Job 14:13

13 O that [nathan] thou wouldest hide [tsaphan] me in the grave [sha'owl], that thou wouldest keep me secret [cathar], until thy wrath ['aph] be past [shuwb], that thou wouldest appoint [shiyth] me a set time [choq], and remember [zakar] me! KJV-Interlinear

13 'Oh that Thou wouldst hide me in Sheol, That Thou wouldst conceal me until Thy wrath returns to Thee, That Thou wouldst set a limit for me and remember me! NASB

Sheol is the broad name for the underworld, a place of the dead, a retreat, a resting place. The underworld is often called Hades, which includes all of the underworld regions.

In the underworld, there are four compartments. They are Torments, Paradise, Tartarus, and the Abyss.

Sheol is the term for the resting place of humanity. For all who have been saved in the times before the First Advent of Christ, before the Cross, that is for all who have believed in the promised savior, when a person died he went to a temporary resting place called Paradise.

All who rejected the savior, went to another temporary place of misery called Torments. And for that matter, all unbelievers still go to Torments even in our current day.

So here is Jobs reference to a life after death. Sheol is a reference to a resting place of the dead. Dead with respect to this world, but alive in that they still exist until such a time as God recalls his wrath.

His ultimate recall will occur at the end of the millennium.

Job calls this place in the underworld, the place for rest, for privacy, for concealment and protection from any form of outside intrusion or interference, or threat.

All who have believed in the savior, relative to Jobs day, which was around 2500 B.C., when they died, their soul and spirit left their physical body, and went to Paradise. There they were held under Gods protection, and in secret, such that nothing could bother them.

In the present world Satan has full access to causing trouble for people. Job is the example of this harassment.

Were it not for Satan's arrogance, then evil would not reign in this world. From the cradle to the grave, mans life is full of uncertainties, stress, bias, prejudice, lusts, hate, and an endless list of sins and self righteousnesses.

Only after death does true rest become a part of ones life, but you have to be saved in order to receive this rest. In the times before Christ, that rest occurred in Paradise.

Today, all believers go directly to Heaven to be face to face with the Lord. Paradise was emptied immediately after the event of the Cross, when Christ led all of those 'captives' out of Paradise and into heaven, sealing for them permanently, their eternal life. The historical event of the Cross, sealed and secured eternal life for us all.

Today, Paradise is empty, and is no longer in use. Unfortunately some religions continue to use that term, Paradise, which is a former secret place that is empty and has no further purpose. And such is the purpose of those religions, empty and useless.

Unbelievers go to Torments and their stresses and miseries only increase while they are there. Torments still exists today and will continue to exist until the end o the Millennium when all unbelievers will come out of Torments to stand before the Great White Throne of Christ. Their next stop is the Lake of Fire.

So anyway, Job refers to a resting place after death. A resting place implies continued life in some fashion. Job has already referred to the soul of humanity, and to the wrath of God, and now Job refers to a time limit while in Sheol, the resting place.

God will continue to enforce His principles of righteousness and justice throughout history. For those who believe in His Son, there will be salvation and blessing and deliverance. For those who reject His Son, there will be judgment and condemnation.

At the end of each individual life, people were angel escorted to the appropriate holding area, Torments or Paradise. After the Cross, the destination for those who die, having been saved, is Heaven.

And so that will continue until the end of human history. That is the wrath, or justice, or policy of God. It will continue until the end of the Millennium. This is the time limit for those who have died. No one dies and is in a form of death forever.

For Old Testament believers, their limit expired at the time of the Cross, when they were transferred into Heaven in a great parade procession.

The next time limit expires for all believers at the time of their individual resurrection. The final time limit for all believers will come at the end of human history, when the old universe is destroyed, and the new universe is created. From that time on, eternal life will go on forever.

In death, God removes believers from this world in order to give them rest from the pressures and burdens of this world. Also, God protects us from the continued threats of Satan and evil.

Death, then becomes a vacation as well as a sanctuary, but a temporary one, where no one, not even Satan, can enter, and gain access to its residents. Death for believers is a release from the burdens of this world, and the confidence of something better in the next life.

Death, the first death, we should probably call it, because unbelievers have a second death which commits them to the Lake of Fire, but anyway, our first death is temporary. It has a time limit. We do not die and remain in some form of limbo for an undetermined period of time. Death has a beginning and it has an end.

Death is a separation of life from his world, into a hidden place, which is inaccessible by evil. Death for believers is a place of rest and safety and security and hope.

Just as God remembered Noah when he was in the Ark, protected from the destruction of the old world and during the formation of a new post-flood world, so too, those in death will be remembered by God, and not forgotten.

Now is the time to post a prayer.