II Samuel 12:23
But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me.
This is King David speaking. He had taken another man's wife in adultery, murdered her husband to take her for his own wife, and now their child that resulted from the adultery has died. While the baby was still sick, David had fasted and prayed that his life would be spared. Then when he died, David got up off his knees, showered and ate dinner. This perplexed his servants, who thought he would mourn excessively for this child, and questioned him about it. This was David's answer: While the child lived, there was hope for life for him; but now that he is dead, the only hope left is that David would one day die also, and be with him in the place where all the dead go, but this boy will never return to the earth to live with David again.
This is a definitive passage for the question of the possibility for anyone who has died to return to the earth to live again or have anything to do with what is done "under the sun" (as Ecclesiastes 9:5-6 states).
The Epistle to the Hebrews 12:1 tells us that "we are surrounded by a huge cloud of witnesses," referring to all the saints in God's Hall of Heroes in the preceding chapter. So those who have died before us are watching us, but do not have anything to do with what is done here on Earth.
This is an interesting phenomenon, that our loved ones who have gone before us would be watching how we are doing, but cannot affect how things go for us.
I often wonder what my late husband thinks of how I've managed or mismanaged things since he died. But I know that I must be more concerned for how my Lord Jesus considers how I've done, because He is my Husband now.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
