The Old Testament's Foundational Teachings Concerning Resurrection on the Third Day (Part III)

We will examine stories in the Old Testament pertaining to literal resurrections to see if we can learn messianic truths that teach us about the death and resurrection of Yeshua on the third day.

I have two major goals in this series of articles. First, I want to show the abundance of teachings contained in the Tanakh (Old Testament) concerning the resurrection of Yeshua on the third day. Secondly, I want to demonstrate how important it is to study, know and understand the Tanakh in order to appreciate and better understand the Apostolic writings. With that in mind let’s continue our study of how the Tanakh teaches us about Yeshua’s resurrection on the third day.

In the first article of this series we learned about the Sign of the Messiah, a teaching from the Tanakh which helps us know when a passage has messianic significance. We learned that often, when we see the number 3, 30, 300 3,000, etc., it’s a hint that we are reading messianic prophecy. This is true because the Bible uses numbers to teach us various lessons. The number 3 is the number Adonai (the Lord) has chosen to teach us about resurrection. And it’s the Tanakh which establishes this foundation. Adonai is keenly interested in teaching us about the work of the Messiah. To that end, He often uses numbers to drive home the message.

The first passage I want to examine comes from I Kings 17:17-21:

. . . 20 Then he cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” 21 And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” 22 Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived . . .

This is our first example of a literal resurrection. It involves the resurrection of the widow of Zarephath’s son. The first observation I’d like to make is that this is the literal, bodily resurrection of a dead person. It should make sense that we could learn something about Yeshua’s resurrection from bodily resurrections in the Tanakh. Therefore, this observation is important in that it establishes a thematic connection to Yeshua’s bodily resurrection. Also, notice the phrase,

and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived (I Kings 17:22b)

Again, this phrase supports the fact that this is a bodily resurrection where the soul or life force is returning to a corpse to bring it to life.

The second observation I’d like to make pertains to the number of times Elijah stretched himself over the woman’s son - 3. Because we are approaching Scripture from a thematic perspective, we make as many observations as we can, knowing that Adonai establishes relationships between concepts. In this case, a relationship between the number 3 and resurrection. If this were the only instance of such an association then I could not state for surety that the number 3 is the number that teaches us about resurrection. But this is the beginning of a long road paved with an enumerable number of associations between the number 3 and resurrection. Lastly, this resurrection involves a youth (the Hebrew word na’ar).

For our second example, let’s examine II Kings 4:8-47, the story of the resurrection of the Shunammite woman’s son. Thematically, it relates to I Kings 17:17-21 in the following ways:

• Both stories pertain to a literal, bodily resurrection

• Both stories involve the resurrection of a young child, (in this instance a yeled instead of a na’ar)

They differ in the number associated with the resurrection. After Elijah stretched himself on the young child the second time, the Shunammite woman’s son sneezed 7 times and then revived. At this point one may ask, “Why the number 7 and not the number 3?” I believe it’s because the Torah is thematically reinforcing a teaching concerning DEATH and LIFE. In order to see this we simply need to realize that although these are two separate stories, thematically they are ONE story. Can you see that? It’s basically the same story told twice with a few details changed. It’s easy to see that the two combine to teach us ONE story involving the bodily resurrection of the young son of a woman.

So why does one emphasize the number 3, whereas the other emphasizes the number 7 with respect to resurrection? Because this is a veiled allusion to the cleansing of one who came in contact with DEATH. 

11 ‘He who touches the dead body of anyone shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall purify himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean . . . 19 The clean person shall sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, wash his clothes, and bathe in water; and at evening he shall be clean. (Numbers 19:11-12 and 19)

Biblically speaking, DEATH is the ultimate type of defilement! Anyone who came in contact with a dead corpse had to go through a special ritual in order to be cleansed from the contact with death. This cleansing had to occur on days three and seven (Numbers 19)!  Thus, from Numbers 19 we learn that the numbers 3 and 7 are important numbers concerning cleansing from contact with the DEAD. The two resurrections of the Hebrew youth and their associations with the numbers 3 and 7 combine to thematically reinforce what is taught in Numbers 19. The numbers 3 and 7 together are the numbers associated with purification from death! And truly, a resurrected person is one who needed cleansing from his/her contact with death.

Our last example of a literal, bodily resurrection comes from II Kings 13:20-21:

20 Then Elisha died, and they buried him. And the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land in the spring of the year. 21 So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

This resurrection story contains the following themes:

• It occurred during the spring

• Elisha’s bones brought resurrection

This is a very curious event to say the least! Do you see the picture being painted for us here? Do you see LIFE from the DEAD? That’s exactly what’s being taught, resurrection or LIFE from DEATH. How could Elisha’s dead bones cause a dead man to come to life? The answer is Messianic. The reason why this event occurred is to teach us about Messiah Yeshua. Remember the Sign of the Messiah teaching we learned in Part I? Whenever you see LIFE springing forth from DEATH, you know the Tanakh is giving you some form of teaching concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua in 3 days. But where is the number 3 you may ask? Well, remember how the stories about the resurrection of the Shunammite woman’s and the widow of Zarephath’s sons were thematically connected through multiple themes? Remember how we combined the themes from the two stories to see a picture of the cleansing of one who came in contact with a corpse? Well, we’re about to see how the story of this man, whose bones touched Elisha’s causing him to resurrect, is thematically connected with another story!

Hopefully you have read the article on my substack about how the Bible narratives are thematically arranged, typically in a chiastic or parallel structure. I taught this in the two articles below if you haven’t read them.

