Has death taken someone dear to you? Do you long for comfort in the face of death? ?

One sure source of comfort can be found in the Bible’s resurrection accounts. Reading such accounts, meditating on them, and visualizing the events can make the resurrection hope more real to you and me. (Romans 15:4) These are not just stories. They actually happened to real people like us, living at a real time and in a real place. Let us focus briefly on one example—the first resurrection in the Bible record.

Picture the scene. For some weeks, the prophet Elijah has been a guest of the widow of Zarephath, living in a chamber on her roof. It is a dark era. The region is stricken by drought and famine. Many are dying. Jehovah has already used Elijah to perform a prolonged miracle to reward the faith of this humble widow. She and her young son were on the brink of starvation, down to their last meal (luke 4:25 For instance, I tell YOU in truth, There were many widows in Israel in the days of E‧li′jah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, so that a great famine fell upon all the land, 26 yet E‧li′jah was sent to none of those [women], but only to Zar′e‧phath in the land of Si′don to a widow.) , when God empowered Elijah to perform a miracle so that her supply of flour and oil was miraculously sustained. Now, though, tragedy befalls her. Illness suddenly strikes the child, and soon he stops breathing. How devastated the widow is! It is bad enough to live without the strength and support of a husband, but now she has lost her only child. In her grief, she even blames Elijah and his God, Jehovah! What will the prophet do?

Elijah does not reprove the widow for her false accusation. Instead, he says: “Give me your son.” After carrying the dead child to the roof chamber, Elijah prays repeatedly for the child’s life to be returned. Finally, Jehovah acts! Imagine the joy spreading over Elijah’s face as he sees the boy’s chest heave with the intake of air. The child’s eyelids open, and his eyes glisten with life. Elijah brings the boy down to his mother and says: “See, your son is alive.” Her joy is beyond description. She says: “Now, indeed, I do know that you are a man of God and that Jehovah’s word in your mouth is true.” (1 Kings 17:8-24) Her faith in Jehovah and in his representative is stronger than ever.

Meditating on such an account surely brings you great comfort. How clear it is that Jehovah is able to defeat our enemy death! Just imagine the day when that widow’s joy is multiplied thousands of times over in the general resurrection of the dead! The joy in heaven will also be great as Jehovah delights in directing his Son to carry out resurrections on a global scale. JESUS says Do not marvel at this (the resurrection of Lazarus), because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.(The Kingdom of God 1000 years long ) (that, Jesus and the 144,000 of our peers,will rule over ) The whole earth will become like the garden of Eden,as Jehovah commanded Adam and Eve. In the Paradise of Pleasure: “Be fruitful and become many and fill the earth and subdue it, and have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and every living creature that is moving upon the earth.”—Gen. 1:26 to 2:25.? He gave the illustration of the rain and snow that descend from the heavens and do not return (as vapor) until first saturating the earth and making it produce ‘seed for the sower and bread for the eater.’ Applying the illustration, Jehovah says emphatically: “So my word that goes forth from my mouth will prove to be. It will not return to me without results, but it will certainly do that in which I have delighted, and it will have certain success in that for which I have sent it.”Isaiah 26:19 “Your dead ones will live. A corpse of mine—they will rise up. Awake and cry out joyfully, YOU residents in the dust! For your dew is as the dew of mallows, and the earth itself will let even those impotent in death drop [in birth].

Is it not a comfort to know that Jehovah can and will restore the dead to life to live forever here on Earth?