DANIEL CHAPTER ONE

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 2:

- Job doesn’t know what is on!
- He only knows he has just lost everything he had!
- And his body is in pain!
- And now it’s his wife!
- The devil strikes him with any weapon available!
- But every time he shows that the devil is a liar!
- And every time he shows that God is right!
- Whatever happens, Job knows where he goes, good weather or bad one, it doesn’t matter!
- He knows whom he belongs to!
- He didn’t sin with his lips!
- That’s what the Bible says!
- Again it is written!
- People can say the contrary!
- But it is against the Bible and against Yah.weh!
- It shows the importance of meditating deeply again and again!
- Of course, time is necessary for maturity!
- But in the end, it is necessary to evolve for the better!
- Not for the worse!
- We need to learn from what we read, especially about the faithful servants of Yah.weh!
- And according to what is written in the whole Bible!
- They are men like us!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 2:

- The devil has kept his most powerful weapon for the end!
- He uses three men Job knows!
- And at first, they are willing to help him!
- They weep loudly!
- They rip their garments apart!
- They throw dust into the air and onto their heads!
- And they sit with him for seven days and seven nights without saying anything!
- But they are only appearances!
- When they start to speak, they show their real motivations!
- And after that they are going to fight against him constantly!
- He won’t have any time to rest!
- What a big difference from the beginning!
- It shows that we must always be careful with people!
- We must prove our real motivations again and again !
- It must be continuously renewed!
- It is the same with our personal relationship to Yah.weh if we have one!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 2:

https://rsc.byu.edu/deity-death/death-dying-middle-east

Death and Dying in the Middle East
Sami A. Hanna
Death and dying are universal realities for all creations in every country and cultural area. What makes death and dying so interesting is that its treatment varies from one country to another and from one culture to another. For example, if we take Europe as a whole, its people meet death and behave differently from the people of the Middle East.
We know something about the people of the Middle East, but we are not well acquainted with certain important cultural patterns of that area. When we go as Americans or Europeans, we focus our attention on movements, tourist attractions, etc., but we seldom care to see or investigate how the Middle Eastern people respond to death and dying.
Since this area is predominantly Muslim, our attention is focused on the attitudes and beliefs of the people of this faith. Most examples presented are derived from the Holy Qur’an, the Hadith, and other Islamic texts. Other basic sources are Hughes’ Dictionary of Islam, the Encyclopedia of Islam, and my own personal experiences and observations. I have relied on these latter books through this presentation, but I have not sought to cite page numbers in every instance, except when quoting from passages in the Qur’an.
First, however, I would like to share with you my impressions, as a Middle Easterner, of my first experience with an American funeral, which took place in Salt Lake City. The father of one of my very close friends died. I wanted, of course, to express my condolences to him but learned that such condolences are expressed in a mortuary. I located the mortuary and went there. I found myself in a large building with several rooms, each of which was reserved for a deceased person. A man ushered me into one of the rooms. When I entered and approached the family, I was utterly shocked. The family was standing in line, friends were also standing in line, so I stood in line. When my turn came, I expressed my sympathy to my friend. However, what was even more shocking to me was the spirit in which the family received me. “Look how nice he is. Doesn’t he look wonderful?” These and other things were said in a joyful spirit. To be honest, I expected to see the family of the deceased crying and screaming as in the Middle Eastern culture. But that was not the case. After viewing the deceased in his half-open casket, I returned home wondering how death in America, at least in this Mormon setting, could be received with such joy and happiness. When I asked my friend about this attitude, I was told that death is a transition—a bridge to a happy and everlasting life in heaven.
Such a belief caused me to ponder and to ask myself why we receive death completely differently in the Middle East than in the West? Why do we cry and scream for at least a year? Why do men wear black ties and women black garments? Why do we abstain from everything sweet, from food, from even listening to the radio? Why do the neighbors turn off their radios as a token of sympathy? Why do we remain in mourning for at least forty days?

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

So God uses evil for His own ends. He can and does use suffering for His own purposes. Though there is NO evil in Him. Would I be right in saying that, "No one can understand the full extent of His sovereign plan...no one can comprehend the good and evil that He sends?"

