Job 14:10-13
‘Man dies, and wastes away. Yes, man gives up the spirit — and where is he? Like the waters fail from the sea and the flood decays and dries up, so man lies down and does not rise — till the Heavens grow old! They shall not awake — until Your wrath be past!’ Job 14:10-13.
Having pursued the destiny of man through all its steps down to its lowest — Job, with a revulsion created by the instinctive demands of the human spirit, rises to the thought that there is another life after this one! Death was not an end of personal existence!
The dead person subsists. He descends into the abode of deceased humans. His existence then is a dreamy shadow of his past. He has no communication with the living.
With death, the existence of man here on Earth ends. But the inspired Job says that once he has descended to the underworld, he must stay there. For all the dead are conveyed to that dark place, the valley of the shadow of death.
Who is to say, how long they must stay there? The Heavens must pass away, before they wake up from the sleep of death. Indeed, Job still believed in a life after this life! Even though Jesus still had to appear; to abolish death; and to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel (Second Timothy 1:10).
The communion with God enjoyed by the pious in this life, shall not be interrupted in death. The state of the abode of deceased humans shall be overleaped. For the believing soul is taken by God in death — unto Himself (Psalm 16:10 & 49:15 & 73:24).
There is for dead man, no rising — no waking up for a while. But, indeed, not for ever! Yet it does not happen until the Heavens are no more. In Psalm 102:27, the world’s history closes with a change in all these things — but not in their annihilation!
‘Oh, that You would hide me in the realm of the dead! That You would conceal me — till Your anger changes! That You would appoint me a set time — and then remember me!’
So the inspired Job here wished that the realm of the dead into which he believed the wrath of God would soon precipitate him, may only be a temporary place of safety for him — until the wrath of God turns away. He wished that God would appoint for him, when there, a terminus. And when this limit would be reached — that God would again remember Job in mercy.
Yes, also the Heavens grow old (Psalm 102:25-26 and Isaiah 34:4 and Hebrews 1:10-12). But do they ever die and disappear? No! Are they then not rather, ultimately, changed? Yes!
After death, no resurrection of man — till the end of history! But when the Heavens grow old and finally change — man rises! When God’s wrath has past — man and the Heavens awaken again!
