Job 14:5 “A person’s days are determined; You have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.”
This chapter of Job put me squarely in mind of the phoenix in Greek mythology, rising from the ashes. That’s one of the mental images that helps me wrap my mind around the concept of God bringing beauty from ashes. And while Job is talking about the death of a person versus the death of a tree, which isn’t really death as long as roots are in the ground, I think his analogy holds up for his situation as well.
Job 14:7 “At least there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail.”
I’ve talked before about my questionable gardening skills, about how I’ve had beautiful plants that I somehow led to the brink of destruction, about how God brought them back to life, showed me hope through precious, fragile buds when I had almost given up. That cycle is what I see here. Job is sitting, literally and figuratively, in his ashes. He has almost given up hope. Yet God knows He’s not done, beauty will come from ashes.
Job 14:8 “Its roots may grow old in the ground and its stump die in the soil….”
Lord, Thank You for this day and this scripture. Thank You for the hope I am able to see abundantly in this reading of Job—hope in beauty from ashes, hope that the worst thing is never the last thing, hope in You. Help me to cling to Your hope and shine Your light. Draw me closer. Amen.
Job 14:9 “…yet at the scent of water it will bid and put forth shoots like a plant.“
Have a blessed day.