Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 14:13

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 14:13. O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave — Dreadful as death is to others, I shall esteem it a high privilege; it will be to me a covert from the wind and from the tempest of this affliction and distress.

Keep me secret — Hide my soul with thyself, where my enemies cannot invade my repose; or, as the poet expresses it: -

"My spirit hide with saints above,

My body in the tomb."

Job does not appear to have the same thing in view when he entreats God to hide him in the grave; and to keep him secret, until his wrath be past. The former relates to the body; the latter to the spirit.

That thou wouldest appoint me a set time — As he had spoken of the death of his body before, and the secreting of his spirit in the invisible world, he must refer here to the resurrection; for what else can be said to be an object of desire to one whose body is mingled with the dust?

And remember me! — When my body has paid that debt of death which it owes to thy Divine justice, and the morning of the resurrection is come, when it may be said thy wrath, אפך appecha, "thy displeasure," against the body is past, it having suffered the sentence denounced by thyself: Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return, for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die; then remember me-raise my body, unite my spirit to it, and receive both into thy glory for ever.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Job’s reply to Zophar (12:1-14:22)

The reply from Job opens with a sarcastic comment on the supposed wisdom of the three friends. They have merely been repeating general truths that everybody knows (12:1-3). They do not have the troubles Job has, and they make no attempt to understand how Job feels. A good person suffers while wicked people live in peace and security (4-6).
Job does not argue with the fact that all life is in God’s hands. What worries him is the interpretation of that fact (7-10). As a person tastes food before swallowing it, so Job will test the old interpretations before accepting them (11-12).
Being well taught himself, Job then quotes at length from the traditional teaching. God is perfect in wisdom and his power is irresistible (13-16). He humbles the mighty (17-22) and overthrows nations (23-25). Job knows all this as well as his friends do. What he wants to know is why God does these things (13:1-3). The three friends think they are speaking for God in accusing Job, but Job points out that this cannot be so, because God does not use deceit. They would be wiser to keep quiet (4-8). They themselves should fear God, because he will one day examine and judge them as they believe he has examined and judged Job (9-12).

The friends are now asked to be silent and listen as Job presents his case before God (13). He knows he is risking his life in being so bold, for an ungodly person could not survive in God’s presence. Job, however, believes he is innocent. If God or anyone else can prove him guilty, he will willingly accept the death sentence (14-19). Job makes just two requests of God. First, he asks God to give him some relief from pain so that he can present his case. Second, he asks that God will not cause him to be overcome with fear as he comes into the divine presence. He wants to ask God questions, and he promises to answer any questions God asks him (20-22).
To begin with, Job asks what accusations God has against him. Why is he forced to suffer (23-25)? Is he, for example, reaping the fruits of sins done in his youth? Whatever the answer, he feels completely helpless in his present plight (26-28).
Life is short and a certain amount of trouble and wrongdoing is to be expected (14:1-5). Why then, asks Job, does God not leave people alone so that they can enjoy their short lives without unnecessary suffering (6)? Even trees are better off than people. A tree that is cut down may sprout again, but a person who is ‘cut down’ is dead for ever (7-10). He is (to use another picture) like a river or lake that has dried up (11-12).
Job wishes that Sheol, the place of the dead, were only a temporary dwelling place. Then, after a period when he gains relief from suffering and cleansing from sin, he could continue life in a new and more meaningful fellowship with God. If he knew this to be true, he would be able to endure his present sufferings more patiently (13-17). Instead, the only feeling that accompanies his pain is the feeling of hopelessness. He knows he will be cut off from those he loves most, never to see them or hear of them again. Like soil washed away by a river he will disappear, never to return (18-22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

JOB'S HOPE OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD

"Oh, that thou wouldest hide me in Sheol. That thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past. That thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my warfare WILL I wait, Till my release should come. Thou SHALT call, and I WILL answer thee: Thou wouldest have a desire to the work of thy hands. But now thou numberest my steps: Dost thou not watch over my sin? My transgression is sealed up in a bag, And thou fastenest up mine iniquity."

