Video Transcript: Transcendent Setting

Along with the setting in which the book of Job occurs on Earth, there's also a transcendent  setting or what's taking place behind the scenes are often the wings or in heaven someplace.  And it's very important for us to understand this. As we move through the book of Job, this  transcendent setting will not show up again during the dialogues of the book until we get to  the very end where God will speak to Job out of the storms. And Satan, in fact, will not appear again. So there's no clear understanding within the book itself as to what Satan's response is. But we are supposed to find our own response to Job and we're supposed to understand how Job himself moves through a deeper understanding of what takes place to him. So just for  review, remember that Job is a rich man who lives in the ancient Near East, probably  someplace we might say today in Central or northern Iraq, somewhere probably between the  Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Some time around the time that Abraham is moving through that  area. His father, Terah is beginning a process that will take Abraham eventually on to Canaan. But Job is living in that area. At that time, he could be a distant relative of, of Abraham, it  could be that they don't know one another. My presumption is that Job actually lived in history and time, although you will have others who will say it's purely a story that was created. But  whatever the setting is such that Job is a rich man living in the ancient Near East, he  becomes the object of interest for both good and evil powers, God and Satan, who are  dialoguing together in heaven. And in that process of dialogue about Job, see my servant Job, God says, See how good he is. And Satan responds, sure you give him all the toys, and that's why he worships you well take the toys away. Through that process. Job's life is shattered, his property is destroyed. His children die through a terrible tragedy, and all in a single day, and  then later on diseases wrack his body, so much. So that Job is left. In a completely destitute  state, he had been on the pinnacle of power and luxury and wealth, and suddenly he is left  with nothing. Well, it's in that context that we see the other side of what's going on not the  human side, not the world of our experiences, but the side beyond our experiences, the scene in heaven. And the book of Job, the creator of the book of Job, the storyteller of the book of  Job assumes that there is a creator deity. Now, interestingly, also, there are a number of  Hebrew words that can be used to describe God, and there are quite a host of them. In the  Old Testament, the dominant ones are El and Elohim, and YAHWAH. El And Elohim, are sort  of generic references to the big power in control. Yahweh is the typical Hebrew reference to  the God who is our covenant partner. This is the name given by God to Moses at the burning  bush in the early chapters of Exodus, another story we could take a look at. But this is the  unique name of Israel for God who comes into covenant relationship with Israel. And the  special thing that comes through in this is that if the book of of Job written in the Hebrew  languages, language uses the term Yahweh to describe God or to identify God, it means that  the book of Job presumes the worldview that's present in the covenant between God in Israel  at Mount Sinai, this is the God of, of Israel. This is the God of covenant. This is the God who  pledges to remain close. This is the God who comes to us in the person of Jesus in the New  Testament, and this creator deity, El or Elohim. Now also is understood by us to be our  redemptive deity, the God who redeems us, and so that becomes important for an  understanding of how Job will find his relationship with God. And in that context, remember  that the Bible's point of view is that evil is an intrusion. It's not essential to the world in which  we live. It's not the creator's design. Evil is not co eternal with good But it always comes after  the fact. Creation is good God made all things it is good, it is good, it is good. Evil comes later as an intrusion or as a leech or something that destroys what is already established as good.  And that becomes important as well because that's exactly what happens in his story. Job and his family and his surroundings in a circumstance are good. And into this goodness, evil  intrudes evil is allowed to enter evil enters not as a co creative agent with good not as a  dynamic partner with good not as the yin and yang of different cultures. But this is essentially 

