Job 14:15

The friends had stung him with reproaches, that his afflictions must be because of sin. Job, unaware of any evil that would warrant such suffering, denies it. God's sovereignty accounts to him for everything. He sees no purpose of grace in God's ways with him. Yet it is clear his soul is gaining ground. He cries out, "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him." A gleam of hope bursts in on his path, for he adds, "You would call, and I would answer You; You would long for the work of Your hands."

Job goes back to what he longs for. He wants God to hide him in the grave until His anger has passed, to set him a time, and then to remember him. If a man die, shall he live? Job was the very opposite of a sceptic. He looks for his time of renewal or exchange, and does not doubt at bottom God's yearning after the work of His hands. Man is surely to live again; spirit, and soul, and body, he will be renewed.

All men are "the work of His hands." God is engaged in a very wise work in dealing with every individual.

The words of Job in verses 14 and 15 are very remarkable… He recognised that he had an "appointed time," when his "change" would come. He knew there would be a Divine "call," and that he would "answer" it, because he was a "work" of God's hands. In speaking like this he was taught of God, as we can see in the light of the New Testament.

In Job 14, Job does not go beyond this present world of sight. In the bitterness of his spirit he has no sense of resurrection. The tree sprouts now, in this present world, where we can see it — man does not… Job was right. He simply did not see beyond, and did not here know Him who is the resurrection and the life.

Have we ever given enough weight in our souls to what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:10? One translation reads, "Our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings."… What was not made known was this: for the believer, resurrection will mean entering a new and incorruptible order of things. Our Lord showed this when He rose from the dead. So we have no need to discuss the matter and reason it out, as Job does here. The whole truth of it has been plainly revealed.

But the Lord does not leave Job until he sees more. He was not just a man looking up to God. He was a man who knew God's love — a love that took him up and chastened him, so that he might be blessed more than ever before. That is the great object of the Book of Job.