Job writes:
7 At least there is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its new shoots will not fail.
8 Its roots may grow old in the ground
and its stump die in the soil,
9 yet at the scent of water it will bud
and put forth shoots like a plant.
10 But man dies and is laid low;
he breathes his last and is no more.
11 As water disappears from the sea
or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,
12 so man lies down and does not rise;
till the heavens are no more, men will not awake
or be roused from their sleep.
13 "If only you would hide me in the grave
and conceal me till your anger has passed!
If only you would set me a time
and then remember me!
14 If a man dies, will he live again?
All the days of my hard service
I will wait for my renewal to come.
15 You will call and I will answer you;
you will long for the creature your hands have made
Now that I have been convinced of the wholistic nature of man (no immortal soul), texts like this one start to make a lot of sense. Perhaps even those who agree that the unredeemed are eventually annihilated (and that there is no immortal soul) will disagree with my take on this material. So be it. Please object as you see fit.
I think this text is a stirring hint that, although Job knows that man goes into the ground and "sleeps", a glorious day will come when he will live again. I think that this text harmoinizes beautifully with the "dead sleep until they are called forth" view. In verse 7, Job implicitly expresses the view that when man dies, its all over for good. This is echoed in verse 10 - man breathes his last and "is no more". And verse 12 suggests that Job believes that the sleep of death will never be reversed - man will never rise again "till the heavens are no more". I take this latter phrase to be a poetic expression for "forever".
Of course, none of us in this discussion believes this. Does this mean that I am suggesting that this section of Job is not inspired by God or is otherwise "wrong" since the author expresses a "when you die its all over" view.
Not at all. I think one can see that the despair expressed in the first half of this text is redressed in the second half - where Job expresses the wish "If only God would hide me in the grave and then remember me in the future" (v.13). In v14, Job raises the possibility that man will "live again" and be "renewed". In verse 15, those of us who, unlike Job, have seen the fullfillment of God's plan, can easily see a reference to the "calling forth" that is described in texts like 1 Corinthians 15. So we know about the future renewal of life what Job only hoped for.
What is really going on here? I submit that this poetic text basically says the following: It is true that man dies and sleeps, he really is "gone", he really is in the grave (a place of no conscious existence, Luke 16 objections notwithstanding). And yet there is a glimmer of hope expressed that this situation will be reversed, that God will remember his children and call them forth from their sleep.
If you imagine that the reality is that there is no immortal soul, that man sleeps after physical death, and then is called forth to life as per 1 Cor 15, the Job text can be seen as expressing an incomplete picture of this reality. And yet not really - the possibility of what we (who have 1 Corinthians 15 and other texts) know will happen is there. It is expressed as a hope, as "if only God would do this" kind of thing.
Now how does the view that "man dies and goes immediately into full-blown conscious existence, either in torment or in glory" fare in respect to this text? Not very well. If this view is correct, then Job does not have an incomplete view (albeit with hints of completeness), he has a patently incorrect view. He is wrong to state that man sleeps, he is wrong to say that man goes into the grave, he is wrong in his hope that man will be called forth to life from a state of slumber in the grave (since, like both Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16, man is not slumbering at all).
I think that this is yet another another example of the harmony of the Scriptures on this matter: man dies physically, sleeps in the grave and is, at some time in future, called forth to life (in the case of the redeemed). Job knew about the death and sleep and hoped for the calling forth. We, on the other hand, have seen what Job could only hope for, the resurrection of Christ and the associated promise and hope that we too will called forth at the appointed time.