- First, when you break one of your legs or one of your arms or when you get a disease like cancer, you need a cure and it's often painful!
- There are so many diseases which require a lot of time to cure!
- And sometimes you must fight the disease and you die!
- Think about depression which can last and last!
- Everywhere people suffer from diseases!
- In many places, people suffer the consequences of war!
- In many places, people suffer from poverty or famine!
- And because of man's action, it's getting worse and worse!
- Think about pandemics and how human governments react!
- When it's not one thing, it's another one!
- What happens when our parents die or go to prison?
- Man is responsible for his personal choices!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

I think the Lord must have purposes that can only be understood from an eternal perspective.
Like suffering is temporary, but may have endless benefits.

- Second, in the case of Job, the devil was responsible by accusing Job and thus any human being of unfaithfulness or of being led by personal interests!
- There is a big difference between God's justice and human justice!
- In the case of human justice, you can forget it!
- You must not forget that we are not alone!
- There are angels!
- When the devil provokes God, the angels are watching and listening carefully!
- That's why God had to demonstrate that the devil was wrong and a liar!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job
God and Job / Job and God
Sometimes I think the devil is insane. He is God's devil, of that I'm sure!
The devil entered Judas, as a result, we were saved!
It doesn't take me long to get to the place where I say, "Okay God, it's too much for me, so I'll trust You instead, that You know what You're doing, and in the end, everything will be alright!"

- Third, if we take the case of Adam's unfaithfulness, God could have killed him all at once!

- That's what we call human justice!

- And he could have started everything again with a new couple!

- But in this case, the devil would have proved right!

- Man can live alone without God's leadership!

- Man's history keeps proving man is unable to guide himself and is a wolf for the other men and is a danger for himself!

- But then the angels could have said and done the same!

- But the majority of them stayed faithful!

- Humanity lost perfection because of Adam, Jesus had to die and offer his perfect life to serve as a ransom and give access to eternal life to faithful human beings!

- God's justice is different from human justice!
- For me the devil is a parasite!

- But he has his own logic!

- He likes power!

- He likes when people worship him!

- He behaves like human kings or political leaders when they have power!

- He is proud!

- He is jealous of God!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job
God and Job / Job and God

That His judgment is different is a good thing. I'm glad He's like He is.
I wouldn't want to be him.
- Yes, temporary just when you have to suffer an operation or a cure to get better!

- Here it is a question of putting an end to human suffering!

- Then no one will be able to discuss God's leadership!

- No one will be able to contaminate the earth!

- No more wolves!
- For me, the choice is clear!

- On the one hand, you have a parasite leading to destruction, on the other hand, the creator of the universe, the source of knowledge and wisdom leading to eternal life!

- But the choice is not clear for many!
- Yes, you are right, his judgment is completely different!

- We just have to look at his creation for that!

- Everywhere we find design and immensity: in the universe,when you look through a microscope, when you study the brain...

- Every time you open a door, you get more doors to open without any limits!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

That's for sure. We are so blessed to know Him. And to think that we'll spend eternity with Him. That fact that I complain just shows my frailty. And He chooses to live in us! Thanks for your teaching on Job and Daniel. They are very important books to me and you help me understand them better.
- Personally, I have never enough and I always want to know more!

- I always want to open more doors!
- My pleasure!

- I always want to study more and talk about God's word!

- There is so much to learn but time and effort are necessary!

- And it brings so much energy to go on and search more!

- And when people participate, you need to do more research and spend more time and more effort!

- But then you get even more energy!
- God is not responsible for man's or the devil's bad actions!

- But it will put an end to all of them!

- It's only a question of time!

- The problem for many is that God's time is not human time!

 

[JLG]

- Someone said Job lost all his children but not Yah.weh!

- Here's my answer!

