Thursday
Evening Bible Study
June
4, 2015
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it address the person who is: Empty, lonely, guilty, or afraid
to die? Does it speak to the broken
hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk – Meat – Manna Preach for a decision
Is the church loved? Target 3300 words
Video = 75 wpm
Job is going through the worst time anyone could imagine.
He’s lost all his possessions.
His children have died.
His health has failed.
What makes all this even more confusing is that Job is a good guy.
God has decided to allow Job to go through this difficulty because He is
proud of Job, not mad at him.
God wants to show the world what a godly man will do when he is going
through a difficult time.
Keep a couple of things in mind as we study Job:
Sometimes Job is wrong in his conclusions.
Sometimes Job’s friends are also wrong.
They can even say things that are true, but they are just not true about
Job.
Be careful about building doctrine upon some of the things said in the book
of Job.
Neither Job’s words nor those of his friends are meant to build doctrinal
truths on.
They simply show us how people respond to difficulty.
22:1-4 Eliphaz: Righteousness punished?
:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
We are now starting the final round of debates between Job and his three
friends. Eliphaz is the eldest.
:2 “Can a man be profitable to God, Though he who is wise may be profitable
to himself?
:3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is
it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless?
:4 “Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you, And enters into
judgment with you?
:4 because of your fear of Him that He corrects you
Eliphaz is trying to say that since God is obviously judging and punishing
Job, and yet Job has maintained his innocence, that it doesn’t make sense that
God would be punishing Job for being good and righteous.
True
Actually, Eliphaz’ sarcastic comment isn’t too far from the truth here.
God doesn’t punish righteousness.
False
The problem is that God isn’t punishing or judging Job. But the difficult
times have indeed come because of Job’s righteousness.
Satan’s challenge to God was that Job was only serving God because God was
so good to Job. And if God ever allowed unpleasantness in Job’s life, then Job
would curse God and stop following God.
The difficult times were coming exactly because Job was righteous, not
because he was a sinner.
22:5-14 Eliphaz: Job’s sins
:5 Is not your wickedness great, And your iniquity without end?
:5 Is not your wickedness great
Eliphaz’ only conclusion is that since Job seems to be being punished, his
sin must be pretty big.
:6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, And stripped
the naked of their clothing.
:7 You have not given the weary water to drink, And you have withheld bread
from the hungry.
:8 But the mighty man possessed the land, And the honorable man dwelt in
it.
As if Job thinks that only the
strong survive, the earth belongs only to strong people, let the weak and poor
people perish.
:9 You have sent widows away empty, And the strength of the fatherless was
crushed.
:7 not given the weary water to drink
Eliphaz is accusing Job of taking advantage of the poor.
Eliphaz isn’t the first to come up with this theory of Job’s sin and
supposed resulting difficult.
Zophar said it in last week’s debate:
(Job 20:19 NKJV) For he has
oppressed and forsaken the poor, He has violently seized a house which he did not build.
Job’s friends are going to continue down this road theorizing that Job has
abused poor people, and assume it’s true.
Lesson
Popular “Truth”
Our society has fallen into the trap of thinking that if something is
thought to be true by many people, then it is.
The problem is that sometimes what is no better than gossip begins to sound
like its true.
Illustration
The Town Gossip
Joan, the town gossip and self-appointed supervisor of the
town’s morals, kept sticking her nose into other people’s business. Several
local residents were unappreciative of her activities, but feared her enough to
maintain their silence. However, she made a mistake when she recently accused
George, a local man, of being an alcoholic after she saw his pickup truck
parked outside the town’s only bar one afternoon. George, a dedicated Christian
and man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just walked away without
saying a word. Later that evening, he parked his pickup truck in front of her
house and left it there all night. Her gossiping ceased.
The Bruce Jenner story
The big news this week is about this man who has decided to “transition”
into a woman, now calling himself “Caitlin”.
For the last couple of months people have been talking about the “bravery”
of this man who has admitted he’s always wanted to be a woman.
His picture is everywhere.
His twitter account has amassed over 2 million followers in just a couple
of days since he set it up with the new name.
Yet the transgender issue is not as simple as it sounds.
