IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

I Will Wait for My Renewal to Come

Date: Jun. 1, 2023

Passage

Job 14:1-22

Job Continues: Death Comes Soon to All

14:1   “Man who is born of a woman
    is few of days and full of trouble.
2   He comes out like a flower and withers;
    he flees like a shadow and continues not.
3   And do you open your eyes on such a one
    and bring me into judgment with you?
4   Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?
    There is not one.
5   Since his days are determined,
    and the number of his months is with you,
    and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
6   look away from him and leave him alone,
    that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.
7   “For there is hope for a tree,
    if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
    and that its shoots will not cease.
8   Though its root grow old in the earth,
    and its stump die in the soil,
9   yet at the scent of water it will bud
    and put out branches like a young plant.
10   But a man dies and is laid low;
    man breathes his last, and where is he?
11   As waters fail from a lake
    and a river wastes away and dries up,
12   so a man lies down and rises not again;
    till the heavens are no more he will not awake
    or be roused out of his sleep.
13   Oh that you would hide me in Sheol,
    that you would conceal me until your wrath be past,
    that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
14   If a man dies, shall he live again?
    All the days of my service I would wait,
    till my renewal should come.
15   You would call, and I would answer you;
    you would long for the work of your hands.
16   For then you would number my steps;
    you would not keep watch over my sin;
17   my transgression would be sealed up in a bag,
    and you would cover over my iniquity.
18   “But the mountain falls and crumbles away,
    and the rock is removed from its place;
19   the waters wear away the stones;
    the torrents wash away the soil of the earth;
    so you destroy the hope of man.
20   You prevail forever against him, and he passes;
    you change his countenance, and send him away.
21   His sons come to honor, and he does not know it;
    they are brought low, and he perceives it not.
22   He feels only the pain of his own body,
    and he mourns only for himself.”

Daily Bread

Key Verse: Job 14:14

If a man dies, shall he live again?
All the days of my service I would wait,
till my renewal should come.

No longer content to talk about God with his friends, Job addresses God directly (13:20), pouring out his bitterness, frustration, and pain. This becomes the opportunity to drop pretense.

Reflecting on human mortality, Job likens people with flowers that do not endure (2). Job envies the flowers: God doesn’t bring them to judgment! If only God would look away from people and leave them alone, like the flowers! Job also envies the trees, who have hope because they continue to sprout, year after year, but people die and are no more.

Job even envies the grave, where he might be free from God’s anger. His rhetorical question: “If someone dies, will they live again?” allows him a moment to long for such renewal, where God would answer, and not hold sins against him. But since no one who dies lives again, Job’s hope is destroyed (19), leaving only pain and mourning (22).

In Jesus we are given a different answer to Job’s question. Yes, there is One who has died and lives again (Mark 16:6)! Rather than judgment, his death brings forgiveness, and his resurrection gives us living hope. We need not envy flowers, trees, or the grave, but rather embrace this living hope.

Prayer: Prayer: Father, thank you for giving us the answer to Job’s question in Jesus. Help me today to press into this living hope, awaiting renewal.

One Word: One Word: Jesus is Risen, our Living Hope

Daily Bread

God Stills the Conflict

Psalm 76:1-12

Key Verse: 76:6

At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both rider and horse lay stunned.

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