jerusalem will be a rejoicing and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. The inhabitants shall not say, ‘I am sick’; the people therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.
In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and from the thirsty land springs water. And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called ‘The way of holiness’. The unclean shall not pass over it; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord’s hand, double for all her sins (Isaiah 65:18-19; 33:24; 35:6-7; 55:13; 35:8; 40:2).
Bro Melusi Ndlovu (Kwekwe, Zimbabwe)