Job (2:4): “Only skin for skin, but a person will give everything for his life.” What was the Adversary saying? A person will only give up some skin, something superficial, to save skin, some other extraneous thing. For instance, if you are falling, you might put your hands out to break your fall and scrape the skin on your hands in order not to scrape the skin on your face. But you wouldn’t risk your life in order to avoid getting a scrape on your face. That’s what it means, “Only skin for skin.” That’s why a nonaddict with a substance abuse problem will stop using when the consequences
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