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E-pistle

FreeWay Foundation           August 29, 2014

 

 

Man is not a worm!

(Job 25:1-6)

Dr. Curt Scarborough

 

I.  Concentration:  on the contents of this chapter

Job's friends are running out of things to say and arguments to present;

in this third cycle of speeches, Bildad, the second friend, makes the

briefest speech in the book (only 6 verses), and Zophar, the third friend,

says nothing at all.            

1.  Bildad proclaims that dominion and fear (reverence) belong to God, who

     rules in heaven and whose armies (of angels) can't be counted, vv. 1-3.

            2.  Bildad says that God shines His spiritual illumination upon everyone, vv. 1-3.

            3.  Bildad argues that if the moon and stars are not perfect in the sight of God,

                 how can a human possibly be pure and righteous, vv. 4-5.

            4.  Bildad closes his speech by implying that Job, in God's opinion, is a maggot

                 and a worm, v. 6.

II.  Meditation:  on three "RIGHTS" and a "WRONG"

            1.  Bildad was RIGHT:  God reigns and man should stand in awe before Him,

     Revelation 19:5-6.

2.  Bildad was RIGHT:  God does reveal Himself to all mankind through nature, as

     well as in other ways,

     Romans 1:18-32.

3.  Bildad was RIGHT:  a human being is by nature and by choice a sinful creature,

     Romans 3:10, 23.

4.  Bildad was WRONG:  man is not the same as the lower forms of life on earth

     Because he is a special creation, designed in God's own image; God "breathed

     into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being (soul),"

     Genesis 1:27; 2:7; God "made him a little lower than the angels . . . crowned

     Him with glory and honor . . . made him have dominion . . . put all things under

     His feet," Psalm 8:5-6.

III.  Revelation and Applications:  on spiritually healthy self-esteem

Spiritually healthy self-esteem is founded upon the fact that God created man as an immortal

spiritual being with a soul (mind, emotions, and will), living within a physical body,

I Thessalonians 5:23.

            1.  Spiritually healthy self-esteem includes knowing that I am DEEPLY LOVED by God;

                 through Christ I no longer nave to fear punishment,

     Romans 5:6-9; II Corinthians 5:14-15.

2.  Spiritually healthy self-esteem includes knowing that I am TOTALLY ACCEPTED by God;

     through Christ I no longer have to fear rejection,

    Romans 5:10-11; II Corinthians 5:19-20.

3.  Spiritually healthy self-esteem includes knowing that I am FULLY FORGIVEN by God;

     through Christ I no longer have to fear failure,

     Romans 5:1, 18; II Corinthians 5:21.

4.  Spiritually healthy self-esteem includes knowing that I am a COMPLETELY NEW creation;

     through Christ I no longer need to experience the pain of shame,

     Romans 5:17; II Corinthians 5:17.

 

(NOTE:  These ideas are from The Search for Significance by Robert S. McGee)

 

 

 

 

Is it nothing to all you who pass by?

(Lamentations 1:1-22)

Dr. Curt Scarborough

 

I.  Concentration:  on the author and background of this book

            1.  Although the author is not named, most Old Testament scholars claim that

                 Lamentations was written by the prophet Jeremiah, II Chronicles 35:25.

            2.  Second Kings and Second Chronicles describe the moral decline of Judah,

                 closing with the destruction of Jerusalem, the burning of the temple, the

                 capture of King Zedekiah, and the carrying into exile all but the poorest

                 Jews by the Babylonians.

            3.  Laments are cries of mourning and grief; they are heartfelt expressions of

                 deep sorrow.

            4.  Lamentations contains five poems:  the first four are acrostics with each

                 stanza beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet; the 3^rd

                 chapter has 66 verses (3 verses per stanza); the 5^th chapter has 22 verses

                 (as do chapters 1, 2, and 4) but it is not an acrostic.

II.  Meditation:  on some key ideas of this chapter

            1.  Jerusalem (often depicted as a woman by the prophets) here is reduced to

                 being a widow; she used to be a princess but now she is a slave, v. 1.

            2.  Her collapse was awesome, and she had no comforter because "she did

     not consider her destiny," v. 9 . . . she blindly chose her own future doom

     according to God's law of cause and effect:  sin brings punishment.

3.  Twice the prophet-poet has Jerusalem speak in this chapter:  "O Lord

     behold my afflictions," v. 9, and, "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass

     by?" v. 11.

4.  Poetic metaphors portraying suffering in this chapter include fire, a net, a

     yoke, and a winepress, vv. 13-15.

III.  Revelation:  on the themes about suffering seen in Lamentations

            1.  The Jews suffering was a result of their sin, 1:5;  2:14; 3:42; 4:13; 5:16.

            2.  Their suffering came from God, rather than from men, and their suffering

                 could and should direct them toward God, 1:3,15; 2:1,4; 3:1, 37-38.

            3.  Suffering and prayer need to be linked together, with the prayer to God

                 always containing a ray of hope, 3:21-24, 313-32, 58-66.

            4.  They were to submit to their suffering with patience, realizing that the suffering

                 would end when God's will had been accomplished, 3:26-32.

IV.  Applications:  as a Christian, I need to realize that . . .

            1.  Sin brings God's discipline, often in the form of suffering, Hebrews 12:5-11.

            2.  Suffering is God's method of teaching me valuable spiritual lessons.

            3.  My prayers for help always should contain hope, for God loves me!

            4.  Suffering produces the Christian grace of patience, James 1:3.

 

"Whether he was good, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord's, and nothing

that was the Lord's was a thing to be neglected."

--Wit & Wisecrack from Mark Twain

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

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