 God and Satan from the book of Job (1 of 3) As for the existence of Satan, Jesus himself said that he had fasted for 40 days and then was tempted by Satan. Since Matthew, who wrote the record did not witness this fact, it is thought that he later heard from Jesus. They must have heard about the story of Job. Satan appears in the book of Job and other books in the Bible. The book of Job tells about the state of heaven. Job 1:6-15 (NKJV) 6 Now there was a day when sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 And the Lord said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Satan answered the Lord and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it." 8 Then the Lord said to Satan, "Have you [c]considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" 9 So Satan answered the Lord and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" 12 And Lord said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power. Do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. In response to God's question, "From where do you come?" Satan answered, "I went around the ground and walked around there." God's praise for Job allowed Satan an opportunity to challenge. Such human-like communication means that even though the word Almighty is used many times in the book of Job, God represented here is an entirely different entity from Almighty. The author expressed God and Satan itself. However, even though Job's record is written as an event in heaven, the God represented here is the same as a king or dictator with dictatorial power on earth, and Satan is the same, one of his followers. The relationship in heaven is expressed in the same way as the human world. Satan argued against God: "Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not made a hedge around him, his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" God received Satan's challenge on the condition that Satan does not reach out to Job himself, Satan killed all of his family's seven sons and all three daughters, except Job's wife, and took away all the assets. However, Job did not curse God even in the face of such calamities. God won in the first round. Even in the heavenly world, human beings can understand this as an exciting story because it is not a story in heaven but an expression of the civilized world. Although the power and position of God and Satan are very different, the scene indicates that they are the same living beings. In other words, it is the same as the human world. If the state of heaven is something that humans have never seen, can it be able to express that world? If you look at it if you don't know what it is, can it be expressed in words? It seems like the first time an invisible person looks at things. I wrote about the time when a person who couldn't see at all becomes visible. In Series 6, "What is Beauty" –3. In other words, even if he first sees it, he does not know what he is looking at. Without the accumulation of knowledge, experience, etc., it is impossible to identify things, etc. with the five senses. For example, the age in the first century is a time when people can't fly. How would people react if a modern F-35 fighter passed the speed of sound and passed in front of the people? What? What did people see then? People had eyes, so they could see it. But it is something they have never seen. They could only see for a moment. When they heard an explosive noise that they had never heard before, they were about to be paralyzed. For a while, people were stunned without knowing what happened. When you saw something you've never seen, even if you saw it, you cannot understand the subject, you cannot be sure, you wonder if it was a dream or an illusion, and you cannot be sure to tell. When it is difficult to understand what you saw, it is difficult to express what you saw or what it is. As many people have seen it and may say, "That was God." Because it was a somehow dark color and passed with the explosion sound, they may say, "It was a devil." This is how the humans have responded to what they do not know or cannot understand What does a person recognize when he can go to heaven? Humans perceive by the five senses. Will there be a sense of humanity in heaven? As there will be no meaning if there are the senses only, will there be brains as well? Then the human body is also necessary. In this way, heaven needs the same things on earth. Even if you can go to heaven, isn't the result the same as on earth? What is the difference? Something that seems strange is not because heaven itself exists, but because of human imagination. People do not precisely know what heaven is. By imagination, they think. Then it becomes a depiction like the human world. This is because humans cannot think beyond the limit of the civilized world or social ability. Is Satan's claim correct? Satan claimed: Have you not made a hedge around him, his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" Even though people thank God for prosperity, some people blame God for their losing success through disasters and misfortunes. Such human ideas are not consistent. It is the same as what Satan claims here. Prosperity may belong to an individual, an organization, or a country, but it is outdated to think that it is protected by God. Sometimes people feel lucky, but prosperity depends basically on the constant work of human beings. For this author and anyone of today, the God of Almighty is beyond human comprehension. The author might have raised the question to get an answer for the existence that nobody knows. (2 of 3) The second battle