Read Job 14
14 “Mortals, born of woman,
are of few days and full of trouble.
2 They spring up like flowers and wither away;
like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.
3 Do you fix your eye on them?
Will you bring them before you for judgment?
4 Who can bring what is pure from the impure?
No one!
5 A person’s days are determined;
you have decreed the number of his months
and have set limits he cannot exceed.
6 So look away from him and let him alone,
till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.
7 “At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.
8 Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.
10 But a man dies and is laid low;
he breathes his last and is no more.
11 As the water of a lake dries up
or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,
12 so he lies down and does not rise;
till the heavens are no more, people will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.
13 “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!
14 If someone dies, will they live again?
All the days of my hard service
I will wait for my renewal to come.
15 You will call and I will answer you;
you will long for the creature your hands have made.
16 Surely then you will count my steps
but not keep track of my sin.
17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;
you will cover over my sin.
18 “But as a mountain erodes and crumbles
and as a rock is moved from its place,
19 as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil,
so you destroy a person’s hope.
20 You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;
you change their countenance and send them away.
21 If their children are honored, they do not know it;
if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.
22 They feel but the pain of their own bodies
and mourn only for themselves.”
Go Deeper
This chapter is Job’s closing remarks of the first round of discussion between him and his friends. Since we’ve made it through many days of heavy poetry and debate, we’re going to do something different today. As we reach the end of this section of the book, we are going to try to think of this book in a different way, and hopefully reach a different perspective on this book. Picture this in your mind: The book of Job is like two court rooms, one in heaven and one on earth.
In heaven, God is in charge: the judge who controls the court and makes all the decisions, and because He is all-knowing and just, He has never made the wrong decision. His angels are there, to serve their King and give input. We saw in chapters 1 and 2 how one of these members of the heavenly court asks to afflict suffering and pain on a righteous man named Job, all to prove that this man only praised God because of all the things he had been given.
The second court is on earth, in the remains of what used to be all that Job had been gifted from God. Job is the defendant (the one being accused), and his three friends that had originally been there to mourn with him, are the prosecuting attorneys, arguing that Job must have done something to deserve what happened to him. At this point, each friend has spoken once, and Job is finishing up this round of arguments, responding to the friend that spoke directly before him, and to all three friends.
The main point that Job is making in this chapter is this: Human life is extremely frail and temporary. People live for a short period of time, die, and don’t ever live again on Earth. In the second half of this chapter (v. 13-17), Job describes a hypothetical situation, one that he wishes could be true. He says that if the dead could live again, it would give him hope. If this were the case, God would guard his steps, and God would cover his guilt. This situation is hypothetical to Job, only wishful thinking, but to us it is real and available through Jesus! He died for our sins, so the dead could live again in Heaven with Him, taking on the punishment for our sin that we deserve.
Questions
- Why did God allow Satan to have his way in the heavenly court discussion?
- Put yourself in Job’s shoes. What do you think you would say in response to accusations from friends, saying that you deserved the suffering that you were enduring?
- What should Job’s friends be doing instead of accusing him of sin?
By The Way
Job’s claim that life is temporary isn’t some emotion-caused claim without real substance. This message can be found in multiple places throughout the Bible. One example of this is 1 Corinthians 4:17-18:
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
Leave a Comment Below
Join the Team
Interested in writing for the Bible Reading Plan? Email hello@biblereadingplan.org.
6 thoughts on “Job 14”
As we’ve seen in other places in the Old Testament the thread of redemption is evidenced in the book of Job. The question Job seeks an answer to in v14 “If mortals die, can they live again?” we can answer with YES, because we know that Christ rose from the grave and now we have hope based on His promise in John 14:19 “Because I live, you will live, too.” Suffering has brought Job to a place where truth he has accepted is now being tested. It can be the same for us in painful experiences as we move beyond a superficial acceptance of truth to a complete dependence on God for hope. In every circumstance we walk through Jesus calls us to come, take up our cross, and follow Him. That’s the only way out for me, and I must do it daily, at every test and turn.
Ella, thank you so much. I needed this. God has publicly showed me that he wants me to use my platform to take a stand for Him and the Truth. It could lose me work, lose “friends” and “followers” but I choose to take my cross and follow Him. Pray for me y’all – this is going to take some Grace.
Praying for an undivided heart to follow Him, Alisha.
My God is an awesome of God that has given me many chances. For every decision there is a choice Godly or worldly. In Job’s world it was different due to no Jesus as mediator. I am so beyond words thankful for Jesus Christ. In our life we the gift of salvation,( Ephesians 2:1-10)
God is such a loving Father, who so desires us in His family. Ephesians 1:5, Galatians 4:7. Everyday almost minute by minute we have to fight due to living in this world but God gave us armour to put on Ephesians 6:13-19. So we can fight and spread the gospel.
I haven’t ever commented on here before but I feel this morning I have to testify to the God Who Sees with His nearness and utter faithfulness. I woke up this morning wondering if I was going to see the scripture “pop up” that I read over my unconscious daddy in the hospital as he was (unexpectedly) dying. He had had a stroke the day before. I don’t know why I wanted to see it come up somewhere, but I pushed it aside as foolish anyway to want to see it come to me outside of myself and only by God. A year ago today I read these exact words over Dad :
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 ESV
Was God really going to read it over me? Well when I opened up the Bible Reading Plan this morning this was the the exact same scripture posted in the “by the way” section TODAY. I am so thankful to Jesus FOR Jesus and yes that there is indeed life after death. The longing of Job was fulfilled in the person of Jesus. That longing was put there by God Himself because we were made for more than the short span of earthly time we are given. Daddy passed away the next day but I know into the arms of Jesus and feeling the incomparable weight of glory. He stepped into the Real Life he was made for. As I read somewhere once that for the believer, the best day of our life is not the day we are born, but the day we die. Thank you Harris Creek for your obedience to the Word so God can take it and go infinitely further than our human limits, to meet me in a far more personal way that only He knows how to do. So I don’t know who this is for but maybe you feel hidden from God’s view but I just want you to know that He sees you and knows you even in a more personal way than you could even know yourself. He sees and He loves and He will make it more than good again one day.
Thank you for sharing, Emery! Your words point us to the Savior and his deep, abiding love for us.