Note the capitalized words in Job 14:14-15. These are the marginal alternatives in the ASV, and by all means should be used here. This paragraph is not some kind of a vague hope on Job's part, as if he were trying to lift himself by his own bootstraps; this passage is a prayer to God, in which he asks God to hide him (temporarily) in Sheol until his anger is spent, affirming Job's conviction that at the time indicated, God WILL call (not a vague hope that he might) and that Job WILL hear and respond (Job 14:15). The discerning reader will understand at once that this is a radical departure from a lot that has been written on this chapter.

"If a man die, shall he live again" The answer that the scholars generally give here is a decided NO; but we reject that misunderstanding of the passage.

We are delighted that in Vol. 13 of the Tyndale Commentary, we find a valid scholarly opinion which we can accept: "Job here gives a very clear expression to his belief that, even after he lies down in Sheol, God will call him out to life again (Job 14:15)."Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries, Vol. 13, p. 169. There is only one reason for the blindness of many scholars on this point; and, as cited by Andersen, it is solely due to, "Their a priori belief that the idea of a resurrection arose quite late in Israel's thought."Ibid. That false theory, like many another liberal axiom, is totally false. Abraham offered Isaac, being able to do so only because of his faith in the resurrection (Hebrews 11:19).

The true answer, therefore to the question in Job 14:14, "If a man die, shall he live again"? is Yes, Indeed! Amen.

It is a help in understanding Job to remember that God Himself, when he appeared in the mighty wind to Job and his friends, declared that Job, throughout this book spoke the truth regarding God; and we consider that such a declaration can mean only that Job was an inspired man in his great discourses throughout. He spoke by the Spirit of God. That is the reason we have the Book of Job in the canon.

The ridiculous notion that Job in this passage is "feeling his way" toward some epic truth, but that he has, as yet, no conviction about it should be rejected. Job's firm faith in the resurrection of the dead (Ch. 19), is not something that Job cooked up out of his own subjective feelings. What Job stated in Job 19 is the same thing that he believed when he was speaking in chapter 14. What we have here is not the picture of some mortal man "feeling his way" toward God and finally, after all kinds of errors, at last coming up with a declaration that has inspired all men for ages. The great message of Job 19 is absolutely nothing that Job "worked out," and "finally arrived at." God spoke to all of us through Job.

"My transgression is sealed up in a bag" We agree with Andersen that, "These transgressions have been sealed up in order to hide them, and not for keeping them to be used at some time of reckoning."Ibid., p. 174. Thus we have the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins making its appearance here in the inspired words of Job.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Oh that thou wouldest hide me in the grave; - compare the notes at Job 3:11 ff. Hebrew “in Sheol” - ב־שׁאול bı̂-sh^e'ôl. Vulgate, “in inferno.” Septuagint ἐν ἅδῃ en Hadē - “in Hades.” On the meaning of the word “Sheol,” see the notes at Isaiah 5:14. It does not mean here, I think, the grave. It means the region of departed spirits, the place of the dead, where he wished to be, until the tempest of the wrath of God should pass by. He wished to be shut up in some place where the fury of that tempest would not meet him, and where he would be safe. On the meaning of this passage, however, there has been considerable variety of opinion among expositors. Many suppose that the word here properly means “the grave,” and that Job was willing to wait there until the wrath of God should be spent, and then that he desired to be brought forth in the general resurrection of the dead.

So the Chaldee interprets it of the grave - קבורתא. There is evidently a desire on the part of Job to be hid in some secret place until the tempest of wrath should sweep by, and until he should be safe. There is an expectation that he would live again at some future period, and a desire to live after the present tokens of the wrath of God should pass by. It is probably a wish for a safe retreat or a hiding-place - where he might be secure, as from a storm. A somewhat similar expression occurs in Isaiah 2:19, where it is said that people would go into holes and caverns until the storm of wrath should pass by, or in order to escape it. But whether Job meant the grave, or the place of departed spirits, cannot be determined, and is not material. In the view of the ancients the one was not remote from the other. The entrance to Sheol was the grave; and either of them would furnish the protection sought. It should be added, that the grave was with the ancients usually a cave, or an excavation from the rock, and such a place might suggest the idea of a hiding-place from the raging storm.

