Job 14--Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All

Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All​
14 “Man who is born of a woman
    is few of days and full of trouble.
2 He comes out like a flower and withers;
    he flees like a shadow and continues not.
3 And do you open your eyes on such a one
    and bring me into judgment with you?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
    There is not one.
5 Since his days are determined,
    and the number of his months is with you,
    and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6 look away from him and leave him alone,
    that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

7 “For there is hope for a tree,
    if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
    and that its shoots will not cease.
8 Though its root grow old in the earth,
    and its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put out branches like a young plant.
10 But a man dies and is laid low;
    man breathes his last, and where is he?
11 As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,
12 so a man lies down and rises not again;
    till the heavens are no more he will not awake
    or be roused out of his sleep.
13 Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
    that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
    that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14 If a man dies, shall he live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait,
    till my renewal should come.
15 You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.
16 For then you would number my steps;
    you would not keep watch over my sin;
17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.

18 “But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
    and the rock is removed from its place;
19 the waters wear away the stones;
    the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
    so you destroy the hope of man.
20 You prevail forever against him, and he passes;
    you change his countenance, and send him away.
21 His sons come to honor, and he does not know it;
    they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
22 He feels only the pain of his own body,
    and he mourns only for himself.”

---

Job starts off again from the worldly perspective that death is the great equalizer.  Pain and suffering are common among all men, and Job's argument here could be summed up by "Life's tough, then you die."  It's true, but a terrible philosophy to live with if you don't have any hope in a better eternity.

Then Job asks a very interesting question--who can take that which is unclean and make it clean?  Job answers in the perspective of man saying, "No one," but we know God alone can change a man's nature and make all things new!  Job's conclusion is that our sin and misery are consequences enough for the short life that we have and that God should just leave us alone during the short life that we have since His punishment doesn't seem to drive us to any positive change--but we know better now!  We know that God's correction leads us to repentance and that the gospel can and does change us from the inside out.  This is one of the few places where I can say that Job is wrong in this book--be careful not to assume that every argument that Job makes is valid, God only says that Job knew God and spoke correctly of his character and nature, but not that Job made argument that were flawless.  I also remind you that we shouldn't dismiss everything Job's friends say out of hand because they sometimes get it right, though apparently out of a knowledge about God but not because of a relationship with God.

Job then seems to go to a strange place of life after death.  I don't believe Job is thinking about reincarnation here and I have to assume he's talking about an after-life since he's already talked about heaven and hell earlier.  He says that even a tree that has been cut down can sprout again, so there is hope for life after death--that makes his message from earlier quite different.

Job prays for God to just let him die and for his soul to be at rest in Sheol (the grave, the place of the dead) until God's wrath and judgment has passed so that he might have the chance to one day be raised to walk in newness of life.  He also prays for God to not record his sin, to cover it up and to forget about it--interesting request of a God that Job knows is just and omniscient.  Could it be that Job realized that he stands guilty in front of the Judge of the universe and that his only hope is for God to have mercy on him?

The things we find to be strong and secure in this world fail and fall before God and His judgment (the rock, the mountains, even the whole earth).  God will always prevail against man.  Job then mourns the loss of his children as he will never see them raised to honor or brought low because they died before him and he says that the pain in his own body is only pain that he can feel at this moment and that it is sufficient for him to only mourn for himself.

You'd think that would be enough to get some compassion from his friends and to cause them to be quiet and maybe try to comfort him, but that is not the case.  They are about to start their next round of accusations which they will call arguments, and they will ratchet it up even more this time thinking that each time that Job continues to refuse their calls to "repentance" that they must dial it up another notch, and God permits all this to happen for a while, but there is a limit (around chapter 40) when God has had enough and tells everyone to be silent before Him so that He may speak.  Hang on and keep that in mind as we continue to work through this book as God is just waiting for the right time.