After answering Zophar the Naamathite, Job turns to speak to God, and, in the midst of a very interesting and instructive pleading with God, remarks, "For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant" (Job 14:7-9). This was an event that any man could take account of, but it brought to the mind of the patriarch the great contrast with man.
Job continues, and says, "But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?" (Job 14:10). There was no mystery about the tree, but there was regarding the human race. Like the tree stock, the body of man wasted in the ground, but there was no evidence of the continuing life as there was when the young shoots sprang from the old roots of the tree. Still, the patriarch realised that man was composed of more than body, for he spoke of his spirit, and it was this that perplexed him. The body of the man wasted, but where was the man that inhabited the body?
Whether Job knew of Enoch we cannot tell, but it is on record in Genesis 5:24, that "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him." We are not told what effect the disappearance of Enoch had on the men of his day, but any who thought upon the event seriously must have asked the same question as Job, "Where is he?" When Elijah was translated, he was taken up in a whirlwind, and was seen ascending by Elisha, which must have caused any godly soul to realise that God had a place in heaven for those who feared Him
It was not until the Lord Jesus came that there was the clear, unambiguous teaching regarding the place that man enters when he dies. The question of Job was plainly answered by the Lord in Luke 16, where He speaks about the rich man and Lazarus. There we learn that one who lives without any thought of God enters the place of torment when he leaves this world. The body of the rich man was buried, but "in hell he lift up his eyes," for the man who had not thought of God while on earth was very conscious of his condition in the unseen world.
Whatever happened to the body of Lazarus we know not, but this we do know that when he died, he "was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom" there to be comforted. Here was evidence that the patriarch Abraham was alive, and that those whom God blessed were taken by the angels to be comforted where Abraham lived. Further, we are told by Abraham, through the lips of the Son of God, that there is "a great gulf fixed" between those who are blessed after death, and those who enter the place of torment. There was this extraordinary conversation between Abraham and the erstwhile rich man, but there could not be any passing from one place to the other.
While on the cross, the Lord Jesus gave a further revelation regarding the place into which the blessed dead enter, when He said to the repentant thief, "Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). Now was unfolded the precious truth that saints of God who leave this world by death enter a heavenly paradise, a scene of bliss that can never be defiled and ruined like the earthly paradise into which man in innocency was placed by God, and from which he was excluded because of his sin. How very wonderful it is that sinners who are unfit for a paradise on earth are made fit for the paradise of God through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.
Nor is it to Abraham's bosom that saints are now received in heaven, for the Lord Jesus said to the one who had repented, and asked to be remembered of Him when He came into His kingdom, "thou shalt be with me in paradise." It is the presence of Christ in the heavenly paradise that makes it so attractive to those who know Him, and who have been redeemed by His precious blood.
Paul knew the delights of the paradise of God, for he had been there, when caught up to the third heaven, and he tells us that he "heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter" (2 Cor. 12:1-4). Knowing the joys of that place of bliss, the Apostle wrote to the saints in Philippi, "For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better" (Phil. 1:23). Christ who had captivated his heart, and whose love compelled him in his service for Him, was in heaven, in the paradise to which he had been caught up, and he desired to be there with Christ.
Although the Christian knows that "to be absent from the body" is "to be present with the Lord," it is nevertheless the normal Christian desire, not to be unclothed, "but clothed upon" with his body of glory at the coming of the Lord (2 Cor. 5:1-8). Yet, when the servant feels that his work is done, and the aged saint feels that the Lord's work in him is about completed, there often comes this desire that Paul had to "depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better."
So far as man's observation went, Job could say, "man lieth down, and riseth not," but he added, "till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep" (Job 14:12), which showed that be believed in the resurrection of the body. Even although he expected to go to the grave, he could say to God, "O that Thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that Thou wouldest keep me secret, until Thy wrath be past, that Thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!" (Job 14:13). Job had some idea that God would keep him in a secret place until he raised his body from the grave. Therefore when he asks the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" he can say regarding himself, "all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come" (Job 14:14). Faith in God had given Job this wonderful knowledge that he would await God's appointed time, in His secret place, until his body would be changed.
When we come to the New Testament, we find the Lord Jesus speaking plainly of the resurrection of the dead, a truth held by the Jews who accepted the word of God (Acts 23:6). Speaking to the Jews, the Lord said, "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, to the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:28-29). Here the Lord reveals that there will be two distinct resurrections, of life and judgment, the former being spoken of as "the resurrection of the just," and the "first resurrection" (Luke 14:14; Acts 24:15; Rev. 20:5-6; 1 Cor. 15:22-23).
There can be no doubt that at the first resurrection the Old Testament saints, who desired to "obtain a better resurrection" (Heb. 11:35), will be raised with the blessed dead of the Christian period. Such will arise "from among the dead" (Mark 12:25), leaving behind in death the wicked dead, who shall be raised to appear before the great white throne of judgment (Rev. 20:5-15).
While it is the normal Christian hope to wait for the Lord to come to take us altogether to be with Himself, even as Paul wrote, "not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life" (2 Cor. 5:4), yet the Apostle desired for himself that he might be "made conformable unto His death" (Phil. 3:10), and this for the express purpose, "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection from among the dead" (Phil. 3:11). Paul desired to follow his Master as closely as possible in all things, and since his Master had died, he also desired to die, and to die a martyr's death like Him, so that even as Christ came out of death, he also might follow Him out from death. There was an aspect of Christ's death that was His alone, that of suffering for sins, in which none could follow, but many devoted saints have followed their Master into a martyr's death, to come out like Him in resurrection from among the dead.
So that we have seen Job's two questions answered by the blessed Lord on earth, and we have seen in the desires of the Apostle Paul the effect of the knowledge of the truth, contained in the answers to Job's questions, on one who could say, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).