Some Thoughts on Current Events

La Noche Oscura del Alma

Soledad del sufrimiento

(La noche oscura del alma)

Job, Capítulo 3 Del mensaje del 25 de Agosto de 2021

Hay momentos en los que Dios parece estar presente y hay momentos en los que se siente lejos; la gente pasa por esto cuando experimenta una gran pérdida. Algunos de inmediato, otros cuando se percibe la realidad de la pérdida.

Jaime Martinez. Piloto, capitán de Aeroperlas. Su apodo era El Cura, "El Sacerdote". Había ido a un seminario católico. El hombre era un placer lleno de bromas y siempre engañando al resto de pilotos. Cualquier cosa que dijeras se convertiría en una broma.

Su hija, Scarlett, de 20 años de edad, había sido contratada por la aerolínea como Primera Oficial. En marzo del 2000, ella, junto con otro buen amigo, el capitán Claudio Fernández, se estrelló contra el pico de una montaña cerca de su destino. Todos a bordo murieron.

La búsqueda duró cinco días debido al terreno. Al principio, las autoridades pensaron que el avión podría haber sido secuestrado por los colombianos. Cuando finalmente nos llegó la noticia, Jaime pasó de ser él mismo, una vida de alegría, a vivir una noche oscura del alma, a vivir Job capítulo 3.

Hay algunas cosas que deberían considerarse aquí antes de que digamos algo que suene remotamente como una crítica o un reproche.

Las cosas que dice Job son bastante sorprendentes, si no impactantes por decir lo mínimo: Job maldice el día de su nacimiento.

Desde el versículo 11 en adelante hay un lamento en toda regla; estalla una batalla total de fe: su creencia en Dios; en lo que Él es - 11 "¿Por qué no morí al nacer, salí del útero y expire?

Job habla de la vida como miseria - Versículo 20, “¿Por qué se le da luz al que está en la miseria, y vida al amargado de alma… V24, Porque viene mi suspiro en lugar de mi pan, y mis gemidos son derramados como agua? (¿Lágrimas de angustia?) Versículo 25, Porque lo que temo me sobreviene, y lo que temo me sucede.

C. S. Lewis escribió sobre la pérdida de su esposa - Sintió que cuál es el punto de todo; la vida es como un espejismo: se nos dice que habrá sufrimiento y dolor. Eso bendijo a todos los que nutren. Lo acepto, dice, pero es diferente cuando le sucede a uno mismo y no a otros.

¿Qué hacemos con este capítulo oscuro tan triste? Una vez más, es como el último versículo del Salmo 88: la oscuridad se había convertido en mi única compañera.

Esto es parte de la Palabra infalible de Dios - Pablo le dice a Timoteo Toda la Escritura es inspirada por Dios y útil para enseñar, para redargüir, para corregir y para instruir en justicia, 17 para que el hombre de Dios sea completo, equipado para todo buen trabajo. (2 Timoteo 3:16) -

Dios exhaló y el resultado es Job Capítulo 3, parte de la Palabra infalible de Dios útil para enseñar, para redargüir, para corregir y para instruir en justicia.

Este capítulo es como un chaleco salvavidas en un barco o en un avión. Espero que nunca tengas que usarlo, pero está ahí por si acaso. Nunca he estado en el capítulo 3, espero que no conozca a nadie, de hecho, alguien alguna vez estará allí.

Pero algunos de los hijos de Dios han estado allí. Uno de los hombres más piadosos de la tierra ha sido: Job

Necesitamos ser sensibles a lo que otros creyentes experimentan; es posible que nunca experimentemos nada parecido a esto. Pero antes de que hagamos CUALQUIER comentario JUDICIAL de otros, sepa que otros creyentes, verdaderos cristianos, han estado en lugares oscuros.

Nuestro Dios es un Dios soberano, ¡eso es tan cierto! ¡Pero! ¡Él también es compasivo! Su Hijo sabía lo que era estar en un lugar oscuro; no pronunció estas palabras precisas, pero estaba en un lugar triste y oscuro en el Huerto de Getsemaní.

Job 3 es un lamento. Puedes ver mi mensaje del 15 de agosto en Youtube ...

Estos días son oscuros para todos ... Le guste o no, Biden se enfrenta a una Noche Oscura del Alma.

