Job 14

God’s Word is air and water and bread. I am currently malnourished, dehydrated, and suffocating. How could I let this happen? I understand the vitality of a well-fed soul. Why have I allowed famine to creep in? It happens in small choices, tiny decisions that don’t seem important at the time but can gradually steer a person off course. So here I am, starved and parched and out of breath, with the cleanest air, purest water, and richest feast available just steps away. Open the Book. Read His words. Listen. Obey. Repeat forever. Easy. Nope. Hard work.

I relate too much to Job’s pretentious friends. I relate too much to Job’s doubtful wife. I relate to Elihu, who appears out of nowhere at the end with a bit of youthful zeal and surprising wisdom. I relate to Job in his sorrow, anger, self-righteousness, and his multitude of questions. And I relate to Job’s humiliation as God rightfully corrects him without any detailed explanation. Job doesn’t get to know. I relate! So of course I’m feeling all the feelings as an invested, empathetic reader.

I see how God is using the book of Job to reveal unhealed wounds. I see His holiness and power and hear His gentle call, “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden…” I see how He is shining a spot light on the hidden corners, where sin has been stowed away and left to mold or fester. I know God heals and forgives and gives rest.

The thing is, I thought I would deal with sin less as I aged. I kind of banked on that. I thought age would bring wisdom and self-control in greater measure. I even remember asking older Christians about this years ago. Their vague responses make sense now. It is most certainly not any easier. In fact, I find the Christian life has become more of a challenge. And any wisdom I have gained serves only to point out how deep sin can go in my own heart, how tightly those bitter roots dig in. But the realization is also sweet. My heart, instead of becoming hardened to sin, has become more tender as I get older. Humility and contrition are dear companions. There are definitely more tears. It is as C. H. Spurgeon says: “…the biting frost loosens the soil.”

“Man who is born of woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.”

Job 14:1-2

“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.”

Job 14:4

See this is where the light breaks through and dead things come back to life. This is where I’m reminded of the importance of being saturated with God’s Word. I remember II Corinthians 5. I know there is One who can make an unclean thing completely clean. There is only One. He reconciles us to Himself through the death of Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

II Corinthians 5:17-21

Job describes the hope a cut tree has – at the very scent of water the tree might start to revive and grow again (Job 14:7-9). He contrasts this hope with the permanence of human death. He doesn’t see hope for renewal or life after a man dies. He only sees the erosion of man’s hope and the slow decay of his body over time as he ages and eventually dies.

“But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he? As waters fail from a lake and a river wastes away and dries up, 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.”

Job 14:10-12

When I consider Jesus and the life He brings, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. His words to Nicodemus are light to us. A man can be born again. A man can be dead in sin and be born as a new creation in Christ. Nicodemus echoes Job’s question (John 3:4) Jesus is clear that this birth is a spiritual birth. He isn’t talking about the labor and delivery of a baby; he is talking about being born in the Spirit. This is eternal life. This is life that does not age.

Job is feeling his own age in his constant suffering. He dwells on death, the erosion of the body, the mind, and the decay of hope. And if we did not know, if we were ignorant of the life we have in Christ, or, if He had not raised from the dead to give us that life, then, we would be most miserable, as Paul says. If there is no resurrection, no eternal life in Christ, then we are pathetic, pitiable, and without any hope (I Corinthians 15:14-19). But He has risen! Our hope is alive, even if the mountains fall and crumble, even if the earth washes away and death comes closer.

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

Job 14:18-22

So Job is quiet again, and his friend Eliphaz will share some more of his delightful thoughts in the next chapter. Job ends his statement with his thoughts on death and the decay of hope. I am so glad we can think of Romans 5 and be encouraged. We have a glorious hope in Christ, hope that doesn’t bring shame, even in the middle of serious suffering. In fact, that suffering is a conduit of endurance and character and hope.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Romans 5:1-5