06.28.2016 Old Testament: Job 13.28–14.12

To read the Bible in a year, read Job 13–15 on June 28, In the year of our Lord 2016

By Don Ruhl

What are the years of man? And how does man spend those years? How much of man’s time has to do with suffering?

“Man decays like a rotten thing,
Like a garment that is moth-eaten.
Man who is born of woman
Is of few days and full of trouble.
He comes forth like a flower and fades away;
He flees like a shadow and does not continue.
And do You open Your eyes on such a one,
And bring me to judgment with Yourself?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
No one!
Since his days are determined,
The number of his months is with You;
You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.
Look away from him that he may rest,
Till like a hired man he finishes his day.
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.
Though its root may grow old in the earth,
And its stump may die in the ground,
Yet at the scent of water it will bud
And bring forth branches like a plant.
But man dies and is laid away;
Indeed he breathes his last
And where is he?
As water disappears from the sea,
And a river becomes parched and dries up,
So man lies down and does not rise.
Till the heavens are no more,
They will not awake
Nor be roused from their sleep.”
(Job 13.28–14.12) 

Here Job makes it sound as though a cut-down tree has more hope than man does, but later he will show that we do have a hope. Nevertheless, after we have enjoyed the wonders of youth, our bodies do begin to decay even as we live.

Questions:

• If we shall all die, how should we live?
• If we shall live again, how do we prepare for it?