Tag: law

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 17, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 7

THE FOURTH ‘WAY OF ESCAPE’ FOR ALL TEMPTED, FALLEN SINNERS

 “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried [by the temptation], he shall receive the crown of life [or ‘the crown that is eternal life’], which the Lord has promised to them that love Him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, NEITHER tempteth He any man. BUT every man is tempted, WHEN he is drawn away by his OWN LUST and [thereby] enticed. THEN when lust hath CONCEIVED, it bringeth forth SIN: and sin, when it is FINISHED, bringeth forth DEATH.” James 1:12-15, KJV. (All emphasis and bracketed words mine). 

I class this as the fourth “way of escape,” not as a matter of divine chronology or order of importance but because it makes spiritual practical sense, following the first three cited previously.

It is clear here that the apostle describes a process at work, not an instantaneously automatic occurrence, but traceable from cause to effect. The sinful act is the result of several factors and steps. Honestly recognizing, spiritually discerning, and weighing each, intellectually and spiritually, affords the tempted one to pause and “nip it at the bud” preventing it from deteriorating further in the process. Indeed, “an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.”

It is as, “Stop, first look left than right before crossing the street.” Or “count the cost” if you really can afford it, or actually need it. Is worth all the risk. That momentary pause to reflect, can be the difference between life and death. As has been said, one moment’s indiscretion, a lifetime of shame and regret! Impulsive-compulsive behavior is intemperance and lack of personal discipline and self-control.

So how does the tempted one “endure,” not yield and succumb to the temptation? Endure by resistance. By what means? By God’s empowering grace. Here’s what the same apostle teaches us:

 “Do you think that the Scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But He giveth more grace. Wherefore He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. SUBMIT yourselves therefore to God. RESIST [by grace] the devil, and he will FLEE from you. Draw NEAR to God, and He will draw near to you. CLEANSE your hands, ye sinners; PURIFY your hearts, ye double-minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep [for your sins, pride, stubborness, and double-mindedness]: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. HUMBLE yourselves in the sight of the Lord [not before man], and HE SHALL LIFT YOU UP.” James 4: 5-10. 

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 10, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series- No. 6

THE THIRD ‘WAY OF ESCAPE’

“Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” Exo. 25:8, 9, KJV. (Read chapters 25-31 for more complete picture).

The first of four earthly ones was any tent or temporary dwelling place, but especially the tabernacle erected by Moses at Mt.Sinai, God’s sacred earthly dwelling place and the center of the Hebrew (ancient Israel) worship for more than four centuries. Under the first and last theocracy God was Israel’s direct Supreme Ruler, and in the Most Holy Place of the tabernacle abode the visible glory symbolic of Divine Presence (Exo. 25:22; 40:34, 35), at times called the “Shekinah” glory, which is a Rabbinical, not Biblical term.

In the promised land, king David was privy to the purpose and meaning of the sanctuary and all its systems and services. God gave him all the specifications on how and what it would be built with—but forbade him from actually doing if for he had “bloody hands” as a man of war. It was his son Solomon “the wise man” whom God entrusted with this sacred task and project.

This temple, most often referred to as Solomon’s Temple was constructed on what was formerly called Mt. Moriah, scene of the offering of Isaac by Abraham. Hence, David could and did write, “Thy WAY, O God, is in the SANCTUARY” (Ps. 77:13).

Going back to the beginning:
“It was difficult for man, surrounded by sin, to understand these wonderful truths [embodied in the first promise and prophecy of Gen. 3:15]. The rays of light [of the gospel truth] which shone from the heavenly sanctuary upon the [very first] simple sacrifices [offered by Adam, Abel, Seth, etc.], were so obscured by doubt and sin, that God, in His great love and mercy, had an EARTHLY SANCTUARY built after the divine pattern [in heaven], and PRIESTS were [divinely] appointed [not people-elected], who served unto the EXAMPLE AND SHADOW of heavenly things.’ (Heb. 8:5). This was done that the man’s FAITH might lay hold of the fact that IN HEAVEN there is a SANCTUARY whose SERVICES are for the REDEMPTION of [fallen, sinful] mankind.

