CHAPTER 3 – MARY BETH THE PREACHER’S DAUGHTER
Job 19:25 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:
Note: This is a chapter from my book Hebrew Word Study – The Butterfly Effect. This is a little different from my usual word study books as it uses true stories from real life people to illustrate Biblical passages from the original Hebrew. You can purchase this book off Amazon. The Kindle version is only $.99 and the Printed edition is $11.99.
CHAPTER 3 – MARY BETH THE PREACHER’S DAUGHTER
Job 19:25 For I know [that] my redeemer liveth, and [that] he shall stand at the latter [day] upon the earth:
Mary Beth was a grandmotherly elderly woman who hailed from South Georgia. She came equipped with a genuine dirt water Southern accent and made good use of it. There are some people in this world who are just genuinely funny. They are born comedians. Just opening their mouths and saying “Hello” will have you rolling on the floor with laughter. That was Mary Beth. She did not intend to be funny, did not try to be funny and would be surprised to learn she was funny. Yet, as she would dive into one of her stories I found it difficult to drive my bus because I would be laughing so hard.
I usually take Mary Beth to a doctor’s appointment that was a good forty five minutes away from her home. People will pay a lot of money for forty five minutes of entertainment and here I was not only getting some of the best comedy material this side of Georgia for free, I was being paid to listen. Plus I was in for another forty five minutes of hilarity bringing her home.
The other day she started into a story about her daddy. As she told it, “Ma’ daddy was a preacher, a Baptist preacher. He’d baptize anyone, didn’t care if you were Catholic, Presbyterian or Methodist, he’d baptize ya. He even tried to baptize the dog. The dog, he didn’t like it much, he fought ‘em. The deacon, he says, ‘Why you tryin to baptize that poor dog, he didn’t do nutin wrong.’ But my daddy he said, ‘Ya just gotta be sure.’ Yep, that’s what my daddy always said, ‘Ya just gotta be sure.’”
I have to agree with Mary Beth’s daddy, like the old preacher said, “Ya gotta be sure.” Job was sure. In the midst of all his suffering, losing his children, his wealth, and his health, he still said, “I know my redeemer lives.” Look closely at that word know. The Hebrew word is yada’ this is the same word that is used in Scripture to describe the intimacy between a man and woman. This knowing is an intimate knowing, one that Job had endeared to himself. Old Job was absolutely sure, he was certain that his redeemer lived. It is interesting that the writer uses the word redeemer rather than deliverer or savior. Most commentators believe Job was referring to God as his redeemer. Yet, was not God in the role of a judge. He was after all the one who lifted his protection from Job so the enemy could afflict Job. Yet a redeemer is someone who pays a price in your behalf. The word in Hebrew is go’al which is an avenger, one who pays a ransom, to redeem one from slavery. It is used for a kinsman redeemer who was to marry his brother’s widow to bring forth a child for him. Just what was God going to redeem him from?
Would you like Chaim Bentorah as your personal Hebrew teacher?
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Job’s friends were accusing him of some hidden sin that brought about his affliction. Job wasn’t buying into it. Let’s face it, for many of us Christians, the first thought we do when we fall into difficulty is to wonder just what sin we committed that brought about this trouble. Then we try to decide if our sin was bad enough to warrant such trouble.
Job knew he was not suffering for his sins. He knew that there was a redeemer who was alive, one who would pay the price for his sins. I am not a theologian, I am not qualified to explain dispensationlism or covenant theology to you. I am just a student of ancient languages and I know what this verse is saying, it is saying that Job knew he had redeemer and from the context he was not looking to any normal human being to be his redeemer, he was looking for a redeemer from his sins and that fits only one person in the human form and that would be the Messiah who I believe is Jesus. He knew it, he was intimate in that knowledge that one day a redeemer would come who would pay the price for his sins and that he was not suffering now because of some sin that his buddies were trying to lay upon him. He could not explain the reason for his suffering but one thing he knew, it was not because of any sin he committed for there would be a redeemer who would one day ransom him from that sin.
Every other Sunday I drive people in my disability bus to various churches in our community. For some because of their disabilities, they go through great efforts to make it to church. I asked them why they go. Usually, it is because they want to stay in good with God and improve their chances of getting to heaven. I then ask them why they think they may not go to heaven and they say it is because of their sins. I tell them, but you have a redeemer who died on a cross two thousand years ago to pay the punishment for your sins, can’t you just trust Him? They look at me, turn their head, groan, and say, “Well, yeah, but I am not so sure, I don’t think that is what my church teaches.” I tell them that old Job was sure and like Mary Beth’s daddy said, “Ya just gotta be sure.”
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Thanks & Blessings, it means a lot to me!
once saved always saved. Jesus took all my sins.
Could you please delete: Jos on August 26, 2023 at 10:20 PM
You know another crazy thing happened while I wrote you, I had been multitasking & watching a video on & off and had decided to annotate my questions with regard to what the guest speaker was saying — what I assumed was against Scripture.