Salmo 88:18 ".... La oscuridad es mi mejor amiga". --- Pablo escribe en 1 Timoteo 2: 1-2, “. . . En primer lugar, que se hagan peticiones, oraciones, intercesión y acción de gracias por todas las personas, por los reyes y todos los que están en autoridad, para que podamos vivir una vida pacífica y tranquila en toda piedad y santidad ”.

We have an advocate with the Father. 1 John 2:1

V.33, There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both. 34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me. 35 Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself.

Job isn’t looking for a savior, someone to forgive him his sins - He wants a lawyer - Now you can go from here to the New Testament yes, but that’s not the point here. He wants someone who can plead his case, his innocence.

Think of a teenager who is tired of being picked on unfairly; of someone whose life is filled with darkness and loneliness, uncertainty; a family who is trying to pick up the pieces after their teenage son or daughter has taken their own life.

Bruised Reeds, Broken Flax. Here I say we have a savior who heals the broken hearted - not one who forgives our sins; Yes he does that, yes. That isn’t the point here, the issue. Job wants someone who can argue his case before God - Represent him before God.

Jesus does that - He's been there, in all the places where there seemed to be no justice; where violence was done to Him --  Where He cried out ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?

He has seen the brutality, the injustice of the world & He can therefore represent your case. He can, He will hear you when you cry-out to Him - 

When you seem to have lost all hope in this world, know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1

How Not To Comfort Believers, Job 4 - 7

How Not to Comfort Believers

Job 4, 5, 6, 7      

                                                                                                            Aug. 22, 2021

                                                 

Introduction

We’re going to start with chapter 4 and browse through 5, 6, and 7. How not to comfort believers, For that matter, believers and non-believers ---- I learned an idiom, saying from pastor Bill Boseman of Springhill ---- this past Monday at lunch ---- Given to him by an African American preacher ---- ‘You can’t talk about what you ain’t done; You can’t come from where you ain’t been.’

We meet Eliphaz and his contribution -- Some believe that this is first to be mentioned because he’s the oldest -- Later in 15:9 & 10 he’s older than Job’s father -- What do you know that we don't? What do you understand that we do not? 10 On our side are aged, gray-haired men much older than your father!

He’s long winded, one commentator called him a wind-bag, and claims divine visitations and when someone claims that you pay attention….. He’s got all this nailed down as to why Job is suffering. 

In a Peanuts cartoon Charlie Brown says that there’s one thing you get out of life - You reap what you sow - no more, no less - Snoopy then says, I’d like a little margin for error - 

Eliphaz is among those people who go with the thought that there’s a law of nature in the universe that you reap what you sow. 

Well, Job’s friends have been with him for a week, seven days and nights in silence listening to Job’s lament, his dark night of the soul in chapter 3 .. Now Eliphaz speaks Beginning v. 2 of chapter. 4 - "If one ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? Yet who can keep from speaking? 3 Behold, you have instructed many, and you have strengthened the weak hands. 4 Your words have upheld him who was stumbling, and you have made firm the feeble knees. 5 But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed. 6 Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? 7 "Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? 8 As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same.

‘Whatever it was you did has come back to bite you.’ Job, you reap what you sow; what you put in life, that’s what you’re going to get out. 

People prefer to use the Hindu / Buddhist term, ‘Karma’ - destiny or fate follows one around as the effect of a cause. Pal, you’re responsible for your actions, your lifestyle. If we had the time I could stand here and give examples of many whom I knew … Eliphaz here, is implying that Job has sinned. He may have sinned a ‘small sin’, or a ‘big sin’ - one that he forgot about - one way or another he sinned and this is the consequence.

We imply the same to and of others. 

From a philosophical and or theological view Job’s reaping what he’s sown. Whatever it was has come back to bite. In 5:6-7,  6 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground, 7 but man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. You can use this text, just like many other and build a sermon around it, but here in this context, Eliphaz is saying that things don’t just happen. V6 For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground,... Afflictions don’t come out of nowhere; there’s a reason! - you reap what you sow. You do get from life what you put into it. 

What do we make out of this principle? As a way of understanding Job’s predicament? Remember, he has lost all his wealth, his ten children, and now his health. He’s in a wasting disease. --

Well, we could say it is partly true that you reap what you sow. Gal. 6:7, Don’t be deceived, God's not mocked. What a man sows that he will reap. Do something, there will be a consequence - Cause & effect. 

