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KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
THE SECRET OF JOB
(One part only)
I never paid much attention to Job. I knew that he was an overcomer. I
knew that he was
tested and tried and proven to the utmost extremity and I knew that he
passed the test. So I
praised God for Job. I eulogized his faith and patience, and that was about
as far as it went.
But some time ago the Spirit of God dropped a seed of revelation into my
heart. The
revelatory word came and suddenly I wasn't sure whether there ever was
a man named Job. It
is believed that the book of Job is the most ancient of the inspired writings
we have come to
know as the Bible. It predates the first five books of the Bible, the books
of Moses, and its
exact origin is a mystery. We do not know who wrote the book of Job: no
information is given
us on this point either in the book itself or elsewhere. The book of Job
just appeared on the
scene, it came out of antiquity, it emerged from the mists of obscurity,
and has always been a
part of human history. It was just there! It was there before Moses. It
was there, perhaps,
before Abraham. We cannot tell when Job lived. The scene of the book of
Job is laid in Arabia
in the remote Patriarchal period. The story begins simply: There was a
man. Since a parable
(II Sam. 12:1) and a history (I Sam. 25:2) begin with this same simple
phrase, the style does
not indicate whether Job was meant to be fact or allegory.
The book of Job is written in Hebrew in the style of a poetic drama, or
stage play. The first
two chapters, which constitute the introduction, are in prose. Beginning
with the third chapter
and continuing on through 42:6 the form is poetical. From 42:7 to the end
of the book it is
again prose, providing as an epilogue a few facts concerning Job's later
life. What is so
powerfully set forth in this book is not the unfolding of a drama full
of action, event, or
happening. Instead it is a poem in which several great issues that relate
to the righteousness of
God and the mystery of life are explored by means of conversations between
Job and his
friends. There is no "movement," except in the intensity of the feeling
and thought expressed,
until the poem comes to a crescendo with the voice of Yahweh speaking from
a whirlwind.
The book of Job belongs to a type of literature known as Wisdom, common
in the Near East,
a special kind of writing based upon practical observations about the mystery
of life — and
how to live it. Its modern counterpart would be philosophy. But Hebrew
Wisdom writing was
often in the form of a fable, or a riddle, or a proverb — most often presented
in the form of
poetry or poetic drama. Poetry is the language of imagination, intuition,
and revelation. Poetry
penetrates to a depth in the human soul that facts, reason and logic can
never reach. Our
confidence in the veracity of the Holy Scriptures need not be shaken, however,
whether the
story of Job is the history of an actual man who lived or merely the fictitious
main character in
a drama or stage play, for the divine inspiration of the book is readily
evident. Job is not mere
literature. It is life, distilled. As Mark Toohey has so aptly stated:
"Indeed, no other single
writing speaks as loudly to those of the Father's calling and election
in this hour as does the
book of Job. In its forty-two chapters is embodied the entirety of God's
dealings with those
whom He has called His sons, revealing the depths of truth and reality
inworked by His Spirit
in those of His election. No wonder, then, that the book of Job should
be surrounded by such
ambiguity, having no definable human origin; for that which it unveils
is wholly a supernatural
work undertaken out of the counsel of God and wrought in men by His hand
only. Job, it
would seem, was written by the very finger of God!"
It really doesn't matter to me today whether there ever was a man named
Job, because the
Spirit of God has made known to me who Job is. I was startled, intrigued,
and awed as the
spirit of revelation unfolded the striking parallels between Job and the
opening chapters of
Genesis. "There was a man in the land of Uz" — that's where it starts.
There was man. God
made a man in the beginning. God has made and is making a
new man in Christ Jesus. It is
written: "The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was
made a quickening
spirit. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord
from heaven" (I Cor.
15:45,47). Can the natural mind ever fathom the depths of the eternal truth
that there has
never been in the history of the world but two men? There
is a deep and hidden meaning in the
words, "The first man Adam" and "the last Adam."
The natural mind would conclude that, if
there were two Adams coming four millenniums apart, the first of these
being the first Adam,
it would logically follow that the next Adam would be the second
Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ
is here called the last Adam. But he who is called the first Adam
is also called the first man.
And He who is called the last Adam is also called the
second man. The first Adam is the first
man, but the last Adam is the second man,
and the second man is also the last man. These
simple statements, which on the surface seem so insignificant and scarcely
worth our notice,
are in fact pregnant with meaning, and full of wisdom and understanding.
The first Adam is said to be the first man.
The last Adam is declared to be the second man.
If
the second man is also the last Adam, He is also the
last man. Now if the first Adam is the
first man, it would of necessity follow that there were no
men on earth before him, for he was
the first. That certainly rules out any pre-Adamite races of men! And if
the last Adam is the
second man, then there were no men on earth between the first
Adam and the last Adam, for
the last Adam is the second man, and there
can be no men between the first man and the
second man. If there was even one other man between the first
man and the second man,
obviously the second man could not be the second man; he would be the third
man, the one
hundredth man, or the five billionth man. Since the second man is also
the last man, there can
not have been any men since Him, for if others have followed Him, He is
not then the last
man. So then, the first man was the first man, the second man was the second
man, and the
second man is the last man, so that there have been only TWO MEN who have
ever lived
upon this planet — Adam and Jesus Christ! There were none before Adam,
none between
Adam and Christ, and none since Jesus Christ. Only two men. No more. No
less. These
simple statements portray as nothing else can the great truth that all
men who have ever lived
ARE INCLUDED IN THESE TWO MEN. These two men are corporate men,
many-membered men. And since all men are contained in these two
men, what happens to
these two men happens to us ALL. If there have been any men on earth outside
of Adam and
Jesus Christ, they did not fall in Adam nor are they redeemed in Jesus
Christ. Let our
minds grasp the significant truth that when the first man sinned we all
sinned, for we were,
each and every one of us, genetically, substantially, and experientially
right there in him. The
same death that passed upon him because of his sin passed likewise upon
us all, even to the
last man of Adam's race, for all have sinned.
