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Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Job 42:9 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.
Job 42:10 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.
Job 42:11 Then came there unto him 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: 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.
Job 42:12 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.
Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42:14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
Job 42:15 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 42:16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.
Job 42:17 So Job died, being old and full of days.

Introduction

This study is the conclusion of the book of Job. When we first met Job, we were told he “feared God and hated evil, [ and] his substance… was… the greatest of all the men of the east”:

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.
Job 1:2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters.
Job 1:3 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 of all the men of the east.

Here is Job 1:1-3 in its New Testament form:

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

The same Lord who tells us that the church of Laodicea said of herself, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; [ when the truth is that you…] know not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” also tells us that in reality Job was a “vile” man who would contend with, reprove and condemn his own Lord and Maker when the time came to pour out the Lord’s wrath upon the kingdom of Job’s ‘marred, beastly, old man’.
Now only because “the seven plagues of the seven angels” have, in type, been poured out upon the kingdom of Job’s carnal- minded old man, Job, as the Old Testament type of each of us, has been made to finally confess and acknowledge that in reality he is not a perfect man at all but is a vile person, and it is he who has sinned against the Lord by contending with, reproving and condemning his own Maker. The severe trials, which we are plainly told God Himself sent Satan to inflict upon Job, typify the seven last plagues which we are also told are God’s wrath upon the kingdom of our old man, which must first be ‘kept’ and ‘fulfilled’ within the lives of all who would “enter into the temple in heaven”.

Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

If indeed God “scourges every son He receives” (Heb 12:6), then it is quite understandable why “ no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” The seven plagues of the seven angels have now, in type, been poured out on the self- righteous kingdom of Job’s old man. Job has now, in type, been granted by His maker to do what the Lord tells us all to do. He admonishes us to buy of Him that ‘gold’ which has been tried in the fire.

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Then, and only then, is Job or any of us counted worthy to receive the double restoration, which is the symbol of the hundred- fold reward Christ has promised to those who give up this life for the life of the new man:

Mar 10:28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.
Mar 10:29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
Mar 10:30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

Job’s double restoration of his physical losses is the symbol of God’s spiritual, heavenly treasures and wealth. Double restoration is the Old Testament type of our spiritual rewards for being granted to be His first fruits, through whom all mankind will be brought to know God.

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

As the story of Job demonstrates in type and shadow, there are very few who will endure the judgment of God while yet in these vessels of clay, and those few who do will be seated with Christ in the heavens, while like Christ, still on this earth in this “earthen vessel”.

Joh 3:13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

“As He is so are we in this world” (1Jn 4:17).

Eph 2:6 And raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenlies, in Christ:
Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

So while the Laodecian Babylonians look forward to someday going to heaven, God’s elect are already seated with Christ in the heavens, even while “dying daily… in [ an] earthen vessel”:

1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
2Co 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
2Co 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

When the Father “raised up” Christ, He also raised up all who are in Christ, and He has already in the earnest of the spirit, seated us with Christ in the heavens even as we are yet in vessels of clay (Jer 18:4).

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

It is in this state of being in earthen vessels and at the same time being seated with Christ in the heavens “sealed with the holy spirit of promise… the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession”, that we look back behind us and realize all we have been brought through, just as Job has now come to see “behind [ him]” the reason for all of His fiery trials.

Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Rev 1:11 Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
Rev 1:12 And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;
Rev 1:13 And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

We are told at the beginning and the end of the book of Revelation that the time is at hand to keep what is written in this prophecy:

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Rev 22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.
Rev 22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

But “those things which are written therein… the sayings of the prophecy of this book” are all just part of the “all things” which are ours as we are told by the spirit in 1 Corinthians. “All things… the world, life, death, things present and things to come… every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God… [ including] the seven plagues of the seven angels… are ours”, and until those seven plagues of those seven angels are fulfilled in our lives, we cannot enter into the temple of God in heaven. That is what is meant by “every man’s work… shall be revealed by fire”.

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

“Things present and things to come” would surely include these things which must be fulfilled within our lives before we can enter into the temple of God:

Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Where there is smoke, there must be fire, and here is the fire which produces this smoke:

Luk 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

That “fire” as we have already seen is Christ’s Words and His doctrine (Jer 5:14). That, in type, is what Job has endured through his fiery experience of losing all his physical possessions, including all his children, the torment of the false accusations of his friends, then via Elihu’s words spoken on God’s behalf, and now via God Himself. Now God is, in type, going to use Job as a savior of his three friends who had betrayed and had forsaken him and added to his pain by reviling him as he figuratively hung naked on his own cross, enduring the wrath of God upon His sinful flesh.

Isa 54:8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

That is exactly what happened to our Lord:

Mat 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

It is all part of “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”, and it is all ours to be lived out and to “bear about… the dying of the Lord… in [ our] bod[ ies]” before we can enter into the temple of God in the kingdom of God within us:

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

After 31 chapters we are told “the words of Job are ended”, and the words of God begin. In all those first 31 chapters Job was completely blind to the truth of Mat 4:4, 1Co 3:21-22 and Rev 1:3 and Rev 15:7-8, all already quoted. But now God has opened Job’s eyes, and he now sees clearly that God is sovereign over all the good and all the evil, and he now appreciates his own words, which were begrudging at first:

Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

As the “gold tried in the fire” (Rev 3:17) Job is now used as the type of those who will be the channel through which his still self- righteous friends will now be brought to Christ, “yet so as by [ the same] fire” which all men must go through before they can enter into the temple of God in heaven (Rev 15:8).
This book is just the briefest summary of what has taken place in the lives of Job and his three friends. The way this is worded it appears that the Lord merely spoke the word and Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, immediately repented, and they very likely did. Nevertheless this entire story of Job and his experience demonstrates that Godly repentance comes only after “the seven plagues of the seven angels has been fulfilled” and have been poured out upon the kingdom of our old man, and that principle applies to Job’s three friends who symbolize the “seed [ of] the serpent” who accuse and condemn our Lord and “His Christ”.

Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
Rev 15:7 And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Rev 15:8 And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

They, too, are self- righteous, and they, too, must have that self- righteousness burned out of them.
Here is the conclusion of the story of Job. Here is how “saviors arise upon mount Zion to judge the house of Esau (Oba 21):

Job 42:9 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.

In placing three men in Job’s life to add to his torment, we are being told that our entire time of trial is all a process of being judged. It is of great significance that God’s acceptance of Job was contingent upon Job’s forgiveness of those who had proven to be his enemies:

Mat 18:33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

But Job is the type of God’s elect who do in time forgive those who trespass against them and reap the good fruits of doing so:

Job 42:10 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.

It is interesting to note that when Joseph’s trial was ended, he named his first son Manasseh, meaning ‘causing to forget’. Like Job, Joseph wanted to forget his trials. He named his second son Ephraim, which means ‘double fruit’, because ‘twice as much’ and ‘double’ typify the ” hundredfold rewards of those who are given to overcome.
The phrase “turned the captivity” is a way of saying that we are restored to our Lord. King David uses this same phrase in this way:

Psa 126:1 A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
Psa 126:2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them.
Psa 126:3 The LORD hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
Psa 126:4 Turn again our captivity, O LORD, as the streams in the south.

Christ expresses this thought in these words:

Joh 16:19 Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me?
Joh 16:20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
Joh 16:21 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

Paul expresses the truth of this verse with these words:

Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint- heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [ Manasseh, we will be “caused to forget”] are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us [ Epraim, we will receive “double fruit”].

When we read “… the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends”, we are not being told that Job came to know God at the same time his friends did. No, judgment began at the house of Job, and if it began first at him what will the end be of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar? The answer is that they, too, will suffer loss, and yet be “saved… by fire” just as Job experienced. But Job’s belief was through their unbelief, and they will now be shown mercy through Job’s mercy only after Job has prayed for his friends. We all go through this same process of judgment which this book of Job demonstrates is a type of the “one event” which comes to the elect as well as those who come to God through the mercy shown to them through God’s elect (Rom 11:30-31).

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Mat 18:35 tells us that Job, as the type of those who have the mind of Christ, “from [ his] heart” forgave his friends just as soon as he was made aware of the fact that “they [ knew] not what they [ were] doing”. That is the mind of Christ towards those who trespassed against Him:

Luk 23:33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.
Luk 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

This attitude of mercy, towards those whose hearts are hardened by God Himself, is crucial to our own forgiveness and mercy from our Creator. When we know that all sin is the result of the law of sin in our members instead of our own will, we cannot hold those who trespass against us responsible for their trespasses.

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

So Job, as the type of God’s elect, is gracious toward his “miserable comforters” because he now knows that while they did indeed condemn him, it wasn’t really they who had done so, but it was God who sent Job ahead of them to endure His wrath first and to become their Savior.

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you, to preserve life.
Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Now just like Joseph’s brothers who sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver, and who eventually brought gifts to Joseph and who ate with Joseph in Joseph’s house, Job’s brothers and friends are all now doing the same to him:

Job 42:11 Then came there unto him 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: 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.

“All the evil that the Lord had brought upon Job” is in accord with all the rest of scripture. The evil that befell Job, just as with Joseph, was all at the hands of the Lord who sends evil spirits as His own hand, as Job 1 and 2 so graphically demonstrate.
Here is this story in the book of Genesis:

Gen 43:26 And when Joseph came home, they [ his brothers] brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth.

But why did his brothers, sisters and friends come back to Job when they did? They did so for the same reason they forsook Job. They did so only because God prepared their hearts to do so:

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
1Ch 29:18 O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:
Psa 10:17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: King David tells us of the favor which will be shown to those who are faithful to the Lord to the end.
Psa 119:74 They that fear thee will be glad when they see me; because I have hoped in thy word.
Psa 119:79 Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those that have known thy testimonies.

God has also given many promises to those who are His “overcomers” and His “firstfruits”. Here are just a few examples of the promises given to those whose captivity is turned by God:

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.
Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Job’s restoration is the Old Testament type and shadow of all the blessings which will come upon those to whom it is granted to value the things of the spirit and to tremble at the word of God.

Isa 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

It is only because God shows mercy upon us and softens our hard hearts by the pouring out of His wrath upon the kingdom of our old man first, as He did upon the kingdom of the first man, Job, that we are “restored”. But as the type of those who will be forgiven their sins in this age, Job is granted a heart that can receive and tremble at the Lord’s words:

Job 42:12 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.
Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.

“The latter end of Job” is an Old Testament type of our new man who is indeed “more… blessed” that our beginning as “marred… vessel[ s] of clay… in the hand of the Potter”.
We are tempted to wonder why Job’s wealth is doubled, but his family is simply restored to the original seven sons an three daughters, but when we remember that while his flocks will not be resurrected, his first ten children will be resurrected. So in that sense his family was also doubled. When we consider the spiritual significance of the Num 10, 7 and 3, we realize that his ten children, before and after his trials, symbolize all flesh of all time. His seven sons symbolize the completed salvation of all which was secured for us all before the foundation of the world, and the three daughters represent the process of our judgment and salvation through the church which is His body (Col 1:24).
This is made clear inasmuch as we were given none of the names of Job’s children who were given him before his destruction. After his symbolic salvation, only the names of his three daughters are given us. While the obvious message is that God will reward “a meek and quiet” woman, who submits to her husband, just as richly as a male who labors in the word, it is also obvious that these three daughters represent the bride of Christ, and their names indicate as much.

Job 42:14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.

There is no ‘J’ sound in either the Hebrew or the Greek. Consequently there is no symbol for that sound, and when we see it in names like Jehovah, Jesus, or Jemima it is always translated from the ‘Y’ sound. In this case Jemima is understood as coming from the Hebrew word ‘yome’ meaning ‘day’. Some say it means ‘hot day’, some say ‘beautiful day’, and some say it means ‘day by day’, but they all agree that the name ‘Jemima’ marks the end of the dark night of Job’s destructive, fiery trials. Like Joseph naming his first son Manasseh, “causing to forget”.
Kezia comes from “cassia,†an aromatic herb, which was the very opposite of the stench from the issue of his boils which covered him from his head to his feet, and the terrible breath Job told us about:
King David tells us that wounds stink:

Psa 38:5 My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.

And Job tells us his own breath was “corrupt [ and] strange”.

Job 17:1 My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me.
Job 19:17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body.

Kezia is a sweet smelling savor representing the sweet smell of the peace of our new lives after our own destruction:

2Co 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:

What a blessing that we are given to be the smell of cassia to our Lord.
The third daughter is named Kerenhappuch which means ‘a horn of cosmetics’. It isn’t meant to tell us that this poor girl had to have makeup just to be seen in public, but on the contrary, we are being told that she and her sisters, all the type of the espoused virgin we are to our Lord, are so beautiful that there was no need for such things.

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The fact that these three daughters of Job were given an inheritance with their brothers, tells us who they typify. They typify the spouse of our Lord who will also receive an inheritance as joint heirs with Christ as the heirs of salvation:

Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint- heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
1Pe 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

Truly God is no respecter of persons and will reward a faithful woman or wife with the inheritance befitting her submission to Him. That is what the scriptures call true feminine beauty and value.

Job 42:15 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.

“Fair” and “beauty” are inward characteristics which Christ is looking for in His bride, male and female. Blessed are we when we are not offended by this description of Christ’s wife:

1Pe 3:1 Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
1Pe 3:2 While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.
1Pe 3:3 Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel;
1Pe 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1Pe 3:5 For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:

We are not born with “a meek and quiet spirit”. We “put [ our] hand upon our mouth[ s]” only after we have been crushed by the seven vials of the wrath of God upon our carnal, loud mouthed, God condemning old first man Adam. As the bride of Christ we “adorn… the hidden man of the heart…[ with] a meek and quiet spirit”, and we just listen intently and tremble at the words of our Husband, Christ, “the Word of God”.

Job 42:16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.
Job 42:17 So Job died, being old and full of days.

If Job is a type of God’s elect, then his age, being “old and full of days”, is a type of our claim on immortality:

1Co 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Seeing his sons and his son’s sons “even four generations”, would symbolize the whole of mankind; the number four always being connected with the concept of ‘the whole’ of what is under consideration.
In conclusion, this chapter which tells us of Job’s place in bringing his friends and his own family to God is the Old Testament type of this verse of Rev 20:

Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

But the book of Job in an overall sense is the Old Testament type of how the seven plagues of the seven angels of Rev 15-16 are fulfilled in the lives of the self- righteous old first man Adam within the lives of God’s firstfruit elect through whose mercy all the rest of mankind will come to God through the fire of the lake of fire:

Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;

Job is the type of all who endure this “devouring fire” and these “everlasting burnings” first.

Psa 107:21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

James gives us an apt conclusion to this entire book:

Jas 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye 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.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will begin our studies in the book of Ecclesiastes.

Ecc 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Ecc 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Ecc 1:3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
Ecc 1:4 One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
Ecc 1:5 The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
Ecc 1:6 The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
Ecc 1:7 All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
Ecc 1:8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
Ecc 1:9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Ecc 1:10 Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
Ecc 1:11 There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.

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Study Aired June 23, 2013

Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
Job 42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job 42:7 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 thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
Job 42:8 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 ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

Introduction

God has revealed to Job that the old Job is God’s avowed enemy who is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be:

Job 16:9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

Job gave himself all the credit for his own good works.

Job 29:7 When I went out to the gate through the city, when I prepared my seat in the street!
Job 29:8 The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose, and stood up.
Job 29:9 The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth.
Job 29:10 The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.
Job 29:11 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:
Job 29:12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

He condemned God for tormenting him, while considering himself to be “without transgression”.

Job 33:9 I am clean without transgression, I am innocent; neither is there iniquity in me.
Job 33:10 Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy,
Job 34:5 For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.
Job 34:6 Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression.

Because Job typifies God’s firstfruit elect, God is judging Job first, before and ahead of his friends. He is bringing Job to repentance by making Job aware of his insidious sin of self- righteousness, and by revealing Himself to Job. As we saw in chapter 40, Job was guilty of contending with, reproving, condemning His Lord and trying to justify himself at God’s expense. So He answers Job:

Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

To give Job a proper perspective as to just how important he was of himself, God had earlier asked Job:

Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

God goes on for four chapters showing Job just how ignorant Job is. When God has had His say with Job, an Old Testament type of God’s first- fruit elect, this is Job’s response:

Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.

The Lord has just demonstrated how powerless Job, and you and I are against the powers of behemoth and leviathan. Yet He tells us that He is master of both:

Job 40:18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
Job 40:19 He [ behemoth] is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
Job 41:11 Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine .

