14 May Job 14

In Job 14, Job reflects on human frailty, the brevity of life, and it’s inevitable end. He longs for renewal but feels hopeless, questioning if humanity, once gone, could ever be revived or restored.

You do not know what tomorrow will bring

Job 14:1-2 (TLB): “How frail is man, how few his days, how full of trouble! He blossoms for a moment like a flower—and withers; as the shadow of a passing cloud, he quickly disappears.”

In these verses, Job reflects on human fragility and the fleeting nature of life. He speaks from deep suffering, feeling the brevity and difficulty of human existence, a reality that his own life painfully illustrates. Job’s words capture the transient beauty of life: like a flower, it blooms briefly only to fade, and like a shadow, it vanishes quickly. Psalm 39:4-6 (Voice): “Eternal One, let me understand my end and how brief my earthly existence is; help me realise my life is fleeting. You have determined the length of my days, and my life is nothing compared to You. Even the longest life is only a breath. In truth, each of us journeys through life like a shadow. We busy ourselves accomplishing nothing, piling up assets we can never keep; we can’t even know who will end up with those things. Our life, when compared to eternity, is like a morning fog, which quickly burns off in the heat of the day.”

A sobering thought

Like Job, the psalmist echoes the sobering thought that life is short and uncertain. We may work tirelessly, yet in the grand scheme, earthly accomplishments fade, and life itself is like morning fog—momentarily visible but soon gone.

James 4:14 (ESV): “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” Life’s brevity calls us to value each day and make it count. We can only make a difference while we live, so we must learn to spend our days wisely.

Psalm 90:12 (TLB): “Teach us to number our days and recognise how few they are; help us to spend them as we should.”

Ecclesiastes 9:4-6 (TLB): “There is hope only for the living. ‘It is better to be a live dog than a dead lion!’ For the living at least know that they will die! But the dead know nothing; they don’t even have their memories. Whatever they did in their lifetimes—loving, hating, envying—is long gone, and they have no part in anything here on earth anymore.”

As long as we live, we have time and hope to change and make our lives right with God. It’s only the living who can make choices that affect eternity. Isaiah 30:21 (TLB): “And if you leave God’s paths and go astray, you will hear a voice behind you say, ‘No, this is the way; walk here.’” While we are still here, God offers guidance, and we can always turn back to Him, even if we have strayed.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (AMP): “Therefore we do not become discouraged . Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light distress is producing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure ! So we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are visible are temporal , but the things which are invisible are everlasting and imperishable.”

In our brief lives, we face hardships, but through them, God prepares us for an eternal joy that far outweighs temporary troubles. With eternity in view, we find hope that reaches beyond life’s brevity.