I’ll be honest.  As a reader of the book of Job, I’ve had quite mixed emotions about the book.  Firstly, it kind of irked me the way God and Satan made a bet.  I mean, it seemed more like the greek gods who in whimsy played tricks on their fearful minions.  But somehow, I got over that.  The second thing, was Job’s horrid plight.  I mean, the man went through everything–wasn’t he entitled to a little complaint?  Evidently, no.  So, then, I got over that.  But the final query that has plagued me ever since, was the conversations Job had with his friends.  I mean, if you go through the book of Job, it reads sort of like a play, where the dialogue goes back and forth. 

As I sat reading the dialogue I thought, “what an argument!”  But what stumped me most, is God’s take on Job’s friends discourse.  It reads in Job 42:7-9:

⁷And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

 ⁸Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

 ⁹So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.

Um, excuse me?  How can this be?  I sat there reading all of their discourse and it seemed pretty right on to me.  Just look at Job 35.

¹Elihu spake moreover, and said,

 ²Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?

 ³For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?

 ⁴I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.

 ⁵Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.

 ⁶If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?

 ⁷If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?

 ⁸Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.

 ⁹By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.

 ¹⁰But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night;

 ¹¹Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?

 ¹²There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men.

 ¹³Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.

 ¹⁴Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him.

 ¹⁵But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:

 ¹⁶Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.

Isn’t this altogether true?  Doesn’t God visit the wicked?  Isn’t it impossible to be more righteous than God?  Then if so, how can God say that Elihu and the other men did not speak the thing that was right regarding God?   I confess, this has always been a quandry to me.  But for the first time, I realized by God truth, what exactly He was talking about.

You see, Elihu and the other were right about God’s nature as they described it to Job.  They had that much correct.  However, what made everything they said wrong, was how they applied it.  If you look at Job 35 (the one quoted above), I’d like to draw your attention to one very telling verse.  And it was this statement and statements like it that riddle the doctrine of Job’s friends.

¹⁵But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knoweth it not in great extremity:

 ¹⁶Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.

Among all that Elihu said in this chapter, he made a fatal mistake.  He assumed Job’s suffering was because of sin.  This is the Aha moment!  Many times, we believers can make such judgements about others.  I remember during Hurricane Katrina, many saying that the devistation was the cause of God’s anger against the abundant black arts practised in New Orleans.  Interesting theory, but in all honesty, mere speculation.

Just because someone is suffering does not mean that they have sinned.  Often we are lured into this belief when we think “prosperity” or riches   is the “norm.”  Evidently, Job was a rich man.  So, it stands to reason his friends were probably wealthy as well.  They’d come to rely on a since of prosperity attached to their keeping of the law.  Perhaps even a bit of entitlement had crept in.  They all lived very comfortable, well appointed lives, and so when one fell into such bitter loss; they came to the conclusion he had done evil.

There are several lessons to learn here.  Job’s unfortunate plight was not predicated by sin, sloth, or even the unfortunate turn of events that can happen in a life.  No one could have possibly have guessed what was taking place in the heavenlies to result in such a devastation.  God was making a bet with Satan?  Nobody suspects that. 

No one says, “Oh, my dog died, my friend left me, my house burned down, I just got sick, and I lost all of my money… hmmm.  I think God made a bet with Satan to see how faithful I am.”

In truth, when such things occur, we respond by asking, “WHY!”  then we assume we’ve done something wrong.  Many times, like Job, we assume God has whet His sword against us and become our enemy.  The simple fact is, we realy don’t know what is going on in the heavenlies that permits such calamity.  Sometimes when we are watching such horror from the outside we make the same forgone conclusions.  We assume God is angry with said individual or that person has done something vile to recieve God’s wrath.  But just maybe, we are unaware of what is actually happening in the heavenlies.

And we can translate that to our times today.  Whether God was making a bet with the devil or not is irrelavant.  God never revealed His conversation with Satan to Job.  And that is because regardless of what is happening in the heavenlies, the ultimate factor is that Job was being tested.  Many times God might be testing those we see fall into peril or loss.  God may test us in such a way. 

But what we must refrain from doing two things, 1) assuming that the unfortunate individual has done wrong to recieve such trouble and 2) assuming that God is against us when we do fall into such trials.

Certainly, it is worth your while to search your heart in times of trial and suffering.  There may be some sin in us that needs to be uprooted.  But only we in the privacy and honesty of our hearts with God can identify it and stand before God to ask for forgiveness–much like Job.  But at times, we will suffer from the sake of spiritual growth or the growth of another.  We must then be assured in our hearts about a couple of things that will give us hope and courage.

