Wednesday: Job as a Microcosm
The opening scenes of the book of Job show us a few crucial points. First, as we have stated, they reveal the reality of another dimension beyond what, of ourselves, we can now know-a heavenly dimension with heavenly beings other than God.
Image © Review & Herald Publishing from GoodSalt.com
Second, they also show just how interconnected our earthly life here is with the heavenly realm. What happens here on the earth is not disconnected from the heavenly beings in this realm. Third, they reveal a moral conflict in heaven that is indeed connected to what happens here on earth.
In short, these opening verses, and the ones that follow, are a kind of miniportrayal of the great controversy itself. The verses show one way in which the great controversy, though cosmic in scale, was manifested in the life of one man, Job. And as we will see, the issues involved encompass us all.
The book of Job shows Satan in confrontation with God. What it doesn’t show is how it first started. How do the following verses help us get some understanding about the controversy? Isa. 14:12-14, Ezek. 28:12-16, 1 Tim. 3:6.
Ellen G. White talked about “the law of love” as the foundation of God’s government. She noted that because God does not want “forced obedience,” He therefore “grants freedom of will” to all His moral creatures. However, “there was one who perverted the freedom that God had granted to His creatures. Sin originated with him who, next to Christ, had been most honored of God and was highest in power and glory among the inhabitants of heaven.” – Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 34, 35. She then quoted from the texts above in Isaiah and Ezekiel to describe the fall of Satan.
The crucial concept here is the “law of love” and the reality of free will. The Bible tells us that Satan became self-exalted and proud because of His own splendor and beauty. Why this happened we don’t know; it must be part of what 2 Thessalonians 2:7 calls the “the mystery of lawlessness” (NKJV), a connection that makes perfect sense when we understand how closely tied God’s law is to the foundation of His government. The point is that by the time Satan is introduced in Job, his fall was past, and the controversy it had started was well under way.
What are some important choices that you are facing right now, and what Bible promises can you claim to ensure that you make the right ones?
(19)
The law of love mentioned we may assume is the main characteristic of God by definition. We have the desire to exhibit love in one or more fashions and the emotions usually manifest what they might be. As I have discussed recently, how do we show our Love for God? Some have said it is not all that it should be. The first text that comes to most minds is,john14:15 If you love Me keep My commandments. We also repeat often, God is Love. I am certain that many others have good answers. But the question remains is our Love for God an emotional feeling, or a methodical means guided by guilt? We do what ever it might be in order to prove our Love for God. Is our Love authentic or put on so to speak? Maybe a different slant on what the "law of love" is, would be informative.
I can honestly say I understand why love is the foundation of God's law. When you love someone, or something, taking care of it or them, respecting it/them, and serving them becomes so easy, but it is not easy to them or it. And I know for me, I love God so much that if I do something that is not entirely like him, I feel sad because, I feel like I am hurting him. That's why he gave us that choice.
Hi Paul - I experience love as an emotion and recognize where it comes from - God! For he is love - and that of course confounds the athiest's theory because without God we cannot explain love. Having said that, sometimes my love for him is lacking (I question his leading) and in those times I have to act from the principle of love alone - the principle that says because you love me and I love you I will "do the right thing" - I will act (respond) appropriately.
Barb you are so right, when we contemplate the love God has for us. 1John 3:1. John 3:16. our actions are good, unless we are counterfeit. 2Corinthians 13:5. Out of love He gives us a choice, live or die. I too chose to live. Duetoromeny 30:19-20.
Here you go Paul 'Love Expressed'
We do not earn salvation by our obedience; for salvation is the free gift of God, to be received by faith. But obedience is the fruit of faith. "Ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him." 1 John 3:5, 6. Here is the true test. If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in us, our feelings, our thoughts, our purposes, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God as expressed in the precepts of His holy law. SC {61}
How could a being with so much splendor and beauty want more than what he had
Every precious stone was his covering and he left all to make man's life miserable
How sad that he was not content
How pitiful if we follow him and not Jesus who instead have all for us
Micah 6:8 He has told you O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.
Don"t make it hard. Do you love your wife out of guilt? Do you love your children out of guilt? 1 Corinthians 13 tells you what love is and it can be an emotion but love is more. It takes more than emotion to be kind, think no evil, be long suffering etc.
This is who Job is in his complete and full integrity. He is willing to walk a straight path to eschew evil. This is what Christ wants to perform in us
In the book of Job we also see that God is proud and
boastful of us if we are truly obedient to to him and
follow his commandments. God is LOVE