Now God has declared that our Lord Jesus Christ, the second man, should
be both the last
Adam and the last man. I cannot explain how divine
power can accomplish such wonders, but
God has decreed that all men of all ages should be included in Him. God
has gathered up all
the members of Adam's sinful race out of all ages past, out of the present,
and out of all ages
yet to come and included them ALL in Christ, the last Adam. Therefore,
by one divine and
omnipotent stroke God has included all men in His Son, declaring
Him to be the last Adam
and the last man, the end of the old Adamic humanity. God,
almighty and omnipotent,
gathered up every tribe and tongue and people and race and nation and without
either their
knowledge or consent, included them in Christ, the last Adam,
even as He included them in
the first Adam. In Jesus Christ the old Adam passes away
and there is an entirely new
humanity.
There was a man in the land of Uz. Uz means fertile — it also means counsel,
consultation
and plan. So there was a man in the land of fertility, and by counsel he
was involved in a
divine plan. And in the long ago there was another man in a fertile and
fruitful place, according
to the counsel of Elohim, and in the plan of God. We read about this man
in the book of
Genesis. The book of Genesis is probably the most important book ever written.
The word
"genesis" of course means origin or beginning, and the book of Genesis
gives the only true
and reliable account of the source and true nature of all things and the
meaning of life. The
first several chapters of the book of Genesis lay a ground-plan for the
entire revelation of
God's purposes in relation to man. As a piece of literature the story is
sublime; magnificent in
range, in profundity of design, and the unparalleled heights of spiritual
revelation it attains. I
can confidently say that every revelation of Himself and His purposes that
God has ever given
from the foundation of the world can be found in these opening chapters
of Genesis. There is
no revelation of scripture, spoken by holy prophet or apostle, or revealed
to the spirits of
worshipping men who have come into holy contact with the presence and power
of God, that
cannot be found in seed form as type, shadow, parable, or
allegory in the book of Genesis.
The entire plan of the ages is there portrayed from its majestic beginning
to its triumphant
conclusion. Each and every experience, situation, condition, capacity,
potential and destiny of
mankind, with all the principles and processes by which God brings man
into the image of God
are there set forth in awe-inspiring wonder. And nowhere is this more obviously
true than in
the account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is the greatest parable
in the Bible. How
shall we speak of God's great and wonderful purpose in man except in the
language of
parables? God prepares an exceedingly beautiful and fruitful garden for
man, whom He has
created with His own hands. Precious stones, rare odors, refreshing streams,
trees full of fruit
and splendid colors surround that first man. Who can speak of the marvelous
realities there
initiated except in the language of pictures? Pictures are not lies: they
denote things, realities;
they let the things that are meant shine through. When we come to the Garden
of Eden it is
evident that this is more than merely a piece of real estate somewhere
over in Mesopotamia!
No such place has ever been found, nor the angel with the flaming sword
to keep men out.
The Garden of God is not a physical place located on this or any other
planet. It is a STATE
OF BEING. It is a higher existence for man than this cursed state we find
ourselves in by
physical birth and mortal consciousness. It is the state of being that
man was in when he was
first brought forth from the creative hand of God and placed here upon
earth. It represents
man in the presence of God! Man with the incorruptible life of God available
to him! Man as
master and lord over all things! Man living above sin, sickness, pain,
limitation or death!
Blessed realities, one and all! And yet — the Garden also represents man
together with all the
factors and conditions, internal and external, of being and environment,
which ultimately were
to lead to his ruin and alienation from God. In one sense,
man was the Garden. Yet, man
was in the Garden. The Bible reveals it as a "garden within a garden."
Man both in a state of
being and in an environment — the two corresponding. All the conditions
that surrounded man
also were obvious realities within the heart of man. The original man with
his nature,
characteristics, capabilities and potential is what we see in the Garden
of Eden. The external
conditions of man's environment corresponded precisely with man's inward
nature for either
good or evil, carnal consciousness or spiritual consciousness, life or
death. This was man in the
Garden! It is a garden within a garden, a world within a world — man within
and without.
The next amazing parallel to the Genesis record that I would point out
is the location of the
Garden of Eden — in the east of the land of Eden. "And the Lord God planted
a garden
eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed" (Gen. 2:8).
In the
opening statement of Job we find that "there was a man in the land of Uz
(fertile place), this
man was the greatest of all the men of the east" (Job 1:1,3). How great
was this man of the
East! His wealth was measured in livestock and possessions. Similar property
lists in Genesis
(24:35) describe the wealth of the Patriarchs, suggesting that Job's way
of life was like theirs.
But the number of draught bullocks shows that Job was not a nomad, like
the bedouin, but an
agriculturist with extensive farmlands as well as a pastoralist. Most scholars
are agreed that he
was of princely rank, even some maintaining that he was indeed a King.
His possessions were
very great, and consisted of thousands of sheep and camels, many hundred
yoke of oxen and
she-asses, and "a very great household." It is also evident that Job was
cultured and learned to
an advanced degree, for in his book we find a familiarity with writing,
engraving in stone,
mining, metallurgy, building, shipping, natural history, astronomy, and
science in general. How
great was this greatest of the men of the East! How great was Adam, the
man in the Garden of
God in the East! And how great was the last Adam, our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, whose
star arose from the East! Truly the parallels are striking.
In the book of Job there is a man and he dwells in the fertile land of
Uz and his name is Job.
The Hebrew word for Job is IYOWB and means, "hated, persecuted — hated
or persecuted
for being of an opposite tribe; enemy, calamitous, afflicted, or adversity;
a coming back,
restored to one's senses." It is used 56 times in the book of Job — this
is 7 X 8, or
PERFECTION BY RESURRECTION, or the PERFECTING OF A NEW MAN IN A NEW
DAY. The primary and sequential thoughts here are: hated, tried,
and restored to perfection.
Those are precisely the meanings in Job's name. Can we not see the clear
pattern of man's
experience from the first humanity in Adam to the second humanity in Christ?
Against the
background of the Garden of Eden it is related how man was put into this
Garden in order to
live in it and how two trees stood in the middle of the Garden: one the
tree of life, the other
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And upon these two trees IN
THE MIDDLE OF
THE GARDEN the destiny of man was to be decided. There were, indeed, three
kinds of
trees in the Garden. There was the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, and
then all those other trees denoted as "all the trees of the garden." Man
began his sojourn upon
earth living in the realm of "all the trees of the garden." But man's future
experience and
destiny were to be decided by his relationship to the two trees
in the middle.
Two trees in the middle. First of all there is the tree of life. It is
clear from the context that
man was not forbidden to eat of it. It was there, revealed, offered, available.
LIFE, abundant,
immortal, incorruptible, eternal! For this reason the tree of life is mentioned
very casually in
Genesis 2:8-9. It was IN THE MIDDLE — that is all that is said about it!
It was right there in
man's consciousness, in man's nature. The life that comes forth from God
is in the middle.
That means that God, the source of life, is in the middle. In the middle
of the world that is at
Adam's disposal and over which he has been given dominion is not Adam himself,
but the tree
of God's eternal and incorruptible life. Adam's life was to come from the
middle which was not
Adam in his self-consciousness, but in his Deadconsciousness. This means
that with God as
his center man would have life. It means that man was created and
formed with the wonderful
capacity to LIVE IN THE SPIRIT and WALK AFTER THE SPIRIT. "For to be spiritually
minded is life and peace" (Rom.
8:6). One of man's inherent potentials was to know God
within as the source and center of his life.
Like the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil also
stands in the middle of the
Garden! To this tree is attached the warning not to eat of it upon penalty
of death. Death in the
middle. Within. In man's very nature. Thus is it declared with unquestionable
certainty that
man was formed with the capacity to LIVE IN THE FLESH and WALK AFTER THE
FLESH. "For to be carnally minded
is death" (Rom. 8:6). One of man's inherent potentials
was to know Self as the source and center of his life. But alas! Self would
not bring life, it
would mean death. Man could make the outer world of appearances, the physical
realm,
mortal consciousness, the bodily senses and appetites his center
but death would be found to
dwell in that center. Life and death were in the middle.
Two trees, two realities IN THE
MIDST of the Garden of man's experience and being. Both realities are in
the middle —
within man. One or the other is every man's center, the place of his consciousness,
the sphere
of his existence. But mark it well — both cannot be the center
of any man's life! He who eats
of the tree of life will find that the death realm will come to have no
more dominion over him.
And he who eats of the tree of death will discover that he becomes alienated
from the tree of
life. Thus, both trees, both realities are in the center
of man's life, but both cannot be the
center of his life! "For if you live after the flesh, you shall
die: but if you through the spirit do
mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live" (Rom. 8:13). "This I say
then, Walk in the spirit,
and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). How simple!
God would at once be
the limit and the middle of our existence.
To those who are experiencing the progressive unfoldment of the Christ-life
within one thing
becomes increasingly clear — within them there rages a furious battle.
Upon our spirit being
quickened by His Spirit, our lives become the meeting place — battle ground
— for two orders
that are opposed to one another — the flesh and the
spirit. This conflict is clearly defined by
the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Galatians. "For the flesh wars against
the spirit, and the
spirit wars against the flesh; for these are antagonistic to each other
— continually withstanding
and in conflict with each other" (Gal. 5:17). Let us glance for a moment
throughout the entire
Bible. It is a book of warfare. Two thrones are at war. We discern rival
sovereignties. We read
of two kingdoms. We are everywhere conscious of a clash of wills. There
are two men, two
peoples, two natures, two realms. As a result we face throughout scripture
irreconcilable
opposites: life and death; light and darkness; love and hate; righteousness
and evil; holiness and
iniquity; liberty and license; truth and lies; law and grace; mercy and
judgment; the glorious
city of God and the great harlot city of Babylon.
The Bible is a book of war. "The Lord is a man of war" (Ex. 15:3). The
saints are men of war.
Heaven is a realm of war as well as the earth. "And there was war in heaven"
(Rev. 12:7). The
sons of God are the Lord's army. David was a man of war. "You (Absalom)
know your father
(David) and his men that they are mighty men, and your father is a man
of war" (I Sam. 17:8).
David faced Goliath and took his sword. He was a man of war before he met
Goliath. David is
a type of Christ. His followers were men of war. "And there was long war
between the house
of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger,
and the house of Saul
waxed weaker and weaker" (II Sam. 3:1). The saints follow a man of war.
Long centuries ago Rebecca inquired of the Lord concerning the conflict
that was going on
within her womb. The Lord answered her, saying, "Two nations are in your
womb, and two
manner of people shall be separated from your bowels; and the one people
shall be stronger
than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger" (Gen. 25:23).
This conflict within
is not only the experience of Rebecca, but in every son in whom the character
of God is being
developed. And as Rebecca, so too can we take much comfort from the words
of God spoken
to her. For within every saint pressing on unto perfection there are
two nations, two kingdoms,
no matter how much some try to deny it; and each kingdom is of a very different
character.
But the promise is sure — "the elder shall serve the younger." The spiritual
meaning of this is
revealed by Paul in I Corinthians 15:45-49. "And so it is written, the
first man Adam was made
a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that
was not first which is
spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the
earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As
is the earthy, such are they also
that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have
borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."
So shall it be
fulfilled — the natural man shall be subject to the spiritual, the flesh
shall be ruled over by the
spirit, and then shall we see "all things in subjection under His feet"
(Heb. 2:8).
There was a man in the fertile land of God and his name was hated
and persecuted. He stood
in the Garden of the Lord by the counsel and plan of God, but he was hated,
despised, and
persecuted by the negative realm without and within. Adam the first stood
in a Garden. Adam
the second stands in the same Garden, promising him that overcomes that
He will give him to
eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God (Rev.
2:7). The first
paragraph of the book of Job furnishes a backdrop for everything else that
happens in the
book. It presents the picture of a righteous man par excellence.
Job was no baby saint, for no
one less than God Himself had given testimony that Job was a perfect and
upright man, one
that feared God and eschewed evil. In fitting correspondence with his moral
character and
spiritual quality, Job was also a man of material prosperity, both in his
family and his
possessions. He had seven sons — their number suggesting
completeness and perfection in
spirit; and three daughters — the manifestation of the character
and excellence of his soul.
These numbers are also seen in his possessions — seven thousand
sheep and three thousand
camels; while the five hundred yoke of oxen and asses indicate
complete ability for all work.
Great numbers of servants complete the picture of this noble Emir, "the
greatest of all the men
of the East."
