The Bible and Burial

this chapter is quoted in its entirety from the e-book: 

Cremation: What Does God Think?  by David Cloud.

The book may be read on line or downloaded in three different formats from the author's web site. We encourage you to read the entire book:

www.wayoflife.org/database/ebook.html 

The Bible and Burial

     At the outset let me answer an objection sometimes made at this point. The objection is, “Yes, God’s people in the Bible practiced burial. The example is clearly there. But are we bound to follow these examples? They are not direct commands.” The answer is given in Romans 15:4. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning...” And again in 1 Corinthians 10:11 we read, “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” In these passages God is telling us that we are to follow the Bible’s examples as well as its direct instructions.
     Following are just a few examples.  

     ·     Abraham was buried (Genesis 25:8-10) 

     ·     Sarah was buried (Genesis 23:1-4)
     ·     Rachel was buried (Genesis 35:19-20)
     ·     Isaac was buried (Genesis 35:29)
     ·     Jacob was buried (Genesis 49:33; 50:1-13)
     ·     Joseph was buried (Genesis 50:26)
     ·     Joshua was buried (Joshua 24:29-30)
     ·     Eleazar was buried (Joshua 24:33)
     ·     Samuel was buried (1 Samuel 25:1)
     ·     David was buried (1 Kings 2:10)
     ·     John the Baptist was buried (Matthew 14:10-12)
     ·     Ananias and Sapphira were buried (Acts 5:5-10)  

     ·     Stephen was buried (Acts 8:2)

Even When Burial Was Difficult

Even in difficult circumstances God’s people in olden days practiced burial. For example, Joseph’s body was kept for over 400 years in Egypt and then carried through the 40 years of wilderness wanderings before being buried in Palestine, the Promised Land. We read of this in Genesis 50:24-25; Exodus 13:19 and Joshua 24:32. How much simpler it would have been for the Israelites to have cremated Joseph, then carried his ashes with them in a tiny container! But this they refused to do. Joseph, a follower of the one true God, a man who looked forward to the bodily resurrection, was given an honorable burial. From this important example, we learn that even if cremation is less expensive or easier than burial, it is still to be rejected, as the Israelites rejected the economical and simpler way to carry Joseph to the Promised Land.

Burial Looks Forward to the Resurrection 

“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. 8:22-23). See also 1 Cor. 15:20-23; 2 Cor. 5:1 and 1 Cor. 15:51-57.

     The reason God’s people have always been careful to practice burial is not difficult to understand. We believe in a bodily resurrection. Yes, the buried body will decompose in time. Yes, there are occasions in which Christians die in ways which render burial impossible--in the sinking of ships, in house fires, etc. But when at all possible we bury. Why the trouble? Because it is our certain hope that the same individual will be raised in the same body, only changed.
     The physical body is called the seed for the resurrection body. When planted, a seed decomposes, and the new plant comes forth. The Bible uses this to illustrate resurrection.
“But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain; But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. ... So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power; It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body” 1 Cor. 15:35-44