The Formula to Forever

This post marks the 9th anniversary of blogging through the Bible. Thanks for coming along. I hope it's been a blessing to you as it has to me. 

We are still in Job's speech in Job 14. Job is now contemplating the reality of life and the inevitability of death. 

Job 14:1–2 (ESV) “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. 2 He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.

Job is expressing deep realities of life. Life is hard and short. Then Job looks at the trees and sees more hope in that even when cut down, they sprout new growth from the death.

Job 14:7 (ESV) “For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease.

Job 14:12 (ESV) 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.

The question Job is coming around to is this: does a man live even after he dies? He clearly states that question in verse 14:

Job 14:14 (ESV) If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.

This is the great question, is it not? What happens after we die? Is there life beyond this? And I would submit that the one thing in life that causes us to long for life after death more than anything is the suffering of the innocent. 

When a child is beaten to death, or a woman raped and murdered we need a "yes" to this question. When countless citizens die at the hands of some fascist regime, we need a "yes" to this question. When we see the starvation of entire populations and the premature death of those hardly of age, we need a "yes" to this question. And as Job suffers, he longs for a "yes" to this question himself. If there is a life yet to come, whatever the suffering now, we could get through it to get to then. 

Then in three verses Job sums up what it would entail for God to give us life from the dead. NOtice them with me:

Job 14:15–17 (ESV) You would call, and I would answer you; you would long for the work of your hands. 16 For then you would number my steps; you would not keep watch over my sin; 17 my transgression would be sealed up in a bag, and you would cover over my iniquity.

Verse 15, we would need God to speak to us and we would have to respond. Eternal life is ours when we respond to the voice of the Lord. 

Verse 16, we would need God to not count our sins against us. 

Verse 17, we would not simply need our sins disregarded, we would need them covered over. The words refer to "whitening" in this verse. 

So yes, my friends, there is life after death. And those who suffer in this life understand how important it is to have this hope. Yet our eternal life comes not because of our suffering but the suffering of Jesus Christ for our sins who is the Word of God made flesh, who takes away our sins and makes us white as snow. 

Happy New Year.

Amen.