The thing we want to note is that although Job was wealthy in temporal
things, rich in spiritual
things, and proclaimed perfect by the Lord Himself, he had
not been "tried by fire" as sons of
God must be — he was as yet untried, untested, and unproved. In the midst
of Job's ordeal
of affliction and suffering the spirit of prophecy came upon him and he
opened his mouth and
spoke concerning the purpose of God in it all, declaring,
"But He knows the way that I take;
when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).
Never do I cease to be amazed
at how the preachers and teachers, apparently without exception, join their
voices in unison
with those of Job's contemptible comforters, indicting and blaming poor
old Job, charging that
God brought all these calamities upon him because he had sin in his life,
or because he was
self-righteous, or because of some other appalling fault in Job. The only
reliable testimony we
have of Job's true state of being is that spoken by the Lord Himself, and
HE declared that Job
was A PERFECT MAN! May I reverently add: perfect, yes; but untried! His
perfection
remained to be tested, proved and demonstrated.
It is my earnest conviction that we can trust explicitly God's estimation
of a thing. I would
certainly take God's word for it ahead of the opinion of Job's miserable
"comforters," and I
will take God's estimation of Job ahead even of Job's opinion of himself!
There is a universe
of difference between man's feelings and perceptions and God's omniscience.
Now, nearly all
the preachers will tell you that they agree with Job's friends, or at least
with what Job felt and
expressed about himself before the awesome majesty of God. They believe
that Job had sin in
his life or he was self-righteous and needed correction. How many have
heard that one? Job
was self-righteous. I don't believe that! God — the highest and final authority
— never said
that Job was self-righteous. God said he was perfect. That is the testimony
I receive. The term
"perfect" means complete, entire, not lacking. The Greek word translated
"perfect" is a strong
one meaning absolutely finished. The first verse of the book
of Job reveals Job's character,
showing that his perfection had two sides. It had a positive side — he
"feared or reverenced
God." It also had a negative side — he "eschewed or turned away from evil."
This character
remained with him throughout the book with surprising persistency. To this
statement even his
wife added her testimony when she said, "Do you still retain your integrity?"
He was integral
within himself — he was a whole man! I trust that all who read these lines
can now see clearly
the parallels between Job and God's Christ "For it became Him, for whom
are all things, and
by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain
of their salvation
perfect through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10). "Though He were a Son,
yet learned He obedience
through the things which He suffered; and being made perfect, He
became the author of
eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him" (Heb. 5:8-9).
Another clue to the mystery of Job is found in Job 1:6. "Now there was
a day when the sons
of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also
among them." With
what divine genius does the Holy Spirit on the inspired pages of God's
Word portray the
blessed scene of that first earthly son of God, in the image and likeness
of God, abiding in the
lovely, fragrant, luscious Garden in Eden. There was a wonderful Presence
that walked in the
Garden in the cool of the day, and the man presented himself there before
the Presence of the
Lord and walked and talked with God. We know for a certainty that there
was a presentation
before the Lord, for as soon as man sinned he heard the Voice of the Lord
God walking in the
Garden and rather than joyfully going forth to meet Him Adam and his wife
"hid themselves
from the Presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the Garden." God
was in the Garden.
Man was in the Garden. What sweet, holy communion passed between them in
that blessed
hour of man's innocence! But no sooner does Adam, the son of God (Lk. 3:38),
present
himself before the Lord than suddenly and mysteriously the serpent
appears on the scene!
There is a man that is perfect, but innocent — and the amazing thing is
that in the presence of
God and that man, there is a devil.
Can you not see how it is, my beloved, that when the sons of God present
themselves before
the Lord, Satan comes also among them? This very same experience happened
to none other
than our blessed Lord Jesus — the Pattern Son. Did you notice how strangely
Matthew and
Mark speak of Christ's temptation? "And immediately the Spirit drove
Him into the wilderness
to be tempted of the Devil" (Mk. 1:2; Mat. 4:1). What a strange
statement! Jesus had just
presented Himself before the Father at Jordan, and the Father witnessed
of Him before all:
"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." Just
as God declared Job to be a perfect
man, so He declared His Son to be well pleasing to Him in every way. Then
immediately the
Holy Spirit of God drives the sinless Son of God into the wilderness to
be tempted by Satan,
the arch enemy of all righteousness, a murderer from the beginning, and
the father of lies! Ah,
but it was necessary for the Son of God to be proven, to be made strong,
to overcome in
these realms before proceeding on into His glorious ministry and the agony
and death of the
cross.
Do you suppose the Devil came to Jesus there as a weird looking creature,
with little, evil
looking horns protruding from his temple, and a pointed tail? How often
with our childish and
distorted understanding have we pictured Jesus confronted by that legendary
figure in the red
suit, with a pitchfork in his hands! This is nought but foolishness, for
Satan is spirit, even that
spirit which now works in the sons of disobedience (Eph.
2:2). How many times have you
been tempted by the Devil? Can you count the times? How often has he spoken
to you,
enticing, suggesting, compelling? Have you ever seen him?
Have you ever heard his audible
voice? Certainly not! Yet — you have sensed his presence, you have heard
his voice, you
have felt his power! It was all in your MIND, in your EMOTIONS. Does not
our Lord, the
Spirit of Truth, speak to us in the same way? That still small voice, the
inner urging, the
inward knowing, the spiritual consciousness — all from a dimension beyond
the natural senses.
Because it is all in our mind and heart does not mean that it is imagination
or hallucination! In
the depths of my spirit I am absolutely certain that there was not some
hideous personality
materializing before the eyes of Jesus in that Judean wilderness.
Remember — Jesus was not
only the Son of God, He was the Son of man. Being both He was capable not
only of hearing
from God, but hearing those things that be of man. So when we speak of
that ancient Serpent
which is the Devil and Satan, we are not talking about some mighty fallen
angel, but that mind
that savors the things of man — the carnal mind. The apostle James put
it this way: "But every
man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust,
and enticed. Then when lust has
conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth
death" (James 1:14-15).
The Moffat Translation reads, "Everyone is tempted as he
is beguiled and allured by his own
desire; the Desire conceives and breeds sin, while Sin matures and
gives birth to death."
Everyone has desires of one kind or another, and that really can be quite
natural. When we see
the word "lust," most Christians think it is used exclusively in a negative,
sensual, or sexual
context. The word simply means desire, and a person's desires
are not always evil. Even in the
things of the spirit one must be keen to discern between his own
desire and the desire of the
Spirit. That is where the battle lies, and that is where sin is
born.