There
was an article written by Dr. Paul R. McHugh back in June 2014 for the Wall
Street Journal. Dr. McHugh is the former
psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital, and is the current Distinguished
Service Professor of Psychiatry.
Dr. McHugh wrote that
transgenderism is a
“mental disorder” that merits treatment, that sex change is “biologically
impossible,” and that people who promote sexual reassignment surgery are
collaborating with and promoting a mental disorder.
He also stated that
transgender surgery
is not the solution for people who suffer a “disorder of ‘assumption’” – the
notion that their maleness or femaleness is different than what nature assigned
to them biologically.
He also reported on a new study showing that
…the suicide rate
among transgendered people who had reassignment surgery is 20 times higher than
the suicide rate among non-transgender people.
The Bible says,
(Deuteronomy 22:5
NKJV) “A woman shall not wear anything that pertains to a man, nor shall
a man put on a woman’s garment, for all who do so are an abomination to
the Lord your God.
Does this mean we ought to “hate” Bruce Jenner? No, we ought to feel very sorry for him and
pray for him. He needs help.
We need to be careful about where our source of “truth” comes from. If it comes from the world’s standards, we’re
in trouble.
:10 Therefore snares are all around you, And sudden fear troubles
you,
:11 Or darkness so that you cannot see; And an abundance of water
covers you.
:12 “Is not God in the height of heaven? And see the highest stars, how
lofty they are!
:13 And you say, ‘What does God know? Can He judge through the deep
darkness?
:14 Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, And He walks above the
circle of heaven.’
:14 Thick clouds cover Him
Job did say,
(Job 19:8 NKJV) He has
fenced up my way, so that I cannot pass; And He has set darkness in my paths.
Eliphaz seems to be mocking Job for thinking that God can’t see what is
happening to him.
When you are going through a long, difficult time, it does seem at times as
if God has forgotten you, or that He can’t see.
22:15-20 Eliphaz: The wicked will perish
:15 Will you keep to the old way Which wicked men have trod,
:16 Who were cut down before their time, Whose foundations were swept away
by a flood?
:16 swept away by a flood
Eliphaz is reminding Job to remember how God deals with wicked people.
He might even be referring here to the flood of Noah.
We mentioned back in Job 8:8 that it’s very likely that Noah’s son Shem was
still alive at this time.
The flood of Noah wasn’t just some ancient myth to the people of Job’s (and
Abraham’s) days. People were still alive
who had survived the flood.
:17 They said to God, ‘Depart from us! What can the Almighty do to them?’
:18 Yet He filled their houses with good things; But the counsel of
the wicked is far from me.
(Job 22:18 NLT) Yet he was
the one who filled their homes with good things, so I will have nothing to do
with that kind of thinking.
:19 “The righteous see it and are glad, And the innocent laugh at
them:
The righteous are glad to see the wicked destroyed.
:20 ‘Surely our adversaries are cut down, And the fire consumes their
remnant.’
:20 the fire consumes their remnant
Eliphaz is saying that he and his friends are obviously good people.
Yet wicked people will always perish and their offspring will be consumed
in the fire (just like Job’s children were).
22:21-30 Eliphaz: Repent
:21 “Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; Thereby good will
come to you.
:21 good will come to you
If Job simply repents of his sin, then everything will be okay in his life.
Lesson
Jesus and prosperity
Sometimes we can mislead people when we share the gospel.
We give the impression that if they turn away from their sins and turn to
Jesus, then life will be wonderful.
Some people want us to believe that Christians should never have problems
and should live prosperous lives.
This just isn’t true.
What do you do when a person becomes a Christian, and they still have
problems?
Don’t misunderstand – there are plenty of troubles in our lives that are
indeed caused by sin, and when we repent from our sin, many of those troubles
go away.
Yet thinking that you’re going to have no troubles by simply being good is
a fallacy.
:22 Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, And lay up His words in
your heart.
:23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; You will remove
iniquity far from your tents.
:24 Then you will lay your gold in the dust, And the gold of Ophir
among the stones of the brooks.
:24 lay your gold in the dust
He’s encouraging Job to throw his gold away, since that must be the thing
driving his neglect of the poor.
