Job 14:1 - Meaning and Application

We are here led to think about the original of human life. God is certainly its great source, for he breathed into man the breath of life, and in him we live. But we count life from our birth, and from that point we must also count its weakness and its sin.

First, we see its weakness: “Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days” (Job 14:1). This may point back to the first woman, Eve, the mother of all living. She was deceived by the tempter and was first in the transgression, and from her we all descend. So we inherit the sin and corruption that shorten our days and darken them. Or it may simply mean every person’s own mother. A woman is the weaker vessel, and the child takes after the mother. So let no strong man boast in his strength, or in the strength of his father. He should remember that he was born of a woman, and that when God chooses, mighty men can become weak (Jeremiah 51:30).

Next, we see its pollution. “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” (Job 14:4). If man is born of a sinful woman, how can he be anything but sinful himself? See also (Job 25:4). Clean children do not come from unclean parents, just as pure water does not flow from a dirty spring, or grapes grow from thorns. Our usual corruption comes with our nature from our parents, and it is therefore deep in us from the start. Our blood is not only judged guilty by law, it is also stained with an inherited disease. Our Lord Jesus, who was made sin for us, is said to have been made of a woman (Galatians 4:4).

We also think about the nature of human life. It is like a flower and like a shadow (Job 14:2). A flower fades, and all its beauty soon withers away. A shadow passes quickly, and its very existence is soon lost in the dark of night. We do not count on either one, and we do not put our trust in them.

Then there is the shortness and uncertainty of human life. Man is of few days. Scripture measures life by days, not by months or years, because no day is safe to assume will not be our last. These days are few, fewer than we often think, few at the most when compared with the long lives of the early patriarchs, and far fewer still when compared with eternity. For most people they are even less, because many do not reach what we call old age. A man may come out of the womb and die in the cradle, or come into the world and begin his work, only to be taken away as soon as he has set his hand to it. If he is not cut down right away, he still passes like a shadow, never staying in one shape for long. The same is true of this world and our life in it (1 Corinthians 7:31).

We also learn about the sad state of human life. Man is not only short-lived, he is sorrow-filled. If he had only a few days here and could enjoy them, that would at least be something. But it is not so. During these few days he is full of trouble, not merely troubled, but full of trouble. He is always toiling or fretting, grieving or fearing. No day passes without some annoyance, rush, confusion, or burden. Those who love the world will get enough of it. He is full of unrest. The shortness of his days only adds to his unease, because he is always waiting for the end and always unsure of his life. Yet since man’s days are so full of trouble, it is well that they are few. Our time in the body is like an imprisonment, and our absence from the Lord is not forever, and not long. When we come to heaven, our days will be many and free from trouble. In the meantime, faith, hope, and love support us under present burdens.

We also think about the sinfulness of human life, which comes from the sinfulness of human nature. Some understand the question, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” (Job 14:4), to mean, who can bring a clean action from a corrupt heart? Actual sins grow naturally out of deep inner corruption, which is why it is called original sin, the root from which all our other sins come. Holy Job laments this, as all truly sanctified people do, tracing the stream back to the fountain (Psalm 51:5). Some think he also means it as a plea for mercy: “Lord, do not be too strict in marking my sins of weakness and human frailty, because you know how weak I am. Remember that I am flesh.” The Chaldee paraphrase gives this verse a striking sense: “Who can make a man clean who is polluted with sin? Can no one do it?” That is, only God can. God, who is one, can spare him. By his mighty grace, God can change even the skin of the Ethiopian, and he can change Job too, though he is covered with worms.

Finally, we are taught about the fixed limit of human life, in verse 5. We are assured of three things. First, our life will end. Our days on earth are not endless. They are numbered, and they will soon be finished (Daniel 5:26). Second, God has decided in his wise plan how long we shall live and when we shall die. The number of our months is with God, under his power, which no one can stop, and under his knowledge, which cannot be fooled. God’s providence rules the length of our lives, and our times are in his hand. The powers of nature depend on him and act under him. In him we live and move. Diseases serve him. He kills and makes alive. Nothing happens by chance, not even the blow from a bow drawn at random. So God’s foreknowledge must also have settled it before, because all his works are known to him. Whatever he does, he has already determined, while still working through the fixed order of nature and the settled rules of moral rule, where evil is punished and good is rewarded in this life. We are ruled by neither the Stoic idea of blind fate nor the Epicurean idea of blind luck.

Third, the limit God has fixed cannot be passed. His plans cannot be changed, because his foresight never fails. Job uses these thoughts as reasons, first, why God should not be so strict in watching him and his failings (Job 14:3). “Since I have such a corrupt nature within me, and since I face so much trouble, which keeps tempting me from outside, will you open your eyes and focus on a person like me, carefully marking every wrong thing I do” (Job 13:27)? “Will you bring me, such a worthless worm, into judgment with you, who are so quick to notice the smallest fault, so holy that you hate it, so just that you condemn it, and so powerful that you punish it?” Thinking about our own weakness, sin, and inability to stand against God should lead us to pray, “Lord, do not enter into judgment with your servant.”

He also uses these truths to ask why God should not deal so severely with him. “Lord, I have only a little time to live.

I must certainly and soon leave this world, and the few days I have here are troubled at best. So let me have a little relief. “Turn away from afflicting a poor creature like this, and let him rest a while; give him some breathing room until he finishes his day like a hired worker” (Job 14:6).

It is appointed that I die once, so let that one day be enough. Let me not be made to feel as if I am dying again and again, a thousand deaths. It is enough that my life, at best, is like a hired worker’s day, a day of labor and weariness. I am willing to go through the common hardships of human life, the burden and heat of the day, but let me not suffer these unusual tortures. Let my life not be like the day of a criminal, all execution day.

We can often find some relief in great trouble by placing ourselves in the care of God, who knows our frame and understands when we are out of balance too.