Job 14:15 You shall call, and I will answer you: you will have a desire to the work of your hands. Such a chapter as this does not stand by any means alone in the Old Testament. Nature then, as now, lent but ugly dreams to the inquirer after immortality. For one hint from nature, which tells in favour of immortality, you may find a hundred from the same quarter which tell against it. In his search for a solid ground upon which to build some hope, however scanty, for the unknown future beyond death, the writer is driven at last to the simplest and most solid ground of all — the fact of creation, and what is involved in creation. Every chapter of his work is pervaded with the feeling of mystery, vastness, and awe, whenever he speaks of God. But he holds firmly by his faith in a Creator, whose creature — made in His likeness — he himself is. His argument is this — "The creature simply as a creature, by virtue of creation, has a Claim upon the Creator, which the Creator will be the first to avow." It may, perhaps, sound bold to speak thus of creation, as giving a title to the Creator's care. If the Creator were an unfaithful, an unrighteous Creator, there would indeed be no limit to the power of dealing with, and disposing of His creatures. It is our happiness to know that might is not right with Him; that the Almighty is also the All-righteous and the All-merciful. Every created thing or person has certain rights and claims as towards the Creator. These rights and claims are determined by his or its capacities. Man is capable of knowing and doing his Creator's wilt He who is capable of fellowship with God will never be suffered by the Creator to perish in death. We are in the hands of a Father, a Creator, who knows what He would do with us, knows what we are capable of, knows what He created us for; and who assuredly will not leave us until He hath done that which He hath spoken to us of. Job's confidence in God was justified to the uttermost. (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.WEB: You would call, and I would answer you. You would have a desire to the work of your hands. |
    |