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Observations from today’s readings and today’s S-WOD, Friday, 13 February 2026:
Job 14:1-6 — 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….
Job turns from argument to reflection. He broadens his suffering into a meditation on the human condition itself. Life is brief. Life is fragile. Life is heavy. Humanity blooms like a flower and withers quickly. We flee like a shadow and do not continue. Job is not exaggerating; he is observing. The brevity of life intensifies the weight of suffering. When days are few, pain feels disproportionate.
Job also wrestles with divine scrutiny. “Do you fix your eye on such a one?” He feels small, temporary, and yet examined. The tension is profound: humanity is frail and fleeting, yet accountable before an eternal God. The New Testament echoes this realism. Our life is a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Yet every idle word will be brought into judgment. Human frailty does not erase responsibility; it magnifies dependence.
Job longs for relief, for God to look away long enough for him to finish his “day like a hired hand.” He does not deny God’s sovereignty; he questions its intensity as it bears down on mortal weakness. His cry reveals something we all feel: how can a creature so fragile bear the weight of divine examination?
Job’s suffering caused him to consider the frailty of life and the true sinfulness of man. Any illusions of control over life were gone. Whatever pride he had was removed. Sometimes God needs to take people to a low point for them to see the reality of His Sovereignty and their total dependence on Him.
Job 14:7-12 — For there is hope for a tree… but a man dies and is laid low….
Job contrasts a tree with a man. A tree cut down may sprout again. At the scent of water, it may bud and put out branches like a young plant. But man lies down and does not rise, at least not in visible, earthly cycles. Job observes death’s finality from his limited vantage point. He sees no clear resurrection yet.
This is the ache of pre-resurrection theology. Job senses that death should not be the last word, yet he does not yet see how it could be undone. Later revelation will clarify what Job could only grope toward. The gospel answers this tension directly. Christ enters death not merely to sympathize but to conquer. The tree metaphor finds fulfillment in the resurrection life that springs from what appeared permanently cut down.
Job’s lament prepares the heart for resurrection hope. The absence of visible restoration intensifies the longing for divine intervention beyond the grave.
Job 14:7-17 – But a man dies and is laid low; man breathes his last, and where is he…. If a man dies, shall he live again?
There are many forms of escapisms: entertainment, pleasure-seeking, workaholism, vices, or simple denial. However, eventually everyone must face the facts of life – Life is hard, we only get to live it once, and then we die, either into eternal glory or eternal damnation. We must all deal with that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but we can be saved from the penalty of our sins, which is permanent separation from God, by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In his suffering, Job struggled with the harshness of life and his uncertainty of the afterlife. However, through Christ, we have Hope, God’s promise that despite what we are going through He is working all things out for good, and that Christ will return to restore all things. Without Christ, life is a tragedy; with Christ life is triumphant. Which do you choose?
– Hebrews 9:27-28 — And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
– Romans 8:28-29 — And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
– Deuteronomy 30:19 — I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live….
– Romans 8:37-39 — No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Christian life is marked by contentment rather than contentiousness, being satisfied in Christ regardless our circumstances rather than being perpetually dissatisfied and disappointed, disputing with God over what He has allowed to happen in your life in His perfect sovereignty and provision. In our life challenges, God wants us to get better not bitter, to trust Him in the moment (faith) and to trust Him with the future outcomes (hope). Again, don’t judge God from your perceptions of your circumstances; judge your circumstances from the reality of God’s perfect love for you and His promise that He will complete in you the good work He has started.
– 2 Corinthians 12:10 — For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
– Philippians 4:11 — Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.
– 1 Timothy 6:6 — But godliness with contentment is great gain,
– 1 Timothy 6:8 — But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
– Hebrews 13:5 — Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Job 14:13-17 — Oh that you would hide me in Sheol… that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Here Job approaches hope tentatively. He imagines a hiddenness in death, not as annihilation, but as waiting. “That you would remember me.” The longing is relational. He does not simply want relief; he wants remembrance by God. He asks whether a man can live again. The question hangs in the air like prophecy awaiting fulfillment.
Job pictures God calling and himself answering. This anticipates resurrection language long before it is fully revealed. The idea that God would long for the work of His hands suggests that divine justice is not cold calculation but covenant affection. Job’s theology stretches beyond his despair. Even in confusion, he suspects that God’s purposes may outlast death.
The New Testament answers Job’s question decisively. Yes, a man shall live again. Christ declares Himself the resurrection and the life. The longing Job voices becomes embodied in the empty tomb.
Job 14:13-15 — If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come.
Faith’s hope is that, in life, we can find joy in a love relationship with Jesus and that God will provide resurrection after death, forgiveness of sins, and answers to life’s questions. Without faith, life is a very hopeless proposition.
– 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 — Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.
Job 14:18-22 — But the mountain falls and crumbles away…
Yet hope flickers and fades again. Job returns to erosion, decay, inevitability. Mountains crumble. Waters wear away stones. Humanity’s hope seems to erode the same way. A father does not know if his sons are honored or brought low after death. Isolation and separation feel permanent.
This oscillation between hope and despair is spiritually honest. Faith in suffering rarely moves in straight lines. It pulses. It questions. It leans forward and falls back. Job embodies the tension of believing without yet seeing.
The gospel does not rebuke this tension; it fulfills it. What Job sees as erosion, Christ reframes as renewal. The outer self wastes away, yet the inner self is being renewed day by day. The perishable will put on the imperishable. The mountain may crumble, but the kingdom that God establishes cannot be shaken.
“Cross” Fit S-WOD (Spiritual Workout of the Day) – 13 February 2026: Reflect on how you view your own fragility. Do you resent it, deny it, or allow it to drive you into deeper dependence on God? Identify one area where your sense of weakness has led to anxiety rather than trust. Consciously entrust that limitation to God today, asking Him to use your frailty as a doorway to resurrection hope rather than despair.
Pray: “Father, my days are few and often heavy. Teach me to number them wisely and to see my fragility as an invitation to depend on You. When I feel small under Your gaze, remind me that I am the work of Your hands. When death and decay seem final, anchor my heart in the hope of resurrection secured in Christ. Help me live today in light of eternity, trusting that You remember me and that nothing entrusted to You is ever lost. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Defenders Bible Reading Plan 