Would you like to read James McNaught’s novel Sinking Sand”? click here: Sinking Sand
http://youtu.be/NK8VWcw8BOM “The Science is in!”
(The views expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Job 1:6–12, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it. And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.”
This is a very important passage in the Bible for it gives us an insight into the cosmic conflict. The first thing to notice is that there is a place where spiritual activities take place. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The heavens are plural rather than singular. There is a place know as the “hill of the Lord” that we read about in Psalm 24. This place is completely free of sin and God dwells there away from sin for we know that God is to pure to look on sin (Hab 1: 13) and, in this place, He can retreat from sin and be free from that stain. There is also the first heaven, that it, the heaven that we see when we go outside and look up. In the day we can see the sun, the sky and the clouds, in the night we can see the moon and the stars. There is also the place where the spiritual battle takes place, the second heaven. We have an insight into the second heaven in this passage. The Lord has good angels, who are doing His work on the earth. From time to time, the Lord comes to this place to communicate with these angels. On the other hand, Satan, the evil one, also has access to this place because he is a fallen angel. On this occasion, while the Lord was talking to His angels, Satan came to accuse and make his lies to the Lord. The Lord asked Satan if he had seen Job in his travels. Satan immediately tried to manufacture a lie and suggest that Job was good because he liked all the good things that he got from the Lord. Even though this was not true, Satan is a liar and always looks to manufacture lies; he often uses a bit of the truth and then goes on to make his lies. Satan tried to persuade the Lord that Job wasn’t really a good man, just a selfish man. The Lord told Satan that he was allowed to try and demonstrate his point by attacking Job. This may seem an arbitrary act on the Lord’s part but the Lord knows the end from the beginning (Is 46: 10) and knew how this would finish. Satan, on the other hand, doesn’t know the future and thinks that he can manipulate the times for his own benefit. However, Satan wasn’t allowed to gratuitously attack Job, he had to ask the Lord for permission first.
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