Job 14:13-22

If Job didn’t know before his trials, he knows it intimately and personally about life or better yet, about the fragility and brevity of life. This is a good reminder for all of us about the shortness and uncertainty of human life.

​In the Scriptures, life is here on earth isn’t calculated by months or years, but by days, for we cannot be sure of any day but that it may be our last. These days are few, fewer than we think of. As it says in James 4:14, “What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Keeping this truth in the forefronts of our minds will not only keep us grounded in this life but give us a hope for the life to come. Job had a keen awareness that this life was not the end all be all and though he had lost everything up to this point in his life, he was able to cling to the hope that he could find a hiding-place in the grave. It was not only a passionate weariness of this life that he wished to die, but also in the assurance of a better life.

The grave is not only a resting-place, but a hiding-place, to the people of God. The grave is only a pitstop on our journey to paradise—eternal life.

It is amazing how hard we fight to “live our best life now” or to live as long as possible. If we say we love the Lord and cannot wait to be with Him and our loved one who are with Him, then why do we fight so hard to stay here. Why do we live as if there is no resurrection and eternal life that awaits those who put their hope and trust in Jesus? Yes, live to the fullest and enjoy the life that God has given you, but know that we have a God who is good and will do good to us in this life and raise us to a new and glorious life for all of eternity as well.

Job mourned and suffered tremendously. Job’s suffering and his feelings were real and understandable; yet there was a truth that went beyond his feelings that made sense of his suffering. May this same truth of the resurrection power through Jesus Christ, allow us to navigate through this life with the understanding that this is not our home; that there will be waiting for us life with no more pain, sorrow, tears, or death. May this give us courage to not put all of our lives in the temporary, but to have an eternal mindset.

Prayer: Father God, thank you that you are the giver and sustainer of not only this life but for eternity. May the truth of the resurrection power that belongs to all who put our hope and trust in you, give us courage to live here, but also give us hope for what awaits. In Jesus’ name, amen.