#159a Snake (18 sep 07)

‘….Lord, I die daily’
1 Corinthians 15:31

Death is an event that we assumed would happen to someone else rather than ourselves. The grim reaper should be too busy just as we are with things of the world to bother each other, for now.

‘…if the dead rise not? Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die’
1 Corinthians 15:32

It is true that many who are of the world, try to live it up by going down the well trodden path of debauchery, for they want to make the most of a finite time available, for what comes after, matters not when your sole mate will be the dust mites.

As a believer and follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of our Sovereign God, have we by our actions and daily living, disprove the reality of a living and loving God?
Are we Christians by name, closet pagans by reality?

‘.. the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed’
1 Corinthians 15:52

As a parent, (with the rare exception), we will want to bring our children back on the right path, even if they beg to differ.
Simplistic as it is, that is my personal belief that God, our Abba Father will stay faithful, even if we are not.

‘So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet o the top of his head…’
Job 2:7

For most of us, you would empathize with the more than inconvenience that Job suffered, if you have been a past chickenpox sufferer. But there is a sequel.
Just this Thursday morning, I was blessed to partake in the aftermath of chickenpox, aptly termed “Shingles.”

From a layman’s understanding, shingles manifest itself, when our immune system is down, and the long dormant but still potent remnants of the herpes virus(that caused our chickenpox) that had resided at the base of our spinal cord, gets a chance to be surfaced and it moves up our spinal cords, and pops up as ugly pimpled like popsicles on the upper part of our body. I am blessed, mine was at my upper chest and it was just a configuration of 7 pimples, with more itched and some pain.



Modern medicine should do wonders and I expect to be up and running in a week’s time. No need to indulge in the age old practice of going to a Chinese sin seh who uses a joss stick to literally stump out either the head or tail of the snake.
“Snake” is the popular colloquial term for shingles.

‘Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.
But if it were I, I would appeal to God. I would lay my cause before Him’
Job 5:7-8

The book of Job was interestingly, where the Lord brought me to this Monday morning, as I pondered upon the misery that either the mosquito or some other deviant insect(s) have left on my body since last Saturday.
(This incorrect diagnosis was what the doctor I consulted on Monday gave me)

As I pondered upon the Lord’s Word right though Wednesday, by His grace, the topic of Job was the area for a somewhat brief but vibrant discussion of differing understanding with a beloved fellow believer in Christ.

The belief in some was that the Old Testament no longer applies and that with the New Covenant of the New Testament, afflictions come upon us because we did not hear God right nor follow Him correctly. It is also a belief or teaching amongst some that God will not tempt nor test us. By extension, God has no prerogative to do what He wills??
And some by implication teaches that God only gives goodies like Santa Claus!!

‘Then Job replied to the Lord:
“I know that You can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted’
Job 42:2

It is my personal belief that every Word of God is good, be it Old or New Testament.
Every Word of God is a living Word, for the Word is God, and God is the Word.

But let me not impose my finite understanding upon others for the Lord also reminds us in Job 42:3

‘You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures My counsel without knowledge…?’
Job 42:3

The mark of the beast was the thought that crossed my mind on Thursday morning as I looked at the signoff of the insect(s) on my chest, that refuses to go off and was itching to give me regular spasms of pain.

God is good. By His prompting, I decided to get a second opinion, and indeed, it was no insect bite, but turned out to be shingles. But still, shingles is ‘snake’ and how do we deal with the snake?

Shingles hit me because my immune system was weak, does giving the virus an opportunity to resurface and attack my nerves.
It is an internalized ‘illness’ and in most instances(with some exceptions) not as contagious as chickenpox.

‘The Lord give and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord’
Job 1:20

Letting go and letting God is what men of faith are asked to do, but I have often fallen short. As I traced my life since the Lord brought me truly across a few years back, I have indeed not always fully let go and let Him. But He has been faithful.

‘Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees.
But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged, it strikes you; and you are dismayed..’
Job 4:3-5

Thanks be to God who is faithful, even when I am not. It is good to be admonished, for God corrects those He loves.

It is not whether we did right in God’s eyes, but what the Lord wills, for His will is always right for us.

‘Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning’
Job 42:12


God Blesses

Eng Hieang