between God and Satan, Satan challenged God, claiming this time, if Job becomes seriously ill, then he will curse God. God received Satan's challenge on the condition that Satan would not touch Job's life. Job suddenly lost all his property with his children, and this time, he became a severe illness (bulky skin disease). Job's wife even said, "How long have you kept your loyalty? Curse God and die." But Job did not curse God. Three friends heard about Job's misery and came to him. Surprised and saddened by Job's disease, they sat side by side without talking for seven days. After that, there are the messages between Job and the three. The three said that the cause of the misfortune that arose in Job was a judgment by God, or that the family had sinned, or that Job himself did something wrong. With that, Job insisted on his innocence, said that he was correct, never sinned, and finally declared that he was correcter than God. When the battle with the three ends, a young Elihu appears in the story. As Elihu was young, he silently listened to their exchange with Job. But Elihu pointed out friends' errors, seeing that the four have no more to say. After that, God speaks to Job directly, "Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?" and Job reflects. I have uttered what I did not understand, things too beautiful for me, which I did not know. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." God blessed Job again. God blessed Job once again with seven boys and three girls, and the property was twice as much as he had before. After this, he lived a hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his grandchildren and his fourth generation. It looks like everything has settled well. If the end is beautiful, everything is okay. It seems like nothing has happened. But recall what the beginning of the story was. What was the cause of Job's misery? It began at a gathering in heaven, where God praised Job in front of Satan. "There is no one as pure as the human being Job, who loves justice, fears God, and rejects evil." Does God praise humans as in the human world? Does God purposely admire a man in front of Satan? Humans like praise. People love to be admired, which is a human tendency. Therefore, depending on when, where, who, why, and how to praise also causes problems. Because everyone wants admiration, it is easy to be the target of envy and criticism. People have been taught to praise God. But, to the Almighty God, to the Infinite God, and the Absolute, it is meaningless to be appreciated. If it is a God who wants admiration, it is the same as a human being. Because God complimented Job before Satan, Job lost all his children and property. Is such an unreasonable action to be forgiven? Isn't Job's misery a fault of God? Isn't it because God accepted Satan's challenge? Is God allowed to do anything? As to God, Job said, "God gives, God takes away. Praise God's name." But Nature is not God. It does not reflect the will of God. Both the blessings of Nature and disasters comet regardless of the will of God. The contents of Job shows it is from the human point of view, and there is an error in the understanding of God. The Almighty is not involved in the human world. When a disaster occurs, man blames God for "there is no God," but it is a selfish belief of the humans, and it is a bias. Can God not read Satan's actions? Is it not the power of God to foresee and prevent? This God lacks the ability as a god. What a foolish god!! It is unforgivable to treat human beings with disgraceful behavior. Where is God's justice? Who is the God who receives Satan's challenge? If it is Almighty God, he will not accept such a problem. If God is the Almighty, he knows the answer before his trial. No one can challenge the Almighty. There is no meaning to test. God here has been questioned twice by Satan. The reaction by God is the same as a person. Even if God won in the second round, it is only a personal point of view. Events in the heavens by the book of Job seem to be the same as the human world. It is because the writer did not know the meaning of the Almighty. God here is a person who acts as a powerful king. It is the same as a foolish human dictator. It is the same world as humans'. Although it is impressive as a work, it is an entirely different story from the truth of God Almighty, which misleads people. For thousands of years, people thought that this is the figure of Almighty God. (3 of 3) What the book of Job tells us is that God and Satan are considered the same life form, just as humans fight like enemies, even though their positions and powers are different. The reason is that enemies cannot exist before Almighty God. To be an enemy, an equal relationship is necessary. In the case of humans, people may be divided into enemies and allies. It is possible to fight because human beings are equal. If one is infinitely strong, it will not be equal and will not be an enemy. For thousands of years, many have had the faith that Almighty God is love, always right and never doing wrong. But that doesn't explain why disasters happen and so many people are killed. It doesn’t explain why people are unhappy. Almighty God does not intervene in human society. Only humans want to think so. The author writes that "It is equivalent to human beings knowing nothing before the Almighty". That is true. But the God of Job that appears here is not Almighty. Please be careful. Attention is necessary here. There is no Almighty God intervention in human history. But the existence represented by the Creator in Genesis is thought to have