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The Book of Job (Part -1)

 

Background (Wikipedia edited)

The main key to Job’s identity comes in Job 1.3, where we are told that he was “The greatest of all the men of the east.” Presumably that means that he lived somewhere east of Canaan: but what more can we conclude? (Job 1:1 Job lived in the Kingdom of Uz -- Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born. The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash." Genesis 10:21-23) To the Old Testament Jews, however, this would have been a very clear statement. In Genesis 25:5-6 we are told that Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac, but gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away “eastward, unto the east country.” Isaac was the child of promise and the chosen heir in the sight of God. Therefore, Abraham’s son through Hagar (Ishmael) and Abraham’s other six sons through Keturah (Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah) were sent away to the east so that they did not seek to usurp the inheritance of their brother. Thus the “men of the east” were the descendants of these sons of Abraham, and Job was the greatest of them all.

Job dwelt in the land of Uz. This was the ancestral home of the Edomites (Lamentations 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked. – Edom was located in the mountainous region Southwest of the dead sea. Edom was located in Uz, rather than being identified as Uz. Job had great heads of animals that required grazing land so Job lived in the eastern region of Uz placing Job along a tributary of the Arnon River in or on the border of what became the expanded territory of the Midianites), which they shared with the sons of Abraham. One of Job’s companions was called Eliphaz the Temanite. He was an Edomite, Teman having been himself the son of an earlier Eliphaz and the grandson of Esau Genesis 36:11). Another of Job’s friends was Bildad the Shuhite, a descendent of Shuah, one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah.

We are told that Job lived for 140 years after the events recorded in the book Job 42:16. Assuming him to be at least 40 to start with  -- he had ten children in chapter 1 then he must have lived to at least 180.  (When we look at the Patriarchs in Genesis around the time of Abraham we do not find one that had children at age 20, Job’s Children were grown up and lived in their own houses so that Job more likely lived to the age of 200-240)  We know that the Patriarchs lived to a very old age, but that the human lifespan began to progressively decline after the flood. Isaac was 180 when he died Genesis 35:28.  Several hundred years later Moses being an old man and full of days only reached 120.

Putting all these facts together, the reference to Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite puts Job several generations after Jacob and Esau, whilst Job’s lifespan suggests that he lived some time before the time of Moses. This assumption is further supported by the fact that Job acted as a priest for his family, (His offering of sacrifices for his children) a practice which clearly belongs to the Patriarchal age, prior to the establishment of the Tabernacle and the priesthood.

Job therefore lived east of the mountainous Edomite territory where the land could support great flocks of sheep, cattle and camels, somewhere between the time of Jacob and the Exodus from Egypt.

There are six generations between Jacob and the Exodus. Teman, after whom Eliphaz is named, came in the third generation. That would place Job at earliest in the fourth generation after Jacob and Esau. That could make Job perhaps the grandfather or great-grandfather of Jethro. (The Author here is making Job a Midianite which he was not. It is more likely that one or more of Job’s three daughters married into the Midianites [Job’s daughters are made much of as being three women of great renown – as they must have come into a deep knowledge of God]) If this hypothesis is correct, we see then how God preserved this faithful line through the descendants of Midian and how, possibly, the true faith (The author is forgetting that the true faith was handed down by Melchizedek the priest of God,  as well as Abraham’s children Isaac, Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah as well as Ishmael, and also by the children of Esau. So the exclusivity of Jethro the priest of God for the Midianites is just not so as demonstrated by Job’s friends who also knew God and were from different cities in different territories if not different countries. More than likely the copy of the book of Job possessed by Jethro was not the only copy of the book of Job, but it is the copy that has come to be in the bible.) was passed on directly from Job to Jethro,  for we are told that Job lived to see his son’s sons (Job 42.16). And when Moses comes out of Egypt, there is Jethro, the servant of God, to succour him, strengthen him, encourage him and instruct him (see Exodus 18). Perhaps also, via Jethro, the story of Job is handed down to Moses and, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is incorporated into the Scriptures.  (End of Background information from Wikipedia)

The book of Job has been called one of the “poetic books” of the bible, a designation which in itself separates the book of Job from the “more” weighty prophetic books in the bible, or the deep meditative books like Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Psalms and even the Song of Solomon, making the book of Job to appear at first glance of little real import.

Traditionally the book of Job has been made out to be the book of the sufferings of Job, containing a series of long winded speeches of confusing accusations and counter accusations and therefore being of little spiritual value. As a result in this day and hour few study the book of Job as a whole. And this is why there has been so little in the way of teaching and preaching  based on any text from the book of Job with the exception of those hyper-faith Evangelists and teachers that accuse Job of having “Let the hedge down around him and his family so that the devil then was able to come in and devour him and his household” a false teaching and straw dog argument that when beaten upon has made these false teachers and preachers millions.  

So What Then is The Book of Job?

Genesis 26:4-5 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. (In Genesis some of these commandments and statues are demonstrated by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons – but where in the bible are these commandments and statutes that God gave unto Abraham? The answer is: They are in the book of Job)

The Book of Job contains The Commandments, The Statues, and The Laws that God gave unto Abraham which that Abraham diligently taught to his children, his grandchildren, all those that worked in and outside of the household of Abraham, his servants as well as to their children. So in part we could call the Book of Job: The Gospel of Abraham. (The good news that God gave unto Abraham and the people of the covenant; which Abraham received from God)

Here is a little tidbit concerning “The Gospel of Abraham” Paul declares to the Galatians the following:

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.  

Where is this found in Scripture? In Genesis after God spoke and gave His commandments to Abraham, Abraham went and circumcised “Jews” himself, Ishmael, Isaac, all of his “Greek” “Free” employees, and all of his “Greek” “bond servants.” (The nameless selfless servant that was led by the Spirit to Rebekah) Abraham also taught Rebekah the wife of Isaac of God, she was the ‘female” empowered by the Holy Spirit to see to it that Jacob was blessed with the blessings of Abraham and not Esau. (So here in Abraham we see Jews, Gentiles, Slaves, Free, Male and Female all walking and operating under the same Spirit.)

In recent years as the Lord has spoken to me and illuminated His word to me I have come to a completely different opinion of the Book of Job than I was taught in my youth and even in bible school.

