the book of the living, by W.J. Wolfaardt
There is a book called the
Book of Life, in which the names of the righteous are written. This Book was
probably "created" after the fall of Adam and Hawwah,
when they no longer continually walked in righteousness before the Face of the
Almighty. After Hawwah and Adam ate of the tree of good
and evil, Elohim drove them out of the garden of Eden,
to prevent them from eating of the Tree of Life! Read
Bereshith / Gen. 3:22. The Tree of Life has existed since the creation
of earth. Let us now explore Scripture, to find the route to that tree, the
Tree of Life.
The first reference in
Scripture to this Book, is in Shemoth / Exo. 32:32,33, where the children
of Yisrael sinned against Elohim at Mount Sinai. They
were waiting for Mosheh to come down from the
Mountain, awaiting the Words which Yahuweh spoke to him. They were very
impatient though, and started to mould themselves an image of gold - an idol to
worship. When Mosheh came down from the mountain, and
saw these horrible deeds of Yisrael, he pleaded with
the Almighty, and said, ."..if You would forgive their sin, but if not, please blot me
out of Your Book which You have written." And Yahuweh said to Mosheh, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I blot him out
of My Book." A person who sins against the Almighty, his name
shall be blotted out of the Book of Life.
In Psalm 69:28, the
Psalmist asks the Almighty to blot out of His Book of the Living the names of
the unrighteous, so that their names may not be written with those of
the righteous.
The content of the Book of
Life shall be revealed with the coming of Yahushua our Maschiach.
We find in the book of Dani’el, prophesying about the
end-time, that those who will be delivered, are those
whose names are written in the Book. Dan. 12:1,2, "Now
at that time Mika’el shall stand up, the great head
who is standing over the sons of your people. And there shall be a time of distress, such as never was since there was a nation, until
that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, every
one who is found written in the book, and many of those who sleep in the
dust of the earth wake up (the resurrection), some to everlasting life, and
some to reproaches, everlasting abhorrence."
In Yesh. 4:2,3 we read of the
times of the end, after the victory of the remnant of Yisrael,
"In that day the Branch of Yahuweh shall be splendid and esteemed. And
the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for the delivered remnant
of Yisrael. And it shall be that he who is left in Tsiyon and he who remains in Yerushalayim
is called set-apart, everyone who is written among the living in Yerushalayim." These are the ones whose names are
written in the Book of Life.
The elect, those whose
names are written in the Book of Life, are special in the eyes of our Father.
We read about them in the book of Mal’aki, chapter 3,
verse 16 - 18 : "Then those who fear Yahuweh
speak to one another, and Yahuweh listen and hear, and a book of remembrance be
written before Him, of those who fear Yahuweh, and those who think upon His
Name. "And they shall be Mine," said Yahuweh of hosts, "on the
day that I prepare a treasured possession. And I shall spare them as a man
spares his own son who serves him. Then you shall again see the difference
between the righteous and the wrong, between one who serves Elohim and one who
does not serve Him." From this passage of Scripture, we find that one
of the characteristics of those whose names are
written in the Book of Life, is that they fear the Almighty, and think
upon His Name.
In the above passages we
amongst other saw that those whose names will be written in Yahuweh’s
Book, will also be found in Tsiyon, in Yerushalayim. We also read in Yehezqel
of those who will not be part of Yisrael. They are
the false prophets. "My hand shall be against the prophets who see falsehood
and who divine lies. They shall not be in the council of My people, nor be written in the record (Book) of the house
of Yisrael, and they shall not enter into the land of
Yisrael. And you shall know that I am the Master
Yahuweh." (Yehezqel. 13:9). When we proceed building on the foundation of the Old Covenant
Scriptures, we see just as many texts in the Messianic Scriptures regarding the
Book of Life.
The first mention thereof
is in Luke 10:20, when Yahushua appointed seventy disciples to spread the Good
News. He said to them, "See, I give you the authority to trample on
serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and none at all
shall hurt you. But do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to
you, but rather rejoice because your names have been written in the heaven."
