Job talks a lot about going away, dying, sleeping, etc. and never waking up or coming back, just going into dust. Does he believe in the afterlife/resurrection?

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Davidius
Husband of Emily
Member of All Saints Anglican Church - Chapel Hill (AMiA / Anglican Church of North America)
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German and Classics

Job 14 and 19 teach the doctrine of resurrection, I believe.

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Rev. Lane Keister
Teaching Elder, PCA, North Dakota (working out of bounds in a CRC and an RCA church)
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Chapter 19 will be on tomorrow's reading for JD's 90-day bible calendar. So I'll look at chapter 14:

Are the bold verses the passage to which you were referring?

Job believes in the afterlife, though at this point in redemptive history the resurrection has not been clearly revealed by God. In chapter 14, Job ponders the possibility of a resurrection, though it is clear that this is not a firm reality in his own mind, as he slips right back into despair.

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Andrew Moody
Pastor - Christ Covenant OPC - Amarillo, TX
Director - Amarillo Theological Institute
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Amarillo Reformed Fellowship

Also, the afterlife is taught by implication. Consider this:

All of Job's riches that he had lost, were returned to him twofold.

However, his new children didn't number 14 daughters and six sons, but the same as the original. Why? Because he already had 7 sons and 3 daughters from before. They still existed...just not on earth.

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Josh Hicks, Chloë's Dad
Christ Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church, RPCGA
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It is God that multiplies our sorrows.... God, as a righteous Judge, does it, which ought to silence us under all our sorrows; as many as they are, we have deserved them all, and more: nay, God, as a tender Father, does it for our necessary correction, that we may be humbled for sin, and weaned from the world by all our sorrows; and the good we get by them, with the comfort we have under them, will abundantly balance our sorrows, how greatly soever they are multiplied. - Matthew Henry

Yes, I was referring to those verses. Of course, the interpretation is difficult (there are NO easy passages in Job). But ultimately, I think that he does go there, and chapter is yet more clear.

Sorry if this is a repeat:

Job 19:25, 26, "For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

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-JD

A couple of things:

1. The sense of the verses you're talking about in terms of man going to the dust and his days being few is actually echoed in James. The sense here is not annihilation but the idea that our lifespan is short.

2. This is also a lament and not every verse of Job ought to be used as didactic teaching. It's sometimes hard to determine where Job is crying out to God in his distress and when he is testifying of some truth. One thing that I appreciate about Job's lament (much like the Psalms) is that they display a man crying out in great distress and not pretending that he's not questioning things or feels as if the whole world is against him. But, in the end, he finds comfort and rest in the strength of God.

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Rich
PCA, Northern VA
Student, New Geneva Theological Seminary

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Hmm. My study bible notes that one should not take the theological musings of Job and his three friends to heart as Scriptural doctrine because some of what they say is incorrect musing.

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Andrew DeShazo
Husband of Kathryn
Father of Phillip-Giles B. DeShazo
Deacon
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Memphis, TN
"From out of the depth of unbroken Infinfity arose the Question, "Who am I?" And to that Question there is the answer, "I am God!" -Meher Baba, died 1969.

"I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Christ, died 33 AD, ressurected three days later.

Job is wisdom literature, and requires wisdom to correctly understand.

Wisdom is sometimes defined as "knowledge/truth applied."

Job's friends have truth, and yet misapply it in Job's case. Job has his misunderstandings of God corrected in the end....

For a fuller treatment, see my posts on a previous thread:
http://www.puritanboard.com/328961-post68.html
http://www.puritanboard.com/330349-post70.html

Right. As I mentioned in a post elsewhere, Job was struggling. He felt like God was not hearing him in his greatest time of need. (See chapter 23 for example) He was a man who desperately longed and desired to hear from God, but at the same time he was having a difficult time trusting God through his circumstances (which is understandable considering all he went through.)

There are times when Job's faith in God is evident. For example, the verse JD posted above. There is no doubt that Job believed in the resurrection, but yet there were times when it was difficult for Job to believe at all.

Let us not forget that Job was not living under the New Covenant administration of the CoG, therefore he was not blessed with the fulness of the Spirit as we are today. Nor did he have the Scriptures as we have them today. And yet think about how we doubt the hand of God during difficult circumstances, and we are sealed with the Spirit of God and have the complete Scriptures for our edification and learning.

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Ryan Barnhart - Pastor of OGBC
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Student at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary - B.D.

"I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by Cannibals or by worms. And in the Great Day my Resurrection body will rise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen Redeemer." - John Paton

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth.... I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself” (vv. 25–27).


“All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come (14:14 KJV).

Job's restoration is a symbol of a Resurrection. Let me state the Job presents a bodily resurrection also.

19:26. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God.

19:27. Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another: this my hope is laid up in my bosom.


JOb is very correct in asserting that his resurrection will require a drastic change in the world order. Job is focusing on his personal situation and not an eschatological concern. He is cirrect in denying that a resurrection will get him away from his delima, yet if God hides him in Sheol, there would have to be some way for him to be returned to earthly life. Although he just discounted the possibility of a personal resurrection, JOb's 'wish' pulls his mond back to the possibility. He greatly affirms he would bear the days of his service (saba 7:2) in the hope that his renewel will come...(halipa) The Hebrew root is the same as 'will sprout again' in reference to the tree in v 7...

JOb did not speak very clearly of a general resurrection becasue it was not revealed until Christ, the First to rise, ascended. He thought more of a renewal, yet this is pedagogical and typifies Christs rejection and Rising again.. At the time of Job, it was not a central doctine..

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N. Robert; Trinity Reformed Church RCA, Holland MI

"Once in a while you can get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right."

Thanks, everyone.

No problem, David. I am so incredibly glad that my immaculate display of biblically exegetical prowess was helpful to you ( I knew it would be). And let it be known that my preceding contribution was my own and only my own. It was not due to any exposure of mine to other godly, skilled, and reformed teachers and masters of Scriptures who have gone before me. ME. ME. ME. I came up with it all by myself, and I knew that it would answer all your questions concerning the Book of Job forever. I'm glad I laboured hard to figure it all out.



NOT.

Actually, I think it was either Matthew Henry or Johnny Mac from which I was first exposed to this observation. But they said it much better than I could ever conceive of doing.

there are glimpses of the resurrection in the book what he talks about is dieng going to the grave.

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Aaron
Independent Baptist
Holland MI
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