I now see that the book of Job is a book of great spiritual depth. I see by the Spirit that book of Job is a greatly prophetic book, so much so that entire portions of the book of Job are contained in Jesus and the Apostles teachings on the end times and His second coming and especially in the Book of Revelation. 

Any examination of the book of Job and the Book of Revelation will be startling to the reader in light of the erroneous preachings and teachings of the prosperity Gospel and the faith healing movement and an assortment of other false doctrines and erroneous teachings. Therefore we declare unto our readers that the book of Job is a book of great importance, especially to the end time people of God and what is to befall the evil perverse and corrupt church of our day, out of which some shall be made to shine forth as the sun, even as Job.

The book of Job is the far most reaching book in the bible on the devil, of the devil as the accuser of the brethren, of the devil needing God’s permission to attack Job the true believer and his household that were under divine protection, on the multiple devious stratagems that the devil employed, and on his power to blind and deceive and turn the hearts of all that were not true believers against Job which in a figure is the people of the world making war with the church and Israel in the last days. 

The book of Job is about a man who after serving the Lord diligently and walking in obedience of the commandments and statutes given unto Abraham – goes through severe testing and in the end enters into personal justification before the Lord.  For I had before times heard there was a God in the ear, but now I see Him face to face.

Simply put the book of Job depicts in a figure the sifting, the separation, the cleansing, and the purification of the apostles and true believers in of Jesus Christ in the early church, as well as the  End Time people of God – and the conclusion of the book of Job in a figure is the appearing of Jesus Christ at the Second Coming and the ushering in of the millennial kingdom.

The book of Job is also a prophetic and spiritual book, where men dream dreams and see visions and prophesy as well. Yet these men rather than being great prophets of God instead match up with the carnal and fleshly Corinthians that Paul declares were babes because of their fighting, and jealousy, their lack of discernment, and their not knowing the Spirit of God. In this regard the book of Job above the host of books in the Old Testament sets forth some of the most stark teaching concerning true spirituality, hearing from God, waiting on the word of The Lord, delivering the word of The Lord and walking in the Spirit.  

Other things contained in The book of Job teaches are: Adam mentioned by name, part of Adam’s sin is specifically named. The book of Job mentions the flood. The book of Job speaks of the last days, and of the final judgment. The book of Job speaks of the resurrection from the dead.

The book of Job is the most quoted book in the bible, quoted continually by David, Solomon, the Prophets, Jesus, and the Apostles. Demonstrating how important the teaching and doctrine are in the much maligned and neglected book of Job.

This is not meant to be an all conclusive study of the book of Job as the words recorded in this book are so dense with meaning and quoted and cited so much in both Hebrew and from the Greek Septuagint it would take a five volume set to plumb the depths of this book. So one should consider this as an introduction or a taste of the hidden riches contained in the book of Job.

Job 1:1-3 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; (Heb 347 IyYob  335  Iy - Where is, or Which way. Yob Father. Iy-Yob means: The way of my Father [Abraham]. For Job among all men in his day walked in the ways of his father Abraham before the Lord) and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed (To shun, To flee) evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest (Most famed, and wealthiest) of all the men of the east.

In Job 21:28 For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? (Where now is the household and the substance of the household of prince Job? These men that came to Job were also princes but of smaller houses, men that had formerly bowed down and submitted themselves in rank to Job but here now, they have understood not only Job’s grief and pain but also what his destruction meant for them and their households. So that these men speak to Job no longer as comforters, but filled with glee over the destruction of the house of Job and Job now being at their mercy before their feet.)

Job 15:9-10 What knowest thou, that we know not? what understandest thou, which is not in us? With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father. (Here it is declared that Job’s father was alive when these events occurred – and yet Job’s father came not out to comfort or care for his son. Being that Job was a prince his father would have been the ruler over a city or a territory.)

With great glee Eliphaz the Temanite begins speaking in chapter four.
Job 4:2 If we assay to commune with thee, (If we council and commune with you) wilt thou be grieved? (Without waiting for Job’s response Eliphaz smirks, seeing your destruction and how you have been brought low) but who can withhold himself from speaking? (Eliphaz can not resist wiping Job’s nose in the dirt. Eliphaz has allowed himself here to become an instrument of the devil to prod and probe Job, to test and tempt Job to sin against God with his lips.)

Job 4:3-5 Behold, thou hast instructed (Heb 3256 Yasar means: To correct, To warn, To reprove, To instruct and To strengthen. [Job is a preacher of righteousness] Jesus, the Apostles and Disciples all were Yasar’s is cited and demonstrated time and again in the New Testament [Note also that the root word of Yasar is Yas which mean To found, or To lay a foundation]) many, and thou hast strengthened the weak hands. Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees. But now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest; it toucheth thee, and thou art troubled.  (Greek for Instructed is: En-Ou-Thetn-Sas)

What Eliphaz is saying here is: Am I to believe my eyes, that here before us is the once great Job. Job the once great, great councilor and instructor of many.  Job the once great man who has strengthened the weak hands, the feeble knees and those who have been brought low in God’s judgment.  So how is it then that when this has befallen the great teacher Job that you of all people have withered and crumbled?  How is it that the once great teacher Job is now before us curled up in a fetal ball whimpering about wanting to die?  Where then is this well of moral fortitude you preached and taught of? Where is this great confidence that you spoke to others to have in God? How is it that your façade as the teacher and instructor of many has been stripped away and you have been found wanting, is it not that God is now judging you by your own prideful teachings empty words?  When we read this book we fail to read in Job’s comforters words the biting sarcasm, their bitter accusations, and their mocking Job and his condition.  Yet as we read this book Job will testify that this is what is actually occurring time and again.  

Job speaking of his past position in chapter 29 declares:
Job 29:7-11
When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street! (Job was a Judge – [It was along these very lines that Jethro came and instructed Moses])The young men saw me, and hid themselves: (For fear of Job seeing them and their sin being uncovered) and the aged arose, and stood up. (In acknowledgement of Job and his judgments)  The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth. (The princes and nobles stood in fear of Job and the words of his mouth)When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

With these words we can begin now to understand the stratagems of satan and how great here the fall and the destruction of the house of Job was, beginning with the destruction of Job’s source of his wealth in his flocks of sheep, in his camels for transportation of goods, and in the oxen and asses used for plowing vast fields belonging to Job and others. In the destruction of his shepherds, his herdsmen, and his teamsters, and then the devil hit Job on the deepest and most personal level that is the destruction of his own children taking them all out in a single blow.   

