A person asked, “How does Exodus 3:6 indicate the resurrection?” The verse reads, “Moreover He said, ‘I am the God of your father — the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God” (NKJV); verse 15 of that chapter repeats the same statement. In addition, Jesus Christ quoted this phrase in Matthew 22:32, and He also commented further on it and defined those words as relating to the resurrection. “But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Matthew 22:31-32). The words of our Lord Jesus verify, then, that Exodus 3:6 implies the resurrection from the dead.
Biblical language is much more precise than the everyday colloquial speech we hear daily. Typically, people mix and mismatch their words in ungrammatical ways. Not so, though, with the Bible. Therefore, when the Lord said “I am the God” of deceased Bible characters Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He affirmed that although their bodies had died, they were yet alive; compare verse 14, which reads, “I AM has sent me to you.” Exodus 3:6 implies that mankind is composed of a body and a spirit (a soul), which followers of God have understood to be the case under Patriarchy, Judaism and Christianity. In addition, even non-religious and idolatrous peoples throughout the ages have believed strongly in an afterlife. The belief that humans are more than merely physical beings confined to an earthly habitation appears to be an innate, instinctive feature of the human makeup. Atheists and materialists, for instance, are not born that way, but they have developed an antagonism toward God.
Evidently, the acknowledgement of life after death itself implies a resurrection. Apparently, there is no plausible explanation for the existence of souls after death than that those departed spirits will be resurrected. Of course, the unique resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave has made it possible for human souls to be resurrected permanently in the future. “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself [Jesus Christ] likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:14-16). “I am He [Jesus Christ] who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Revelation 1:18).
Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. (Acts 2:24-32)
