Noah-Daniel-Job
“Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it [the land], they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God” (Ezek. 14:14).
It was a dark day in Israel’s history when this word of the Lord came to the prophet Ezekiel. The word from the Lord said, “I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none” (Ezek. 22:30). The ten tribes, Ephraim, or kingdom of Israel, had already gone into captivity to Assyria—removed out of Jehovah’s land, which He had given them. Assuredly they “gave not God the glory” (Acts 12:23), but “changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things” (Rom. 1:23).
Judah had not profited by the lesson to be learned from Jehovah’s dealings with their brethren of Ephraim; no man laid it to heart. God had reserved one tribe: “And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David My servant may have a light alway before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen Me to put My name there” (1 Kings 11:36). There was no response to this sovereignty of mercy shown to them, and one can only weep with the weeping prophet Jeremiah, as we read the inspired record of the sins of Judah’s kings, false prophets, priests and people. “My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jer. 2:13). At last God removed them also, as Stephen said, “I will carry you away beyond Babylon” (Acts 7:43).
What a grief of mind all this was to the Lord God of Israel may be learned from Deuteronomy 5:29: “O that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children forever!” These words truly reveal the loving heart of our God concerning His earthly people; they are words, too, which were recorded before they were in possession of the promised land, words by one who declares “the end from the beginning” (Isa. 46:10). God truly felt His people’s departure of heart from Himself. This is still true today as of old! Let us therefore “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30).
With such a dark background and at such a time, it evidently afforded the Lord some pleasure to think of His righteous servants, Noah, Daniel and Job. Amazing grace! What an encouragement to us also in our feeble place of service today, in the sphere where He has been pleased to place each one of us. We do well to heed the words of 1 Peter 1:17, “Ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s work.” And now, as “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning” (Rom. 15:4), let us draw some spiritual profit, warning and encouragement from the history of God’s three worthies, Noah, Daniel and Job.
Noah
He was a courageous character, indeed, to face an ungodly, hostile world with God’s long-suffering testimony. What was the secret of his strength? “Noah walked with God” (Gen. 6:9); also, “according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Gen. 6:22). “Warned of God” and “moved with fear,” he “prepared an ark” by means of which he accomplished two things: (1) “He condemned the world” (Heb. 11:7); (2) “Eight souls were saved by water” (1 Peter 3:20). It is sad to think that the only result of his preaching was to “condemn the world,” but this was not his fault. “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid” (Rom. 3:3-4). But the ark he prepared was the means of “the saving of his house” (Heb. 11:7). Noah was a family man, and was possessed of those qualifications necessary for a bishop in the church of God in Paul’s day, as he wrote to Timothy: “A bishop [overseer] then must be blameless ... one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity” (1 Tim. 3:2-4). Noah’s family, at least, believed his testimony, backed up by his godly life, and as a result found themselves safely in the ark with him when the judgment fell.
Daniel
In Daniel we find a pleasing personage who had “another spirit with him,” like Caleb (Num. 14:24). He sets before us a good beginning, a faithful, consistent walk throughout, and a good finish. Paul’s work in Philippians 1:20 comes at once to mind: “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.” The last verse of the book of Daniel is a wonderful reward for a life of faithfulness to God: “But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.” We may be sure his lot will be a good one! The feature of his exemplary life which we desire to lay stress upon in this article is that Daniel continued: lion’s den and all, he continued. The secret of his success, you ask? “He kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God” (Dan. 6:10). We do well to follow his example and heed the exhortation of Romans 12:12, “Continuing instant in prayer.” There is a further salutary lesson for us in 1 John 2:24: “If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.”
Job
Here we have at least a grand finish. “The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning” (Job 42:12). His case is summed up in Proverbs 25:4: “Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer.” The Lord knew how to do this in Job’s case (and ours too)! How beautiful that word in James 5:11: “Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” We too are exhorted to be “patient in tribulation” (Rom. 12:12). And again, “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray” (James 5:13). “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). No two of us have the same history, but of chastening “all are partakers” (Heb. 12:8). We too, like Job, are sustained in it, and find out at the end of it that our God is the same as at the beginning, and our souls are the better for His hand upon us. We can say, “What hath God wrought!” (Num. 23:23). “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28). Truly, “all His saints are in Thy hand” (Deut. 33:3).
Conclusion
As we read the Scriptures and review the histories of His servants of the past, we can only magnify the grace of God, apart from which neither they nor we could perform any service in His name. Paul says, “But by the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). The Holy Scriptures abound with encouragement for us to persevere in the path of faith. “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:2). Now, “he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked” (1 John 2:6). And how Christ walked we find in Psalm 16:8: “I have set the Lord always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.” And He has left “us an example, that ye should follow His steps” (1 Peter 2:21). “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain” (1 Cor. 9:24). “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:13). “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Heb. 12:28). And what a prospect lies before us: “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be” (Rev. 22:12). “His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face” (Rev. 22:3-4).
T. Mather