“The prophet Jeremiah grasped this great truth, and exclaimed, ‘A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.’ (Jer. 17:12). David knew of God’s dwelling place in heaven [the ‘Father’s house,’ John 13:1-3, and when writing for the generations to come, he said, ‘He (God) had looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth.’ (Ps. 102:19). 

The faithful ones have always understood that when they sought God with ALL THE HEART, their PRAYER came up to His holy dwelling-place, even unto heaven.’ (2 Chron. 30: 27).”
S. Haskell, The Cross and Its Shadow, pp. 21, 22, Facsimile Reproduction, Printed by Review & Herald Publishing Asso., 1914. (All emphasis and bracketed words mine)

Review 1 Cor. 10:13 again with these added light that should strengthen, resolve, as it increases intelligent faith in God and the ways of escape He has made that all may successfully bear and endure, not yield to any and all of Satan’s deceptions and temptations!

Until next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
April 3, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 5

THE FIRST AND SECOND ‘WAYS OF ESCAPE’ SUMMARY

The first “way of escape” God provided for our first parents and all their children, mankind itself, was the divine “enmity” He immediately “put” between Satan disguised as a serpent, the first of all spiritualistic mediums thereafter, between the woman Eve, the mother of mankind and their respective “seed.”

This enmity had no existence prior and neither were Adam and Eve originally designed and made from the dust of the ground (never from “spirit”) physically or especially spiritually, programmed or wired so to speak with this one-off function and power, or even a special gift” as “a way of escape.”

The word itself “escape,” meaning “to break free or flee from,” “unshackle,” gives the transformed yet finite and mortal (no longer carnal) SPIRITUAL MIND of the true follower of Christ and diligent student of the Word some idea of this great “mystery of iniquity” in stark contrast to the “great mystery of godliness” as was and is manifest in the incarnated Creator Christ Jesus.

Hence the absolute indispensability of a genuine and full conversion of the sinner previously possessing a “carnal mind,” being “transformed by the renewing of that mind” into “the mind of Christ” (Rom. 12:2, 1; Phil. 2:5-2). Only such a mind can “discern spiritual things,” and “set their affections on things above” that are eternal, not temporal in value. (Col. 3:2; 2 Cor. 4:18). Paul reminds all: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be.” (Rom. 8: 6-8).

The second “way of escape” God provided for man after the fall in Eden was intentionally both visceral and instructional, divinely-designed by its shock value to emphasize the exceeding sinfulness of sin and thereby cherish hatred towards it—-the killing and shedding of its blood of the very first yearling male lamb as a burnt offering on the first stone altar, set up just outside the gates of the garden of Eden.

If revealed to the fallen father and mother of mankind that indeed “sin is the transgression of the law” and that its “wages is death.” That the only hope the transgressor has is not “to do away with the law” but for someone pure and innocent of any sin to volunteer to take the place of the guilty and condemned one as his substitute and surety.

This is the only living-sacrifice, ransom and redemption price demanded by God’s immutable law of righteousness that had been transgressed: the life of the transgressor. Nothing else or less could suffice or could take its place as the only acceptable atoning sacrifice. It was only then that indeed “the law was to be magnified and made honorable” by the Law giver himself. (Isa. 32:21).

It was this first of all typical animal sacrifices, especially and specifically the lamb, in contrast to the other specified clean animals such as goats, bullocks, and doves. All were types or “shadows” of the great Antitypical Lamb of God who would offer Himself four thousand years later at Calvary’s Cross!

At this pivotal point in the plan of redemption type would meet antitype, shadow its substance when all the system of sacrifices and the system of the priesthood, instituted by Christ himself under the ceremonial law governing them, would be “nailed to the cross” with Christ.

The GOSPEL IN SYMBOLS—-with the law of Ten Commandments originally written with God’s finger on two tables of stone secreted within the ark of the covenant/testament/testimony that stood alone in the most holy apartment of the earthly tabernacle/ sanctuary on earth, that was always set in the midst of the encampment of Israel and preceded them in all their travels—-as taught in the Old Testament of the Mosaic-Levitical dispensation to and through ancient Israel as a nation—-would then transition to the GOSPEL IN CHRIST through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament Church of the Christian Era till Christ returns in His second advent.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
March 27, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 4

THE SECOND ‘WAY OF ESCAPE” AFTER THE FALL

The first way of escape envisioned by the omniscient Mind of the omnipotent Godhead (“let US make man in OUR image and in OUR likeness”) in and through Christ the Creator, for the only creature created or “made in the image and likeness of God—-should he fail the first test of free moral agency by disobedience to the word of law of his Maker—was not to ignore, set aside, amend, negate, “make of none effect, or worse, do away with that law, but to put divine ENMITY between him and Satan the serpent, the tempter, “the father of lies and murderer from the beginning, the author of sin, the transgression of God’s law.

