Job 14:9

He took the analogy of a tree, which had been felled, when its root had been in the earth for a long time. He had seen the years pass, so that the stump left behind had begun to decay. Yet a change had come. Something had happened. Perhaps an earth-tremor had cracked the rocks and opened a fresh channel for water to reach its roots. Then, as a result, the dead tree came to life and sprouted again. Job's hope was that something like that lay ahead for mankind.

"But man dies, and wastes away." There is no hope for him in this earthly life; he dies and that is the end of it. A plant, on the other hand, may be brought down to the worst state and show nothing. Yet it can shoot up again, especially if there is water to help it. "Yes, man gives up his spirit, and where is he?"

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

There was no mystery about the tree, but there was about the human race. Like the tree stump, the body of man wasted away in the ground. But there was no evidence of continuing life, as there was when young shoots sprang from the old roots of the tree. Still, Job realised that man is made of more than body. He spoke of his spirit, and this was what perplexed him. The body of the man wasted away, but where was the man who lived in that body?

Clear, plain teaching about the place a man enters when he dies came only with the Lord Jesus. Job's question was plainly answered by the Lord in Luke 16, where He speaks about the rich man and Lazarus. There we learn what happens to a person who lives without any thought of God. He enters the place of torment when he leaves this world.

The root is the hidden source of life. Christ is the source of spiritual life for every saint of God, and the blessing is sure because the root is perfect. Israel has indeed failed; the tree has been storm-swept and torn among the nations, but the root remains, and so Israel will bud and bring forth branches again.

The holy seed was in the people, but they had dwindled to a very small number when the Lord Jesus came. Among them were Zacharias, Elizabeth, Anna, Mary and others who followed Him. But the grace and truth that came by Him was like the scent of water that Job speaks of. There were fine boughs shooting from the stump of Judah.