opposite of good or a leech upon the good. And in that context, there's a collection of spiritual  creatures who share oversight of the physical world. The sons of God gathered themselves  before God we're told, what does that mean? Well, we don't really know because our vision,  our sight, our insights are limited to this world of, of experience. But what the narrator  expresses to us is the idea that the Creator God who is our Redeemer, God continues to hold  counsel with other spiritual leaders that we don't necessarily know intimately. We talk about  angels, we talk about demons, but they are kind of nebulous for us we don't fully understand  them. In the book of Job, however, they become critical agents in how this world functions, we see hints of that throughout the Bible. In the book of Daniel, we see Daniel speaking with his  Heavenly Messenger and the Heavenly Messenger, telling him that he's been delayed along  the way, in his coming from the throne of God, we see the Book of Revelation, the powers of  evil and good that are in spiritual places, we hear references to that in Paul's letters, we don't  exactly know the structure of all of that there's a lot of speculation to that a lot of people have  written a variety of things. But the biblical message is that there are powers subject to the  Creator, that are out there and influence the world in which we live. The best of those we  understand to be angels, which simply means messengers, messengers from God, and the  worst of those we call demons, or the demonic, or the Devil or Satan. And this comes together at the beginning of the book of Job in a way that's kind of interesting, because even though  we don't see Satan, as powerfully evil, we see Satan as submissive to God. And we see  Satan as a power that can affect life on planet Earth. These creatures of God come together.  Now, there's a very interesting psalm, Psalm 82, in which we're told that God gathers the  leaders of the world together, and it almost seems like it's a reference to the same kind of  idea, so that those who are given supervision spiritual supervision in some way for different  aspects of this world, come together in council and God receives reports, and God lays out  the vision of the creator for the world. And into that context, this person this or this being this  Hositan, this, Satan also gathers with the rest. Who is this, Satan? There are different  speculations there and the book of Job doesn't help us. The Book of Genesis doesn't help us  we're told that the evil one enters the world and deceives our first parents. We're told here  that Satan comes and challenges what's going on. We're told in Zechariah 3, that Satan has  access to the throne of God and accuses the Israelites who returned or the Jews who  returned from exile for not being perfect and their high priest Joshua, for wearing soiled robes  as he ministers in the temple. Jesus talks about Satan falling from heaven like lightning,  there's, there's all kinds of ideas, the one thing that is often pointed to and this is a type of  speculation, but it does seem to resonate with some of our attempts to put all of these ideas  together. In Isaiah's prophecy, as Isaiah is, by the Spirit of God, referring to the king of  Babylon This is what the prophet Isaiah says, how you have fallen from heaven, Morning Star, son of the dawn, you have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nation's,  you said in your heart, I will ascend to the heavens, I will raise my throne above the stars of  God, I will sit enthroned on the mighty assembly on the utmost heights of mountain Zaphon, I  will ascend above the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High, but you are  brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit. Now, those words were used  to describe the king of Babylon, who, in his pride, pushed the limits of his kingdom too far, and eventually succumb to the overrunning of the Medes and the Persians, and the destruction of  his life and his, his kingdom. But Can those words mean more, and here's where some of our  theological speculation has considered the possibility that they are a parallel to, or a metaphor of, or perhaps hinting of experiences beyond just the reality of the king of Babylon, that  perhaps this describes as well, an original powerful angel of God, who thought that his place  in the leadership or the direction of the universe, the oversight of an element of creation,  including planet Earth, was insufficient, that he had a better idea than the creator had, and he 

should muster his own resources to be in fact, a rival deity. And, of course, the Creator would  not allow that. And so this rival spiritual power is destroyed, cast down, reduced and becomes what we know as Satan. Now, that's not stated anywhere in the Bible. But that's a hint or an  outcome that we sometimes interpret sort of extrapolate from a passage like Isaiah 14, verses 12 through 15, where this powerful one among the original leaders of God's spiritual host,  becomes the devil. Well, having that in mind, think about these things which are much less  speculative and much straighter from the text. The Book of Job assumes the Creator God is  always in control. Even when Satan does evil and tries to disrupt the creation. It happens only by way of permission, and not as a separate initiative. It isn't a rival deity that has unique  powers. But God, the Creator is always in control. The Book of Job assumes that there are  angelic beings who share in the supervision of creation. And again, as I mentioned, Psalm 82  is a reference you might check out to see another expression of this idea of God gathering the judges of Earth or the leaders of Earth together for a council and expressing God's will to  them, very similar to the manner in which we find these gathering here in the book of Job. The Book of Job suggests that at least one among the angelic beings is corrupted and has  become an opponent to God's good ways. And here's where the story of the book