I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light [understanding].
As we have often discussed, the title, Jeremiah 4:23, is one of the three places the Hebrews words tohuw and bohuw appear together. Here and in Genesis 1:2 they are rendered “without form, and void;” while in Isaiah 34:11 they are “confusion” and “emptiness.” The word bohuw only appears these three times, each describing the total desolation of the material world, which is a result of the confusion that preceded it: the inability to understand and rationally respond to reality.
The word tohuw appears twenty times; after Genesis 1:2 next used in Deuteronomy 32:10 where it is translated “waste.” There it is speaking of where God found His people, and in context, we see He is speaking of Adam, not Jacob.
Deuteronomy 32
1 Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
2 My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
3 Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe you greatness unto our God.
4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
5 They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
6 Do you thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? is not he your father that has bought you? has he not made you, and established you?
7 Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you.
8 When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
9 For the LORD’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
10 He found him in a desert land, and in the waste [tohuw – in his confusion] howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
11 As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, taketh them, bears them on her wings:
12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
13 He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock;
14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and you did drink the pure blood of the grape.
15 But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: you are waxen fat, you are grown thick, you are covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
16 They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations provoked they him to anger.
17 They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
18 Of the Rock that begat you you are unmindful, and have forgotten God that formed you.
19 And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of his sons, and of his daughters.
20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation [a generation that has twisted and perverted truth], children in whom is no faith.
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
25 The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
26 I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men:
27 Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the LORD has not done all this.
28 For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them.
29 O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!
30 How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
31 For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.
32 For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
34 Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
35 To me belongs vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
36 For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when he sees that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left.
37 And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted,
38 Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
39 See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
40 For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
41 If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
42 I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
43 Rejoice, O you nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful unto his land, and to his people.
44 And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he, and Hoshea [Joshua] the son of Nun.
45 And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:
46 And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify among you this day, which you shall command your children to observe to do, all the words of this law.
47 For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land, whither you go over Jordan to possess it.
Friends, every pulpit, every preacher in our time, are teaching and speaking their own words, partial truth mixed with the corruption they’ve been taught. There is never any rebuke or correction among their groups, and they make sure it is so by blocking out and forbidding any who dare point out their ignorance: the shadow of death they’ve cast over all the world. (2 Corinthians 10:12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.)
The LORD, my Father Jehovah, started today’s conversation in Job 4, where just such (inbred) confusion is the focus: correcting partial understanding that is so puffed up with pride that it’s unwilling and unable to judge itself. As we know from previous discussions, Job’s suffering is what exposes the partial understanding of his three friends. The final correction begins through Elihu, his name’s meaning telling us Jehovah God is speaking through him, speaking His truth about what has just occurred. Job then finally understands the whirlwind he had just been through is God talking to him, and to his friends, to correct them back on course, away from the ideas misleading them.
As the Book of Job begins, we are told the sons of God came into the presence of the LORD, and Satan was among them. As we saw in the prior post, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:13 thru 15 that Satan and his angels transform themselves into messengers of understanding (angels of light). He warns us these are the false apostles, deceitful workers, among us, whose end is according to their works, meaning, their works destroy, and they will work until they destroy themselves.
We saw, later in 2 Corinthians 12, Paul there describe these messengers of Satan as thorns in his flesh. We saw this last aspect referencing us to Numbers 33:55, which tells of the foreign ideas, when allowed to remain among us, become as thorns in our sides. Paul is referring to this as what is allowed by God: opposition to the revelation given him, so God’s grace and strength would also be manifested in his weakness [the revelation seen as God’s power, not ours]. This is the same concept in Job, drawing out the poison, the darkness into the light, so it can be removed from among the body of Christ.
In Job 1 everything around Job, all produced from his faithfulness to God, was destroyed. In Job 2 Job’s body is destroyed, but not his life. In Job 3 we are told of Job cursing his day, which is actually a description of what occurred, the total desolation of the earth after the understanding of God’s people is removed by listened to Satan among them. What we see is darkness and confusion, following a time of silence (Job2:13), which we saw described in the prior post, in the similitude of Luke’s writing in Acts 20. There we saw it as Paul teaching, and a young man falling, from silence into death, who Paul them laid his hands on and raised from the sleep – after saying his life is still with him – as was Job’s. Luke continues by recording Paul’s following warning of how this would come, after his departure, when the wolves would come in, as false apostles among them.
