Job 14:7-12. Job is lamenting death. He says trees have hope, even when they have been cut to a stump and have lain dormant they can regrow at the mere scent of water. But not so man, who "dies and is laid low... man lies down and rises not again; till the heavens are no more he will not awake, or be roused out of his sleep."

Job says that man rises not again, but then, by saying "till the heavens are no more he will not awake," Job is in fact acknowledging that man will be resurrected at the end of time. That is, Job knows that man will have life again at the end of all things. So what he is lamenting is the time that man must pass in death, that time seems like eternity and it seems like the trees have it much better since they can regrow after being cut down here on earth. What Job is really asking for is another chance here on earth, like the trees get, but he's missing the point that man actually gets a chance at eternal life with God.

This is so human. We know this earth, this life. We know the joys it has to give us, along with the sufferings, and we don't want to let it go, even for something we are promised will be infinitely better! But God really does know better than us. He wants us to be a joyful communion with him for all of eternity. He does not want us constantly being cut down, and resprouting, only to be cut down again. That will never bring us joy, and in fact would get rather tiresome, to say the least.

Only eternal life with God will bring us joy. That is what we had at the beginning, and then there was no death. Sin brought death into the world. We can look at earthly death as a gift in that it is the birth into the promise of eternity.