That thou wouldest appoint me a set time - When I should be delivered or rescued. Herder renders this, “Appoint me then a new term.” The word rendered “a set time” - חק chôq - means, properly, something decreed, prescribed, appointed and here an appointed time when God would remember or revisit him. It is the expression of his lingering love of life. He had wished to die. He was borne down by heavy trials, and desired a release. He longed even for the grave; compare Job 3:20-22. But there is the instinctive love of life in his bosom, and he asks that God would appoint a time, though ever so remote, in which he would return to him, and permit him to live again. There is the secret hope of some future life - though remote; and he is willing to be hid for any period of time until the wrath of God should pass by, if he might live again. Such is the lingering desire of life in the bosom of man in the severest trials, and the darkest hours; and so instinctively does man look on even to the most remote period with the hope of life. Nature speaks out in the desires of Job; and one of the objects of the poem is to describe the workings of nature with reference to a future state in the severe trials to which he was subjected. We cannot but remark here, what support and consolation would he have found in the clear revelation which we have of the future world, and what a debt of gratitude do we owe to that gospel which has brought life and immortality to light!

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 14

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, he's full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow [or the shadow on the sundial], and continues not ( Job 14:1-2 )

Oh, what a pessimistic kind of view of life. "Man that is born of a woman is of a few days and full of troubles." Cheer up. It will soon be over. You're of few days but it's full of trouble. "Like a flower you blossom out but then you're cut down. Like the declining shadow on the sundial." You're soon off into oblivion. You cease to exist.

And do you open your eyes upon such a one, and bring me into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; Turn from him, that he may rest, till he shall accomplish, as an hireling, his day ( Job 14:3-6 ).

Job is really here sort of speaking to God now.

For there is hope of a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, as a tender branch thereof it will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant ( Job 14:7-9 ).

Now Job says, "There is no hope for man, he's cut down and that's it, that's the end. Now even for a tree there is hope if you cut a tree off, it may spring up again out of the trunk, or out of the roots. There's hope for a tree, that it might bud forth again even if it's cut down. But for man there is no hope. You cease to exist. You're cut off and that's it."

The man dies, and wastes away: yea, man gives up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decays and dries up: So man lies down, and rises not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep. Oh that you would hide me in the grave, that you would keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! ( Job 14:10-13 )

Oh, Job said that it was just all over. That I would go into that oblivion. Now, again, we must remember that Job is speaking not divinely inspired truths. The things that Job are saying about death cannot be taken for doctrinal truth. This is Job talking. This is Job talking out of his own limited knowledge and understanding. This is Job expressing his own ideas of what death is, not what God's truth is about death, but what his own ideas are about death. And the Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and others have made a tragic mistake in turning to the book of Job for their proof text for the soul sleep doctrines. In the thirty-eighth chapter, when God comes on the scene, and God begins to question Job, the first thing that God says is, "Who is this who darkeneth with words of counsel without wisdom or without knowledge?" All you guys talking all these things and you don't know what you're talking about. Then God said to Job, "Okay, gird yourself up, I'll ask you a few questions. You think you've got the answers, let Me ask you a few questions. Number one, have you been beyond the gates of death? You know what's there? You've been talking about death, 'Oh death come, you know, hide me in oblivion, and all. There I'll know nothing. There everything is silent, and all.' Hey, have you been there? Do you know what's going on there?" And God rebuked him for the statements that he was making concerning death, because he didn't know anything about it. And thus, it is absolutely wrong to go to the book of Job to find scripture proof text for soul sleep.