Yes, our Lord “can do anything”, and here is why “no thought can be withholden from [ Him]”:

Psa 10:17 LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Php 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

God prepares our hearts and causes us to will and to do all that we do. Indeed, “No thought is withholden from [ God].”

Job 42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.

Job now has the spirit of King David when he was confronted with his sin in the matter of Uriah the Hittite:

2Sa 12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.

Job and King David were as different as day and night, and at the same time they both had the same experience in being forced by God to come to see the sin that was within both men. Both men typify us. One is “a perfect and upright man who loved God and hated evil” and yet had to be made to acknowledge that he had “contended with… reproved… and condemned” his own God and Maker. The other was “a bloody man” who could not build the temple of God, and who was made by the Lord to see that he was himself the very same merciless murderer he so despised in King Saul who had sought to slay David who had only done good to King Saul. Uriah had served King David with the same loyalty with which David had served King Saul, yet King Saul sought his life, and David thought he was better than that even after murdering Uriah to cover up his adulterous affair with Uriah’s wife.
It all just serves to demonstrate the depth of Truth in these verses:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

The message is that all righteous men have been sinners who have been judged before becoming righteous men, and all sinners will become righteous men who have been judged as sinners before becoming righteous men. The message is that God is in the process of saving all who are in Adam in the same manner by which they came to be in Adam.

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Job now confesses his own self- righteous condemnation of His Creator and confesses “I knew not… I understood not…” and well he should. The Lord had earlier asked Job where he was when God laid the foundations of the earth. At that time He told Job that Job had “darken[ ed] counsel by words without knowledge”. His questions to Job concerning Job’s whereabouts at the time of the creation of the earth were made to accentuate the fact that Job did not exist at that time, and was therefore not nearly as knowledgeable as he thought himself to be.

Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Job 38:5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

God is clearly telling Job that Job was not to be found when He “laid the foundations of the earth”. Yet many believe that because God mentions “the sons of God” this verse actually proves that Job, and you and I preexisted, and we were all right there in spirit when God laid the foundations of this earth. That doctrine makes God’s questions to Job look silly, since the point God is making is that Job of himself is totally insignificant, and was not even there when God laid the foundations of the earth. As we demonstrated in an earlier study, “The sons of God” refers to the spirit realm of angelic hosts who were created on the fifth day, the day before mankind. So while some men may not know what Job admits to here, Job was well aware that the reason God asked him where he was at that time, was to remind him that he did not even exist at that time. The unscriptural ‘doctrine of circularity” actually teaches that Job could very well have said to God, “Well, since you asked, I was right there at your right hand when you laid the foundations of the earth. Have you forgotten, Lord?” But Job knew better than any such foolishness, and he now confesses “… Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
We are not as yet, according to scripture, spirit beings. For now, during this time we are in these clay vessels, according to scripture we are mere beasts, created on the sixth day along with all other beasts, and we are made of dust and have had the breath of life temporarily breathed into us.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

When we die, we are dead, and we “return to the dust from which we were taken.” And without a resurrection we are “perished.” That is the doctrine of scripture as inspired by the holy spirit. Let us all let God be true and every man be a liar.

1Co 15:18 Then [ if there is no resurrection, vs 17] they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

Many in Babylon argue that since the people of Christ’s time believed Him to be “John the Baptist, Elias, Jeremias or one of the prophets”, that indicates that we are spirit instead of dust. What the people thought or what people still think, is not what constitutes Truth, and that account of Christ’s question and the answer of His apostles certainly does not prove either the immortality of the soul or the transmigration of souls.
Here are the verses which inform us of that event:

Mat 16:13 When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
Mat 16:14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

The Jews of Christ’s day did not believe in the transmigration of souls. What they thought was that Christ had come “in the spirit and power of Elias… or one of the prophets,” not that He was actually the transmigrated, immortal soul of Elijah or one of the prophets.
Here is what was prophesied concerning John the baptist:

Luk 1:17 And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Job continues to plead with God:

Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.

Job’s spirit and attitude have changed. He has owned up to his sins. The thunderous voice of His Creator out of the tornado has humbled him. He is demanding nothing of his Lord. Here is Strong’s definition for the Hebrew word here translated as ‘demand’:

H7592
ש××לש××ל
shaÌ‚’al shaÌ‚’eÌ‚l
shaw- al’, shaw- ale’
A primitive root; to inquire; by implication to request; by extension to demand: – ask (counsel, on), beg, borrow, lay to charge, consult, demand, desire, X earnestly, enquire, + greet, obtain leave, lend, pray, request, require, + salute, X straitly, X surely, wish.

As we can see from the way this Hebrew word is most often translated, it means “to inquire” or to “ask”. It does not mean that Job is “demand[ ing]” anything of God.

H7592
ש××ל / ש××ל
shaÌ‚’al / shaÌ‚’eÌ‚l
Total KJV Occurrences: 169
asked, 49
Gen 24:47, Gen 26:7, Gen 32:29, Gen 37:15, Gen 38:21, Gen 43:7 (2), Gen 43:27, Gen 44:19, Exo 18:7, Jos 9:14, Jos 19:50, Jdg 1:1, Jdg 5:25, Jdg 13:6, Jdg 20:18, Jdg 20:23, 1Sa 1:17, 1Sa 1:20, 1Sa 1:27, 1Sa 8:10, 1Sa 14:37, 1Sa 19:22, 1Sa 20:6, 1Sa 20:28, 1Ki 3:10-11 (6), 1Ki 10:13 (2), 2Ki 2:10, 2Ki 8:6, 2Ch 9:11-12 (4), Neh 1:2, Job 21:29, Psa 21:4, Psa 105:40, Isa 30:2, Isa 41:28, Isa 65:1, Jer 37:17 (2), Jer 38:27
ask, 41
Gen 32:29, Num 27:21, Deu 4:32, Deu 13:14, Deu 32:7, Jos 4:6, Jos 4:21, Jos 15:18, Jdg 1:14, Jdg 18:5, 1Sa 12:19, 1Sa 25:8, 1Sa 28:16, 2Sa 20:18 (2), 1Ki 2:16, 1Ki 2:20, 1Ki 2:22 (2), 1Ki 3:5, 2Ki 2:9, 2Ch 1:7, Psa 2:7-8 (2), Isa 7:11-12 (3), Isa 45:11, Isa 58:2, Jer 6:16, Jer 15:5, Jer 18:13, Jer 23:33, Jer 30:6, Jer 38:14, Jer 48:19, Jer 50:5, Lam 4:4, Hos 4:12, Hag 2:11, Zec 10:1
inquired, 15
Jdg 8:14, Jdg 20:27, 1Sa 10:22, 1Sa 22:10, 1Sa 22:13, 1Sa 23:2, 1Sa 23:4, 1Sa 28:6, 1Sa 30:8, 2Sa 2:1, 2Sa 5:19, 2Sa 16:23 (2), 1Ch 14:10, 1Ch 14:14
inquire, 7
Gen 24:57, Jdg 4:20, 1Sa 17:56, 1Sa 22:15, 1Ch 18:10, Job 8:8, Ecc 7:10
asketh, 5
Gen 32:17, Exo 13:14, Deu 6:20, Mic 7:3 (2)

There are 31 different English translations for this one Hebrew word ‘shaal’. These first five account for 117 of the 169 total entries, and they serve to demonstrate that this word has nothing to do with the word ‘demand’ as it is understood in today’s English.
So Job, the type and shadow of who we are after being crushed to powder, humbly continues to repent “in dust and ashes”.

Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Dust and ashes are what we are composed of. “From dust thou art… [ and] ashes under the soles of [ our] feet” is what our old man will become.

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Mal 4:3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

Many of the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament saw Yahweh. They ate with Him, talked with Him, and Jacob even wrestled with Him.

Gen 18:1 And the LORD [ Hebrew, Yahweh] appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;
Gen 18:2 And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground,
Gen 18:3 And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant:
Gen 18:4 Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree:
Gen 18:5 And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
Gen 18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon the hearth.
Gen 18:7 And Abraham ran unto the herd, and fetcht a calf tender and good, and gave it unto a young man; and he hasted to dress it.
Gen 18:8 And he took butter, and milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat.

The Lord Himself spoke to Abraham when He asked Abraham why Sarah had laughed:

Gen 18:13 And the LORD [ Yahweh] said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?
Gen 18:14 Is any thing too hard for the LORD? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.

When Jacob wrestled with the Lord, he afterward said “I have seen God”.

Gen 32:30 And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

So there is no reason for us to think that Job did not also see Yahweh just as many others did in the Old Testament. Of course all these stories typify the spiritual sight we all receive when we are judged of the Lord. Here is how we can now “see” the Lord:

Joh 14:7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Joh 14:8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

What a blessing to have know and seen the Father when we come to know God and His Son!

Job 42:7 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 thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.

Here we are told that Yahweh spoke to Job and to Eliphaz. The previous four chapters are the Lord verbally chastening Job and bringing Job to repentance for condemning his own Maker and Creator:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

Obviously when God says to Eliphaz, “For ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath” He is referring to what Job spoke of Him after repenting of contending with, reproving, and condemning his Lord, and after Job confessed “I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.”
Nevertheless it is important that we realize that this whole story shows us Job as the type of God’s few elect who are simply the first to endure the seven vials of God wrath being poured out upon the kingdom of his old, carnal minded, first man Adam, who is being judged first, for the purpose of becoming the “pillars in the temple” of God through which all men will be brought to God.

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

God could have simply told Eliphaz and his two friends to bring their offerings to Him, but that is not what He does. He is telling us that He works through His elect to save mankind. Here is what we are being told:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: [ Job’s belief was at the expense of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar].
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy [ Job as the Old Testament type of God’s elect] they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Here is this same statement in the book of Revelation:

Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee [ first, as “firstfruits”].

This is the same story we have in the book of Genesis:

Gen 37:5 And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
Gen 37:6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed:
Gen 37:7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
Gen 37:8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
Gen 37:9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

Those words proceeded out of the mouth of God and so it happened to Joseph’s brothers:

Gen 42:6 And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land: and Joseph’s brethren came, and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
Gen 43:26 And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth.

So must we all do to Christ and to His Christ. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar are but one more type and shadow of our old man bowing down to our new man, “the Christ”.

Job 42:8 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 ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

When we speak the thing which is right of Christ, then we too, will be the pillars through which our brothers in Adam will come to God:

Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will learn more of how we ourselves are saved, and of how we are used of God as “saviors” (Oba 21). Here are the verse we will cover next week:

Job 42:9 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.
Job 42:10 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.
Job 42:11 Then came there unto him 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: 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.
Job 42:12 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.
Job 42:13 He had also seven sons and three daughters.
Job 42:14 And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch.
Job 42:15 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 42:16 After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.
Job 42:17 So Job died, being old and full of days.

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Job 41:24 His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.
Job 41:25 When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.
Job 41:26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
Job 41:27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
Job 41:28 The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
Job 41:29 Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.
Job 41:30 Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.
Job 41:31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
Job 41:32 He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.
Job 41:33 Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.
Job 41:34 He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

Introduction

Through Job the Lord is showing us that He never intended for the first Adam to be physically saved. He is showing us that His plan all along was to use “the first man Adam” as nothing more than the catalyst for the salvation of “the last Adam” who will be the immortal spirit He had in mind when He initially ‘called us in Christ before the world began’.

2Ti 1:9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Tit 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Now if there is any truth in those verses of scripture, and they are true, then the question of whether God knew in advance whether Adam and Eve would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is settled, because God could not have called us “in Christ Jesus before the world began” if there were the slightest chance that “the first Adam” would not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Rev 13:8 And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Since we have determined that God knew in advance that Adam and Eve would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we have also discovered that fact that God intended for that to happen, that He knew in advance exactly what Adam would do, and had already provided the sacrifice for that sin “from the foundation of the world”. So much for the false doctrine of mankind having been given a “free will”. We are told in no uncertain terms that such a doctrine is a lie.

Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

God’s will is all that is being done. Nothing occurs outside of His direction. He either shows us mercy, making our hearts pliable and intent upon obeying His every word, or He hardens our hearts making us to err (Isa 63:17). Both are the work of His hands. Causing Job to condemn his Lord, was a type of causing Judas to do so. Christ tells us clearly that He knew what Judas would do “before the world began”.

Joh 13:18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.
Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

What God is showing us through Job, is that He not only knows in advance exactly what and when we will both do good and when we will do evil, because the Lord Himself is, through the spirit realm, orchestrating and “working all things after the counsel of His own will”. Our Lord knew before he even called Judas to be his disciple, that Judas would betray Him to be crucified. That was the purpose for which Judas was chosen to be one of the twelve.
That is exactly what the scriptures proclaim, of course:

Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.

What this tells us from Genesis to Revelation is that there is no great unresolved battle between God and Satan. The only battle being fought is a predestinated battle in the heavens of our hearts and minds as we struggle to come to see and accept the sovereign work of God in our lives.

Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, The word ‘places’ in verse three is not in the Greek. Paul is informing us that we, in Christ, even now in down payment form, are “seated… in the heavens” with Christ.
Eph 2:6 And raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenlies, in Christ: (EB)
Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

This is not just an end- time event. This was being done when these words were first penned, and they have been being fulfilled in every generation since, and they will continue to be fulfilled in the lives of every person who ever has or ever will live until the consummation of the ages. Christ Himself made that very clear, and He wants us to know that His Word is not transitory or temporary, but is alive and powerful in every generation of mankind:

Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

“This generation” is every generation reading and being given to understand these words of our Lord, including “this generation”.
In this chapter of Job, the Lord is emphasizing to us, for our own benefit, just how mighty the powers are which He Himself has ordained to bring about the death of our old man, and through that death to bring forth the birth of our new man.
This is leviathan, against whom we of ourselves have no power at all:

Job 41:24 His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether millstone.

That is the very purpose for which leviathan was created. A hard heart is the most common figure in scripture for rebellion and unbelief. Who God loves he shows mercy by giving us a soft pliable heart, but when we are in rebellion we are being given a heart as hard and rebellious as stone:

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of [ soft] flesh.

That is the positive application in scripture for the word ‘flesh’, which is far more generally the figure of a hard, carnal rebellious heart.

Job 41:25 When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves.

This entire verse is a mystery to all the commentators. The word ‘mighty’ is the Hebrew word ‘el’, which means ‘god’, and the word ‘afraid’ is the Hebrew word ‘gur’ which is most often translated as ‘sojourn’, though it is defined as ‘turn’ or ‘turn aside’. “By reason of breakings” is from the two Hebrew words ‘minney’, and ‘sheber’. ‘Minney’ means “a part of [ or] from”, and ‘sheber’ means “fracture [ or] ruin”. The entire phrase, “they purify themselves” is all translated from the one Hebrew word ‘chatah’, which is the Hebrew word translated as ‘sin’ throughout the entire Old Testament.
So now that we know what the Hebrew actually says, and we already understand that the point the Lord is making in telling us about behemoth and leviathan is that we are all helpless of ourselves to withstand them, we can now much better understand what the Lord is telling us through Job. He is telling us that when leviathan raises himself up to do the work the Lord sends him to do within the sea of humanity, even men like the prince of Tyrus and the King of Babylon, who are types of us and who think they are gods, will ‘turn aside’ or flee in fear because they are ‘fractured’ and ‘ruined’ and “marred in the Potter’s hand, and are made ‘chatah’, “made sin”.
In other words, we are helpless to resist what the Lord has made for Himself, in the day when He has predestined our own “day of evil”.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Such is the power of leviathan over the flesh of mankind.

Job 41:26 The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the habergeon.
Job 41:27 He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
Job 41:28 The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble.
Job 41:29 Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear.

The adversary, that old serpent the devil and Satan, literally laughs at our attempts to fight against him, apart from “Christ in [ us]”. Here is what happens when we are fighting against sin in our lives without having Christ living His life within us. That is right; I am quoting Rom 7 again:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

That is who we are against leviathan, the death angel, who has been given the power of death over our old man.

Exo 12:29 And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle.

How did the Lord “put forth His hand…[ and] smite the firstborn of Egypt”? He did it in the same way that He “put forth His hand… and smote Job with boils…”

Job 2:3 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.

It is the Lord Himself who sends Satan to smite Job, but the Lord tells us that Satan was used to “move [ Him] against [ Job]”. Only God is so great that He has to create and use His own adversary.

Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

That is a good example of our next verse:

Job 41:30 Sharp stones are under him: he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire.

I will quote Albert Barne’s Commentary on this verse because he gives us the meaning of the word in Hebrew, and then demonstrates how we all, without Christ, cannot apply the spiritual meaning of words to scripture.
Here is Barne’s Commentary on this thirtieth verse of Job 41:

“Job 41:30
“Sharp stones are under him – Margin, as in Hebrew, “pieces of pot sherd.†The Hebrew word (חדוד chadduÌ‚d), means “sharp, pointedâ€; and the phrase used here means “the sharp points of a potsherdâ€, or broken pieces of earthenware. The reference is, undoubtedly, to the scales of the animal, which were rough and pointed, like the broken pieces of earthenware. This description would not agree with the whale, and indeed will accord with no other animal so well as with the crocodile. The meaning is that the under parts of his body, with which he rests upon the mire, are made up of sharp, pointed things, like broken pottery.”

Nothing is further from the Truth as another commentator whose name is Gill reveals:

“Job 41:30
Sharp stones are under him,…. And yet give him no pain nor uneasiness;
“he spreadeth sharp pointed things upon the mire; and makes his bed of them and lies upon them; as sharp stones, as before, shells of fishes, broken pieces of darts, arrows, and javelins thrown at him, which fall around him: this does not so well agree with the crocodile, the skin of whose belly is soft and thin; wherefore dolphins plunge under it and cut it with a thorn, as Pliny (h) relates, or with spiny fins (i); but with the whale, which lies among hard rocks and sharp stones, and large cutting pieces of ice, as in the northern seas.”

Carnal- minded commentators are very educated men. Nevertheless, the mind which compares spiritual things with spiritual types and shadows knows that “vessel[ s] of clay” are one of the primary the Biblical types of mankind.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

All the New Testament writers were very much aware of this Biblical type and shadow. So Paul writes:

2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure [ Christ within us] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Again, the very point being made to us through Job is that God has given the kingdoms of this world over to Satan, and we are all, at first, under the power and influence of the great red dragon who empowers and enthrones the beast within us all.
The fact that we are pictured as being broken in pieces under Him is just the exact opposite of what is to become of leviathan himself during the thousand year reign of Christ and His elect over this earth.

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 20:1 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
Rev 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Leviathan is “the dragon”, who during this thousand year reign, will be “sharp stones… sharp pointed things” under the feet of God’s elect, who will be ruling this earth during that thousand years.
But while our flesh is given over to leviathan, as Job’s flesh was:

Job 41:31 He maketh the deep to boil like a pot: he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment.
Job 41:32 He maketh a path to shine after him; one would think the deep to be hoary.

Satan (leviathan) will have his way in the sea of mankind. God Himself has given Satan to be the king of the nations of this earth.

Luk 4:5 And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Luk 4:6 And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

We are told that Satan is “the god of this world”.

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

That state of blindness is called “darkness”, and that state of darkness is administered by principalities, powers and the rulers of that darkness, and those powers are all located in our heavens.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. [ Greek – epouranios, heavens, the word places is not in the Greek.]

So it is given to Satan to keep our eyes blinded. He accomplishes this through all of his false lying doctrines which twist the Word of God.

2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

But we are also given to know that all of this is really being worked by God Himself who sends Satan forth to accomplish his work. So when we are specifically told that all evil spirits are sent to us “from the Lord”, then it is no contradiction to tell us that God has given them this spirit of blindness:

Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15 And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
1Ki 22:23 Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Satan is no different than you and I. We all wonder how it is possible for God to be sovereign, and yet we appear to make our own decisions whether to obey or disobey, whether we repent or rebel or whether we fear God or condemn Him and His ways. Job, the type of all of us, is a vessel of clay with no really deep fear of God. He certainly did not fear God enough to keep him from contending with, reproving or condemning God. Satan, on the other hand, is not earthbound as men are. He is a heavenly creature with no fear of God:

Job 41:33 Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear.

God is letting us know that there is a spirit realm, against which the most powerful men are totally helpless. Mankind can make all the movies he wants about how mankind is capable of conquering invaders from the heavens, but our Lord is not the least bit impressed or intimidated. We cannot even contend with God’s created adversary, much less God Himself.
Here is what we are told about the power God has given over to Satan:

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.
Job 2:6 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
Job 2:7 So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

Now we know what this verse means:

Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

It is this book of Job which so clearly demonstrates how Satan’s every move is nothing more than “the hands of the living God”. Remember, Satan himself admits that all he does is at God’s hand and God’s command:

Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

Again in chapter two:

Job 2:4 And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.
Job 2:5 But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.

What a marvelous comforting revelation for those who are given to receive it, and what an infuriating revelation to those who are not given to receive it.
Here is who God has made the king of all who are not given to receive, rejoice, and be comforted in seeing and knowing of the sovereign hand of God in all things.

Job 41:34 He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.

Self- pride is the essence of this world, which is our flesh.

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

It was pride that led Job and leads you and me to accuse and condemn our own Maker in these words:

Job 33:10 Behold, he findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy,
Job 33:11 He putteth my feet in the stocks, he marketh all my paths.

To which God inspired Elihu to answer:

Job 33:12 Behold, in this thou art not just: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man.
Job 33:13 Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.
Job 33:14 For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not.
Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed;
Job 33:16 Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction,
Job 33:17 That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
Psa 59:12 For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.
Pro 8:13 The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Here is what God is doing with “the pride of [ our] li[ ves]”:

Lev 26:19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
Lev 26:38 And ye shall perish among the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up.

It is all meant to tell us that the earth is the doomed enemy of heaven and the earthy is the doomed enemy of the heavenly.

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

This is not plan B for God, this is plan A as it was conceived from “before the world began”.

1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

And this is also what will happen to leviathan, “the king over all the children of pride”:

Heb 2:14 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;

Satan, like “the first man Adam”, has a carnal mind which is enmity against God:

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

But the fire which is the word of God (Jer 5:14), will purify even the carnal mind of the children of leviathan, the king over all the children of pride”, and then they will become seraphim around the throne of God:

Isa 6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isa 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims [ Hebrew – fiery serpents]: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isa 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

These verses confirm the truth of this verse of scripture:

Col 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

“All things… in earth, or in heaven” certainly includes “leviathan… the king of all the children of pride”.
Next week, if the Lord wills, we will discover the purpose for which we must endure the seven vials of the wrath of God upon the kingdom of all the children of pride within us. Here are the verses we will cover:

Job 42:1 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 42:2 I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
Job 42:3 Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
Job 42:4 Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 42:5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Job 42:6 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.
Job 42:7 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 thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
Job 42:8 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 ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

Video Links

Job 41:1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Job 41:2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
Job 41:3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?
Job 41:4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
Job 41:5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
Job 41:6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?
Job 41:7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?
Job 41:8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
Job 41:9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

Introduction

In our previous study the Lord told us this concerning the behemoth which is within us:

Job 40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

“He that made him can make His sword approach unto him” is all contrasted with Job’s and our inability to save ourselves as the Lord made clear to us in the previous chapter:

Job 40:9 Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
Job 40:10 Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.
Job 40:11 Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold every one that is proud, and abase him.
Job 40:12 Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.
Job 40:13 Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in secret.
Job 40:14 Then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right hand can save thee.

God’s point to us through His fiery words to Job is being made in words which were graphic and clear in that day. At that time behemoth, a beast with a tail like a cedar, five times the size of the largest elephants of today, was still alive on this earth, and had never been harnessed by any man. The point the Lord is making is that we are dealing with powers which are far greater than we have any ability to control, but “He that made [ behemoth] can make His sword to approach unto him” means that there are things which are controlled only by our Maker. We were told that behemoth, the largest land dwelling beast that has ever been, was made with mankind:

Job 40:15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

So behemoth is a beast which was created on the sixth day. He is beyond mankind’s ability to harness or to put a bit in his mouth. Yet he is not carnivorous so he is at home with beasts of every sort, just like a huge elephant at a watering hole with lions and crocodiles. Even an elephant’s young are safe among all other beasts for fear of its parents. Nature photographers have filmed young elephants and young hippos, walking among huge crocodiles, oblivious to the danger they would be in if their parents were not near. They have also filmed a young hippo being devoured by crocodiles when it strays too far from its mother. Such is the life of a beast. The survival of the young depends upon the proximity of its parents. When it strays away from its parents, it is devoured by the carnivores which are always nearby.
God’s point is that what men cannot control, God is controlling and is “work[ ing] after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).
In this 41st chapter we are dealing with another even more powerful beast than behemoth. Leviathan is a sea creature. This means that he was created on the 5th day, the day before the creation of mankind, and the day on which the fowls of the heavens were created.

Gen 1:20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Gen 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Gen 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

This beast is even stronger than behemoth in the scope of his power. This beast does not live on the land, and is pictured as the zenith of that with which mankind is incapable of doing war. This creature is called leviathan, and the Lord warns us of the strength of this creature against which we have no power at all of ourselves. Serpents do not eat dust, but we, in type, are all actually the dust which is given the serpent for his food:

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

Just as the dry land is made to come up out of the deep seas, so we are told, the beast rises up out of the sea:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

Just as there is a symbiotic relationship between the death of the first Adam and the birth of the last Adam, so also there is a symbiotic relationship between the dry land and the sea and between the creatures of both. We have a New Testament parallel to behemoth and leviathan which we will discuss after we have been made aware of the strength of this creature whose powers are beyond even the power of behemoth. We should have a much deeper appreciation of the fact that we are told that the beast of Rev 13 “rise[ s] up out of the sea” after this study. There is a very strong connection to our behemoth beast, which is at home in the waters and on dry land, and leviathan, who is a creature which lives exclusively in the sea, in a realm beyond our influence and certainly beyond our control.
The first question the Lord asks us indicates just how helpless we are against the power of this creature:

Job 41:1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Job 41:2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

When we, as Job did, think that we are able of ourselves to instruct God, we are demonstrating just how little we know of the realm of the spirit. If we cannot even control leviathan, what would lead us to think we can instruct and direct leviathan’s Maker?
This word ‘leviathan’ is a contraction of the two words ‘levi’ and ‘than’. Here is Strong’s definition of this word:
H3882
לויתן
livyâthân
liv- yaw- thawn’
From H3867; a wreathed animal, that is, a serpent (especially the crocodile or some other large sea monster); figuratively the constellation of the dragon; also as a symbol of Babylon: – leviathan, mourning. When we look at 3867 this is what we find:
H3867
לוה
lâvâh
law- vaw’
A primitive root; properly to twine, that is, (by implication) to unite, to remain; also to borrow (as a form of obligation) or (causatively) to lend: – abide with, borrow (- er), cleave, join (self), lend (- er).
So the root meaning of this word is “to twine, to unite”. If indeed we borrow from another or if we lend to another, we are entwined with and untied to that person in some since of obligation. This is true in both a positive and a negative sense. We are told to lend expecting nothing in return, but we are also told that the borrower will be the servant of the lender.

Deu 15:6 For the LORD thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.
Pro 22:7 The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

The way this word is used demonstrates that it means that there is a very close relationship between two people or two things. In the case of leviathan, it is the closeness of his impenetrable scales.

Job 41:15 His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.
Job 41:16 One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.

The last half of this word comes from the first part of the Hebrew word for dragon, thanniyn. Here is what the Gill commentary reveals about this name leviathan:

“… Leviathan” is a compound word of the Hebrew word ‘than’ the first syllable of “thanni”, rendered either a whale, or a dragon, or a serpent, and of the Hebrew word “levi”, which signifies conjunction, from the close joining of its scales, Job 41:15; the patriarch Levi had his name from the same word; see Gen 29:34;”

As Gill points out Gen 29:34 uses this same word, ‘lavah’ which is the root of the word ‘leviathan’:

Gen 29:34 And she conceived again, and bare a son; and said, Now this time will my husband be joined [ H3867, lavah, entwined, joined] unto me, because I have born him three sons: therefore was his name called Levi.

The Hebrew word ‘livyaÌ‚thaÌ‚n’, translated as leviathan’ is found in the Old Testament a total of six times. Here are all those entries:
H3882
לויתן
livyâthân
Total KJV Occurrences: 6
leviathan, 5
Job_41:1, Psa_74:14, Psa_104:26, Isa_27:1 (2)
mourning, 1
Job_3:8
It occurs six times, and of those six entries, five are translated as ‘leviathan’, and one is translated as ‘mourning’. To understand what God is telling us, we need to look at these few entries, and ask our heavenly Father to open our eyes to what He is telling us about ourselves.
The first time this word appears in scripture is in Job 3 verse 8 which is the only time it is translated as “mourning”.

Job 3:7 Lo, let that night [ of Job’s birth] be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein. Job 3:8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning [ Hebrew, livyathan].

This is the chapter where Job is mourning the day of his birth immediately after losing his family, and all of his possessions, and then being stricken with boils from his head to his feet. “Their mourning” is ‘their leviathan’, meaning ‘Let them raise up their union’ with the word ‘mourning’ being understood. The word translated as ‘mourning’ is actually ‘leviathan’.
The next entry is found here is this first verse of Job 41 which we are now examining, and the next entry is this verse in Psalms:

Psa 74:13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Psa 74:14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

The last half of the word ‘leviathan’, is the Hebrew word ‘thanni’ or ‘tanniym’ and this word appears in the Old Testament 27 times one of which is right here in Psa 74:13 where it is translated as ‘dragon’. ‘Dragons’ is the most common translation of this word, but the others, with the exception of the translation as ‘whale’, are all very similar:
Here are all the appearances of this word in the Old Testament:

H8577
×ªÖ¼× Ö¼×™× / תּנּין
tannı̂yn / tannı̂ym
Total KJV Occurrences: 27
dragons, 15
Deu_32:33, Job_30:29, Psa_44:19, Psa_74:13, Psa_148:7, Isa_13:22, Isa_34:13, Isa_35:7, Isa_43:20, Jer_9:11, Jer_10:22, Jer_14:6, Jer_49:33, Jer_51:37, Mic_1:8
dragon, 6
Psa_91:13 (2), Isa_27:1, Isa_51:9, Jer_51:34, Eze_29:3
serpent, 2
Exo_7:9-10 (2)
monsters, 1
Lam_4:3
serpents, 1
Exo_7:12
whale, 1
Job_7:12 (2)
whales, 1
Gen_1:21

Clearly ‘tanniym’ means ‘dragon’ or ‘serpent’, and as the Lord’s description of leviathan demonstrates, it has nothing to do with a whale, which is not a serpent with scales, nor is it a dragon.
Verse 14 of Psa 74 says: “Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness”. When did the Lord do this? It was Joshua speaking to “the people inhabiting the wilderness”, who spoke these words to those people:

Num 14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
Num 14:7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
Num 14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Num 14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

So the point the Lord is making with Job is that without Christ, Job and we are helpless against leviathan. But with Christ, we can do all things, including making leviathan and his children “meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness”. It is by fighting against “the people of the land” that God “breaks the heads of leviathan and gives him to be meat to the people in the wilderness” who have been called out of Babylon, which is ‘spiritual Sodom and Egypt’. Of ourselves we are completely helpless against “the people of the land” because “the people of the land” are the old man, the sons of their father, the devil, by birth. It is only “Christ in us” who by fighting against them, strengthens that “new man” so we can honestly say that “they are bread for us”.

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

The next entry for the word leviathan is Psa 104:26. Here is that verse with the preceding two verses to give us a sense of who leviathan is, and where leviathan dwells.

Psa 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
Psa 104:25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
Psa 104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

This great and wide sea” is often used as a type of this world within us with all of its many beasts which rule us. Here is this same type as it is used in Psa 107:

Psa 107:23 They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
Psa 107:24 These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.
Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

Throughout scripture, in the Old and New Testaments, the waves of the sea are used of the holy spirit to typify the storms of life. Christ calmed the winds and the waves of the sea. He has promised to make us “fishers of men”, and we are told that our beast “rise[ s] up out of the sea”. All of this lets us know that when the Lord is speaking of leviathan, it is to let us know that we are up against much more than we, of ourselves, are able to control or overcome. We are actually up against the very power He had just unleashed upon Job. We are up against Satan himself and all his angels.
The last entry in scripture of this word ‘leviathan’ is Isa 27:1. But we must read the verses preceding this verse to get the message which the Lord is giving us concerning leviathan. The subject under discussion is the resurrection of the dead. It is at the resurrection of the dead that leviathan is defeated and fed to us.

