Will Job in His Flesh See God?
Hi Mike:
Just a quick question that has been on my mind. How do we reconcile these scriptures:
Job 19:26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Eze 37:5 Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live:
Eze 37:6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.… and then:
1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Thanks,
L____
Hi L____,
Thank you for your question. As is always the case, the Truth of God’s Word lies within “the sum of His Words”.
Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever.
The answer, hard as it is to believe for the natural man, is that flesh, in scripture is actually at times a type of the spirit. That is clearly the case in Job and in Eze 36 and 37, where the carnal mind is portrayed as a “heart of stone” and the mind of the spirit, by comparison, is likened to a fleshy heart.
Look at these verses in Eze 36 which make this very clear.
Eze 36:23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I [ am] the LORD, saith the Lord GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.
Eze 36:24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.
Eze 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
Eze 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
Eze 36:27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
This is done in other places within the scriptures, where the same symbol is used as a type of both the good and the evil. In Gen 50, the Pharaoh is used of the holy spirit as a type of the Father who has given His kingdom to Joseph as a type of Christ.
Gen 50:5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.
Gen 50:6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
Gen 50:7 And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,
But look at how Pharaoh is used of the holy spirit in the very next chapter of scripture:
Exo 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.
Exo 1:9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
Exo 1:10 come, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they also join themselves unto our enemies, and fight against us, and get them up out of the land.
Exo 1:11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh store- cities, Pithom and Raamses.
In going from one chapter to the next, the symbolism of Pharaoh has changed from that of the heavenly Father to that of the man of sin who oppresses and afflicts the people of God.
So it is in Ezekiel 36, in one verse the flesh is carnal and is symbolized by “a heart of stone” and in the very next verse, “a heart of flesh” is used of the holy spirit to symbolize “putting my spirit within you”.
In Job’s case, Job at first did not sin by accusing God falsely, but in chapter 27 he does just that by usurping God’s righteousness as his own, and accusing God of taking away his judgment, even as God was in the process, in type and shadow, of judging Job.
Job 27:2 [ As] God liveth, [ who] hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, [ who] hath vexed my soul;
Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach [ me] so long as I live.
Job 34:5 For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.
This is a perfect example of what Ezekiel 36 calls “a stony heart”. What does God say to Job?
Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct [ him]? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
In type and shadow, God is replacing Job’s “stony heart” with “a heart of flesh”, which is a type of “putting His spirit within Job”.
So then when Job says “Yet in my flesh shall I see God” the sum of God’s Word reveals the word ‘flesh’ here to be a type of the spirit, and the sinews and flesh of Eze 37 are both simply a type of God putting His spirit into those who he raises up from the dead as “a spiritual body”.
Our Lord is our final word on this subject, so it is just as Christ told Nicodemus, and just as the apostle Paul explains to us in 1Co 15.
Joh 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Joh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [ was made] a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
Be sure to read this article to see how a resurrected spiritual body can materialize, whereas a natural body cannot become spirit except after a resurrection from the dead.
Spiritual Bodies Can Materialize and Still Be Spiritual
I hope this all answers your questions. If not, please feel free to write again.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike
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