DAZED AND CONFUSED

 

For He crushes me with a tempest,

And multiplies my wounds without cause. 

He will not allow me to catch my breath,

But fills me with bitterness.  (Job 9:17-18)

Have you ever had a concussion?  I have—playing football in High School.  I was knocked out making a tackle.  I tried to tell the coaches something was wrong, but they didn’t believe me.  Finally, they put me on the sideline.  I was dazed and confused.

Job was that way.  He had been blindsided.  Blow after blow had driven him to the ground, so that he didn’t know which way was up.  His friends who came to comfort him, did anything but that—indeed, they condemned him!  They offered religious clichés and pious phrases—simplistic soliloquies that were nothing but so much hot air.  We hear a lot of that today.  Their basic premise was, “Job, you are suffering because you are a sinner, and if you would get right with God, then your problems would go away.”

We want life wrapped up in a nice little box of propositions and tied together with a ribbon of reason into a neat bow of certainty.  More often, life looks like the aftermath of Christmas morning carnage—the wrapping paper torn and scattered, the box ripped apart and the contents gone.  Meanwhile, we sit in the corner—shell-shocked.

Job had more questions than answers.  He goes through a series of them in the ninth chapter.  His “friends” have accused him of being a sinner, so he says, “But how can a man be righteous before God?” (Job 9:2b).  They have told Job to turn to God and he says, “If He goes by me, I do not see Him; If He moves past, I do not perceive Him; If He takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’”  (v.11-12).  Job’s comforters have challenged him to understand God’s ways—as they certainly claim to do—and the sufferer responds, “How then can I answer Him, And choose my words to reason with Him?”  (v.14)  The three men, who function like prosecuting attorneys as they indict Job, tell him to come before the Judge and plead for mercy.  Job is dismayed and says, “If it is a matter of strength, indeed He is strong; And if of justice, who will appoint my day in court?”  What Job wants in the day he stands before the Judge of the Universe is a defense attorney, but he doesn’t know where to find one, and in despair cries, “For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together.   Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both.”  (v.32-33).

Thankfully, the New Testament responds to these questions with one word—Jesus!  We can be just before God by faith in Christ; though we cannot find Him, He seeks us; though we may not understand why we suffer, Christ knows what we suffer for He has also; He is the Mediator who has come to take God’s hand and our hand and reconcile us!  In our confusion, let us look to Him.  We may not have all the answers to our heartaches in this life, but we will have every tear wiped from our eyes then!  Jesus is all we need!

WHY DIDN'T TERMITES EAT THE ARK? WHY DID THEY HAVE ROACHES AND MOSQUITOES ON THE ARK?

The ark was constructed of gopher wood.  It is possible that the wood was cypress--and that is how some modern translations render it.  Cypress, and cedar also, are termite resistant.  So, maybe that is what the wood was.  It is also possible that this was a tree which has ceased to exist.  Remember the flood was a global catastrophe which may have killed off many species of vegetation.  Therefore, gopher wood may have been an extinct species impervious to termites.

Likewise, It's possible no termites, or other insects--such as roaches and mosquitoes--were on the ark.  There would have been tremendous amounts of debris, floating on the water, for them to live on.  There could have been eggs on that debris which would later hatch.  According to Gen.7:24  the waters covered the highest peaks for 5 months.  At that point, as the waters began to recede, the eggs might have hatched and survived on the drying land.  Mosquitoes and termites love the moisture, by the way.  Not trying to be morbid, but certain insects would have survived by devouring the floating carcasses of humans and animals, the bodies becoming their "arks."

The Bible says in (Gen 7:14-15) that "all flesh in which was the breath of life" was brought onto the Ark. (Gen 7:22) goes on to say that "all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was on the dry land, died" in the flood.

    

From these verses, we learn 2 things. First, all of the creatures on the Ark had the "breath of life," which means they breathed through their "nostrils." In addition, ALL creatures who breathed through their nostrils and lived on "dry land" died in the flood except those on the Ark. 

Those who breathe through nostrils have lungs. Insects do not have nostrils or lungs. Insects absorb oxygen through their skin, through a series of breathing holes or tracheal tubes located in their chest or abdomen. Therefore, neither insects nor sea creatures were on the Ark, but they did survive the flood.  (http://jesusalive.cc/ques216.htm)

 Obviously, insects survived—and there is a reason--even for roaches and mosquitoes!  Cockroaches dispose of organic litter.  They are part of the food chain for birds and other animals. 

