Scripture Reading: Job 38:1-7; 40:1-14; 42:1-6
In this message I would like to speak a further word concerning God's intention in His appearing to Job.
God's intention in appearing to Job was to expose him, to show him that he really was nothing. God's appearing also implied that He wanted to help Job to know that he was in the wrong realm. When God asked Job so many questions concerning the universe (38:4-38) and concerning the animals (38:39—39:30), His intention was to enable Job to see that he, a person who remained in himself, was considering things regarding the universe and God that were far beyond his capacity. Thus, God questioned Job again and again in order to silence him. God seemed to be saying, "Job, I am doing something that you do not know. I intend to give you something that is not in your realm but is in another realm."
In 40:10 God said to Job, "Deck yourself now with majesty and excellency,/And array yourself with honor and splendor." Here God was actually asking Job about his majesty and excellency and about his honor and splendor, with the intention that Job would realize that he did not have any majesty, excellency, honor, and splendor. In verses 12 and 13 God went on to say, "Look upon everyone who is proud; bring him down;/And tread down the wicked where they stand./Hide them in the dust together;/Bind their faces in the hidden place." Here God was telling Job that he should look at himself and realize that he was proud, even though he had no reason to be proud. Furthermore, God was indicating to Job that he should be abased, that he should be hidden in the dust and even buried there.
Job was in the primitive stage of the divine revelation. Many things that God intended to do in His move, which began with the incarnation, Job knew nothing about. God had many things within Himself, but He could not unveil them to Job. God could not speak to Job about these things.
The word of the Lord Jesus to Nicodemus regarding regeneration can also be applied to Job's situation: "If I told you of the things on earth and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you of the things in heaven?" (John 3:12). As John 16:12 and 13 reveal, the Lord Jesus was even limited in what He could say to His disciples: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming." Many of these things were revealed to the apostle Paul. Today, following Paul, we speak of such matters as God's economy, the divine dispensing, and the all-inclusive Spirit as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God. However, many of today's Christians do not understand these matters and even regard them as nonsense.
God's move from the incarnation to the consummation of the New Jerusalem involves many spiritual things, including regeneration, renewing, sanctification, transformation, glorification, and transfiguration. Because Job was in the primitive stage of the divine revelation, he could not understand any of these things.
Job was in the realm of building up something that was wrong. He was building up himself in his perfection, uprightness, and integrity. He thought that he was absolutely right. He was proud of what he had built up, and he trusted in that and glorified himself in that. That was his robe to cover his entire being, and that was his crown to be his glory.
Actually, Job was wrong. God in His eternal economy has no desire to build up these things. Rather, He considers all these things as frustrations and intends to strip them away from us, consuming them bit by bit. When everything is stripped away, then you will see God, and He will attract you to receive Him. Then you will have God's nature, life, element, essence, and even His being. This will cause a metabolic change within you to transform you from the present form of your human being to another form, the form of the divine being. As a result of this transformation, you will be a person reflecting God, that is, expressing Him and dispensing Him to others.
This was God's intention with Job, and this is His intention with us today. Now you and God may be in two different realms. But God wants to transfer you from your present realm into His realm, not only to make you one with Him but even to make you a part of Him.
Suppose someone had tried to talk to Job about all these things. If someone had done this, Job might have said, "What are you talking about? I have learned a lot about God from my forefathers, and I have been paying attention to what I have learned. Yet you say that I am in the wrong realm and that God intends to build up something of Himself in me. You speak to me about incarnation, regeneration, and transformation, but I do not know what any of these things mean." Job simply did not have the capacity to receive such a revelation. He did not have these terms in his spiritual dictionary.
In principle, the situation is the same with many Christians today. The divine revelation has been given, it has been written, and it has been interpreted. Nevertheless, many believers have no understanding of the economy of God or of the divine dispensing according to the divine economy. They may think that being a Christian is simply a matter of believing that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is our Savior, who shed His blood for our sins and who has saved us through His death; that the Holy Spirit is now with us to help us to behave ourselves well and to do good that God may be glorified; and that we will go to heaven when we die. Those who hold this concept of the Christian life may not realize that being a Christian also involves sanctification, transformation, conformation, the divine dispensing of the divine economy, and the New Jerusalem as the enlargement of the processed and consummated Triune God. If you want to teach them about these matters, you must do so in a very gradual way, beginning with the most elementary things.