Isa 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. Isa 26:20 Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
Isa 26:21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.

Those who “hide [ themselves] as it were for a moment, until the indignation be overpast” are only those who, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all of God’s prophets, have already endured God’s wrath upon the old man within them at the hands of those who become food for them. God uses the unbelief of others as His sword against our own flesh. Here is how He reveals this to us:

Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

So it is at the resurrection of the dead, both when we are redeemed in down payment form as well as at the “redemption of the purchased possession”, that leviathan is destroyed and made to be food for us. It is in this context that we read our last entry for this word ‘leviathan’.

Isa 27:1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

“That day” being the day “my dead body shall they arise”, it is the day of “the redemption of the purchased possession”, the day of the resurrection of the dead, when the destruction of the devil begins:

Eph 1:13 In whom [ Christ] ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Heb 2:14 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;

Here is what we need to realize about “the power” which has been granted leviathan over the flesh of us all until Christ comes to dwell within us:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

What Paul calls “the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus”, is contrasted to the “law of sin and death” the power which is given to the adversary:

Rom 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Heb 2:14 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;

Many are those who think they wrestle only against their own flesh and blood. Many deny that there is any struggle involved. In such a state we are devoured by leviathan and are “swallowed up by the earth”, both being the type and shadow of the total darkness and spiritual death into which such unsuspecting brothers have fallen and now dwell.

Rev 16:10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
Rev 16:11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

This is exactly what Job, a type and shadow of all of us, has done. Job knows God is sovereign, but not until God shows Job how He went about destroying the old Job. God’s revelation concerning leviathan demonstrates that Job had no idea that God was using Satan as God’s hand to bring all this evil upon Job, the type of each of us. Job, in that capacity, thought he could show God how mistaken God was in treating Job as God’s enemy:

Job 16:9 He [ God] teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [ Greek, tupos, types]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

So our Lord instructs us concerning this great sea serpent:

Job 41:3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?

Leviathan is a merciless slave master “seeking [ only] whom he may devour”. He will spiritually starve us to death and bring us to eating with swine, and then he will laugh in our faces:

Luk 15:14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
Luk 15:15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
Luk 15:16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
Luk 15:17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

“Husks that… swine… eat” is that to which the holy spirit likens the lies of leviathan. One of his very effective lies is that he doesn’t even exist, and that Satan is nothing more than our own flesh. When we deny the dark side of the cloud by the Red Sea, it is just a matter of time before we also deny the bright side of that same cloud, and we find that we have lost all faith, and begin to condemn our own Maker. If we repent and return to our heavenly Father He will rush to us and take us back as His Son who was dead, as a lost sheep and as His prodigal Son:

Luk 15:17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
Luk 15:18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
Luk 15:19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
Luk 15:20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
Luk 15:21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
Luk 15:22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
Luk 15:23 And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:
Luk 15:24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

Leviathan has no such compassion. He is not interested in saving. His purpose is our destruction, and he has been given “the power of death”. God wants us to know that there is a realm of the spirit, intent upon our destruction, with which we are contending, and over which we have no power of ourselves. When we finally come to understand this truth we cry out with the apostle:

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [“Him that has the power of death, that is the devil” Heb 2:14]
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

The Lord does not ask questions which are not relevant to our human condition. So He poses these questions for us:

Job 41:4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
Job 41:5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?

We are all tempted to do just that. We are all tempted to make a covenant with him who has the power of death as if we could somehow escape death. This is who we are:

Isa 28:14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Isa 28:15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Isa 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Isa 28:18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
Isa 28:19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
Isa 28:20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
Isa 28:21 For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
Isa 28:22 Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

The “consumption of the whole earth” is what Job and each of us must experience. It is better to lose our lives in this age, present our bodies as a living sacrifice, die daily and be crucified with Christ, and have all of that behind us in this age. In other words, it is better to die now to our flesh, and be in the first resurrection of the dead, than to fail to do so now and be in the second death and the second resurrection of the dead.

Ecc 7:1 A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

The way of the cross is the good news of the kingdom of God working within us to destroy our old first man Adam, but this is utter foolishness to our old first man Adam. It was utter foolishness to Job, the type of us. Job was not restored to God’s good graces until he had been granted to repent of thinking he could make a covenant with death, and thereby avoid the consumption which is determined upon the whole earth.
Satan’s efforts paid off with Job, and they pay off with all of us at first, but Christ refused that offer because He knew that a covenant with Satan was worthless:

Mat 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
Mat 4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Mat 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Mat 4:11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

“Angels came and ministered unto Him” means this was not an easy trial even for the Son of God. Satan was offering Christ a way to avoid the pain of the cross. He could not offer Christ life because he has no life to offer. He might postpone death, but death is certain for all flesh, simply because it misses the mark of being the spiritual body where the spirit of Christ dwells. Is the postponing of the death of our old man worth the cost, when we end up dying anyway? That is what the scriptures call “a covenant with death” which does nothing more than postpone the inevitable at best, and guarantees double the trials in the end:

Rev 18:6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

We have all been warned that we will do so, but just like self- righteous Job, we think we are above denying our Lord. If we are given to be that “blessed and holy… few”, then we are granted to repent in this age:

Mat 26:31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.
Mat 26:32 But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee.
Mat 26:33 Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.
Mat 26:34 Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.
Mat 26:35 Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.

“This night” is the symbol of that time in our own lives when we too, deny our Lord, whether it is through overt sin or the sin of self- righteousness, with which Job struggled, and which is the most insidious of sins.
Whatever is the sin in our own “night” we learn that we are no match of the spiritual leviathan with whom we are contending as “spiritual wickedness in [ our] heavens”.
Here it is again:

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high places

.

We do well to know with whom we are contending, and to deal wisely with the adversary as did our Lord. We are completely out of our league when we are on our own, as the Lord’s questions continue to demonstrate:

Job 41:6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?
Job 41:7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?

The adversary is beyond any power we might have even when we are in league with our “companions”. The answer is that we cannot fill his skin with barbed iron, or his head with fish spears. We have no power over leviathan of ourselves, even in union with our companions.

Job 41:8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
Job 41:9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

Here is a lesson for all who believe that Satan is nothing more than the flesh of mankind. Here is how even the archangel Michael has to deal with mankind’s worst enemy:

Jdg 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

What God has shown us through Job is the power which He has granted to Satan over all flesh. He has in effect given us a type and shadow of the fact that if we cannot even restrain Satan, who has just destroyed Job’s children and all of his possessions, and has smitten Job with boils from his head to his feet, and has sent lying false witnesses against Job’s character, “who then is able to stand before me?”
That is the lesson God is giving us through the strength of leviathan. Even archangels treat leviathan with regard for who he is:

2Pe 2:11 Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

Let us not be so foolish as to think like Job, that we are in a position to instruct leviathan’s Maker.

Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

We are helpless against the flesh over which leviathan have been given power. While we are helpless of ourselves, we will do well to ask for a deeper understanding and greater appreciation of this awesome Truth:

Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Next week, if the Lord permits we will be instructed more in what we need to know about this, our accuser.

Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?
Job 41:11 Who hath prevented me, that I should repay him? whatsoever is under the whole heaven is mine.
Job 41:12 I will not conceal his parts, nor his power, nor his comely proportion.
Job 41:13 Who can discover the face of his garment? or who can come to him with his double bridle?
Job 41:14 Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about.
Job 41:15 His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.
Job 41:16 One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.
Job 41:17 They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.
Job 41:18 By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
Job 41:19 Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out.
Job 41:20 Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron.
Job 41:21 His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth.
Job 41:22 In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him.
Job 41:23 The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved.

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Job 40:15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
Job 40:16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
Job 40:17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
Job 40:18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
Job 40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
Job 40:20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
Job 40:21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
Job 40:22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
Job 40:23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
Job 40:24 He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

Introduction

Through Job, God has been showing us how futile it is to contend with our own Maker. He has revealed to us that everything that happens, the good and the evil, are all His works. He tells us, right here in this book of Job, that it was His hand that “made the crooked serpent” for the very purpose of being that “crooked serpent”. We have all been given a will, but no one in the universe has a will that is free from the will of God. Instead, the will which we all have is in reality being influenced, directed and worked “after the counsel of His own will”. It is not a struggle for God to work all things, because that is who He is. All things are of Him “it has pleased [ Him]” that all things are to be accomplished through His Son:

Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.
1Co 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

Job knows nothing yet of the Father. So while he serves as a type of God’s elect, the Truth is that Job did not know either Christ or His Father. But it happens that it is the Father’s Christ with whom He is dealing, and it is Christ Himself who now continues to grill Job:

Job 40:15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.

Here is Strong’s definition of this word ‘behemoth’.
H930
בּה×ות
behêmôth
be- hay- mohth’
In form a plural of H929, but really a singular of Egyptian derivation: a water ox, that is, the hippopotamus or Nile horse: – Behemoth.

It is in the plural form of H929 and the singular H929 appears in the Old Testament 193 times, of which 136 entries are translated simply as ‘beast’ or the plural ‘beasts’. The most common translation is the singular ‘beast’ which appears 84 times. It is translated in the plural as ‘beasts’ 52 times even though it is the singular form. The remaining 57 entries are all translated as ‘cattle’.
Here is how Strong’s defines the singular form of this word:

H929
בּה××”
behêmâh
be- hay- maw’ From an unused root (probably meaning to be mute); properly a dumb beast; especially any large quadruped or animal (often collectively): – beast, cattle.

Whatever this particular beast is, the Lord tells us it eats grass, and He tells us that He made this beast with mankind: “Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.”
The two spiritual points being made in this verse are first, the fact that this is a beast, and second, this beast “eats grass”. Eating grass, in scriptural terms, is the same as eating dust:

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

“That old serpent, Satan, and the devil” eats dust, and behemoth, east grass. Both typify the flesh:

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Isa 40:6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
1Pe 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

So behemoth has mankind for lunch just as our flesh causes us to “do that [ we] would not”.

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

But then He goes on to tell us much more about this particular beast:

Job 40:16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.

“His strength is in his loins” is true of almost any beast. There is no doubt that a very powerful beast is the subject of God’s discussion with us through Job. He tells us “His force is in the navel of his belly”.
When we look up the Hebrew word which is translated ‘force’ in this verse, this is what we find:

H202
×ון
‘oÌ‚n
one
Probably from the same as H205 (in the sense of effort, but successful); ability, power, (figuratively) wealth: – force, goods, might, strength, substance.
When we look up H205 this is what we find:
H205
×ון
‘aÌ‚ven
aw’- ven

From an unused root perhaps meaning properly to pant (hence to exert oneself, usually in vain; to come to naught); strictly nothingness; also trouble, vanity, wickedness; specifically an idol: – affliction, evil, false, idol, iniquity, mischief, mourners (- ing), naught, sorrow, unjust, unrighteous, vain, vanity, wicked (- ness.) Compare H369.
This root word H205, ‘aven’, is the root of the Hebrew H202, ‘on’. This root word H205, aven, appears 79 times in the Old Testament, and the way it is most often translated is very revealing in helping us to understand what God is telling us of this great beast.
Here are all the various entries for this root word:

H205
×ון
âven
Total KJV Occurrences: 79
iniquity, 47
Num_23:20-21 (2), 1Sa_15:23, Job_4:8, Job_11:14, Job_21:19, Job_31:3, Job_34:8, Job_34:22, Job_36:10, Job_36:21, Psa_5:5, Psa_6:8, Psa_7:14, Psa_14:4, Psa_36:3 (2), Psa_36:12, Psa_41:6, Psa_53:4, Psa_55:3, Psa_56:7, Psa_64:2 (2), Psa_66:18, Psa_92:7, Psa_92:9, Psa_94:4, Psa_94:16, Psa_94:23, Psa_119:133, Psa_125:5, Psa_141:4, Psa_141:9, Pro_10:29, Pro_19:28, Pro_21:15, Isa_1:13, Isa_29:20, Isa_31:2, Isa_32:6, Isa_59:4, Hos_6:6-8 (3), Hos_12:11, Mic_2:1, Hab_1:3
vanity, 6
Job_15:35, Pro_22:7-8 (2), Isa_41:29, Isa_58:9, Zec_10:2
wicked, 6
Job_22:15, Job_34:36, Psa_59:5, Psa_101:8, Pro_6:12, Pro_6:18
mischief, 4
Psa_36:4, Psa_55:10, Psa_62:3, Eze_11:2
affliction, 3
Job_5:6, Jer_4:15, Hab_3:7
unrighteous, 2
Isa_10:1, Isa_55:7
wickedness, 2
Job_11:11, Pro_30:20
evil, 1
Pro_12:20-21 (2)
false, 1
Pro_17:4
idol, 1
Isa_66:3
mourners, 1
Hos_9:3-4 (2)
mourning, 1
Deu_26:14
nought, 1
Amo_5:5
sorrow, 1
Psa_90:10
unjust, 1
Pro_11:7
vain, 1
Jer_4:14

So clearly the root of this Hebrew word translated as ‘force’ means “iniquity, wicked, wickedness, unrighteous, [ and] evil”. It is equally clear that this Hebrew word H202, ‘on’, which has been translated as ‘force’ here in this 16th verse would be much better translated as ‘iniquity’ or ‘wickedness’ rather than ‘force’.
Now let’s look at the meaning of the Hebrew word ‘shariyr’, which is translated as ‘navel’ in this 16th verse. Here is Strong’s entry for this word:

H8306
ש×ריר
shârı̂yr
shaw- reer’
From H8324 in the original sense as in H8270 (compare H8326); a cord, that is, (by analogy) sinew: – navel.
So shariyr, H8306, is from 8324, and when we look up 8324 this is what we discover:
H8324
ש×רר
shârar
shaw- rar’

A primitive root; to be hostile (only active participle an opponent): – enemy.
Therefore the root meaning of H8306, shariyr, translated as ‘navel’, is “to be hostile”, and the root meaning of the H202, ‘on’, translated ‘force’ should be translated as ‘iniquity’. it becomes much clearer what the Lord is telling us about this great beast.
So let’s read this verse with this new understanding and see what God is telling us about this great beast which He wants Job to know is beyond Job’s and our ability to control.
Here again is that verse as it appears in the King James version:

Job 40:16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.

But knowing now what the Hebrew words ‘on’ and ‘shariyr’ really mean, here is what the Lord is actually telling us through Job:

‘Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and the iniquity of his hostility [“enmity”] is in his belly.’

This is now in complete accord with the beast which is the carnal mind of all men, and which is hostile towards God, and whose God is his own belly:

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Php 3:18 (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Php 3:19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

This is the same beast which was the last and greatest beast of Dan 7. While all the other beast are beasts with which we are all familiar, this particular beast, like the beasts God tells us of in Job, is simply described as “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly”, just as God describes ‘behemoth’, to the extent that it is not even described in Daniel. But this beast, like all beasts, are revealed in scripture to be the seed of the great red dragon, that old serpent the devil, and the man of sin.

Dan 7:7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2 And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

This beast is “different from all the beasts that were before it in Dan 7 simply because this beast has the same ten horns as the composite beast of Rev 13 which devoured the others before it. In other words, Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome are all revealed to be the same one beast, our old “first man Adam”.

Rev 12:3 And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:7 And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
Rev 12:8 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

So God is telling us through Job, that when the devil empowers the beast within us, we become “behemoth” and are “seven times worse because we are being given much more of the “power, throne, and great authority” which is granted to us by the great red dragon.

Mat 12:43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
Mat 12:44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Mat 12:45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

The beast the Lord chose as the ultimate type of the beast of the dry land, is one which was comfortable in the waters of the rivers and swamps of the earth, as well as the higher grounds, but this physical beast is no longer around except in fossil form, as we can glean from this verse:

Job 40:17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.

The commentators all try to convince us that this is either an elephant or a hippopotamus. But even they all acknowledge that a “tail like a cedar” doesn’t really describe the tiny tails of either of those great beasts. But when we free ourselves from the lie of the theory of evolution and the false doctrine known as “the gap theory”, which teaches that there is a gap of perhaps millions or even billions of years between the first and second verses of Genesis one, then we are able to receive the Truth which is so clearly stated by the holy spirit that this particular beast had a “tail like a cedar”.
Here, from Wikipedia, is some basic information on an animal which answers to the Lord’s description of this great beast in every way. It is, as far as is now known, by far the largest and most powerful mammal known to have ever been on the dry land of the earth. It was the Brachiosaurus.

