9 true stories of resurrection in the Bible to inspire your faith!
My older daughter and I were discussing the word 'trumpet' and we eventually started talking about how the dead in Christ will rise at the last trumpet.
Me: Do you know anyone who was raised from the dead?
She: Oh, like Lazarus?”
I was impressed.
“And like Jesus!”
She was on a roll!
“And like...I don’t know who else!” (She's so funny!)
I promised her we’d do a Bible study on that topic, and thought it might be a good idea to share it with you too.
So, here we go. These are the 9 people I found in the Bible who were raised from the dead. Each account represents one more reason to believe in God!
Son of the widow of Zarephath
1 Kings 17:22
This is the first ever recording in the Bible of someone bringing the dead back to life. Prior to this historic account involving Elijah, we saw the likes of Moses and Aaron performing wonders in Egypt, and even parting the Red Sea.
But none had this testimony. Elijah was a prophet of God and had been preceded by other prophets. But none before him had this testimony either.
What made Elijah even think of calling a dead boy’s soul back into his breathless body? He had never seen or heard it done before. Elijah conceived of accomplishing something that had never happened in recorded human history.
What an inspiration and lesson this is to us. Sometimes we base our spirituality and life on what Mommy said or the stories that Grandpa told us.
But what if God speaks to us about doing something that we had never heard of? What if God wants to do something new with you? Elijah is a reminder to us that we can rise above the spirituality of our predecessors.
Son of the Shunnamite woman
2 Kings 4:31-35
Elisha had the example of his mentor, Elijah, when it came to accomplishing the unusual. Raising the Shunnamite woman’s dead son was almost an expectation.
What is interesting in this story is how this woman’s faith never died. Her heart did not become bitter and depressed. Although she had received a blessing she didn’t ask for, she rose up in spiritual maturity when the child died. It was a spiritual maturity that allowed her to have the right response.
Sometimes God gives us what He wants, and not what we request. Often that blessing will come with warfare and tests. The wrong response can allow us to be fatalistic and become angry with God for giving, then taking away.
Like the Shunnamite woman, our response should be one of prayerful determination and faith. If God gave it to me, I know I can take it to Him when something goes wrong.
The man who was being buried
2 Kings 13:21
Elisha had been dead for long enough to have only bones remaining. But God wasn’t through with Elisha just yet. God had one more inconceivable miracle to use him to perform.
As if raising the dead when you are alive isn’t already an impressive feat, God was now going to use the dead to raise the dead!
Oh what a servant of God Elisha must have been! When the coffin bearing the dead man’s body touched the bones of Elisha, he leaped to his feet!
Can we dare pursue and believe God for something similar? That even after we die, our words and works will live on and continue to feed, bless and strengthen God’s people?
Can we dare to believe that when we die, God can continue to use our testimony to spring to life those who are spiritually dead? I dare you!
Dorcas
Acts 9:40
In Acts 9:40, Peter is used by God to bring back Dorcas to life. She was known as a woman full of good deeds.
This made me laugh to think of how amazing God is in mercy. He demonstrated how amazing He is in restoration. God showed His amazing power, but not so much regarding Dorcas.
Who would have thought that the backslidden Peter would have one day been used by God in such a spectacular way? But Jesus knew it.
After His resurrection, Jesus sent a message to the disciples and Peter. Dorcas’ resurrection by Peter was a testament to God’s power to resurrect a dead body (Dorcas) and His power to resurrect a lost soul (Peter).
May this be an encouragement to every ‘Peter’ out there - there is something good and glorious waiting for you if and when you return to your true Love!
Eutychus
Acts 20:9-12
Paul was brave. I’m not referring to his boldness before his persecutors or before Roman heads of government.
Rather, I’m talking about a little incident that took place in Troas as he was preaching. A young man named Eutychus happened to be sitting in a window listening to Paul’s apparently long discourse. Unfortunately, he fell asleep, then fell to his death!
But what did Paul do? Calmly, he restored the youth back to life, and carried on preaching til daybreak!
In modern day churches, that would have marked the end of the service.
That kind of incident would have shaken up many a preacher today.
Someone dying while you’re delivering the word, right at the church, would very likely have today’s average preacher afraid to go any further. But not Brother Paul! If someone else were to fall asleep and fall to their death again, I take it he knew what he’d do anyway!
Jairus’s daughter
Mark 5:41-42
There are a couple of interesting things that stand out about this resurrection account.
First, we see Jesus being approached for a sick girl to be healed. While she was alive, her father’s hope and faith were also alive. But after news of her death reached the crowd, Jairus’ faith died too. It took Jesus to re-inject faith, and to inspire hope to be restored.
No situation is ever too far gone or dead for God to do something about it.
The next lesson in this story, is the boldness of Jesus in His faith, compared with the naked unbelief of the mourners. When Jesus reported that the little girl was only sleeping, the tears of the faithless mourners quickly dried up and were replaced with mocking laughter. But their reaction did not stop Jesus from doing what He went to do.
May we too not allow unbelief around us to become unbelief within us!
The widow’s son on the way to burial
Luke 7:14-15
The compassion of Jesus screams at us in this resurrection miracle. As this funeral procession passed by, Jesus recognized that this woman would be destitute without her only son.
She had already been made vulnerable with the loss of her husband. The death of her only other breadwinner would be ‘the last nail in the coffin’ for her survival. Jesus responded with a miracle born out of pure compassion.
How practical! How relevant! I like that kind of miracle. It met a need, it blew minds, and God was glorified!
Lazarus
John 11: 43-44
Lazarus had become ill and eventually succumbed to his sickness. His subsequent resurrection by Jesus produced a mixed response among the visitors who had gathered.
In John 11 verse 45, many of the Jews who had come to mourn a death, left believing in the One who was the Resurrection and the Life. (Let’s just say those conversions were miracles in their own right too!)
But amidst all the rejoicing, we see the raising of Lazarus arousing hatred, and Jesus wanted it that way!
Oh how wise our Saviour was, and herein was this wisdom demonstrated: Jesus had deliberately waited for Lazarus to die for more than one reason. (But it is only at the writing of this article that I saw this hidden gem.)
Jesus raised Lazarus from his death to seal His own death! He knew that the religious leaders would have reached their boiling point with the news of Lazarus coming back to life. Lazarus had to die (and be resurrected) because Jesus knew it was time for Him to die too!
Jesus
Luke 24:3-7
This is the most unique death and resurrection of all mentioned in the Bible.
It was unique in its purpose: not to meet a physical need, as for the widow who needed her son’s help and care, but to meet a spiritual one.
It was also unique in its methodology: not requiring the input of another human being (dead Elijah’s bones included!)
Jesus died a death of sacrifice unto God for all humanity, and He didn’t need anyone to tell Him to come forth!
And here’s one more unique difference about Jesus’ resurrection: everyone else who was given a second chance at life in the Bible, went on to die again. But Jesus rose from the dead, and He keeps on living! Hallelujah!
Are you looking forward to the day when He descends from Heaven with a shout?!
Let me know in the comments!
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