Although God Is Hidden from Man, God’s Deeds Among All Things Are Sufficient for Man to Know Him

    Although Job did not see God’s face or hear God’s word and much less personally experience God’s work, his fear of God and his testimony in the trials are obvious to all, which are treasured and accepted and commended by God and envied and admired and even more praised by people. His life was ordinary and not great, and he, like any common man, lived a common life of beginning to work at sunrise and retiring at sunset. His difference was that in these decades of his common life, he acquired the seeing of God’s way that common people did not acquire, and experienced and tasted God’s power and sovereignty that common people did not experience. He was not more intelligent than any common man and did not have a super-strong life and much less have any

“special skills” invisible to man. But he had the qualities of humanity that most of the common people did not have, such as, honesty, kindness, uprightness, loving fairness and justice, and loving positive things. He knew clearly what to love and what to hate, had the sense of justice, was strong and firm, and was subtle in mind. Thus, in his common days, he saw all the unusual things God did, saw God’s greatness, holiness, and righteousness, saw God’s care and grace and keeping for man, and saw God’s supreme honorableness and authority. One reason why Job could gain the things common people could not gain was that he had a pure heart and his heart belonged to God and was drawn by the Creator. The other reason lies in his pursuit. He pursued to be a perfect man, a complete man, a man who complied with the Heaven’s will, a man whom God loved, and a man who shunned evil. He had these things and such pursuit under the circumstance that he did not see God or hear God’s word. Although he did not see God’s face, he got to know the way of God’s ruling over all things and experienced God’s wisdom in ruling over all things; although he did not hear God’s word, he knew that the deeds of giving man and taking away from man were of God. He passed the days in the same way as common people did, but the too common days did not affect him in knowing God’s ruling over all things or affect him in walking the way of “fearing God and shunning evil.” In his eyes, God’s deeds filled the laws by which all things run, and God’s sovereignty could be found everywhere in man’s life. He did not see God’s face, yet he could experience that God’s deedswere everywhere. In his ordinary days and in every corner of his life, he could see and experience God’s extraordinary and wonderful deeds and see God’s wonderful arrangements. God’s “hiddenness” and “silence” did not hinder him from experiencing God’s deeds or affect him in knowing God’s ruling over all things. In his whole life, he was experiencing in his ordinary life the sovereignty and arrangement of God who was hidden among all things, and also he was in his ordinary days attentively listening to and trying to understand the heart’s voice and the word that God, though silent among all things, expressed through ruling over the running laws of all things. It can be seen that if one has the same humanity and pursuit as Job’s, he will acquire the same experience and knowledge as Job’s, and will also obtain the same understanding and knowledge about God’s ruling over all things as Job’s. God did not appear or speak to Job, yet Job could be perfect and upright, and fear God and shun evil. That is to say, under the condition that God does not appear or speak to man, God’s deeds among all things and God’s sovereignty over all things are sufficient to enable man to experience God’s existence and God’s power and authority, and God’s power and authority are sufficient to enable man to walk the way of “fearing God and shunning evil.” Since a common man like Job can “fear God and shun evil,” it should be that every common follower of God can make it. Although this word seems to be based on logic, it does not go against the rules of things. However, the fact was not satisfying. “Fearing God and shunning evil” seems to be the patent of Job. Once “fearing God and shunning evil” is mentioned, people think that only Job should do it, as if the way of “fearing God and shunning evil” was labeled the word “Job” and had nothing to do with other people. Why this result was produced is very plain. That is because only Job had the qualities of humanity of being honest, kind, and upright, loving fairness and justice, and loving positive things. So, only Job could walk on the way of “fearing God and shunning evil.” You may all know the implied meaning about it. That is, because no other people have the humanity of being honest, kind, and upright, loving fairness and justice, and loving positive things, they cannot fear God and shun evil and thus can never win God’s pleasure or stand in trials. That is to say, all other people except Job are still in Satan’s bondage and trap, and they are the objects of Satan’s accusation, attack, affliction, and devouring, are ones who are not freed, and are the prisoners imprisoned by Satan.

A Selected Passage from “God’s Work, God’s Disposition, and God Himself (II)”

in A Continuation of The Word Appears in the Flesh