Job then in verse Job 14:14 cried out, "If a man dies, does he go on living?" Now this is one of the basic questions that lies deep underneath a lot of crud in all of our lives. When you get right down to basic issues. When you get right down to the bottom line. What are the really important things? Surely it isn't what you take in your lunch pail for lunch tomorrow, or what shoes shall you wear, or what suit shall you wear to work. The really important things are questions like Job is asking now. And these are the questions that are deep down in every man, and when someone who is close to you dies, it becomes very important to you. If a man dies, does he go on living? Or is death the end? Is death the final chapter? Is the book closed and is it all over when a man dies? Is that the end? Or does he go on living? Is there a dimension or sphere where life continues? Is there a continuation of life after death?

Jesus answered this question of Job. Up until the time of Jesus there was no adequate answer; it was just a burning question. But Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life, and he that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he who lives and believes in Me shall never die" ( John 11:25 ). If a man dies, does he go on living? Jesus said, "Absolutely yes. If he lives and believes in Me, he'll never die." He goes on living. It's in another sphere, it's in another dimension, but life continues. Life does not end. You experience a metamorphosis. You move out of your tent, this earthly tent, your body, and you move into the building of God, not made with hands, that is eternal in the heavens. "For as long as we are at home in this body, living in this body, we are absent from the Lord," but he said, "I would choose rather to be absent from this body and to be present with the Lord." ( 2 Corinthians 5:7-8 ) "We know that when the earthly tent, our body, is dissolved, we have a building of God, not made with hands, eternal in heaven. So we who are in this body do often groan, earnestly desiring to be freed, not to be an unembodied spirit but to be clothed upon with the body which is from heaven" ( 2 Corinthians 5:1-2 ). So, if a man dies, yes, he does go on living in a new form, a new body, there in the presence of God.

all the days of my appointed time [Job said] will I wait, till my change comes ( Job 14:14 ).

A little glimmer of hope in a question, but then he goes right back into despair.

Thou shalt call, I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands. For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin? My transgression is sealed up in a bag, thee sew up mine iniquity. And surely the mountains falling cometh to nothing, and the rock is removed out of his place. The waters wear the stones: and they wash away the things which grow out of the dust of the earth; and you destroy the hope of man. You prevail for ever against him, and he passes: you change his countenance, and send him away. His sons come to honor, and he doesn't even know it; they are brought low, but he perceives not of them. But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn ( Job 14:15-22 ). "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Job’s despair ch. 14

In this melancholic lament Job bewailed the brevity of life (Job 14:1-6), the finality of death (Job 14:7-17), and the absence of hope (Job 14:18-22).

"Born of woman" (Job 14:1) reflects man’s frailty since woman who bears him is frail. Job 14:4 means, "Who can without God’s provision of grace make an unclean person clean?" (cf. Job 9:30-31; Job 25:4). God has indeed determined the life span of every individual (Job 14:5).

It seemed unfair to Job that a tree could come back to life after someone had cut it down, but a person could not (Job 14:7-10). As I mentioned before, Job gives no evidence of knowing about divine revelation concerning what happens to a human being after death. He believed in life after death (Job 14:13) but he did not know that there would be bodily resurrection from Sheol, the place of departed spirits (Job 14:12). [Note: See Hartley, pp. 235-37.] He longed for the opportunity to stand before God after he entered Sheol (Job 14:14), to get the answers from God that God would not give him on earth.

Essentially, "Sheol" in the Old Testament is the place where the dead go. There was common belief in the continuing personal existence of one’s spirit after death. When the place where unrighteous people go is in view, the reference is to hell. When the righteous are in view, Sheol refers to either death or the grave. [Note: See A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and the Old Testament Parallels, ch. 3: "Death and Afterlife."]

God later revealed that everyone, righteous and unrighteous, will stand before Him some day (Acts 24:15; Hebrews 9:27; et al.), and God will resurrect the bodies of the dead (1 Corinthians 15). Job believed he would stand before God, though he had no assurance from God that he would (Job 14:16). Evidently Job believed as he did because it seemed to him that such an outcome would be right. He evidently believed in the theoretical possibility of resurrection but had no assurance of it. [Note: See James Orr, "Immortality in the Old Testament," in Classical Evangelical Essays in Old Testament Interpretation, pp. 259.] When he finally had his meeting with God, Job was confident that God would clear him of the false charges against him.