The record states that after fasting for forty days, Jesus hungered. When
you're hungry, what
kind of desire do you have? You want to eat! In that crucial moment the
Tempter came to
Him. He began to feel the physiological pangs of hunger, and then the
thought occurred to
Him. Jesus dropped down from the high and holy thought of God, into the
reasoning of the
human mind. He descended in consciousness from the Son of God, to the Son
of man. He
said, "I know who I am; I can turn these stones into bread!"
And in His natural mind the Voice
cunningly suggested, "If you are the Son of God, go ahead and do it! Use
your sonship to fill
your belly! Use it to satisfy your own needs and desires!" Jesus quickly
discerned that wily
Devil and knew how to nip that idea in the bud before it had time to blossom.
He got to it
before it had time to conceive by entering into union with His will. When
desire and will
become one, sin is conceived — it makes a baby called sin! Jesus answered
out of the depths
of His spirit, "It is written — man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Mat. 4:4). In other words — if my Father
tells me to turn
stones into bread I shall do so. But if the voice is any other than my
Father's voice, I must do
only those things which I hear from my Father. That ended the temptation!
His will in union
with His Father's desire conceived and brought forth the baby of righteousness.
The battle lay
not with some mythical personage outside of Himself. The conflict was
within. The voice was
an inner voice. The suggestion was in His mind,
its power in His emotions and will. God
speaks to us in our mind and spirit. Satan also speaks in our mind and
heart. There is no
monster without. There are three things in this vast world, and only three
— the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; briefly, appetite,
avarice, and ambition. I do not
think you will be able to avoid the conclusion that all the inventions,
creations, and
contrivances of man are in existence to cater to these three things. It
was with these three
things that Eve was tempted. She saw the tree was good for
food (the lust of the eyes), a tree
to be desired (the lust of the flesh), a tree to make
one wise (the pride of life), and the
temptation was not from without but from within. How remarkably the three
temptations of
Jesus in the wilderness parallel these three! Every temptation of the Devil
comes to us through
the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. There
are no others. Not for
Adam and Eve, not for Jesus, and not for us.
We see this principle fulfilled in Job. "Now there was a day when the sons
of God came to
present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them" (Job
1:6). May I
reverently add that every time the sons of God
present themselves before the Lord — Satan
comes also among them! It bespeaks of a condition within
these sons — our mind vs. His
mind, our will vs. His will, our ways
vs. His ways. It is a heavenly place within the sons of
God wherein we must be tested to show whether we be sons indeed. This impudent
Devil of
self-will is in every man, and even our Lord Himself surrendered His own
will to the Father's,
saying, "Father, if You be willing remove this cup from me: nevertheless,
not my will, but
Yours, be done" (Lk. 22:42). Until every son has been thoroughly
tested in all points it is not
possible for the sons of God to come and present themselves before the
Lord without Satan
coming also among them. Does he not walk in the natural mind
of every man? It is written,
"And the Lord said unto Satan, Where did you come from? Then Satan answered
the Lord,
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it" (Job 1:7).
Now the Lord's questions are never for His own enlightenment. He knew well
whence Satan
came. Oh, yes, Satan had been walking to and fro throughout the earth —
God knew this —
for he walks in our earth, even that earth that we
are, from the east to the west, from the
north to the south, from sea to sea and from pole to pole he walks in the
earthly planes of our
soul, in the secret chambers of our minds, in the fleshly motions of our
bodies; he travels up
and down in us from the heights of our heavens to the depths of our hells.
There is not a day
that he leaves us, for dust is his habitation and his food. All the way
to glorification this inner
antagonist is present. Of course, the one who operates within us
also manifests and works
outwardly through us. The seat of Satan is in man, but his
manifestation is outward, affecting
all things through man and because of man.
Now, what does God do but deliberately hand over Job, the perfect and upright
man, into the
hands of Satan to do his worst upon him, only that he should not touch
his life. It was because
God desired to test Job that He brought forth "the smith
to blow upon the fire." Please note
that it was not Satan's idea to persecute poor old Job! Oh, no! It was
God Himself who
brought up the subject! There Satan was, presenting himself before the
Lord, appearing for
duty, and God asked, "Where have you been?" Satan replied, "Walking up
and down in the
earth." There was no mention of Job at all. "Well, Satan," the Lord asked,
"have you
considered my servant Job? Have you noticed that he fears God and eschews
evil? Have you
noticed that, Satan?" You can be assured, dear ones, that Satan had
noticed Job, but he wasn't
doing anything to him.
One of the most glorious testimonies of the preservation of the saints
of God is given here in
this passage by Satan himself. "Does Job fear God for naught? Have You
not made a hedge
around him and about his house and about all that he has on every side?"
Praise the Lord!
Yes, there truly is a hedge around the people of God, and that hedge is
Jesus Christ Himself.
The Psalmist recognized and rejoiced in this fact when he said, "He that
dwells in the secret
place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I
will say of the Lord,
HE IS MY REFUGE and my fortress: my God, in Him will I trust" (Ps. 91:1-2).
"You've put
a hedge around him," Satan said, "and I can't get to him!" Then he went
on to say, "You must
put forth your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to
Your face." The Lord,
however, who searches the reins and the heart, who knows them that are
His, knows who can
be trusted with affliction, and will not allow any to be tested beyond
what they are able to
bear. He therefore said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power
— in your hand —
only upon himself put not forth your hand."
