JOB 7:1 and JOB 14:6, C. H. Cayce Brother R. M. Lovett, of Strong, Ark., requests our views of Job 7:1 and Job 14:6, and asks, “Can a man shorten his days on earth?”
Job 7:1 reads, “Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?” The marginal reference uses the word warfare instead of appointed, and the original word often means warfare. It appears from what follows in this chapter that the word warfare would be a more nearly literal translation than the word appointed. But if the word appointed is the correct translation, or the proper word here, it does not intimate that there is a certain, unalterable, fixed time at which every man shall die. A time is appointed unto man upon earth— not a certain, fixed time for him to die.
Job 14:5-6, reads, “Seeing his days are determined, the number of his months are with thee, thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass; turn from him that he may rest, till he accomplish, as an hireling, his day.” In this connection Job refers to the tree springing up again, but that man does not die and return again to this life, but that he shall be changed. Job 14:1 says, “If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” When will the change come? In the resurrection of the body. His appointed time is until then. Hence it is appointed, that at a certain time, God’s people shall be raised again and changed from natural to spiritual, from mortal to immortal. That is a time appointed of the Lord.
Deut. 5:16 says, “Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Here it plainly says “THAT THY DAYS MAY BE PROLONGED.” This was a command in the moral law. Again, Deut. 6:2, “And that thy days may be prolonged.” The Apostle Paul recognized and taught the same truth. Eph 6:2-3, “Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” There they are admonished by the apostle to honor their father and mother that they may live long on the earth. If a man takes the life of his fellowman, and is condemned by the [pg 197] courts, and hung for the crime, he has not honored his father and mother, and dies early as a result of his wickedness and failure to observe this first commandment with promise. The Primitive Baptist, September 9, 1013.