The final section (Job 14:18-22) contains statements that reflect the despair Job felt as he contemplated the remainder of his life without any changes or intervention by God. All he could look forward to, with any "hope" or "confidence," was death.

This reply by Job was really his answer to the major argument and several specific statements all three of his companions had made so far. Job responded to Zophar (Job 12:3), but his words in this reply (chs. 12-14) responded to statements his other friends had made as well.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And that thou wouldest hide me in the grave,.... The house appointed for all living, which some understand by the "chambers" in

Isaiah 26:20; The cemeteries or dormitories of the saints, where they lie and sleep until the indignation of God against a wicked world is over and past; or in Hades, the state of the dead, where they are insensible of what is done in this world, what calamities and judgments are on the inhabitants of it, and so are not affected and grieved with these things; or in some cavern of the earth, in the utmost recesses of it, in the very centre thereof, if possible; his wish is, to be buried alive, or to live in some subterraneous place, free from his present afflictions and misery, than to be upon earth with them:

that thou wouldest keep me secret; so that no eye should see him, that is, no human eye; for he did not expect to be hid from the sight of God, be he where he would, before whom hell and destruction, or the grave, are and have no covering; and not only be secret, but safe from all trials and troubles, oppressions and oppressors; especially as he may mean the grave where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest; the keys of which Christ keeps in his hands, and locks and unlocks, and none but him; and where he has laid up his jewels, the precious dust of his saints and where they and that will be preserved as hidden treasure:

until thy wrath be past; either with respect to others, an ungodly world, to punish whom God sometimes comes out of his place in great wrath and indignation; and to prevent his dear children and people from being involved in common and public calamities, he takes them away beforehand, and hides them in his chambers, Isaiah 26:19; or with respect to himself, as to his own apprehension of things, who imagined that the wrath of God was upon him, being severely afflicted by him; all the effects of which he supposed would not be removed until he was brought to the dust, from whence he came, and until his body was changed at the resurrection; till that time there are some appearances of the displeasure of against sin: and then follows another petition,

that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me; either for his going down to the grave, and being hid there, for which there is an appointed time; for as that is the place appointed for man, it is appointed for man to go unto it, and the time when, as appears from

Job 14:5; or his coming out of the grave, for his resurrection from thence, which also is fixed, even the last day, the day God has appointed to judge the world in righteousness by Christ at which time the dead will be raised; though of that day and hour no man knows: unless he should mean a time for deliverance from his afflictions which also is set; for God, as he settles the bounds of an affliction, how far it should go, and no farther, so likewise the time when it should end; and either of these Job might call a remembering of him, who thought himself in his present case, as a dead man, out of mind, as those that lie in the grave, remembered no more.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.   8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;   9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.   10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?   11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:   12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.   13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!   14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.   15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

      We have seen what Job has to say concerning life; let us now see what he has to say concerning death, which his thoughts were very much conversant with, now that he was sick and sore. It is not unseasonable, when we are in health, to think of dying; but it is an inexcusable incogitancy if, when we are already taken into the custody of death's messengers, we look upon it as a thing at a distance. Job had already shown that death will come, and that its hour is already fixed. Now here he shows,

      I. That death is a removal for ever out of this world. This he had spoken of before (Job 7:9; Job 7:10), and now he mentions it again; for, though it be a truth that needs not be proved, yet it needs to be much considered, that it may be duly improved.

