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Job 27:20-22
20 Terrors [ballahah] take hold [nasag] on him as waters [mayim], a tempest [cuwphah] stealeth him away [ganab] in the night [layil].
21 The east [qadiym] wind carrieth him away [nasa'], and he departeth [yalak]: and as a storm hurleth [sa`ar] him out of his place [maqowm].
22 For God shall cast [shalak] upon him, and not spare [chamal]: he would fain [barach] flee [barach] out of his hand [yad]. KJV-Interlinear
20 'Terrors overtake him like a flood; A tempest steals him away in the night. 21 'The east wind carries him away, and he is gone, For it whirls him away from his place. 22 'For it will hurl at him without sparing; He will surely try to flee from its power. NASB
If you can imagine yourself standing on a tall mountain, then a powerful wind comes along and literally sweeps you off your feet. Or imagine yourself standing on a beach, then a huge tsunami wave comes along and washes you away.
Before each of these powers, you are totally helpless.
And yet Job describes your action in the last portion of verse 22. You try as you might, but the power which is against you is too much.
Today we might use the phrase steamroller, Mac truck, or tank, to describe a helpless person who is being run over and flattened like a pancake.
The power, the machine, the force which has set itself against you is greater than you, and you have no power or control against it. You can kick, and scream, and fight, but the wind, the water, the machine, the superior power overwhelms you and your struggle is a lost cause.
And one more thing to note here, is that this force being used against you comes with great violence, and with great terror.
And such is the description of death for the wicked person.
It all happens in an instant. Death, when it comes, is instantaneous. Certainly the process of dying might be drawn out, but the moment when you die, when in that instant when your soul leaves your body, then in that moment the terror and the helplessness strikes. And it strikes with great force and violence.
This applies to people who have ignored their spiritual life, during their life.
As for believers who have grown up at least a little bit, then the death process is pleasant on the other side of death.
As for believers who have not grown up, death is terror filled, for that instant after death, then they are before the Lord, with no more sorrow, no more tears, etc.
Unbelievers face death in that instant, in great terror, and then it only gets worse, and worse, and worse, and worse, and worse - forever……
These three verses describe the terrors and violence of death, and ones helplessness in that process.
People who are indifferent toward their spiritual life, usually have an ego that far exceeds their true power over the events of their life - much to their surprise.
In death, God trumps their arrogance with a powerful reality, and a permanent one. From death, there is no return. From death, there are no do-over's.
In life, you have all of the opportunities necessary to get your life together. If you fail spiritually, then you have only yourself to blame.