This most fundamental of all Bible truths we have already established. Though created sinlessly perfect, the creature called man, was divinely endowed, intrinsically “wired” if you will, with a will, the power of choice, verily the governing power in man to choose intelligently, freely, willingly, and voluntarily to adore and worship his Creator by and through loving obedience to His word,

His law which is an expression of His will and thought, standard of His character-image, and the rule of His everlasting in heaven and the universe. This was and is the true foundation of the first, fullest, and most comprehensive meaning of “relationship.” There was none before it, and everything after it—the relationship of the only creature created in the image and likeness of the Creator of heaven and earth. Every other form of relationships are but branches of this main trunk as it were, downstream end products, or worse but yet prophesied as part of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, abominable corruptions and perversions.

In these lasts days of earth’s history of mankind’s second and last probation, it is one of Satan’s
most cunning counterfeits and truth-destroying means of deception—relationships with a cornucopia of its variables with everyone and everything else but with the first of all that could possibly be in the beginning: between creature and his Creator.

The second “way of escape” is described as follows. We quote again from The Cross and Its Shadow by Stephen Haskell, pp. 20, 21, for additional emphasis (all emphasis and bracketed words mine):

 “Before man was placed on trial [man’s first probationary testing time] the LOVE of the Father and that the Son for him was SO GREAT that CHRIST [the Creator] PLEDGED HIS OWN LIFE AS A RANSOM if man should be overcome by the temptations of Satan. Christ was ‘the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world’ (Rev. 13:8) [Calvary prophesied before Creation]. 

This wonderful truth was made known to our first words spoken by the Lord to SATAN, ‘It (the Seed of the woman) shall BRUISE THY HEAD, and thou shalt bruise His heel.’ [Christ’s ‘heel’ would be bruised by Satan at Calvary, but Satan’s head will be finally eternally ‘bruised’ by Christ the King of kings and Lord of lords at the end of the millenium when he and all the fallen angels and wicked are finally destroyed by the ‘cleansing fires of the last days.

 “In order that man might realize the ENORMITY OF SIN THAT WOULD TAKE AWAY THE LIFE OF THE SINLESS SON OF GOD, he was required to bring an INNOCENT lamb, confess his sins over its head [not feet or heels], then with his OWN HANDS TAKE ITS LIFE, a type of Christ’s life. This sin-offering was burned [nothing was left it it but ashes], typifying that through the DEATH of Christ ALL SIN would be FINALLY DESTROYED by the FIRES at the last day. [Malachi 4: 1-3). The Cross and Its Shadow.

Note this: It was not the cruel “nails of Rome” driven through Christ’s sinlessly undefiled hands and feet into the wooden tree instigated through the hatred and false accusation of His chosen people that killed Jesus: it was the SINS of mankind, for “the wages of sin is death,” and Christ “was made sin for us, who knew no sin.”

Death by crucifixion was the “manner” by which He would be “condemned to die, not by beheading, hanging, strangulation, public burning, quartering, firing squad, or by any other form or method of public execution for enhanced dramatic effect for whatever reason.

Crucifixion was the means by which “all men would be drawn to Him,” that is, attention would be drawn towards Him like no other more intellectual, historical, or even miraculous means. That He, “the holy One of Israel,” the spotless Son of God, would be literally “lifted up,” suspended between heaven and earth,” crucified between two legitimately-determined-and condemned criminals was “truth greater than fiction,” more virally compelling the most finely-spun conspiracy.

It is from this platform that the true meaning of the Cross of Christ has and should be taught in the Third Angel’s Message, earth’s final, merciful warnings!

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
March 20, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No. 3

THE VERY FIRST ‘WAY OF ESCAPE’

This brings us right back to a subject we just covered as a series yet now with added insight and enlightenment, as can only be expected from God’s inexhaustible mine of truth! Quoting from Haskell’s The Cross and its Shadow, pp. 19-21 (emphasis mine):

“To every voyager on the storm-tossed sea of life, the Lord has given a COMPASS which, if rightly used, will safely guide him into the eternal haven of rest [the ‘place’ Christ went ‘prepare’]. It was given to our first parents at the GATE of Eden. The compass CONSISTS of the following words, which were spoken by the Lord to Satan: “I will put ENMITY between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.’ [Gen. 3:15]. 

 “In EVERY HEART God has planted [even as He ‘planted’ the garden of Eden for Adam and Eve] an enmity to sin [the transgression of the law’], which, IF HEEDED, will lead to righteousness and eternal life. Any man, whatever his station or rank in life, who will ABSOLUTELY FOLLOW the divine compass placed in his heart, will 1) accept Christ as his Savior [from sin and sinning] and 2) be led into the sunlight of God’s love and approval (John 1:9). 

“As the result of our first parents’ eating of the forbidden fruit, over all the earth hung the gloom of the divine decree [the ‘curse of sin’], ‘In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die’ (Gen. 2:17, margin). The marks of death and decay were soon seen in the falling leaves and withered flowers. There was NO ESCAPING the decree, ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Rom. 6:23). 

“But a ray of light penetrated the darkness when God spoke the following words, ‘It (the Seed of the woman) shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel’(Gen. 3:15). These words revealed the fact that for those who would CHERISH THE ENMITY AGAINST SIN which God had placed in the heart, there was a WAY OF ESCAPE FROM DEATH. They would live, and Satan would die; but BEFORE his death he would ‘bruise the heel’ of the Seed of the woman. This was necessary in order that the DEATH OF SATAN might be made sure, and that MANKIND MIGHT ESCAPE ETERNAL DEATH.

“In order that man might realize the ENORMITY of sin, which would TAKE THE LIFE of the sinlesss Son of God, he was required to bring an INNOCENT LAMB, confess his sins over its head, then with HIS OWN HANDS take its life, A TYPE of Christ’s LIFE. 

 “This SIN-OFFERING was BURNED, typifying that through the DEATH of Christ all sin would FINALLY be destroyed at the FIRES OF THE LAST DAY (Mal. 4: 1-3).” End quote.

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
March 13, 2024

The Law of God and the Cross of Christ Series – No 2

THE WAYS OF ESCAPE PROVIDED FROM THE FALL
    “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man [beginning with the first Adam to Christ, ‘the second Adam’] but God is faithful, who will not suffer [permit] you to be tempted above that which are able; but will, with the temptation, also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it [not yield, cave into, ensnared].” 1 Cor. 10: 13, KJV (all words in brackets mine).

    In divine love and wisdom, omniscient God Creator provided “ways to escape” sin, the transgression of His law and its “wages” which is eternal death, while preserving the everlasting nature and immutability of His law which is the transcript of His character, the foundation of His eternal throne, the rule of His kingdom.  The “Way of ways” of course is Jesus Christ the Creator, “the Word from the beginning” who was “made flesh and dwelt among us” in the “great mystery godliness” manifested to men and angels in His incarnation (John 1:1-3, 14; 3:16; 1 Tim. 3:16). Indeed, “He is THE WAY, the truth, and the life.”

     Thus, it is only in and through Christ that all the other “ways of escape” for the sinner are found, namely: the remedial plan of salvation/redemption in type and antitype: the former as 1) the gospel in symbols in  force during the Old Covenant, Mosaic, Jewish dispensation and its ceremonial systems of the Old Testament period. All surrounded and centered upon the earthly sanctuary and its services
2) the antitypical Christian dispensation of the New Testament period. All center now upon the heavenly sanctuary made up of the holy and most holy places under the New Covenant, where Christ as merciful High Priest has been interceding since His ascension and is currently Judging His professed people on earth by the records of the books of heaven.

     Nevertheless, whether during the Mosaic Old Testament dispensation beginning with the fall in Eden or the present   Christian Era, the “way of escape” of the Gospel plan, being “everlasting,” is the same, stated as follows:
     “The gospel is a system of practical truths destined to work great changes in the human character. If it does not work the transformation in life, in habits, and practice, IT IS NO TRUTH to those who claim to believe it. Man must be sanctified through the truth. Said Jesus, ‘Thy word is truth’ (John 17:17). Unless the truth of God shall lift up man out of his depravity, his intemperate and profligate habits, and make him REFLECT THE IMAGE OF GOD, he is lost!” -E.G. White, Letter 14, Mar 13. 1885.