In satan’s warring against Job the serpent not only gives Job painful boils from head to foot, but Job is cast out of his own house and forced to live on an ash heap and using a filthy potshard to lance his own boils and squeeze out the puss and the yellow root of the infection himself and to then bind himself up in filthy rags. 

Job 19:13-19 (Job is speaking here his mistaken belief that it is God that has set His face against Job) He hath put my brethren far from me, (His relatives have kept their distance) and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. (Those who he worked with or did business with forsook him) My kinsfolk failed, (His father and his brothers and sisters cut him off)  and my familiar friends have forgotten me. (His best friends turned their back on him) They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: (Job’s house was untouched along with he and his wife’s servants and maids – so that jobs own slaves and paid employees now ignore him)  I am an alien in their sight. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated (I begged) him with my mouth. (And still none would come. In part this would be to assist him with his sickness, the lancing of Job’s boils and wrapping him with bandages and putting salve on his wounds, this is why Job ends up outside living on the ash heap using a piece of broken pottery to lance his boils himself.)  My breath (Voice) is strange to my wife, (His own wife has forsaken him as well even) though I intreated (Her to care for me) for the children's sake of mine own body. Yea, young children (Surviving grand children) despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. (Cursed Job as the cause of the death of their parents) All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

The power of deception that satan has garnered here, and casting a cloud over the mind and soul of all of those that formerly loved Job, admired Job, and looked up to Job is staggering to consider. From this we can begin to understand that after the great revival that Hezekiah brought to Israel that his perverse son Manasseh with the false prophet through the power of the devil turned all of Israel against the Lord and those that walked uprightly before God. From this we can begin to understand how the devil entered the hearts of ten of Jacob’s sons to kill Joseph, and have them fake his death and sell him into slavery. From this we can also begin to understand what is to come to pass as spoken by Jesus Christ in Matthew 24 concerning the great shoa, the great tribulation, and that Christians will hate Christians and seek to kill them believing they are doing God a service. (We see in this light the fanatical demonic hatred that is infamous in Westboro Baptist church, and that is being stoked in the disciples of Joel’s army, and by many false teachers and false prophets in the church) And ye shall be hated of all men. And in Revelation we see under the antichrist and false prophet that a final solution shall be ordered and carried out targeting all believers in Jesus Christ and all Jews. (We see in this light the fanatical demonic hatred that we see in Islam, that is executed by Muslim terrorists and Muslim nations against Jews and Christians alike) Such is the power of the devil for those that walk in darkness, and those believers that are filled with mixture of light and darkness, so that darkness as Christ said becomes their light – which such are unable to discern.

We are speaking here of powerful truths. The power of light and the power of darkness, the power of deception that works in so many in this day and hour of those who declare themselves to be true believers in Christ but obey not Christ’s words and commandments.

John 14:14-15 If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it, If ye love me keep my commandments. (These ask amiss as they truly do not love Jesus Christ. As evidenced by their not walking in obedience to His words and His commandments)

John 14:21 He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. (The manifestations of Jesus and the Father come to those that love and obey Jesus’ words and commandments)

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (Our entering into a deep abiding relationship with Jesus and the Father and their taking up their personal abode in us is dependant upon our love made manifest in our obedience to Jesus words and commandments)

John 14:24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings:

Matthew 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Teach disobedience)

John 9:31 -- If any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth. (Jesus here defines what To worship in Spirit and in truth means – obedience)

Matthew 7:26 -- Everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, (Is disobedient to My words and commandments) shall be likened unto a foolish man, (Fool of a man) which built his house upon the sand: (And his coming doom and destruction as he is tested and found wanting)

Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Disobedience to the words and commandments of Jesus Christ – The children of disobedience, so-called Christians, so called believers do not love Jesus Christ as defined by Christ, as they do not hear and obey His words His commandments, as they do not to keep or obey his Words, and as they do not keep or obey His commandments)

To make oneself a disciple of anyone except Jesus Christ, and to follow that man or ministries doctrines and traditions of men is to walk in the spirit of the children of disobedience.  These walk in darkness, as they follow the course of the prince and the power of the air.

What we are saying here is that all those that do not love and keep the words of Jesus Christ are fodder for satan both here and now to do his bidding and to preach and teach his doctrines and traditions by their deeds of disobedience, much less the corruption that comes forth from their mouth. 

2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 Even him, (The antichrist and the false prophet) whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (As prophesied of by Moses) And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; (As recorded in the book of Job) because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them (The same rules as revealed in the book of Job, satan can not just act against, even tepid believers in Christ) strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: (So here we see God’s rejection of a people, of a church, of a denomination comes with granting the serpent strong delusion to sweep them away)

How much that we have dieted on over the years regarding the workings of God and the workings of the enemy of our souls has been founded in deception and error. Has been founded in the lying doctrines and traditions of men so that our understanding has been clouded, so that we have been deluded into believing that God and Jesus Christ in their so great a love would give us a pass on sin and corruption in our lives. That God and Jesus Christ will blindly accept the most half-hearted selfish motives and abject disobedience of Christ’s words and commandments, and just wink all that by.

The blood guiltiness of the Christians of this generation before God

Hebrews 10:26-29 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. (A believer’s willful sin is NOT covered by the death of Christ on the cross nor by His blood) But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. (God’s wrath and indignation is against Christians who willfully commit sin) He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: (These were sins unto death) Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, (The writer of Hebrews defines the meaning of willful sin here as to what it really means) who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, (Making the blood of Christ unholy by his willful sin) and hath done (So) despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Matthew 19:25 When His disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, (They were astonished. They were filled with the fear of God so much so that they had a revelation of their sin and unrighteousness before a Holy God) saying; Who then (Among us) can be saved? 

And God sent – strong delusion that they (Tepid Christians, Christians that willfully sin, Christians that love riches and the things of this world) would believe a lie – and be damned.

