Read
Job Continues His Prayer
Life Is Short
1 Life is short and sorrowful
for every living soul.
2We are flowers that fade
and shadows that vanish.
3And so, I ask you, God,
why pick on me?
4There's no way a human
can be completely pure.
5Our time on earth is brief;
the number of our days
is already decided by you.
6Why don't you leave us alone
and let us find some happiness
while we toil and labor?
When a Tree
7When a tree is chopped down,
there is always the hope
that it will sprout again.
8Its roots and stump may rot,
9but at the touch of water,
it sprouts once again.
10Humans are different—
we die, and that's the end.
11We are like streams and lakes
after the water has gone;
12we fall into the sleep of death,
never to rise again,
until the sky disappears.
13Please hide me, God,
deep in the ground—
and when you are angry no more,
remember to rescue me.
Will We Humans
14Will we humans live again?
I would gladly suffer
and wait for my time.
15My Creator, you would want me;
you would call out,
and I would answer.
16You would take care of me,
but not count my sins—
17you would put them in a bag,
tie it tight,
and toss them away.
18But in the real world,
mountains tumble,
and rocks crumble;
19streams wear away stones
and wash away soil.
And you destroy our hopes!
20You change the way we look,
then send us away,
wiped out forever.
21We never live to know
if our children are praised
or disgraced.
22We feel no pain but our own,
and when we mourn,
it's only for ourselves.
Reflect
This reads like total cynicism and complete despair. Like a treatise on the hopelessness of being a human being. One could almost imagine this as a pre-suicide note in a television police drama. And it is Job who is talking: Job, our biblical hero.
What does it mean to be a human being? A birth, a troubled and short life, and a death. A temporary pain to oneself and to others. “Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short,” wrote Thomas Hobbes in the 17th century. And this chapter seems to echo those sentiments.
We humans are so hopeless that maybe God should just look away and leave us alone.
It would be better to be a tree. There’s hope for trees. Trees can recuperate, grow again; even when they’re seemingly dead, put them by the water and they’ll grow again. (vs7-9) But people die and simply disappear.
Or do they? Maybe they can be hidden from God’s anger in the land of Sheol. Maybe God will remember them . . . “If mortals die, will they live again?” (vs 13-14)
Is there the glimmer of hope here, the possibility of a maybe? Does Job have some idea about life after death, a temporary hiding place called Sheol, and then remembrance (v 13), release (v 14) and the end of guilt (v 17).
Then it’s as if Job cannot allow himself the luxury of such thoughts, such flights of fancy, and he gives in to his despair and pessimism. “We feel only the pain of our own bodies and we mourn only for ourselves.”
Nasty, brutish and short. Now don’t we readers long for the New Testament, for Jesus, and the certain hope of resurrection? And for the grace and power to live in that hope this very day?
Respond
Father God, we have every sympathy with those who are in despair, those who feel that there is nothing in life beyond their own pain and their own loss. Help us to help them with the sure and certain hope of the resurrection into everlasting life that comes to us through the life of Jesus Christ.
Michael Pountney
From the Merchant Navy to Moldova, Michael’s career has had a transatlantic diversity. High School language teacher and youth leader in the UK; IVCF staff at universities in BC and Divisional Director in Ontario; Parish Priest in Montreal and Toronto; Principal of Wycliffe College at the U. of T; IFES staff working with leaders in the former Soviet Republic. Retired in Victoria, Michael continues to help plant Anglican Network churches and mentor young leaders. Publications: Bob Goethe and Michael Pountney: “Mars and Venus Go To Church” (2010: Faith Today); Michael Pountney, “At A Distance: Encouragement For Cautious Christians” (2006: Essence Publishing, Belleville, Ontario); “Searching For Home” (2003: GLIA Moldova); Don Posterski and Michael Pountney; “Reconciliation: Seeking Restored Relationships” 2000: Institute For Christian Leadership Formation, World Vision International, Monrovia, California); Michael Pountney, “Getting A Job” (1984: InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois)