Life is like a journey. It started when we were born. As time passed and we took notice of the world around us, various opportunities opened up for us. As we continued our journey, we experienced the highs and lows of life. Sometimes circumstances ‘took over’ and we were swept along by them. So often we took the easy route, only to find ourselves ending up in places that caused us unhappiness and uncertainty.
The Bible tells us so much about our journey that it could truly be called a ‘Handbook for Life’. Perhaps the gloomiest, but very real assessment of life’s experience without God is expressed in the book of Ecclesiastes. Here the appraisal of human activity is summed up in a simple expression:
Nothing makes sense! Everything is nonsense. I have seen it all— nothing makes sense! (Ecclesiastes 1:2 CEV)
The point is made by making some very clear observations.
What is there to show for all our hard work here on this earth? People come, and people go, but still the world never changes. Ecclesiastes 1:3-4 CEV. (Read the rest of the chapter).
This summary of our life continues when our death comes under the same scrutiny:
When a tree is chopped down, there is always the hope that it will sprout again. Its roots and stump may rot, but at the touch of water, fresh twigs shoot up. Humans are different— we die, and that’s the end. Job 14:7-10 CEV.
But is this the whole picture that the Bible gives us?
So far, we have seen how the Bible describes a life lived without God. But the God of the Bible is a personal God and seeks a way out for all of us. He is not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 ESV. Even more than this, God has made it possible for all of us.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 ESV
Job certainly believed this. This is what he wrote:
“Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were engraved in the rock forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! Job 19:23-27 ESV
So, with belief and conviction in God’s word we can hope for bodily resurrection leading to eternal life on earth when Christ returns to set up his throne in Jerusalem
