Is There Hope?

In chapter 14 Job seems to bookend hope with despair. He starts in the first six verses wondering aloud whether or not God could just let humans be. Their lives are miserable and short, why can't we at least be allowed to enjoy the time we're given without suffering. An understanding of the finite nature of life can lead to two outcomes. 1) Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die, or 2) Do something to make your mark because in the end when you're gone, well, you're gone. Either way, their is little redeeming in this life.

But Job seems to take a little lesson from nature in verses 7-12. At least there is hope for a tree, even though it may be cut down, it can sprout again. Could it be true for man? He seems to pray for this in verses 13-17. He waits for his renewal, when God will call him from the grave, is there hope for humanity after all.

But he closes his response in verses 18-22 with little sense of hope. The suffering of this world leaves man concerned only for his own lot in life, leaving little room for hope of the eternal. I'm sure that Job's friends will have more words for this.