Job chapter 14
Job says our days are troublesome. Then we all die. Our death is final. Yet death is a release from the burdens of life. God will no longer record our sins.
JOB SAYS DEATH COMES TO US ALL
VERSE 1. “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble.
full of trouble. Our days are troublesome. The Hebrew for trouble means agitation, and brief like a withering flower.
VERSE 2. He grows up like a flower, and is cut down. He also flees like a shadow, and doesn’t continue.
VERSE 3. Do you open your eyes on such a one, and bring me into judgment with you?
VERSE 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
VERSE 5. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his bounds that he can’t pass;
VERSE 6. Look away from him, that he may rest, until he shall accomplish, as a hireling, his day.
VERSE 7. “For there is hope for a tree, If it is cut down, that it will sprout again, that the tender branch of it will not cease.
VERSE 8. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stock dies in the ground,
VERSE 9. yet through the scent of water it will bud, and sprout boughs like a plant.
VERSE 10. But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?
where is he? The LORD God reveals the fullness of his truth in a gradual way. It is called “Progressive Revelation.”
That means that across the millennia, the LORD God shows himself and his ways to us gradually.
In our own lives as well, God usually reveals himself and his ways to us gradually.
VERSE 11. As the waters fail from the sea, and the river wastes and dries up,
VERSE 12. so man lies down and doesn’t rise. Until the heavens are no more, they shall not awake, nor be roused out of their sleep.
and doesn’t rise. Literally “is laid low.”
For us humans, death is final.
VERSE 13. “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would keep me secret, until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
VERSE 14. If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare would I wait, until my release should come.
shall he live again? Job is willing to wait out his remaining days, anticipating his “release.”
the days of my warfare. That is, “hard service.” Death, with its release from the hard burdens of this life, would be like an honorary discharge from the military.
VERSE 15. You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire to the work of your hands.
VERSE 16. But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin?
VERSE 17. My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
sealed up in a bag. The LORD God will no longer record Job’s sins, for they will be hidden (sealed up in a bag).
This verse provides a hint about how people see the LORD God. They see him as recording their sins. They see him as an adversary.
VERSE 18. “But the mountain falling comes to nothing. The rock is removed out of its place;
VERSE 19. The waters wear the stones. The torrents of it wash away the dust of the earth. So you destroy the hope of man.
VERSE 20. You forever prevail against him, and he departs. You change his face, and send him away.
VERSE 21. His sons come to honor, and he doesn’t know it. They are brought low, but he doesn’t perceive it of them.
VERSE 22. But his flesh on him has pain, and his soul within him mourns.”
JOB
CHAPTERS: 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42
RESOURCES: Summary, Outline, Memorize, Job’s Dark Night
Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations on this page are from the World English Bible and the World Messianic Edition. These translations have no copyright restrictions. They are in the Public Domain.