- Job is a faithful servant of Yah.weh, an exceptional servant!
- Because of the devil, he must endure the impossibility of communicating with Job!
- He must endure the interruption of this exceptional relationship!
- He has to put up with Job's incomprehension and accusations against him, even though the devil is responsible for the situation!
- Let's also remember the episode where Yah.weh wants to test Abraham's fidelity!
- He allows him to have a son at the age of a hundred, even though Abraham thinks he's too old!
- He made him the promise, but time passes until he's a hundred!
- Once again, to test Abraham's fidelity!
- We can understand why!
- He promised him that he would be the father of a great nation that would possess the land of Canaan!
- He promised him that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through his posterity!
- Yah.weh constantly tests Abraham's faithfulness, culminating when he asks him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice!
- He gives him the ultimate test: offering his son as a sacrifice!
- Abraham knows perfectly well Yah.weh's promise to him!
- He knows that Yah.weh will be able to resurrect Isaac!
- But offering his son as a sacrifice is synonymous with extreme suffering!
- To bring about the death of one's own son is unbearable!
- Yah.weh wants to test Abraham's faithfulness, but more than that, it prefigures Jesus' sacrifice!
- Yah.weh causing the death of his own son to save mankind, a perfect life in exchange for a perfect life!
- Not only must Yah.weh endure this, but he must also endure seeing the suffering his own son must endure!
- And this is announced long before it happens!
- Obviously, the vast majority cannot understand this because of human tradition!
- The problem is that if we can't understand that, we can't understand anything!
- The whole Bible is based on the sacrifice of Jesus, everything that that implies, including Yah.weh's pain!
- Can we imagine the relationship between Yah.weh and Jesus?
- Not a chance!
- Yah.weh has lost nothing?
- Quite the contrary!
- This relationship is such that they are one, that Yah.weh trusts his son completely!
- They've been together for so long!

 

[crossnote]

Have you found Job yet, after 809 posts?

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 3:

- Job can’t communicate with God anymore!
- And he is in big trouble!
- He has lost everything!
- So the first reflex is to die and rest!
- He doesn’t want to think anymore!
- His mind is dark!
- He has no hope!
- He feels lost without God’s presence!
- But for that, you need to have a relationship with Yah.weh!
- If you don’t have one, you don’t care!
- That’s the same with all the faithful servants of Yah.weh!
- Without a deep relationship with Yah.weh, what is the difference between someone who believes in God and someone who doesn’t believe?
- There are good people who don’t believe in God!

 

[JLG]

Have you found Job yet, after 809 posts?

- What do you think?

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 4:

- Anguish!
- Calamity!
- The terrors from God!
- He wants God to kill him!
- It would bring him comfort!
- For he has not denied the sayings of the Holy One!
- His brothers have left him!
- He says the three individuals would sell their own friends!
- He hasn’t done anything wrong!
- Everybody is against him!
- And there is no God!
- It’s unbearable for him!
- Job wants to die!
- He has enough!
- A faithful servant of Yah.weh wants to die in spite of his faith!
- But he can’t communicate with Yah.weh anymore!
- Once again this situation tells about our relationship to Yah.weh!
- It tells about our personal relationship to Yah.weh!
- If we don’t have it, it doesn’t tell us anything!
- Do we regularly ask ourselves about our personal relationship to Yah.weh?
- Do we regularly ask ourselves about what we do to improve it?

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 7:

- Man’s life is nothing!
- Job keeps being ill!
- He has no more life!
- No hope!
- His life is windy!
- No more happiness!
- He can only complain!
- About the anguish of his spirit!
- About his bitter distress!
- He makes nightmares!
- He has no more communication with God!
- He only thinks God is looking for his errors!
- Only DARKNESS!
- No light!
- Today darkness is spreading everywhere!
- We can look at it but if we only think about it, it will completely invade our minds!
- Hope is necessary!
- The possibility to think about Yah.weh changing everything and leading his faithful servants to the new promised land!
- We must look at it and concentrate on it!
- When we keep it in mind all the time, it doesn’t matter what we do, we can find energy!
- But we need to fuel this hope by reading and studying and speaking about the Bible and Yah.weh!
- It must keep being alive!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 9:

- Job says that God is everything!
- MIGHT!
- WISDOM!
- He can do whatever he wants with his creation!
- Man is nothing compared to him!
- When Job speaks to God, HE MUST CHOOSE CAREFULLY HIS WORDS TO ARGUE WITH HIM!
- “If I call out to him, will he answer me?”
- He thinks God is striking him!
- But Job keeps talking about his INTEGRITY!
- Yes, he tries to speak to God but there is no answer!
- AND JOB FEELS EMPTY!
- Yes, when Job speaks to Yah.weh, HE MUST CHOOSE CAREFULLY HIS WORDS TO ARGUE WITH HIM!
- Does it speak to you?
- Job has a deep personal relationship with Yah.weh and he knows him well!
- But he always shows him respect!
- Now think about the relationship between parents and children!
- And in particular a father and his children!
- They can have a deep personal relationship!
- But the father will always be the father of his children!
- So they must always show him respect!
- Today there is a problem with respect!
- Children often don’t respect their parents!
- And their parents don’t pay attention or don’t care!
- It will never work with Yah.weh!
- Yah.weh will never accept disrespect!
- The problem is that men often show disrespect to Yah.weh!
- Many Hebrews died for that!
- Many were saved by Moses for a time but at the end they died in the desert, they died at the destruction of Jerusalem!
- In fact, today we find disrespect everywhere!
- That’s why we get into big trouble!
- And it will keep growing!
- What about us?
- Do we show disrespect to Yah.weh?

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 10:

- He loathes his life!
- He wants to vent his complaints!
- He wants to speak out in his bitter distress!
- He thinks God is against him and he doesn’t understand why!
- He speaks about dishonor and affliction!
- Yes, he keeps calling for God!
- And he will keep doing it!
- There is no other way for him!
- When we read about the faithful servants of Yah.weh in the Bible, we can see a deep personal relationship with Yah.weh and an incredible communication!
- It should encourage us to constantly develop and improve our relationship and communication with Yah.weh!
- We should constantly question the quality of this relationship and communication!
- We should never forget that Moses was the only one who could prevent on different occasions from eradicating the Hebrews!
- But an individual can’t prevent bad people from paying the consequences of their bad attitudes and the Hebrews were destroyed!
- Same will happen to the majority of mankind!
- But it has always been so!
- Why should it change!

 

[JLG]

Looking for Job

God and Job / Job and God

Job 12:

- Yes, he is calling to God for an answer!
- Yes, God is wisdom and might!
- He can do anything!
- He can destroy anyone!
- YES, HE DOESN’T GET ANY ANSWER!
- And for him, it is unbearable!
- Because he is not used to it!
- For him, it is unnatural and unacceptable!
- UNNATURAL AND UNACCEPTABLE!
- Thinking about our personal relationship with Yah.weh!
- Calling for Yah.weh!
- Yes, we want to!
- I want to see through the darkness of this empty world!
- When I look at the relationship between the faithful servants of Yah.weh and Yah.weh, I want to investigate such a relationship!
- I have never had enough!
- I want this communication channel!
- I have never had enough to prepare for this new society!
- Because preparing means making it clearer!
- Making the way clearer!
- Staying the course!
- Sharpening your mind!
- Getting away from this world of uncertainty!

 

[JLG]

1)
- Let's think!
- Adam had a personal relationship with Yah.weh!
- We can talk by word of mouth!
- Why did he lose this special relationship?
- Why after having disobeyed Yah.weh, did he seek to hide from him?

 

[JLG]

2)
Because God would be very angry and not forgive Adam, if there was a relationship, they would also open up situations in which he was disobedient, so God should not have ended the relationship just because of what Adam did. I don't know the truth and how bad what Adam did was.
But I guess Adam knew it was something serious, he did it, and maybe it wasn't the right thing to do, I guess the relationship ended because Adam was no longer guided by God.

 

[JLG]

3)
- Excellent!
- This is the basis of the Bible!
- To study the Bible effectively, that is to say, to understand it, we must put ourselves in the context and forget our personal situation as modern humans!