of Job  unfolds because God is pleased with Job God takes pride in Job God sees Job as an  example of what happens when humankind responds rightly to its creator. When a person  sees the Creator as the ultimate source of all good things when a person responds to God  with worship and praise and seeks God's forgiveness and hope and, and good things and  praise to God for all that is necessary for life. And in that context, we have this one being who  says, well, that's your interpretation of it. Job certainly responds well to you, but that's  because you're kind of like a Santa Claus. You, you give him toys, he's got everything he  would, why wouldn't he respond to you? Because that's what it is we we respond to those  who pay the bills who give the gifts. You take away the gifts from him and you'll find an  entirely different thing. He will no longer respond to you. He will curse you. He will say you're  no good you don't have a place in his life. It is precisely because you are bought His worship  that he worships you, his worship doesn't come from his heart. But it comes from his desires,  you feed his desires, therefore he worships you. And in all of this Job, the book of Job, the  narrator, to the book of Job thinks of the satan, the Satan as the accuser, the name in Hebrew actually means the accuser. And it's a legal term. It's a term used in the courts of law to  indicate the one who brings the judgment or the accusations against the accused, it's sort of  like the prosecuting attorney. It's the one that states what is wrong in this situation. And Satan  comes in to this heavenly courtroom, as God points to Job and says, He worships Me in truth  and righteousness, and Satan says he worships you for what he gets out of it. It can be used  as the witness to a crime, but it can also be used for what we would call the prosecuting  attorney. And in this sense, Satan is not necessarily evil, but deeply aware of evil. And he  takes upon himself the responsibility to ensure that nothing false is allowed to survive. In that  sense, some have said there is a relationship between the Satan or the accuser, and what is  called the devil's advocate in the Roman Catholic process by which saints are identified.  There's always someone who is sent to counter act, that the praises that are laud upon it a  lauded upon a person who is being considered as a saint in the Roman Catholic tradition. And this devil's advocate tries to undermine those things by saying, well, you're reading it wrong,  or you're interpreting it wrong, or you're not understanding the full picture. And in that sense,  Satan is working here, there isn't a full blown concept of evil related to Satan here in the book  of Job, that idea will come in other places. For instance, in the Gospels in Luke chapter 10,  where Satan is considered to be an opponent of God in a very real way. And as Jesus sends  out the 72, as missionaries, they returned to Jesus and they tell of the great things that  happened as they preached and taught and healed the sick. And Jesus's Yeah, I know, I saw 

that I saw Satan falling from heaven, like lightning, which is an indication that Satan's power is being minimized and usurped and contained and destroyed. And the parallels, probably our  most accurate in Zechariah 3, that I mentioned earlier, and also in Revelation 12. In Zechariah 3, after the Jews returned to Jerusalem, rebuilding the city in the temple, the prophet  Zechariah, sees the throne room. This is really a picture of the temple itself, which is God's  earthly throne room and sort of conflated with the heavenly throne room all come together,  and Joshua, the high priest functioning as Minister before God in that context. And he talks  about Joshua as being unclean and living in a people whose hearts and lives are unclean.  And he functions he's called the accuser or the Satan. Similarly, God, of course, remedies the situation. But there Satan appears as the accuser, and in Revelation 12, as the whole of  human history, the whole of universal history is condensed into three short chapters 12, 13  and 14. Chapter 12 is really about the creation of all things and the birth of the Messiah  through the people of Israel, and then the life story of The Church of God, which lives by faith  in the Messiah. In that picture, Satan comes as the accuser of the brothers who accuses them day and night before our God you can read Revelation 12 and see the parallels there. Well,  what does this all mean? It means that according to the book of Job, we live in a corrupted  world in which evil is overtly challenging, but God is in control. And the question is the  question that Satan actually poses, this is the truest question and the essential question  behind the book of Job. Do we serve God only for what we get out of it? Or do we serve God? Because it is natural and right for human beings to worship their creator? Do we worship God  because God gives us toys? Or do we worship God because God is worthy of our worship?  And worship is essential to our lives as human beings before God? That becomes the big  question though the book of Job and If you want to probe this further again I would encourage you to look at the whole of my study of these things in my book Covenant Documents:  Reading the Bible Again For the First Time