Tag: Hope - Job 14

Job 14:7-10
“For there is hope for a tree,
if it be cut down, that it will sprout again,
and that its shoots will not cease.
Though its root grow old in the earth,
and its stump die in the soil,
yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put out branches like a young plant.
But a man dies and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he?

Tag:  Hope

Hope is a powerful thing.   When people have lost hope their posture changes.  They walk with their head down.  They sit in a chair slumped down.   Their eyes are cast down.   Those who have hope typically are looking up, with a spark in their step.  They eyes can not conceal that hope.  In the book of Job we have a story of someone who has lost hope.  Job has lost all.  Family, wealth, status, health and all in the category of loss for Job.  But, in this chapter, the one thing that he talks about losing is hope.   In the above passage he talks about the hope of the tree.   Even though the tree is cut down, there is hope, because the roots are there to taste again the rain of life and sprout once more in life.   Job's point is, what about man?  What hope do we have?   Job is not looking at this through the eyes of Christ, of course.   Christ is who and what gives us hope.  We have hope in Christ.  Read any of the Pauline epistles and know that God is there to give us hope.   When we lose hope despair, depressions and disaster soon follow.  Hope is the remedy to depression.  Satan, as in Job's case, wants to remove anything that we hope in so that we will fall into despair.  That was the point Job was making when he made this bet with God.  Note Satan's words to God:

Job 1:9-11
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

IF we have our hope in the "props" of life, rather than the God who gives life, we will lose hope when these things are taken away.   We have hope in Christ!!!  Trust in no other for your hope.