Job 14:13 Commentary and Bible Study

Job is a believer, but he is a believer capable of deep fear. He is a believer with a profound awareness of the wrath of God due to his holiness and his hatred of sin. Do those, who approach God lightly with no fear of coming into his presence, have a stronger faith? Sadly, often they do not. The ease with which they come before the Lord is more a sign of their thoughtlessness and their ignorance of his holiness and of their sin, than it is a sign of strong faith. It is true that perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), but in overcoming fear perfect love does not minimise the holiness of God. From this verse we get a clearer view of Job’s belief in the hereafter. This more optimistic thought continues until the end of verse 15, before he again focuses on his present distress. Accepting that he has to die, Job requests that, even though he must lie in the grave in common with all humanity there would be a place where he is sheltered from the wrath of God. He admits that death is a punishment on mankind for sin, but he asks God to hide him from the wrath that is poured out on the lost. He does not know clearly how God distinguishes between the righteous and the wicked when all seem to go to a common grave, but he asks that God who can do all things would make a distinction between them. May the grave be for him a hiding place from the wrath of God so that he will come forth from it as one who is favoured by God. Job hopes for ‘a set time’ when he would be remembered, a resurrection of the just which will deliver them from the common grave of humanity and show at last that God does not treat all in the same way. This request is a concession to man’s state. He knows he must die as he has seen all go to the grave before him, both righteous and wicked, but he asks that it should not end there. He asks to be appointed a set time when he will rise again, something which is wholly and utterly in the hands of the Lord.