Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
The book of Job is an interesting book to study. It lays out the thoughts of a righteous man as opposed to the facts of a just God. Job was a righteous man. God spoke very highly of him in the opening verses of this chapter. That fact did not erase the fact that Job had some blind spots. Job was tested quite severely, in human terms. Life had been going along quite good until all of a sudden, things changed drastically.
It is important to note that God did not begin the book of Job by pointing out his failures. God was not punishing Job in this book. He was answering the false accusations of the devil. He was proving the devil a liar. The devil does not have man’s best interest in mind. His goal is to inflict as much pain in man now and see him spend eternity with him in torment. Jesus declared that the devil is a murderer and a liar.
After all, the devil told Eve that God was a liar. He deceived her into believing that God was short-changing her. Satan was wrong then and he is wrong now.
In chapter 14 Job was appealing directly to God. In our opening verse, he was asking God what the hope of man is. In that chapter he talked about a tree. When a tree is cut down, if the root is healthy, it can sprout a new tree. The life of the tree continues. However, what about man? Hence the question we have in our verse. If a man dies, he does not sprout up and continue to grow. No new person sprouts from that dead body. Job did not believe in reincarnation. God does not teach that heresy.
In reading the book of Job, it is clear that Job believed in the resurrection. God taught him and us the importance of believing in eternal life. The resurrection of the saints is different from the resurrection of the lost. The lost are raised up to face eternal torment. Their soul goes into torment the moment they breathe their last breath. They are awaiting the resurrection of the body, at which time they will stand at the great white throne judgment and be exposed for who they truly are. After opening the books and declaring the works of each lost person, each person standing there will be sentenced to an eternity of torment. It will be meted out according to God’s justice. Those who receive that sentence may not agree with it, but they will not be able to change any of it. The time for change was while they lived on this earth. Since they squandered that, their eternity is doomed by their own foolishness.
The saved, like Job, will live on. They will not live as that tree that sprouts a new tree. Their soul never dies and their body will live again as a resurrected body with a soul that was redeemed at some point in this life and fully purified at death. There could be loss of reward, due to stubbornness while living. There can be the confidence with which the apostle Paul wrote in II Timothy 4. God is the Judge and He does not make any mistakes. He does not overlook anything. He has no axe to grind.
Job also understood that he had an appointed time on this earth. He did not know how long that time was, but he knew that God knew about this. Job was not one to sit by idly and watch the world go by.
He had been hit with some issues that he was having a hard time processing. He would not take the approach of his wife on these matters. He was not about to curse God and die. That would be extremely foolish. He also did not have his head buried in the sand and try to whitewash sin. God stated that Job was:
Job 1:1 There 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.
Three times in the first two chapters, God mentions this fact. It is believed that Job lived during the same time frame as Abraham. Unlike the secular mindset, Job was not an ignorant caveman. He was very knowledgeable and God gave him the information needed to choose to respect God for Who He was. Job was created with intelligence. There has never been a time in the history of man, that he could not know the true God and also have a meaningful relationship with Him.
Back in our opening verse, Job had a confidence in God. He would wait for his change to come. He knew that God would change his body into something better one day. In chapter 19 he declared that he knew his Redeemer was alive and he also understood that he would see Him one day. As mentioned earlier, Job believed in the resurrection. He just did not understand why things were as they were in his current situation. He needed to be refined. He needed to learn that he had no right to demand answers from God. He needed to learn greater humility so that he could accept God’s lot for him, and he could rest in God’s will even if his flesh did not like it.
It is important for us to know that this life is short. Eternity is a long time. Unless we trust in God for salvation, this life can be very difficult, but eternity will be much worse. Those who trust in God for salvation, might suffer more now than they like, but eternity is rewarding for every person who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
Pastor Bartel