Job 3
1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed his day.
2 And Job spoke, and said,
3 Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived.
4 Let that day be darkness [ignorance]; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light [understanding] shine upon it.
5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify it.
6 As for that night, let darkness seize upon it; let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months.
7 Lo, let that night be solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.
8 Let them curse it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look for light, but have none; neither let it see the dawning of the day:
10 Because it shut not up the doors of my mother’s womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.
11 Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?
12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should suck?
13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
14 With kings and counselors of the earth, which build desolate places for themselves;
15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light.
17 There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.
18 There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
19 The small and great are there; and the servant is free from his master.
20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, and life unto the bitter in soul;
21 Which long for death, but it comes not; and dig for it more than for hid treasures;
22 Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God has hedged in [answered in Job 38:9]?
24 For my sighing comes before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.
25 For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.
In the following chapter (Job 4) we see the plan unfold as Eliphaz speaks (His name meaning gold is his god – as opposed to Elihu, whose God is Jehovah), initially telling of his (Eliphaz’s) own partial understanding of what God has revealed. It is when a deep sleep has fallen upon man, when the LORD reveals His plan by His vision, and man cannot discern what he is seeing. This is as we have often read, from Isaiah 28, when the LORD, as here and now, is teaching, morning by morning, precept by precept, line upon line, and men don’t hear Him. We know, because we have seen and heard the LORD, it is because the narrow (the vexing) covering of the bed man is sleeping in, and the only trouble (vexation) is to understand the report (by removing the cover, by this revelation, this apocalypse – taking away the cover – of darkness).
Job 4
12 Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine ear received a little thereof.
13 In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men,
14 Fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones to shake.
15 Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up:
16 It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying,
17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
18 Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:
19 How much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth?
20 They are destroyed from morning to evening: they perish for ever without any regarding it.
21 Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.
These men’s mistake, Ehiphaz and those in Isaiah, is as we are told, in Isaiah 28:15, they are saying. Their own words tell us they are in agreement with hell and death (joined with Satan among them); saying when the scourge passed through (the correction by God) it will not come to them, because they’re protected by their lies, and hidden in their own false teaching. This is telling of the only words these men preach, that the correction is meant for everyone except God’s people. This is their ignorance, making gold their god, meaning they refuse because no one will pay them for correction, only for a hiding place, in the silence and darkness of their false teaching.
1 Thessalonians 5
1 But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you.
2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the LORD so comes as a thief in the night [when these men’s darkness has blinded all to His presence].
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety [when they say everything is fine here in the darkness]; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.
4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
5 You are all the children of light [of understanding], and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
7 For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
Job 33 [the LORD speaking through Elihu]
14 For God speaks once, yea twice, yet man perceives it not.
15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, in slumbering upon the bed;
16 Then he opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction,
17 That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
18 He keeps back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
19 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain:
20 So that his life abhors bread, and his soul dainty meat.
21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out.
22 Yea, his soul draws near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.
23 If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness:
24 Then he is gracious unto him, and says, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom.
25 His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth:
26 He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.
27 He looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not;
28 He will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.
29 Lo, all these things works God oftentimes with man,
30 To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
31 Mark well, O Job, hearken unto me: hold your peace, and I will speak.
32 If you have anything to say, answer me: speak, for I desire to justify you.
33 If not, hearken unto me: hold your peace, and I shall teach you wisdom.
In Job’s first response to Eliphaz, in Job 6, he speaks of what he does know, and in his discourse is hidden (frozen) the deeper understanding.
Job 6
13 Is not my help in me? and is wisdom driven quite from me?
14 To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. [They that observes lying vanities forsakes their own mercy. Jonah 2:8]
15 My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook [flowing error to God’s people], and as the stream of brooks they pass away;
16 Which are blackish [ignorant] by reason of the ice [which freezes the understanding the word of God], and wherein the snow is hid [when his word is sent from heaven, still frozen by this ignorance]:
17 What time they wax warm, they vanish [these men’s ideas are washed away when the word is understood – as ice melts with the warmth]: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place.
