Sleep of first death

What happens when a person dies? Where does a person go in the time between their death and their resurrection?

The LORD said unto Moses, Behold, you shall sleep with your fathers. (Deuteronomy 31:16)

And when your days be fulfilled, and you shall sleep with your fathers.... (2 Samuel 7:12)

it shall come to pass, when my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers.... (1 Kings 1:21)

36 times [name of king] slept with his fathers. (Kings and Chronicles)

And why do you not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? for now shall I sleep in the dust; and you shall seek me in the morning, but I shall not be. (Job 7:21)

So man lies down, and rises not: until the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. (Job 14:12)

Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; (Psalms 13:3)

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. (Daniel 12:2)

He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleeps. And they laughed him to scorn. (Matthew 9:24)

After that he said unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleeps but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. However Jesus spoke of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. (John 11:11-14)

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, (Matthew 27:52)

And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:60)

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. (Acts 13:36-37)

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. (1 Corinthians 15:20)

Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-15)

And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. (2 Peter 3:4)

How is the sleep of death described?

O that you would hide me in the grave, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, until my change come. You shall call, and I will answer you.... His sons come to honor and he knows it not; and they are brought low, but he perceives it not of them. But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn. (Job 14:13-22)

While in the grave, a man waits for resurrection but is unaware of what happens above the grave when his sons come to honor him. While flesh is upon his bones he has pain and mourns, but in the grave he perceives nothing, not even God’s wrath.

While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. (Psalms 146:2-4)

The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 9:5-6)

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, where you go. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

 

Unconsciousness and sleep go hand in hand because they describe the same condition of being totally unaware.