Tag: full of trouble

5.q. “Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.”

Job 14:1  “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble. He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not. And do you open your eyes on such a one and bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one. Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass, look away from him and leave him alone, that he may enjoy, like a hired hand, his day.

Psalms 103:15-16     As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field;  for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.

James 4:14    yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

1 Peter 1:24    for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls,

Psalms 144:4    Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

Human life, though intense and beautiful in many ways, comes and goes in a season. Even the most productive, most privileged, most adventurous of mortal lives begin to fade just as they get underway.  This is understood and grieved by people of every culture, every generation, and every belief system. Human life is achingly temporary.  Scripture continually reminds us that God has provided (by grace and through faith in Christ) a true home and a secure future on the other side of this temporary life. In Him, we have hope of a future without end.  We must mentally engage in setting all of our hope in God’s future grace for us. We must choose to act as those who are God’s own people, rejecting the evil desires that drove our actions before we knew better. Our choices matter. Our God placed a high value on our lives, paying for them with the blood of Christ. Since God has made us able, we must now strive to earnestly live with our heart, mind, and soul focused on eternity and not the temporary things this world has to offer.

If you have ever raised children you are very aware of their lack of understanding time.  10 minutes or 10 years are the same because they have no point of reference or understanding of time.  Likewise, we as adults, have little to no point of reference or understanding of our length of days this side of eternity and eternity future.  Scripture gives us a glimpse of a reference when it says “ Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow”.

We do well to live out our faith in Christ with hope in eternity future and less hope on what this world has to offer.

So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits

“man breathes his last, and where is he?”

Psalms 103:15  As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.

Psalms 90:5-6     You sweep them away as with a flood; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning:  in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

Isaiah 40:6-8     A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.  The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

James 1:10-11    and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away.  For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Job 14:1-3     “Man who is born of a woman is few of days and full of trouble.  He comes out like a flower and withers; he flees like a shadow and continues not.

Job 20:9     The eye that saw him will see him no more, nor will his place any more behold him.

1 Timothy 6:17     As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

1 John 2:17     And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

James 4:14     yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

What do we strive for?  What is it that we are trying to obtain?  What is our end game?  I imagine: some sort of recognition, enough money to live without worry, health, sound mind, known for some skill or accomplishment, beauty, know for something tangible that we own, know for something we have written or said…etc.  When you think about this and the scripture above, how important is it really?  All of the time we spend alive in this body is but a flower that blooms and then is gone.  We have little wisdom understanding eternity (time without end) and this side of eternity (time with end).  Do you think it is possible that our end game is only focused on this side of eternity?  What should our end game focus be: honoring, glorifying, serving, following, obeying, proclaiming, believing, trusting, relying on, clinging to, loving, praising, worshiping, listening to, and meditating on, God.     Our endgame should include wanting others to pass from death to life rather than death to judgement and damnation.  Jesus Christ is our savior, redeemer, and is coming again to gather His own into forever presence with Him.  I love the hymn that has a verse: Turn your eyes to Jesus, look full into His wonderful face, and the things of this world will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.