Job 9:25-26

25 Now my days [yowm] are swifter [qalal] than a post [ruwts]: they flee away [barach], they see [ra'ah] no good [towb].

26 They are passed away [chalaph] as [`im] the swift ['ebeh] ships ['oniyah]: as the eagle [nesher] that hasteth [tuws] to the prey ['okel]. KJV-Interlinear

25 'Now my days are swifter than a runner; They flee away, they see no good. 26 'They slip by like reed boats, Like an eagle that swoops on its prey. NASB

Job is about a hundred years old at this time. We estimate that age, but we don't know for certain. We do know that he was a successful businessman, and that he had ten children, all of whom had grown up and lived in their own homes.

Now, after his family, business, and health losses, we have a conversation between Job and three friends. Three friends that have been identified thus far. A fourth friend will be identified later in the book, and we can assume with good reason, that others were present during this conversation. We discussed all of that quite some time ago.

I know that some of you are having a difficult time reading ahead in the book, but remember a couple of things. First, God, Himself, has described Job as 'blameless and upright' and that there is 'none like him in all the earth.'

So, do not take Jobs remarks as complaining. He is not. The words that come from Job are words of instruction. Keep that in mind.

The words from his friends, as described by the meanings of their names, are words of human viewpoint.

Job is in general, giving us divine viewpoint, while his friends are stating their views from their observations in life. Their observations include many legitimate principles of doctrine, but the friends conclusions fall down, in their application to life.

By the time we get through this book, you should have a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of the temporal and spiritual life.

The remainder of this chapter, deals with mans inability to deal with and solve, his own troubles. And where does that leave man? It leaves him in need of Gods help.

Now, I know that some of you most likely, are caught up in this Playmate death hearing on the television, and perhaps you have or are watching hours of the coverage. Just do not get so caught up in the pop entertainment cultures of life to the exclusion of your spiritual needs.

Unfortunately many, or most, folks live their lives spending hours on things that mean nothing in life. And they ignore their spiritual life, a life that means everything, or should mean everything, to them.

And so enter Job, in or current verse.

Life on this earth is short. Job may be a hundred years old, and by today's standards he is equivalent to a forty year old in our time. Job is in the prime of his life. He is still young and vigorous. Except for his current disease of course, but we know that, that will go away very soon. And we know that Job is going to live another hundred and forty years.

Days fly by, years fly by, and life seemingly vanishes behind us even before we realize it.

Even with Jobs long life span, combined with the very slow pace of life in his day, he tells us that his life is flying by with the speed of the fastest messenger runners, with the speed of the fastest canoe style messenger boats, with the speed of the eagle swooping down on its prey.

And you most probably know this for yourself. If you are any age over ten, then ask yourself, 'Where did the years in the last half of my life, go?'

Today is now. That is obvious. But all of those yesterdays, just seem to have vanished without much effort.

Now we will add something to this study. How many more tomorrows do you have? Do you have one more tomorrow? Do you have ten-thousand more tomorrows?

You may think that you have all of the time in the world. But you don't. None of us will live forever in this world. That is our biggest limitation. We will all die one day.

If you were terminally ill, then what would your attitude be? What changes would you make in your life? And yet even though you may be in really good health, your days are still numbered right down to the very last breath that you will take. God alone knows when that will be.

Today drags on, and tomorrow is so far away. Next week, and next month are far in the distant future, and we often times yearn to get there for one reason or another. Perhaps we have something planned, or are going to graduate, or get married, or we are waiting on something important to come into our life.

Whatever the reason, the tomorrows seem so far off, and yet when they get here, 'Where did all that time go?'

We have our days on this earth, in this life, to prepare ourselves for the most phenomenal events to come, in our life. And is anyone preparing for that?

Well, most are not. They are watching the lives of others on television. They are wasting all of their valuable time now, watching the rest of the world bicker over this or that. They spend hours everyday in world oriented entertainment, and not even a few minutes on their most important life, their spiritual life.

Today the bickering will be one subject, and next week the subject will be something else, and next month the bickering will be something else. Do you remember, without looking them up, what the topics, and headlines, and television show content was last summer?

And so, life keeps on slipping by and we lose valuable preparation time which could have been used for our advancement in our spiritual life. Which remarkably takes only a few minutes out of our life, each day.

We cannot turn the clock backwards. We cannot undo all of our prior decisions.

Job tells us quite clearly here, 'time is very short.' But, do we believe it?

Will we do anything about it?

What we do, will demonstrate what our beliefs really are.

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