38. Looking at a Man’s Life
Hymns: RHC 205 Thine Is the Glory; 203 He Lives; 206 Christ Arose
Job 14:1-6
1Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. 2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. 3And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee? 4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. 5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; 6Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day. (Job 14:1-6 KJV)
Looking at a Man’s Life
OUTLINE
- Fleeting (v1-2)
- Fearsome (v3-4)
- Fixed (v5-6)
INTRODUCTION
Looking realistically at a man’s life in his raw reality can make us shudder. It is so mysteriously frightening when we look at the final analysis. If there is no knowledge of God and the knowledge of our origin, life can be a frightening prospect. But God reveal Himself to us and gives us an eternal perspective to life that brings us hope and joy. Heaven is real. It is a prepared place for prepared people.
To know and fellowship with the living and true God is man’s greatest privilege because He is the Source of his blessings. More so, He is the Source of his being. He is the One that gives life to us and sustains our life!
The Chinese character for “blessedness” is 福, pronounced “fu”. Interesting, it is made of the following radicals:
One (一) man (口) with God (神) in a garden or field (田).
When a man is in close fellowship with His Creator God, this is true blessedness. God is the Source of our blessings. This is a truth that the Bible, God’s Word, declares to us in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created …”
The creation account tells us in Genesis 1 and 2:
When God made the universe, the earth was the focus!
When God made the earth, man was the focus!
Man was made to have dominion on all of God’s creation on earth.
When we look at the world around us, we see the work of a Grand Designer, there is beauty and order in creation. The earth and the planets in the solar system moves in their designated orbit. The orderliness of the vast universe gives testimony to a great God as the Creator and Grand Designer! This is called Natural Revelation.
The psalmist declares, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. There isno speech nor language, wheretheir voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which isas a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, andrejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.6 His going forth isfrom the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”
The marvel of the human body. It gives testimony to God as the Maker. The psalmist David testifies “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully andwonderfully made: marvellous arethy works; and thatmy soul knoweth right well.” (Psalm 139:14)
If you read Genesis 2:4 c.f. 2:7, the word “LORD” is first used “יְהוָה” “YHWH” to signify the close relationship between God and man.
Genesis 2:7 “And the LORDGod formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
This is the Chinese character 造is a description of the truth that man is made by God.
is dust, is mouth, is movement or life,
is “able to walk”.
God is the source of man’s existence, our existence. He is the source of our blessedness. God is our Creator and Sustainer. It is imperative that we know Him and be in fellowship with Him.
Whereas we exist in the human body, God is a Spirit (John 4:24). He cannot be seen. How then can we know Him? He reveals Himself to us in God’s Word, the Bible.
Life takes a different meaning when we view the reality of life in the light of God’s plan for man’s salvation.
- Fleeting (v1-2)
1Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. 2He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Of the original of human life (v1a): God is indeed its great original, for he breathed into man the breath of lifeand in him we live; but we date it from our birth, and thence we must date both its frailty and its pollution. Its frailty: Man, that is born of a woman, istherefore of few days (v1). This may refer to the first woman, who was called Eve,because she was the mother of all living. Of her, who being deceived by the tempter was first in the transgression, we are all born, and consequently derive from her that sin and corruption which both shorten our days and sadden them. Or it may refer to every man’s immediate mother.
Of the nature of human life – few days (v1b cf. v2): it is a flower,it is a shadow(v2). The flower is fading, and all its beauty soon withers and is gone. The shadow is fleeting, and its very being will soon be lost and drowned in the shadows of the night. Of neither do we make any account; in neither do we put any confidence.
Of the shortness and uncertainty of human life – few days (v1b cf. v2):So frail and feeble, so short lived and sorrowful, so soon and easily cut down and destroyed. Man is of few days.Life is here computed, not by months or years, but by days, for we cannot be sure of any day but that it may be our last.
Of the calamitous state of human life– full of trouble (v1c). Man, as he is short-lived, so he is sad-lived. Though he had but a few days to spend here, yet, if he might rejoice in those few, it were well (a short life and a merry one is the boast of some); but it is not so. During these few days he is full of trouble,not only troubled, but full of trouble, either toiling or fretting, grieving or fearing. No day passes without some vexation, some hurry, some disorder or other. [Matthew Henry]
- Fearsome (v3-4)
3And dost thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee? 4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
Of the sinfulness of human life(v4) arising from the sinfulness of the human nature. So some understand that question (v4), Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?A clean performance from an unclean principle? Actual transgressions are the natural product of habitual corruption, which is thereforecalled originalsin, because it is the original of all our sins.
- Fixed (v5-6)
5Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; 6Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day.
Of the settled period of human life (v5).
Three things we are here assured of:
- That our life will come to an end; our days upon earth are not numberless, are not endless, no, they are numbered, and will soon be finished (Dan. 5:26).
- That it is determined, in the counsel and decree of God, how long we shall live and when we shall die. The number of our months is with God, at the disposal of his power, which cannot be controlled, and under the view of his omniscience, which cannot be deceived.
- It is certain that God’s providence has the ordering of the period of our lives; our times are in his hand. The powers of nature depend upon him, and act under him. In him we live and move. Diseases are his servants; he kills and makes alive. Nothing comes to pass by chance, no, not the execution done by a bow drawn at a venture. It is therefore certain that God’s prescience has determined it before; for known unto God are all his works.
- Whatever he does he determined, yet with a regard partly to the settled course of nature (the end and the means are determined together) and to the settled rules of moral government, punishing evil and rewarding good in this life. We are no more governed by the Stoic’s blind fate than by the Epicurean’s blind fortune. That the bounds God has fixed we cannot pass; for his counsels are unalterable, his foresight being infallible.
- These considerations Job here urges as reasons:
- Why God should not be so strict in taking cognizance of him and of his slips and failings “Since I have such a corrupt nature within, and am liable to so much trouble, which is a constant temptation from without, dost thou open thy eyesand fasten them upon such a one,extremely to mark what I do amiss? (Job 13:27). And dost thou bring me,such a worthless worm as I am, into judgment with theewho art so quick sighted to discover the least failing, so holy to hate it, so just to condemn it, and so mighty to punish it?”
The consideration of our own inability to contend with God (v6), of our own sinfulness and weakness, should engage us to pray, Lord, enter not into judgment with thy servant.
Why he should not be so severe in his dealings with him: “Lord, I have but a little time to live. I must certainly and shortly go hence, and the few days I have to spend here are, at the best, full of trouble. O let me have a little respite! (v6). Turn from afflicting a poor creature thus, and let him rest awhile; allow him some breathing time, until he shall accomplish as a hireling his day.It is appointed to me once to die; let that one day suffice me, and let me not thus be continually dying, dying a thousand deaths.
Let it suffice that my life, at best, is as the day of a hireling,a day of toil and labour. I am content to accomplish that, and will make the best of the common hardships of human life, the burden and heat of the day; but let me not feel those uncommon tortures, let not my life be as the day of a malefactor, all execution-day.”
Thus, may we find some relief under great troubles by recommending ourselves to the compassion of that God who knows our frame and will consider it, and our being out of frame too. [Matthew Henry]