      1. A man cut down by death will not revive again, as a tree cut down will. What hope there is of a tree he shows very elegantly, Job 14:7-9; Job 14:7-9. If the body of the tree be cut down, and only the stem or stump left in the ground, though it seem dead and dry, yet it will shoot out young boughs again, as if it were but newly planted. The moisture of the earth and the rain of heaven are, as it were, scented and perceived by the stump of a tree, and they have an influence upon it to revive it; but the dead body of a man would not perceive them, nor be in the least affected by them. In Nebuchadnezzar's dream, when his being deprived of the use of his reason was signified by the cutting down of a tree, his return to it again was signified by the leaving of the stump in the earth with a band of iron and brass to be wet with the dew of heaven,Daniel 4:15. But man has no such prospect of a return to life. The vegetable life is a cheap and easy thing: the scent of water will recover it. The animal life, in some insects and fowls, is so: the heat of the sun retrieves it. But the rational soul, when once retired, is too great, too noble, a thing to be recalled by any of the powers of nature; it is out of the reach of sun or rain, and cannot be restored but by the immediate operations of Omnipotence itself; for (Job 14:10; Job 14:10) man dieth and wasteth, away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? Two words are here used for man:--Geber, a mighty man, though mighty, dies; Adam, a man of the earth, because earthy, gives up the ghost. Note, Man is a dying creature. He is here described by what occurs, (1.) Before death: he wastes away; he is continually wasting, dying daily, spending upon the quick stock of life. Sickness and old age are wasting things to the flesh, the strength, the beauty. (2.) In death: he gives up the ghost; the soul leaves the body, and returns to God who gave it, the Father of spirits. (3.) After death: Where is he? He is not where he was; his place knows him no more; but is he nowhere? So some read it. Yes, he is somewhere; and it is a very awful consideration to think where those are that have given up the ghost, and where we shall be when we give it up. It has gone to the world of spirits, gone into eternity, gone to return no more to this world.

      2. A man laid down in the grave will not rise up again, Job 14:11; Job 14:12. Every night we lie down to sleep, and in the morning we awake and rise again; but at death we must lie down in the grave, not to awake or rise again to such a world, such a state, as we are now in, never to awake or arise until the heavens, the faithful measures of time, shall be no more, and consequently time itself shall come to an end and be swallowed up in eternity; so that the life of man may fitly be compared to the waters of a land-flood, which spread far and make a great show, but they are shallow, and when they are cut off from the sea or river, the swelling and overflowing of which was the cause of them, they soon decay and dry up, and their place knows them no more. The waters of life are soon exhaled and disappear. The body, like some of those waters, sinks and soaks into the earth, and is buried there; the soul, like others of them, is drawn upwards, to mingle with the waters above the firmament. The learned Sir Richard Blackmore makes this also to be a dissimilitude. If the waters decay and be dried up in the summer, yet they will return again in the winter; but it is not so with the life of man. Take part of his paraphrase in his own words:--

      II. That yet there will be a return of man to life again in another world, at the end of time, when the heavens are no more. Then they shall awake and be raised out of their sleep. The resurrection of the dead was doubtless an article of Job's creed, as appears, Job 19:26; Job 19:26, and to that, it should seem, he has an eye here, where, in the belief of that, we have three things:--

      1. A humble petition for a hiding-place in the grave, Job 14:13; Job 14:13. It was not only a passionate weariness of this life that he wished to die, but in a pious assurance of a better life, to which at length he should arise. O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave! The grave is not only a resting-place, but a hiding-place, to the people of God. God has the key of the grave, to let in now and to let out at the resurrection. He hides men in the grave, as we hide our treasure in a place of secresy and safety; and he who hides will find, and nothing shall be lost. "O that thou wouldst hide me, not only from the storms and troubles of this life, but for the bliss and glory of a better life! Let me lie in the grave, reserved for immortality, in secret from all the world, but not from thee, not from those eyes which saw my substance when first curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth," Psalms 139:15; Psalms 139:16. There let me lie, (1.) Until thy wrath be past. As long as the bodies of the saints lie in the grave, so long there are some remains of that wrath which they were by nature children of, so long they are under some of the effects of sin; but, when the body is raised, it is wholly past--death, the last enemy, will then be totally destroyed. (2.) Until the set time comes for my being remembered, as Noah was remembered in the ark (Genesis 8:1), where God not only hid him from the destruction of the old world, but reserved him for the reparation of a new world. The bodies of the saints shall not be forgotten in the grave. There is a time appointed, a time set, for their being enquired after. We cannot be sure that we shall look through the darkness of our present troubles and see good days after them in this world; but, if we can but get well to the grave, we may with an eye of faith look through the darkness of that, as Job here, and see better days on the other side of it, in a better world.

