Psalm 119:65-72
Suffering with Illness
ט Teth
65 Do good to your servant
according to your word, Lord.
66 Teach me knowledge and good judgment,
for I trust your commands.
67 Before I was afflicted I went astray,
but now I obey your word.
68 You are good, and what you do is good;
teach me your decrees.
69 Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies,
I keep your precepts with all my heart.
70 Their hearts are callous and unfeeling,
but I delight in your law.
71 It was good for me to be afflicted
so that I might learn your decrees.
72 The law from your mouth is more precious to me
than thousands of pieces of silver and gold.
Job 2:1-13
Job's Loses His Health
On another day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them to present himself before him. 2 And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”
Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
3 Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. And he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. 5 But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
6 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”
7 So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes.
9 His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!”
10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
11 When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.
When I think of suffering, I think of the Book of Job...Job has two different types of suffering...In chapter one, it was caused by his fellow humans and the destroyed his family and his servants and his livestock...The second type, in chapter two, was involved with his health...
In the Psalms, we read that before the Psalmist was inflicted with an illness, he went astray, but now I obey Your Word...The Psalmist looks from God's All Knowing Point of View and writes that it was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees...The result of the Psalmist's infliction, he learned God's decrees and obeyed His Word...
Job has Satan strike him with bad health, and suffers...Job's sickness and suffering was not easy to deal with....He searched for answers with his friends and ask God questions...One thing we need to try to always remember, sickness should not cause us to lose faith in God, and Job clung to his faith...God is Good and Perfect and is LOVE, even when we are suffering...
The ultimate of suffering—will be death...This is an act of God’s goodness...It is hard to imagine that at the time that this is Goodness...But anyone who believes is in heaven as a result of sickness or suffering is with Jesus and His Father...Jesus said this before He left His Disciples and ascended to heaven: If you loved Me, you would be happy that I AM going back to the Father, because the Father is greater than I AM...I have told you this now, before it happens...Then when it happens, you will believe...
Jesus had faith in His Father and is Divine...Job, being a man, clung to his faith and his faith endured...