Jentezen Franklin - Wounds That Glow In The Dark - Part 2
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». 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, Job broke and 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».
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 14,000 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. 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 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. 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. 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. «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, 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. No explanation. The doctors soon discovered that most of those men would survive because of the glow».
The wounds that glowed. That bacteria from those worms fought infection and became an antibiotic. Job had wounds that glowed in the dark. It was the Apostle Paul who was Saul of Tarsus who was standing holding the coats, according to the book of Acts 6. And all of a sudden, as they were stoning Stephen, the Bible said that, «His face began to shine like an angel». He had that glow. And the scripture said in the next chapter that they came on him and they began to stone him. And they cast him out of the city and stoned him and witnessed it, and they laid down their coats at the feet of the young man named Saul, that’s Saul of Tarsus, who would become the Apostle Paul. And as they stoned Stephen, as he was calling on God saying, «Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,» he knelt down and he cried out with a loud voice, «Lord, do not charge them with my sin».
Notice, notice, there it is. You could ask why. He could have stood there and said, «Why, God? Why? I just stood for what was right and they’re stoning me, why»? But he moved from his why to forgiveness, and he fell asleep. But the glow that he had touched an atheist’s heart by the name of the Apostle Paul. He was a radical Jewish theologian that was wanting to kill all the Christians, who didn’t believe like he wanted them to believe. And that glow touched him, and he was converted the next chapter on a street called Straight, 'cause God wanted to straighten him out. And he wrote half the New Testament and he said, «I’m willing to spend and be spent. I’m willing that if God needs me to go through something so that I can comfort somebody else».
Don’t waste what you’ve gone through, and don’t lay in it and ask the rest of your life, why? If God lets you walk through it, it’s because He’s still God and He has a plan. And it may be like Job for generation after generation. You don’t know what God is doing generations down the road for your family. If you stand and trust God no matter what’s going on in your life. What about Paul? The wounds healed other people. What about Job? The wounds healed the other people. Can I tell you about another one? One more? You know who else did it? His name was Jesus.
1 Peter 2:21, «For to this you were called because,» You wanna know what you were called for? You were called for this. I don’t know what people think Christianity is. It’s not just as long as God blesses you serve Him and be happy. Christianity says you’re supposed to glow when you’re in suffering. You’re supposed, when you’re wounded, that’s when you’re supposed to be glowing. «And for this cause you were called because Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow His steps who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth. And when He was reviled, nor did He revile in return».
When He suffered, He did not threaten, He didn’t throw a fit, curse God, but He committed Himself to Him the Father, who judges righteously. Here it is. Here’s the wounds that glow in the dark. «Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed». Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Don’t get twisted. Don’t get bitter. Don’t get angry. Somewhere, sometime, somehow you will be able to help somebody else with the glow of the wounds. God will allow you to have the Angel Glow. And the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our tribulations that we may be able to comfort them.
When you go through things that you don’t understand, heartbreaking situations. I’m telling you what I’ve learned. I’m 61 years old now. I’ve learned that this thing is not about my purpose. I have learned and absolutely will believe till I go to my grave one day, that God has allowed me and my family to walk through things that we would have never chosen to walk through, so that I could comfort with the same comfort that God gave us in our darkest, darkest nights. Wounded, laying in the battlefield of Shiloh. Can I tell you what, Shiloh is a Bible term. Did you know that? It is a city, and it actually is identified with a verse concerning the coming Messiah and it says, «We will wait until Shiloh comes,» and Shiloh means my peace comes.
Boy, I don’t know why I’m preaching like I’m preaching, but I feel this thing down in my bones that there are families, and there are people, and there are men, and there are women, and there are even teenagers who have a why, and the Lord told me to tell you, «Don’t die in your why». Forgive and say, «Lord, I’m not letting go of you. If it gets better, I’ll praise you. If it doesn’t get better, I’ll be right here knowing that you are working all things together for the good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose». Raise your hands right where you’re sitting, at every campus. It represents your battlefield.