Job 14:7-9

7 For there is [yesh] hope [tiqvah] of a tree [`ets], if it be cut down [karath], that it will sprout again [chalaph], and that the tender branch [yowneqeth] thereof will not cease [chadal].

8 Though the root [sheresh] thereof wax old [zaqen] in the earth ['erets], and the stock [geza`] thereof die [muwth] in the ground [`aphar];

9 Yet through the scent [reyach] of water [mayim] it will bud [parach], and bring forth [`asah] boughs [qatsiyr] like a plant [neta`]. KJV-Interlinear

7 'For there is hope for a tree, When it is cut down, that it will sprout again, And its shoots will not fail. 8 'Though its roots grow old in the ground, And its stump dies in the dry soil, 9 At the scent of water it will flourish And put forth sprigs like a plant. NASB

Yesterday, we studied Job's suggestion that mankind be allowed to live his life reasonably and with noninterference from God, to be allowed to rest, as it were, during his life, and then die into a peaceful rest after that.

Well plants and animals probably have that option. The live and then they die, and that is the end of their existence. Man is neither a plant nor an animal. Although some may seen a bit fruity or animalistic at times!

Anyway, that presumes that man would have some power or control over his environment both during his lifetime and after his death.

Humanity does not have any such control.

I just spoke with a friend who had recently visited Switzerland this past winter. They could not go skiing because the weather was so out of the ordinary this year that there was no snow in the mountains. I didn't know that the Swiss were having such a terrible snowless year this past winter. We always think of the Alps as being under snow, especially in the winter time.

So anyway, where is mans control over the weather? Where is mans control over the tourist business, especially for skiing in the Alps?

Job has had much to say concerning life, or rather the virtual lack of power that man has over life and his environment. And now, Job has much to say concerning death.

As far as man is concerned, death is a final point, a line beyond which he has no control. Death is the ultimate limit, the ultimate boundary, beyond which we actually know virtually nothing.

If man has no control over life, where we are alive and have the ability to inquire, to discover, to invent, to make decisions and so forth, then how can we possibly figure that we could have any control over death?

Man has no method of researching the environment beyond death. We cannot send probes beyond death and have them return with vital information. No one can die, and then reverse the process, restoring themselves to life, thus giving us an eyewitness account of what it is like beyond death.

All that we know, is what is revealed in the scriptures. There is no other reliable source of information concerning death and the afterlife.

All of the myths, all of the stories, all of the religious beliefs, which have been invented concerning death cannot be relied upon. Gods word is truth, anything in opposition to Gods word is a lie. So anything other than what is revealed in the scriptures, cannot be believed.

Unlike nature, and Job uses a tree as his example, man cannot come back from the dead.

A tree can be cut down. Is it dead? Is its root system of no further use? Well, they are still useful.

A new shoot can spring up from what seems to be a dead stump, and the tree, a new tree, can regrow.

The new tree comes up from the existing biology of the earth. Planet earth, that is. Within this planet are all of the resources necessary for watering and nurturing a new tree.

But man is not a tree. Even mans biological functions are not life supported by the earths environment. Mans life dos not come from he earth. Mans life does not come from his earthly parents.

Mans life is in the soul, not in the biological.

We have already studied in detail that man has three potential vessels and three lives contained within each of those vessels. First, there is biological life, which is found in its container, the physical body. Second, there is human life, which resides in its container, the human soul. Third there is eternal life, which resides in its container, the human spirit.

The first vessel, the human body begins with conception. Likewise, biological life begins simultaneously with the body. Note that correlation. Then there is the formation of the soul, which comes at the point of physical birth. Human life is imputed into the soul at that moment also. The original calls this process, 'neshemah,' or the spark of life, or Gods exhale and mans inhale.

The body is formed out of the dust of the earth, the chemicals of biology. Mans human life is created out of nothing. All human life comes directly from God.

When you believed in Christ, then you were born again in that instant. Did you feel anything? No, you didn't. The spiritual rebirth is spiritual. So third, God creates a human spirit and imputes eternal life into it, at the very moment you believed in Christ.

But man cannot detect human life. He can detect biological life. We all have heartbeats and brain wave functions and so forth. And again, man cannot detect or differentiate between the brain, the soul, or the spirit.

Unlike the tree, man cannot transfer his life from one body to another. Man cannot translate life from the earth, back into himself. There is no such thing as reincarnation. There is no such thing as metempsychosis.

We cannot come back as another person or animal. We cannot transfer our soul life from one body into another body.

Man is unique in this manner of life. Man does not draw his life from the environment. Man does not draw his life from nature. Man does not draw life from the universe. Man does not draw life from the force.

Man does not draw life from any source other than God.

Now is the time to post a prayer.