1.)  Hebrews 6:10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

2) Hebrews 11: 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

We cannot always know the story of suffering in a persons life.  As believers, it is not our job to look from the outside and judge.  Because in many cases, we end up judging God and man in our estimation.  If we assume God is cruel we have made a high presumption about the character and nature of God (Hebrews 6:10).  And if we assume the individual is to blame for their misfortune, we judge our brother to be a worker of iniquity. 

There is a godly sort of judgement–that judgement where we use the word of God to point out evident sin.  But then there is that judging according to the flesh where we judge what we know not of.  How do you know the cause of a man’s plight?  We must be careful to judge righteous judgement using the Word of God as our guide so that we can purify and purge, that we are blameless and pure before Christ and His appear.  But we must also not judge according the flesh, what we can see we make huge assumptions about a person’s motive or character.  For misery and calamity befalls us all.  The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 2:14 “The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: and I myself perceived also that one event happeneth to them all.” 

In Mark 10:30, Jesus Christ makes an odd promise,

But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

So it seems persecutions and sufferings are a part of the christian life as much as prosperity and victory.  Perhaps these men, assumed the “godly life” was one unaccompanied with suffering?  But we learn a very important aspect of suffering from Job that is crystalized in 2 Corinthians 12:10:

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

If I see a man suffering, how do I know that his pain is because of sin or because of God’s wrath toward him?  Perhaps he is one suffering for Christ….How shall we know God’s strength, if we do not need it?  How will you be strong, if you are not first weak?  Therefore in times of persecution, pain, need–take joy, for then you are strong!

…night will befall the misty wood and dreams will turn to nightmares.

© 2008 D L Ennis, All rights reserved.

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In a thin book, called “Daro va Shafa” (medicine & Cure), a collection of traditional Islamic medicine from the Holy Prophet SAAS, it is mentioned that eating cheese makes someone to fall asleep.

When I read this I got astonished and kept it in my head. Some 5 months later, in my Histology course in medicine, while I was studying for my exam I came up with a theory to solve the problem of insomnia. I noted my theory beside the fact of the effect of visual light on our pineal gland (in our brain) which regulates its production of the amino acid tryptophan, which in turn is decisive for humans to sleep or vice versa.

Let’s go into this much deeper.

Dr. Judith Bryans, a nutrition scientist at The Dairy Council said:
“One of the amino acids contained in cheese – tryptophan – has been shown to reduce stress while inducing sleep. In other words, the cheese to help you have a good night sleep. “1,2,3

But that chemical process does tryptophan follow in the human body that leads one to fall asleep?

The wonderful effect of tryptophan on both mood (or “bad mood”) and sleep may be that your body naturally converts tryptophan to both serotonin and melatonin.
Serotonin levels affect mood, and melatonin affects sleep.

Here’s how the body normally works without the consumption of tryptophan. This is while one needs to bear in mind that our body already has tryptophan. But why should one then eat cheese to get tryptophan into our body? The answer to the question is.

It is important to a small agency called pineal gland or epiphysis located at the rear of the third ventricle recording the light surrounding us.
In mammals, the structure is deeply embedded in the skull but still registers the light.
This gland consist of two types of cells: glial cells and pinealocytes.
Pinealocytes look like neurons with short axons that docks to the blood vessels through its committees. Pinealocytes produce melatonin. Synthesis and secretion of melatonin is regulated by light illumination from the eye.

Melatonin’s main functions:

- Regulation of daily body rhythms and sleep cycle
- Inhibits the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) and thus avoids the gonad’s fat formation.
Moreover, it regulates the steroidogenic activity of gonads especially in the menstrual cycle.
Melatonin also has anti-oxidative effect, as there are receptors for melatonin also in other places of the body, i.e. for defense against infections and inflammations.

Sympathetic nerve fibers from superior cervical ganglion enters the gland with the light of information along a long road:

1. In the retina (of the eye) light-sensitive cells can be found. Signals from these light-sensitive cells travel to the nucleus suprachiasmicus (of the hypothalamus) through a nerve bundle called the retinohypothalamic tract.
2. The information from the hypothalamus is sent to the lateral nuclei in the gray matter of the spinal cord at thoracic level.
3. The information from the spinal cord is transmitted to superior cervical ganglion (preganglionic sympathetic fibers).
4. The information from superior cervical ganglion is sent over by postganglionic sympathtic fibers which go in association with the blood vessels that go into the pineal gland.
5. Darkness stimulates the production of melatonin. Light suppresses the rapid production of melatonin. This means that melatonin levels in the blood varies throughout the 24.hour period; they are high at night and drop when ones eyes are opened.