    “The central power of the earth is a demon [Satan himself]. His throne is in the MIDST of the world, where should have been seen the throne of God. He [Satan] has been patronized by the church, for the church has been conformed to the world, and is living IN TRANSGRESSION OF THE HOLY LAW OF GOD.

     “Christ gave Himself to RANSOM man from the POWER of the destroyer. By becoming the sin-Bearer HE BROKE the power of Satan. He says, ‘I will become the Center of the redeemed world. ‘All holy agencies,’ saith God, ‘will I set in operation to oppose the armies of the INVISIBLE foe, to destroy his power. The eternal agency of the Holy Spirit shall RESCUE man from the EFFECTS of sin, and RESTORE in him the image of God.’ . . . The Lord will not let His human treasure with Christ, its Head, go into the enemy’s ranks without EVERY EFFORT made in their behalf. [But] THEIR ONLY HOPE IS TO DO DO THE COMMANDMENTS. This is THE GOSPEL which has been sounding down along the lines TO OUR TIME.” Ibid, Letter 78, Jan. 20, 1900.

Next MWM we will consider the very first “way of escape” given to Adam and Eve, God willing. Bless all, NMF,

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
March 6, 2024

THE LAW OF GOD AND THE CROSS OF CHRIST SERIES

It was sin, the transgression of God’s immutable law, that necessitated the Cross of Christ the incarnated Creator and Lawgiver, whereby He would “magnify the law and make it honorable” (Isa. 8:20).

We launch this series with an excerpt from the Introduction of “The Cross and Its Shadow” by Stephen Haskell, published 1914 (emphasis mine):

“In the government of God, law is the basis upon which everything is made to rest. Law is the foundation of God’s throne, the stability of His government and character, and the expression of His love and wisdom. 

 “Disobedience of this law caused the fall of LUCIFER [into Satan, ‘the enemy of God and man’] and his host [one third of the angels in heaven]. Disobedience to God’s commands by ADAM and EVE opened the floodgates of woe upon the world, and plunged the whole human family into impenetrable [spiritual] darkness. 

“But divine love has conceived a plan whereby man might be REDEEMED. This plan was revealed in [the first prophecy and] promise, ‘I will put ENMITY between thee [the serpent as the first disguise and medium of Satan] and the woman [Eve, then Mary, as a symbol of the true woman-church of the ages against which “the dragon makes war with,” and between thy seed [the children of disobedience] and her seed [Christ first, then the faithful of the seven churches during the Christian Era, then the end-time  “remnant of her Seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus,’ Rev. 12: 17; cf. 19:10]; It [the ‘Seed’ Christ Jesus] shall bruise thy [Satan’s] head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” Gen. 3:15, KJV. 

“Since the divine law is as sacred as Himself, only one equal with God could make atonement [or ‘propitiation’] for its transgression. Hence, the seed of the woman could refer to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. In this promise to our first parents a GLEAM OF HOPE PENETRATED THE GLOOM that enveloped the minds of the [now] sinful pair, and when A SYSTEM OF SACRIFICE was made known to them that DEMANDED THE LIFE OF AN INNOCENT VICTIM, they could see more clearly the IMPORT of the promise [and prototypical prophecy],—-that it involved the DEATH OF GOD’S DEAR SON TO ATONE FOR THEIR SIN AND MEET THE CLAIMS OF THE BROKEN LAW. 

“Through this system of sacrifices, THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS reached back to the beginning [of the first-ever lamb offered at Eden, its skin used by God to cover the naked bodies of Adam and Eve which they tried to cover in vain with literal fig leaves, representing their own works of a bloodless sacrifice]. 

“It was the REFLECTION FROM THE CROSS that reached back to the [long-lived[ ANTEDILUVIAN AGE, and kept alive the hope of the FAITHFUL FEW in those years of weary waiting. It was faith in the CROSS [of Christ’s future sacrifice at Calvary] that sustained NOAH and his family during that terrible experience when God was punishing the world [with the Flood] for the TRANSGRESSION OF HIS HOLY LAW.