This debacle in Afghanistan we’re in. The six P’s. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Then there’s the way this nation has turned from the Lord and embraced all things ungodly. Romans 1-- the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, who suppress the truth. 

The reason for God manifesting His wrath against men? Sin. The manifestations of His wrath is a reflective reaction  of His holiness.

In 2 Samuel 6. The Ark of the Covenant was being brought back to Jerusalem from the house of Abinadab. They put on a cart pulled by some oxen, and when they get to the threshing floor of Nacon, they must of hit a pothole on the road and the cart tipped, so to keep the Ark from falling off Uzzah put his hand up to hold it steady and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God. Wow! What do we make of that? Did he deserve that? Well, everything they did with the Ark was wrong.. God had given Moses and Aaron specific instructions about the Tent of Meeting and the movement of the Ark of the Covenant. "After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites are to come to do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the Tent of Meeting” (Numbers 4:15). No matter how innocently it was done, touching the ark was in direct violation of God’s law and was to result in death. This was a means of preserving the sense of God’s holiness and the fear of drawing near to Him without appropriate preparation. 

That’s the O/T. How about the N/T? Would this principle hold? Acts 5: 4-7; Ananias & Sapphira. This is the early N/T church when many members would sell part or all of their belongings to support the early church. This isn’t continued now but part of the early church in Jerusalem. 

These two tell a white lie about the value of their property when they fill out their membership forms - We may think that it wasn’t a serious sin - Yet God strikes one dead and three hours later strikes the other dead. This is still within the memory of Pentecost. It’s a principle of reading what you sow - instant retribution. They lied to the Holy Spirit - That’s what Eliphaz is saying - God is angry, He visits by sending trial, retribution.

The non-christian doesn’t accept this - but we do, it’s acceptable in the Biblical world view that there are consequences for our actions.

Paul writes to the Corinthians concerning the Lord's Supper that they should examine themselves so when partaking of communion one is Christ centered and Gospel centered. He reminds them and us as in 1 Corinthians 10 & 11 that some have died, are sick, as punishment from God. 11:28-31-- Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.

The world doesn’t believe this. The President doesn’t, neither does the Speaker of the House. They may be Roman Catholic, but it is still communion, the Lord's Supper, they mock God.

Well, the Bible teaches this, the inerrant Word of God.

Now, having said that, here’s the most important question we can ask. Why did Jesus die? He was without sin, He was sinless, He never violated the Law. Why is it right then that Jesus should die? Isn’t death the wages of sin? There’s the principle again; you reap what you sow. You sin, you reap death; sin pays its wages - death….

So, why did Jesys die? There are two answers. 1). There just isn’t any justice in the world. You can expect to live perfectly & death will still get you - 2). The other answer is the gospel, the reason Jesus died: 2 Cor. 5:21 -- He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Now I have heard that Jesus just paid the price, was punished on our behalf - But it says right here, He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, Omit the words to be inside the brackets they are added to make sense. If it reads as originally it should be made Him who knew no sin, sin on our behalf. 

He deserved to die --- at the point where he died he was considered to be sin- Luther said He becomes the greatest & only sinner, He is bearing the sins of the whole world. God imputed, assigned, layed on, pinned on, stuck all the world's sins on Jesus. Therefore, at that very moment that occurred He deserved death. So the principle of Eliphaz is partially right. You reap what ya sow.

But that principle is also partially wrong, it is incorrect. In John 9, remember, we have the born blind - we mentioned this before - the disciples asked who had sinned? What are they inferring? Who sinned? Someone had to sin, that’s the reason for the blindness - The parents or the man & so God’s judgment was the result. But Jesus’ answer was neither, but so God’s works can be manifest, and then Jesus heals the man. So this story becomes a great teaching tool for others.

Paul in 2 Cor.12:7, the thorn in the flesh - He prays, requests three times for that malady to be removed. We don’t know what it was just that Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me to keep me from exalting myself! There is no indication that it was a punishment from God.

Take Hebrews 12:6 the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." This chastising, can we call it  tough love? Yes He does But here in Job 4.

