Dr. McKellar’s Lesson for June 13, 2021

Sitting with Job

Job 14:1-22

1. Introduction

• Job’s loss of personal possessions/health and opening speech (1-3)
• first cycle of speeches with friends: Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar (4-14)
• Job responds to Zophar: theodicy and the doctrine of divine retribution (12-14)

2. Job Reflects on Human Frailty (1-2)

• few days and full of trouble
• fleeting existence: like a flower or shadow

3. Job Appeals for Mercy (3-6)

• fleeting, flawed and a futile pursuit
• determined days and dependent months
• a hireling’s rest

4. Job Assesses His Future (7-12)

• tree symbolism (Gen. 3, Psa. 1, Prov. 3)
• more hope for a tree than for me…
• the naked eye and incomplete understanding (2 Tim. 1:10)

5. Job Opts for Death and Expresses Despair (13-22)

• preference for death over life and question of the ages
• positive pondering: transgression covered
• God’s power and Job’s pain
• connection to Christ: The ultimate Man of Sorrows and Tree of Life (Isa. 53:1-6; 1 Pet. 2:24)

6. So What?

• Because of God’s might and mercy, you can have hope even when you sit in the shards of suffering.
• Let the misery of your condition drive you to the mercy of Christ.
• Live in the constant consolation and motivation of the doctrine of the resurrection. (Jn. 11:25; 1 Cor. 15:58)
• “It is not death to die, to leave this weary road, and midst the brotherhood on high, to be at home with God…” (Malan)