Seeing The End From The Beginning***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  Life on planet earth can be so confusing as there is so much to the vast unknown of time and space and the human soul.

For the Christian the struggle is real but so is the good outcome since for us the ultimate judgment has been rendered and we possess the pardon for all we have done that represents sin.  Once we fully understand and embrace our salvation, and what salvation actually provides, our life trials don’t seem so dark and foreboding.

The Holy One speaks into my wrestles from out of darkness and sheds His light:

“I know the end from the beginning: trust yourself and my love”.

The mystery of Holiness draws me in.  The Word says that the Holy Spirit will lead me into all truth.  When He speaks I try to listen and then try to follow where His Holy thoughts lead.

The exquisite revelation of my Lord as the Sovereign Creator of the universe, the earth and all things that exist is found in His word and today He takes me to the book of Job.  We find in the beginning that Satan was given permission to test Job’s loyalty to God. What unfolds is the account of a desperate time in Job’s life and horrific trials that were brought by Satan in an effort to break the man and humiliate the Creator.

Human assessments and limited understanding are unearthed as Job and his friends try to make sense of what has transpired in the earth realm.  But then beginning in chapter 38 God entered the discussion and the word says,

“God spoke from out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?  Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer Me.”

Thus begins the personal lesson that the Sovereign God of all Creation is about to teach poor Job.

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?”

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began and caused the dawn to know its place?”

“Have you entered the springs of the sea or have you walked in search of the depths?”

“Who has put wisdom in the mind or who has given understanding to the heart?”

Chapter 39:

“Does the hawk fly by your wisdom?”

“Does the eagle mount up by your command?”

Chapter 40:

“Would you condemn Me that you may be justified?”

“Have you an arm like God or can you thunder with a voice like His?”

“Look now at the Behemoth (a dinosaur like beast) which I made along with you-He is the first of the ways of God.  Only He who made him can bring near His sword.”

Chapter 41:

“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook? Or snare his tongue with a line that you lower?”

“Lay your hand on him; remember the battle-never do it again!”

“Who then is able to stand against Me?  Who has preceded Me that I should pay him?”

“Everything under Heaven is Mine.”

Talk about facing the reality of our own smallness and God’s great Sovereignty! Evolutionists would do well to read what the Lord had to say to Job.  I wonder if the Lord would not be asking them about the “newly discovered” black holes in the universe He created or the mystery of DNA scientists have finally tracked and that God used to create man in His image?

Today and with the help of my indwelling Counselor, I move through this account of Job’s encounter with our Sovereign Creator to the issue of trusting in His love and my own understanding of myself. 

Jesus came and at His incarnation, God the Son, wrapped Himself in a flesh body and walked among His created.  His voice did not thunder out of Heaven but spoke gently to those willing to listen. 

The Holy Spirit speaks in the same gentle tone to me today. And what He has enabled me to understand is the Truth:

Before Job was put through the fire, God saw and knew the end from the beginning.   God knew what Satan would do even before he asked permission to test Job.  And God knew what Job would do before that permission was even granted in the first place.  That is, after all, what Sovereignty is all about.

God knows the end of my trial from the beginning.  God knows the value and impact of the fire and how I will handle it in the process.  God knows what I do not and just as in Joseph’s life where the  pit, the dungeon and the prison were necessary stops on his way to greatness, (2^nd in command under the Pharaoh of Egypt) God’s Divine purpose is in what I am facing in these temporal trials.

Job’s trial ended in compete victory because he was drawn into a greater understanding of God Himself.  Today I can glean from what Job experienced.  God’s love for Job and confidence in his loyalty framed the trial.  And I am compelled to believe that God knew how it would end. Before He gave Satan permission to test His child, God knew what his child would do.

This insight gives me confidence not only in God’s love for me but in my ultimate victory in the test/trials that are permitted to touch my life.  My Heavenly Father/Creator knows my frame and has calibrated the weight I can bear.  God, the Sovereign One knows the end from the beginning of your story and mine. 

May the Lord be glorified as we trust in His love and find our self-confidence and courage for His victory growing in the process.

The Spirit is calling Can you hear Him?