Episode 1: Ominous Clouds Gather Momentum on the Horizon

                                                Job 1: 6 – 12.

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.

                                                               Reviewing

               we have been preoccupied with consideration of the attitudinal substances of Job’s priesthood, which we said predated the more copious and more parablic Moses’s Law and its priesthood (Job 1: 5). From there we assayed to unravel the mind of God about priest and kings He is making on the earth. Further still, we explored the History of the Life of the Priest of God – again in the light of the New Testament, though the Holy Spirit also took us through the book of Ezekiel.

                Now, starting from verse 6 of chapter one of the book of Job, the story begins to gather momentum; there appear ominous clouds on the horizon. The sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. Satan was also there! Evidently, God was fascinated and inquired of him of his activities. Satan was quick to present his case, but fell short of the whole truth. Between God and him the unspoken message was all of a shout. The Holy Spirit, the author, actually points out something to us.  Thew story continues.

                The Lord Himself pointed out to Satan on earth – upon which he said he had been going up and down; to and fro – a man who had the potentialities of His Son in whom and for whom He created the world and the cosmos. Satan’s arguments fall in successive rapidity. And, before one could draw a breath, he has succeeded in wrenching a permission to sift Job in order to prove his case; God, a stakeholder in the righteous walk of Job, also needs a point to prove in this case besides the point that He is the just and true One! Now, the battle is joined and Job, a representation of man in this story, is caught between the duo out to prove, each a point, not only contradicting in nature but are mutually exclusive.     

                Today, we shall be engaging a certain phrase which will ground and prepare us  for later reflections in our meditation.

                                                The  sons of God

                The phrase first occurs in Genesis 6: 2, 4; the second, third and fourth occurrences are in the book of Job.

 Genesis 6: 2: . . .that the sons of God saw the daughters of men. . .they took them wives of all which they chose. This phrase has been argued to mean the godly line of the sons of Seth coming to take wives from among the ungodly daughters of wicked Cain. It is not so clearly stated in that passage or any other passage for that matter that this is about the godly Sethites taking taking wives from wicked Cainites. Another school believes that the phrase means angels. A counter argument is that angels are sexless, do not marry, according to Jesus. But then again, Jude 6 speaks of the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. Pastor Ernest Paul advanced an argument recently. He argued that if the phrase means the godly line of Set, then they, the godly line should have been spared in the course of the destruction of the flood.

                There is a need to get this clear. We are not here to argue a theological point; we are trying to get on a stable rock of faith.

 Job 38:7 reveals the identity of these beings called the sons of God, using parallelism in Hebraic poetry: when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Here, the phrase morning stars parallels or is parallel to the other phrase sons of God. In other words, one means the other. Who or what are stars? According to the Lord Jesus, stars are angels – which may be spirit or human angels [Rev. 1: 20]. The word morning means brilliant, dawn, breaking of the day or daylight; this indicates that there are angels associated with the brightness or the brilliance of the dawn. It is worthy of note that the star is a gigantic mass of gas around which all other masses gravitate and orbit. In essence, stars are centres of life, above average. From what we have seen, it is evident that the sons of God of Job 1: 6 and 2:1 are of the realms of heaven; they were certainly spirits of stature, in their making and nature; they had the same configuration of existence as, but  are apart from, the being called Satan.

The History of the Life of the Priest of God (10)

     Job 1: 5 has been the point of our meditation this far.

    We continue with this in Ezekiel 44: 17 – 18:

  When they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to wear linen clothes; they must not wear any wollen garment while ministering at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple…. They must not wear anything that makes them perspire.

     Rest the Grand finale: Great Grace

          Christ is seated at the right hand of God; He is inclusively our representative before the Lord. It means that we, including the Lord are both seated at the right hand of God (Ephesians 2: 6). 

           The inner court is not a place of sweating; it is a place of rest. God swear in his word, “ … if they must enter into my rest…”  and then again in the 9^th verse of the same Hebrew chapter 4, “There remained therefore a rest [or the keeping of Sabbath] to the people of God.”

