guest column:Erasmus Makarimay
PREVIOUSLY I said that every statement in the Bible is truly stated but however not every statement in the Bible is a statement of truth. You would do yourself good to read last week’s instalment if you didn’t. We ended up analysing Job 1:21, “And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” We will presently interrogate this.
Even though we can’t fully grasp God our Father who’s omniscient, His character doesn’t oscillate between good and evil. We’re given a glimpse in James 3:10-12, “[10] Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. [11] Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? [12] Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.” God is not sum total of good and evil, chaos and order. We can’t predict the full counsel of God but we know for sure He’s light and doesn’t mix with darkness.
Let’s get back to the Job story. In the whole book of Job we read about his friends trying to explain his predicament. God doesn’t want us to figure out His nature from our perspective but from His revelation in Christ in the Gospel or the Grace of God. Human philosophy crumbles at the unveiling of Christ. The Grace of God corrects our wrong appreciation of God the Father. Reading the Old Testament, there are many instances where God is wrongly credited with killing people. Apostle Paul instructs Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:15, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” The Bible needs interpretation and this is through the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:14, Amplified reads, “But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognising, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.” That’s why it’s waste of time to argue Scriptures to non-regenerate individuals. What’s needed for non-believers is presentation of the Gospel of Christ. The Old Testament is the mystery revealed in the New Testament. Colossians 1:26 records, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:” Jesus Christ is the explanation of all things.
Our Lord and Saviour is the Logos or the reason behind and the explanation of all this. He’s the mind of God and the Revelation of Scriptures. Oftentimes believers and sometimes preachers say that they have a new or fresh revelation. You may have illumination. Jesus Christ remains the Revelation of the Scriptures. So what does He say about life and death? In John 10:10 He says, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
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God gives life. He’s doesn’t steal nor destroy. He doesn’t give life with one hand and death with the other. Hebrews 4:16 advises, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” This is an open invitation for wellbeing and not destruction.
We, therefore, can approach God the Father for healing when sick fully aware that He won’t strike us with worse ill health or even death. God is love and there’s no evil in Him. As believers, we were given authority to cast out devils and heal the sick.
Jesus is our model in Matthew 4:23-24, “[23] And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. [24] And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.”
Jesus didn’t go about doing evil. Acts 10:38 establishes, “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.”
Let’s be clear when the hand of the devil is at work so that we chase away evil. We shouldn’t accept and accommodate evil thinking that God has “blessed” us with evil. Anything contradictory to the love, mercy, lovingkindness and goodness of God has to be kicked out.
Jesus came to give us proper understanding of the Father. James 1:17 teaches, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.