Jentezen Franklin - Wounds That Glow In The Dark - Part 1
I want you to look with me to the book of 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 1:3, «Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies». And notice this title, «The God of all comfort». Verse 4, «Who comforts us in all of our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble. With the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God». There is so much in those two verses. God comforts us in our tribulation. He comes to us in our lowest, darkest days, gives His precious peace, His comfort, His help, His hope, and then He says, «I did it, and now all I ask of you is that you turn around and take the comfort that I gave you in your darkest hour and you reach out to somebody else’s darkest hour, and in your situation, and out of your pain, and your wounds, comfort others and let them know they can make it. Let them know there is hope and there is life beyond where they are and what they’re facing».
What a powerful verse. Today, I have a different topic, quick message that I wanna get to and say it because people are gonna be helped. I know that. I’m preaching today on, «Wounds that Glow in the Dark». Wounds that Glow in the Dark. In the book of Job, we are seeing a beautiful Old Testament story that illustrates this text. If anyone was ever comforted by God, it was Job. If anybody ever went through severe trials, it was Job. Job was a remarkable man, who did not know what was going on. There was a contest, a conclave, a gathering in heaven between angels and Lucifer came. The Bible said, he came from walking the Earth going to and fro, up and down. And God allowed him access, and He said, «Where have you been»? He said, «I’ve been walking in the Earth, going around checking out different people».
And God’s the one who brought Job up, God said, «Have you considered my servant, Job? Have you noticed him how that,» listen to the words, «He fears God, and he loves me? And He holds fast to his integrity». Almost rubbing it into the fallen angel named Lucifer. It’s almost like He’s saying, «He holds fast to his integrity unlike some angels I know». He didn’t say that, but you know you would feel that if you were standing in the presence of the God you betrayed. And He says, «He’s amazing. Do you know him? Have you noticed him»? And he said, «Oh, yeah. He serves you like all those Christians, as long as you bless him. If things go wrong, he’ll curse you. You let me at him, you let me get my pound of flesh from him. You let me attack him. You got a hedge around him and I can take him down and he’ll curse you». And God said, «You can attack everything that he’s got, only don’t touch his body».
And the first scene ends, and Satan goes and attacks immediately, everything that Job possessed. The Bible said he was the richest man in the east. The Bible said that, he had 7,000 sheep, and he had 3,000 camels, and 500 oxen, and 500 donkeys. And he had seven beautiful, handsome sons and three beautiful daughters. And he was so blessed and in one day the armies attacked and stole all of his, all of his animals and killed and slew all of his animals, and all of his servants along with it. Every employee that he had was killed. The businesses were burned down, he lost it all. And right on the heels of that comes another servant saying, «Job, your beautiful family, those seven handsome sons and those three beautiful daughters, they’re dead».
And in that moment, all of heaven is watching, all of hell is hissing, and angels are holding their breath, and God says, «Watch this». And Satan says, «Watch». I could almost see in my mind Lucifer kinda boastfully sticking out his chest saying, «Watch this. I’ll show you how those Christians are. They only serve you for what you give 'em. They only serve you when you bless 'em. But you take what they’ve got, you let 'em go through loss, you let 'em go through suffering, you let 'em go through hard times, they’ll walk on you. They’ll curse you to your face». And in that moment, Job broken, devastated, tears his garment, falls to the ground weeping, and he says these powerful words, «The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord».
And in that moment, I could see just the scene break and Lucifer says, «You let me do one more thing. You let me attack his body and he’ll curse you. He’ll curse you to your face». And God said, «Go ahead». Job is not aware of this. Job does not know what’s going on. God gives no explanation to him. And after a day like that you would think that would be enough for anybody, but the next day boils break out on Job from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, the scripture said. Agonizing, tormenting infection all in his body. And his wife who is grieving for ten children being dead the day before says, «Job, just curse God and die. We’re finished. We’ve lost everything».