             The priest in his walk into the inner court, away from the people, begins the entering into rest, beginning from the “gates of the inner court.” He does not wear sweat-inducing clothes made of woollen material. This speaks strongly of grace. The priest does not struggle to be or to do anything; he learns to rest by faith on the arms of the Lord. Ringing in his ears is the Spirit’s injunction to come boldly to the throne of grace to obtain or find mercy, and to receive grace for time of needs (Hebrew 4: 16). In the location of the inner court, he is able to look back and is amazed at what God has done for him.

We were brought up to resist sin and sins. We knew the bible says that “Whosowever  is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (1 John 3: 9). Yet we found in us certain habits, evils and hated thoughts struggling in us, in our hearts. So we despaired and began to wonder whether we were truly saved, thinking, If  I were saved, why do I still have these unrighteous tendencies?  We cried; we agonised and despaired of ever living above the problem.

            In a world known for its stratification and competitions for the scarce resources of life, we found it easy to envy brothers  “more blessed ” than us because it was as if God was more favourably disposed to help them than us; we felt that this meant they were closer to God than the rest of us. Imagine this scenario: we were both single sisters and prayed for husbands. God answered her prayers, but mine He did not hear. Years went by, many more sisters joined the marital bliss, as they call it and I was yet to be one of them. Then everybody was giving birth to children and riding Jeeps, being financially blessed too. Each time good news came my way of the blessings of God to this or to that brother or sister, a twine of envy twisted my heart in its surging strength, steeping it all in shame of depression. This was immediately followed by pangs of pains and shame and anger against myself for the realisation that the possibility to envy or to resent was still deeply seated in the depth of my soul; evil was still present with me. And I was in a double jeopardy. I did not want to envy, yet I could not help it; the emotion always ran ahead of me before I could control it. Again, I was ashamed that I could still envy.

              The priest learns to stand on the ground of the Cross of Christ. I am of God and have His  seed in me. I cannot envy because of Who is in me. But here is me caught in the whirlwind of emotion of envy. I acknowledge that this is me in reality. Now, I stand out off the ground of my self-goodness, self righteousness, which is a contemptible ground that You want to save me from. I stand on the ground of the Cross of Christ. I am not depending on myself but on the finished work of the Cross. I am looking away from self to declare that I do not have my own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is of faith in Christ Jesus. This, Lord is my rest. I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live; the life that I now live I live by faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave Himself to me. By the Cross I overcome the spirit of envy and live above envy…

           Over the years, though I am still single with no child and no heavy financial presence, I truly, as I review the past, discover that I am truly more than a conqueror.  My heart has come to a place of stability that does not entertain fear or envy any more.

Now this is rest.

         In this position, the priest does not exact personal strength as he struggles with the rams and goats in the outer court. He has come to the throne of mercy and has learned grace. Abundance of grace is being ministered to him. He has come to completion as he lifts the nation, the church and situations before the throne of mercy. He has at last been built up to trust God for nations, peoples, the church of God and the heart of God rather than faith to get silver and gold. As a matter of fact, nowadays, it takes more conscious energy to believe God for silver and gold than for the things that bother the heart of God; he is now like Aaron with the names, and therefore, the burden of the children of Israel on his heart before the Lord in he Holy of Holy. He has almost forgotten himself in scheme of things; it is now all about God.

Lord Jesus we rest on the arms of what you have done and accomplished on the cross; we seek your heart more than any other times in our lives. Just as the harts pant after the water brook so do  our heart pant after you, oh Lord.

The History of the Life of the Priest of God (10)

     Job 1: 5 has been the point of our meditation this far, taking him, Job, as a kind of priest of the ages before the institution of the Mosaic priesthood. We are continuing with the history of the life of the priest of God in these days.

