THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Job: Submitting To God

B. Thinking Factually Under Duress

(Job 2:1-13; 3:1; 38:1-2)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

We continue to face conflicting claims by authorities on critically important issues that affect us, making it stressful for many to know how to handle it all! For example, "President Biden" recently "summoned the world's nations to forcefully address (sic) . . . the COVID-19 pandemic" and "climate change . . ." ("President Biden promises 'relentless diplomacy' to allies," Republican-American, September 22, 2021, p. 10A):

(1) Yet, we keep facing conflicting claims by authorities over the value of Covid-19 vaccinations themselves:

(a) Pope Francis recently told reporters that "(h)e couldn't understand why some people refuse to take COVID-19 vaccines . . . that serene discussion was necessary to help them." (Nicole Winfield, "Pope urges 'compassion,' not condemnation toward politicians," Ibid., September 17, 2021, p. 3B)

(b) However, "serene discussion" will not work with many people, for they see that authorities keep on clashing over the whole vaccine issue: (i) Dr. Herman Edeling, a neurosurgeon, claims, " . . . (A)fter administering the vaccine, for a period of 10 days or two weeks, there's a phenomenon of immune suppression . . . So, to allow people to be vaccinated in a time when there's a pandemic, when they are going to be exposed to the virus, is insane." (Nadya Swart, "'Vaccine deaths are being hidden, suppressed, and falsely recorded' -- Dr. Herman Edeling," September 15, 2021; biznews.com) Dr. Edeling added: "' . . . (T)he CDC has . . . a policy that anybody who dies within two weeks of [getting] the vaccine will not be recorded as a vaccine-related death, but . . . a Covid-related death . . . But . . . if you are given a substance which suppresses your immunity and during the . . . immunosuppression, you contract the disease and you die from the disease -- then that vaccine was the precipitating cause of death . . ." (Ibid.; brackets ours) Dr. Edeling believes that the spikes in covid infections and deaths that have been recorded after countries have received the vaccines are actually highly impacted by vaccine-related deaths! (Ibid.) (ii) Also, "(a)n influential federal advisory panel overwhelmingly rejected a plan . . . to give Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots to most Americans . . . Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts University," one panel member, "said he is worried about extra doses for younger age groups given the risk of heart inflammation that has been seen in mostly younger men after a second dose . . ." (Matthew Perrone and Lauran Neergaard, "Pfizer booster plan nixed," Republican-American, September 18, 2021, p. 1A)

(2) We also keep facing conflicting claims by various authorities on the ongoing "climate change" issue:

(a) Some Democrat lawmakers recently claimed that oil industry leaders have promoted "'climate change that is devastating American communities, costing taxpayers billions of dollars and ravaging the natural world.'" (Matthew Daly, "Democrats call oil giants to testify on climate change," Ibid., September 17, 2021, p. 7B)

(b) However, "physicist Steven E. Koonin" who served "as the senior scientist" in Democrat "President Barak Obama's Energy Department," in his book, "'Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters,'" cited "U. N. reports when saying 'human influences currently amount to only 1% of the energy that flows through the climate system.'" (George Will, "Days of climatic uncertainty," Ibid., August 12, 2021, p. 8A)

Need: So, we ask, "In continuing to face conflicting claims by authorities on critically important issues that affect us, making it stressful for many to know how to handle it all, what does God want us to do?!"

I. Job faced a second severe, stressful trial with no clarification from God on the trial itself, Job 2:1-8:

A. After God had let Satan take away all of Job's possessions in Job 1:1-22, the Lord spoke to Satan again, reporting that Job had still not cursed God, Job 2:1-3.

B. Satan replied that were God to afflict Job's body, Job would then curse the Lord to His face, Job 2:4-5.

C. God thus let Satan afflict Job's body, but He kept Satan from killing him, Job 2:6.

D. Satan then struck Job with a severe disease that covered his entire body (Job 2:7), making him itch intensely (Job 2:8) in great pain (Job 2:13). His flesh attracted worms and it became crusty and hard, oozing serum and turning darker (Job 7:5; 30:30). Job experienced a fever and aching bones (Job 30:17, 30), so he may have been stricken with leukemia of the skin or elephantiasis. (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, footnote to Job 2:7)

II. Job's wife told him to curse God and die, but he rebuked her and claimed that he should expect not only good from God but also trouble, Job 2:9-10b NIV. In all of this, Job STILL did not sin, Job 2:10c.

