Job 14
SIBMan that is born of a poor, weak, frail, woman, through whom he derives guilt, curses, corruptions, and infirmities, is of few days, and so surfeited with troubles, that he needs pity, rather than a violent hand to cut him off
Job 14:2
He makes a sparkling and fair show for a few days or hours, and then is cut down by an untimely death, or gradually, and without substantial happiness, posts through age into the eternal state
Job 14:3
And wilt thou, O God, debase thyself to take notice of, frown on, or contend with, such an insignificant creature, or to hale to thy tribunal, and execute strict justice upon me!
Job 14:4
How is it possible for such as are sinfully corrupted themselves to produce innocent children! Why then should I, who am by nature no worse than others, be so peculiarly punished? 5, 6. Since the period of every man’s life is unalterably fixed by thy purpose and providence, why shouldest thou now torment, and not let me alone, till I have contentedly accomplished my appointed service, and obtained the wished-for evening of death?
Job 14:7-12
And the rather, since there is no hope that men once dead will revive into life like the stumps of old trees in a well-watered soil; but will lie crumbled into dust, and quite insensible, till the last day
Job 14:13
Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the state of the dead, and cover me with a veil, till this storm of thy wrath blow over! or set some limit of time and degren to thy wrath, and in pity remember me!
Job 14:14
Then, however impossible it be for men to rise from the dead before the last day, I should patiently, all the days of my troublesome warfare, wait for my dying hour; and no less patiently wait for my glorious change at the resurrection
Job 14:15
Then, in love to thy poor creature, thou shouldest by death call me to thy judgment seat, and I should readily come: and at the resurrection thou shalt, in love to me, call me up from the grave, and I will gladly obey
Job 14:16
But now thou wrathfully observest all the steps of my life, and, as it were, greedily markest the smallest trips of my conduct, in order to punish them
Job 14:17
The least of my sins of infirmity is as carefully preserved in thy remembrance against me as if it were a precious treasure; and thou huntest after forged calumnies to add to my sin, and punish me for it. 18, 19. But there is no more hope of men’s recovery from death, or of me from this calamity, than that fallen mountains should raise themselves up, or removed rocks resume their place, or worn stones should grow again; or that which is carried away by a flood should be brought back, and the devastations repaired. 6 H 20. None can resist thy deadly stroke, but must pass into eternity whenever thou requirest. Thou wrathfully changest his countenance, spoilest his beauty, and expellest him as a leper from thy camp on earth
Job 14:21
And then, whatever glory, power, or honour, or whatever debasement, disgrace, or misery, his posterity meet with, he neither knows nor regards it
Job 14:22
But his body, after pains in death, shall corrupt in the grave; and his soul, imbittered in death, often removes to an eternal anguish in hell
REFLECTIONS UPON CHAP. XIV.—If human life be so short, so sinful, and so wretched; if death and an awful eternity be so near; why should any be proud! Why unconcerned about spiritual, about eternal happiness! Why not live on that gracious God who hath a feeling of our infirmities; and look and long for that rest which remaineth for the people of God! Awful and awakening though comfortable and heart-composing, are believing views of death and of the resurrection from the dead: and happy is the thought that, while my body, as precious dust, sleeps in Jesus’ arms of kindly care, my soul shall retire to sit with him on his throne, and there wait, till my great, my last, change come! If grace has changed my heart, death has changed its nature to me: and the hope of a glorious resurrection is enough to support me under every human trouble. Every thing around admonishes me of death: and nothing can resist it when God gives it the commission. Sharp are its pains, and strange is the change it makes! It separates the chiefest friends! In view of it, to render me always content, let me maintain kind thoughts of God and a deep sense of my sin. And at last let it find me weaned from this perishing world, disengaged from all but a God in Christ; and singing, O death, where is thy sting! O grave, where is thy victory!