This past Monday was a fine day. The sun was shining brightly and the temperature reached 72 degrees! It was a great day to travel to Newberry for a Bible study. Knowing that wet and cooler weather was coming later in the week, and that the winter season was cranking up, I took a few extra moments to bask in the sun.
Can you imagine living in a place where you would never see the sun again, or enjoy a nice day? There are places on this earth where the weather is always cold, and there are even some places where the sun doesn't shine for long in the winter. But that doesn't last for long as the seasons change and the sun shines for hours. God made a promise to all flesh after the flood, saying, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22 NKJV). Even those who do evil enjoy nice weather, as Jesus said of our heavenly Father, "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45b).
But there is a place where people will never see a nice sunny day again. Jesus calls that place "hell" (Mark 9:43), and a place of "outer darkness" (Matthew 8:12). Instead of experiencing joy, there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 8:12). Those who land in hell because of their disobedience "will not see life" (John 3:36). In other words, they will be there forever and ever. Jesus said that heaven will last as long as hell: "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Matthew 25:46). Those living on earth get to experience beautiful days after cold wet ones, but those in hell will never have a temporary respite.
Hell is much more than a place absent of light. It is a place of "everlasting punishment" where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth." The author of Hebrews wrote of the painful, but temporary punishment we receive on earth: Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11). This speaks of the benefits of discipline in this life. Notice he speaks about punishment as temporary and what comes "afterward." But in hell, there is no afterward, and punishment is not temporary. Therefore, no punishment in hell will be joyful for the present but painful, and since hell is eternal, one will always live in a state of pain. Knowing what hell is like, wouldn't you do everything you could to avoid such a place?
There is another place that Jesus told the apostle John of which to write. It is also an eternal place that is described as the opposite of hell, as John wrote, And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:4). It will be a place where the inhabitants will experience for all eternity the joy of basking, not in the sun, but in God's presence: There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever (Revelation 22:5). These may have experienced hardship, pain, grief, and suffering while in this body; but on that day, they will be comforted (cf. Luke 16:25). No sunny day on earth will compare to that day in heaven, which will last forever. What a day that will be! Will you see that day?
Brotherly, Jamie