We all need to realize that today there are two different realms — the realm of the old creation and the realm of the new creation. The realm of the old creation is the realm of natural things, and the realm of the new creation is the realm of divine things. We were born into the old creation, into the natural sphere, yet God wants us to be divine. For this, we need a great transfer: We need to be transferred out of Adam into Christ. The first aspect of this transfer is regeneration. We need to be regenerated, and then we need to be renewed. As we are renewed, certain parts of our being will be "peeled off" and replaced by a new element that will cause us to be transformed and eventually conformed to the image of Christ, who is the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29).
We also need to learn how to talk to others about the spiritual things in the new creation. For example, suppose that you speak to a believer about being transformed into the image of Christ as the firstborn Son of God. That believer might say, "I have heard about the only begotten Son of God but not about the firstborn Son. Who is the firstborn Son of God?" I am concerned that you may not be able to explain this.
If you would teach others concerning this, you need to tell them that when God was incarnated, He brought divinity into humanity and then was born in humanity to be the God-man. Whereas the only begotten Son of God had divinity but not humanity, the God-man Jesus had a part of His being — His humanity — which had not yet been made divine. In order for this to take place, He had to die on the cross and then be resurrected. In resurrection He was begotten, born, as the firstborn Son of God in His humanity (Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:3-4). In this way His humanity was deified. We may also say that His humanity was "sonized," meaning that He became the Son of God not only in His divinity but also in His humanity.
According to time, we are much better off than Job. The later we are in time, the better off we are. If we had been there with Noah, we probably would have realized even less than Job. But after the deluge, God was still moving on. He moved on from Noah to Abraham. We believe that Job was at the time of Abraham, so Job's blessing was on a level similar to that of Abraham's.
Today we have received every blessing (Eph. 1:3). The progression of the divine revelation has been perfected and completed by Paul through his writing, especially the four books of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. In Colossians 1:25 Paul made it clear that he received a commission from God to complete God's word of revelation, especially regarding the mystery in God's economy. This mystery concerns both Christ and His Body, with the main point being that Christ is within His Body as the hope of glory (vv. 26-27). Now, the only thing that can be developed is our hope. The revelation has been completed and will have no more development. Today we have everything.
We need to value the Epistles. In Acts we can see God's move as the consummated One in His transformed saints. However, it is not so clearly defined, explained, and developed as in the fourteen Epistles of Paul. Paul's Epistles were arranged as the first among all the Epistles. Then the last part, the consummating part, was written by John. We need to study Paul's fourteen Epistles and John's three Epistles and Revelation. It was by these two apostles that the divine revelation has been fully completed.
Thank the Lord that we have His word, the completed word, in our hands! I am very grateful to Him that through so many years He has kept me from the world that I could spend all my time on the Word, but mostly on the fourteen Epistles of Paul, the three Epistles of John, and Revelation. What a blessing!
Only that part of the divine revelation which is found in the Epistles of Paul and of John and in Revelation will consummate God's economy to have Christ fully realized and experienced by God's chosen people. Perhaps not the majority but the minority, a small number, will realize Christ to such an extent. Then the Body can be consummated and the bride can be prepared. Then the time will be right for Christ as the universal Bridegroom to come back. But now it would be impossible. If we consider the situation today, we will see that nothing is ready for Christ's coming back.
I believe that the Lord wants us to rise up, to be stirred up. I pray that the Lord will burden all of us to go on in a particular way in this last part of the latter days to experience Christ according to how we have seen Him that we may be actually the parts of Christ's Body.
We have to believe that today God is doing something in His recovery. The spreading of His recovery in Russia has become quite an encouragement to me. It is a new start, a new scene. I believe that the Lord will do the same thing in the United States and in all of Europe because these nations are full of the descendants of Japheth, one of Noah's sons. The Bible indicates that God's consummation will, in principle, come through God's move among the descendants of Japheth (Gen. 9:26-27).
Now that we have seen this vision, each one of us must rise up to be an overcomer by taking care of the two spirits — the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit and our regenerated human spirit. God Himself has been consummated, and He has also consummated us. All that is needed now is the application, which is just the consummated Spirit. If we take care of Him in our spirit, we will make it.
