Job was a good and prosperous man. He was both rich and righteous — a rare combination. His family consisted of seven sons and three daughters. Everything seemed to be going his way.

Then everything went wrong. Thieves stole his work animals. Lightning struck his sheep. A tornado hit his house where his children were gathered for a party and they were killed. His health failed. His wife became so depressed that she suggested that he end it all.

It is well known that Job came through this tough time triumphantly. Being human, however, he did ask some honest questions. Let’s answer them.

QUESTION NUMBER ONE: “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean…” (Job 14:4).

ANSWER: God can. He specializes in it. We are all unclean. Yet Christ died for us and invites us to come for cleansing. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow… “ (Isaiah 1:18).

QUESTION NUMBER TWO: “…yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?” (Job 14:10).

ANSWER: If he is a Christian, he is in heaven. “We are confident, I say and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8).

QUESTION NUMBER THREE: “If a man die, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14).

ANSWER: Yes. He will be resurrected. For Christians, it will happen when Christ returns, and will bring blessing. “…the dead in Christ shall rise first” (I Thessalonians 4:16). The lost will be raised for judgment one thousand years later (Revelation 20:5).