intervened in human society. Michelangelo drew God as a human in a fresco called “Creation of Adam”. He expressed God, the creator of the heavens and earth in Genesis, but it was drawn as a human form. The depicted God is not almighty. It can be said that he described correctly. Because Adam's creator is thought to be an intelligent life form that has the same shape like humans. It seems impossible for humans to express the Almighty God, the Infinite God, the Eternal God, and the Absolute in the form and image. Strangely, however, it is expressed in words. Is the power of words almost infinite? Partially though, human thought by words seems to have the feasibility to think of infinity. In the Bible, Satan has been regarded as the presence of a hostile power against God that emerges in connection with the creation of Adam. However, the fact shows that there was already a hostile relationship between intellectual lifeforms before Adam's creation. The devil and the demons are equally hostile to God. It is written here as if they were another entity, but originally there may have been a conflict between the same intelligent life forms. In other words, it is highly likely that God and Satan are the same life form, just as humans fight in the human world as enemies and allies. Luke 10:17, 18 say that the 70 disciples sent by Jesus were happy to return. The disciples answered to Jesus the reason for joy was that the demons were subject to them. Then Jesus said, "Satan has already fallen from heaven like lightning." If we take this as the truth, he was trying to say that the dispute between the heavenly creator and its adversaries（Devil and demons）has been settled. God of Israel, believed as the Almighty God is different from the meaning of Almighty, Eternal, or Absolute. The perception of the world at that time was so small that it was incomparable to the modern one. From the small world, the earth and the small universe surrounding it were everything. The god at that time was also a small existence that did not come out of the framework of the earth. “There can be no Satan-like power against Almighty God. Almighty God has no enemies. No enemy can exist. Enemies come out because people think in a small world within a human frame. Enemies are created by human imagination. Satan and the Devil, the enemies of God, appear in the book of Genesis, Job, and the Gospel. This is the idea of people in an era that doesn't know the existence of an infinite universe or the existence of an invisible elementary particle world. There can be no enemies before the Almighty God, the Infinite, or the Absolute. The idea of an enemy is human. Originally it may have been the idea of a celestial creator (an intellectual life form). If we assume the idea of infinite, eternal, and absolute, there is no room for human thought. This is because no enemy, Satan or demons, can exist in an equal relationship with the Absolute. " Supplementary notes: I worked to think of an example of an equivalent relationship that would help you to understand to some extent. Think of the Almighty God as a human and the enemy Satan as a small ant. Then we feel a big difference. If the difference between humans and ants is vast, you can see if they can be enemies. Humans don't think ants are enemies. Why? Because we don't think that a small being is an enemy unless it harms us. God is infinite, so we need to make humans infinitely large and compare the relationship. Then the ants become even smaller and smaller, and we cannot see them to the extent that comparison is impossible. If we compare finite existence with infinity, it will be infinitely equal to zero. It is necessary to have an even relationship to be an enemy. If you are human, you may be enemies or allies. It is possible to fight because human beings are even. If one is infinitely strong, it will not be even and will not be an enemy. God, creator of heaven and earth in the Bible, had enemies; Satan, devil, demon. Because they are enemies, to fight, they must have an even relationship. God in heaven, Angel, Satan, Devil, and demons are all considered to be even. In other words, all of these beings are equivalent life forms, regardless of their position or whether they have a hierarchical relationship. Even before the creation of human Adam, there was a conflict. In the same way that humans are enemies and allies, God, angels, Satan, Devils, and demons are enemies and allies. It means that all these are considered to be the same life form. For thousands of years, humankind has created, misunderstood, and had the wrong understanding of the image of God, the creator of heaven and earth. God came to be Almighty. However, as you can see from the above, the creator of heaven and earth is not Almighty. Like other angels, Satan, and demons, they are considered to be the same intelligent life form. Almighty, infinite, eternal God or the absolute is an entirely different entity that transcends all intelligent life forms. Even now, humans fight illness and the virus that causes the disease. Fight for peace and poverty eradication. Fight for justice for human rights. Fight selfishness. Like fighting for freedom, Keep fighting against threats for humans. But it's not because it's an enemy. Because of human weakness, we fight for the protection of human beings and the survival of humankind. It is a mistake for a human to be enemies or allies. We must give up wars. Humankind needs new ideas and ways of life. How long will we keep the mistakes? Michael Aleph September, 2019
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