… Most size estimates for Brachiosaurus are actually for the African form… Over the years, the mass of B. altithorax has been estimated as… 43.9 metric tons (48.4 short tons), and, most recently, 28.7 metric tons (31.6 short tons)… The length of Brachiosaurus has been estimated at 26 metres (85 ft).

This beast stood at least 22 feet high without raising its neck to reach even higher.
Here, for the sake of comparison, is what Wikipedia tells us of the largest animal alive on earth today:

“The African savanna, or bush elephant, of sub- Saharan Africa, is the largest living land animal, weighing up to 16,500 lbs (8 and 1/4 tons) and standing 10 – 13 ft (3 – 4 m) tall at the shoulder.”

The Lord tells Job that this creature was made along with mankind; that would have been on the sixth day of creation.

Gen 1:25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

That is consistent with Exo 20:11 which, as we will see, states that everything in heaven and in the earth was created in six literal 24 hour days about 6,000 years ago.
I will take the time to deal with this false gap theory doctrine simply because it is so universally accepted by the churches of Babylon.
So let’s just read Gen 1:1-2:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

It is argued that the Hebrew word ‘hayah’, which is translated as ‘was” in verse two, should have been translated ‘became’ and it is also argued that the earth was initially created in pristine and perfect condition, and was populated only by dinosaurs, for millions or perhaps even billions of years, before Satan rebelled against God and was cast down to the earth out of heaven in such a violent manner that the earth, which had been created to be inhabited by dinosaurs, was completely destroyed and ‘came to be’ “without form and void”.
This verse is quoted to make that point:

Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain [ Hebrew ‘tohu’, same word translated “without form” in Gen 1:2], he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

It is reasoned that since we are told in Isa 45:18, that “He created it not in vain [ in tohu]”, then there must be of necessity a very long undetermined period of time which has transpired between verses one and two of Genesis chapter one. What spiritual or physical lesson you and I are to glean from such an event which supposedly took place before Adam was even created is never mentioned. The Truth is that this is all nothing more than an insidious attempt by many to integrate and mix scripture together with the godless theory of evolution. The fact is that the two are irreconcilable. Scripture simply contradicts the godless theory of evolution at every turn.
Here now is the true Biblical doctrine concerning the creation of the heavens and the earth “and all that in them is”:

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

It could reasoned that the word ‘days’ in Exo 20:11 is to be understood in the same sense as “the day of the Lord”, and is not to be taken as six literal 24- hour days. But since the word of God six times qualifies these days as consisting of six “evening[ s] and six morning[ s]”, then there is no reason to believe these six days are anything other than six literal 24- hour days.

Gen 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Add to this the fact that we are clearly told it was all done “suddenly”, which is defined by Strong’s as ‘instantly’, and we know that God did not need millions or billions of years to evolve an egg without a hen. He simply spoke the mature hen into existence along with a mature rooster so the species could reproduce itself. Here is just how quickly God Himself describes the pace at which He created the earth, the heavens, and the seas, and all that in them is:

Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

Here is Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word translated “suddenly” here.
H6597
פּת××פּת×ו×
pith’oÌ‚m pith’oÌ‚m
pith- ome’, pith- ome’
From H6621; instantly: – straightway, sudden (- ly).

Lest there be any doubt how this word is used in scripture, here are all the entries for this word in the Old Testament:

H6597
פּת×× / פּת×ו×
pith’oÌ‚m
Total KJV Occurrences: 25
suddenly, 22
Num_6:9, Num_12:4, Jos_10:9, Jos_11:7, 2Ch_29:36, Job_5:3, Job_9:23, Psa_64:4, Psa_64:7, Pro_6:15, Pro_24:22, Ecc_9:12, Isa_29:5, Isa_30:13, Isa_47:11, Isa_48:3, Jer_4:20, Jer_6:26, Jer_15:8, Jer_18:22, Jer_51:8, Mal_3:1
sudden, 2
Job_22:10, Pro_3:25
straightway, 1
Pro_7:22

Here is just one verse which demonstrates the meaning of this word:

Jos 11:7 So Joshua came, and all the people of war with him, against them by the waters of Merom suddenly; and they fell upon them.

A military maneuver is carried out “instantly” so as to surprise the enemy. You don’t wait for them to die out of natural causes over millions and billions of years. God did not need millions or billions of years to learn the wisdom needed to speak the entire creation into existence in just six literal days. God Himself is the source of all wisdom and knowledge, and needs not consult anyone to learn anything. That is the very point He is making to us through this account and experience of Job.

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Isa 48:3 I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly [ Hebrew, instantly], and they came to pass.

If indeed the Hebrew word ‘hayah’, which is translated as ‘was’ in Gen 1:2, should have been translated as ‘became’, or ‘came to be’, in the sense of the earth eventually, over a long period of time, ‘came to be’ without form and void, then we would also have to conclude that Adam and Eve were not created naked, but eventually, over a long period of time, ‘came to be naked’, because of this verse in the very next chapter, where this same word ‘hayah’ is used again:

Gen 2:25 And they were [ Hebrew – hayah] both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Here is Strong’s definition of this Hebrew word:
hâyâh
haw- yaw’
A primitive root (compare H1933); to exist, that is, be or become, come to pass (always emphatic, and not a mere copula or auxiliary): – beacon, X altogether, be (- come, accomplished, committed, like), break, cause, come (to pass), continue, do, faint, fall, + follow, happen, X have, last, pertain, quit (one-) self, require, X use.

Just so we all are aware of it, this is the very same Word God gave Moses in answer to Moses asking the Lord who he should say had sent him to deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage.
Here is the Lord’s answer to Moses question:

Exo 3:13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
Exo 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM [ Hebrew – ‘hayah’] THAT I AM [ Hebrew – ‘hayah’]: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM [ Hebrew, ‘hayah’] hath sent me unto you.

You and I are ‘coming to be’ what Christ is. Christ ‘came to be’ the flesh, which we are. He then returned to the glory of which He had emptied Himself. None of this takes millions or billions of years.

Joh 17:5 And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Php 2:7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men;

In the last half of this verse the word which the translators have rendered as ‘stones’ is literally the Hebrew word for fear. Let’s look at that verse again, before we discuss this word:

Job 40:17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.

Here is that Hebrew word and its definition according to Strong’s:
H6344
פּחד
pachad
pakh’- ad
The same as H6343; a testicle (as a cause of shame akin to fear): – stone.

The only place in all of the Old Testament where this word is rendered as ‘stones’ is right here is this 17th verse of the 40th chapter of Job.
Once again when we look up H6343, the Hebrew word, translated ‘stones’, which we are told is “the same as” H6344, this is what we discover:

H6343
פּחד
pachad
pakh’- ad
From H6342; a (sudden) alarm ( properly the object feared, by implication the feeling): – dread (- ful), fear, (thing) great [ fear, – ly feared], terror. This word appears 48 times in the Old Testament, and always carries with it the concept of fear or terror.
H6343
פּחד
pachad
Total KJV Occurrences: 48
fear, 41 Gen_31:42, Gen_31:53, Deu_11:25, Deu_28:67, 1Sa_11:7, 1Ch_14:17, 2Ch_14:14, 2Ch_17:10, 2Ch_19:7, 2Ch_20:29, Est_8:17, Est_9:2-3 (2), Job_4:14, Job_22:9-10 (2), Job_25:2, Job_39:16, Job_39:22, Psa_31:11, Psa_36:1, Psa_53:5 (2), Psa_64:1, Psa_105:38, Psa_119:120, Pro_1:26-27 (2), Pro_1:33, Pro_3:25, Son_3:8, Isa_2:10, Isa_2:19, Isa_2:21, Isa_24:17-18 (2), Jer_30:5, Jer_48:43-44 (2), Jer_49:5, Lam_3:47
dread, 3
Exo_15:16, Deu_2:25, Job_13:11
terror, 2
Job_31:23, Psa_91:5
dreadful, 1
Job_15:21
great, 1
Psa_14:5

So this word ‘pachad’, whether it is assigned the number H6343 or 6344, has nothing to do with testicles, but it does have everything to do with the fear and terror which is inflicted upon us by our own beastly behemoth.
A much better translation of this verse would be:

‘The sinews of his terror are wrapped together’, meaning the parts of behemoth which are given him to inspire terror.

Who we fear is who we will obey and worship. Either we fear, obey and worship God or we fear, obey and worship the beast within us.
Here is what we are instructed:

Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. [ The word ‘duty’ is not in the Hebrew]

Yet this is what we are told we will do:

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

No one, or at least very few indeed, see themselves as worshiping the dragon, yet from God’s perspective, the pleasing and worshiping of ourselves is the same as the pleasing and worshiping of the dragon.
Let’s look again at the last half of this verse as it should have been translated:

‘The sinews of his terror are wrapped together’,

Remember, this means the parts of behemoth which are given him to inspire terror. Self- worship is a great and powerful beast which is common to all flesh. It is “wrapped” around us to the point of inspiring terror and choking the life out of us. So when we see the Hebrew word translated ‘wrapped’ here in Job 40:17, and we see it translated as ‘wreathed’ in the only other entry where we find this word in the Old Testament, we get a much clearer understanding of the point the Lord is making when He tells us that “The sinews of his terror are wrapped together”.
Here is where this other entry appears. These verses speak of the self- righteous Job in all of us and the self- centered condemning of God for His “fierce anger”:

Lam 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
Lam 1:13 From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. [“dying daily”]
Lam 1:14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand: they are wreathed, and come up upon my neck: he hath made my strength to fall, the Lord hath delivered me into their hands, from whom I am not able to rise up.

Here is just how strong the Lord tells us is that beast:

Job 40:18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
Job 40:19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.

The phrase “He is the chief of the ways of God” led some commentators to erroneously conclude that behemoth is a type of Christ and when many discover the Hebrew word ‘reysheith’, translated as ‘chief’ here in this 19th verse of Job 40, is the same Hebrew word used in Gen 1:1 and in Lev 23:10 to refer to Christ, then it becomes understandable how so many easily become confused concerning how this word ‘reysheith’, can be used in different ways.
Here are two verses in which this Hebrew word ‘reysheith’ is used in reference to types and shadows of Christ:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning [ Hebrew – ‘reysheith’, firstfruit, Christ] God created the heaven and the earth.
Lev 23:10 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits [ Hebrew – reysheith, firstfruit – Christ] of your harvest unto the priest:

The conclusion some arrive at that behemoth is a type of Christ comes from knowing that the word translated here as ‘chief’ is the Hebrew word ‘reysheith’, which literally means simply ‘first’, whether in the sense of order or in the sense of being first in rank, but they do not understand that it can also mean first in a negative sense of order or rank.

Luk 11:15 But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.

If we do not understand one of the main principles of the Word of God, and thereby one of the characteristics of God Himself, then it becomes very easy to misunderstand almost any word of scripture. That principle is that there is a positive and a negative application for every verse of scripture. The way we know this to be so, is simply because the cloud which led Israel out of Egypt was “darkness” to those who were on one side of that cloud, and “light” in the middle of the night to those who were on the other side. That cloud was Christ and Christ is the Word of God.

Exo 14:20 And it [ the cloud, Christ, the Word of God] came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word [ Christ, “darkness to them, and light to the these”] was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
1Co 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
1Co 10:2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;

So the character of this cloud which is Christ, the Word of God, is that He creates both the the light and the darkness. He creates both the good and the evil, as the Word itself tells us that this is True:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Knowing this principle of God’s Word, and knowing this characteristic of Christ and His Father, make clear how the Hebrew word ‘reysheith’ can be used both of Christ “the firstfruit” and of behemoth, “the chief” of the beasts.

Job 40:20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.

“The mountains bring him… food, where all the beasts of the field play”, according to our Lord, means the kingdoms of this world on whom the behemoth dines and is nourished. We know this because we are told that “mountains… are… kingdoms, [ and] the field is the world”.

Rev 17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
Rev 17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
Eze 37:22 And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:
Mat 13:38 The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one;

“The beasts of the field play” together because the world loves its own:

Joh 15:19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

Job 40:21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
Job 40:22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.

This is where we as Job are at the beginning of our experience while we have our “hedge about [ us]” and we are being “blessed [ in] the work of [ our] hands, and… [ becoming] rich and increased with goods and hav[ ing] need of nothing”.

Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Behemoth being at home in the waters symbolizes the flesh. Notice how much “the king of Egypt [ and] the Assyrian” have in common with behemoth:

Eze 31:2 Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
Eze 31:3 Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.
Eze 31:4 The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field.
Eze 31:5 Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth.
Eze 31:6 All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations.
Eze 31:7 Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters.

So scripturally “the king of Egypt… the Assyian… [ and] behemoth” are all made great “[ because their] root [ is] by great waters” which “waters” we are told “are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

In other words, this is exactly what Satan promised to give to Christ if Christ would only bow down and worship him.

Mat 4:8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
Mat 4:9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Mat 4:10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

All Satan is asking of Christ is to give in to the desire of His own flesh to avoid the burdens of the cross. If Christ had just refused to obey His Father He could have avoided having to die to self. Christ could not avoid the burdens of the cross simply because ‘God [ gave] not His spirit by measure unto Him’ enabling Christ to fulfill His Father’s will.

Joh 3:34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

Job 40:23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.

Behemoth within us is fearless and “drinks up a river, and hasteth not” simply because he knows that no one can make war with him:

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Behemoth “trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth” but his thirst or his appetite are never satisfied.

Ecc 6:7 All the labour of man [ behemoth] is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.
Hag 1:6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

Waters which are not life giving waters never satisfy our thirst and bread which is not the bread of life never satisfy our hunger.

Joh 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Joh 6:35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

In our last verse behemoth, a type of Job and of us believes many lies, and has a carnal view of life. Therefore the truths God is bringing to Job and to us appear as nothing less than a snare from behemoth’s perspective. So in reality, the blessings from God, are received by Job in us as a curse. Those blessings (chastenings) were the loss of all that Job, and we treasure in this world.

Job 40:24 He taketh it [ the waters which give him his life] with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

Behemoth, who is nothing more than a type of the harlot of the book of Revelation, is arrogant and thinks he has nothing to fear; “His nose pierces through the snares”.

Rev 18:7 How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

Both behemoth and this harlot think they can sin and satisfy the flesh without regard to the consequences of doing so. Nevertheless the truth remains:

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Gal 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Next week, Lord willing, we will be admonished by the Lord concerning another dreadful beast which is beyond our control. This beast is not a beast which we find on dry land. This beast is called leviathan, and he lives in the waters of the sea:

Job 41:1 Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?
Job 41:2 Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?
Job 41:3 Will he make many supplications unto thee? will he speak soft words unto thee?
Job 41:4 Will he make a covenant with thee? wilt thou take him for a servant for ever?
Job 41:5 Wilt thou play with him as with a bird? or wilt thou bind him for thy maidens?
Job 41:6 Shall the companions make a banquet of him? shall they part him among the merchants?
Job 41:7 Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears?
Job 41:8 Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more.
Job 41:9 Behold, the hope of him is in vain: shall not one be cast down even at the sight of him?
Job 41:10 None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me?

Video Links

Job 38:36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Job 38:37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
Job 38:38 When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
Job 38:39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
Job 38:40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
Job 38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Introduction

To this point the only mention God has made of His sovereignty over wickedness is His allusion to the fact that He is sovereign over death and darkness in these verses:

Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Job 38:18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
Job 38:19 Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,

God is intent upon giving us the Truth, and the Truth is that we are, in and of ourselves, utterly insignificant and certainly in no place to question Him and His ways:

Isa 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isa 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
Isa 55:11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

The Truth is that the Potter does have power over the clay, and He can and does make it first a vessel of dishonor before He makes it a new vessel:

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Job is now becoming aware of just how childish are the words he uttered so boldly in his carnal frustration with God and His ways:

Job 23:2 Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Job 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
Job 23:4 I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
Job 23:5 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
Job 23:6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.

