It was long ago. Before Moses wrote the ten commands of God on stone, before (or perhaps while) Abraham lived, there was a man who wrestled with the core, foundational problems of existence. That man’s name was Job.
In a single day, perhaps in a single hour, Job lost everything. His wealth, his family, his reputation, all were destroyed by the ancient enemy of man – the devil; Satan.
Of course, Satan was authorized to do what he did by God Himself. And Satan was ever the con man. He destroyed Job’s life with such gusto and flare that it appeared to come directly from the hand of God Himself.
Job does not curse God, however, but worships instead. He praises the God who both “gives and takes away.” (Job 1:21)
However, as all great suffering does to each of us, the pain Job experiences launches him into a desperate quest to find answers to the ultimate questions of the universe.
Was catalyzing this questioning from Job the reason God allowed his suffering?
One thing is clear. The book of Job is not merely about suffering, or God’s sovereignty, or anything on the surface. It is about the fundamental problem of human existence. That is, how can sinful, wicked and unclean man be right with God?
Through looking at a key passage, we can catch a glimpse of Job’s dilemma of hopelessness as well as his wish that shines through the heavy fog; a beacon of hope.
Job, the first book in the timeline of Scripture shows us just how deeply in trouble we are. Yet, it also points to a slight chance, a glimmer of hope, a Hail Marry pass for humanity that rests fully on the willingness of an all-powerful enemy to be merciful.
Here is the passage I will be looking at. I am putting it all here for you to read first:
Man who is born of a woman
is few of days and full of trouble.
He comes out like a flower and withers;
he flees like a shadow and continues not.
And do you open your eyes on such a one
and bring me into judgment with you?
Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
There is not one.
Since his days are determined,
and the number of his months is with you,
and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
look away from him and leave him alone,
that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.
But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he?
As waters fail from a lake
and a river wastes away and dries up,
so a man lies down and rises not again;
till the heavens are no more he will not awake
or be roused out of his sleep.
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my service I would wait,
till my renewal should come.
You would call, and I would answer you;
you would long for the work of your hands.
For then you would number my steps;
you would not keep watch over my sin;
my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.
Job 14:1-17 ESV
There is, first, a reality alluded to by Job – that of hostility between God and man. Job mentions that God sees him, judges him, and how he is unclean before God who is the standard of purity and holiness. This points to a broken relationship. Man’s sin, his uncleanness, puts him forever apart from God. God looks on man and judges his wickedness from on high.
There is a war between man and God. They are not on the same side.
Job’s first question, then, is why God continues to fight a defeated opponent. Why is God still sending the bombers of judgement to crush the sinful city which is already a smouldering ruin?
Job says that man is of no account – like flowers that come to life only to die in a blink. Man, says Job, is like a shadow that fades and vanishes away. So why does God care?
Could it be some form of fatherly discipline? Is God trying to punish the sin out of us before we die? Job rejects this idea saying, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.” Mere discipline or pain cannot purify the heart of man. God is not changing sinful hearts through wrath and judgement. So why is God doing it? What hope is there in it?
He moves then, from this argument that God is waging a pointless war, to his proposal. Whether it is a genuine proposal or more of a hypothetical one given to promote his real agenda remains to be seen. It is this: God should let man live his transient life in peace and not constantly make him face the consequences of his sin.
His reasoning is that God is in total control and knows every detail of a man’s life. Man is a defeated foe, and he cannot live a single moment outside of God’s plan. These facts add to Job’s argument that God’s judgement of sin is of no use in changing our sinful hearts. And if God knows the future, as Job says, God also knows this to be true.
What comes next, I think, is where Job begins to hint at his real agenda. He starts talking about death.
He says first, that “there is hope for a tree.” The word hope is critical. Hope for what? For change. For growth even after being chopped down. For new life. Why does hope exist for the tree? Because even when it dies, it can grow back. In other words – it has time.
But time is not on man’s side. We live a fleeting number of years and are gone forever. we don’t get another chance to earn God’s favor, to live a better life, to make God happy with us enough to overlook our sin. Once we are in the ground that is it. No do overs. No second chances. Job says that, “till the heavens are no more he will not awake or be roused out of his sleep.”
We now begin to understand the source of Job’s confusion. He faces, on one hand, the truth that sinful man is not right with almighty God, and that a holy God must judge sinners. Yet, on the other hand, he sees the hopelessness, the vanity of the entire situation. Who wins? Surely not man, who dies in his sin. But does God win when time after time his wrath toward sin never results in reconciliation, in change, in an end to the hostility between God and man? No.
If God were satisfied with wrath against sin, would he not simply wipe mankind out once and for all? Why allow us to continue to live and die and face judgement, with no hope or time to change?
There must be another way.
So Job, in a stunning display of hope in the middle of a hopeless dilemma, makes a wish. Here it is again in his own words.
Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait till my renewal should come. You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; my transgression would be sealed in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity Job 14:13-17
Job’s wish is for death to not be the ultimate doom of man, but to be man’s ultimate salvation. He wishes for a resurrected life after death, one where his sin had already been dealt with and is no longer between him and his creator. He begs God to mercifully kill him, and hide him away in the earth, safe until the day when God is ready to make him new.
How amazing it is, that before a word of Scripture was penned, a man knew the truth. He knew that the only way to solve the problem of mankind’s war with holy God, was for God to be willing to forgive us, to offer us mercy, to kill us, and to use his infinite power – which sinful man so foolishly rebelled against – to give us all a new life. And not just a second chance to earn God’s approval, but a new life entirely. One in which our sins from the first life were already burned in the fires of God’s holy wrath.
“And Job died, an old man, and full of days.” Job 42:17
That’s the last verse in the book of Job. And how fitting an end to Job’s story it is.
Job died, just as he requested. And the reader is left wondering, will the second half of Job’s wish also come true? Will God do it? Will he save Job? Will he save the world?
That is what prequels are for. They show us the problem, so that we read the rest of the story.
So read Job. Ponder your dilemma along with him. Let the danger you are in wash over your consciousness as you face the fact that God hates your sin. His wrath burns against your rebellious heart. There is no escape from it.
Death is coming.
And then, don’t stop at Job! Read the rest of the story. But especially read about Jesus.