The Hope of a Tree
Job 14:7-9 (King James Version) pastor Ken Crow
7For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;
9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant
Yes this morning I am going to say it one more time. I wonder how many times in our life that we have faced something and sure enough here comes some wise old Bible talker around to say the famous words “consider Job”.
I remember the first time someone said that to me and quite frankly I did not know what they were talking about because I was not really that familiar with the story of Job. I was a teenager. I had just experienced my real first broken heart. Thought my whole world had come to an end. I remember going home that evening and getting the Bible that lay there on the family coffee table and looking for this man named Job. As I began to read about him I realized why this person told me to “consider Job”.
In our opening scripture this morning the Word of God mentions the tree.
At the beginning of the story of Job he is the tree.
Job was on top of the world.
Job 1
1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
2And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
3His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
4And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
Job had all a man could ever ask for or want. He was in perfect standing with God. He had a wonderful wife and loving children who honored him.
He owned enormous herds of livestock.
His relationship with God was so strong that daily he communed with God in personal prayer.
Yes Job was living large! He was the very picture of success for his day.
Job was the tree!
Have you ever been there? Have you ever been the Tree?
A sweet roll in life where everything just seemed to be going perfect seems everything just automatically fell into place. Everything in the family is right, everything in the job is right. There is plenty of money to go around even to get out and do something extra. The wife is going around the house calling you honey and giving you winks and the kids are minding and just seem like perfect little angels.
And oh yes plenty of food in the house. Plenty of Pepsi and Coke .
The car is new and the pickup is hot and the boat is ready to put on the lake.
You never felt better in your life health wise. Everything is just Wow!
You are living large! You are the tree!
Job never dreamed that on one fateful morning in his life that everything would change!
He got up just like every other morning. Ate his breakfast and sent his children out for the day and went to prayer just like the day before. There was no big ominous cloud in the sky. There was no ere feeling of impending tragedy. It felt like just another tree day in the life of Job!
13And there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
14And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
15And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
16While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
17While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
18While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
19And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
In our opening scripture after mentioning the hope of a tree the Word of God inserts a very important “if” here. “If it be cut down.”
Now notice something here very important because it applies to most of us in this house today.
The hope is only inserted on the condition, oh my goodness, that the tree is cut down!
Yes like Job many of us have experienced the mountain top of life but like him also many of us have had that same mountain that we once stood upon turn upon us only to find ourselves not only at the foot of the mountain but desperately trying to dig out from under the rock and rubble that came down with us and on top of us from that mountain.
Friend you may not need hope as the tree but when the saws and windstorms of life cut us down hope comes upon the tree! We find ourselves sometimes in life at a point where all we have is hope.
Oh when the tree is cut.
One winter several years ago I ended up cutting firewood for a living.
I went up on the mountain and got permission from a man to cut wood on his place. I cut there most of the winter. I noticed something about those tree stumps. During that winter they looked dead. Soon after being cut the top of the stump would season over and turn a blackish brown color. Yes they appeared dead but they were not. I found something out real quick. Now get this it will make my day if you do. THE TREE IS MORE EASILY PUSHED OVER OR CUT THAN THE STUMP. The tree may not survive the storm but the stump probably will!
The stump will season and live. The cut tree top will rot and die!
Why?
Let’s take a look back at our friend Job. Job was cut down. Job had it all and he had lost it all.
He had lost it all through no fault of his own.
Job now found himself not a tree but a stump. Everything went wrong that cold go wrong. He lost his children, his health, even the confidence of his wife. His whole life had been reduced in just a short time to the level of a stump!
His wife asked him to just curse God and die! Why not?
The Word of god points out that Job was a man of God.
Jobs roots were in God.
One more thing about a tree it’s hope is in the roots not the leaves. The leaves come and go every year but the roots just keep getting deeper and deeper. The tree’s foundation is in the roots.
That is why Job did not curse God. His roots were in the Lord.
This morning you may find your self cut down and you may think like Job will I ever grow back?
It is at this time when the hope of the tree kicks in!
See there grew one day near Jerusalem a tree. A tree that would be cut and sawed into two beams and they would be fashioned into a cross and a man named Jesus would be nailed to it and crucified. But this was just not any man this was the Son of God, The perfect lamb, the savoir of the world.
See the hope of the cut tree is Jesus Christ! If our roots are in him though we maybe cut down for a season in life there is hope.
Job 14:7-9 (King James Version) pastor Ken Crow
7For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.
8Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;
9Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant
YET THROUGH THE SCENT OF WATER IT WILL BUD AND BRING BOUGHS LIKE A PLANT.
Job refused to be kicked down by his peers. Did you ever walk up to a stump and kick it? Who gets the best end of that deal!
Job 42
1Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
2I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
Awe the scent of water, Someone here today needs to just lift their heart toward Jesus and absorb that scent of fresh water and hope in their life through him!
10And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.
11Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.
12So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
13He had also seven sons and three daughters.
14And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
15And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
16After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.
You may have been cut down. You may feel helpless but you are not. As long as you have life you have hope. Jesus Christ is wanting to give you that hope right now. Your best branches in life are about to spring forth. Awe get that scent of water! God bless you this morning. Pastor Ken