 “It was a knowledge of the CROSS and its significance that caused ABRAHAM to forsake his country, his kindred, and his father’s house, and sojourn with his sons in a land of strangers. It is written of him, ‘He believed in the Lord [and His promised sacrifice prefigured in the typical sacrificial offerings and animals, lambs in particular] and He accounted it to him for righteousness.’ 

“In prophetic vision, MOSES was permitted to see the CROSS OF CHRIST, and understand more fully the significance of the BRAZEN SERPENT he lifted up in the wilderness for the healing of the people. It was this view that took away the STING of punishment of his own sin [of striking the rock twice in anger over Israel’s incessant murmuring and complaining,  instead of once as God instructed him], and reconciled him to the decree that, ‘he must die in the mount, and be gathered [buried] with his people.’ 

“The simple system of sacrifices instituted by the Lord in the beginning to SYMBOLIZE, or PREFIGURE, CHRIST, was almost totally LOST SIGHT OF during the BONDAGE of the children of Israel in Egypt. Upon their return to Canaan [after the 40-year wilderness wandering] Moses, by divine direction, gave them a MORE ELABORATE SYSTEM, designated in the Scriptures as the ‘SANCTUARY AND ITS SERVICES.’ This earthly  sanctuary, with EVERY MINUTIA of its construction, equipment, and service, was to be built and operated in harmony with THE PATTERN OF THE HEAVENLY [Sanctuary] shown to him in Mount Sinai. 

Every form, ceremony, and detail of this service had a significance, and was designed to give the WORSHIPPER a more complete understanding of the GREAT REMEDIAL SYSTEM [of the true and whole gospel of Jesus Christ!].” (end of excerpt)

To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.

MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
June 8, 2022

CHRIST—THE LAW IN LIVING FLESH—DEMONSTRATED ITS AUTHORITY OVER SATAN AND DEMONS (“in the mouth of two or three witnesses truth is established.”)

The awesome and reassuring truth stated in the above title that God in Christ exercises ultimate authority and power over Satan and his evil angel-demons, is witnessed to by these three “witnesses”:

Example No. 1.
The dramatic experience of the ancient patriarch who was “the richest man in the East” of his generation yet was “a perfect and upright man who escheweth evil.” Read the book of Job, written by Moses.

When God permitted Satan to afflict Job to prove his accusation that he was only faithful because of God’s blessing and protection, He defined the limits of how far Satan could employ all his most diabolical schemes and cruelty against the unsuspecting target. “Do all you want with him but kill him, God said. “Thus far and no further.” Satan immediately unleashed his scorched-earth attack upon all of Job’ s vast properties, herds, servants, then killing all his ten children of three daughters and ten sons, sparing only his wife.

Then Satan turned to his ultimate target: Job himself. Obeying God’s specified limitation of not taking away his life, Satan proceeded to torture Job, without touching him, by inflicting him with terrible boils from the crown of his head down to the soles of his feet. (Satan is the mastermind behind all manner of diseases and sicknesses that have vexed mankind since the fall). All that the disconsolate sufferer could manage to do was to “sit on ashes” and use pieces of broken pottery to scrape away the pus oozing out of the boils he could reach.

As if the imponderable loss of all his properties and ten children were not enough to break his indomitable will and patience of a saint, his wife, of all people, instead of of being his designated “helpmate and better half,” told him, adding insult to injury, “curse God and die.”

This is when and where the awe-inspiring, succinct, and concise declaration of pure faith and trust were spoken that have echoed down the stream of the ages to the very close of fine by all who have and will glorify God, pleasing Him by “doing His will in magnifying His law and making it honorable.”

Here they are as spoken by Job under extreme duress [emphasis mine[: “I have esteemed His WORDS more than my necessary food,” and “Though He slay me yet will I serve Him.” Unconditional and uncompromising fidelity, loyalty, trust, confidence and obedience to God’s word and His law! God regarded Job after by returning all that he had lost, tenfold!

Among all the astonishing takeaways from this Biblical record is that Satan, the adversary of God and man, the prince of the devils, of this world, of the power of the air, OBEYS God and His spoken command!

We will consider the next two examples in the following MWMs, God willing. Bless all, NMF