Job 14:2

2 He cometh forth [yatsa'] like a flower [tsiyts], and is cut down [namal]: he fleeth [barach] also as a shadow [tsel], and continueth [`amad] not. KJV-Interlinear

2 'Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain. NASB

The brevity of life adds to mans vanity of life.

When Adam lived, lifespans were in the many hundreds of years. Upwards of eight-hundred and nine-hundreds of years. After the flood, the life span declined into the six hundreds, then four-hundreds, then two hundreds, and by the time of Abraham, the average lifespan was just over a hundred years.

Mans lifespan continued to decline until it bottomed out in the twenties of years during the dark ages. And even in our current day, the average lifespan around the world in 1900 A.D. was only in the forty's of years.

Through the twentieth century, life expectancies slowly grew to the fifty's, then the sixty's, then the seventy's of years, and today it is about eighty years of age that the average person now lives. Still, even in our day of technology, our average lifespan is nowhere close to the life spans enjoyed by the first twenty generations of human history.

In history, since Adam and Eve, perhaps over a trillion people have been born into life. How many of their names do we know?

Of the nearly seven billion people who are alive on this planet today, how many of their names do you know?

And so we have Jobs example of the flower and the shadow, which pictures the life of the average person.

The flower grows, blossoms, and dies. Of it there is no record, no memory, no legacy.

As for the shadow, it comes in silence and leaves in silence. The shadow has no detail, no texture, no smell, no substance. It is there for the moment and can be seen, but all shadows are just like all other shadows. One cannot place an identification mark on any shadow, to trace its existence, to distinguish it from any other shadow.

The shadow is simply there and if you follow its movement along the ground or wall or whatever it might be cast against, then if you look away even for a moment, and then back, it is gone. Gone where?

In and of himself, humanity if nothing. Man is a container of emptiness. Man can cause no meaning onto himself. Man cannot even impose memory of his existence. How many of those trillion do you remember? How many of those billions do you know?

And when they vanish from this life, will you ever know? Will they know you?

Job is painting a very clear picture of just who and what you are.

Man tends to think very highly of himself. Man tends to overestimate his worth. Man even takes himself too seriously, to such an extent that even if his feelings get bruised, retaliation, even violence can and have occurred throughout history.

People will sell their souls in exchange for fame and fortune. Married couples divorce for generally selfish reasons. People commit crimes, kids are rebellious, politicians deceive, celebrities boast, people are indifferent to truth, and so on and so forth, all because they consider their right to something which is not theirs in the first place.

'The Lord gives and the Lords takes away.' Who said that?

To those who pursue their spiritual lives, God gives abundantly. Abundantly is defined as more than one can use in an infinite number of lifetimes.

To those who reject God, or reject Christ, or reject their spiritual lives, there is the vanity of the world.

Which has more value, the emptiness of the world, or the abundance of God?

Now is the time to post a prayer.