Death-bed conscience

[Job 14:10] But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
Death will come, and that its hour is already fixed. Now here he shows, man has no such prospect of a return to life. The vegetable life is a cheap and easy thing: the scent of water will recover it. The animal life, in some insects and fowls, is so: the heat of the sun retrieves it. But the rational soul, when once retired, is too great, too noble, a thing to be recalled by any of the powers of nature; it is out of the reach of sun or rain, and cannot be restored but by the immediate operations of Omnipotence itself; Man is a dying creature. He is here described by what occurs,
1. Before death: he wastes away; he is continually wasting, dying daily, spending upon the quick stock of life. Sickness and old age are wasting things to the flesh, the strength, and the beauty.
2. In death: he gives up the ghost; the soul leaves the body, and returns to G-d who gave it, the Father of spirits.
3. After death: It has gone to the world of spirits, gone into eternity, gone to return no more to this world.
[12] So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
Revelation clearly teaching that the souls of believers go to heaven when they die (2 Cor. 5:1, 6, 8; Phil. 1:21, 23.) This doesgive us a divinely inspired insight into the heart of Job as he searched and longed for such knowledge.
That yet there will be a return of man to life again in another world, at the end of time, they shall awake and be raised out of their sleep. The resurrection of the dead was doubtless an article of Job's creed.
[13] O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Hide me in the grave! - The grave is not only a resting-place, but also a hiding-place, to the people of G-d. G-d has the key of the grave, to let in now and to let out at the resurrection. Hide me, not only from the storms and troubles of this life, but for the bliss and glory of a better life
Until thy wrath be past - As long as the bodies of the saints lie in the grave, so long there are some remains of that wrath which they were by nature children of, so long they are under some of the effects of sin; but, when the body is raised, it is wholly past - death, the last enemy, will then be totally destroyed.
My being remembered - The bodies of the saints shall not be forgotten in the grave. There is a time appointed, a time set, for their being enquired after. We cannot be sure that we shall look through the darkness of our present troubles but we may with an eye of faith look through the darkness of that, as Job here, and see better days on the other side of it, in a better world.
[14] If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
He believed in a future resurrection and restoration. See also 19:25-27, a holy resolution patiently to attend the will of G-d both in his death and his resurrection.
My appointed time - literally, "warfare, hard service"; implying the hardship of being shut out from the realms of life, light, and G-d for the time he shall be in the grave.
I wait, till my change come - Job's friends proving miserable comforters, he set himself to be the more his own comforter. The release, as a soldier at his post released from duty by the relieving guard. The time of life is an appointed time; that time is to be reckoned by days; and those days are to be spent in waiting for our change. That is, First, We must expect that it will come, and think much of it. Secondly, We must desire that it would come, as those that long to be with G-d. Thirdly, We must be willing to tarry until it does come, as those that believe G-d's time to be the best. Fourthly, We must give diligence to get ready against it comes, that it may be a blessed change to us.
[15] Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.
Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee - Then, that is, at the resurrection, "Thou shalt call me out of the grave, by the voice of the archangel, and I will answer and come at the call." The body is the work of G-d's hands, and He will have a desire to that, having prepared a glory for it.
The work of Thy hands - Thou hast mercy in store for me, not only as made by Thy providence, but new-made by Thy grace;" otherwise He that made them will not save them. Grace in the soul is the work of G-d's own hands, and therefore He will not forsake it in this world (Psalms 138:8), but will have a desire to it, to perfect it in the other, and to crown it with endless glory.
It is objected that if Job knew of a future retribution, he would make it the leading topic in solving the problem of the permitted afflictions of the righteous. But, he did not intend to exceed the limits of what was clearly revealed; the doctrine was then in a vague form only; and the doctrine of G-d's moral government in this life, even independently of the future, needed vindication.]
[16] For now thou numberest my steps: dost thou not watch over my sin?
Numbered my steps – that is, minutely attend to them, that they may not wander (1Sam. 2:9; Ps 37:23).
Watch over my sin - old scores are called over, every infirmity is animadverted upon, every word, deed and gesture is to be accounted for if it was not repented of and put under the blood.[17] My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.
Sealed up - Is shut up in eternal oblivion, that is, G-d thenceforth will think no more of my former sins. To cover sins is to completely forgive them (Ps 32:1; 85:2
Sewest up - rather, "coverest"; akin to an Arabic word, "to color over," to forget wholly.
G-d does indeed seal and sew up, against the day of wrath, the transgression of the impenitent, but the repented sins of His people He blots out as a cloud.
[20] Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth: thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.
Prevailest for ever against him - Man is an unequal match for G-d. Whom G-d contends with he will certainly prevail against. The stroke of death is irresistible; it is to no purpose to dispute its summons.
Changest his countenance - Death changes the countenance, the countenance, which was majestic and awful, becomes mean and despicable - that was lovely and amiable becomes ghastly and frightful.
Sendest him away - out of this world, gives us one dismission hence, never to return.
[21] His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.
When he is in the hands of the harbingers of death, how little one is concerned in the affairs of their family, which once lay so near their heart. One is going to that world where they will be a perfect stranger to all those things which here filled and affected them. The consideration of this should moderate our cares concerning our children and families. G-d will know what comes of them when we are gone. To Him therefore let us commit them, with Him let us leave them, and not burden ourselves with needless fruitless cares concerning them.
[22] But his flesh upon him shall have pain, and his soul within him shall mourn.
"Flesh" and "soul" describe the whole man
The body one is so loth to lay down: it shall have pain; and while their soul is within them, that is, the spirit we is so loth to resign, it shall mourn. Note, Dying work is hard work; dying pangs are, commonly, sore pangs. It is folly therefore for men to defer their repentance to a death-bed, and to have that to do which is the one thing needful when they are really unfit to do any thing: but it is true wisdom by making our peace with G-d and keeping a good conscience, to treasure up comforts which will support and relieve us against the pains and sorrows of a dying hour.
People panic when one talks about death, but I say “oh death were is thy sting, oh grave were is thy victory! To be out of the body is to be present with the Father! May I go peacefully with a good conscience.”