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not trees

Job 14:1-22 (JDV)

Job 14:1 A human born of woman is short of days and full of trouble.
Job 14:2 He blossoms like a flower then withers; he flees like a shadow and does not last.
Job 14:3 Do open your eye to one like this? Will you bring me into judgment against you?
Job 14:4 Who can produce something pure from what is impure? No one!
Job 14:5 Since a person’s days are determined and the number of his months depends on you, and since you have set limits he cannot pass,
Job 14:6 look away from him and let him rest so that he can enjoy his day like a hired worker.
Job 14:7 There is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its shoots will not die.
Job 14:8 If its roots grow old in the ground and its stump starts to die in the soil,
Job 14:9 the scent of water makes it thrive and produce twigs like a sapling.
Job 14:10 But a healthy man dies and fades away; Adam expires – and where is he?
Job 14:11 As water disappears from a lake and a river becomes parched and dry,
Job 14:12 so a man lies down never to rise again. He will not wake up until the sky is no more; they will not stir from their sleep.
Job 14:13 If only you would hide me in Sheol and conceal me until your anger passes. If only you would appoint a time for me and then remember me.
Job 14:14 If a healthy man dies, will he come back to life? If so, I would wait all the days of my struggle until my relief comes.
Job 14:15 You would call, and I would answer you. You would long for the work of your hands.
Job 14:16 For then you would count my steps but would not take note of my sin.
Job 14:17 My rebellion would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.
Job 14:18 But as a mountain collapses and crumbles and a rock is dislodged from its place,
Job 14:19 as water wears away stones and torrents wash away the topsoil from the ground, so you destroy a mortal’s hope.
Job 14:20 You completely overpower him, and he goes away; you change his appearance and send him away.
Job 14:21 If his sons receive honor, he does not know it; if they become insignificant, he is unaware of it.
Job 14:22 He feels only the pain of his own body and mourns only for his throat.

not trees

Job laments that human beings are not like trees. A tree may be cut down, but given the right conditions, it may sprout back again from the apparently dead stump. But, Job complains, human beings are not like that. When a man’s life comes to an end, he lies down and sleeps, not to wake up again.

Job is not arguing against the concept of the resurrection. Even in this chapter, he pleads with God to hide him in Sheol (death) until his wrath is past, and then remember him, causing him to live again (13-14). One cannot ask for a more clear statement of the hope of resurrection. Later, Job asserts that he has a Redeemer who lives, and that he (Job) will see God in a resurrected body, long after his present body has been consumed.

So, since Job is not arguing against the notion of a resurrection, why does he insist that death is a sleep that one does not wake up from? He is contrasting the fate of humans with that of trees. Trees have something within their nature that allows them to bounce back from apparent death. God has not put such a nature within us. If we want to live again, we will need a resurrecting God. Sleep is an appropriate metaphor for death because if you see people sleeping, you expect them to wake up. Think about that the next time you walk through a cemetery. These “sleeping places” are monuments to the fact that we all depend upon God for our future life.

LORD, thank you for the hope of the resurrection.