"Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." This is the same message as in John 3:16, except this is to Jews only, while John's message is worldwide. It would be well to see what some passages in the Old Testament have to say about our subject.

Job 14:14,15: "If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee."

Job 18:5,17: "Yea, the light of the wicked shall be put out, and the spark of his fire shall not shine ... His remembrance shall perish from the earth, and he shall have no name in the street."

Job 20:7: "Yet shall he perish forever like his own dung: they which have seen him shall say, "Where is he?"

Job 21:17: "How oft is the candle of the wicked put out!"

Psa. 1:5,6: "Therefore the ungodly shall not stand (rise) in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish."

Psa. 2:12: "Thou hast rebuked the heathen, Thou hast destroyed the wicked, Thou has put out their name for ever and ever ... The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God." Hell is Sheol, the grave, and there is no return from it for these named.

Psa. 34:16: "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut the remembrance of them from the earth."

Psa. 37:1,2,10,20,36,38: "Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb ... For a little while, and the wicked shall not be: Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be ... But the wicked shall perish ... Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him, but he could not be found ... But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of the wicked shall be cut off."

Psa. 49:12,20: "Nevertheless man being in honor abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish ... Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish."

Psa. 97:7,9: "When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever ... For, lo, Thine enemies, 0 Lord, for, lo, Thine enemies shall perish."

Psa. 112:10: "The wicked shall see it and be grieved ... the desire of the wicked shall perish." Look up each of these in context.

Continued.

Oscar M. Baker
(Reprinted from Truth For Today, Vol. 34, No. 3)