Lecture 2 — The hope for another life

^14:5^ The days of man are short, the number of his months are in your presence. You set up limits which he cannot pass.

^14:6^ Leave him a little while so that he might rest until the desired day comes like a hired man.

238. The days of man are short. Job had wondered about the divine esteem for man, when man is still of such a frail and unhappy condition considered in the state of the present life. But this admiration would cease if one considers that after this life there is another life reserved for man in which he remains in eternity, and so from here on he tries to show this. Therefore, he presupposes what he intends to show as a proposition, and begins with the brevity of the present life, when he says, the days of man are short. He shows that the very measure of human life is determined by God, when he says, the number of his months is in your presence, as we say the number of those things is in our presence when we have found the quantity. Moreover, he uses the unchangeableness of divine determination as a premise when he says, you set up limits which he cannot pass. God is not deceived in his decisions, and so to live either more or less than divine disposition has established is impossible, although it may be contingent that this man dies now or later if considered in himself. There are boundaries established for human life from some corporeal causes, for example, from temperament, or something like that. The life of man cannot extend beyond this, although it can be shortened because of some incidental cause. But the life of man can neither extend more nor less than the ends determined according to divine providence, under which everything falls.

239. He also uses as a premise the expectation of the other life when he says, leave him a little while so that he might rest until the desired day comes like a hired man. Here it is necessary to observe that as the sun causes the day, so God is the author of life. When the sun leaves, the day is finished and night comes. By God leaving, he understands the end of the present life, which is the lot of man from God. The present life, however, is filled with many tribulations; indeed, he spoke about this when he said about man, he is filled with many sorrows (Job 14:1). Since rest seems to be the end of toil, he calls death rest. So he says, leave him for a little while so that he might rest, that is, take away the strength by which you give life to man so that he can die.

But the death of a man is not definitive, for he will be made whole again for eternal life. Thus, the state of human death, until whatever time resurrection is deferred, is brief in comparison to the state of future immortality, and so he clearly says, for a little while. For God leaves many things which will not return and do not perish for a little while but for eternity, but he goes away from man for a little while, for man perishes in such a way that he will rise again. He said above that the life of man on earth is like the day of the hired man (Job 7:1), waiting for his payday. But the time of the repayment of man is not in this life, as was the opinion of the friends of Job, but in that life to which man is restored by rising. He then says, that he might rest; that is, that he might die, yet not perpetually, but until the day comes he desires, like the day of the hired man arrives when he receives his pay. Here, Job, for the first time, makes clear his intention. For he does not deny that the present adversities are punishments, as though God did not reward or punish the acts of man, but states that the time of retribution is in the other life.