    We continue with this in Ezekiel 44: 17 – 18:

 When they enter the gates of the inner court, they are to wear linen clothes; they must not wear any woollen garment while ministering at the gates of the inner court or inside the temple…. They must not wear anything that makes them perspire.

        Rest, the Grand Finale of Grace

          Christ is seated at the right hand of God; He is inclusively our representative before the Lord. It means that we, including the Lord are both seated at the right hand of God (Ephesians 1: 6). The inner court is not a place of sweating; it is a place of rest. God swear in his word, “ … if they must enter into my rest…”  and then again in the 9^th verse of the same Hebrew chapter 4, “There remained therefore a rest [or the keeping of Sabbath] to the people of God.”

             The priest in his walk into the inner court, away from the people, begins the entering into rest, beginning from the “gates of the inner court.” He does not wear sweat-inducing clothes like woollen. This speaks strongly of grace. The priest does not struggle to be or to do anything; he learns to rest by faith on the arms of the Lord. Ringing in his ears is the Spirit’s injunction to “come boldly to the throne of grace to receive grace for needs (Hebrew 4: 16). In the location of the inner court, he is able to look back and is amazed at what God has done for him.

We were brought up to resist sin and sins. We know the bible says that he that is born of God does not commit sin because the seed of God is in him (1 John 3: 9). Yet we find certain habits, evils and hated thoughts struggling in us, in our hearts. So we despair and begin to wonder whether we were truly saved, thinking, If  I were saved, why do I still have these unrighteous tendencies?  We cry; we agonise and despair of ever living above the problem.

            In a world known for its stratification and competitions for the scarce resources of life, we find it easy to envy brothers  “more blessed ” than us because it is as if God is more favourably disposed to help them than us; we feel that this means they are closer to God than the rest of us. Imagine this scenario: we were both single sisters and prayed for husbands. God answered her prayers, but mine He did not hear. Years went by, many more sisters joined the marital bliss, as they call it and I was yet to be one of them. Then everybody was giving birth to children and riding Jeeps, being financially blessed too. Each time good news came my way of the blessings of God to this or to that brother or sister, a twine of envy twisted my heart in its surging strength. This was immediately followed by pangs of pains and shame and anger against myself for the realisation that the possibility to envy or to resent was still deeply seated in the depth of my soul; evil was still present with me. And I was in a double jeopardy. I did not want to envy, yet I could not help it; the emotion always ran ahead of me before I could control it. Again, I was ashamed that I could still envy.

              The priest learns to stand on the ground of the Cross of Christ. I am of God and have His  seed in me. I cannot envy because of Who is in me. But here is me caught in the whirlwind of emotion of envy. I acknowledge that this is me in reality. Now, I stand out off the ground of my self-goodness, self righteousness, which is a contemptible ground that You want to save me from. I stand on the ground of the Cross of Christ. I am not depending on myself but on the finished work of the Cross. I am looking away from self to declare that I do not have my own righteousness which is of the law but the righteousness which is of faith in Christ Jesus. This, Lord is my rest. I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live; the life that I now live I live by faith of the Son of God who loves me and gave Himseltf to me. By the Cross I overcome the spirit of envy and live above envy…

           Over the years, though I am still single with no child and no heavy financial presence, I truly, as I review the past, found that I am truly more than a conqueror.  My heart has come to a place of stability that does not fear or is envious any more. Now this is rest.

         In this position, the priest does not exact personal strength as he struggles with the rams and goats in the outer court. He has come to the throne of grace and have received mercy and has leaned rest. Abundance of grace is being ministered to him. He has come to completion as he lifts the nation, the church and situations before the throne of mercy.

Lord, we come boldly to the throne of grace and we obtain  mercy and we do find grace to help in this time of needs. We stand not on our own righteousness but on the righteousness which has been made good for us on the cross of Christ. We are able to live above all powers of the enemy. On the ground of that blood that speaks better things, we testify that we are able to do all things unto pleasing You who called us to the grace of your Son, Jesus Christ. Thank You Lord for making us unto Your priests and, even, kings.