- No Sheol
Psalm 16.10
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell;
Neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
The amazing unconditional promise for our soul is that it won’t stay in Sheol/Hades (Hebrew and Greek for the Nether World). Many cultures throughout the ancient world believed in something after death. For the Hebrews and Greeks and others after death some shadowy existence continued in Sheol/Hades. The figures were called shades; they had some conscious awareness but very little that could be called lifen. No one knew much about it, but it was not pleasant even though it did not seem to be particularly painful either. Every dead soul, believer or unbeliever, went to the underworld along with the evil angels and demons of the devil, and the place was literally “under the earth.” Hints and glimpses of life with God in heaven was here and there in the OT but very little was given to go on. The concept of resurrection was rare and fleeting. Hope and belief in resurrection and afterlife grew until the time of Jesus, but it was dim, vague, uncertain and controversial. But that there was some kind of underworld called Sheol for souls after death was never doubted. English has no word for Sheol/Hades other than “hell,” so hell we must use.
Then out of the blue comes this remarkable promise in Psalm 16 v. 10, that God would not leave his soul in Sheol. Deliverance from this sort of shadowy, eternal prison was unheard of. That everyone would die and go to hell was assumed and never doubted; but that anyone could be delivered out of hell was not on anyone’s radar. Several times the Psalmist describes being delivered “from” death and Sheol but he had never quite entered into hell. “Out of” presumes one is already in hell and will be set free from its confines. This is the meaning of “not leave in.” Apparently the righteous souls in hell before Jesus went there were liberated from there to go to heaven; this happened during Jesus’ descent into hell. A portion of Hades was also called ‘Paradise,” or even “the Elysian Fields” in Classical literature. In this way and at this time the promise was fulfilled: Jesus descended into hell (the realm of the dead) to proclaim victory and liberate the captives. Ultimately, at the End, death and hell (hades/Sheol) gave up its dead and is cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death. (Revelation 20:13, 14)
Although we are not delivered “out of” hell, we are delivered “from” hell; we have abundant and certain promise that we shall not experience hell at all. However, what will happen to the body? It is buried or burned and awaits the resurrection of the body. However, one human body, and only one, called the Holy One, did not see corruption or decay. This incorruption of the body in the tomb is prophesied here in Psalm 16. According to Peter in Acts 2;31, David, the Psalmist and prophet, foresaw the resurrection of the Christ from the dead and that his body did not see corruption.
Though not here given as a promise for us, we know that the resurrection of our human body is a promise for us as it is for all human beings. The first resurrection is the resurrection of the body of Jesus; we who believe in Him have a part in His resurrection and are guaranteed that our body will rise again to eternal life and the second death has no power over us..
The deliverance of the soul from hell is promised to the faithful; the resurrection of the body is promised to the only Holy One, Messiah, in verse 10.