One can only know God by vital relationship with Him. Job
KNEW God! Job knew in his
deepest heart that God is good, loving, true, righteous, just, omnipotent,
omniscient, immutable
and faithful in all His way. At one point in his trial he exclaimed, "I
KNOW that my Redeemer
lives, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in
my flesh shall I see God," and
again, "I KNOW that You can do everything, and that no thought can be withheld
from You"
(Job 19:25-26; 42:2). Being a perfect man Job understood the nature of
God, he knew what
God is like — how He is. Armed with this knowledge he was unshakable and
unmovable as
the hand of Satan moved against him. With lightning swiftness the misfortunes
fell as
tribulation and affliction smote this man of God. All hell broke loose
upon him. His possessions
were gone. His servants were gone. His cattle, his family, and his dwelling
place were as
though they had never been. And now he was desperately ill, tormented with
pain, and without
even a bed to sleep on he lies down in the ashes of what was once his beautiful
estate to listen
to the relentless arguments of his friends, monotonously attempting by
lengthy speeches to
make a fool of him and prove that his present despair was the result of
his own sin and
disfavor with God. I do not know how many days their debate continued,
but such miserable
comforters as these are always at hand, ready to attest that those who
have entered the
furnace of affliction have been bad examples as Christians, lacking in
faith, falling short in
revelation, unfaithful to God's purposes, or that they harbor secret sins
and so are deserving of
punishment. Unless the Lord Himself has convicted them of sin, or unbelief,
or lack of
understanding and applying the Laws of Life, sufferers should pay no attention
whatever to
them. "If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence before God"
(I Jn. 3:21).
In one tragic day all Job's earthly wealth and glory had vanished as a
mist before the rising sun.
But did Job curse God for all this calamity? Did he even curse the Devil?
Was he a fair
weather saint without spiritual understanding? No, indeed! He rent his
mantle, shaved his head,
and falling upon the ground, he WORSHIPPED GOD with the unmistakable words
of
reverence, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return
thither: THE
LORD GAVE, AND THE LORD HAS TAKEN AWAY; BLESSED BE THE NAME OF
THE LORD!" (Job 1:22). You see, beloved, all external evidence shouted
aloud that God did
not love Job, that God had forsaken him, that
God did not see him, that God was not
concerned about what happened to him, and that God wasn't
just. It seemed that God had
now revealed Himself to be the opposite of all Job had experienced
and known of Him. But,
praise God! Job knew God! He therefore knew that in spite of all the apparent
external
evidence, in spite of how terrible and hopeless things appeared, God had
not forsaken him,
God did love him, God did see him, God was concerned about
what happened to him, God
was in control of everything, and God was just.
Ah, this is faith — trusting God's goodness,
wisdom and faithfulness in the knowledge that HE has everything in control,
that ALL is
according to His purpose, IN SPITE OF ALL EVIDENCE TO THE CONTRARY! Faith
declares with Job, "Though God slay me, yet will I trust Him," — and then
after being slain —
TRUSTS HIM! Job, stripped of all, tried by fire, tested in the furnace
of affliction, found that
the key to life is not some creed or doctrinal statement of what we believe
about God, but that
which we KNOW OF HIM by virtue of intimacy of fellowship and vital union
with Him.
Truly, "the trial of your faith is much more precious than gold that perishes"
(I Pet. 1:7).
I am thoroughly convinced that Job is none other than God's Christ. The
first man Adam
walked in the same land of fertility, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, in
the quickening
presence and shimmering glory of God — but when the adversary appeared
and he was put to
the test — he flunked the test. But blessed be God! the second man was
tested in all points
like we are and — He passed the test! When the Lord Jesus told His disciples
that He beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven, He was saying that He had seen Satan
FALL OUT OF
HIS (JESUS') HEAVEN, or actually Jesus had seen Satan FALL BEFORE HIM and
become
subservient to Him in the realm of spirit. So far as Jesus was concerned
Satan was no longer in
possession of any authority whatsoever. Jesus spoke not of a historical
event, not of some
mighty archangel that was expelled from heaven before the foundation of
the world, but a
living reality that He had seen occur within His own consciousness, life,
experience and
ministry. THIS WE ALL MUST SEE AND KNOW if we are to know victory in our
lives, if
we are to truly walk as the sons of God. We must realize that if Satan
has fallen he is not the
powerful and formidable head of a mighty kingdom, but he has been stripped
and his kingdom
broken. This must be embraced as a wonderful reality within ourselves.
When we realize that
Satan has fallen before the Christ within us, then we really will be set
free! When this truly
happens we are on our way — not to a rapture — but to that
high and holy position that God
has created for us and determined to bring us to.
To those who have Satan yet in their consciousness elevated to a position
of power and who
carry on in their thinking an image of him, HE HAS NOT AS YET FALLEN. Such
people
have made a god of him, but in your life, precious one, he is to be cast
down, and you are to
know once and for all that THERE IS ONLY GOD THAT RULES ALL. If God is
controlling
part of this world and Satan is running another part, may God indeed
help us! We would be
under two governments and our lives would be a hell. But for some of us,
at least, SATAN
HAS FALLEN and has ceased to be a king in our domain. When this truth is
revealed in
power and glory within your deepest heart, for you, at last, THERE WILL
BE NO DEVIL
ANYMORE! Sin and death must now be done away, swallowed up of His Life.
The last
enemy must be put under foot. "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers
of flesh and
blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death
He might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who
through fear of
death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:14-15).
It is now time that the prince of this world be cast out, the spirit of
blindness in men's minds,
which veils the glory of the Christ within. It is time for the Son of man
to be glorified. Turn, O
man, and behold the Lord! See the Lord as He is in His temple!
The god of this age doesn't
want this for any man. Why must the god of this world be cast out? "So
that the light of the
glory of God, who is the very image of God, may shine to men!" The word
in the Greek for
image is the word from which we get our English word character.
The image of God is the
character of God. The character is in you, it is in the Christ, in your
spirit. When you behold
this Christ within, the glory of Christ begins to shine and the veil is
done away; the character of
God is seen by all about. The one thing that terrifies the forces of darkness
is the fear that
someday those who believe in Christ will wake up to the dynamic
potential in the life of the
Spirit within them and begin to live fully out of that realm. When this
happens, the great
problems that plague mankind will disappear. Ignorance will go; sin will
go; disease will go;
limitation will go; Satan will go; death will go; bondage of every sort
will fade away and the
Kingdom of God will be demonstrated in men. What a hope! What a day! The
wonder of it all
is that this Day is even now breaking in the hearts and lives of God's
elect! I proclaim to you
that the crisis hour in the history of the world has come, and God's people
must now arise and
shine and courageously take hold of life and bring deliverance to the whole
world. Truly, we
have come to the Kingdom for such a time as this!
When Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness, it was not to
see whether or not He
would sin. That wasn't it at all. What did the Father say when Jesus came
and presented
Himself at Jordan? "This is my beloved Son in whom I AM well pleased."
