WEEKLY SUNDAY
SCHOOL LESSON
An international
Sunday school lesson commentary
For
Sunday October 12, 2014
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readers worldwide
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CONFIDENT
OF REDEMPTION
(Place
your confidence in GOD’s redemption)
(Job
19)
We must be careful to remember that all people
suffer, quite frankly, because all people sin in the eyes of GOD. Don’t look
now, but, the greatest suffering in the world comes to those who insist on
living without GOD. We often think or say that life is not fair, but we never
stop to take into consideration that we look at life, through an unclean, bias
mirror, that clearly and generally favors our own side, or position.
In the biblical Greek, the word used for “world” is “Kosmos”, and
it is from that word that we derive our English word “cosmos”. In the spiritual
sense, it is “that complex intertwining of sinful desires that shape our world
of “lost” humanity”. When we live in this world, we are subject to its sinful
fallout, sometimes due to our own sin, and sometimes due to the sins of others.
However GOD uses our failures and imperfections to strengthen our character and
move us closer to HIM, even while we are yet sinning in this world.
GOD chooses to allow it to rain on both, the “just”, and the
“unjust” at the same time, and it is even possible for a person living without
GOD to do “a right thing”. However, it is not possible for them to continue
doing right things, neither on an ongoing, nor, regular basis. On the other
hand, it is also possible for a person, who, for the most part, serves GOD
seriously, to do “a wrong thing”. The good news, however, is that, it is not
likely that they will continue to make bad decisions all the time. Still
further, there are evil people in the world who experience “good fortune” (Job
21:7-18), and there are good people in the world who experience “bad fortunes”
in life.
The average person, oftentimes, does not grasp how their sin, not
only affects their personal spiritual, emotional and physical life, but also,
the spiritual, emotional, and physical lives of others. Every sin that we
commit affects, not only us, but also, always affects someone else, when all is
said and done.
As human beings, because of our disobedience to GOD’s laws and
instructions, we have long been destined to live in a world filled with death,
sickness, and decay. However, thanks to the same merciful GOD that we
perpetually disobey, man does not have to settle for “just living in the
world”, we all have the option to choose to live, in and through, JESUS CHRIST,
WHO is the “SAVIOR of the world”. However, when and if, we do choose to follow
CHRIST, we are still not exempt from the trials and tests of everyday life.
In Job chapter 19 verses 1-6, Job cries out in the pain of his
humiliation, and we can almost sense that he is beginning to see the light as
to what is really happening to him. In verses 5-6 we see what can be viewed as
a “spiritual awakening”, or “spiritual breakthrough” in Job. Here Job states
that, “You are trying to overcome me,
using my humiliation (emotional pain)
as evidence of my sin” (a familiar trick of satan’s). But it is GOD WHO has wronged me (“tested me”). I cannot defend myself (I cannot defend myself before GOD –
“For all are guilty and fall short of the glory of GOD”-Romans 3:23), for I am like a city under siege” (NLT).
In Job 19:25-27, Job
gives us the earliest biblical mention of the “resurrection concept”, when he
states,
“As for me, I know that my redeemer lives, and that he will stand
upon the earth in the last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I
will see GOD! I will see HIM for myself. Yes, I will see HIM with my own eyes.
And I am overwhelmed at the thought” (NLT).
By choosing and accepting GOD’s help, we don’t have to be
overwhelmed by the effects of past sins (our emotions), nor by the chances and
changes of this life, nor by a “fear” of what will happen to us in the future.
Now we can, at anytime we choose, enter into a right relationship with GOD, and
begin looking beyond this world to HIM, being powered by the HOLY SPIRIT,
through JESUS CHRIST.
Each of us has experienced what we deem as “unfairness”, which we,
at times, cannot explain. In these times, a study of the book of Job offers
insight, and stimulates hope. The difficulty in setting the time and place of
the events of the Book of Job is irrelevant because its timeless and universal
message transcends the ages.
Job serves to remind us of that great truth, that, despite our
lack of knowledge, and, of why certain misfortunes befall us, we can, and must,
trust GOD in all that we aspire to do in life. The “life” that GOD created is
always “just” and thereby “fair”, in the divine sense. What we think is fair or
unfair, and what GOD knows is just, are sometimes, though incomprehensively to
us, two entirely different things.
A Sunday school lesson by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER-
Official Website
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