After Job lost so much, his three friends tried to help him mend the errors of his way. This daily devotional looks at Job’s description of the meaning of life.
Nuggets
- In the whole scheme of things, this life is short.
- This life does have its purpose — to bring us back to God.
- While mankind cannot change his/her spiritual condition, God can.
Devotions in the Job: The Ultimate Test of Character series
Some people would love for us to be immortal. They would love for this life to last for eternity.
Well, this life isn’t going to last. But we are.
We were made in the image of God, Who is eternal. We are, too.
Glossary
The question becomes, where will we spend eternity? There are two choices — Heaven and hell. (Yes, they are both very real.)
Job struggled with the concept of eternal life. Let’s take a look.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Let's Put It into Context #2
We skipped a lot of chapters from the last Sunday Morning Bible Study devotion to this one. Satan went back to God and ask for a second testing. This one was where Satan infected Job with boils.
Job had three “friends” who came to comfort him. They were Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite.
We like to bite on the trio, but Bradley warned us to take care doing that. He wrote, “Is it not rather true that their words, taken by themselves, are far more devout, far more fit for the lips of pious, we may even say, of Christian men, than those of Job?”
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Bradley argues that the trio are like many disciples. They believe in God and were trying to make sense of God’s ways. What they said was, in many ways, true.
- God is powerful and righteous.
- God is forgiving.
We are skipping what they actually had to say. The passage today is part of Job’s response to Zophar’s first speech. The Homilist gave us the bullet points of what he said were Job’s sins.
- Job, you are talking too much (verse 2).
- You are lying (verse 3).
- You are mocking others (verse 3).
- You are being a hypocrite (verse 4).
But look what Zophar got right.
- “But if only God would speak and open his lips against you! He would show you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your iniquity” (Job 11: 5-6 CSB).
- “As for you, if you redirect your heart and spread out your hands to him in prayer — if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it, and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents — then you will hold your head high, free from fault. You will be firmly established and unafraid” (Job 11: 13-15 CSB).
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Our Days Are Short and Troubled
“Anyone born of woman is short of days and full of trouble. He blossoms like a flower, then withers; he flees like a shadow and does not last” (Job 14: 1-2 CSB)
In the whole scheme of things, this life is short.
The saying is true that we are all born to die. But that is just talking about physical death.
We aren’t guaranteed any number of years in this life. Some live only hours. Some live to be 100+ years old. The rest fall somewhere in between.
We look at the life spans pre-flood and are sometimes envious. We wonder, with all of our advances in science, why we can’t relive those glory days.
We can apply it to our spiritual condition. Yes, we were all spiritually dead when we were born. But we don’t have to stay that way.
Not only is life short, it is difficult. We run into all varieties of trials. Those breed sorrow and distress.
Trials help us grow, but they also help us to long for something better. That better is restoring our relationships with God.
Taylor made an interesting statement. He said, “Trouble may, sometimes, be the consequence of virtue.” Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
When the trials start going, some have the tendency to ignore their virtues — their character — in an attempt to just get the misery to stop. What we don’t always realize is that the trials are God’s way of building our character to be like His.
This life is short and difficult, but we cling to it.
But let’s put this into perspective. 100 years more or less versus eternity. Our lifetimes are not a drop in the bucket to what is going to be.
If life is the bloom, it is gone in nothing flat compared to eternity.
Goldie interpreted Job 14: 2 to mean that we progress through the developmental stages quickly. It shows how frail our lives really are.
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We build our hopes that this life will get better — and be enough. As Zollikofer said, we tie our joy to fleeting things.
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Part of the problem is misplaced focus. We see eternity as an aspect of this life. We don’t see this life is just a slice of eternity.
Part of the problem is limited understanding. We’ve talked before that we have no concept of eternity. We have no frame of reference to which to tie it to in order to facilitate understanding.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
The Purpose of Life
“Do you really take notice of one like this? Will you bring me into judgment against you?” (Job 14: 3 CSB)
This life does have its purpose — to bring us back to God.
We may think that mankind should be too inconsequential for God to bother with. God never once thought that.
God created us knowing we would sin and gave us this life so that we could choose to obey Him. We do this by ABCDing.
Glossary
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Between conversion and end of life, we are busy. Taylor wrote, “The business of life is to work out our salvation; and the days are few in which provision must he made for eternity. … We must use all diligence to make our ‘calling and election sure.’”
Resource
Glossary
Edwards reminded us of a couple of things. God is the One who decided the length of our lives. This physical life is cut short because of sin.
We Can’t Make Ourselves Pure
“Who can produce something pure from what is impure? No one! Since a person’s days are determined and the number of his months depends on you, and since you have set limits he cannot pass, look away from him and let him rest so that he can enjoy his day like a hired worker” (Job 14: 4-6 CSB)
While mankind cannot change his/her spiritual condition, God can.
Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin. Because we are descendants of Adam, we are not pure when we are born. We are born with a sinful nature — and we do sin.
There is nothing that we can do to atone for our sins. We can’t be a good enough person to make up for them.
We have to be purified in order to restore our relationships with God. Only ABCDing can make us pure. We are only freed from our sins by the blood of Jesus.
Taylor gave us a good reminder. Those who accept Christ as their Savior as a child has an easier time on the Sanctification Road than those who crept Him as an adult. Working out our salvation is harder when we have formed bad habits over a lifetime.
Glossary
Making the Connections
Taylor made an interesting comment. He wrote, “Many human troubles are such as God has given man the power of alleviating.”
Resource
Read that again. God has given us the power of reducing many of the trials.
Say WHAT?
I don’t read that as we are so powerful that we can just eliminate the trials. I read that as — through God’s power — through His Presence and protection — we can withstand the trial, therefore lessening it.
Shiels talked a lot about our being reminded almost daily of our pending deaths. He felt that there are many reminders given so we don’t forget that we need to ensure our relationships with God are as they should be.
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How Do We Apply This?
- We must always do good — God’s way.
- Don’t complain that life is short. We shouldn’t long for this broken world more than we do for the beautiful, eternal home.
- We are called to be sober — to be even keeled. This applies to our desires and pursuits.
- Look forward to our heavenly home and eternity spent with God.
- Persist so we can be pure.
- Keep away from the world.
- Be ready, because today may be our last.
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Goldie told us how to prepare for the next life as well are preparing for the end of this one. He wrote, “We should prepare for the close of life by the exercise of faith, love, and obedience to our Saviour; by the regular discharge of all the duties of piety; by the sincere and unremitting practice of every Christian grace; and by having our conversation at all times becoming the Gospel.”
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We have no control over this life. But we can put our faith and trust in the God who does.
Father God. Life is short. This world is temporary. We put our faith and trust in You. Show us Your Will. Amen.
What do you think?
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