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Scripture Reading: Gen. 1:26-27; 2:9-12
We need to see the completed divine revelation in the entire Scriptures concerning God's relationship with man. Seeing this revelation will help us to understand the book of Job. In this message we will cover the first three sections of this revelation.
God's relationship with man in the Scriptures includes the dispensation, the section of time, before the law, part of which is the time from God's creation of man to the calling of Abraham.
God created man and wanted man to take Him as life that man might express Him, be transformed into precious materials for His building, and be built up to be His counterpart to match Him (Gen. 1:26-27; 2:9-12, 18-24). God took a rib out of Adam and built it up into a woman to match Adam to be his counterpart. This is a type showing how God in Christ is the Husband, needing a match, a counterpart. Therefore, in the fulfillment of this type, something came out of Christ — the divine life — to become the church, which is the bride to match Christ.
After man became fallen, God promised the fallen man that Christ would come as the seed of woman to destroy the "serpent," Satan, for man and to redeem and justify man with the shed blood and the coats of the skins of the sacrifice, typifying Christ (3:8-9, 15, 21). These things are a part of God's relationship with us.
Genesis 4:4 and 8:20-22 speak of the burnt offering, a type of Christ. God regarded man, that is, respected man, and was pleased with man, not in man's good doing, but in the burnt offering. This is why Abel came to offer the burnt offering to God and God regarded both him and his offering.
God judged the corrupted world with the flood and saved Noah and his family through the ark (6:11-20). The ark is another type of Christ.
In the time from God's creation of man to the calling of Abraham, God also judged the rebellious man at Babel, which was the ancient Babylon (11:4-9).
The second dispensation covers the period of time from the calling of Abraham to the decree of the law through Moses. The most important aspect of this dispensation was God's promise to Abraham. For this reason, Bible teachers calls this dispensation the dispensation of promise.
As a continuation of the previous dispensation, God again regarded man in the burnt offering (12:7; 13:18; 22:13; 31:54; Job 1:5).
In addition, God promised Abraham that in his seed, the coming Christ, all the nations of the earth, including us, would be blessed (Gen. 22:18; Gal. 3:8, 16). Eventually this promise was absolutely fulfilled, as revealed in Galatians 3.
The third dispensation is the period of time from the decree of the law through Moses to the first coming of Christ. This is called the dispensation of the law.
Due to the blindness and stubbornness of the people of Israel, God decreed the law through Moses (Exo. 19:8, 16—20:21) to expose the incapability of the people of Israel in keeping His law (Rom. 3:20b; 5:20a; 7:7). God gave Abraham the promise, yet his descendants did not know themselves, considering that they could do everything God required. The law was given to test them, to prove that they did not have the capacity and the capability to do so.
God not only gave the people of Israel the law, but God also granted them the tabernacle with the priesthood and all kinds of offerings for them to worship Him, serve Him, contact Him, and partake of Him as their enjoyment (Exo. 25—Lev. 27). The tabernacle, the priesthood, and the offerings all typify Christ. Christ is the tabernacle, our priesthood, and our offerings. Through Him we worship God, serve God, contact God, and partake of God as our enjoyment.
In this dispensation God promised the people of Israel that He would be incarnated through them to be their Christ (Isa. 7:14; 9:6-7).
Furthermore, God promised the people of Israel that Christ would come to them as their everything and as the centrality and universality of God's economy for their revival and for the restoration of the universe (Micah 5:2-6; Psa. 2:6-7; Mal. 3:1; 4:2 Hos. 6:2; Isa. 2:2-4; 11:6-10; 65:17-25).
As another part of His relationship with man, God promised the people of Israel that He would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28-29, 32a). This would be for the producing of God's chosen people in His New Testament economy — the church.
Finally, God promised the people of Israel that He would covenant with them to work Himself into them to be their life, their law of life, and their everything (Jer. 31:31-34).
Job and his friends probably lived in the age of Abraham. At that time the Pentateuch of Moses was not yet written. Surely they had received some divine revelation from their forefathers verbally. However, what they had received of their forefathers could reach, at most, only the level of the revelation in the age of Abraham. Hence, in their debates concerning God's relationship with man, there was no hint that indicates that they had received divine revelation beyond the matters of God's judgment and God's regard for man in his burnt offering. And they did not speak any word that implies anything concerning Christ and the Spirit of God. They were in the primitive stage of the divine revelation.