Chronological Order or Thematic Order (Part I)

Chronological Order or Thematic Order (Part II)

Well, it turns out that I and II Kings are written in a complex chiastic arrangement where stories in the first half of the chiasm are intimately thematically connected (they share many themes, i.e., similar words, phrases, events, circumstance, and situations) to stories in the second half of the structure.

Within this chiastic arrangement of I and II Kings we learn that I Kings 17:8-24 (the resurrection of the widow of Zarephath’s son) is thematically connected to II Kings 13:14–25 (the resurrection of the man whose bones touched Elisha’s body)! Notice the thematic connections that connect these two events to each other:

• I Kings 17:17 and II Kings 13:14

  • I Kings 17:17 – Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him.

  • II Kings 13:14 – Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him, and wept over his face, and said, “O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen!”

• I Kings 17:21 and II Kings 13:16

  • I Kings 17:21a – And he stretched himself out on the child three times.

  • II Kings 13:16 – Then he said to the king of Israel, “Put your hand on the bow.” So he put his hand on it, and Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.

• I Kings 17:21 and II Kings 13:18

  • I Kings 17:21a – And he stretched himself out on the child three times.

  • II Kings 13:18 – Then he said, “Take the arrows”; so he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, “Strike the ground”; so he struck three times, and stopped.

• I Kings 17:22 and II Kings 13:21

  • I Kings 17:22 – Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.

  • II Kings 13:21 – So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

• I Kings 17:21a and II Kings 13:21

  • I Kings 17:21a – And he stretched himself out on the child three times.

  • II Kings 13:21b – And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

• I Kings 17:19 and II Kings 13:21

  • I Kings 17:19 – And he said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.

  • II Kings 13:21b – So it was, as they were burying a man, that suddenly they spied a band of raiders; and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha; and when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet.

As you can see there are six awesome thematic connections that connect I Kings 17:8-24 to II Kings 13:14–25! These connections are intentional and inspired by the Holy Spirit in the hope that we find them, study them and learn from them. These six individual connections and their chiastic arrangement within the overall chiasm of I and II Kings allows us to look at them as ONE story, a story about resurrection. Combining their major themes, we see that that although the story in II Kings 13 does not have a 3 in it, the story that it is intimately thematically connected to, I Kings 17, does have a 3. So, even though our story of resurrection in II Kings 13 does not have a 3 in it, this story is intimately connected to a story which does have a number three.

Earlier we made mention of the time of year the man was resurrected. Remember, it was in the spring. Which feast day is a prophetic feast day that celebrates Yeshua’s resurrection from the dead? It is the Day of the Omer wave offering, the 3rd holy day in Leviticus 27! And what time of year is this festival celebrated? Right at the beginning of spring! Thus, these 3 stories have combined to teach us about resurrection associated with the number 3 and the spring. Is that a coincidence? I think not.

Have you noticed how resurrection from the dead and the healing of lepers is associated with Elisha and not Elijah (Elijah resurrected 1 but Elisha 2)? Why is that? The reason is because Elijah is a prophetic picture of John the Baptist and Elisha is a prophetic picture of Yeshua. And how do I know that? Remember, John the Baptist was Yeshua’s forerunner. He came to prepare the way for Yeshua, who, when He came, performed miracles including resurrecting the dead healing of lepers. In other words, if you accept for now that Elisha is a prophetic picture of Yeshua then, the fact that they both raised the dead and healed lepers is somewhat expected. But how can we know for sure that Elisha is a prophetic picture of John the Baptist? We know this because of the thematic connections concerning their lives:

• Both John the Baptist and Elijah were hairy

  • II Kings 1:8 - So they answered him, “A hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

  • Luke 1:15 - For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. (John was a nazirite from birth, as was Samson and did not shave his hair).

• Both John the Baptist and Elijah wore a leather belt

  • II Kings 1:8 - So they answered him, “A hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.” And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

  • Matthew 3:4 - Now John himself was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.

Elijah prophetically prepared the way for Elisha who, after receiving a double portion, performed two resurrections and the healing of a leper, Naaman. Notice Elisha’s second resurrection was performed while he was dead! As a picture of Yeshua the message is clear. It is through Yeshua’s death that others will be raised from the dead and this is typified by Elisha’s dead bones having the power of resurrection. Furthermore, Elisha and Yeshua were the only prophets with the power to heal a person with leprosy. Also note other similarities between Yeshua’s miracles and Elisha’s:

• They both raised the dead

• They both healed lepers

• They both multiplied loaves of bread

Lastly, concerning literal resurrections, please note the following connections between the Tanakh and the Apostolic writings. It is interesting to note that there are THREE stories in the Tanakh of literal resurrections performed by a prophet.  There are also THREE stories in the New Testament of literal resurrections performed by the prophet Yeshua. Furthermore, each of the three resurrections in the Tanakh are matched thematically with the three resurrections in the Apostolic writings as follows:

• Resurrection of a widow’s child – The Widow of Zarephath (I Kings 17:17-24) versus the Widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17)

• Resurrection of a prominent person’s child – The Shunammite woman (II Kings 4:8-37) versus Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue (Luke 8:40-56)

• Resurrection of a dead man – The man thrown into Elisha’s grave (II Kings 13:20-20) versus Lazarus (John 11:1-37)

Soon I will post another article continuing our study and showing how the Tanakh uses the number 3 to teach us about resurrection.