All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come.

Job 14:7-17 (TNIV) -

7 “At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.

8 Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,

9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.

10 But human beings die and are laid low;
they breathe their last and are no more.

11 As the water of a lake dries up
or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,

12 so they lie down and do not rise;
till the heavens are no more, they will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.

13 “If only you would hide me in the grave
and conceal me till your anger has passed!
If only you would set me a time
and then remember me!

14 If someone dies, will they live again?
All the days of my hard service
I will wait for my renewal to come.

15 You will call and I will answer you;
you will long for the creature your hands have made.

16 Surely then you will count my steps
but not keep track of my sin.

17 My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;
you will cover over my sin.

My thoughts -

I love this passage. Maybe that's because I struggle with some of the same things that Job does. Obviously a big question for all of us mortals is whether there is life after death. Job has a somewhat mixed hope for this. As he sees God as his tormentor (and not without reason) the notion of, in death, going to "be with God" would not be a particularly comfortable one.

But what if God allowed him to hide away in the grave for a little while? Then what if God forgot all about God's anger with Job and remembered him as a beloved creation? What a wonderful concept! All sins forgotten; no further sin counted; renewal, hope, and rebirth. How wonderful would that be?

And that, too, is our hope. We may not have the acute suffering of Job to remind us how fragile and fleeting the things of this life are, but we do recognize our own mortality. We know this won't last. And we hope in God for renewal. I find it very encouraging that, in all of his suffering, Job can still express this hope.