Friday, October 10, 2014

WEEKLY SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
An international Sunday school lesson commentary
For Sunday October 12, 2014

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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





                                 
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