:25 Yes, the Almighty will be your gold And your precious silver;
:26 For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, And lift up your
face to God.
:27 You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, And you will pay
your vows.
:28 You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So
light will shine on your ways.
:29 When they cast you down, and you say, ‘Exaltation will come!’
Then He will save the humble person.
:30 He will even deliver one who is not innocent; Yes, he will be
delivered by the purity of your hands.”
:30 delivered by the purity of your hands
If Job would repent of his sin, then not only would his life turn around, but
God would then be able to use Job to rescue others.
If a person does indeed have sin in their life that needs to be repented
of, this is true. But Job doesn’t have sin in his life, and so we need to be
careful about a misconception that comes with this thought:
Lesson
God uses flawed people
Some of us think that God can only use people who have it all together.
We tend to think that God can’t use us because we haven’t reached that
level of perfection yet.
I’m not talking about dealing with sin in our lives.
If there is an area of sin in your life that you are not
dealing with, you need to take care of it.
I’m talking about simply having trouble in our lives.
I have a good friend who after having become ordained,
found his wife filing for divorce. Twenty
years later I’m still not sure why.
It took him a long time to begin to think that God could
ever use him.
God uses broken and hurting people.
Sometimes it is when we’re at our weakest that God can work through us in
His power.
Paul wrote,
(2 Corinthians
12:10 NLT) That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults,
hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am
weak, then I am strong.
23:1-7 Job: I want to talk to God
:1 Then Job answered and said:
:2 “Even today my complaint is bitter; My hand is listless because of my
groaning.
:3 Oh, that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His
seat!
:3 where I might find Him
Job wants to know that if God isn’t hidden, where can he find Him?
Lesson
Walking in the dark
This is one of the hardest things to do as a believer, to keep trusting God
even though we don’t understand what’s happening, and it doesn’t seem like He’s
paying any attention to us.
We feel like we’re slaves in the bottom of a ship consigned to row.
Video: Ben-Hur – Row well and live
And just after we get the lecture from the slave driver, we have to
actually start rowing.
Video: Ben-Hur – Ramming Speed
Does your life seem like that at times?
“Faith” is about trusting someone or something that you don’t see or
understand.
There are times when we simply don’t understand why things are happening
the way they are.
It’s important to God that we have faith.
(Hebrews 11:6 NKJV)
But
without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him.
For us to develop our faith, we are going to spend times
in our lives where we don’t see and don’t understand what is going on.
Paul wrote,
(2 Corinthians 5:7
NKJV) For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Row well and live.
:4 I would present my case before Him, And fill my mouth with
arguments.
:5 I would know the words which He would answer me, And understand
what He would say to me.
Job wants to know what God would say in reply to him.
:6 Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note
of me.
:7 There the upright could reason with Him, And I would be delivered
forever from my Judge.
If Job could just get an audience with God, he knows that he could be set
free.
23:8-12 Job: God will find I’m okay
:8 “Look, I go forward, but He is not there, And backward, but I
cannot perceive Him;
:9 When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He
turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him.
Anywhere Job turns, he can’t find God.
:10 But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall
come forth as gold.
:10 tested … come forth as gold
tested – bachan – to
examine, scrutinize; to test, prove, try
Lesson
God’s Refining
Peter wrote,
(1 Peter 1:6–9
NKJV) —6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need
be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being
much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be
found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, 8 whom having
not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you
rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, 9 receiving
the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.
Part of the “testing” is the refining process that makes the metal more and
more pure.
The gold is heated until it becomes a liquid.
The dross (impurities) comes to the surface and the goldsmith scoops it off
the top.
They say the goldsmith knows when it’s pure because he will see his own
reflection in the liquid gold.
God is the refiner and He will sometimes allow us to go
through trials as a way of purifying our faith.
As we go through difficulty, the impurities come to the
surface where we can allow God to remove them.
Part of the “testing” is about seeing if the metal is genuine gold or not.
God shows to the world that your faith in Him is real when you keep going
in the difficult times.
This is exactly what God is doing in Job.
God is demonstrating to all of heaven that Job isn’t going
to walk away from God when life gets tough.
:11 My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned
aside.
:12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured
the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.