 

As to mosquitoes, their development is quite the quandary for the evolutionist instead of a help to their case.  Here is a remarkable testimony to a mosquitoes design that requires instantaneous creation rather than evolution over eons of time: 

Did you know that:

only female mosquitoes “bite”[?]

There are more than 2,500 species of mosquitoes in the world. A species is generally defined as a group in which males and females produce offspring that are fertile, i.e., are capable of reproducing themselves. They are not “sterile”—as in the case of the mule, a hybrid cross between a male donkey and a female horse.

The fossil record reveals that the ancient ancestors of the modern mosquito were about three times as large as their present day offspring. This is another example of how nature has degenerated. It is not evolving from the less primitive to the more sophisticated, contrary to the claims of modern Darwinians. Some ancient pagans believed that mosquitoes are reincarnated humans who were evil in the way they lived. Though there is no truth to the notion of reincarnation, there are some blood-sucking humans who would make good mosquitoes in another world!

Mosquitoes are specially fashioned little flies. “Little flies” is what the name means. The term “fly” is a generic word for insects that have only two wings. Mosquitoes can beat their tiny wings at a rate of about one thousand times per second! Their wings are so thin that even the blood vessels show. Only God could have designed this amazing and minute system.

But mosquitoes can be dangerous. They can carry germs that cause harmful diseases in humans—sicknesses like malaria and yellow fever. Many people wonder, therefore, just why God would create potentially noxious little insects like these.

Critics of God and his word are ever anxious to lash out and appeal to what they call the “incongruities of nature” as arguments that a benevolent God could not have designed and implemented the universe around us. Thus there is no God behind earth’s environment. There are just “too many examples” that do not meet their standard of how things ought to be. They have endowed themselves with omniscience and thus are confident they know how it “should have been done.”

Let us take the mosquito, for example. There are two important points that need to be taken into consideration.

First, our original parents, Adam and Eve, were not bothered by disease until they disobeyed God. Because of that disobedience, the human family became weak and vulnerable to diseases—and even death (Romans 5:12; 6:23). In the beginning, the Lord did not intend for any of us who have been made in his image to be hurt by his animal creatures, but this is the price we pay for not following the Creator’s instructions. Every mosquito bite ought to be a reminder to obey God.

Second, mosquitoes actually are a valuable source of food for many creatures that were made to benefit mankind. For example, frogs, lizards, and some fish eat mosquitoes. These insects are an important link in the animal food chain, thus ultimately they are for our benefit as well. There is a balance in nature that we sometimes do not recognize or appreciate.

Third, there are numerous mysteries in nature we do not understand. There are more things we do not understand than those we do. We must humbly recognize and acknowledge our limited knowledge, and not speak irreverently of God in our frustration. That is the epitome of arrogance. This was precisely the problem of Job as he questioned the wisdom of God in governing the universe. The Lord humbled the patriarch and brought him to his knees by a barrage of interrogation that yet baffles the keenest of minds (see Job 38-39).

We may occasionally wonder why our heavenly Father made certain things. We should be confident there was a good reason for so doing, whether we understand the intricacies of such or not. We praise him for the things we comprehend, and for those we do not. Such is true reverence! (https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1405-why-did-god-make-mosquitoes)

The proteins required to sustain mosquitoes before the fall are found in certain plants—alfalfa, for instance.  The adaptation of mosquitoes from vegetarians and benign creatures to blood-suckers and disease-carriers were a result of the fall. 

The mosquito's saliva contains anti-coagulants, which prevent blood from clotting. Consequently, the immune system reacts by causing swelling, itching and burning.

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4565198_mosquito-bite-affect-body.html#ixzz332hGKCp0

If it were not for those special properties, the tiny tube through which the mosquito pierces skin and ingests blood would stop up and the bug would starve!  So, how did all that evolve over millions of years?  Impossible! 

So, like it or not, the bugs are still around to bug us.  The return of Christ to earth will restore the original design in the natural world and we'll have pests as pets.  Until then, we should be so full of Jesus that if a mosquito does bite us, she'll fly away singing, "There's power in the blood!"