III. When Job's three friends visited him (Job 2:11-13) and began to converse with him (Job 3:1ff), what followed was many chapters in the book of human reasoning by the four with "exaggerated, untrue, and virtually blasphemous" statements, though Job never renounced God, Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Job 3:1.

IV. GOD finally spoke, critiquing Job for using "words without knowledge," Job 38:1-2! We explain:

A. Though we readers of the Book of Job know Job's trials were tests God allowed to prove a point to Satan, the tests required that God not tell Job and his associates the reasons for the tests, so Job and his associates knew nothing about those reasons, and under the duress of Job's trials, they voiced only ignorantly errant views!

B. God criticized their effort to rely on human reasoning under stress versus relying on a knowledge of the facts!

Lesson: Though Job did not renounce God when He let Satan strike him with a dreadful illness, under stress, Job, his wife and his three friends errantly tried to explain the trial out of ignorance instead of a knowledge of the facts.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Cor. 15:1-11. (2) Regardless of the stress we face due to what trials we keep facing in the world, GOD calls us to think and to speak about those trials out of a knowledge of the facts as HE views them!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

We address the ongoing, stress-inducing issues in our introduction by applying this sermon's lesson. To do so, we take Scripture passages we have already often used to address those issues, but dig deeper into their contexts for a FULLER KNOWLEDGE of the FACTS regarding those issues for a more SETTLED EDIFICATION (as follows):

(1) On the ongoing issue over COVID-19 vaccination, we have often cited even mainstream media sources like Newsweek and Science Magazine that acknowledge that aborted fetal cell tissue was used in developing and testing or in developing, producing and testing the vaccines available in the U. S. Thus, following the Exodus 21:22-23 teaching that abortion at any trimester is murder has led me and others to oppose Covid-19 vaccination.

However, digging deeper into the context of Exodus 21:22-23 clarifies how strongly one can take this stand! Exodus 21:12-13 asserts that if a man struck another man accidentally and the victim died, the man who struck the victim was not to be executed, but he could flee to a city of refuge, Exodus 21:13 with Numbers 35:10-11. However, Exodus 21:22-23 teaches that if a man fought another man and he accidentally struck a pregnant woman, causing her to abort her fetus, and the fetus died, the man who struck her was to be executed! (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 141) God thus expected men to be extremely careful around women to protect the unborn fetus that they might be carrying, meaning God is EXTREMELY opposed to abortion on demand! Regardless what man's authorities say about the Covid vaccines, from GOD'S view, a believer has the right STRONGLY to refuse such vaccines since they were developed from aborted fetal cell lines, and God is EXTREMELY opposed to abortion on demand!

(2) On the ongoing "climate change" issue, we have often cited Genesis 8:22 that counters "climate change" ideology. However, the context offers a more emphatic stand on the issue: (a) The Hebrew word 'od appears in the original Hebrew text of Genesis 8:21 (twice), 9:11 (twice) and 9:15 (once) with the adverbial meaning of "again" to assert repeatedly God's "not again" commitment never to destroy all human and animal life on earth with a universal Flood. (Kittel, Biblia Hebraica, p. 11-12; B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 728-729) (b) However, the Hebrew word 'od also appears once in Genesis 8:22 with the adverbial meaning of "still" (Ibid., Kittel, p. 11; Ibid., B. D. B.) to assert that as long as the earth "still [exists]," the seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night cycles would not cease. (c) Then, God instituted the sign of the rainbow in the cloud to certify His pledge not to destroy the world by a Flood again (Genesis 9:12-17), saying that He Himself would look upon the rainbow to recall this pledge (Genesis 9:16) so as to keep it. (d) Since the sign of the rainbow is joined in theme to the Genesis 8:22 promise on preserving the earth's cycles by the word 'od in the context, and since God promised to keep His gaze on the rainbow in the cloud in the atmosphere, He would be especially aware of the status of the atmosphere and how it might affect His keeping His promise on the earth's cycles of "cold and heat," etc. The earth's climate would have God's full attention! (g) Evidence of this comes from NASA: "Studies have shown higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide . . . boost crop yields . . . and they reduce the amount of water crops lose through transpiration . . ." ("NASA Study: Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels Will Help and Hurt Crops," May 3, 2016; nasa.gov) Increased carbon dioxide in the air caused even by an undue use of fossil fuels lets plant leaves open their stomata less to get carbon dioxide, so plants retain water better, increasing crop yields and saving more water for man, Ibid. Regardless what the authorities say about the climate, God will keep the earth a habitable planet!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life. May we respond to stressful trials by adopting Scripture's view for God's knowledge and peace.