:12 treasured the words of His mouth
Job is telling his friends that he has lived a life of obedience to God’s
commands because he has always considered God’s words to be of great value.
He considered God’s Word more important than food.
Lesson
Obedience and the Word
Job sees a connection between his obedience to the Lord and having God’s
Word in his heart.
When Jesus was tempted by Satan to
turn stones into bread, He replied,
(Matthew 4:4 NKJV) But He
answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
Life doesn’t
continue only by making sure you eat food.
We need God’s Word in order to truly live.
This reminds me of the words of the Psalmist:
(Psalm 119:11 NKJV)
Your
word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.
Illustration
Charles R. Swindoll (The Christian
Life, (Vision House, 1994), p. 79.) writes, Why is the expenditure of time
and energy so worth the effort entailed in memorizing Scripture? Because our
life is lived in our mind. More than 10,000 thoughts a day pass through that
gray matter neatly tucked between our ears. Theologian A.W. Tozer once said,
“Our thoughts not only reveal what we are, they predict what we will become. We
will soon be the sum total of our thoughts.” The Holy Spirit feeds on the
spiritual nourishment of the Word to reprogram our mental computer, thereby
effectively changing our attitudes and actions.
Illustration
A pilot was flying his small plane one day, when he heard a noise which he
recognized as the gnawing of a rat. Wondering what its sharp teeth were cutting
through, he suddenly realized with horror that it might be an electric wire.
Then he remembered that rodents can’t survive at high altitudes. Immediately he
began climbing until finally he had to put on his oxygen mask. Soon the gnawing
sound ceased, and when he landed he found the rat—dead.
One of the ways to gain help with handling bad stuff in our lives is to
learn to fly at a higher altitude.
Dwight L. Moody said, “Sin will keep you from this Book or this Book will
keep you from sin.”
23:13-17 Job: Who can challenge God?
:13 “But He is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever
His soul desires, that He does.
Who could ever challenge God and make Him change His mind?
:14 For He performs what is appointed for me, And many such things
are with Him.
:14 He performs what is appointed for me
Lesson
Fear of God’s will
I remember as a young teenager being afraid to fully commit my life to God because
I was afraid He would do something horrible like send me to Africa as a
missionary.
We seem to have this fear that God hates us and has a horrible plan for our
lives.
Job is afraid because he is convinced that God must be out
to get him.
What is God’s will for my life?
(1 Timothy 2:3–4
NKJV) —3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Savior, 4 who desires
all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
It’s God’s will, His desire, that you should be saved.
(2 Peter 3:9 NKJV) The Lord
is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is
longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should
come to repentance.
God does not
desire that anyone should perish.
(Jeremiah 29:11
NKJV) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of
evil, to give you a future and a hope.
God’s plans for us are plans for peace, future, and a hope.
(Romans 12:1–2
NKJV) —1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is
your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God.
As we learn to yield ourselves to the Lord, we will find
out that His will for us is good, acceptable, and perfect.
There is nothing to be afraid of.
:15 Therefore I am terrified at His presence; When I consider this,
I am afraid of Him.
:16 For God made my heart weak, And the Almighty terrifies me;
:17 Because I was not cut off from the presence of darkness, And He did not
hide deep darkness from my face.
(Job 23:17 NLT) Darkness is
all around me; thick, impenetrable darkness is everywhere.
Job can’t see where he’s going.
24:1-12 Job: Injustice for the poor
:1 “Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, Why do those who
know Him see not His days?
:1 Why do those who know Him see not His days?
Why has God taken so long to respond to Job’s request for understanding?
This too is all about walking by faith.
Sometimes we don’t have the answers to the questions we have. And we must
keep rowing.
:2 “Some remove landmarks; They seize flocks violently and feed on
them;
:2 Some remove landmarks
In ancient days, property was not recorded in the county records according
to GPS coordinates.
Your property line was defined by specific landmarks such as rocks.
If you wanted to steal some of your neighbor’s land, then simply move his
landmarks.
Job is talking about wicked people who will mistreat the poor.
Job has been accused of mistreating the poor, and he’s going to talk about
how unfairly treated the poor are.
:3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless; They take the widow’s ox
as a pledge.
