The second confrontation that the Messiah has in Mark chapter 12 is of the same kind as He had with the Pharisees and Herodians. The following argument is brought to Him by the Sadducees, the then third main religious group in Israel.
Here they used the Word of God against the Author of the Word of God. However, their argument is so flimsy and weak, but through it, we can recognize the many who do use parts of the Word of God while discarding the rest, like those making up new theories, or new theologies based on one or two truths of the Bible. This, Peter says is to their own destruction (2Pet. 2:16).
These Sadducees are the ones who brought out Yeshua’s anger for they made the Temple of God into a den of robbers.
Now see how they used the Word of God and how far they were from the very essence of the Word See vs.18, Some Sadducees who say that there is no resurrection, came to Jesus, and began questioning Him… They denied the resurrection itself, yet this is such an important foundation of the Bible. Josephus tells us that the Sadducees believed that souls die with the bodies, that is, the soul just disappears. That is a scary doctrine (Antiquities 18:1:3–4).
He further wrote that they did not believe there were any punishments and rewards in Hades. (Wars 2:8:14). That is probably why they did whatever they wanted; God made fun of this philosophy when He, through Isaiah and imitating them said, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.” (Isaiah 22:13)
The Bible says that tomorrow is judgment day, and we don’t just disappear. After death there is a meeting with God. How could they miss out on the resurrection seeing that it is mentioned quite often in the Hebrew Scriptures? It is found in Job, in Isaiah, and in Daniel.
However, they noticed that the resurrection is clearly stated only in the Prophets and the Writings, but not in the Torah. Sadducees only believed in the Torah, that is the first 5 books of Moses and rejected the other two parts. This is the main reason they did not believe in the resurrection. However, Yeshua is about to show them that indeed, the resurrection is really at the core of God’s promises in the Torah itself, in the part they trust the most.
Mark 12: 26-27 But concerning the dead, that they rise, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the burning bush passage, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.” Notice that He mentions Moses by name whom they thought they knew so well…
Here is such a great reference to the resurrection in the Torah, something they completely missed out on. Yeshua said they did not understand the power of God which is especially seen in the resurrection which is at the core of our belief. Yeshua’s quote is from the Torah, in Exodus 3, an important chapter where, after 400 years, the Lord God spoke right at the appointed time, right when He said He would. There He spoke to Moses through the Burning Bush.
And the most amazing thing here is that it was Yeshua Himself who was in the Burning Bush. Have you noticed that it says that it was the Angel of the Lord who spoke through it? We read in Exodus 3:2 (NKJV): And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush.
And here He was, the Angel of the Lord, the Messiah, standing right in front of them. Again, the title angel in the Bible is not how we use it today. The title describes the function and not the nature of the being, for the Messiah is divine. Angels are not. And it is here where He said the words, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
This statement is made three times in this chapter, vs. 6, 15, 16. And one more time in Exodus 4:5. The point is that God is not the God of the dead, meaning that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are alive and well in heaven. And being alive in heaven, a new body will be given to them and to all believers, one body fit for our new home in the New Jerusalem.
This is the great news. For if they are alive in heaven, it means that very soon, we will be meeting each of them. Have you ever thought about this?
Having a conversation with Abraham, and Isaac and asking Jacob how in the world he struggled with God, or how he must have felt when he saw Joseph after he thought he was dead for so long? What a resurrection that must have been for him. We will all be like a huge family in heaven, and we will be meeting all the believers who ever lived up there and that is so exciting.