With what was the
Father pleased? What had Jesus done that pleased the Father? The fact is,
He had not yet
performed even one miracle. He had never healed any sick, raised any dead,
cast out any
devils, or done any signs. He had never preached a Kingdom sermon, and
He certainly had not
prayed or sweat blood in dark Gethsemane or gone to the cross. Before one
gracious word of
teaching had ever fallen from His holy lips, before He had saved a soul
or done even one act
of ministry the Father witnessed, "This is my beloved Son in whom I AM
WELL PLEASED."
The Father was pleased — for thirty years this Son had walked with Him,
learned His ways,
reverenced His name, grown in His nature, and walked in His mind. The purpose
of the
wilderness was not to determine whether He was perfect, but to demonstrate
to the flesh
realm, to principalities and powers, and to all realms from the lowest
to the highest that indeed
HE WAS THE PERFECT MAN! The book of Job makes it certain that this was
also the great
purpose in Job's testing. I want you to see Job today, tested — not to
see whether he would
curse God and die, but tested to prove and demonstrate that he was the
perfect man God
declared him to be! That is precisely what it was about. The secret of
Job is not that he was
self-righteous or that God was trying to teach him something. Nowhere does
the record state
or even infer that God was trying to teach Job anything. God was demonstrating
the truth that
already existed. The Job of God, the Son of God, the Christ of God IS THE
PERFECT MAN
AND WILL TRIUMPH! The Christ in you, precious friend of mine, is the Perfect
Man.
On this point Mark Toohey has shared some precious insights. "Just as God
had by His own
sovereign decree declared Job to be perfect and upright, so has He pronounced
that we, His
called ones, are righteous, holy, and perfect in His sight. 'But by His
doing you are in Christ
Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification,
and
redemption' (I Cor. 1:30). Jesus became to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and
redemption. Are you not redeemed? It is because Jesus is your redemption.
Are you not
sanctified? It is because Jesus is your sanctification. Are you not righteous?
It is because Jesus
is your righteousness. You are in Christ Jesus; God has therefore declared
you to be righteous.
As with Job, when God declares one to be righteous, one IS RIGHTEOUS.
"'He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become
the
righteousness of God in Him' (II Cor. 5:21). For what purpose was the Son
of God made a
sin offering? That we might BECOME THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD! When by the
spirit of wisdom and revelation we come to know that Christ is in us and
we are in Christ, and
Christ is in the Father — that we are one spirit — we will come to agree
with the judgment of
God on our behalf that we are His righteousness, we are His holiness, we
are His perfection,
we are His wisdom, we are His power and authority, the embodiment of His
redemption and
grace in a darkened world, and that 'His divine power has granted to us
everything pertaining
to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him that has called
us to His own glory
and excellence, in order that by them you might become partakers of the
divine nature' (II
Pet. 1:3-4). God has decreed for us nothing less than that we be perfect,
that is, whole,
complete, entire, and mature in the likeness of His nature and character,
even as our heavenly
Father is perfect (Mat. 5:48). God will have His sons to be son-like —
conformed to the image
of the Son. He has therefore ordained that the inworkings of His Spirit
be accomplished in us
through His processings, chastenings, disciplinings, and judgments that
we may show forth His
holiness and walk in His fullness — partakers of the divine nature. He
judges us as He judged
Job; not because we are worthy of punishment for the error of our ways
or the hidden iniquity
of our hearts, but BECAUSE WE ARE HIS SONS and have been declared RIGHTEOUS
by
His own sovereign decree. The end result of His judgments is that we become
sons indeed" —
end quotation.
We have all "heard of the patience of Job." But the great and important
question is this: Have
we "seen the end" that the Lord had in view in all His dealings with Job?
The "end" that He
brought about in His own perfect way? "You have heard of the patience of
Job, and have seen
the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender
mercy" (James 5:11). Of this
"end" that God accomplished in Job it is written: "And 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 you, and against your two friends: for you have not spoken of me
the thing that is right,
as my servant Job has.
Therefore 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 you have not
spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So 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. And the Lord
turned the captivity of Job,
when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job
twice as much as he had before.
Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all
that had been of his
acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they
bemoaned him, and
comforted him over all the evil that the Lord
had brought upon him: every man also gave
him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the Lord
blessed the latter end of
Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen
thousand sheep, and six thousand camels,
and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He also had seven
sons and three
daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of
the second, Kezia;
and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no women
found so fair as
the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their
brethren" (Job
42:7-15).
Job's restored and happy state brought to him the double blessing — twice
as much as he had
before. He had the greatest fortune in the East and now it is that greatest
doubled, coupled
with itself to produce absolute plenitude. It is the greater inheritance
in Christ Jesus — greater
far than the glory of the first Adam in Eden's fragrant Garden. The "double
portion" is the
portion of the FIRSTBORN. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the firstborn among
many brethren
(Rom. 8:29), the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18), and the beginning
or Head of the New
Creation Man (Rev. 3:14). His body is the Church of the Firstborn
(Heb. 12:22-24), and is
anointed to stand with Him on Mount Zion as a FIRSTFRUITS unto God and
the Lamb (Rev.
14:1-5). The "end of the Lord," the consummation of His purpose in man
is a NEW BODY, a
NEW FAMILY, NEW SONS and DAUGHTERS, a NEW WIFE, a NEW MINISTRY, and
NEW POSSESSIONS — a NEW AND MORE EXCELLENT INHERITANCE.
"And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends"
(Job 42:10). While
Job's friends were three, there was actually a fourth — Elihu. Elihu's
speech fills chapters
thirty-two through thirty-seven. Elihu has a far juster and more spiritual
conception of the
problem than Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar because he has an infinitely higher
conception of
God. God does not class him with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar; but he is
still a dogmatist, and
his eloquent discourse is marred by self-assertiveness (soulishness). Yahweh's
judgment of
Elihu is that he darkened counsel by words (Job 38:2), the very charge
that Elihu had brought
against Job (Job 34:35; 35:16). Even Elihu's lofty discourse abounds with
accusations against
Job. Therefore, Job's antagonists are four in number. This is most meaningful.
