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05 April 2021 AnneT Blog, Job An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

Job Sees The Light - Forty-second in a series

Hover over the Scripture references to read the verses under discussion

Christian children are taught about hell. We learn that hell is a terrifying place where wicked people end up. I don’t recall who explained this to me, but I’m sure my parents confirmed it after Sunday School. Yes, hell is a real, terrible place where bad people go after death. It is true!

No one tried to scare or manipulate me by this new knowledge, but the church’s teaching confirmed by my parents served to deter me from disrespecting God, except at those times when I was a backslider. But generally, throughout my life I have feared God, partly because I have feared hell.

So it was that God described Leviathan to Job, instilling a useful fear in his heart. Next will come the final chapter where Job’s life is restored with double the possessions and blessings he had previously enjoyed.

The Leviathan was unassailable with terrible teeth round about, scales aligned so he was impenetrable and indestructible, eyes like the morning sun, and breath with sparks of fire that would kindle coals. He was a fire-breathing dragon created by the Lord to serve as “king over all the sons of pride.” (Job 41:34)

Job 41:1-8 NIV The Leviathan was not a creature designed for man’s use as a pet, for food, for service, nor could hunters capture him for sport or barter. What was his reason for being? It seems he was a picture of Satan for men to consider. As I had understood hell as a child and determined I would not end up there, so Job might ponder Leviathan and feel impressed to take refuge in the Lord for protection— ‘hiding from God in God.’

Job 41:9-11 NIV If we would cower before this beast, how much more should we bow before the Lord who made him?

Job 41:12-32 NIV God describes Leviathan. He is rightfully proud of the design of this one whom He made. See the full description here.

This same creature is mentioned in Psalm 104 as one playfully enjoying the sea, (Ps 104:26) and again he is described in Ps 74:
Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness. (Ps 74:13-14)
In verse 13, God crushed the heads of the dragons, plural, in the waters. This may be a symbolic mention of the Egyptian leaders who pursued the Israelites across the Red Sea but were drowned in it. In verse 14 the leviathan (singular) has many heads which may be a prophecy about the dragon in the Revelation with seven heads (Rev 13:1). This dragon will likewise be destroyed by God to help his people suffering in the wilderness.

Job 41:33-34 NIV Pages could be written to elaborate on the mentions of Leviathan in Scripture and how the passages may be related. In the context of our study of Job, whether the Leviathan had many heads or was more like a terrifying crocodile or whale as some think, or a dinosaur or similar extinct reptile, he was unlike any other creature.

Though God never explained to Job Satan’s role in his trial, he revealed his type through the description of Leviathan. That sealed the fear of the Lord in Job.

Without fear of God, man’s conscience is impaired. Job was certainly a man who carefully considered all of his ways and behavior, yet in that he felt he could recommend himself to God, he was not clear in his mind and heart on who God is.

God's Name Is 777

24 October 2018 AnneT Blog, Malachi An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

MALACHI -Eighth in a series

Malachi 1:13-14 Ye said also, Behold, what a weariness is it! and ye have snuffed at it, saith the LORD of hosts; and ye brought that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye brought an offering: should I accept this of your hand? saith the LORD. (vs 13)
But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen. (vs 14)

There is an emphasis in the first chapter of Malachi on the name of the Lord. God makes clear that by their disobedience in offering blemished animals for sacrifice, the people and the priests are profaning his name.

Through Malachi God proclaims He is a great king, not feared nor honored among his own people, nevertheless, the heathen do consider his name to be dreadful. Over the centuries there were many occasions for the heathen to see that the God of the Jews was more powerful than any other god.

In the parlance of today's universal language, that of the computer, our God's name is 777. Translated to human language, God alone is sovereign.

When programmers or computer users are "behind the scenes" in the terminal or console of the computer, they can define how any file may be used, if they are the SUDO, the super user. So in this analogy, God is the SUDO in a closed system. A computer buff could present a better scenario than I am about to. I learned these things in free seminars in my city.

The SUDO grants permissions to operate files.

Each file has three possible actions: Read, Write and Execute. As an example, if you are reading this page, you have Read permissions; if you could login and write more on this post or delete it, you would have Write permissions, Execution is only for programs, which are special types of files. Those who have Execute permissions can run programs and define who may execute them.

Each file has three levels of entities who are granted permissions, or not. Each has a User, the person who invented the file; a primary Group, whose name matches the User name; and Other--everyone else.

Separate levels of permissions can be set for the entities. The User can Read, Write and Execute (rwx), or only Read and Write (rw-) etc. The Group, likewise, can do all three or only one, etc. Same for the Other.