:3 widow’s ox as a pledge
If a poor widow came to ask for a loan, the evil lender would demand that
she give her ox up until she paid back the loan.
The problem is that she then has no way to plow her fields without the ox,
and hence can’t repay the loan.
:4 They push the needy off the road; All the poor of the land are forced to
hide.
:5 Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, They go out to their
work, searching for food. The wilderness yields food for them and
for their children.
(Job 24:5 NLT) Like wild
donkeys in the wilderness, the poor must spend all their time looking for food,
searching even in the desert for food for their children.
:6 They gather their fodder in the field And glean in the vineyard of the
wicked.
The poor work in the fields of the wicked.
:7 They spend the night naked, without clothing, And have no covering in
the cold.
:8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, And huddle around the
rock for want of shelter.
The poor have no shelter from the weather.
:9 “Some snatch the fatherless from the breast, And take a pledge
from the poor.
:10 They cause the poor to go naked, without clothing; And they take
away the sheaves from the hungry.
:11 They press out oil within their walls, And tread winepresses, yet
suffer thirst.
The poor do all the work for the wicked, but don’t get anything for their
labor.
:12 The dying groan in the city, And the souls of the wounded cry out; Yet
God does not charge them with wrong.
:12 God does not charge them with wrong
Job has been accused of not caring for the poor.
He has been pointing out that wicked people regularly take advantage of the
poor and nothing ever happens to them.
Lesson
Is God fair?
Job is telling his friends that if God judges wicked people, then why
aren’t the people who oppress the poor judged?
Why doesn’t God listen to the cries of the poor?
The truth is, God does listen to the poor. One day God will make it all
right.
James warns:
(James
5:1–4 NLT) —1 Look here, you rich people: Weep and groan with anguish because of
all the terrible troubles ahead of you. 2 Your wealth is rotting away, and your fine clothes are moth-eaten
rags. 3 Your gold
and silver are corroded. The very wealth you were counting on will eat away
your flesh like fire. This corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify
against you on the day of judgment. 4 For listen! Hear the cries of the field workers whom you have
cheated of their pay. The cries of those who harvest your fields have reached
the ears of the Lord of Heaven’s
Armies.
24:13-17 Job: Sin and darkness
In vss. 1-12, Job was talking about how the poor are exploited out in the
country.
In vss. 13-17 Job talks about wickedness in the city.
:13 “There are those who rebel against the light; They do not know its ways
Nor abide in its paths.
Job is going to talk about how wicked people do their deeds in the dark.
:14 The murderer rises with the light; He kills the poor and needy; And in
the night he is like a thief.
:15 The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, ‘No eye will
see me’; And he disguises his face.
:16 In the dark they break into houses Which they marked for themselves in
the daytime; They do not know the light.
Thieves break into a house at night that was scouted out in the daytime.
:17 For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death; If someone
recognizes them, They are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
:16 They do not know the light
Lesson
Dark or light
Job is implying that God is not fair in letting those who do their
wickedness at night get away with their sin.
Jesus said that wickedness is done in the dark so it can’t be exposed.
(John 3:19–21 NKJV)
—19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone
practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds
should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be
clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Do you want to be right with God? Get into the light. Let your evil deeds
be exposed. Turn from them.
(1 John 1:7 NKJV) But if we
walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
When we’re in the light, we find that others are on the
journey with us, and we find cleansing from the blood of Jesus.
24:18-25 Job: God will judge
Job talks about how God will judge wicked people.
:18 “They should be swift on the face of the waters, Their portion should
be cursed in the earth, So that no one would turn into the
way of their vineyards.
:19 As drought and heat consume the snow waters, So the grave consumes
those who have sinned.
:20 The womb should forget him, The worm should feed sweetly
on him; He should be remembered no more, And wickedness should be
broken like a tree.
(Job 24:20 NLT) Their own
mothers will forget them. Maggots will find them sweet to eat. No one will
remember them. Wicked people are broken like a tree in the storm.
:21 For he preys on the barren who do not bear, And does no good for
the widow.
The wicked takes advantage of those who can’t have children as well as the
widows.
:22 “But God draws the mighty away with His power; He rises up, but
no man is sure of life.