And then, his friends, Job’s friends come and you can read it for 30 chapters, they do nothing in his dark hour but accuse him and tell him it’s the judgment of God. And you’ve done secret sin and you’re getting what you deserve, and this is God getting back at you, and you’re not righteous, and you’re a hypocrite. They called him name after name in humiliation for 30 chapters. It’s really something. And in that moment, when he refused to bow, «Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him». It was in that moment that he won the victory, and the Bible said he prayed for his friends. He did not die in a «Why»? He released forgiveness and moved into a divine purpose. You can die in your why. God may never answer your why, but I tell you this, if you will release forgiveness you will move into the purpose of the pain that you have gone through.
Jesus was on the cross and He asked, «Why have you forsaken me»? There are times when we cry, «Why»? And it’s not wrong to say why, but don’t die in your why. Jesus on that same cross, when He did not get an answer from the Father, He said, «Why have you forsaken me»? He then immediately in the next verse said, «Father, forgive them, they know», and when He moved into forgiveness, He moved from a why to eternal purpose. And so, Job speaks and his story, I mean, think with me, how many people, how much comfort has one human being, it’s the oldest book in the Bible. They tell us that he wrote it not personally, but probably and almost certainly used a translator and a transcriber. And he told his story and someone, unnamed, wrote it and it became the oldest book of the Bible.
And in that parchment that would become a message all over the world… do you know that the Bible said in the book of Job 42 that, he lived a 140 years after his trial? And what’s interesting about his story is, he did not write that book or didn’t have that book written and tell his whole story in the middle of his trial. He waited three years before he wrote the book, and he had someone write it for him. He told his story. Don’t write your story in the middle of your story. Don’t think because you’re hurting right now and you don’t understand right now, and it makes no sense, and you feel God-forsaken. Job was right where you are right now and you’re asking why, and the pain is real and you are numb from it, and you are broken from it. But don’t write your story until you get to the end of the story.
And if you’re in the middle of it, it looks dark, but Job got to looking back three years later and he said, «I’m gonna tell my story now, because I can truly say», and the Bible said, «The Lord blessed Job double». He went to 14,00 sheep, and he went to 6,000 camels, and he went to 1,000 oxen, and 1,000 ox, and 1,000 donkeys. «And he went to seven more sons, and three daughters that were the most beautiful in the land,» the scripture said. Because he had seven sons and three daughters in heaven, so God doubled that by giving him seven on earth and three.
My point is simply this, how many people have been helped by Job’s story? How many times did people come to Him who were broken? How many times did people come to Him who had lost a family member? Who had lost a son, or a daughter and he would tell his story, tell his story for 140 years. How many broken families? How many people who were diagnosed with a horrible disease and they felt like they were at the end of the world, and they were given a death sentence? And they would come and sit at his feet, and he would tell his story, and put his arms around them. And he comforted them with the same comfort God had given him. How long? I mean, did he ever suffer again? Did he ever get a pimple or that looked like a boil? And did he freak out? Did he have great trepidation, «Oh, my God, it’s coming back»? Did he ever see one of his own children die again? Did he ever go to the funeral of one of his grandchildren? Did he ever…
We think about this 140 years. Think beyond even when he died, when he took his last breath. You know, when a person comes into the world they inhale. They slap that little, they used to, they don’t do that anymore. But they slapped that little baby on the behind and it screams and then, when you die, you exhale. That’s how you know some… I’ve been with people when they die. And even the rabbis teach, even breath has the name of God in it. Yah…weh. Job took his last breath, and that little book of his story began to cover the globe through the millenniums. How many people has he helped? How many times has he been quoted? How many times has he been used in messages like I’m doing right now? The point is, he had no idea how far of a shadow his experience, his pain, his wounds, his grief, his sorrow, his darkness, he had no idea how far that shadow would be cast even through the millenniums.
And here we stand 4,000 years later still proclaiming the faithfulness of God in the midst of life’s most serve trials. I wanna tell you about something and you may ask, «Why are you talking about wounds that glow in the dark»? Because in Tennessee, the state of Tennessee in 1862 one of the greatest battles of the Civil War took place in a place that was called, The Battle of Shiloh. It happened on April 6th, 1862. It was there that the Confederate General Johnson led a surprise attack against the Union General, Ulysses S. Grant. One hundred and ten thousand men began to fight each other, and it ended with 23,746 casualties and people with injuries across the field of Shiloh, the battleground of Shiloh.
