Day 7 – Job 14-16

Talking Points

• Job, in the midst of tremendous pain, begins to believe his only relief would be in death. He ponders life and death similar to Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. This suffering and the consideration of death lead Job to consider the eternal. He asks, “If a man dies, will he live again?” (14:14). Eternity is truly written on our hearts!
• In Job 16:19-21, Job wishes for a man who would plead his case before God. This becomes his hope. 1 John 2:1-2 says, “And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sin; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” Praise God for our Advocate, Jesus!

Thoughts

“Surely this isn’t it? Surely this isn’t all there is, is it?” Is there a point that all of us have had to consider that possibility? Was it walking away from a cemetery? Or after a series of unexpected letdowns? Or maybe after racking up the greatest success — actually pulling it all off? “Surely this isn’t it, is it?”

Reading this section, I have a sudden flash of insight — none of this makes any sense outside of eternity. None of it. Suffering, salvation, hope, faith — so much more — all can only be truly understood in the light of eternity! Suffering is too much, if we can’t claim eternity. Hope is too short, if we can’t claim eternity. Salvation is anti-climactic, if it is less than eternal. But, here is the amazing truth — we have an eternal God who secures for us an eternal salvation complete with the promise of His eternal presence! Okay — in the sense of eternity, this makes sense. “and so we shall always [evermore] be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)