Jesus the Light 27 Ultimate Questions
Have you considered My servant, Job? Job 1:8
Dear Listener, there are eternal issues being played out in your everyday life. Final outcomes of your life’s journey are being determined by your daily steps. In unseen realms of spiritual reality, a raging conflict is on-going.
Satan’s very name means the Adversary. His other name, Devil, translates as “Slanderer.” And together they show that this evil spirit stands against us as a destroying accuser. He will find fault by false accusation in order to try and provoke God to condemn the innocent.
Rev.12:9,10: “The great dragon, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night.”
Yes, he is against you; he reviles and accuses believers relentlessly. Throughout the simple occupations and tasks of our daily activities, he rails against believers unknown to us.
But God knows both the assaults of this most wicked of all creatures and their false evil intent. And God knows as well the true condition of every heart, of every passing thought.
And so, God Himself raises the inquiry—consider this man, Job. Come, look very well, friend or foe alike, or even Satan himself. Consider Job. Search him thoroughly.
Thus, the ultimate issue was raised by the Lord of Testing. The most critical and fundamental consideration of the ages is exposed. Why does a man fear God and serve Him? What motivates him at the core of his being? The answer to this determines eternal destinies.
Satan had an answer: Man only serves God for the benefits gained thereby. Job 1:9-11: “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now, and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”
This is the devil’s accusation: “Man is self-seeking. He has no love for God. Man only serves God for what You give him.” His allegation is that no one honors God simply because He is God, because of who He is. Man is only attracted to God for what he can get from Him.
It is a serious charge. If true, no one will reach heaven. If false, Satan will never reach heaven. These are ultimate issues.
If at the core of a man’s heart is the root of self-interest, he is no better than Satan himself. Lucifer became the devil and fell from heaven because of this very thing [Isa.14:12]. He was full of ambition, self-gain, self-seeking [Isa.14:13,14]. Lucifer promoted himself out of a heart full of self-interest. And he shall be brought down to hell because of it [Isa.14:15].
Self-seeking casts into hell. It did with Lucifer. It does so for all following in his steps. This is the ultimate issue for man.
But behind this lies a second accusation leveled against the foundation of everlasting righteousness. The dilemma raised is this. If an essentially self-centered man is welcomed into heaven, then God has no basis to exclude Satan from that place either.
If God is “served” [actually, used] by man to obtain his own ends, then man’s “love” and “obedience” is hypocrisy to cover his inner corruption and nothing more. If that is true, then God is not honored and obeyed at all.
If the final motivation for man’s religious devotion is self-interest, and yet that man is received into heaven as righteous, then God is unjust. God is shown to be unrighteous or a fool, because, without cause, He arbitrarily accepts one self-centered being and excludes another. If self-seeking man attains heaven while self-seeking Satan descends to hell, justice and righteousness disappear.
The eyes of the Lord are too pure to approve evil [Hab.1:13]. The devil knows this very well. Yet he turned this to his own advantage to demand access into heaven in the case of Job.
Satan reasons: “You have welcomed Job. You delight boastfully in him. He, You say, fears You and turns away from evil. But I say: he has not turned away from evil. You have cast me out of Your presence saying that my ambitious self-seeking was evil. But Job is full of the same in the depths of his soul.
“I will prove that he is no different than me. I will demonstrate before all heaven that you have no right to reject me and accept him. I will unveil Your injustice. I will expose this double-standard and demand my entrance back into Your realm,” thus says Satan.
All heaven is watching. Eternal issues hang in the balance in the unseen spheres. God did not accept the devil’s challenge, for it was the Lord who challenged him. For time and eternity the Lord will lay the unshakable ground of the rightful condemnation of self-seeking. His proof centered in a man named Job, a man who suffered at the hand of God, by the will of God, and for the glory of God.
Lucifer, unrivaled in wisdom and beauty, had everything and yet did not love God [Ezk.28:12-19]. Job, a man who lost everything and was reduced to wretchedness, loved God and trusted Him simply because He is God. Hear him cry: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!” -Job 13:15.
God is vindicated. His judgment is just. He had found a man who through sorrow, affliction, pain, reproach, false accusation, abandonment, and loss of all yet clung to God, maintained his integrity, and magnified the God of heaven simply because He is worthy.
Job condemned the devil. God thereby displayed the grounds upon which He Himself will condemn him as well. Job is in heaven, Satan is not. Job was shown to be free from self through his sufferings while Satan suffers unendingly by reason of being full of self. These are indeed ultimate issues.
1 Cor.6:2,3: “Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? Do you not know that we will judge angels?” Do you not know? Do you not know that your every sorrow here below is designed to display the manifold grace of God above?
The purpose of the ages hinges on the unveiling of this mystery. From all eternity, wrapped in the mystery of the heart of God, this intent has been concealed. But now in His unsearchable wisdom, it has been revealed and illuminated to all who have eyes to see.
Specifically, Eph.3:9-11: “to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things so that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Are there not eternal issues revolving about your afflictions in this life? Will not your obedience through your tears be an everlasting rebuke to once bright spirits now darkened demons?
Every temptation you resist, all commands of your God that you obey, and every act of love however simple are an everlasting rebuke to the evil Adversary of our souls. By this, God will be vindicated, the devil condemned, and you blessed forever.
May you fall on your face and worship, blessing the name of the Lord as did Job. May you not sin or charge God foolishly. May you endure as seeing Him who is unseen.
And may He who is unseen see in you what He saw in Job: one who will trust in Him though He slays you. And may the God of glory point to you as He did to Job and say: “Have you considered My servant?”
Eternal issues depend upon it.
Jesus died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves,
But for Him who died and rose again on their behalf
2 Cor.5:15
Copyright Steve Phillips 2020