means `become unstitched, or unsewn'. Job has made reference to `the firmament', as we have seen in the second

article of this booklet, and knew that God had `stretched out the heavens', a knowledge shared by Elihu (37:18).

There is, therefore, no reason for supposing that Job did not also know that one day `the heavens will be rolled

together as a scroll' (Isa. 34:4), and means exactly what he says, that though man will be raised from the dead, he

will not be so raised until the time of the great white throne judgment, at which `earth and heaven fled away' (Rev.

20:11). In other expositions we have shown that those who are raised to stand before the great white throne include

a number whose names will be found in the book of life. Job had no knowledge of the `first resurrection' or of the

resurrection of the church of the one body or the `appearing' of the Saviour, but he did entertain the hope of

resurrection at the time appointed for all who came under the same dispensational position as himself. Job

entertained the hope that God would `remember' him at the `set time'.

The words translated `set time' occur seven times in Job. It is the `decree' of Psalm 2:7; and the `bounds' of Job

14:5. Job here anticipates the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1, `to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose

under the heaven'. The solution to the problem of the ages (in Ecclesiastes) was but another aspect of the problem

*

that baffled Job; that the day of rectification was not in this life on earth, but in the future resurrection life. At the

end of the `set time' Job was confident that God would `remember' him. This is a mighty step in faith. Job,

together with his contemporaries would go down into the dust and be no more. Countless generations would follow

them until the mind reels at the thought of such numbers ever being remembered or of their identity being preserved.

Yet Job affirms that God will thus remember him. All the days of his appointed time, or, as the words `appointed

time' may mean, all the days of service as a hireling soldier, Job says he will wait, `wait with hope'. It is this word

which is translated `hope' in chapter 6:11 and `trust' in chapter 13:15, and `hope' fourteen times in the Psalms. Job

definitely

affirms

it

was a `blessed' one. First, he awaited with confidence a `change' or a `renewal': `till my change come'. There are

some who take exception to this translation `change', but the word chaliphah occurs ten times in the Old Testament

and in nine of those occurrences it is rendered `change'. In six of these occurrences the reference is to `change' of

raiment. Job evidently had some knowledge of what the apostle speaks in 1 Corinthians 15, `we shall not all sleep,

but we shall all be CHANGED', although not with anything like the fulness that belongs to the revelation of the gospel

as entrusted to Paul. The only other occurrence of the word in Job, is in 10:17, where the `changes' there, seem to

refer to `reinforcements' or, as in 1 Kings 5:14, to workmen in alternate courses or shifts. When that most

longed-for moment comes Job said:

`Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee' (Job 14:15).

Here in these few words, is summed up the truth more fully expressed by the Saviour Himself:

`Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall HEAR HIS VOICE, and shall

come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the

resurrection of damnation' (John 5:28,29).

Now comes one of the most moving passages in the whole book:

`Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands' (Job 14:15).

The word translated `have a desire' is the Hebrew kasaph from keseph `silver', which is so-called because the

root word means `to become pale' even as the Greek arguros is from argos meaning `white'. What Job said was to

the effect that so intense was the desire of God for the restoration of the work of His hands, that He `turns pale with

the intensity of His feelings', a figure-of-speech truly, but what a figure! Other translations of this same word are

`to long sore' for something (Gen. 31:30) as the exile longed for his father's home, or `to long' even unto fainting,

as the believer did for the courts of God's house (Psa. 84:2). When we think of Job stricken down in body and

mind, an awful spectacle to behold, a wreck of a man, bewildered and perplexed, wondering most of all why it

should be that God Himself seemed against him, can we not rejoice at such a glimpse of the heart of God, longing

more intently than Job's heart could ever yearn to pour out upon the stricken man his pent-up love, and to raise that

broken body to more than its original dignity.

*

See the booklet Ecclesiastes, or The Berean Expositor vols. 10 to 13, by the same author.