The Great Question
Job 14:10
But man dies, and wastes away: yes, man gives up the ghost, and where is he?


I. THE SOLEMN SCENE WHICH IS BEFORE US.

1. Man giveth up the ghost, not by an option, but by an obligation; not by a deed at will, but by the stern and just necessity of law. The surrender of life in the blessed Jesus was an option. But man gives up the ghost, and there is a Divine will in that surrender, a surrender which is resistless when that will makes it so. Death is just the absence of life — and what a mysterious thing is life! I do not stop to show that man has a ghost, an immaterial and immortal spirit. One's own consciousness contradicts the materialist, and the Bible is in harmony with what one observes in nature, and human consciousness teaches.

2. The manner of the surrender is uncertain. Though its occurrence is mysterious, its actual occurrence is certain. There is but one mode of entering life, but there are a thousand methods of leaving it.

II. THE INQUIRY OF ANXIOUS AFFECTION WHEN THE SCENE IS OVER. "Where is he?"

1. Death brings a change of condition, never a change of character.

2. Though death is a change of condition, it is not a change of companionship. The same style of company it is a pleasure to him to keep on earth, a man must expect to keep in eternity.

(C. J. P. Eyre, A. M.)



Parallel Verses
KJV: But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

WEB: But man dies, and is laid low. Yes, man gives up the spirit, and where is he?




Man is a Dying Creature
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