And much more so as the days of Matthew 24 come upon us, they shall be as Cain, they shall be as the ten brothers of Joseph filled with betrayal and murder of those that walk in the Spirit of obedience thinking they are doing God a service.

What we see here in the book of Job is the true warfare that occurs between the Kingdom of Light and the Kingdom of Darkness. It is here that we see the onslaught of all that knew Job being turning against him. Of their being deceived by the serpent into making war with Job to cause him to sin against God with his lips and fall. This is true meaning of spiritual warfare that is spoken of by the prophets and by the Apostle Paul.  

First and foremost the warfare that we fight is over our own souls and beings.

Second it is over our own family and household.

Third it is over our extended household which would include our friends, immediate neighbors and those we work with us in one capacity or another.

And then we are commanded to pray for our nation’s leaders and judges.

Most Christians never win the warfare over their own heart and soul.  Very few win the warfare over their own household. And it is exceedingly rare and almost unheard of that a Christian wins the warfare over their extended household. Instead what we have is a generation of deluded prayer warriors, and tens of thousands of people trained in false spiritual warfare, that pray and yell and scream at the devil and his minions, making themselves out to be authorities over them. And making out that they can push back this and they can push back that – Yet over the past forty years what has truly been the combined efforts millions of all these so called spiritual warfare sessions all around the world?  What needs to be asked is; where is the fruit of all of this warfare?

Is the US better than it was forty years ago before this and other false doctrines were taught? Is Europe better now than it was forty years ago? Where is the fruit of all this great prayer, intercession and spiritual warfare?

Things in the church and the world are far worse now than they were forty years ago. For example: Divorce, fornication, adultery, are through the roof in all spirit-filled and bible believing denominations. Sex scandals in Spirit-filled and bible believing churches are on a steep rise uncovering great sin and corruption among those that are considered the most spiritual people in the church.

The truth as painful as it may be to hear and consider is that all of this warfare and intercession is null and void before God. Because ye ask amiss! It is null and void because regardless of how much prayer and intercession and spiritual warfare is done, because these things are not done in obedience to the words and commandments of Jesus Christ, these things are instead being done on the basis of the doctrines and traditions of men that men and ministries who have woven that which sound oh so good to the ear of men.

Therefore if there is any success to these prayers, these intercessions, these spiritual warfare session, if there is any victory, if there is any glory in these actions the glory would not go to God no matter how much He might be praised with peoples lips, for God is not glorified by disobedience, God is not honored by false teachings, false doctrine, and the traditions of men.  

It is men and ministries are exalted and lifted up by these things precisely because what is being done is their invention and not the words and commandments of Jesus Christ. It is these self-appointed prayer warriors that are lifted up and exalted.  It is the people that do these spiritual warfare sessions that are lifted up and exalted.

What actually is being done here is spoken of in the book of Acts about some Jewish exorcists the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:14) These seven Jewish sons were presumptively seeking to cast out demons in the name of Jesus whom Paul preacheth.

These people are beating the air. (I Corinthians 9:26) These walk after their own lusts (Yes there are “spiritual” lusts) and out of their mouth come great swelling words of their great teaching, of their great power, causing those that are weak minded to look up to them in admiration and their self proclaimed great advantage over others (Jude 1:16) 

But there is more revealed in the book of Job concerning the stratagems of satan and his desire to bring about the utter destruction of Job. After all these things befell Job and he was forsaken and betrayed by all; two more things happened first Job’s wife came by to encourage Job to sin against God with his lips to curse God for all that had happened and have God strike him dead.

When that failed the serpent then sent along to Job one of the greatest weapons in his arsenal three greatest bible teachers that were probably the three greatest preachers of renown of Job’s day to set the record straight and reeducate Job. These came unto Job as angels of light but what each of them came bearing was their own special blend of light and darkness (Delusion) to tempt and test Job with.

The sufferings of Job here and the pressure brought to bear by satan can only be compared to the sufferings and temptations of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are by no means making out Job to be on par with Jesus Christ, we are simply stating that in the record of the word of God we have no other man that suffered so and was tried so except for Jesus Christ. Therefore those modern teachers and preachers who would find fault with Job even as Job’s three preacher friends found fault and became (Agents working for the serpent) Job’s accusers will in like manner find themselves facing the wrath of God and many stripes over their foolish doctrines and teachings.

In preaching and teaching I have heard about one having a Job experience and I have to say that such talk cheapens what occurred here in the life of Job.  The idea that a preacher could flippantly suggest that what occurred in the life of Job is common place and something that just about everybody experiences is vile and contemptible. 

Who among us is as righteous and just before God as Job? Who among us does God showcase before satan as being the embodiment of what it means to be a Christian? Who among us has the grasp of the words and commandments of God as Job did? Who among us has God lifted up and exalted and made a judge over His heritage? So how then can we have a Job experience when we walk nothing like Job before the Lord?  

This whole thing came about only because Job was so pure, so holy, and so upright before God.

John 14:21 He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him. (As God so manifested Himself to Job)  

Job 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. (That fled even the sight of evil)

Job 1:2-3 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep, (For wool and meat) and three thousand camels, (These camels would have been used for the transportation of goods)  and five hundred yoke of oxen, (With 500 yoke of oxen Job servants could have plow 500 fields all at the same time, so that Job’s farmland would have encompassed thousands of acres) and five hundred she asses, (Females for giving birth so he sold hundreds of donkeys every year) and a very great household; (With all Job’s shepherds, his husbandmen, his plowmen, his farm servants, his camel train servants, his teamsters, his overseers over all his holdings, and then all his household servants) so that this man was the greatest (Wealthiest) of all the men of the east.  

Job 28:28 And unto man He said, (Job is quoting something here that God said before scripture was recorded) Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding. (Job eschewed evil – Job not only heard but obeyed the words and commandments of God)

The book of Job has a lot to say about wisdom. But the wisdom in the book of Job does not come from age, from being learned, from the sum of one’s experience, or from one being a judge or a ruler.  In the book of Job true wisdom is revealed as coming by revelation, as one hears the word that proceedeth from the mouth of the Father.

