Sermon Tone Analysis

Job 14:1-14.

"Ordered Steps-Numbered Days"

Ajax Alliance Church.

Sunday February 19th, 2023.

Job 14:1-6.

[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.

(ESV)

One of the most difficult situations to deal with is the time of suffering and death.

Not only is the situation difficult to comprehend, but it can also be difficult to help others in distress.

Rescue crews in Turkey and Syria continue to struggle to come to grasps of the enormity last week's earthquake.

As reports continue to come out we see catastrophic damage to infrastructure to untold death.

Not only are people in Turkey trying to figure out why so much devastation occurred but the event is a wake-up call to the reality of seismic events that can occur anywhere in the world.

This event is a really a wake up call to the most serious event that each of us will handle: the reality of death.

In Job 14:1-14, Job makes several remarkable statements.

To the reader of today they may sound too pessimistic, but are they?

Let's put ourselves in Job's place.

He had lost his property and children, and now he was suffering indescribable pain, intense anxiety, and deep loneliness.

He received no help from his unfeeling friends.

Their visit rather increased his distress.

His friend Zophar had assured Job that there was hope for him if only he would acknowledge his sins and repent (Job 11:13-20).

From Job's point of view, his future was bleak.

Job used several images to illustrate the hopeless condition of man in this world.

He was tempted to feel that even God had forsaken him (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996).

Be patient.

An Old Testament study.

(51).

Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.).

When you consider your present condition, do you know where you will spend eternity?

Even if this is settled, do you know when you will enter the afterlife?

If you knew if was tomorrow, or next week, would you live your life any different?

How do we deal with these realities either for ourselves or others?

With a crisis before Job, he considers the reality of death and eternity.

In it, he speaks on 1) Life before Death (Job 14:1-6) and 2) Life After Death (Job 14:7-14)

In order for us to order our steps and number our days we need to comprehend this:

1) Life before Death (Job 14:1-6)

Job 14:1-6.

[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.

From verses one we see that every person's life is filled with sorrow from birth.

The language in these verses is generic, applying to both men and woman.

The word for man is ʾāḏām, which serves as the name of the first man, Adam.

This term connotes that man is "from the ground" (ʾăḏāmâ) and is thus limited and weak by nature.

Three short phrases further underscore human limitations: born of woman, few of days/short-lived, and full of trouble/ turmoil.

Since a person is born of woman, he or she is conditioned by their origin (cf.

15:14; 25:4; Sir.

10:18; Matt.

11:11; Luke 7:28).

Some interpret this phrase as emphasizing frailty (e.g., Rowley), while others find a reference to the ritual impurity that attends birth (e.g., Tur-Sinai).

The latter view is anchored in the cultic laws that regulate the uncleanness of the mother after she gives birth, seven days for a male child and fourteen days for a female child (Lev.

12:2-5).

Since bodily discharges were categorically treated as unclean, the discharges that attend the birth process led to the declaration of the new mother as ritually unclean.

Certainly the ritual made the parents aware that both the mother and the child had to prepare themselves to enter God's presence.

In the context of the challenges of life, "born of woman" is a poetic way of saying "everyone."

Contrary to the claims of Job's friends (8:12-13), the situation described here applies to righteous and wicked alike At best a person's life is few of days/short-lived.

During the person's brief stay on earth their days will full of trouble/ turmoil (rōḡez; cf.

3:26).

The verb form of the noun translated "trouble" means "tremble/quake" as in an earthquake (9:6; 1 Sam 14:15).

It also describes persons trembling because of inner turmoil (2 Sam 18:33; Isa 14:2; 32:10-11) (Alden, R. L. (2001).

Vol.

11: Job (electronic ed.).

Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (165).

Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.).

* Everyone will have to bear the emotional anguish that results from many ailments and difficult circumstances.

The analogies in verse two of a flower and a shadow illustrate well a person's short life span.

In Palestine after the spring rains, flowers bloom in abundance and the fields glow from their splendor.

But they last for only a moment.

They soon fade from the hot desert winds (cf.

Isa.

40:6-8; Ps. 103:15; 90:5-6).

Illustration: ("Flower Mixup").

A young business owner was opening a new branch office, and a friend decided to send a floral arrangement for the grand opening.

When the friend arrived at the opening, he was appalled to find that his wreath bore the inscription: "Rest in peace."

Angry, he complained to the florist.

After apologizing, the florist said, "Look at it this way-somewhere a man was buried under a wreath today that said, 'Good luck in your new location.'

(Bits & Pieces, June 23, 1994, p. 4).

Compared to Scripture, which is permanent, Isaiah notes: Isaiah 40:6-8.

[6]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.

[7] The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.

[8] The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

(ESV).

Therefore, a Flower (Heb.

tsits) can symbolize great beauty as well as great fragility and transience (Wilson, G. H. (2012).

Job (W.

W. Gasque, R. L. Hubbard Jr., & R. K. Johnston, Eds.; p. 148).

Baker Books.).

Not only is life brief; even worse, it passes so gradually into nothingness that a human being is hardly aware of the process.

It is like a shadow, which grows longer as the daylight wanes, only to disappear at sunset leaving no trace of its existence (cf.

8:9; Ps. 102:12 [Eng.

11]; 144:4; Eccl.