Outline

«　WEEK 4　DAY 6　»

　　Prov. 16:25 There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end of it is the ways of death.

　　John 11:25 …I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes into Me, even if he should die, shall live.

　　Rom. 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death.

　　After God created Adam, He placed him in front of two trees—the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God then charged Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for if he ate of that tree, he would die (Gen. 2:9, 16-17). God wanted Adam to eat of the tree of life. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, this tree would have entered into him and then would have grown within him. However, Adam ate instead of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree was thus sown into Adam and grew within him, and it has been growing in all of Adam’s descendants…Today the entire human race is a race constituted according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In every human society, regardless of the kind of ethics it has, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is growing. As long as this tree is growing among the human race, there will be no peace. (Life-study of Job, pp. 29-30)

　　Before we were regenerated, we were in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When we were regenerated, Christ planted Himself into us as the tree of life. However, in our practical, daily living, are we in the line of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or in the line of the tree of life? In our married life, for example, we may be in the line of the tree of knowledge, and by the way we talk with our spouse, we may not only grow this tree but also water it and fertilize it. What, then, should we do? We need to remember Paul’s word in Galatians 2:20—”It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me”—and turn from the tree of knowledge to the tree of life. If we do this, we will live Christ and grow Christ as the tree of life.

　　Suppose there is a problem between you and your spouse. You should not do anything, for whatever you do will be in the realm of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You should simply pray-read Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” Do not care for the problem or your anger—just care for Christ living in you. This should be our way in everything.

　　Job and his friends…were in the realm of good and evil, in the realm of promoting man’s integrity. They needed to get into the right realm, the realm of the tree of life. They needed to come back to the tree of life. The tree of life was their answer. Instead of trying to attain to the peak of integrity, Job needed to do his best to pursue God, to pursue Christ the person directly. Job’s direction should have been toward that peak, not toward the peak of human integrity.

　　We need to see that the entire Bible is a book on God’s eternal economy. In His economy God’s intention is to dispense Himself into us to be our life and our nature that we may be the same as He is in life and nature in order to express Him. What, then, about the stripping and the consuming? God’s stripping and God’s consuming are to tear us down. We are fallen and natural men. As such men, we need to be torn down. God must tear us down. Then God can have a base, a way, to build us up again.

　　In His economy God’s intention is not to make fallen man whole. Rather, God’s intention is to tear us down and rebuild us with Himself as our life and our nature that we may be persons who are absolutely one with Him.

　　The book of Job shows us that God, through Satan as an ugly tool, was tearing Job down by two ways: stripping and consuming. God’s stripping and consuming were exercised over Job to tear Job down that God might have a base and a way to rebuild him with God Himself that he might become a God- man. This is what we should receive in our study of Job. (Life-study of Job, pp. 30, 70, 44, 34-35)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Job, msgs. 13, 16, 22—25, 32, 36—38