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December 6, 2006
Santa Cruz, California
Received by FAB.
I am here, Jesus.
I will now channel my message about the Book of Job. I am
doing this now at this particular time because you are
preoccupied with difficulties at work, and you need to
lift your focus to the heavenly things. You also need to
realize that, as always has been the case, God will come
through for you and satisfy your material needs.
As to rereading the Book of Job, your preparation is
complete. Allow me to spontaneously express what I desire.
Well, let me start by saying that I have been wanting to
discuss this book ever since the days of James Padgett,
and I am deeply grateful to you for allowing this to be
possible. Other matters were more compelling, and both Mr.
Padgett's and Dr. Samuels' death made this impossible.
Before I get to the subject at hand, I want to make clear
to my readers that I have always had a deep love and care
for my native Judaism. People easily forget my Jewishness.
Of course, I am universal in my outlook, and I do not wish
to imply that I maintain my specifically earthly Jewish
identity here in the Celestial Heavens. No, any
distinction between Jew and Gentile disappears even long
before entrance into the Celestial Heavens.
But it is also true that as a mortal, I was completely
devoted to the heritage I was born into. I revered the
sacred texts of what was then the Torah. I drank eagerly
at the fount of knowledge which was available to me. My
teachers in Egypt noticed something exceptional in the way
I grasped the things I was taught. They called this to the
attention of my father, and this confirmed his view, born
when the Magi brought gifts at my birth, that I was to be
a leader of my people.
So let me begin by saying that the actual incidents
described in the Book of Job are fictitious. You know by
now that Satan does not exist. The story of Job's grievous
losses, his friends' rebukes and his replies, God's
answer, and Job's final restoration, is what you would
call literature and not factual history. It was a literary
genre that had other examples, but this one survived.
People must understand that Oriental writers were fond of
embellishing incidents and making up things to satisfy a
certain need for drama and imagination. In a similar way,
many things written in both testaments of the Bible are
not facts, but imaginary embellishments. Great confusion
and distortions have arisen because modern sincere Bible
believers are ignorant of these Biblical attitudes. These
sincere lovers of God do not understand the mindset that
often went into the Bible writings. These accounts are
more exhortations and narrative sermons more than factual
history. And so it is with the Book of Job.
But this notwithstanding, the subject matter dealt with is
of immense significance, and we may quite justly excuse
the imaginary wanderings, since the ideas expressed are
vital to every mortal.
Every true believer in God has been perplexed why good
people suffer, and why evil people have prospered. The
fact that this has not always been the case is irrelevant,
for if a person is righteous and has a good heart, how
could a loving God seemingly abandon him or her? The
subject matter of the Book of Job attacks this problem
directly, and it is one of the glories of the Bible that
such an honest description could be.
As you read again God's reply to Job, you felt once again that
it didn't sound loving - it sounded to you almost like shouting
or bullying. Well, you must understand that the conception of God
was different at the time this book was written, from what it is
now. I revealed a God of pure Love, who has no anger, only Love
and Mercy. This aspect of God could not come forward because this
was not how God was seen at the time.
But regardless of this more primitive conception of God,
the issues raised are profoundly relevant, and speak
highly of the Bible's honesty in dealing with life.
It is plainly evident to every person observing reality
that it does often seem that God "removes His Hand" from
good people. You read about innocent children dying in
accidents, of good people becoming permanently
handicapped, and on and on.
Obviously, I cannot channel now a simple and easy answer,
because such is not forthcoming. It is true that soul
development in Divine Love broadens one's understanding of
the great mystery of Evil, but there is no way I can
explain it in an earthplane way.
Of course, many would be inclined at this point to point a
finger at believers in God, saying, "of course you can't
find the answer to why good people suffer, because there
is no answer, and there is no God." It is the atheists'
victorious trump card, which believers are helpless to
refute.
This Biblical book attacks the problem courageously, even ruthlessly. It is timeless in its relevance. Job's
feelings and responses, and those of his friends, correspond to a univeral human reaction, and everyone can
recognize some of their own feelings and thoughts as they read this book.
It was my tragic and untimely death that caused my
bewildered followers to believe that there must have been
some plan working. It was this seed that brought forth the
eventual distortion that my death was somehow connected to
salvation. Otherwise, it made no sense.
And so likewise, believers down through the centuries have
wrestled with the issues raised in this important book. It
is presented in dialogue form, in the true tradition of
the Talmud, whereby one point of view is articulated, and
directly afterward, an opposite position is expressed.
This type of disputation is typically Jewish.
I know you were expecting me to provide original insights,
but my purpose in writing tonight is merely to affirm. One
day you, and all those who follow the divine pathway, will
clearly understand the seemingly inscrutable nature of
Evil. I certainly do. But it takes growth in Divine Love
and experience to see it. I will say, though, that just as
your work difficulties seem urgent and are really
temporary and unimportant, so the problem of Evil, which
looms so large for mortals, is only a temporary cloud. And
just as all your work problems have always been resolved,
so will the problem of Evil be resolved for those who
sincerely love God and sincerely desire to know.
This has been a rather long message. You perceive that its
gist has been the problem of Evil, the central theme of
the Book of Job. And so you are correct. As you progress
in the Divine Love, the problem of Evil will increasingly
occupy its true position in life, and it will then be seen
that Job notwithstanding, a loving God continues to care
for His creatures.
To make this personal to your work concerns, consider
these work difficulties as mere temporary clouds which
will inevitably pass, and just as God restored everything
to Job at the end because he was faithful, so He will
provide for your material needs, since you are faithful
too.
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