Job has helped others in distress, where is anyone to assist
him? His misery is real and unrelenting,
there is no hope for him. His friends
have accused him of wrongdoing as the basis for this situation rather than
empathizing with his plight. The Lord is
so distant as to not respond to Job's cries and his mind has become fixed on
the problem, he cannot get relief physically, mentally or spiritually from his
pain. He is trapped in his misery and no
one will help. I know that this is God
working but it seems horrible to have all this pain and into the bargain complete
silence from God while at the same time these friends who purport to speak for
God into the situation. Job didn't
deserve this but until we get rid of the idea of deserving we will never see
things right in this world.
What does Jesus mean, “This illness does not
lead to death." It most certainly
does and he knows that. Obviously we are
back at Genesis with respect to death.
God's definition of death and ours aren't exactly the same are
they? If you are truly dead then you
don't come back to life again but everyone is clear that Lazarus, from a human
perspective, died. Jesus says that this
is part of His personal glorification.
What He said here must have been remarkably confusing to the disciples
but John doesn't give us any details that show they asked Him what in the world
He meant by those words. We do, however,
get the details of the conversation later when Jesus, for the third time in the
Gospel, decides to do what He had previously said He wouldn't do. (See the wedding at Cana in John 2 and the
decision to go up to the festival in John 7)
Now, He says Lazarus has died. I
thought He said it didn't lead to death.
Dying and death are different issues, one is temporary and the other
eternal.
The Jews from Antioch and Iconium don't want
Paul to preach the Gospel anywhere, believing he is a deceiver. They come to Lystra and stone him and take
the body out of the city in the belief he is dead. After the disciples gather round him, he
revives and goes back to the city then to Derbe and then, unbelievably, he and
Barnabas go back to Antioch and Iconium, the very places the people came from
to stone him. Do we allow ourselves to
be defeated too easily? Do we give up
when it is difficult and face trials and tribulations or are we so devoted to
the glory of God that we are willing to persevere through it all as Paul was?
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