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What does Job 14:4 mean by "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean..."?



      

Job 14:4

ESV - 4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? There is not one.

Clarify Share Report Asked August 26 2013 Mini Anonymous

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B8c746f3 63c7 43eb 9665 ef7fba8e191b Kelli Trujillo Supporter Loving Wife, Mother, Grandmother, Teacher, Musician
The context of this entire passage is a lament by Job regarding the limitations and the futility of man regarding his own destiny and the ability to save himself from the ultimate fate: death.

It is also part of a long discourse spanning several chapters in which Job is entreating God to withdraw His hand of punishment from Job. Part of his argument for his own case is to remind God of how powerless Job is against the powers of God. 

As we know, it was not the hand of God that caused Job's afliction, but the hand of Satan, which God allowed. Job realizes this at the end of the book of Job, when God speaks to him and then restores double to him all that had been lost.

August 27 2013 1 response Vote Up Share Report


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Mini Meluleki Maphosa Supporter
(Job 14:4)  Nothing clean can ever come from anything as unclean as human beings.(GNB). 

Job is simply admitting that of ourselves we can do nothing good. Our righteousness is like filthy rags. 
(Zec 3:3)  Joshua was standing there, wearing filthy clothes.

(Zec 3:4)  The angel said to his heavenly attendants, "Take away the filthy clothes this man is wearing." Then he said to Joshua, "I have taken away your sin and will give you new clothes to wear."

(Zec 3:5)  He commanded the attendants to put a clean turban on Joshua's head. They did so, and then they put the new clothes on him while the angel of the LORD stood there.

(Zec 3:6)  Then the angel told Joshua that

(Zec 3:7)  the LORD Almighty had said: "If you obey my laws and perform the duties I have assigned you, then you will continue to be in charge of my Temple and its courts, and I will hear your prayers, just as I hear the prayers of the angels who are in my presence.

(Zec 3:8)  Listen then, Joshua, you who are the High Priest; and listen, you fellow priests of his, you that are the sign of a good future: I will reveal my servant, who is called The Branch!

August 28 2013 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Jeff3 Jeff Hammond Supporter
The same principle on clean and unclean is discussed in Haggai. The clean cannot make the unclean clean, but the unclean can make the clean unclean, Haggai 2:11-14. In other words a mixture is never acceptable. God wants a holy people and thankfully He has given us the Holy Spirit to make that possible. He gave the command but only in His power can it be processed in us, 2Corinthians 3:18;  1 Peter 1:15-16.

August 28 2013 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini Sarah Newcomb Supporter
It means garbage in, garbage out to put it bluntly. If your holy on the inside you'll be holy on the outside, if your unholy on the inside you won't be able to look like your holy on the outward. You might try but eventually who you really are on the inside will come out.  It's important for us to be real. Not to be fake. It all boils down to holiness.

It has different meanings though. Yes we are born into sin and we needed a redeemer which is why God was manifested into flesh. He came so that we could be cleansed. When He cleanses us, when we obey His word, and are filled with His spirit, that's when holiness forms and that's when holiness takes hold on our lives. We are to be holy like Him.

August 27 2013 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Mini tee miller Supporter
Bc of sin we're automatically unclean. God looks deep within us and see that we've been washed by the blood of Jesus. I kno Jesus didn't walk the earth back then but that's how I look at that question now for us today. We're unclean bc of sin but yet we're clean bc we've been washed by the blood of Jesus the Christ....

August 28 2013 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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Stringio Tornado Wolf Supporter
when I read this I thought instantly about the wine flasks.. new wine can not be in old wine flasks or it will be tainted and ruined.. and when we accept Christ how can we fill ourselves with the world for we are made righteous in Him.. we are holy as He is.. we are His temple..He lives in us.. but until we accept Him and the cross and all He has done for us ,even tho we don't deserve it, we can not ever be clean . We were born in sin.. and Jesus took all of our sin making us clean.

August 28 2013 0 responses Vote Up Share Report


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