In Job 14, the suffering man steps back from his friends and his pain and looks at the whole human condition.
How short life is. How full of trouble. How quickly we are cut down, like a flower.
And out of that meditation rises a question that aches across the entire Old Testament — a question Job could not answer, but that you and I now can: "If a man die, shall he live again?"
Of Few Days, and Full of Trouble
Job 14:1–2
"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not."
Job names the human condition with unflinching honesty.
Our days are few. Our troubles are many. We open like a flower in the morning and are cut down by evening; we pass like a shadow that does not stay.
This is not morbid. It is true. And there is a strange mercy in letting it be true — in not pretending we are permanent, in admitting how fragile and fleeting this life really is.
For only the soul that knows it is a passing flower will reach for the One who does not pass.
A Tree Has Hope
Job 14:7
"For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease."
Job notices something almost unbearable.
A tree, he says, has hope. Cut it down, and from the old stump a tender green branch will rise. The tree gets a second life.
But what about a man? Job looks at the cut-down tree sprouting again and aches: does a human being get that? When we are felled, is there any green branch for us — or only the grave?
It is one of the most poignant moments in Scripture. Job is standing at the very edge of resurrection hope, looking across a gulf he cannot yet cross, longing for what he cannot yet see.
If a Man Die, Shall He Live Again?
Job 14:14
"If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come."
And here it is — the question of the ages.
"If a man die, shall he live again?"
Job asks it without an answer. In his day, the light of resurrection had not yet fully dawned. He could only wait, and hope, and wonder whether death was the end or a door.
But notice the faith even in the question: "all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come." He does not know the answer, yet he resolves to wait for God anyway. He will hold on through the dark for a "change" he cannot yet define.
And how much more light we have than Job. For the question he could only ask, a risen Christ has answered: "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." The green branch does rise. The grave is a door. Yes — if a man die, in Christ, he shall live again.
A Gentle Word for the Reader
If you have stood at a graveside, or felt the shortness of your own days, Job 14 sits with you in that ache.
It does not rush past the frailty. It lets life be as fleeting as it really is — a flower, a shadow, a few troubled days. But it also leans, longing, toward a hope it could only glimpse.
You are not left with Job's unanswered question. The One who is the resurrection and the life has stepped out of His own tomb to answer it. The cut-down tree sprouts again. Your appointed waiting has an end, and your "change" has a name — life with Him, where the flower never fades.
So wait, like Job, through the dark — but wait now in the light of an empty tomb.
Reflection Questions
- Job faced the shortness of life honestly — "of few days, and full of trouble." How might admitting your own frailty actually draw you closer to the God who does not pass away?
- Job asked, "if a man die, shall he live again?" without an answer. How does it change the way you face death and loss to know that Christ has answered that question?
- Job resolved to wait for God through the dark, "till my change come." Where do you need to keep waiting on God for a hope you cannot yet fully see?
Short Prayer
Lord, my days are few and full of trouble; I am a flower that fades, a shadow that does not stay.
Thank You that You do not fade, and that in Christ my question is answered: if I die, I shall live again.
When I stand at the grave of someone I love, or face my own frailty, anchor me in Your empty tomb.
I will wait for You through the dark, till my change come — now in the light of resurrection.
Amen.
JMS