Job 14 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Job 14 Short Summary:

Job begins the 14th chapter discussing the frailty of mankind in comparison to God. He wonders why God cares about him sense his days on earth are so few. He ponders the hope of resurrection as a way to escape his misery. The chapter concludes on a note of despair, as Job meditates on the hopelessness of a man who God opposes.

Job 14 Bible Study

SHORT OUTLINE OF THE BOOK OF JOB

• Job 1-2 – Job is Persecuted by Satan

• Job 3-37 – Job and His Friends Discuss the Reason He is Experiencing Persecution

• Job 38-41 – God Speaks with Job and Reveals His Greatness to Him.

• Job 42 – God Restores What Job Lost

WHEN:

• The date of the writing of Job is unknown and still debated. Some believe it was written during the time of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) or even earlier, while others suspect it was written during the time of Judah’s Babylonian captivity (607-537 B.C.).

• I take the earlier date. The description of Job as the “greatest of all the people of the east” (1:3) and an absence of references to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Temple suggests to me that this book was written early.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Job – A blameless and upright man who Satan persecuted in an attempt to turn his heart away from God.

• Job’s Friends – Job rebuked his 3 friends for being unhelpful and misrepresenting God.

WHERE:

• Job lived in the land of Uz. Most scholars surmise the land of Uz was in northern Saudi Arabia, either immediately south of the Dead Sea, I the land that would become known as Edom, or immediately east of the Dead Sea, which is today the country of Jordan.

OUTLINE:

• THE FRAILNESS OF MEN AND WOMEN (14:1-17):

  • In contrast to God’s greatness, men and women are weak frail things. They sprout like flowers and quickly wither. They flee like shadows and never return.

  • Job wanted to know why God cared enough about him to spend so much time afflicting him.

  • He once again asked God to leave him alone and let him live out his few days on earth in peace.

  • Exactly what Job understood about life after death and the resurrection is unclear, but his understanding certainly does not appear to be as mature as the New Testament authors.

  • On his theme of the frailty of mankind, he bemoaned that there was no earthly resurrection for men. Even a tree has hope of new life sprouting from its trunk or one of its seeds, but men have no hope of rising from the earth after death.

  • Job said, “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” (14:12).

  • Job wanted to hide from the sufferings of life in Sheol (the grave), then to be restored to life when the Lord was ready to smile on him again. Whether he was referring to a life on earth or a life in Heaven is unclear.

  • On that day of restoration, Job asked God to seal up his transgressions in a bag and not view him in light of his sins.

• GOD’S POWER AND JOB’S DISPAIR (14:18-22):

  • After expressing his desire for resurrection and restoration, Job ends the chapter in despair.

  • He knew that if God were opposed to a man, that man had no hope.

  • God can tear away a man’s hope like a landslide tears away the side of a mountain or a torrent of water tears through soil.

  • God always prevails over men, and Job felt like God was prevailing over him, tearing his hope away, but he didn’t know why.

APPLICATION

• Job asked, “If a man dies, shall he live again?” (14:14).

• Although Job may not have had a clear understanding of life after death, we do, because of Jesus.

• Jesus, His life, and His resurrection reveal that there will be a resurrection after death, and that human life doesn’t end when our physical body goes into a grave.

• Jesus said, “Do not marvel at this for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgement” (John 5:28-29).

• “For if we have been united with Him [Jesus] in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:5).

• “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor 15:19-21).