"I will praise Thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are Thy works.... How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!" Psa. 139:14,17.
Sweating is something we don't think much about unless to complain as it drips from our foreheads or soils a shirt or blouse. But we should be thankful for it as it is one of the marvels of the human body, designed by the Creator to add to the comfort and enjoyment of life.
Humans have a greater capacity to sweat than most other mammals. Elephants, for instance, can only hunt for shade, waggle their big ears like fans, or spray water over their bodies to keep cool. Hippos stay under water when it is hot, and even lions and tigers stay in the shade or jump into the water when too warm. Dogs that seem to be smiling are really cooling off by opening their mouths and letting their wet tongues hang out for relief.
The human body has about two million sweat glands, called pores, like tiny tubes coming from the lower part of the skin to the outside.
You may ask, "What's the purpose of this sweat system?" Actually it is God's kind thought in giving human beings a healthy and quick way to cool off in hot weather after playing or working hard or when excited by emotions. Sweating brings relief, and when the emotions are past, the skin returns to normal where at all times, awake or asleep, various parts of the body are sweating, usually so lightly that we are not aware of it.
Perspiration helps keep us cool by its evaporation, just as many air-conditioners do. Have you noticed a nice cool feeling while you're dripping wet after a swim, but when dried off you get warm again? That's just what sweating does for you. Being 99% water, it covers you with moisture that does the same thing, and largely because of its action, your body temperature of 98.6° (except when sick) is always the same, summer or winter. In addition to the cooling benefit of the moisture in sweat, some of the undesirable chemicals that get into our bodies from improper food or drinks and smoke and dust in the air we breathe, are removed by sweating and deposited on the outside where they can do no more harm.
The more we consider the bodies the Creator has given us, the more we are amazed at the wonders of every part of them and how they have been designed by His supreme wisdom. The praise and expressions of David in the 139th Psalm quoted above, and his recognition of the One who created him, are exactly the thoughts that each of us should have.
Have you ever praised and thanked the One who made and preserves you?
"Thorns also and thistles shall it [the ground] bring forth to thee... In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." Gen. 3:18,19.
When Adam sinned and the Lord told him, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," he soon learned what that meant. Before disobeying God he had no cares or work, just the pleasure of walking through the garden God had provided, occasionally perhaps trimming a branch or picking the fruit.
Now that was changed. Thorns and thistles would grow, and the soil would not so easily give its nourishment, which meant hard work was going to be required, and his labor would produce the sweat of which the Lord God spoke. But, while this must have been hard for Adam to accept, it was actually one proof of God's love for him that, in spite of the sin he and Eve had committed, he would enjoy the benefit of the very sweat that would always remind him of his sinful nature.
How does the body know when to send sweat to the skin? The Creator has made a most amazing provision that could never "just happen to come about" or take millions of years to develop, as some foolishly claim. A part of the body called the hypothalamus is what starts, stops and regulates it. This complicated organ, about the size of your thumb and located under the center of your brain, performs much like the control tower at an airport where pilots of airplanes are told when to come in, when to leave, which runway to use, and other instructions to insure their safety. Similarly the hypothalamus, among many other things, tells you when to eat, when to drink, when to put on or take off an overcoat, when to sleep, and when to wake up. These instructions, as well as the control of perspiration, are all functions of the hypothalamus.
It is there that the first step in sweating takes place as this little part of the brain sends a message to thousands of sweat glands to open up and pour out moisture. How does it know when to do this? Only the Creator who devised it knows exactly how it works, but its work is truly marvelous. Under hot conditions the sweat cools your skin and, controlled the same way, on a cold day it orders the same sweat glands to shut down and hold back the moisture so you can warm up. Isn't this remarkable?
This wonderful provision of love for Adam and for all of us reminds us that although God hates sin, He does love sinners and offers the very best gift of all, in spite of our sinful nature. His Word, the Bible, tells us, "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8), and that "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life " (John 3:16).
Have you accepted this gift and believed on Him as your Savior?
"And being in an agony He [Jesus] prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Luke 22:44.
Sweat, 99% water, also contains sodium chloride (salt) and other elements. Under normal conditions your body loses about a quart of water a day through perspiring, but someone who is playing hard can sweat as much as two quarts in an hour. That's why it is wise to drink lots of water to replace it.
Sometimes it is asked, "How come perspiration smells so bad?" Perhaps the Creator allows this as a reminder that sweat was not present until sin came into the world through Adam and that we are all sinners. But it is not always accompanied by bad odor. We sweat all the time when we are in good health, although we may not be aware of it. The occasional bad odor comes from bacteria acting on tiny bits of the impurities brought out with the sweat in places where moisture does not promptly evaporate—such as the armpits or feet. But when such spots are kept clean the odor usually is not so noticeable.
As mentioned earlier, one of the penalties placed on Adam because of his disobedience was that the labor that was necessary to maintain life would produce sweat—an ever-present reminder that he had sinned against his Creator.
Approximately 4000 years later, on the very night when the Lord Jesus was about to go to Calvary's cross, we read that He went to the Garden of Gethsemane with some of His disciples. Withdrawing a short way from them, He engaged in prayer to His Father, saying, "O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." He then returned to the disciples, found them asleep, left them and once more prayed in the same manner, agonizing at the thought of the load of sin He was to bear. Once more He joined the still-sleeping disciples and then drew apart for a third prayer to His Father. It was on this third occasion that we read (as quoted above) that the agony of the thought of taking the sins of mankind on Himself caused Him to "sweat as it were great drops of blood."
The very sins of the world, which had begun with Adam and caused him to sweat ordinary perspiration, were now as a terrible load to be borne by the loving Savior who had never sinned. And in the terrible agony at the thought of bearing the sins of others, His sweat, unlike that of Adam, was mingled with great drops of blood!
He could have refused to go to Calvary and relieved Himself of that great burden, but instead He endured it, saying, "The cup which My Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?" John 18:11. In this way His death provides salvation for every sinner who will trust in Him as Savior. Have you trusted Him?