JOB 14:1 – “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.”
THEME OF THE DAY: LIFE IS HARD UNDER THE SUN. By the time we get to chapter fourteen of Job, this man of God is really hurting physically, emotionally, and spiritually. His so-called friends have done him no favors. The loud rings of “hypocrite” are coming from them and Job is finding himself increasingly defensive and combative toward them. Yet, in today’s scripture, he pauses and gives us and his friends the proper perspective on life under the sun.
Job says three things about our lives in this world. The first is implied while the other two are explicitly stated.
First, life is hard under the sun for every human being. When Job states, “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble”, he is including all of humanity. No one is exempt. No one escapes heartache, sorrow, pain, grief, disappointments and all the other consequences of the sin committed by our first parents, Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden.
The second truth Job brings to our memory is that life is short. He would even qualify it as few of days. He isn’t the only biblical character to do so. Isaiah likens our short life as fast fading grass – “A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (Isaiah 40:6-8). And the truth about the brevity of life extends to the New Testament. In James’ letter, he describes life as a mist – quickly appearing and quickly disappearing – “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that”” (James 4:13-15).
A third realization about life under the sun is what Job knew quite well and so shall we; it is full of trouble. Life has been often defined as either in a trial, coming out of a trial, or preparing for a trial. In the Upper Room Discourse, Jesus closes His intimate time with His disciples with these words – “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He so loved them, and us, He warns His followers the path we must walk is hard and lined with many trials and tribulations. But His love is shown beyond just awareness of life under the sun. He travels with us each step of the way – “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Life is hard under the sun, but always remember, life is walked under the sun with the Son!
PRAYER: Father, help me not to expect life to be easy and without difficulties. That is heaven.
REFLECTION: Life is hard, will be hard, and we should not expect it to be anything but hard in this world.