Christ cited the book of Job when He said:
Luke 17:20-21 And when He was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: (It is invisible) Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within (Among) you. (And is even right in front of your faces but you can not discern even one of its children or households)

Job 1:5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, (Job here acted as the high priest of his household) and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons (And daughters while being drunk) have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually. (Job prayed, interceded, and sanctified, his household daily – Just as Christ prayed for His disciples daily early in the morning as was His custom.)

Job later testifies:
Job 3:26
I was not in safety, (I rested not in the safety of my own walk with God) neither had I rest, (I was vigilant over those in my household) neither was I quiet; (I continuously made prayers and supplications over my household) yet trouble came.

Job 1:6-7 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. and the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down (Septuagint: Em-Peri-Pate-Sas  Em My or Mine [Possessive adjective] Peri About or around Pate To tread down To trample or To oppress, Sas Eagerly [I eagerly go out and about seeking who is mine to oppress and tread them down]) in it.  

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant;(Job was sober and vigilant) because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, (Peri-Patei, Peri About or around, Patei To tread down To trample or To oppress) seeking whom he may devour: (Peter here is citing Job 1:7 Telling us that this “Going to and fro and up and down” of satan is as a predator seeking out among men prey that he might devour.)

This oppression, this trampling down, this breaking in pieces this grinding to powder is the attributes prophesied of the fourth beast of Daniel.

Daniel 7:23 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.

Oppression and trampling down is the spirit of antichrist, think of this also in Christ’s command that his disciples were not to rule as the gentiles.

Matthew 20:25-26 But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

When the above passage in Matthew is linked with Job 1:7 In which the spirit of darkness, the rule of darkness, and the spirit of antichrist is defined – The passage should read different as our understanding is opened,  so that we can see that Christ here is speaking of far more here than just how the Roman Empire ruled over the Jews. He is speaking to the children of light that they are not to use the tools and tactics of the children of darkness. (How much does the church seek to do this very thing in this day and hour?)

In another article we have discussed a populist church movement that seeks to exert dominion over the unsaved, to take the reigns of government and force the ungodly to act as if they have found religion. Doing so for their own personal vanity, and so they will no longer have to see sin and moral corruption before their sainted eyes. Creating a Christianized Hollywood world; where they can live their empty hollow walks of disobedience, and feel really good about it. God’s answer is to introduce the homosexual and lesbian to Jesus Christ, where they can get saved, delivered and set free. Gods answer is to introduce the drunkard and the drug user to Jesus Christ where they can get saved, delivered and set free, God’s answer is to introduce those that despise us and treat us with contempt to Christ where they can get saved delivered and transformed into new creations. The goals between Christians seeking authority and exerting over other, and preaching the gospel and bringing people to the feet of Jesus Christ may appear to some to be the same, but these two ways, these two paths could not be more different, for one is the ways of darkness and the other is the way of life.

Many read Paul not comprehending that Paul in many passages is citing Jesus Christ’s words and commandments. In the passage below Paul is citing Matthew 20:25-26 (See also Luke 22:25-26) Where Christ was speaking to His apostles and disciples about exercising earthly authority and rulership. In so doing Jesus is speaking of soldiers, weapons, police, spies and betrayal, oppressive laws, burdensome taxes, and an oppressive legal system. Paul here picks up Christ’s words that his disciples were not to exercise dominion and authority of the gentile rulers using their carnal weapons to create and enforce their rule. And Paul also cites a second passage about believers instead bringing liberty and freeing those from the oppression of satan’s rulership.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; (Liberating those that were bound and prisoners within)

See now how the meaning of this passage is altered when it is rightly divided with the word of truth. This is passage is not eluding to a confrontational in your face Gospel with bullhorns and protest placards uttering curses and condemnations, nor is it eluding to people screaming and shouting against principalities and powers and pushing and pulling them here and there.

Instead Paul is speaking here of the rulership of the lamb. Nowhere in the Book of Acts is there a single passage that indicates that the Apostles had to fight battles of spiritual warfare as taught in this day and hour so that they could go and preach or teach somewhere. Nowhere in the Gospels is it even hinted at that Jesus instructed any such teaching or doctrine. Instead we read that both Jesus Christ and His disciples had to pray and continually seek God that so that He would lead and guide and that He would open effectual doors of ministry for them.

The book of Acts faithfully records the warfare of Paul the apostle, where he was threatened, beaten, stoned, arrested, ship wreaked, put in chains, held in prison and executed – as Paul walked in obedience He did not pull back because of the cost. This is the Spiritual warfare that Paul conducted.  This is how Paul warred not after the flesh but in the Spirit as recorded in the word of God. This is having boots in the field. This is being laborers for Christ. The other is a doctrine and tradition of men that is beset with vain imaginations, and causing a confused people to beat the air.     

If the children of light are to liberate, if the children of light are to set free those that are bound and oppressed, and are to have a flock to protect from the devourer.  There must needs be boots in the field laboring for Christ, warring for Christ in the same manner as is testified of in the Gospels. As Christ himself warred a good warfare Christ cursed not, Christ did not call fire down from heaven on cities towns and hamlets, Christ did not hire mercenaries to protect Himself and His disciples.

Christ was threatened, beaten, arrested, jailed, judged unjustly, had false witnesses speak against Him, slandered, spit upon, had His beard torn from his face, was scourged, forced to carry His own cross to His own death, where He was executed by crucifixion. (This was Jesus Christ’s spiritual warfare) Nowhere in the Gospels do we see Jesus Christ or the Apostles conducting the spiritual warfare sessions we have been taught. Nowhere did they need to do so that they might be able to preach here or go there, or that they might have a good meeting to heal the sick and perform miracles.

So much of what is taught today is polluted with the cunningly crafted fables of men. Is there any doubt why the Glory hath departed from this evil and gainsaying generation? We have to return to the solid rock of Jesus Christ’s words and commandments.  His complete unadulterated teachings. We have to hear His voice, fear Him, love Him and keep His words and commandments. This is the way, this is the true path. Any other way is the way of thieves and robbers.

Psalm 40:6-8 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.