As Job is learning, the difference between wanting to “fill my mouth with arguments… even [ at] His seat” and actually being at His seat is this:

Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

But God has not yet asked these questions of us, of whom Job is but a type and shadow. At this point He is still instructing us with His humbling questions:

Job 38:36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Job 38:37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,

The Truth is that Christ must dwell within us before any of us are given “wisdom in the inward parts”. It requires the mind of Christ within us to be “given understanding to [ our] heart”.
It also takes having Christ within us to even understand the question: “who can number the clouds in wisdom?” It takes the mind of Christ within the body of Christ to “stay the bottles of heaven”, and to cause it not to rain upon the earth. “Staying the bottles of heaven” is just as much a function of God’s ‘clouds’ with which He “judges the people” as is the sending of rain “to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth”. It is He who is “work[ ing] all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).
Here is how “the bottles of heaven” were stayed by Elijah:

1Ki 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
Jas 5:17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

Here is how the bottles of heaven are stayed in the New Testament:

Mat 18:18 Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

A better translation reveals that the things we pray for must first have been bound or loosed in the heavens:

Mat 18:18 Truly I say to you, however many things ye may bind on the earth will be things that are bound in heaven, and however many things ye may loose on the earth will be things that that are loosed in heaven. (ACV)

So when the Lord asks us…:

Job 38:25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
Job 38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
Job 38:27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?

… We know that only the Lord can cause it to rain on the earth, and when the Lord asks us “who can stay the bottles of heaven?”, we know that this too, is only done by Him and by His Word, by which we must live.
When “the bottles of heaven” are stayed by God’s Word, we come to know very dry times in our lives, and our hearts become hardened against God and His Word:

Job 38:38 When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?

These are the days of spiritual famine which symbolize a drought of God’s Word and the understanding of His Word in our lives. Here is how God’s word expresses what happens when “the bottles of heaven” are stayed:

Amo 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:

This is a necessary famine which must precede the day when that famine is broken by the pouring out of the Words of life which come to us only after we have starved our old man to death and have destroyed all the false prophets and false doctrines which have brought us to this point.
As we read this story of Elijah, let’s keep in mind the fact that this was all, of necessity, preceded by a prolonged famine in the land:

1Ki 17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
1Ki 18:1 And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.
1Ki 18:2 And Elijah went to shew himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria.

It was the Lord who told Elijah when this drought would start, and it was God who told Elijah when this drought would come to an end. It is also God who reveals to us that this time of famine causes all the false doctrines and false prophets who have been occupying our land to be exposed for who and what they are:

1Ki 18:17 And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
1Ki 18:18 And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed Baalim.
1Ki 18:19 Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel’s table.
1Ki 18:20 So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.
1Ki 18:21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.
1Ki 18:22 Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.
1Ki 18:23 Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under:
1Ki 18:24 And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken.
1Ki 18:25 And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
1Ki 18:26 And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made.
1Ki 18:27 And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.
1Ki 18:28 And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
1Ki 18:29 And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
1Ki 18:30 And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.
1Ki 18:31 And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name:
1Ki 18:32 And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed.
1Ki 18:33 And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood.
1Ki 18:34 And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time.
1Ki 18:35 And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water.
1Ki 18:36 And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.
1Ki 18:37 Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again.
1Ki 18:38 Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
1Ki 18:39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.
1Ki 18:40 And Elijah said unto them, Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape. And they took them: and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

The death of all of our false prophets will be at the hearing to the Truth, which will always drive out the darkness of all the lies of those false prophets. Here is how we slay the prophets of Baal today:

1Jn 4:1 Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

But it is clear that the ability to “try the spirits to see whether they are of God” and our deliverance from the prophets of Baal, comes to us only after we have experienced a time of great drought, which causes us to cry out to God for relief from that drought and famine:

Psa 107:2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Psa 107:3 And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.
Psa 107:4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
Psa 107:5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Psa 107:6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

King David, in this same Psalm, reiterates the fact that it is God Himself who both stays the bottles of heaven and sends His clouds to “drop and distil upon man abundantly”.

Job 36:28 Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
Job 38:34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
Psa 107:33 He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and the watersprings into dry ground;
Psa 107:34 A fruitful land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.
Psa 107:35 He turneth the wilderness into a standing water, and dry ground into watersprings.

We can do none of these things of ourselves. We cannot cause a famine nor can we “fill the appetite of the young lions”. This too, is a work which only our Lord can accomplish:

Job 38:39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
Job 38:40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?

But the fact that God asks this question of us shows that he does not deny that the famine of Elijah, and all famines, physical and spiritual, are his work and that it is He who feeds the young lions who devour all they are given to devour. What the Lord is telling us is that He gives the adversary the flesh of “the prey for the lion”.
Peter tells us the same thing:

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

To drive home the fact that His sovereignty extends to all evil, our Lord asks:

Job 38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

We know that a raven is an unclean bird.

Lev 11:13 And these are they which ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray,
Lev 11:14 And the vulture, and the kite after his kind;
Lev 11:15 Every raven after his kind;

Ravens are famous for eating seed as soon as it is sown. Here are Christ’s own words concerning the fowl who devour His people as soon as they hear His Word:

Mat 13:3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;
Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Christ explains what He means by this parable:

Mat 13:18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

The means by which “the fowls of the heaven… devour them up” is the same as it was in the garden of Eden. “The fowls of the heaven” are “the wicked one”, who twists the Word of God into words he knows will appeal to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life within our flesh. So the way the seed of the word is devoured up is by replacing the Truth with lies which appeal to our flesh and our pride, and what God is telling us through Job is that “the law of sin in our members”, which “law” He has placed there, “provides for the raven his food”.
Here is the message of Job 38:41 in the New Testament:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

“The law of sin which is in my members” is not the work of “the wicked one”, and God wants Job and He wants us to know that. So who gives us this “law of sin in [ our] members”? Here is what the scriptures tell us from Genesis to Revelation:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

If we are not to even judge our brothers in Adam, who are we to judge our own Maker?

Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

So the death and destruction of our old Job, our “old man”, is a predestined certainty, but it is all for a very good end as the apostle reveals:

Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

So all of Job’s suffering merely typifies the suffering which all men must endure for the sake of the death and destruction of our old man and through that death getting us to the predestined end product of what God is working in the life of every man who has ever lived:

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
Php 4:12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Php 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Col 1:22 In the body of his flesh [ You and me, Eph 5:20] through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Heb 2:14 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.
Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

This 30th verse of Eph 5 does not say ‘We are members of His spiritual body’, although that is true. What it does say is “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones”, just as He presented Himself in various forms of “flesh and bone” after His resurrection”

Mar 16:12 After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.

So this is what our Lord is telling Job, and through Job, He is telling us. It is through “fill[ ing] the appetite of the young lions, when they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait, [ and by] provid[ ing] for the raven his food when his young ones cry unto God”, that we too, as “His flesh and His bone [ must] die daily (1Co 15:31), [ be] crucified with Him (Gal 2:20)… present our bodies a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1), [ to be] buried with Him in baptism into death: that like as Christ was delivered up to die, and was then raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”.

Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

In God’s own time, Job, and we through Job, will learn that the cross of Christ is the good news of the kingdom of God within us. We will come to rejoice in the fact that our sufferings are “fill[ ing] up in [ our] bodies what is behind of the afflictions of Christ”, knowing that just like Christ, our afflictions are also “for His body’s sake which is the church”. We will be “happy [ to] endure” those sufferings, knowing the “tender mercy” they portend for us.

Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Jas 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye 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.

Our “afflictions are offered as a “living sacrifice”, as the scapegoat of Lev 16, and our sufferings are just as much “for His body’s sake” as were His sufferings.

Lev 16:8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Lev 16:9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD’S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
Lev 16:10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him [ the Lord’s goat], and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

“The patience of Job” is for a very good and worthy purpose:

Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

What God is telling us through Job’s experience is that He has placed the stars in the heavens, He sends clouds to rain upon the earth, He sends times of plenty and times of famine, He feeds both the good and the evil, He sends His rain upon both, and even creates both the good and the evil, and He does it all “for the generation to come…[ and] for [ our] sakes”, to bring us to Himself, where, in His time, there will never again be any need for pain or tears.

Psa 102:18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.
Rom 8:18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
2Co 4:16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
2Co 4:18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Lord willing, you and I are “the generation to come” to which King David refers and of which Peter writes these words:

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
1Pe 1:13 Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

This is our reward if and when we are given “the patience of Job” and are granted to “endure to the end”:

Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Rev 21:5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
Jas 5:11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye 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.

In our next study we will continue to reason with the Lord concerning His sovereign work even with all the evil that is in this world. Here is how He will continue to reason with us:

Job 39:1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
Job 39:2 Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
Job 39:3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.
Job 39:4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.
Job 39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
Job 39:6 Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.
Job 39:7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
Job 39:8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.
Job 39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
Job 39:11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
Job 39:12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

Video Links

Job 38:24 By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
Job 38:25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
Job 38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
Job 38:27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
Job 38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Job 38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
Job 38:30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

Introduction

God has asked us to come and reason with Him:

Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

These last five chapters of Job show us what it is like to “reason with” God. God reasons with us through His judgments. He does not ask us for our opinion or our input, because we have nothing to contribute to Him.
In our last study as God reasoned with Job He asked if Job had ever entered into the springs of the sea or walked in search of the depth. The last question we discussed was God asking Job, the type of our self- righteous old man, if he had entered into the treasures of snow, or had seen the treasures of the hail. We saw that God is in all these places, and He is in them all at the same time. He does not go there in a submarine or in an airplane. He is there because He is omnipresent and because He is the Creator and Sustainer of those parts of His creation, as indeed He is sustaining all of his creation.
We also saw that the spiritual significance of hail is that “the hail… wipes away the refuge of lies” and that all of God’s “treasures” are used by Him do just that and to judge this world.

Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

One of those lies is what God is dealing with in His work in the life of Job. It is the doctrine which has Job, the type of us, believing that he is righteous of himself, and he is therefore in a position to reprove God for the way He is dealing with the self- righteous old Job. But God is not the least bit impressed with Job’s righteousness, because God knows that the truth is that Job has no righteousness of himself, and any good works Job has ever done were done by living, moving, and having his being in Christ.

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

God is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), and in doing so, He first placed a hedge around Job’s life, just to show us how He is dealing with us. After doing that He took that hedge down and called the adversary and sent him to try Job’s faith and his patience. It was God who engaged Satan in Job’s experience and commissioned and gave Satan the power to destroy all of Job’s great possessions and all of his ten children. It was God who sent Job’s best friends to falsely accuse him, adding to his torment. But it was also God who sent Elihu to tell Job the truth about Job’s self- righteous reproving, contending with and condemning of his own Creator, and to point out to Job, that while God answers to no man, yet all men do answer to Him:

Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Rom 9:19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

So God is in the process of destroying the first carnal Job, in type and in shadow, and through that destruction, He is, in type and shadow, creating a “new man”, a new Job, and as incredible as it may seem, He did it all for our sakes:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
2Co 4:15 For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

“The ends of the world” of 1Co 10:11 is the outcome or the product and purpose of the ages, which first come upon us.

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

As Peter makes so clear, the ends of the ages did not come upon any of the patriarchs, kings or prophets of the Old Testament.

1Pe 1:9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10 Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11 Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12 Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

“The ends of the world [ the ages]” is the destruction of “the earthy… old man… the first man Adam”. It is through that destruction that God is bringing forth “the heavenly… the new man… the last man Adam”. While we are in Babylon, we never see any personal application for the scriptures which deal with the judgment of sinners and the wicked. All those verses, which make up the bulk of the Word of God, are always relegated to other less righteous men. So as the type of us, Job does not realize that he is speaking of himself while he was pointing one finger at his persecutors, all the while uttering words from his own mouth by which he will be judged:

Job 21:20 His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
Job 21:30 That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

Zophar, who is just another type of our old self- righteous earthy man, had just told Job:

Job 20:28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.

From what Peter was inspired to reveal to us, we now know that everything Job is experiencing, he is ministering “not unto himself, but unto us… upon whom the ends of the world [ the ages] have [ first] come”.

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

The lesson Job is ministering to us is that when God asks us to come and reason with Him, He is actually calling us to Himself to judge us first and as His “house”, to be the first to be cleansed of our sins. In this position we need to, and we will, put our hand to our mouth and just listen to Him, as He “reasons with” us as He demonstrates for us just how insignificant and worthless is our old man and this body of corruption which we know as flesh and blood. To demonstrate this Truth, God is asking us all of these questions, and the answer to every question is the same. As God continues to reason with us He poses this question:

Job 38:24 By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?

When we do not know God, then the answer is, ‘I do not know Lord, because I was not there and I don’t know you’. When we do come to know God, we become aware He was the One who “parted… the light” from the east by His mere command:

Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

What is the source of this ‘light’? Is it the physical sun? No, the physical sun gets its light from the Creator of that sun who is light.

Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

The physical sun does not appear until the fourth day of creation along with the other stars of the physical heavens. Here is the true source of the light of both Gen 1:3-5 as well as the light of the physical sun. Here is the true source of all light of which the physical light of the sun is but a type:

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

So He who creates the light and who is the light, continues to reason with us:

Job 38:25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
Job 38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;

The “divid[ ing of] a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, [ and] a way for the lightning of thunder” have nothing to do with man- made canals, but rather deals with the watercourses which “cause it to rain on the earth”. Let us remember that raining on the earth is just Bible- speak for the work of God’s clouds which we have already learned are the symbols of God’s servants who do His bidding.

Job 36:27 For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof:
Job 36:28 Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly.
Job 36:29 Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
Job 36:30 Behold, he spreadeth his light upon it, and covereth the bottom of the sea.
Job 36:31 For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.
Job 36:32 With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.

God has ordained that it is to be “by the church”, His “clouds”, that He will bring the nourishing rains of his Word to us, and that “by the church”, by “His clouds” He will also bring to us “the lightning of thunder” as the Biblical symbol of His judgments upon the kingdom of our self- righteous, old, earthy man. “By them judges He the people”.

Exo 9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
1Sa 2:10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Here is this same message in the New Testament:

Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

So once again, if we are God’s elect, we are the spiritual subject of God’s words concerning the physical realm. “Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;”? It is God Himself divides a watercourse for the overflowing waters and a way for the lightning of the thunder of His judgments which He accomplishes “by them”, by His “clouds”.

Job 38:27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?

Let’s look again at verses 25 and 26:

Job 38:25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
Job 38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;

God divides a watercourse for the overflowing of waters and a way for the lightning of thunder to cause it to rain on the earth when no man is; [ even] on the wilderness, wherein there is no man. But for what reason? He does it “to satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth.” Again, this is us, first. We are all “desolate and waste ground”, desperately wanting to be satisfied with the refreshing, nourishing words of God’s clouds, “by [ whom] judges He the people”.

Job 36:31 For by them judgeth he the people; he giveth meat in abundance.

It is “by them [ His clouds, His elect] that He judges the people, [ and] He causes it to rain on the earth, [ and He] cause[ s] the bud of the tender herb to spring forth [ out of] the desolate and waste ground” which is our lives before God sends His clouds to us, to judge us and to cause us to bring forth “meat in abundance”.

Job 38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?

Oh yes, indeed, the rain has a father, but as the first unconverted Job, we have no idea who is the Father either of the clouds or the rain those clouds produce. Neither do we know at that time in our journey “who has begotten the drops of dew”. What is so revealing about all these questions God is asking us through this story of Job, is that the things He is asking about are all types and shadows of His own creatures through whom he carries out all that He is doing, and all of God’s questions are revealing just how far from Him we are when we are still reproving, contending with and condemning our own Maker, when we are not patient and waiting upon Him and His time and His ways, Now we have another great revelation, for our self- righteous old man:

Job 38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
Job 38:30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

What God is teaching us through this experience which Job endured, is that He is sovereign over both the good and the evil. Men who do not know God deny this, but God does not deny this. To the contrary he proclaims it:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Amo 3:6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? shall there be evil in a city, and the LORD hath not done it?
Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

How did that “law of sin [ get] in my members”? God does not deny that even our cold, hard hearts are the work of His sovereign hand:

Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

That is the message God is teaching us by asking us “out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it?” It is Christ who is the Creator and who is the “womb” out of which comes all things, including the cold and hardened heart of our old, self- righteous “first man Adam”. It is by Christ’s own design that we are first given a cold “heart of stone”.

Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Rom 11:34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?
Rom 11:35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
Rom 11:36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

“By Him were all things created… and by Him all things consist” certainly includes the “frozen… face of the deep” which becomes “as a stone” because of how cold our heart is toward God, at this time of our experience.

Psa 147:17 He casteth forth his ice like morsels: who can stand before his cold?
Rom 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!

