40. The Hope of Man
Hymns: RHC 539 Beyond the Sunset, 540 We’re Marching to Zion, 543 Face to Face
Job 14:16-22
16For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin? 17My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity. 18And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place. 19The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man. 20Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. 21His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. 22But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn. (Job 14:16-15:1 KJV)
The Hope of Man
OUTLINE
- Guilty of Sin (v16-17)
- Hopelessly Perishing (v18-19)
- Escape Not God’s Justice (v20-22)
INTRODUCTION
Job considers man in his barest self, without God, under wrath. A frightening prospect. His sins confirm God’s judgment, his hope struggle against the decay that comes to him with time. He shall face the eventual wrath of God’s judgment. He cannot escape. None can escape God’s judgment. The only way out is through the blood of the Lamb.
…Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. (Revelation 1:5b-6)
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they alsowhich pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
Romans 8:23-25 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25 But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
The Apostle Paul says, “we are saved by hope” to describe how believers cling on to the promises of God for their present sustenance and to guide them into the “unknown” future. Indeed, a “people of hope” is a fitting description for the people of God. Jesus Christ has promised eternal life to all who repent of their sins and receive Him as Lord and Saviour. And we live in anticipation of Jesus Christ’s return to bring His church to glory. When He comes, we shall be given an incorruptible body fit for life in heaven. Therefore, we wait for the time of our change. Our hope will be a future reality because God cannot lie. He will be faithful to His Word. As such, we ought to the happiest people on earth because we have a sure hope. And we have a mandate from the Lord to proclaim this “blessed hope”!
When Noah is building the ark, he has not seen rain. But he knows that God will be sending rain in the fullness of time and the ark that he builds will provide security and safety from the coming calamity. The Bible tells us that Noah feared God. He took God at His Word and proved Him faithful! Hebrews 11:6 testifies “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” May God grant us faith in His Word so that we will continue to hope in Him as we await His soon return!
- Guilty of Sin (v16-17)
16For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin? 17My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.
He complains of the particular hardships he apprehended himself under from the strictness of God’s justice (v16-17). Therefore,he longed to go hence to that world where God’s wrath will be past, because now he was under the continual tokens of it, as a child, under the severe discipline of the rod, longs to be of age. “When shall my change come? For now thouseemest to me to number my steps,and watch over my sin,and seal it up in a bag,as bills of indictment are kept safely, to be produced against the prisoner.”
Deut. 32:34 “Thou takest all advantages against me; old scores are called over, every infirmity is animadverted upon, and no sooner is a false step taken than I am beaten for it.”
Job does right to the divine justice in owning that he smarted for his sins and transgressions, that he had done enough to deserve all that was laid upon him; for there was sin in all his steps, and he was guilty of transgression enough to bring all this ruin upon him, if it were strictly enquired into: he is far from saying that he perishes being innocent.
But, He does wrong to the divine goodness in suggesting that God was extreme to mark what he did amiss, and made the worst of every thing. He spoke to this purport Job 13:27. It was unadvisedly said, and therefore we will not dwell too much upon it. God does indeed see all our sins; he sees sin in his own people; but he is not severe in reckoning with us, nor is the law ever stretched against us, but we are punished less than our iniquities deserve. God does indeed seal and sew up, against the day of wrath, the transgression of the impenitent, but the sins of his people he blots out as a cloud. [Matthew Henry]
- Hopelessly Perishing (v18-19)
18And surely the mountain falling cometh to nought, and the rock is removed out of his place. 19The waters wear the stones: thou washest away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and thou destroyest the hope of man.
He complains of the wasting condition of mankind in general. We live in a dying world. Who knows the power of God’s anger, by which we are consumed and troubled, and in which all our days are passed away?
Psalm 90:7-9 For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sinsin the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.
Psalm 90:11 Who knoweth the power of thine anger? even according to thy fear, so isthy wrath.
And who can bear up against his rebukes? Psalm 39:11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man isvanity. Selah.
We see the decays of the earth itself. Of the strongest parts of it (v18). Nothing will last always, for we see even mountains moulder and come to nought; they wither and fall as a leaf; rocks wax old and pass away by the continual beating of the sea against them. The waters wear the stoneswith constant dropping, not by the violence, but by the constancy with which they fall.On this earth every thing is the worse for the wearing. Time devours all things.It is not so with the heavenly bodies.
Of the natural products of it. The things which grow out of the earth, and seem to be firmly rooted in it, are sometimes by an excess of rain washed away (v19). Some think he pleads this for relief: “Lord, my patience will not hold out always; even rocks and mountains will fail at last; therefore cease the controversy.” [Matthew Henry]
- Escape Not God’s Justice (v20-22)
20Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away. 21His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them. 22But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.
No marvel then if we see the decays of man upon the earth, for he is of the earth, earthy. Job begins to think his case is not singular, and therefore he ought to reconcile himself to the common lot.
How vain it is to expect much from the enjoyments of life: “Thou destroyest the hope of man,” that is, “puttest an end to all the projects he had framed and all the prospects of satisfaction he had flattered himself with.”
Death will be the destruction of all those hopes which are built upon worldly confidences and confined to worldly comforts. Hope in Christ, and hope in heaven, death will consummate and not destroy.
How vain it is to struggle against the assaults of death (v20): Thou prevailest for ever against him.Note, Man is an unequal match for God. Whom God contends with he will certainly prevail against, prevail for ever against so that they shall never be able to make head again.
The stroke of death is irresistible; it is to no purpose to dispute its summons. God prevails against man and he passes away, and lo he is not. Look upon a dying man, and see,
How his looks are altered: Thou changest his countenance,and this in two ways:
First,By the disease of his body. When a man has been a few days sick what a change is there in his countenance! How much more when he has been a few minutes dead! The countenance which was majestic and awful becomes mean and despicable–that was lovely and amiable becomes ghastly and frightful. Bury my dead out of my sight.Where then is the admired beauty? Death changes the countenance, and then sends us away out of this world, gives us one dismission hence, never to return.
Secondly,By the discomposure of his mind. The approach of death will make the strongest and stoutest to change countenance; it will make the most merry smiling countenance to look grave and serious, and the most bold daring countenance to look pale and timorous. How little he is concerned in the affairs of his family, which once lay so near his heart. When he is in the hands of the harbingers of death, suppose struck with a palsy or apoplexy, or delirious in a fever, or in conflict with death, tell him then the most agreeable news, or the most painful, concerning his children, it is all alike, he knows it not, he perceives it not. He is going to that world where he will be a perfect stranger to all those things which here filled and affected him. The consideration of this should moderate our cares concerning our children and families. God will know what comes of them when we are gone. To him therefore let us commit them, with him let us leave them, and not burden ourselves with needless fruitless cares concerning them.
How dreadful the agonies of death are (v22): While his flesh is upon him(so it may be read), that is, the body he is so loth to lay down it shall have pain; and while his soul is within him,that is, the spirit he is so loth to resign, it shall mourn. Dying work is hard work; dying pangs are, commonly, sore pangs. It is folly therefore for men to defer their repentance to a death-bed, and to have that to do which is the one thing needful when they are really unfit to do any thing: but it is true wisdom by making our peace with God in Christ and keeping a good conscience, to treasure up comforts which will support and relieve us against the pains and sorrows of a dying hour. [Matthew Henry]
CONCLUSION
Man is without hope when he is without Christ. Thank God for Christ in us, the hope of glory. Amen.