Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
You see them, all through the Bible--individuals who cared more for the cause of God in the "great controversy between Christ and Satan," than for their own lives (and that meant in their context, their eternal lives).
Probably the first is Job, the unknown man who worshipped the LORD, the Hebrew name for the God of Israel. Job's "LORD" was the God whose character is agape, the One who would die the world's second death. You can see intimations of agape in Job (try 6:14; 13:14, 15; 19:25-27). In those early days, life after a "first" resurrection was not generally understood; Job had to battle his way by faith. He was willing to sacrifice himself to defend the honor and stability of the government of God. He proved that Satan was wrong, who charged that God had no one who served Him "for nothing" (1:9) and thus he helped to save the government of God.
Did Noah understand? He proclaimed the "righteousness which is of faith" (Rom. 10:5-8, KJV), which you can't do meaningfully unless you understand agape.
Did David understand? At least sometimes (cf. Psalms 22 and 69).
Isaiah? How could he write chapter 53 otherwise?
Jesus Himself? (John 5:30; 6:38; Matt. 26:39, 42). He is agape; He died the world's second death; He endured the curse of God, which is the second death (Gal. 3:13).
Paul? At least he loved Israel more than he loved his own salvation (Rom. 9:3).
The great controversy between Christ and Satan, the battle of the universe, cannot be ended and won until God has 144,000 Job-like people who "follow the Lamb wherever He goes," in whose mouth there is "no guile" (Rev. 14:1-5). Their story is inserted at that precise point in the Bible where a last-days proclamation of the "everlasting gospel" grows to become a message that "lightens the earth with glory" (vss. 6, 7; 18:1-4).
Don't say the fulfillment of that prophecy lies maybe centuries away. The Holy Spirit is working, and around the world there are some (maybe few) who are responding to Him without resisting Him further. Join them!
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 29, 2007.
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