Resurrection Series

Job 14: 1 – 22

Resurrection

“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.”

In today’ study we are going to learn an important biblical truth. We are going to talk about our future resurrection. Job will let us in on this fact as he reveals in verses 14 and 15, -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.’

Some religions talk about reincarnation which says you will live again as something else. Other religions talk about you rejoining the ‘force’ of energy like we see in the popular ‘Star Wars Movies’. Another says that you will be in Paradise if you kill innocent people. Then there is one who says that you will get your own planet. Amazingly people buy into these tales.

I like what was revealed to us by the apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Job had turned from speaking to his friends, finding it to no purpose to reason with them, and here he goes on to speak to God and himself. He had reminded his friends of their frailty and mortality in chapter 13 verse 12; here he reminds himself of his own, and pleads it with God for some mitigation of his miseries. Job wants to talk about the shortness and sorrow that life presents.

“Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.

Have you ever thought how frail our lives really are? Living in this cursed world we are prone to serious injuries or death from accidents, diseases, plagues, weather, and attacks from animals and humans. If you stop and really think about this then you must see the merciful hand of God protecting us.