A Reading From the Book of Isaiah Note Cards
by Rosemarie Adcock
"Your dead will live;
Their corpses will rise.
You who lie in the dust,
Awake and shout for joy,
For your dew is as the dew of the dawn,
And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits."
Isaiah 26:19
This large painting by Rosemarie Adcock is a depiction of the resurrection of the dead at the Second Coming of Jesus. The figures are reading the Scripture themselves, as if to discover why they're awake again, with the central figure of the woman in 1940's era clothing celebrating as she ponders it all. The flowers are Bird of Paradise and Easter Lilies in full bloom. The two dancing, rejoicing figures in the back carry sheaves of wheat, often used as symbols to describe the Lord's gathering of His people.
Family members lift their loved ones up before gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions. The gravestone on the left reads "Awake", while the stone to the back and right has the Hebrew inscription meaning "Sing" or "Shout for Joy."
The sky is lit with a glowing light as the Lord is about to take His people to meet Him in the air. The trumpet in the bottom right is a symbol of the trumpet mentioned in chapter 24 of Matthew's gospel, and in the Apostle Paul's letter to the Thessalonians:
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout,
With the voice of the archangel,
And with the trumpet of God;
And the dead in Christ shall rise first.
Then we who are alive and remain
Shall be caught up together with them in the clouds
To meet the Lord in the air
And thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore comfort one another with these words."
1 Thessalonians 4:16-18