Messages 2006
The Book of Job and the problem of evil.
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.