In Job, chapter fourteen, verse one, a life “full of trouble” for the believer may include persecution, injustice, poverty, ill health, or Satan’s opposition to their fight for faith. God wants all believers who are suffering and oppressed on this earth to know that a day of resurrection and victory is coming when they will be with God forever. At that time, they will experience firsthand that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us,” as in Romans eight, verse eighteen.
All the sufferings of this present age: sickness, pain, misery, disappointments, poverty, mistreatment, sorrow, persecution, and trouble of any kind, must be considered insignificant when compared with the blessing, privileges, and glory that will be given to the faithful believer in the age to come, as in Second Corinthians four, verse seventeen.
Job enlarges upon the condition of man, addressing himself also to God. Every man of Adam’s fallen race is short-lived. All his show of beauty, happiness, and splendor falls before the stroke of sickness or death, as the flower before the scythe or passes away like the shadow. How is it possible for a man’s conduct to be sinless when his heart is by nature unclean? Here is proof that Job understood and believed the doctrine of original sin. He seems to have intended it as a plea, why the Lord should not deal with him according to his works but according to His mercy and grace. It is determined in the counsel and decree of God how long we shall live. Our times are in his hands: the power of nature acts under him; in him, we live and move. And it is to reflect seriously on the shortness and uncertainty of human life and the fading nature of all earthly enjoyments. But the cause and remedy of these evils are still more important to view. Until we are born of the Spirit- no spiritually good thing dwells in us or can proceed from us. Even the little good in the regenerate is defiled with sin. We should, therefore, humble ourselves before God and cast ourselves wholly on the mercy of God through our Divine Surety. We should seek the renewing of the Holy Ghost daily and look to heaven as the only place of perfect holiness and happiness.