The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Tree” it comes from the Hebrew Word “ets” which means “tree.”
Job reflects on how short and troubled human life truly is, and dares to hope for something beyond death. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Job 14.
Job observes that man born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, coming forth like a flower and being cut down, fleeing also as a shadow and not continuing, asking whether God opens His eyes upon such a one and brings him into judgment, wondering who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean, since man’s days are determined, the number of his months with God, who has appointed his bounds that he cannot pass.
Job asks God to turn from him, that he may rest, until he accomplishes his day as a hired servant, observing that there is hope of a “tree,” “ets” in Hebrew, that if it is cut down, it will sprout again, its tender branch not ceasing, though its root grows old in the earth and its stock dies in the ground, yet through the scent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant, but man dies and wastes away, gives up the ghost, and where is he, waters failing from the sea, and floods decaying and drying up, so man lies down and does not rise until the heavens are no more.
Job asks the striking question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” answering that all the days of his appointed time he would wait, until his change comes, God calling and Job answering Him, having a desire for the work of His hands, though now He numbers his steps and watches over his sin, sealing up his transgression in a bag and sewing up his iniquity. Job closes lamenting that mountains falling come to nothing, waters wear away stones, and the things which grow out of the earth are washed away, and God destroys the hope of man, prevailing forever against him, changing his countenance and sending him away, his sons coming to honor without his knowledge, his soul mourning within him alone, a raw, honest meditation on mortality that nonetheless dares to hope for something beyond the grave.
Job’s daring question, if a man dies, shall he live again, expresses a genuine flicker of hope for resurrection breaking through even his deepest despair, remarkable for how early this hope appears within Scripture’s unfolding revelation. This chapter’s honest meditation on life’s brevity and death’s finality, held together with this fragile but real hope, models faith that continues reaching toward God even while honestly confronting mortality’s hardest questions.
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