JOB'S CLOSING REMARKS JOB 14

JOB'S CLOSING REMARKS  

JOB 14

 

   Man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.  He springs up like a flower and withers away; like a fleeting shadow, he does not endure.  Do You fix Your eye on such a one?  Will You bring him before You for judgment?  Who can bring what is pure from the impure?  No one!  Man's days are determined; You have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.  So look away from him and let him alone, 'til he has put in his time like a hired man.

   At least there is hope for a tree; If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.  Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth shoots like a plant.  But man dies and is laid low he breathes his last and is no more.  As water disappears from the sea or a riverbed becomes parched and dry, so man lies down and does not rise; 'til the heavens are no more, men will not awake or be roused from their sleep. 

   If only You would hide me in the grave and conceal me till Your anger has passed!  If only You would set me a time and then remember me!  If a man dies, will he live again?  All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come.  You will call and I will answer You, You will long for the creature Your hands have made.  Surely then You will count my steps but not keep track of my sin.  My offenses will be sealed up in a bag; You will cover over my sin.

   But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from it's place, as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the soil, so You destroy man's hope.  You overpower him once for all, and he is gone; You change his countenance and send him away.  If his sons are honored, he does not know it; if they are brought low, he does not see it.  He feels but the pain of his own body and mourns only for himself.   Job 14  (NIV)

COMMENTARY

   Life is brief and full of trouble, Job laments in his closing remarks.  Sickness, loneliness, disappointment, and death cause Job to say that life is not fair..... God's solution to believers who live in an unfair world is to guarantee life with Him forever.  No matter how unfair your present world seems, God offers the hope of being in His presence eternally.  Have you accepted this offer?  click here to learn how:  'https://omaswisdom.blogspot.com/p/path-to-salvation.html'

    Job's pessimism about death is understandable.  What is remarkable is his budding hope.  If Only God would hide him with the dead and then bring him out again!  When we must endure suffering, we have an advantage over Job because of his faithfulness to God.  We know that we are not necessarily punished in this life, but we sign up to be used by God for His purposes.  Job was not being punished, he was actually being rewarded for living a righteous life!

   Job's profound speech in this chapter illustrates a great truth:  to have a right set of doctrines is not enough.  To know WHAT to believe is not all that is required to please God.  Truth untested by life's experiences may become static and stagnant.  Suffering can bring a dynamic quality to life.  Just as drought drives the roots of a tree deeper to find water, so suffering can drive us beyond superficial acceptance of truth to dependence of God for hope and life.

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