The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Kingdom of God Is at Hand, #9

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed [shunned] evil. (Job 1:1)

What was true of Job that God considered him to be "perfect and upright"?

This expression signifies that Job, who lived before the day of Moses, was adhering to the eternal moral law of God. Before the Ten Commandments were issued the moral law was written in the conscience of mankind.

The moral law is based on spiritual realities. The moral law is the Nature of God Himself. It expresses God's Character.

Satan, the chief of the fallen angels, is the father of liars and murderers. God is Truth and Love. Before the earth was created, some of the angels of Heaven, including personages of high rank, decided they would practice behavior contrary to the righteous and holy Nature of the most high God. The Ten Commandments are God's judgment on the actions of Satan and his followers.

The Ten Commandments are an initial witness to the earth of the coming rule of the Kingdom of God, of what has been and always will be the Character of God.

The desire of every righteous man and woman of God from the time of Abel has been to please God, to walk uprightly before Him. The path of the righteous has been a shining light leading to the day when there is a new world in which righteousness prevails in every creature.

The Apostle Paul cried out for deliverance from the power of sin, from the waters of evil. The heroes of faith always look for the city that has foundations. The righteous always are restorers of paths to walk in.

The earth and its resources, and all its inhabitants, belong to the Lord. But He has founded the earth on the seas and floods.

The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. (Psalms 24:1,2)

There is no solid foundation in the swirling waters of the material creation. The only true path, the only enduring way for the feet of people is the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot gain our moral footing until we rest our trust on the Lord Jesus. Everything and everyone else is transitory and shifting—completely unreliable.

The land of Egypt was in moral chaos. Hundreds of demon gods were being worshiped. The Egyptians led a sensuous existence, similar in many respects to the wealthy nations of our own time.

Suddenly the "waters were gathered together" and two witnesses appeared—Moses and Aaron. They bore a powerful testimony before the creatures of Heaven and earth of the Nature of the one true and living God (Deuteronomy 32:1; Ephesians 3:10).

Mount Sinai groaned in travail and the awful Word was brought forth. The moral law, the Nature of God written in the conscience of mankind, was engraved by the finger of God in two tables of stone.

Now the race of mankind had solid moral ground on which to walk, a means of walking uprightly before the Lord in spite of the counsel of rebellious angels. The fruit of righteousness came forth from this newly exposed "earth" as the righteous and holy Nature of the Lord was revealed in the Law, in the priesthood, and in the structure and activities of the Tabernacle of the Congregation.

To be continued.