It was on discovering our spiritual gifts, but my dispute was why he was being such a pushover now, which he had previously mentioned his children calling him the meanest preacher in the world. So as I was citing Luke 14 as to why he shouldn’t let that change his approach, it suddenly hit me what GOD is doing to me & Job:
GOD is fulfilling HIS demand that we hate our own life!
Luke 14:26 | ²⁶ “If anyone comes to ME & doesn’t
hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, &
sisters—yes, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲—he cannot be MY
Disciple. #Aha that’s what HE’s up to!!
This is 360 round house answer, HE smashed it out of the park!!! 😍😍😍
I guess it’s not all that easy, when GOD says in so many passages that there are many who will claim that they served HIM, but in the end, HE will turn them away. [Lawless Servant Matthew 7:21-23; Foolish Virgins 25:1-13; Lazy Servant 25:14-30; Evil Servant 24:45-51, etc.]
Demonic attacks & the fleshly desires all give way to doubt, when we see a lack of fruitful progress to Christlikeness—we all assume the easy yoke is literally as advertised & as you yourself have admitted to, this sense of waiting on GOD for when we will be able to answer HIS call to be fishers of men [Mt 4:19], working the vineyard [Mt 21:28-32], or attending the banquet [Mt 22:1-14]
It’s like you want to know for sure that GOD has accepted you into HIS Family.
And not suffer the same fate as the sons from east & west clamoring to recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [Matthew 8:11-12]
But my question is, having read CH6 of 𝗔 𝗛𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲:
𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱-𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗞?
It was almost like after witnessing to someone, within an hour GOD had allowed me to vent anger that erupted from the man for the next several hours. I had only quoted Sproul
Because GOD is a righteous Judge, HE is angry with the wicked every day [Psalm 7:11]
Not sure if doing so actually released in me afresh rage with regard to my situation.. I guess I still lack a great deal of discernment & humility to ask GOD or be silent enough to hear HIM.
After I posted that comment, I looked over & saw Love Letter.. & it reminded me of the FATHER’s Love Letters, from 1999, but I had come across it 7-8yrs ago, I remember thinking wow. But all those passages referenced were so foreign to me..
I mean I didn’t even know about Philippians 2:13
So today I heard it again for the first time since, it’s like GOD is speaking to me.
The entire video was an answer to my previous comment I wrote you Chaim ♡♡♡
MY thoughts toward you are countless as the sand on
the seashore [Psalm 139:17-18] and I rejoice over you
with singing. [Zephaniah 3:17]
𝗜 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗱𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂. [Jeremiah 32:40]
Jeremiah 32:40 | I will make an everlasting
covenant with them: I will never turn away
from doing good to them and I will put MY
fear in their hearts, so that they will never
turn away from ME.
For you are MY treasured possession. [Exodus 19:5]
Exodus 19:5 | Israel at Mount Sinai
⁵ Now if you will indeed obey MY
voice & keep MY covenant, you’ll
be MY treasured possession out
of all the nations—for the whole
Earth is MINE.
I guess it’s not all that easy, when GOD says in so many passages that there are many who will claim that they served HIM, but in the end, HE will turn them away. [Lawless Servant Matthew 7:21-23; Foolish Virgins 25:1-13; Lazy Servant 25:14-30; Evil Servant 24:45-51, etc.]
Demonic attacks & the fleshly desires all give way to doubt, when we see a lack of fruitful progress to Christlikeness—we all assume the easy yoke is literally as advertised & as you yourself have admitted to this sense of waiting on GOD for when we will be able to answer HIS the call to be fishers of men [Mt 4:19], working the vineyard [Mt 21:28-32], or attending the banquet [Mt 22:1-14]
It’s like you want to know for sure that GOD has accepted you into HIS Family.
And not suffer the same fate as the sons from east & west clamoring to recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob [Matthew 8:11-12]
But my question is, having read CH6 of 𝗔 𝗛𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿’𝘀 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲:
𝗗𝗶𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱-𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗱𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗞?
It was almost like after witnessing to someone, within an hour GOD had given me the anger that erupted from the man for the next several hours. I had only quoted Sproul
Because GOD is a righteous Judge, HE is angry with the wicked every day [Psalm 7:11]
Not sure if doing so like released in me afresh anger with regard to my situation..? I guess I still lack a great deal of discernment & humility to ask GOD or be silent enough to hear HIM.
yes Papa, rightly said, just trusting in HIM can reap benefits for us until eternity.
I love this book and put it on my 13 yr old granddaughter’s kindle so we can each read and talk about it. Thank you dear Dusty Old Professor!! You certainly do put the cookies on the lowest shelf. I am just starting into your new book on prayer. Can’t wait!!
I like the story, there are multitudes of people with timid faith, always unsure of their place in the kingdom. Just having simple faith in “the kingdom of God is within you” goes a long way in settling our doubts and fears, reassuring us that we need nothing else.