Job 14:16 - Meaning and Application

Job returns to his complaints here. He is not without hope of future blessing, but he still finds it very hard to bear his present troubles.

He first complains about the hard treatment he thinks he is under from God’s strict justice, in Job 14:16-17. He longs to leave this world, where he feels God’s anger, because he thinks he is constantly under its signs. It is like a child under strict discipline who longs to grow up. “When will my change come? You seem to count my steps and watch my sin closely, and you keep it safe for judgment, like evidence stored against a prisoner” (compare Deuteronomy 32:34). Job means, “You take every chance against me. You bring up old wrongs, notice every weakness, and punish me as soon as I slip.”

Job is right in admitting that he has sinned and that his sins deserve punishment. He is not claiming that he is suffering while innocent. But he is wrong to suggest that God is too severe in judging him and makes the worst of everything. He said something like this in Job 13:27. It was spoken in haste, so we should not press it too far. God does see all our sins, even in his people, but he is not harsh in settling accounts with us. We are punished less than our sins deserve. God does store up the sins of the unrepentant for the day of wrath, but he wipes his people’s sins away like a cloud.

Job then complains about the weak and fading condition of all mankind. We live in a dying world. Who can understand the power of God’s anger, by which we are worn down and troubled, and in which all our days pass away? See Psalm 90:7-9, Psalm 90:11. Who can stand under his rebukes? See Psalm 39:11.

He sees decay even in the earth itself. The strongest things on earth do not last forever. Mountains wear away and come to nothing. Rocks grow old and break down as the sea keeps beating against them. Water wears down stones by constant dripping, not by one great blow, but by repeated drops. Everything on this earth wears out with use. Time destroys all things. It is not so with the things of heaven. Even the plants that grow from the earth, and seem firmly rooted, can be washed away by too much rain, as Job 14:19 says. Some think Job is asking for relief here: “Lord, my patience will not last forever. Even rocks and mountains fail at last, so end this struggle.”

If that is true of the earth, it is no surprise that man also fades, since he is made from the earth. Job begins to see that his case is not unique, and so he should accept the common lot of humanity. This shows how empty it is to expect too much from the pleasures of life. “You destroy the hope of man” means that God ends the plans people make and the happiness they imagine for themselves. Death will destroy all hopes built on worldly confidence and limited to worldly comfort. But hope in Christ and hope in heaven are not destroyed by death, they are completed by it.

It is also useless to fight against death’s attack, as Job 14:20 says. “You always win against him.” A person is no match for God. If God enters into conflict with someone, he will surely win, and he will keep winning. Death cannot be resisted. There is no point arguing with its summons. God overcomes man, and man passes away, never to return.

Look at a dying person, and you will see how his face changes. First, illness changes the body. After only a few days of sickness, the face can look very different. How much more after death has taken hold! What once looked strong and noble becomes weak and plain. What once looked lovely and pleasant becomes dreadful. “Bury my dead out of my sight.” Then where is the beauty people admired? Death changes the face and then sends us out of this world for good. Second, death also unsettles the mind. Even the strongest and bravest person will change countenance as death comes near. The cheerful face becomes serious, and the bold face becomes pale and afraid.

A dying man is also cut off from the concerns of his family, which once meant so much to him. When death has hold of him, whether from a stroke, a fever, or the struggle of dying, tell him the best news or the worst news about his children, and it makes no difference. He does not know it. He does not feel it, as Job 14:21 says. He is going to a world where he will be a stranger to all the things that filled his heart here. This should make us less anxious about our children and families. God will know what becomes of them when we are gone. So let us trust them to him and not wear ourselves out with useless, anxious care.

Job also points to the pain of death itself in Job 14:22. While a man still has his flesh, the body he is unwilling to give up, it suffers pain. While his soul is still within him, the spirit he is unwilling to surrender, it mourns. Dying is hard work. The pains of death are usually severe pains. So it is foolish to delay repentance until a deathbed, when a person is least fit to do the one thing most needed. It is true wisdom to make peace with God in Christ and keep a good conscience, so we store up comforts that will help us through the sorrows of our dying hour.