When ancient man went outside of his home and looked about him, he had
no conception of
the modern world as we know it. No Copernicus had ever opened his eyes
to the vast
significance of the universe. To him the world was a great flat surface
with four boundaries,
east and west and north and south. There were four winds from the four
sides of the earth.
Thus, when he thought of the world he thought in terms of four. Four became
the cosmic
number. The world in which men lived and worked and died, was conveniently
symbolized by
four. There were four corners of the earth; four elements of earth, air,
fire and water; four
seasons, and four phases of the moon; the great "World Powers" as revealed
to the prophet
Daniel were four in number: Babylon, Media-Persia, Greece and Rome. Four
is the number of
all that is worldly, world-wide, or universal. Job's four antagonists represent
all the intellect and
wisdom of "this world." All of man's philosophy, psychology, learning,
lecturing and judgment
is but the wisdom of the carnal mind. God is raising up a people in this
hour that literally and
totally rejects the wisdom of this world, for it is foolishness with God.
The foolishness of God
is greater than the wisdom of man, says the Lord. But Job prayed for his
friends. God is
raising up a people who are kings and priests after the order of Melchizedek
— redeemers,
reconcilers, restorers. That is their heart and that is their nature. Jesus
prayed for those who
crucified Him, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do." Just
as Job prayed for
his antagonists, and Jesus prayed for His murderers, so the sons of God
shall pour forth grace
and mercy and salvation unto all the ends of the earth.
"Then came unto Job all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they
that had been of his
acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house" (Job 42:11).
Hallelujah! What a
word! When the processings are all complete and the hour of the manifestation
of the sons of
God has fully come, then all our brethren and sisters and acquaintances
from before — all the
Baptists, all the Pentecostals, all the Catholics, all the Moslems, all
the Buddhists, all our
families, all our neighbors, and even our enemies shall come to partake
of the Bread of Life at
our table. How my spirit longs for that day! How I wait for it with holy
expectation! Nor do
they come empty-handed, each brings a piece of money and an earring of
gold (Job 42:11).
Obviously these gifts were not to relieve Job's poverty, for that no longer
existed; he was
richer than all. These are brought in homage. The gift of an earring was
no small thing in the
ancient world and functioned as a symbol of the solemn pledge, as when
the golden earring
was presented as the first gift to Rebecca, the ordained bride of Isaac.
The ring in the ear of
the bondslave bespoke of his willing and loving servitude to his master.
Isaiah describes the
wonderful scene when creation comes home to Father's house, his house of
sons. "Arise,
shine; for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon
you. For, behold, the
darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the
Lord shall arise upon
you, and His glory shall be seen upon you.
And the Gentiles shall come to your light, and
kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift
up your eyes round about, and see: all they
gather themselves together, they shall come
to you: your sons shall come from far, and
your daughters shall be nursed at your side.
Then you shall see, and flow together, and
your heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea
(multitudes of
peoples) shall be converted unto you, the forces of the Gentiles (nations)
shall come unto you.
Surely the isles shall wait for Me...to bring your sons from far, their
silver and their gold with
them, unto the name of the Lord your God, because He has glorified you.
Therefore your
gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night;
the sons also of them that
afflicted you shall come bending unto you; and all they that despised you
shall bow
themselves down at the soles of your feet; and they shall call you, THE
CITY OF THE
LORD, THE ZION OF THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL. Whereas you have been forsaken
and hated...I will make you an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations,
you shall call
your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. The sun shall be no more your
light by day;
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto you: but the Lord
shall be unto you an
everlasting light, and your God your glory, and the days of your mourning
shall be ended.
Your people shall be all righteous, a little one shall become a thousand,
and a small one a
strong nation: I the Lord will hasten it in his time" (Isa. 60:1-22).
Just as God turned the captivity of Job and caused all to flow unto him,
so shall God bring to
an end the days of our testing, humiliation and travail, and through God's
glorious house of
sons the whole earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of
the Lord, all peoples
shall flow unto the sons of the Kingdom, and all nations shall serve and
obey Him. Press on,
saints of God — we have received blessed promises of a mighty deliverance
and overflowing
glory which even now we begin to see fulfilled. Thank God, the time has
come, yea, is nigh at
hand when the sons of God shall be revealed. And there will be a glorious
victory. THIS IS
THE DAWNING OF THE NEW DAY!
I would close this message by again quoting from the anointed pen of Mark
Toohey. "I must
tell you, my brethren, that the hope of all creation shall not go unfulfilled!
God is preparing a
Redeemer, a Liberator, a Deliverer — 'SAVIORS (who) shall come up on mount
Zion to
JUDGE THE MOUNT OF ESAU' (Obadiah 1:21). These who have been separated
unto Him
and judged to be sons are not enduring the chastening of His hand and the
travail of His
discipline simply that they may gain some higher elevation in the heavens;
God does not work
on the brownie point system. This FIRSTFRUIT unto God and to the Lamb is
appointed to
be God's instrument in the earth to bring salvation, deliverance, and liberty
to an entire world
sold under the bondage of sin, corruption, futility and death. Little wonder,
then, that they shall
also be God's instrument of judgment among the nations, for when God's
judgments are in the
earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness
(Isa. 26:9).
"Then shall the prophecy of Daniel be fulfilled that 'judgment was given
to the saints of the
Most High; and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom' (Dan.
7:22). It is God's
Corporate Son, His Christ, who shall judge in truth and righteousness bringing
the long awaited
release of the creation from the bondage to corruption. The ages to come
shall witness the
ever-expanding, unfolding, super abounding grace of God to every creature
'with a view to an
administration suitable to the fullness of times, that is, the summing
up of all things in
Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth' (Eph. 1:10). God's
CHRIST — the
beginning of all things, and the END SUM of all things. This is the Christ
in whom all the
fullness of God is pleased to dwell, and through whom all things shall
become reconciled into
Himself (Col. 1:19-20). Blessed day! It is for this glorious ministry that
the Lord is even now
preparing His sons. How happy are they who have been chosen for this hour,
this blessed
'day of judgment,' that their faith may be fully proved, having been tested
with fire; that they
may be accounted worthy of the kingdom, and stand approved in the day of
His appearing" —
end quote.
(One part only)
J. PRESTON EBY - P.O. Box 371240 - El Paso, Tx. 79937
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