“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you” (Isa 43:2). When, not if. Through, not into.
“So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” (Job 2:7). One NIH scientist thinks Job’s disease was scabies. MedLine Plus introduces us to a rare genetic disease, “Hyperimmunoglobulin E syndrome…called Job’s syndrome…an affliction with draining skin sores and pustules.” I’ll spare you the details, but the McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia takes us painfully through the symptoms described in the book of Job, and concludes that it could not be boils or Job would not have scraped them with a shard of broken pottery. They explain that the Hebrew word šhechîyn “is generally rendered ‘boils.’ But that word…only means burning, inflammation—a hot sense of pain, which, although it attends boils and abscesses, is common to other cutaneous irritations.” Their conclusion? Job suffered from elephantiasis, an infection that hardens and thickens the skin. Thus the scraping. Satan afflicted the skin, the largest organ in the body, latticed with nerves. If the devil had all the options open, you can be sure he picked the most grievous disease possible. Yet, when Job’s wife suggested it was time for him to capitulate, the dear man responded, “‘Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (v 10). Many of God’s people suffer physical pain for years. Would we bear up under this test? Thank the Lord for His “manifold [variegated] grace” (1 Pet 4:10). For every particular challenge there is a particular grace: grace for living, grace for suffering, grace for dying. “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you’” (2 Cor 12:9). Lord, pour out Your grace on your suffering saints today!