Job 14:8

He took the picture of a tree that had been cut down, its root long in the earth. He had watched the years pass, until the stump left behind began to decay. Yet a change came. Something happened — an earth tremor may have cracked the rocks and opened a fresh channel for water to reach its roots. Then the dead tree came to life and sprouted again. Job's hope was that something like that lay ahead for mankind.

"Though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the soil, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches like a young plant. But a man dies and is laid low." There is no hope for him in this earthly life; he dies and is done with. A plant, on the other hand, may be brought down to the worst and nothing appear, and yet it may shoot up again, especially if there is water to help it.

In Job 14, he does not go beyond this present world of sight, and in the bitterness of his spirit he has no sense of resurrection. The tree sprouts now, in plain view, in this present world. Man does not, and in fact never will, unless by a miracle, as with Lazarus. Death has wholly passed upon him as a dweller in this world — a child of Adam. Such life he never recovers. Job was right, only he did not see beyond, nor here know Him who is the resurrection and the life.

He speaks of man who "lies down and rises not." That is the language of man apart from revelation. It is the expression of one who is in darkness and uncertainty. Teachers of error often quote Job and the sayings of these friends to defend false teachings — such as soul-sleep, or the annihilation of the wicked — as if these were true revelations from God. But their words are only the expressions of the human mind, and often false and misleading.

Yet the fact is this. Though man's body decays completely in the grave, the new sprouting of a tree is a comparison, not a contrast, to the eventual "sprouting" of a new body from the old. Man's resurrection is longer delayed, but it is just as certain. Job knew this, as he says in chapter 19:26. But in chapter 14 he is too concerned about the immediate future to give proper weight to the distant future.

Job can say, "There is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again … though its root grow old in the earth … yet at the scent of water it will bud and put out branches" (Job 14:7-9). Israel has indeed failed. The tree has been battered by wind and storm among the nations, but the root remains, so Israel will bud and bring forth branches again.

People in Old Testament times believed that the soul of man survived death and that resurrection lay ahead. Job's words here show it, and the Lord made it plain when He argued with the Sadducees of His day. What God had not yet made known was that for the saint 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. God has plainly revealed the whole truth of it.