What a privilege to have your name written in the Book of Life in heaven. Will
we, without doubt, be able to say that our names are written in the Book of
Life? It appears from the above text that Yahushua told these seventy
emissaries that their names were already written in the Book of Life. The same
can be said of Qlemes and other followers of Yahushua
to whom Shaul wrote in Phil. 4:3, ."..and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the
Book of Life."
The writer of the book of
Hebrews write in Hebr. 12:14, "Pursue peace with all, and pursue
apartness (holiness) without which no one shall see the Master."
Yahushua, and even Shaul
were entitled to tell certain men and women that their names were written in
the Book of Life. We are given the ‘command’ how to receive LIFE EVERLASTING.
If we walk the path of righteousness - the route of set-apartness, then we are
on the path to eternal life! If we stray however, we cannot be certain of our
destiny. The path or route to everlasting life is a clear path, a path of no
turning to the left or right.
Let’s have a look at the
final promises made to the "overcomers" in
the book of Revelation. Rev. 3:5, "He who overcomes shall be dressed in
white robes, and I shall by no means blot out his name from the Book of
Life, but I shall confess his name before My Father and before His
messengers."
The book of Revelation also
clearly defines who shall not enter into eternal life - life everlasting. Rev.
13:8, "And all those dwelling on the earth, whose names have not been
written in the Book of Life of the slain Lamb, from the foundation of the world
shall worship him (the beast)."
Rev. 17:8, "The
beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to come up out of the pit of
the deep and goes to destruction. And those dwelling on the earth, whose names
are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, shall
marvel when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."
Rev. 20:12, "And I
saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne, and books were
opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead
were judged from what was written in the books, according to their works."
If we are walking in the path of righteousness, we shall also be
distinguished by our works, as Yahushua clearly said in Matt. 7:16-19, "By
their fruits you shall know them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes
or figs from thistles? So every good tree yields good fruit, but a rotten tree
yields wicked fruit. A good tree is unable to yield wicked fruit, and a rotten
tree to yield good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire." Yahushua continues, expressly discerning
between good and rotten trees, when He says, "Not everyone who says to Me, ’Master, Master,’ shall enter into the reign of the
heaven (everlasting life), but he who is doing the desire of My Father in
the heavens." (verse 22).
What is the desire of Yahushua’s Father? This question is clearly answered in the
following verse 23, "And then I shall declare to them, ‘I never knew
you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness!"
Lawlessness is the opposite of law-abiding! There is only one law that our
Father desire us to abide to. The law that He
implemented from the foundation of the earth - the complete Torah, as
defined in the books of Mosheh.
Let us go back to the book
of Revelation to find out what will happen to those whose names are not written
in the Book of Life. Rev. 20:15, "And if anyone was not found written
in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."
Finally, we read in the
book of Revelation of the New Yerushalayim - the city
we are awaiting. But who will enter into that city? Or shall I rather ask, who will not enter into that city? Rev. 21:27,
"And there shall by no means enter into it whatever is unclean,
neither anyone doing abominations and falsehood, but only those
who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life." These
spoken of, who shall not go in, is also written of in
Rev. 22:15, and 2 Thess. 2:10 - 12. Rev. 22: 15, "But outside are the
dogs (spiritual dogs) and those who enchant with drugs, and those who whore,
and the murderers, and the idolaters, and all who love and do falsehood."
To finish off, I wish to
refer to the final prize of those whose name are
written in the Book of Life. We read in Rev. 22:14, "Blessed are those doing
His commandments, so that the authority shall be theirs unto the
tree of life, and to enter through the gates into the city."
You and I have the authority
to say that a person’s name is written in the Book Of
Life - if that person is doing the commandments of the Most High!
There is another pre-requisite - having the faith in Yahushua, without Him our
lives will be meaningless. Read Rev. 14:12 and the preceding verses.