Job 14

Can the dead live again? If so, this would give me hope through all my years of struggle, and I would eagerly await the release of death. You would call and I would answer, and You would yearn for me, Your handiwork.

(Job 14:14-15)

Job asks the rhetorical question, “Can the dead live again?” He talks about the green shoot that can grow out of a dead tree, the promise of life still there in the midst of death, but as far as he can observe, it is not so with man. He compares man to a river that is dried up, seemingly gone and soon forgotten. From his perspective, death is the end. Yet we see within him the hope for something more, the longing for eternity.

Solomon told us that the Lord placed eternity in the heart of every man. That is why each one of is not satisfied with the thought of “ceasing to exist”. It is unsettling at best, and for most of us the notion of “non-existence” is extremely frightening. This is because when we were created, “non-existence” was not part of what we were “programmed” with. We were designed to live forever. This is what causes Job in the middle of his response to his friends to stop and say, “Is there life beyond the grave? Do we live again after we die?” We know the answer to this question is yes! Jesus rose from the dead, and all who are alive in Christ will live eternally!

For us, we can be ASSURED of eternal life, and thus have what Job desired; “hope through all our years of struggle, a reason to eagerly await the release of death”. For those who know that eternal life is real, death is not the “end”, it is really the beginning of all we were meant to be.

Notice, Job attaches a sense of real deep relationship to this ASSURANCE of eternal life. When we have that hope, it puts us in a place where we can HEAR God’s voice and respond… a place where we are aware of our position as the handiwork of God, and aware of His love and desire for us. My friends don’t forget how important it is that we remember heaven and the hope it brings. It keeps our perspective right and our relationship with God ALIVE!