THE GRAVE

JOB 2:1

A. "IF I WAIT, THE GRAVE IS MINE HOUSE" - "THERE THE WICKED CEASE FROM TROUBLING, AND THERE THE WEARY BE AT REST" - JOB 17:13; 2:17
  1. The words of Job are so great and thought-provoking:
    1. That little can be added to them to emphasize their message of truth
    2. They deserve our reverent and prayerful consideration in this hour of sorrow
  2. Our text makes the grave:
    1. A very able and timely teacher of all of us - because that is one destination that concludes our earthly sojourn in this life
    2. There can be no exemption or exception for any of us B. THE MESSAGE OF THE GRAVE IN THE HOUR OF SORROW
  3. Job says, "If I wait, the grave is mine house"
    1. An house that all have in common, rich or poor, good or bad, even the prisoners are included - Job 3:18
    2. A place where all human activities cease - Eccl. 9:10
    3. The Lord speaks of this house as, "Thy chambers" - Is. 26:20
  4. To Job:
    1. The grave held no terrors; to him it was a place for rest - rest from pain, rest from worry, rest from the evil of the day
    2. Rest for all alike - the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, the young and the old, the great and the small
  5. How often have I stood beside the sick bed of one in pain:
    1. Tears would stream over their pale faces and their parched lips would utter words like these, "How I wish it were all over, I want rest from this terrible pain"
    2. I have seen people who had been ill for months whose bodies were but skin and bones and who had difficulty to breath. They asked me to pray that they could go to rest C. LET US THIS AFTERNOON, TAKE A SHORT BUT CLOSE LOOK AT JOB'S WORDS
  6. The yearning of the heart for rest:
    1. The scriptures say, man born of a woman, "is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward" - Job 5:7
    2. "Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble" - Job 14:1
    3. "He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not"
  7. His struggle for survival begins with his birth and ends with his death:
    1. Said the Patriarch Jacob, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years; few and evil have the days of the years of my life been" - Gen. 47:9
    2. And even for the most fortunate, this present life brings much labor, many disappointments and many sorrows
  8. Thus the grave does hold:
    1. The hope of rest - rest from toil; rest from pain; rest from the ever present temptations that are common to all of us
    2. But friends of mine, the rest of God's people is only temporary, specially for those who fall asleep in the closing hour of this present life
    3. Note the words of comfort coming from our heavenly Father - "Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut the doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast" - Is. 26:20
    4. Bible prophecy makes it very clear - what the indignation is that the prophet writes about - read Daniel 12:1
    5. It is the time of trouble - the trouble of Jacob - Jer. 30:7
    6. Looking forward to that time of indignation a voice from heaven cries, "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from hence forth, that they may rest from their labor" - Rev. 14:13
    7. And, friends, look into our world today what do we see; clouds of war - wars of extinction; men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking for what is ahead of us - Luke 21:25-26
    8. That is why the words of Job are timely and ought to bring comfort to all who sorrow


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