Job 17:15-16

15 And where is now ['ephow] my hope [tiqvah]? as for my hope [tiqvah], who shall see [shuwr] it?

16 They shall go down [yarad] to the bars [bad] of the pit [sha'owl], when our rest [Nachath] together [yachad] is in the dust [`aphar]. KJV-Interlinear

15 Where now is my hope? And who regards my hope? 16 'Will it go down with me to Sheol? Shall we together go down into the dust?' NASB

Job already knows that his eternal arbitrator, his advocate, his counselor, are all one and the same person, and He is God, who will represent him, Job, before God (the Father). In chapter 19, Job will refer to his redeemer, who also lives. And that life is eternal life, not the physical life of this world.

Job 19:25

25 'And as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. NASB

In life we have two categories of hope, or dreams, or wishes. We have those that we desire from this current life, and then we have those, which apply to eternity.

In this life, all of our hopes and dreams and wishes get wiped out instantly at the moment of our death.

So as far as this life goes, all of Jobs hopes, he presumes, are on the brink of vanishing along with his life.

All people have a common status when they leave this world and go to the grave. Hades, has no prejudice, and certainly no preference when it comes to receiving the dead.

Isa. 14:9

9 'Sheol from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come; It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth; It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. NASB

Hades is typically referred to as the underworld. Sheol is typically referred to as the Land of the Dead. Job is giving the general reference to the grave in his use here.

Jobs friends are human also, and therefore they cannot offer anything beyond the weakest component of their life. They too are destined to the grave, where the worms will clean them up, restoring them back to dust, as they clean all dead things up. Think of this as dust recycling.

Job is deathly ill, and so he cannot pursue his dreams of life anymore. So with no one on this earth, able to fulfill ones hopes, then hope, worldly hope that is, vanishes at the point of death.

Not to say that Job is hopeless, because his true and greater hope resides with God and is scheduled for the next life. And that is true for us all.

So, the hopes and dreams of your current life will vanish when you leave this world. The prison bars of death hold death with an unyielding grip. However, your greater hope, that of eternal life and much, much more, will remain with you, because Christ is in you, as a believer. And Christ has already defeated death and He has broken its chains and kicked down its prison bars.

And in Him rests all power, eternal life, and the sustaining resources, which will be given to us, forever.

Now is the time to post a prayer.