We’re talking about hellish warfare. We’re talking about, they did not have modern medicine, they would cut off and amputate, people were dismembered, and people were laying all over that field, and they were dying, and they were hoping someone would find them. Someone, if they were alive, would find them among the thousands and thousands that were dead all around them. It was called The Battle of Shiloh. It’s what history records as the angel glow. That when they looked out on the field, there were certain soldiers who looked down on their wounds, and their wounds began to glow mysteriously. There were little puddles of mud because it had rained, and it was raining that night terribly.
And there were puddles that were bluish-green, a bluish-green color, that showed up and that actually would get on the wounds. And what it was is amazing. Bacteria that can make insects sick, had been responsible, they didn’t know this for 140 years until 2001 when a high school senior heard this story, his mother was a biologist and they began to research it and they made a phenomenal, historic discovery. And here it is, «The healing of Civil War soldiers' wounds that glowed in the dark intrigued them, and Bill Martin and his friend, Jonathan Curtis, seniors at Bowie High School went on a journey to find out what this was about and their mother, Phyllis Martin was a microbiologist».
This is, I’m gonna cut it down to what it was about, «They wanted to know about the glow in the dark wounds». The glow in the dark wounds. Why were certain people having glow in the dark wounds? And it would light up in the dark, as they have no light in that field, and yet, they would light up. Why? They couldn’t figure it out. But it was a mystery. The battle of Shiloh took on a mysterious, if you were a veteran of the battle of Shiloh, people would stop in their tracks because it was so horrific. It was such a hand-to-hand combat and the injuries were so severe. And then, the story of what they would call and dub, «The Angel Glow,» that would come on the wounded. They called it 'cause they didn’t know, medically, what was taking place, but the wounds glowed.
«The students described how the presence of luminescent bacterium was aiding the healing of those men. It inhabited the growth of other bacteria, and it came from worms,» and I don’t mean to make you sick, but this is important. «There were worms that came up in the mud and the rain, and they would regurgitate something in their stomach that would get in the wounds,» and I’m making this really simple. You should study it for yourself. It’s amazing. «And it would get in the wounds, and it actually would begin to attack infection». That’s why it was on the wounds.
«It took those worms crawling in and regurgitating what was in them that began to become an antibiotic, this is all proven, it became an antibiotic and they found out that there were, the non-glowing men, their counterparts were dying and could not be helped. The glowing men had a lower rate of infection and their injuries healed faster. On that night, in the middle of the muddy field waiting for rescue, some of the men noticed their open wounds begin to glow a greenish-bluish color, no explanation. The doctors soon discovered that most of those men would survive because of the glow». The wounds that glowed. «Moreover, their injuries appeared to heal faster than the non-glowing counterparts».
I want you to understand what I’m trying to preach this morning. Yeah, I’m gonna preach on that. If anyone ever did what I just described, it was Job in his story. He provided wounds that glow in the dark, so that anyone who had been wounded, if they heard him regurgitate his story, it would get in their own wounds. And that’s what God wants to do in your life, is what I’m trying to tell you. God does not waste trials and tribulations, and tragedies, and pains, and suffering. I cannot promise you, you will not go through things, but I promise you that God will be there to comfort you, and I promise you that He will expect out of you when He brings you to the end of the story to turn around and go comfort with the same comfort He gave somebody else who’s walking through that battlefield called Shiloh. It’s called, «The Angel Glow Effect».
And you don’t understand it. You don’t understand that there are wounds that glow in the dark. That it takes the dark sometimes. And when you go through things that you don’t understand. Only a person who’s been through a divorce, has compassion like they ought to have for somebody who’s been through a divorce. Only a person who’s been through abuse, or rape, or been through an addiction, and a family that’s been shattered by dysfunction, you understand that. And because you made it, God says, «I’m going to cause your wounds to glow in the dark of somebody else’s life. And when you begin to share it with them, it’ll get in their soul and in their mind, and it’ll give them hope, and it’ll give them faith to believe that I can make it. I can make it».