Next week, if the Lord wills, we will continue to reason with the Lord over these verses:

Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Job 38:32 Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Job 38:33 Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
Job 38:34 Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
Job 38:35 Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?
Job 38:36 Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Job 38:37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
Job 38:38 When the dust groweth into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
Job 38:39 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
Job 38:40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
Job 38:41 Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Video Links

Job 38:16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?
Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Job 38:18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
Job 38:19 Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
Job 38:20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?
Job 38:21 Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?
Job 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
Job 38:23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

Introduction

God wants us to know the truth of who we are and where we are when compared to Him. It would be deceitful and destructive for God to fail to tell us the Truth. Job is us, and as such his inflated opinion of himself stands for the inflated opinion which all of mankind has of itself. Mankind’s inflated ego is symbolized by this phrase which is describing the nature of all who are “in Adam”:

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

“To make one wise” is the very opposite of revealing to mankind that God is wise. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil typifies the law of Moses with its own righteousness. Here is where this is revealed:

Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin [“knowledge of evil”], but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

Then we are told this about the righteousness that is in the law:

Php 3:9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

So the law is not sin. It simply tells us what sin is, and thereby strengthens sin. But what is flesh? What is in flesh? Here are the plain Biblical answers to these very simple questions:

Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

This is in the same 7th chapter of Romans, which reveals that the law simply tells us what sin is:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Why am I a “wretched man”? It is because of “sin which is in my members” by virtue of a law which the “one Lawgiver” placed there while I was still being formed “in sin” in His hands.

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

The wisdom and the good which comes from eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil are separated from “the wisdom [ and] the righteousness which is of God”. That wisdom is in a completely different “tree” with an entirely different root. Both come “out of the ground”, but they are not of the same root. “A tree to be desired to make one wise” stands in stark contrast to the Godly, truthful knowledge that both our wisdom and our righteousness are of God and of God alone.

Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 9:16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Rom 9:17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Rom 9:18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

God has mercy or God hardens, and we are nothing more than clay in His hands. As we have pointed out many times, the three temptations mentioned in 1Jn 2:16, are the exact same temptations which beset our original parents, who were also “conceived… in sin” with “sin in [ their] members”. These three sins are within our flesh, and we are told that they account for “all that is in the world”. Notice that they are listed in the very same order in which they are listed here in Genesis three. Let’s take note of this parallel:

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was (1) good for food, and that it was (2) pleasant to the eyes, and (3) a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

Here is that very same order in the New Testament, informing us that these three characteristics of sinful flesh, encompass “all that is in the world”.

1Jn 2:16 For all that is in the world, (1) the lust of the flesh, and (2) t he lust of the eyes, and (3) the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

“Good for food” is “the lust of the flesh”. “Pleasant to the eyes” is “the lust of the eyes”, and “a tree to be desired to make one wise” is “the pride of life”, with which we all struggle in our own self- righteousness. But none of these are really our own at all. They are all, in reality, nothing more or less than the “darkness” and the “evil” which God clearly tells us is not ours but His own creation:

Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

So God is reasoning with Job because Job is who we are while we are still under the delusion that we are of ourselves somehow good. But God is now showing how untrue that is by revealing Himself to us. Here is a taste of what it means when God exhorts us to come and reason with Him:

Job 38:16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?

Mankind has just this year discovered that God has placed abundant bacterial life in the deepest canyon in the world. It is the 6.8 miles deep Marianna Canyon in the Pacific Ocean. While mankind has once again developed the means to observe what God is doing at such depths, the answer still is, no, mere mankind has not “walked in search of the depth”. God’s point is that He is omnipresent, and we aren’t. He has placed His life at such great depths where the pressure is a thousand times what it is at sea level, and we cannot even imagine how it is possible to be omnipresent. Why then, would we presume that He should give an accounting to us of His ways? When God says “Come let us reason together” He is not telling us that He thinks we have something to offer Him. We do not have anything to bring to Him.
Here is what we need to do in His presence:

Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.

It is ‘reasonable’ for us to let God do the talking and for us to just listen and learn. It is reasonable to make our requests known only by saying “Not my will, but thine be done”.

Mat 6:9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

This is the truth of all flesh, even the flesh of Job, which is nothing more or less than Adam within us:

1Co 1:26 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

That is the qualification of God’s elect. King David adds this:

Psa 77:19 Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known.

Placing God’s “way… [ His] path, and [ His] footsteps… in the sea” reveals to us the spiritual meaning of the physical sea, with its cold, dark depths. The fact that we are told that God’s the way, His path and His footsteps are there, tells us this:

Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

God wants us to know and to acknowledge that it is His hand which leads us even through the deepest, darkest valleys of the sea of our flesh. He wants us to know that He created it, and that it is therefore just an instrument in His hand to accomplish His plan for the salvation of all men, and He wants us to know that the darkness is no different from the light from His perspective:

Psa 139:12 Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

God wants us to know that He is the one who creates the darkness out of which He forms us and brings us forth. He actually calls that darkness “the lowest parts of the earth”.

Psa 139:15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

As we have already noted in the physical realm, mankind has actually, just in the past few decades, built submarines which are capable of withstanding the tremendous pressures and going down into the deepest underwater valleys. In our inflated vanity we imagine that being capable of observing God somehow makes us His equal, but the truth is no man ever has or ever will “walk in the search of the depth”, and must always be in a protective shell to even look upon that depth.
Here is God’s next question for our consideration, and edification:

Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

Here is the Biblical definition of “the gates of death”:

Psa 9:13 Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, thou that liftest me up from the gates of death:
Psa 107:17 Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted.
Psa 107:18 Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat; and they draw near unto the gates of death.

The gates of death are associated both with “my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me” and “because of the transgressions, and iniquities of fools”. So the gates of death are any means by which we are caused to face the reality of our own death, both physically and spiritually. Here now is the meaning of “the shadow of death”:

Job 12:22 He uncovereth deep things out of darkness, And bringeth out to light the shadow of death.
Psa 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psa 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Psa 107:10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
Psa 107:11 Because they rebelled against the words of God, and contemned the counsel of the most High:
Psa 107:13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
Mat 4:16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

So the gates of death and the shadow of death are both types of our darkest, lowest moments in which we prefer death to life, just as Job did.

Job 3:2 And Job spake, and said,
Job 3:3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
Job 3:4 Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it.
Job 3:5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.

Indeed our day of judgment is a day of darkness, blackness of the day and “the shadow of death”. It is out of this darkness that God “uncovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out to light the shadow of death.”

Job 12:22 He uncovereth deep things out of darkness, And bringeth out to light the shadow of death.

It is only by bringing to light the shadow of death that we can come to the light of life. In other words, it is only by losing our life that we can find life.

Mat 10:39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

That is just one more spiritual truth which does not compute in the mind of the natural man which we all are, as Job was. So God continues:

Job 38:18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.

At this point in our walk we are still just like Job and actually think that because we can observe some of God’s creation, therefore we are in a position to counsel Him how to better work with His creatures. Mankind has actually built a space station and has put it into an orbit which circles this earth, and because of that we think we can perceive and declare the breadth of the earth. How vain and inflated is our opinion of ourselves.
Here is the truth of how much of God we can truly perceive and declare:

Isa 40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.
Rom 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!

Yet we, as Job and as the king of Babylon, think we can condemn our heavenly Father and can conquer Him and sit on His throne.

Isa 14:13 For thou [ you and I] hast said in thine heart [ our own self- righteous heart], I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
Isa 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Isa 14:15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Here in the New Testament we are told that this is the fate of all who are in Adam:

Rev 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Being the Creator of both light and darkness, God draws our attention to the fact that we know nothing of where either of these creations originated or what sustains them. Few men indeed consider light or darkness to be part of God’s creation, even though He clearly tells us that these were the first things He created:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Without these two things we cannot exist, and God wants us to understand and to consider the depth of these most basic Truths.

Job 38:19 Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
Job 38:20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?

Christ is speaking to us through Job, and in His time He answers His own question by telling us who He Himself is:

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Joh 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
Joh 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Joh 1:9 That [ Christ] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

This was unheard of knowledge in the day in which our Lord walked in flesh and blood. Every person mentioned in the Old Testament speaking with God, thought they were speaking with the Father, when in reality they were all speaking with our Lord and had never so much as seen the form of the Father, nor heard His voice.

Joh 5:37 And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape.

No one can have “the light of life” without knowing the Father, and no one can know the Father until Christ reveals the Father to them:

Luk 10:22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
1Co 4:4 For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.

Truly of ourselves we “know nothing”.

Job 38:21 Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?

The answer to this question is to be found in Job’s own earlier words:

Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
Job 14:2 He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.

It is also found in these verses of James:

Jas 4:13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
Jas 4:15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

God’s next question is closely associated with “the gates of hell and the shadow of death” about which He has already asked us. Our answer is always the same. We have no idea when or where we will meet the gates of the grave or when and where our worst trials will come upon us. But God does know all these things about us, because he has ‘ordained them before any of them were’:

Job 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
Job 38:23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

God’s Words are very consistent. Here is what the ‘hail stones the weight of a talent’ do:

Isa 28:14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
Isa 28:15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
Isa 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Isa 28:17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
Rev 16:17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
Rev 16:18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
Rev 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

God calls both the snow and the hail His “treasures… which [ He] has reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war”. What time is this “time of trouble”? What is “the day of battle and war” for which these treasures are reserved? The most prominent “time of trouble” in scripture is this:

Jer 30:4 And these are the words that the LORD spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.
Jer 30:5 For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
Jer 30:6 Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
Jer 30:7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

What is the most prominent battle in all of scripture?

Rev 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
Rev 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Zep 1:14 The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.
Zep 1:15 That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
Zep 1:16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.
Zep 1:17 And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung.
Zep 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’S wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

Job has made it clear that the destruction of all of his physical possessions was the work of “His wrath against me” (Job 19:11).

Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 16:9 He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
Job 19:11 He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
Job 19:29 Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.
Job 20:23 When he is about to fill his belly, God shall cast the fury of his wrath upon him, and shall rain it upon him while he is eating.
Job 20:28 The increase of his house shall depart, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath.
Job 21:20 His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
Job 21:30 That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.
Job 36:13 But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.

It is clear from all these scriptures that “the day of judgment… the day of the Lord… the day of His wrath… the great day of the Lord… the time of Jacob’s trouble”, are one and all “the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war” of which God is inquiring of Job, and which through Job He is asking us. This is all for the purpose of making us to know that we are not capable of judging ourselves, much less all of mankind, as He is doing and as He will do, by means of His treasures of snow and hail.

Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?

The answer is, No, neither the gates of death nor the shadow of death are in our hands. We do not of ourselves know “the way where light dwells”. These things are, as with all things, being worked after the counsel of God’s own will (Eph 1:11).
Next week, if the Lord wills, we will, with our ‘hands upon our mouths, reason with the Lord’ upon these verses:

Job 38:24 By what way is the light parted, which scattereth the east wind upon the earth?
Job 38:25 Who hath divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
Job 38:26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
Job 38:27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
Job 38:28 Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew?
Job 38:29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?
Job 38:30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
Job 38:31 Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?

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Job 38:8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
Job 38:10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
Job 38:11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
Job 38:12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
Job 38:13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
Job 38:14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
Job 38:15 And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.

Introduction

As we have seen all through our entire study here in the book of Job, God is showing us what He is doing in us. Everything that has happened to Job typifies what happens in the lives of those with whom God is dealing and who He is judging at this time to bring us to Himself. Job’s experience begins with the assertion that he “was perfect and upright, and [ a man] that feared God, and eschewed evil.”

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.

What this tells us is that Job’s experience in type and shadow, begins in Babylon where we all truly believe we love God and hate evil, but we are completely unaware that we are a self righteous Pharisee.. Job’s story begins as the type of the Pharisee who was convinced that he was “not like other men”:

Luk 18:11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

While Job’s three friends have this same self- righteous spirit, they are not, at this time being judged. Their relationship with God will be given to them at a later date through Job:

Job 42:7 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 thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.
Job 42:8 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 ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.

The fact that their acceptance is contingent upon Job’s prayer for them tells us that these men typify those who come to God only through the saviors who come upon the mount Zion, to judge the mount of Esau. In other words Job, typifies the saviors of the first resurrection, while his friends typify those who come to God through the lake of fire.

Oba 1:21 And saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD’S.

Here is Job praying for his friend, and here are the “saviors up on mount Zion, judging the mount of Esau” in the New Testament:

Rev 3:9 Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

But even though Job typifies God’s elect who are judged first, what we are seeing through the excruciating trials of Job is that we, too, are enduring the very same fiery words of judgment which are the Word of God because “all things come alike to all [ and] there is [ but] one event to the righteous and to the wicked…”

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

What this tells us is that the fire that torments all men torments God’s elect first and will torment the rest of mankind in “the lake of fire.

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

So we have several Old Testament types of how God’s judgment begins at the house of God, and in every case it is those who are considered to be God’s house who are used by God to be the first to afflict His elect.
A few examples will make this point:
1) Joseph was betrayed by his own brothers.

Gen 37:4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Gen 37:18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

2) King David was betrayed by his closest counselor.

Psa 55:12 For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:
Psa 55:13 But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.
Psa 55:14 We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

3) So too, Job is mocked and condemned of his closest friends, the very people who should be comforting Him.

Job 19:19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.

And it all foreshadows the rejection of Christ and His Christ “in the house of [ his] friends”.

Zec 13:6 And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
Mat 26:14 Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests,
Mat 26:15 And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.
Mat 26:16 And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.

While Job obviously resents the betrayal he has suffered at the hands of his own friends, he certainly does not yet see himself as the type of anyone who has betrayed his own God, by reproving, contending with and condemning His God. So God continues His judgment of our doomed old man who, at this point, Job still typifies. Since our own words witness against us that we have condemned God as being “wrong” in how he has dealt with us, God asks us:

Job 38:8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,

In the physical realm, these verses would apply to the earth during the creation, before the command was given for the dry land to appear, as well as the time of Noah when the waters covered the highest mountains.

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 7:18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
Gen 7:19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Gen 7:20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

King David seems to apply this very same description to “the foundations of the earth” at the time of creation, as well as the flood, telling us that “they turn not again to cover the earth”.

Psa 104:5 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.
Psa 104:6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
Psa 104:7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
Psa 104:8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
Psa 104:9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

The “sea” is the Biblical type and figure of all flesh on the earth, and these “waters… [ of] the deep” are the symbol of the death and desolation which are the fruits of the fleshly, carnal mind. It was these fruits of the carnal mind, the fruits of the flesh, which necessitated the destruction of all flesh at the time of the flood.

Gen 6:11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
Gen 6:12 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.
Gen 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

So we are told:

Psa 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
Psa 104:25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
Psa 104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein. Psa 104:27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
Psa 104:28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
Psa 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath [ Hebrew, ‘ruach’ – spirit], they die, and return to their dust.
Psa 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit [ Hebrew, ‘ruach’ – spirit], they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

Notice from where Biblical “beast” arises:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

“When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling band for it”, tells us that Christ here is speaking of the first three days of the creation week, before He refers to the fourth and fifth days, when he made the stars and the fowls of the heavens, the types of His angelic “sons of God” who “shouted for joy”, when He finished His “marred” physical creation with His crowning temporal, physical achievement which was, mankind and all the other beasts.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

It is Christ Himself who tells us the spiritual meaning of the fowls of the heavens in His parable of the sower:

Mat 13:3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Mat 13:18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

God continues to point out that we did not even exist when He laid the foundations of His creation.

Job 38:10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
Job 38:11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

King David answers this question for us:

Psa 104:5 Who [ God through Christ] laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever [ Hebrew, olawm – the age].
Psa 104:6 Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.
Psa 104:7 At thy rebuke they fled; at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away.
Psa 104:8 They go up by the mountains; they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them.
Psa 104:9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

We have demonstrated that the sea symbolizes the flesh out of which all of our beasts are brought forth:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

So for all those who have been taken in with the false doctrine which teaches that the aions (eons) do not come to an end, and who teach that this physical earth is a permanent fixture, and that God’s decreed place for the seas is a permanent decree for the proud waves of the works of our flesh, they would do well to pay close attention to these words of Job himself:

Job 26:10 He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.
Job 26:11 The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof.
Job 26:12 He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud.
Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

Here is how Peter dealt with this false doctrine that there will never be an end to the flesh of mankind:

2Pe 3:3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2Pe 3:5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pe 3:6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pe 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

The truth is that God did “destroy all flesh wherein was the breath of life” once by water, and He will do so again by fire, whether that “fire” is literal or symbolic, “the heavens and the earth, which are now by the same word kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and [ the literal] perdition of ungodly men”.
Again, the ‘sea’ is the Biblical type of the proud works of the flesh, which bring us all “to our wits’ end” (Psa 107:27). Here is where God first symbolically established the limits of the works of our flesh:

Gen 1:9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

The flesh is now limited, and even the “crooked serpent” can incite the flesh to go only as far as God has already decreed. Here again is Psa 104:

Psa 104:9 Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

Is “the crooked serpent” a permanent fixture who will live forever in eternal flames of physical fire? Absolutely not! The scriptures teach that just as our old man, these “vessels of clay” after serving their predestined purpose will be destroyed and replaced by an “immortal… new man… conformed to the image of [ God’s] Son”, so too, will “the crooked serpent be destroyed and made to be at one with the God of us all:

Heb 2:14 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;

It will be through his destruction that even Satan and His angels will be “chastened of the Lord” (1Co 11:32) and will be “reconciled… unto [ God]”.

Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20 And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

The “all things” mentioned here is qualified so we cannot misunderstand it. It is emphasized that “all things” means “all things… whether they be things in earth or things in heaven”. This of necessity includes the devil. So Satan himself will be part of the “the reconcil[ iation] of all things unto Himself… by Him”, by Christ.

Job 38:12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;

“Have you commanded the morning since your days…” Here are Job’s days, as Christ demonstrates in this same chapter:

Job 38:21 Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?

God is using sarcasm to get us to acknowledge that we are His inferiors, and have been here only as a passing vapor.

Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Bildad has already truthfully informed Job that his days on this earth are “but of yesterday, and we know nothing, because our days upon the earth are a shadow”.

Job 8:8 For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:
Job 8:9 (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow:)

It is revealed to us that Christ is “the dayspring”. It was He who furnished the light of the first day:

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Gen 1:3 And God [ Christ] said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Christ tells us that it was He who created the light and the darkness, as types of the good and the evil:

Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

Christ Himself is called “the Sun”:

Mal 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

Christ Himself is the Sun of those first three days. An evening and a morning do not require that the physical sun and the stars come first, any more than a grown man requires being a baby first, or a hen requires an egg first. God is not limited to the physical realm, and can create an evening and a morning by simply causing the earth to rotate, just as He can create a mature man, a mature hen and mature trees with growth rings, leaves, blossoms and fruit already in place. Now let’s look at what the holy spirit has revealed to us concerning the prophet known as John the baptist, and John’s relationship to the Christ, who is called “the dayspring from on high”:

Luk 1:76 And thou, child [ John], shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
Luk 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
Luk 1:78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
Luk 1:79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

“The dayspring” is also called “the day star”:

2Pe 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

Christ also refers to Himself as “the morning star”, and all these titles refer to the one Lord through whom the Father has created all things:

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.

Just what is this “morning star” Christ is offering us if He sees fit to make us to be “overcomers”? Here is the gift we are being given:

Rev 22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

Christ is giving us Himself if we are granted to be the overcomers of Rev 2-3. He is “the bright and morning star”.

Job 38:13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?

“That it… the dayspring… might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it”, just another way of saying that Christ might come into us and burn out of us all that will burn. Paul put this verse of Job in these words:

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day [ spring] shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

But the fact that the first and primary application of scripture is now and is inward, in no way denies that the day is coming when God’s elect will outwardly “take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it”.
Now let’s look at a very interesting fact concerning this verse of Job. The word “ends” as in “ends of the earth” is translated from the Hebrew word for “wings”. It is the Hebrew word “kanaph”. The dayspring takes hold of the wings of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it.

Let’s notice how King David uses this very same word:

Psa 61:4 I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings [ kanaph]. Selah.

King David equates God’s tabernacle, which Paul just informed us we are, with “the covert of thy wings”. This all makes Christ’s burden for Jerusalem even more meaningful:

Mat 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Mat 23:38 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
Mat 23:39 For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.

What Christ is lamenting is that He would have made Jerusalem his temple, His house, in which He would dwell, but they would not have Him. Therefore “[ their] house is left unto [ them] desolate”. Their house will not at this time be His house, His temple where He dwells.

Job 38:14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.

The dayspring takes hold of the wings of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it. Let’s look at verse 13 again, so we can understand the meaning of verse 14:

Job 38:13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?

“It is turned as clay to the seal” is still referring to “the dayspring” which “takes hold of the ends of the earth.” “The earth” out of which the wicked are shaken speaks of the earth as the clay in the Potter’s hand, being made “another vessel, as it seemed good to the Potter to make it”. A seal leaves an imprint in the clay, and “they stand as a garment” refers to those who are “turned as clay to the seal”. So in this case “the clay” refers to those who are molded into the vessel the Lord wants them to be.

2Co 4:7 But we have this treasure [“Jesus Christ”, verse 6] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Here is how Jeremiah makes this same statement:

Jer 18:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6 O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

In other words, in the end “the Israel of God… [Gal 6:16] is turned as clay to the seal, and they stand as a garment” The “garment” is interpreted as that which covers our nakedness, our sins. And “white raiment” is interpreted as the garment which symbolizes “the righteousness of the saints”.

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

So it is “the dayspring” and those in whom He dwells who are “turned as clay to the seal”, which ‘seal’ is Christ and whose image we become. It is those who are conformed to the image of Christ who are used by Christ to bring His light to this world. But very few at this time are given to receive His light which they bring.

So we are told:

Job 38:15 And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.

“Their light” is the light of those who are “the dayspring” who bring the Truth of God to those who are given to accept the light of “the dayspring”. But this light is withheld from us also, until our appointed time.
Here is this same statement as it is interpreted by the New Testament:

Rom 11:8 (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.

Light is withheld from the wicked. Like the church of Laodicea, they do not see themselves as being wicked. To us at this time in our walk, we are those who, as Job said earlier, consider darkness to be light, and we hate the light.

Job 24:16 In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.
Job 24:17 For the morning [“the dayspring”] is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.

We are all blinded until the day we are granted eyes that see and ears that hear:

Mat 13:14 And in them [ the wicked from whom “their light is withholden”] is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
Mat 13:15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Mat 13:16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Next week, Lord willing, we will continue to hear the Lord’s words to our, self- righteous old man who cannot see that he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”.

Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

Lord willing, these will be our verses for next week’s study:

Job 38:16 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?
Job 38:17 Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
Job 38:18 Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
Job 38:19 Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
Job 38:20 That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?
Job 38:21 Knowest thou it, because thou wast then born? or because the number of thy days is great?
Job 38:22 Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
Job 38:23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

Video Links

Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Job 38:5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Introduction

Through Elihu, God has revealed to us that the judgment which is now on the house of God is being administered by His cloud of witnesses. By his clouds He has made us to know Him and His word. What He does with men, He does through His elect, whom He characterizes as His clouds:

Job 37:11 Also by watering he wearieth the thick cloud: he scattereth his bright cloud:
Job 37:12 And it is turned round about by his counsels: that they may do whatsoever he commandeth them upon the face of the world in the earth.
Job 37:13 He causeth it to come, whether for correction, or for his land, or for mercy.
Hos 12:10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.

The New Testament witnesses to this principle by which God speaks to mankind:

Eph 3:9 And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Eph 3:10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Eph 3:11 According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:

But just before our Lord was apprehended to be crucified, He gave us this revelation:

Mat 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

So the Truth is that even though He works “by the ministry of the prophets” and “by the church”, it is still, in the final analysis, our heavenly Father who must first drag us to himself:

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [ Greek, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Job has be dragged to God, and God is now about to reveal Himself to us as Job:

Job 38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 38:2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?

Elihu has just told Job:

Job 37:18 Hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a molten looking glass?
Job 37:19 Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.

So Elihu has prepared us to receive the rebukes of God Himself. Here we are hearing from God Himself, and the first thing God does is to confirm Elihu’s words.
“Without knowledge” is the very definition, from a Biblical point of view, of the word ‘darkness’. We think we know God before we are truly introduced to Him via the trials of which this book of Job is a figure. It is in this state of thinking we know God when in reality we do not, that we “darken counsel by words without knowledge”.
It seems it would be impossible to admit to being confused and still be so certain of our own righteousness, but that is exactly what we all do. Here are Job’s own words which demonstrate this marred condition within us:

Job 10:15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge” are God’s words for us. He asks us this even while we are still thinking like Job. Here are Job’s own words which demonstrate how we presumptuously think, even after admitting to being “full of confusion”, and before we even begin to truly know God:

Job 23:3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
Job 23:4 I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
Job 23:5 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
Job 23:6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.
Job 23:7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

Job, as the figure of who we are, was so certain of his own righteousness, that he truly believed that if he could only “come even to his seat [ His throne]”, then he would boldly talk with and “dispute with” God. We really are “full of confusion”! How presumptuous of us to think that we could convince God that God was judging us wrongly and that “He would put strength in me” to continue to “reprove, and contend with, and condemn Him”. In Job’s estimation of God, he could “dispute with [ God]” and show God that there is a better way; Job’s way, the figure of our way. How different is the reality! How unworthy we are to even be in God’s presence is the reality of coming before Him as a carnal- minded man. The presence of God is the death of our old man. God’s presence within us is beginning of the death of our self- righteous, carnal- minded old man. Job now has to give an accounting of why he would ever think that the great God would do “wrong” to anyone. Job, the figure of whom we are, is now in the presence of the God who heard all these words proceed out of the mouth and from the heart of Job.

Job 19:6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
Job 19:7 Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
Job 19:8 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.

When we question His work in our lives, we are accusing God of doing wrong and not being just in His dealing with us. “I cry out of wrong… but there is no judgment”, demonstrates how we have ‘condemned God to make ourselves righteous’. Here we are finally made aware that we are in His very presence, where we have really been all along. But now He is revealing Himself to us, and in doing that, our old man is dying daily and is being crucified with our Lord.
Now we know what King David finally came to know:

Psa 139:2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; Thou understandest my thought afar off.
Psa 139:3 Thou searchest out my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways.
Psa 139:4 For there is not a word in my tongue, But, lo, O Jehovah, thou knowest it altogether.
Psa 139:5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thy hand upon me.
Psa 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain unto it. (ASV)

When God’s rebukes begin, we only start to understand the extent of the sovereignty of God. King David continues:

Pro 16:1 The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.
Pro 20:24 Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?

King David continues:

Psa 139:7 Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
Psa 139:8 If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there.
Psa 139:9 If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
Psa 139:10 Even there shall thy hand lead me, And thy right hand shall hold me.
Psa 139:11 If I say, Surely the darkness shall overwhelm me, And the light about me shall be night;
Psa 139:12 Even the darkness hideth not from thee, But the night shineth as the day: The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
Psa 139:13 For thou didst form my inward parts: Thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb.
Psa 139:14 I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well.
Psa 139:15 My frame was not hidden from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)

But God has placed it within those with whom He is working to accept His sovereignty. So we, as Job in type, acknowledge that even our trials are all His loving, chastening hand in our lives for our good.

Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

While still in Babylon we thought we knew at least something about God, but when we finally do come to begin to know Him we now begin to realize just how little we ever really knew of Him and His ways. Only then do we begin to sense just how infinite our Lord is and how much we still must learn of Him.
Only then can we begin to hear His words to us:

Job 38:3 Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

If we had pre- existed as spiritual bodies before being made “out of the dust of the ground”, then Job could easily have said, ‘Why, I was right there with you, Lord. I was your son who shouted for joy when you laid the foundations of the world’. But of course Job was not there at all, so he must “lay [ his] hand on [ his] mouth”. We have been taken out of the “dust of the ground” by our Maker, so God can and does call us “… earth, earth, earth…” (Jer 22:29). The point being that you and I were not even there when Christ laid the foundations for our lives. As we saw earlier, He specifically tells us that He had all our days written in His book before any of our days were:

Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them. (ASV)
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

So we simply were not first spiritual and then natural, and that point is specified and made super clear in this scripture:

1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

If a body “formed… of the dust of the ground” has life “breathed into [ it]”, what then is that person? Here, according to God Himself is what we are. According to God, we are nothing more than beasts of the dust of the earth:

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

That is what we “are”. We are not spirit, we are flesh. We “are dust of the ground”. So that is how our Maker addresses us.

Jer 22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

But the natural comes first “and afterward that which is spiritual”. We are not yet “immortal”, we are still merely “the dust of the ground”, and without a resurrection from among the dead, we will perish.

1Ti 6:15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
1Ti 6:16 Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

At the resurrection we will “put on immortality”, but immortality is not innate to any beast in whose nostrils is the breath of life. If we are already immortal souls, then we would not need to “put on immortality, and it could not be said that only Christ, besides His Father, “hath immortality”. But this is what we are plainly told, and it is qualified by telling us that we have no preeminence above a beast.

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
1Co 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

We have no preeminence above a beast, and yet we think we can “dispute with [ God]”.

Job 23:7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.

We all come to rue the day when we have had such presumptuous inward thoughts against our loving heavenly Father.
God asks us to consider who it was that decided just how large this earth should be? What holds the earth in its place? Who made this earth? Who made whom???
The point God is making is that Job and you and I were nowhere to be found when God “laid the foundations of the earth”, and created us, and He continues driving that point home:

Job 38:5 Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?
Job 38:6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;

These questions are being asked of us by our God to draw our attention to who made whom? In doing that we are forced to take notice of the absolute miracles we live with every day and which we take for granted on a daily basis. We observe the miraculous order of our Creator’s universe and His sovereign working in our life and in the lives of all of His creation on this planet, but because it is so common to see the sun rise and to see a baby born, we take these everyday miracles for granted. “Whereupon are the foundations [ of this planet earth] fastened? Who laid the cornerstone [ of this planet earth]?” Who created whom out of the dust of the ground?

Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

“The morning stars… and the sons of God” in this instance refers to the principalities and powers of the heavens which were created on the fourth and fifth days, and which are typified by the stars on day four and the fowls of heaven on day five, both of which we are told are figures of angelic spirits. Both the stars on day four and the fowls of heaven on day five were created on the two days preceding Adam’s creation on the sixth day, along with all the other beasts. Being created on the sixth day forever associates carnal man and all beasts with the number six.

Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Rev 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man [ Greek, anthropos – mankind]; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

“All that in them is” certainly would include all the spirit “hosts of heaven”, who we are told are “the morning stars… and all the sons of God” who “shouted for joy” when God laid the cornerstone upon which He created mankind. But where in scripture is the spirit realm referred to as “sons of God”? The angelic spirits are called “the sons of God” inasmuch as God is called “the Father of spirits”.

Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

The stars, the figures of the angelic hosts, were created on the fourth day:

Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
Gen 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

The physical earth is merely the foundation for the spiritual earth, mankind, for whom God created the physical earth, and out of which He formed mankind on day six as the crown of His temporal physical creation. Notice how the scriptures use heavenly bodies as types of His creation:

Gen 37:9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
Gen 37:10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

The stars symbolized Joseph’s brothers, the sun symbolized his father, and the moon symbolized Joseph’s mother, and mothers are the Biblical symbol of the church of God, which church is also called the mother and brothers, sisters, and the body and the wife of Christ.

Mat 12:46 While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak with him.
Mat 12:47 Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.
Mat 12:48 But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?
Mat 12:49 And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
Mat 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.
2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Mal 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
Luk 21:25 And there shall be signs in the sun [ Christ, Mal 4:2], and in the moon [ His church “the woman who brings forth the manchild”, Gen 37:10 and Rev 12:5], and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations [ the trials of Job], with perplexity [ confusion, Job 10:15]; the sea and the waves roaring; [ Bringing us to our wits’ end, Psa 107:27].
Rev 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

We are told in Rev 12 that it is a woman who brings forth the manchild who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron:

Rev 12:5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

This is, of course, the same promise given to the overcomers within the church “which is His body” (Col 1:24). Obviously the “manchild” and “he that overcometh” in “the church which is His body” are one and the same:

Rev 2:26 And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations:
Rev 2:27 and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of my Father:
Rev 2:28 And I will give him the morning star.
Rev 2:29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

The physical stars which God has “set… in the firmament of the heaven” are the figures of the doctrinal spirits which occupy the heavens of our hearts and minds. Luk 21:25 is the perfect spiritual description of God’s judgments which we all, as Job, must endure before we will be given to know God and His Son.
Next week, if the Lord wills, we will continue to hear our Lords words to us through His judgment of Job, as the type of our old man:

Job 38:8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
Job 38:9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
Job 38:10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
Job 38:11 And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?
Job 38:12 Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
Job 38:13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
Job 38:14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
Job 38:15 And from the wicked their light is withholden, and the high arm shall be broken.