(Job 24:22 NLT) “God, in his
power, drags away the rich. They may rise high, but they have no assurance of
life.
:23 He gives them security, and they rely on it; Yet His eyes are
on their ways.
:24 They are exalted for a little while, Then they are gone. They are
brought low; They are taken out of the way like all others; They dry out
like the heads of grain.
:25 “Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar, And make
my speech worth nothing?”
:20 He should be remembered no more
This section could be looked at as Job saying that these things will simply
happen to wicked people. But some (like Warren Wiersbe) suggest that this
passage is more of a sense of Job putting a curse on those who are wicked and
get away with things.
Lesson
Thinking of others
Sometimes when we’re going through tough times, all we can think of is our
own problems.
Yet it would seem that Job is concerned about others who are victims of
injustice.
Illustration
The True Hero of the Titanic
John Harper was born to Christian parents on May 29th,
1872. He was a man sold out to serve
God.
He had been a street preacher. He
had started his own church which had grown to over 500 members. He had been married, but was widowed after a
brief time. God did bless John Harper
with a beautiful little girl named Nana.
Ironically, John Harper almost drowned several times during his life. When
he was two and a half years of age, he almost drowned when he fell into a well
but was resuscitated by his mother. At the age of twenty-six, he was swept out
to sea by a rip current and barely survived, and at thirty-two he faced death
on a leaking ship in the Mediterranean. Perhaps, God used these experiences to
prepare this servant for what he faced next...
It was the night of April
14, 1912. The RMS Titanic sailed swiftly on the bitterly cold ocean
waters heading unknowingly into the pages of history. On board this luxurious
ocean liner were many rich and famous people. At the time of the ship’s launch,
it was the world’s largest man-made moveable object. At 11:40 p.m. on that fateful night, an iceberg
scraped the ship’s starboard side, showering the decks with ice and ripping
open six watertight compartments. The sea poured in.
On board the ship that night was John Harper and his much-beloved
six-year-old daughter Nana. According to documented reports, as soon as it was
apparent that the ship was going to sink, John Harper immediately took his
daughter to a lifeboat. It is reasonable to assume that this widowed preacher
could have easily gotten on board this boat to safety; however, it never seems
to have crossed his mind. He bent down and kissed his precious little girl;
looking into her eyes he told her that she would see him again someday. The
flares going off in the dark sky above reflected the tears on his face as he
turned and headed towards the crowd of desperate humanity on the sinking ocean
liner.
As the rear of the huge ship began to lurch upwards, it was reported that
Harper was seen making his way up the deck yelling “Women, children and unsaved
into the lifeboats!” It was only minutes later that the Titanic began to rumble
deep within. Most people thought it was an explosion; actually the gargantuan
ship was literally breaking in half. At this point, many people jumped off the
decks and into the icy, dark waters below. John Harper was one of these people.
That night 1528 people went into the frigid waters. John Harper was seen
swimming frantically to people in the water leading them to Jesus before the
hypothermia became fatal. Mr. Harper swam up to one young man who had climbed
up on a piece of debris. Rev. Harper asked him between breaths, “Are you
saved?” The young man replied that he was not. Harper then tried to lead him to
Christ only to have the young man who was near shock, reply no. John Harper
then took off his life jacket and threw it to the man and said “Here then, you
need this more than I do...” and swam away to other people. A few minutes later
Harper swam back to the young man and succeeded in leading him to salvation. Of
the 1528 people that went into the water that night, six were rescued by the
lifeboats. One of them was this young man on the debris. Four years later, at a
survivors meeting, this young man stood up and in tears recounted how that
after John Harper had led him to Christ. Mr. Harper had tried to swim back to
help other people, yet because of the intense cold, had grown too weak to swim.
His last words before going under in the frigid waters were “Believe on the
Name of the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”
Sources for this article: "The Titanic's
Last Hero" by Moody Press 1997, Scriptures are quoted from the King James
Bible. John Climie, George Harper, & Bill Guthrie from "Jesus Our
Jubilee Ministries" in Dallas, Oregon
When we are in difficult times, are we thinking only of ourselves, or are
we willing to be used by God to help others?