What happens when I die? Is there life after physical death? Two questions that unite all. The answers are many. The Bible has two answers. This verse speaks of both; “upward” and “downward to the grave” (“maal” and “sheol matta” in Hebrew).
Sheol (i.e. grave, hell) is deep within the earth (Ps. 88:6; Ezek. 26:20; 31:14-15; Amos 9:2) and was entered by crossing a river (Job 33:18). Sheol is pictured as a city with gates (Isa. 38:10), a place of ruins (Ezek. 26:20), or a trap (2 Sam. 22:6; Ps. 18:5). Sheol is sometimes personified as a hungry beast (Pr. 27:20; Isa. 5:14; Hab. 2:5) with an open mouth and an insatiable appetite. Sheol is described as a place of dust (Ps. 30:9; Job 17:16) and of gloom and darkness (Job. 10:21). (Holman Bible Dictionary.)
Paradise is the name of the upward place referring to an enclosed wooden park, the dwelling place of God. All three New Testament occurrences (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7) refer to the abode of the righteous dead (heaven). The Greek Old Testament (Septuagint) used “paradise” to translate the Hebrew words for the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2-3. Paradise is the proper name of heaven.
The wise go to Paradise upward being saved from the dark gloom of Sheol beneath. What do the wise know and believe? It is not what, but who they know. Jesus proclaimed, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) To the man on the cross next to him who ask for forgiveness and remembrance Jesus promised, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise.” To his people Jesus said, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. ‘To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.'” (Revelation 2:7)