Job 1:8 And The Lord said unto satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, (We can consider this to also help us date the time that Job lived – He lived not in the days of Abraham, nor in the days of Isaac and Rebekah, nor in the days of Jacob, nor in the days of Joseph for when Job lived there was not one single person that walked with God as Job did) A perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? (To flee from evil)

God Himself testifies here before satan that Job was perfect before Him, that Job was righteous before Him, that Job walked in the fear of God, and that Job was one that fled the very sight of evil and corruption.  Many bible teachers, preachers and theologians expressly disagree with the words of God and the bible here; declaring that Job was not perfect before God nor was Job righteous, that it was Job not God that lifted the hedge about Job and his household, that the devil is all powerful and is subject to no one not even God, making God out to be a liar, and making the written word of God to be tales and legends.  In the place of God word, these preachers teachers and evangelists offer their evil and perverse teaching and manufactured doctrine with tortured explanations and logic, while undulating backing and forth with their words being like a plastic baggy filled with writhing worms, so that they can not be pinned down and made to answer the accusations that they have leveled against God and Job.  

We believe what is written here in the bible, and we know without a doubt that God says what He means.  If there is anything faulty here it is us, it is our corrupt understanding of these things and our being unable to rightly divide the word of truth. It is our being blind, deaf, and unable to hear the voice of the Lord so that we are not being rightly taught of Him. If there is any incongruity in God’s testimony here or anywhere else in the bible it is us, leaning upon our own understanding, our being polluted with the doctrines and traditions of men and then peering through our corrupt and distorted lens seeking to make the bible agree with the rag tag patch work of the doctrines and traditions of men that we have gathered from a hundred different theologians all of which knew not God, and distorted His word for their own gain. We have much we need to cleansed of, and much we need to unlearn IF we are ever to become effectual ministers of the kingdom of Jesus Christ and to trod the ground where the Apostles, the Disciples and men and women of the Spirit of old trod.

Job 1:9-11 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, (Getting the story straight here it was not Job that built or controlled the hedge about him it was God) and about his house, (God hedged about not only Job but the whole of Job’s household as recorded elsewhere in the word of God) and about all that he hath on every side? (And God also hedged about all of Job’s lands and possessions and those under job’s employ as part of his greater household – God created and controls this hedge or these hedges that satan is complaining about) thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. (Satan is now complaining about the blessings of Abraham being at work in Job) But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

In my own personal life as recorded in a number of articles we have written with the Lord, under God’s guidance we chose a path contrary to much of the teachings and doctrine concerning sickness, and so called “Divine health” as taught by Kenneth Hagan, Kenneth Copeland, along with all their clones. When congestive heart failure came, when lethal sleep apnea came, when crushing depression became manifest, when diabetes came, surgeries, heavy medications, living more or less in a hospital bed, being unable to work, unable to support my household, having no friends or family to be able to turn to for help what was our approach?

It was from the beginning to trust in the Lord, and to lay ourselves in God’s hands. It was to let go and fall backwards, (We had determined by the Spirit that we had nothing to lose in acting as others so determined “recklessly”) knowing that if God caught us and we did not perish we would be safe in His beloved hands come what may. (And so we did against the advise of every teacher preacher and Christian that we personal knew who personally sought to advise us in this)

People called to pray for our healing and deliverance, we decidedly responded for these to not do so, as we wanted to go through this for all it was worth, for our own personal spiritual growth, and our being able to enter into a deeper more abiding personal relationship with Jesus Christ. And we were concerned that the prayers of others might actually impede what God was seeking to bring us to.

For the last three and a half years we have ‘foolishly” and “recklessly” NOT prayed for healing or deliverance, we have not confessed or professed anything that others have deemed that God owes us. Instead we have studied God’s word as we were able, we have prayed as we were able for others, and for the church at large, we have interceded for others as we have been able, and for the church at large. We have cared for the poor, clothed the poor, feed the poor, opened our house to lodge strangers that God sent and we shared what we had and saw even to their financial needs as God so blessed us.   

We have been told by countless Christians that what we have been doing is irrational, that we have been somehow deceived into the path we have taken. We have been told that we have let down the hedge and allowed the devil to come into our life to do what he wills. In our decided stand to lean on the Lord alone we have offended some believers, and we have been disfellowshipped by others for this reason alone. But God! But the Lord has been with us in a marked way that is apparent not only to my children but even to the unsaved that know us.

As we have fully submitted ourselves unto the Lord Jesus Christ in this matter, and the Lord has seen fit to made us into a witness against many populist teachings concerning divine healing, faith, tithing, prayer, fasting, repentance, deep cleansing, and conversion.  So as to expose for those that have an ear to hear that all to many things we have been so freely taught and accepted as truth are instead tainted and perverted doctrines and traditions of men that can in their form not be found expressed as such or even implied to be so in the written word of God.  

2 Thessalonians 2:9-11 Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (As well as those that walk today in the spirit of antichrist among us) And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

Christians have long been deceived by these lying preachers, teachers and evangelists -- because they do not love Jesus Christ with all their heart, all their mind, all their soul, and all their strength. – One can not love Jesus Christ with all their heart with all their soul with all their mind and with all their strength and have never read the word of God cover to cover even once. One can not be so in love with God and have never meditated upon the word of God day and night. One can not be so taken with God and  never come to know the word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Father, or being taught of God.

Of those that do not love God with all their heart with all their soul with all their mind and all their strength -- Their life is a witness against them before God, their spiritual lack is a witness against them before God. We are in the day when all manner of deception has been released in virtually every preacher or ministry we can look to and in everything preacher and teacher we can listen to. These have been anointed to deceive with strong delusion to swallow up as it were all tepid Christians, to devour the hearts and souls of all Christians that have motives in their hearts other than love devotion and the fear of God, to render fruitless all Christians by bringing them into a state of disobedience and chronic dysfunction.

The evidence of this is in the state of the church in England, the state of the church in the EU and the state of the church here in the US. The devourer has been devouring the church right under our noses for the last 40 years. During which not ONE preacher not ONE ministry has sounded the alarm of the churches overthrown, of the bible believing and Spirit-filled church being made small in number, ineffective, and powerless, and now in the last five years being given into the hand of our enemies (Muslims, Homosexuals, Liberals, Socialists and Atheists) to be put under their tyrannical rule.      

Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD. (And the Lord said unto satan, behold all that the church hath is in thy power, only upon the very elect among their number thou shalt not put forth thy hand)

This is a very hard point for Christians to understand. Many books and tracts have been written on this subject.  God judiciously allowed this to occur in the life of Job and in the church in the UK and EU in this hour. God out of His righteousness has let these things be so. Satan on his own can not act.  Satan is not the god of evil and God is the God of good. Though it is taught in all quarters that God is good and can not allow or do evil. (Evil here not being sin evil being punishment, judgment, chastisement, scourging, and to slay sinful and corrupt people and nations) Many are supposedly stumbled about why there is evil in the world, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, drought, floods, disease, epidemics, wars, financial depressions and the like. God is God, God is Holy, God is Pure, and Righteous, men through the sins of Adam and Eve are not. And the greatest majority of those who call themselves Christians are evil sinful and corrupt.    

The untold thousands if not millions that were destroyed in the flood of Noah speak volumes about God’s Holiness and Righteousness and His demands upon men both saved and unsaved. God having the Israelites come into the land of Canaan and slaughter the Canaanites, God raining down fire and brimstone upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. These things are the severity of God to a wayward and disobedient people that would not hear Him, and would not repent of their wicked ways. (Even as the Church is wayward disobedience and will not repent of its wicked ways today)

God does not just deal with individuals, those individual’s acts bring down death and destruction upon them and their entire households. This is the severity of God to disobedient individuals who will not hear Him, and refuse to repent from their wicked ways. Corrupt judges, corrupt preachers and teachers, and corrupt rulers bring down death and destruction not only upon themselves but upon their hearers as well. As they teach deception and perversion to their hearers and turn their hearer’s hearts away from the Lord. So the judgment of God comes upon hamlets, towns, cities, and nations, all of which is well recorded in scripture. 

We have addressed God’s judgment upon the unrighteous, the sinful and the corrupt in the household of the Lord, but Job was PERFECT, and UPRIGHT and Job FEARED the Lord.

If Job was so holy and righteous how, how could a righteous God bring something like this upon such a man and his household?

Isaiah 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; (His only begotten Son Jesus Christ) He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul (Jesus) an offering for sin. (If God out of His Holiness, His Righteousness, and Love did so to His own Son to seek redemption for us, what then would His demands be upon His people, and those who call upon His name?)

Job 5:17-19 Behold, happy (Heb 835 Aser: Blessed, Happy, Great happiness and Joy. 837 Oser: Blessedness, Happiness. 833 Aser:  To walk straight, To be led, To be Guided, To be reproved, To be called blessed, Blessed. Greek Makarios Blessed, Happy, Blissful, The word Makarios in Greek is also used of the upper classes: {Denoting the state of those who God continually corrects, chastises, reproves, corrects that these walk in closer proximity to God, these are under God’s eye, these are in God’s hand, these are members of His household indeed} [Behold, blessed with great happiness and joyousness]) is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: For He maketh sore, and bindeth up: He woundeth, and His hands make whole.

Hebrews 12:5-7 And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son (As part of His household) whom He receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?

First off the righteousness of God is not the righteousness of men. What men call righteous and justice all to many times is evil and corrupt. This can be seen all to plainly now in US law, in British law, and in European law, as it lifts up and exalts the vilest of sinners Homosexuals and Lesbians, it lifts up and exalts murderous and hate filled Muslims and convicts any who would dare speak such things publicly or privately to a select group as in a church, or in ones own household.

Much of the most odious law has been written under the banner of Fairness, or Equality,  feminism as super citizenship, gay rights as super citizenship, Muslim rights as super citizenship Minorities given work place super citizenship is not equity or fairness it is the preferential treatment of one group over all the rest of the legal citizens of that nation.

Man and even Christian men through the corrupt lens that they peer through to measure and quantify good and evil – lean heavily upon their own natural unregenerate understanding that was founded upon their experiences and what they were taught since they were a young child, which if the truth be known is hardly impartial and based upon the word of God, much less revelation and understanding from the Lord.  So that we see in part and we know in part and therefore our greatest judgment is in part.

God testifies of this very thing.
Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Job 9:10 (God) Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.

Paul here quotes Job that the wisdom and knowledge of God is deep and unsearchable by not only men but by the devil as in demonstrated in the book of Job over and over again.
Romans 11:33 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

The book of Job begins with a single man in all the earth that walks in the ways and precepts that God gave unto Abraham.  God purposely flaunts Job before the devil so that the devil seeks to destroy Job and fails time after time. 

The result of the hidden ways of God in the life of Job was to demonstrate before all that knew Job and before the three most influential preachers and judges in all of the land in Job’s day, not only that Job was righteous and blameless before God, but that all of these might be brought into the same relationship and knowledge of God that Job had.

In other words through the suffering and bruising of Job, the book of Job ends with many sons being brought into glory.

The book of Job ends with Job and these other men hearing for themselves the audible voice of God testifying in behalf of Job. In like manner to the audible voice of God testifying of Christ on the mount of transfiguration to Peter James and John.

Therefore it pleased God to bruise Job, to test Job and to try Job that through Jobs pain and suffering others might be brought into the salvation that was preached unto Abraham.  So God in this made Job a light and a testimony unto thousands in that day.  And as part of that no doubt the nation of the Midianites were turned unto the Lord with prophets and priests unto the Lord until the time of Moses.

Luke 6:22-23 Blessed (Greek Makarios Blessed, Happy, Blissful, The word Makarios in Greek is also used of the upper classes: {Denoting the state of those who God continually corrects, chastises, reproves, corrects that these walk in closer proximity to God, these are under God’s eye, these are in God’s hand, these are members of His household indeed} [Behold, blessed with great happiness and joyousness]) are ye, when men shall hate you, (Without cause) and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.  Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. (Even as Job was so treated) But God! But God has a higher purpose.  IF -- If -- If -- we can so submit ourselves, and so lean upon the Lord alone in the face of such hardship and such an onslaught as Job did blessing the Lord and exalting the Lord throughout these three temptations.