      2. A holy resolution patiently to attend the will of God both in his death and his resurrection (Job 14:14; Job 14:14): If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait until my change come. Job's friends proving miserable comforters, he set himself to be the more his own comforter. His case was now bad, but he pleases himself with the expectation of a change. I think it cannot be meant of his return to a prosperous condition in this world. His friends indeed flattered him with the hopes of that, but he himself all along despaired of it. Comforts founded upon uncertainties at best must needs be uncertain comforts; and therefore, no doubt, it is something more sure than that which he here bears up himself with the expectation of. The change he waits for must therefore be understood either, (1.) Of the change of the resurrection, when the vile body shall be changed (Philippians 3:21), and a great and glorious change it will be; and then that question, If a man die, shall he live again? must be taken by way of admiration. "Strange! Shall these dry bones live! If so, all the time appointed for the continuance of the separation between soul and body my separate soul shall wait until that change comes, when it shall be united again to the body, and my flesh also shall rest in hope." Psalms 16:9. Or, (2.) Of the change at death. "If a man die, shall he live again? No, not such a life as he now lives; and therefore I will patiently wait until that change comes which will put a period to my calamities, and not impatiently wish for the anticipation of it, as I have done." Observe here, [1.] That it is a serious thing to die; it is a work by itself. It is a change; there is a visible change in the body, its appearance altered, its actions brought to an end, but a greater change with the soul, which quits the body, and removes to the world of spirits, finishes its state of probation and enters upon that of retribution. This change will come, and it will be a final change, not like the transmutations of the elements, which return to their former state. No, we must die, not thus to live again. It is but once to die, and that had need be well done that is to be done but once. An error here is fatal, conclusive, and not again to be rectified. [2.] That therefore it is the duty of every one of us to wait for that change, and to continue waiting all the days of our appointed time. The time of life is an appointed time; that time is to be reckoned by days; and those days are to be spent in waiting for our change. That is, First, We must expect that it will come, and think much of it. Secondly, We must desire that it would come, as those that long to be with Christ. Thirdly, We must be willing to tarry until it does come, as those that believe God's time to be the best. Fourthly, We must give diligence to get ready against it comes, that it may be a blessed change to us.

      3. A joyful expectation of bliss and satisfaction in this (Job 14:15; Job 14:15): Then thou shalt call, and I will answer thee. Now, he was under such a cloud that he could not, he durst not, answer (Job 9:15; Job 9:35; Job 13:22); but he comforted himself with this, that there would come a time when God would call and he should answer. Then, that is, (1.) At the resurrection, "Thou shalt call me out of the grave, by the voice of the archangel, and I will answer and come at the call." The body is the work of God's hands, and he will have a desire to that, having prepared a glory for it. Or, (2.) At death: "Thou shalt call my body to the grave, and my soul to thyself, and I will answer, Ready, Lord, ready--Coming, coming; here I am." Gracious souls can cheerfully answer death's summons, and appear to his writ. Their spirits are not forcibly required from them (as Luke 12:20), but willingly resigned by them, and the earthly tabernacle not violently pulled down, but voluntarily laid down, with this assurance, "Thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands. Thou hast mercy in store for me, not only as made by thy providence, but new-made by thy grace;" otherwise he that made them will not save them. Note, Grace in the soul is the work of God's own hands, and therefore he will not forsake it in this world (Psalms 138:8), but will have a desire to it, to perfect it in the other, and to crown it with endless glory.