O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? (1 Cor 15:55 NAS95)

 O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING? (1 Cor 15:55 NAS95)

This quotation at the end of 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter in the New Testament of the Bible, is familiar, if not a bit opaque. But there is a back story to it, and it is worth telling.

1 Corinthians 15:55 is a quotation of a verse from the Old Testament, from the prophet Hosea, chapter 13. Hosea 13 is all about the northern kingdom of Israel (they had split, north and south, but hadn’t bothered to fight it out like we did in the States). The Northern kingdom was properly called Israel, but they were also known by their lead tribe, Ephraim. 

The spiritual description of Ephraim in Hosea 13 is all negative. They are arrogant and idolatrous, and therefore, God says they will not last long (and, they didn’t). God had been good and gracious to them, and yet they took the glory to themselves and forgot God. As they had been brutal in their rejection of God, God would be brutal to them. 

It is at this point we come to the quotation in the NT. God asks, from where do you think ransom or redemption will come? Won’t death for you be devastating? And it is coming, soon. “O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.” It is actually an invitation for death to come and do what needs to be done to this people.

Paul, the author in the NT, flips the quote from negative to positive. Because Jesus is risen from the dead, sinners who believe in Jesus, that is, sinners saved by grace, are now in fact delivered from death’s sting and destruction.We don’t have live in fear of death, because Jesus defeated death. Death as a literal, mortal enemy is destroyed. Our best days are ahead of us.

How could Paul take such liberties with the Old Testament passage, to turn it from a huge negative to a liberating positive? He could do so for two reasons. First, he could do so because Hosea 13 is not the last chapter in the book, chapter 14 is. And in Hosea 14, we see God’s heart and compassion come through, even in what looks to be the end for Ephraim. God says to them, “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from them.”(Hosea 14:4 NAS95). The second reason that Paul can do this is because of what I have already mentioned above. Because of Jesus. Because of Jesus who died rose from the dead. His sacrifice was accepted; His obedience vindicated; and, we are saved. 

I don’t know where you stand with God, but do you think there could be one last chapter from God for you?