Note: Last night as I slept I was dreaming about this article and saw things I was to write, and additions like Luke 6 above.  (This has become very normal in my life in recent years) The Lord then began to speak with me of my trial and condition and how even though I have told people for a number of years that I am happy and content – my happiness and contentment is not on the level of the meaning of the word blessed in the Hebrew and Greek, I have not been joyous, I have not been blissful, I have not leaped for joy.  As the Lord spoke in the night I saw that I have a disagreement of soul and spirit over this matter, so in my sleep I began to say to the Lord I am happy for what you are doing for me in sickness and weakness. I thank you and worship you for giving me this sickness weakness and the related financial pressures. I saw that this is what the Lord desires to see in His people joyfulness, and delight in Him in all things.

And now as I write these things the Lord now is confirming His word as the bible passages come rolling in one after another.
2 Corinthians 6:6-10 By pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true; As unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed; As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 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.

Romans 5:3 And not only so, but we glory (Glorify God) in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.

Job it seems had some understanding of the Spirit in which these verses were later written. So when disaster struck and the Sabeans took all of Job’s oxen and asses by sword and slaughtered all of Jobs servants, plowmen, husbandmen, and teamsters that were present, when fire came out of heaven and burned to death all of Job’s sheep and shepherds, when the Chaldeans took all of Job’s camels by sword and slaughtered all of Jobs servants, husbandmen, when a great wind came and caved in the house of Job’s eldest son, killing him and all of Job’s children as well as the servants that served and waited on them. The meaning of all of this was not the death of Job’s ten children. It was the slaughter of hundreds of Job’s servants that were all part of His household, it was the destruction of Job’s entire financial empire within a single hour, it was the death of His ten children that were the legacy of his name and teaching. It is hard to comprehend the gravity of this event. The level of destruction of people, and ruination to all that Job had worked so hard for over his life.

When this severe test fell upon Job, how did he respond?
Job 1:20
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, (Job fell down upon the ground worshipped the Lord) And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not (With his lips), nor charged God foolishly.

How different is Job’s response here than Israel’s and the Church’s worship of God
Isaiah 29:13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: (Job here is one of the few in the Old Testament that is recorded to have worshipped God in Spirit and in truth. In Job having done so in the course of such a fiery trial, the Lord was well pleased with Job.)

So many Christians complain and wail of their trials, testing, and tribulations in the God, which in all reality much of these are the result of their own sinful and corrupt doings. As they speak to others in anger and hatred, as they thrust others with their horns into their side, as they lift up and exalt themselves, as they belittle and mock others, as they defraud respectively their husbands wives and others their due, as they forgive not one another’s sins but rather count and make a tally of them.  

These grievous sins committed daily against the saved and unsaved rather than building one’s integrity before God and men cause these believers to reap the evil and divisiveness which they have so freely sown. One might say that they have received a payday of retribution from the Lord  for the oppression and hate which they have freely dished out to those in their own household, those they work with, those they fellowship with, and to those who they otherwise come into casual contact with.

These are not trials unto honor and the glory of God but rather these are the stripes of the Lord unto a disobedient and wayward people.

Luke 12:47-48 And that servant, which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to His will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.

No, the trials and testings of God are not the just recompense for the evil deeds that you have done and do, the testings and trials of the Lord made manifest in Job, in the life of the prophets and holy men in scripture, in the life of Jesus and in the life of Paul came with false accusations, they came to strip, they came to cut off, they came to separate, they came to cast in the darkness of doubt, so as to test, so as to examine, so as to prove, so as to purify, their personal relationship with God, and their personal standing before the Lord.

We have read of the trails and testing of Christ, and the trials and testing of Paul. In westernized society for the past one hundred and fifty years these kind of trials have been largely nonexistent, while in many other parts of the world today Christians are beaten daily, arrested, stoned, tortured, and slain for no other reason than they are followers of Jesus Christ.

Within the hyper-faith movement their has arisen a corrupt belief that when such things occur in the lives of Christians in other nations that it is the result of their lack of belief, it is the result of these peoples lack of faith, it is a result of these people having let their hedges down, it is a result of these men and women’s improper confession, and improper profession and laying hold of the “Promises of God.” What will these evil and perverse hyper-faith preachers and teachers say in the day and hour of their trouble when they are faced with persecution? 

Will these same false teachers dare accuse Christ of a lack of belief, a lack of faith, of letting His hedge down over Him and His disciples, of Jesus Christ not confessing and professing and rightly laying hold of the promises of God? No, these dare not. And by these false teachings and false accusations from the devil do not these false teachers and preachers make a mockery of Christ’s death on the cross? Yes, and they bring fiery judgment down upon their heads and upon the heads of their hearers as well.

Will these same false teachers dare accuse the Apostle Paul in like manner of faith failure, of letting down his hedge, of not professing confessing and laying hold of “His Standing before God” and the “Promises of God” in his arrest, imprisonment, and death for the sake of Christ? No, these dare not.

So then how so do these false teachers and preachers and prophets lay accusation and blame at the feet of Job? It is that these preachers and teachers know not God. It is that these preachers and teachers do not believe the written word of God but have gone on to teach and preach fables, and preach their own carnal wishes and wants as what they want God to be and to do for them, otherwise known as the doctrines and traditions of men.

The trials and testings of the Lord came unto Job who was perfect in his ways before the Lord, an upright man, a man that feared God, and that fled the sight of evil.

Those Christians in westernized society are shortly to receive many stripes unto their shame. For despite all that God has poured out unto these peoples and nations, they have lifted up their heel in rebellion against God, (Psalm 41:9) by treating the words and commandments of Jesus Christ with great disrespect, contempt, and disobedience, and instead following after men and the doctrines and traditions of men. Unto those that much has been given much is required. (Luke 12:48) And dare we say that no nation has been so blessed as the United States of America. Unto those that much has been given much is required.

The Spirit of the Lord has opened my understanding and has caused me to see here that Job completed his first temptation honoring and glorifying God. Yes this was a great temptation from the tempter to see if Job would curse God when all that he had was violently taken and stripped away from him. As Jesus had three temptations from the devil so Job here has three temptations from the devil. We are not saying here that there is any correlation between the temptations of Jesus Christ and Job other than there number here which we find of interest.

And Scripture records here to the consternation of the devil Job did not curse God, nor did he sin with his lips nor did he falsely accuse God over what fell upon him but Job instead fell on the earth and worshipped God.

Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Matthew 12:34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

And thus the first temptation of Job ended.

And Part One of this bible study will end here also.