With three possible actions on three entities, there are nine permissions on each file— rwx on each of the three entities, u, g and o:

u      g      o
r w x      r w x      r w x

If the User had all 3, the Group had 2 and the Other had 1, the diagram could be, for example: (The dash indicates no permission.)

u      g      o
r w x      r w -      r - -

These permissions are associated with numbers, as part of the operation of the computer system. The associated numbers are Octal, not Decimal. In the Octal system, only 8 numerals are used, 1-7. In Decimal, after 9 comes 1 again, but with a 0, for ten (10)--one 10 and zero 1s. In Octal, after the number 7, we have 1 again with a 0, but this equates to eight (8), so 10 (in Octal) means there is ONE 8 and ZERO 1's.

This relates to the eight possible combinations of permissions that can be ON or OFF:

7 r w x         3 - w x
6 r w -         2 - w -
5 r - x         1 - - x
4 r - -         0 - - -

This logic runs our computers and our world, or so it seems. Since r is 4, w is 2 and x is 1, by summing all together we get 7; or no permissions is 0, only reading is 4, or read and write is 6, etc.

It would be unwise to give full permissions for any file.

And now we consider this paradigm in relation to God's name as 777, the title of this post.

I'm sure I'm not the first to reflect upon these underlying operators, to consider that the meaning of 666 (Rev 13:18) may be that the Antichrist who serves the Man of Sin who will be revealed in the last days (2 Thess 2:3-4), will not be all-powerful. He will seem to be, but beware the delusion. God alone is all-powerful.

The Antichrist will perform great signs and wonders (Rev 13:13), but this is only Reading and Writing, in computer terms. To Execute belongs only to the Lord. This is not a perfect analogy, but helps to remind us of God’s omnipotence.

Do not worry about 666: Worry instead about 777. He is the One who has the power to cast both body and soul into hell. (Mat 10:28). 666 is only a way of saying that the Evil One does not hold all the cards, no matter how things may seem. Do not take his mark; he is only 666.

The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runneth into it, and is safe. Prov 18:10

God IS here

10 October 2018 AnneT Blog, Malachi An ordered list of links for each blog series is on the Archive page. (0)

MALACHI -Sixth in a series

Malachi 1:8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.

In the previous post we asked whether the meal offerings (Mal 1:7) were unacceptable to God because the people could have prepared them more carefully or used better ingredients.

Their meal offerings betrayed a lackadaisical attitude toward the priest who was their mediator with the Lord. And when the priest shared a handful of the bread as a burnt offering on the altar, it was not a sweet savor to the Lord. It stunk.

In verse 8 we see a similar dilemma. The animals brought by the people for sacrifices, to substitute for their sinful acts, whether of omission or commission, whether done in ignorance or wittingly, did not meet God's standards. This was much worse than lackadaisical or passionless; it was an affront to God and an abuse of the priest's office.

As with the meal offerings, the sin or trespass offering was according to the person's circumstances. If he had a herd, a bull would be offered; if a flock, then a sheep (or other— (Lev 5:6)); if neither, then turtledoves or pigeons according to the type of offering. Yet they were to bring an animal without a blemish. (Num 29:13; Deut 15:21) These duties were performed by the Jews for centuries to preserve a faithful witness so that we could become members of God's family, and for their service, we should always show respect and gratefulness to them (except to those of whom Christ says, "which say they are Jews, and are not" (Rev 2:9; 3:9)).

"In each instance the animal was a domestic, a creature that was tame and fed on vegetation… Only the docile creature could represent the pure and holy One who gave his life a ransom for many. The animals had to be free from blemish as they prefigured the One who was free from sin." (ibid, p. 17--see previous post)

The blemished animal "spoiled the type," a phrase we often hear regarding Old Testament objects that represented Christ, such as the rock in the wilderness that gushed water when Moses struck it, but in the manner he did so, the type was spoiled, and Moses then was not permitted to enter the promised land (Num 20:11-12). It was a serious matter to spoil the type.

The offering of blind, lame and sick animals was somewhat on the level of a bribe, where a person seeks to gain pardon through a payoff far less than the crime merits, betraying an attitude of privilege and involving the mediator in the underhanded transaction. However, Malachi 1:14 makes clear that the people who brought these to sacrifice, did so to deceive the priests: But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing.

The priests, whether truly deceived or only glossing over the deception, were as much at fault as the perfidious people. They should have rejected these offerings. Anyone who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, sins. (James 4:17) Offering them made them complicit in the sin. They were leading the people astray from God's law in their acceptance of the blemished animals.

The visibility factor

Malachi argued that these priests would not offer sick animals to their governor (Mal 1:8), who would not take them off their hands anyway.

Governors are people we can see; people who might harm us. God is invisible. Perhaps we do not perceive any threat.

Though we see God in nature and we see his works in many ways, we cannot see him. We must have faith that he really is there-- here-- and that he reveals his character, plans, law and path to salvation in his Word.

Did the priests and people have faith? Do we?

God IS here… be not faithless, but believing (Jhn 20:27).

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