Job 14:1-22
1 “Man who is born of woman
Is of few days and full of trouble.
2 He comes forth like a flower and fades away;
He flees like a shadow and does not continue.
3 And do You open Your eyes on such a one,
And bring me to judgment with Yourself?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
No one!
5 Since his days are determined,
The number of his months is with You;
You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.
6 Look away from him that he may rest,
Till like a hired man he finishes his day.
7 “For there is hope for a tree,
If it is cut down, that it will sprout again,
And that its tender shoots will not cease.
8 Though its root may grow old in the earth,
And its stump may die in the ground,
9 Yet at the scent of water it will bud
And bring forth branches like a plant.
10 But man dies and is laid away;
Indeed he breathes his last
And where is he?
11 As water disappears from the sea,
And a river becomes parched and dries up,
12 So man lies down and does not rise.
Till the heavens are no more,
They will not awake
Nor be roused from their sleep.
13 “Oh, that You would hide me in the grave,
That You would conceal me until Your wrath is 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 hard service I will wait,
Till my change comes.
15 You shall call, and I will answer You;
You shall desire the work of Your hands.
16 For now You number my steps,
But do not watch over my sin.
17 My transgression is sealed up in a bag,
And You cover my iniquity.
18 “But as a mountain falls and crumbles away,
And as a rock is moved from its place;
19 As water wears away stones,
And as torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
So You destroy the hope of man.
20 You prevail forever against him, and he passes on;
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 does not perceive it.
22 But his flesh will be in pain over it,
And his soul will mourn over it.”
Job was tired of suffering for something he could not understand to have done, and he began lamenting his sorry state as a condition of all men since everyone seemed destined for doom in the end as he saw it. People according to him appeared to be born for trouble and just fade away into death in the end, a view that missed the purpose and glory of God in each of us. Job wondered why God did not spy with His eye the suffering in innocence of Job while seeing the plight of others and helping them who he seemed to think less worthy. God set limits on the lives of men (Genesis 6:3, Deuteronomy 34:7) and we just go on until we are so tired that we accept death as our rest according to Job in this soliloquy of sorrow. He had also lamented that no good comes from an unclean thing, which we all are, seen as a shadow of the revelation clarified in Romans 3:23 and other places later. Job lamented how trees are cut down and regrow from mere stumps, yet not so with people. Man simply dies and is put in the ground where nothing grows back, and he asked “where is he?” Job contemplated the afterlife here as he pondered if man truly laid to rest in the grave stayed there. He was suffering so that he begged God to hide him in such a grave until the wrath of the Almighty was past and he would be remembered at last. He asked again if man dies, will he live again. He would wait for the change if it were to come, the beginning of his later thoughts in Job 19:25-26, 27 on the resurrection to life where he would see God face to face (Psalm 17:15) at last when the wrath of God on his sin had passed. We know now that in Christ this promise is fulfilled, for the wrath of God is taken away in the sacrificial death of the Passover Lamb of God (1 Corinthians 5:7, 1 Peter 1:19) slain for us at His own hand as our High Priest who was compared to Melchizedek (Hebrews 7:3, 15-17, 19), who has no beginning or end, as God Himself alone is able to forgive and raise us up on the last day to meet Him face to face (Revelation 22:4) at last! God desires the work of His hands, the elect chosen like Job and we who are in Christ, that we might come before Him forever with His wrath on our sin forever forgiven. Job seemed to have a prophetic inkling of these truths here. Until then, he continued to lament the hope of man seemingly destroyed by suffering as he mourns over the pain in body and soul apart from Him. Job lamented the seeming loss of hope, yet had glimpses of true and everlasting hope after death in a way he could not yet imagine. We have that certain hope (Hebrews 6:11, 19, 1 Peter 1:3, Romans 15:4, Titus 1:2) that wipes away our tears of temporal pain and suffering with this promise (Hebrews 11:1) by faith in the those promises in Christ and takes away our lament to replace with joy.
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