But, Eliphaz, in 4:7 -- Remember: who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were the upright cut off? His implication is that Job isn’t innocent. Job and his protestations of his innocence he’s beginning to suspect it --Job’s response - 6: 14 -21 -- "He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. 15 My brothers are treacherous as a torrent-bed, as torrential streams that pass away, 16 which are dark with ice, and where the snow hides itself. 17 When they melt, they disappear; when it is hot, they vanish from their place. 18 The caravans turn aside from their course; they go up into the waste and perish. 19 The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope. 20 They are ashamed because they were confident; they come there and are disappointed. 21 For you have now become nothing; you see my calamity and are afraid. And so on --- 

Job is saying Eliphaz is like a storm that comes & goes - it’s here and then disappears - Eliphaz talks a lot - like a wind bag, confident about himself.

He isn’t any help really -- It's a parody of Psalm 8, the NLT --  what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? (V4).

Chapter 7 verse 19 -21, the end of Jobs' response to God, let’s look at it -- He says Why won't you leave me alone, at least long enough for me to swallow! 20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? (As though He has marked him) Am I a burden to you? 21 Why not just forgive my sin and take away my guilt? For soon I will lie down in the dust and die. When you look for me, I will be gone."

It’s like a child that runs away from home. Some go through this because they think times are hard so pack a little bag and look at the mother as if to say I’m going, you’ll miss me when I’m gone. Then after a bit someone will go to the corner or the tree fort and tell them it's time to go home. That’s what Job is saying… You’ll miss me when I’m gone? 

Job is taking Eliphaz’s contribution who has a real simple view of life. Black & white…. Easy to understand; no question marks, no gray areas. Everything fits into his worldview…. Suffering is punishment, always, without exceptions.

That’s partly right -- It is sometimes. If you sin willfully, you’ll suffer the consequences - No point in complaining about it. You contract a disease from a particular lifestyle that’s contrary to the Word of God you’ll reap what you sow. A sexualy transmitted disease, an addiction to alcohol, drugs. Addiction to gambling. The problems that are developed. You have only yourself to blame.

Well, there’s compassion, Christin love, forgiveness. All of that. But you can’t say why is all this, whatever the situation, happening to me? Why is life so unfair? Well, you’ve lived a life of debauchery, gambling, wasting it all. You have a disease, an illness from your drinking, your actions. You have to own up to it.

What if you contracted a disease through a blood transfusion, or when in the womb you inherited your mothers addiction, you’re born with a mental disorder, a malformation? ….. You had nothing to do with that. One is innocent, the other isn’t. Well, life is more complicated than what Eliphaz is saying here. It’s not always black and white. Well we’ll see this in a little more detail later.

But here now what can we learn from the comment of Eliphaz? A couple of things ---

One, A well intentioned counselor can be wrong - That is Christians, preachers even, can be wrong - They can be well meaning, well intentioned but can be wrong.

They can come in with an analysis & be way astray - like Eliphaz. How do you know? God says so. We were told in the prologue chapter 1 & 2 that Job was blameless--a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. That was the function of the prologue. He was a godly man & the reason for his suffering is not his sin.

The Other, God’s ways are definitely not Our Way. We’ll unravel this as we go through the book. 

His thoughts aren’t our thoughts. Does Job have an answer to the question, Why? No he doesn’t. Eliphaz hasn’t provided an answer, and Job hasn’t come to a full realization. Job is walking in the path of discovering that God’s way aren’t his ways and God’s thoughts aren’t his thoughts. 

He ends with “you’ll be sorry when I’m gone”... He’s talking to the Lord God now, and stopped listening to Eliphaz.

He’s taken his troubles, as pitiful as they are and laid them at the feet of almighty God.

 

Afghanistan in Prophecy

Giving Warning

The Price for Fighting God

     The Bible, all 66 books, are inspired by God, "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (2 Tim. 3:16) -- 

    In Deuteronomy 28:15-20 we are instructed..."if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. 20 "The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me."

    Have we forsaken Him? Yes we have, especially the President who has been mocking God, turning against all that the Lord has commanded and in addition to being a "practicing Christian"(Roman Catholic)we see verses 25-20 as being sent out by the Lord as he said He would do.

Can this be turned? Yes it can. By him and the nation repenting, turning back to the Lord God.

Responsive Reading and Prayer "Psalm 34:1-8