Melatonin acts both on the hypothalamus (sleep cycles) and on the adenohypophysis to inhibit gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) and growth hormone (GH) secretion.
These cycles (the increase and decrease of melatonin) begins in puberty.
In infants, they are on a constant high level (since babies sleep a lot). In older the curve becomes less sharp. Melatonin seems to promote a good sleep and therefore the elder can have trouble sleeping.
Melatonin is a hormone that is a strong antioxidant and acts against OH free radicals, which is important to avoid cancer or even to fight against it.

The formation of melatonin:

Its formation starts from tryptophan and continues via serotonin:

Tryptophan –> 5-hydroxytryptophan –> serotonin –> N-acetylserotonin –> melatonin

As pointed out earlier the hormone serotonin, which is initially formed from tryptophan reduces mood such as bad temper or even stress; in other words, it affects the feelings, behaviors and thoughts.
There is an endogenous internal clock from the nucleus suprachiasmaticus (of the hypothalamus), whose cells have an intrinsic rhythm that is balanced and adjusted in light illumination (of the eye).

Melatonin can be bought in the U.S., Britain, France, in healthy diet and it can be consumed when wants to be sleepy. It cannot be bought in Sweden since no one has its patent and it isn’t profitable to sell it in Sweden.

Then what’s the solution to this health problem?

تَداوَوْا؛ فَاِنَّ الَّذِي أَنْزَلَ الدَّاءَ أَنْزَلَ الدَّوَاءَ.

Cure yourselves, for He who has let diseases befall you, has created their medicines too.
(The Holy Prophet Mohammed(SAAS) – Nahj al-Fasahah p.53)

تَداوَوْا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ؛ فَاِنَّ اللَّهَ تَعَالى لَمْ يَضَعْ دَاءً اِلاّ وَضَعَ لَهُ دَوَاءً؛ غَيْرَ دَاءٍ واحِدٍ؛ الهَرِمِ.

Cure yourselves, O servants of the Exalted God! for he has created a (specific) medicine for any single kind of disease, save old age.
(The Holy Prophet Mohammed(SAAS) – Nahj al-Fasahah p.53)

Thus, one can solve this problem and it is simply to eat cheese. This shows in other words, that cheese can be used as a natural medicine instead of consuming drugs which all have side-effects on our body. As everyone surely know, sleeping problems does exists in epidemic values in the Western world, due to their fast growing life which is threatened by constant stress on a daily-basis.

Most drugs used are designed to prevent the degradation of serotonin in the body. Examples of these medicines called SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) are:
Prozac (fluoxetine), Paxil (Paroxetine, Zoloft (Sertaline), Desyrel (Trazodone) and Effexor (Venlafaxine) 2

On the other hand what makes the cheese work is its increase in the formation of serotonin, but to prevent the body from doing its normal job which is to break down the extra serotonin (to become N-acetylserotonin among others). In other words, drugs tend to strive against the bodies natural being while its natural cure – cheese – allows the natural process in the body to work but instead fixes the problem. The main problem for people with sleep problems is that the amount of tryptophan in their pinealocyts in pineal gland are not sufficient to create enough serotonin, and especially melatonin. Thus the drug, which belongs to the anti-depressant class, does not work specifically enough to fix the lack of melatonin but rather that of serotonin. This is one of the many reasons why drugs belonging to this class have many side-effects (www.emedicinehealth.com/ssris_and_depression/page5_em.htm)

A good and important question that many might want to ask is:
What kind of cheese is best to consume?

According to researchers the cheese that works best to tackle this problem is Cheshire. It is the typical white salty cheese that people from the Middle East (and many Mediterranean countries) eat. The same cheese, but in its yellow form, is also found in other countries such as Britain.
Due to its salty taste, it should be put into a (previously-boiled) water with an average temperature to reduce its salinity, where the salty content leaves the cheese to the water. The reason to do so before consuming it is to reduce the risk of high blood pressure resulting from salty cheese or food.

So from now on, if you meet people with sleep problems, depression or anxiety you can recommend them to eat cheese.

Source:

1. http://www.britishcheese.com/news.cfm?page_id=240

2. http://www.naturdoctor.com/Chapters/Research/insomnia_tryptophan.html

3. Medical text book: Histology a text and atlas by Ross, Michael H, 5th edition (2006).