Job 14:18

THE FAILURE OF EARTH-LIFE TO SATISFY MANKIND

"But the mountain falling cometh to naught;

And the rock is moved out of its place;

The waters wear the stones;

The overflowings thereof wash away the dust of the earth:

So thou destroyest the hope of man.

Thou prevailest forever against him, and he passeth;

Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not;

And they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.

But his flesh upon him hath pain,

And his soul within him mourneth."

This is indeed a sad and mournful picture of our lives upon earth. The notion that men continue to live on in the lives of their children is contradicted by the fact that whatever happens to them is unknown to the deceased. Man's brief life is subjected to the very same erosive and destructive elements in our world that can wear down the mountains, and even wash away the stones; so "Little by little, man's hope is destroyed, drop by drop."[14] But it should not be overlooked that Job in this paragraph is pointing men away from the prospects as they are in this life and in the direction of the eternal things of God. The man who establishes his hope in this world only is a fool. It is a race he cannot win, a hope that he shall never realize, a trial that shall never end, and a warfare that he absolutely cannot win.

OH GOD; THROUGH JESUS CHRIST; HAVE MERCY UPON US ALL!

THOU ART HE BEFORE WHOM THE GENERATIONS OF MEN RISE AND FADE AWAY?