18 The [these men’s] paths of their way are turned aside; they go to nothing [tohuw], and perish.
19 The troops of Tema looked [the ways and ideas of the wise of this world – referring us to Isaiah 21:14, and what the watchmen saw], the companies of Sheba [the church become Babylon] waited for them.
20 They were confounded because they had hoped; they came thither, and were ashamed [because their darkness is ending and their words are seen as their own creations].
21 For now you are nothing; you see my casting down, and are afraid.
22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?
23 Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty?
24 Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred.
25 How forcible are right words! but what does your arguing reprove?
26 Do you imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?
27 Yea, you overwhelm the fatherless, and you dig a pit for your friend.
28 Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie.
29 Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it.
30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?
Do these men hear the LORD’s reproof? Will they be corrected? or choose to perish with their works?
Isaiah 21
1 The burden of the desert of the sea [the dry places, all people, where God’s word isn’t heard]. As whirlwinds [the same whirlwind In Job 38 below] in the south pass through; so it comes from the desert [the lack of God’s word producing the whirlwind], from a terrible land.
2 A grievous vision is declared unto me; the treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the spoiler spoils. Go up, O Elam [rise up what is hidden in God word]: besiege, O Media [besiege these men mingle among them]; all the sighing thereof have I made to cease.
3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain: pangs have taken hold upon me, as the pangs of a woman that travails: I was bowed down at the hearing of it; I was dismayed at the seeing of it.
4 My heart panted, fearfulness affrighted me: the night of my pleasure has he turned into fear unto me.
5 Prepare the table [that has now become a trap], watch in the watchtower, eat, drink: arise, you princes, and anoint the shield.
6 For thus has the LORD said unto me, Go, set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.
7 And he saw a chariot with a couple of horsemen, a chariot of asses, and a chariot of camels; and he hearkened diligently with much heed:
8 And he cried, A lion: My LORD, I stand continually upon the watchtower in the daytime, and I am set in my ward whole nights:
9 And, behold, here comes a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he has broken unto the ground.
10 O my threshing, and the corn of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you.
11 The burden of Dumah [where God’s word has been silenced]. He calls to me out of Seir [out of the place of devils], Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?
12 The watchman said [as I now tell you], The morning comes [understanding that bring the new day], and also the night: if you will enquire, enquire you: return, come [and I will freely give you understanding].
13 The burden upon Arabia [in agreement with, and trapped by, the error you have mingled with the truth]. In the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, O you travelling companies of Dedanim [you that have been brought low by this mingling].
14 The inhabitants of the land of Tema [the wise of this world] brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled [stopped God’s people from coming out from among their ideas and ways].
15 For they fled from the swords, from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war.
16 For thus has the LORD said unto me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar [of the darkness] shall fail:
17 And the residue of the number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar [darkness], shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel has spoken it.
Job 38
1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2 Who is this that darkens [gives ignorant] counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Gird up now your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and answer you me.
4 Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if you have understanding.
5 Who has laid the measures thereof, if you know? or who has stretched the line upon it?
6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof;
7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
9 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick darkness a swaddling-band for it,
10 And brake up for it my decreed place, and set bars and doors,
11 And said, Hitherto shall you come, but no further: and here shall your proud waves be stayed?
12 Have you commanded the morning since your days; and caused the dayspring to know his place;
13 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
14 It is turned as clay to the seal; and they stand as a garment.
15 And from the wicked their light is withheld, and the high arm shall be broken.
16 Have you entered into the springs of the sea? or have you walked in the search of the depth?
17 Have the gates of death been opened unto you? or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death?
18 Have you perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if you know it all.
19 Where is the way where light dwells? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof,
20 That you should take it to the bound thereof, and that you should know the paths to the house thereof?
21 Know you it, because you were then born? or because the number of your days is great?
22 Have you entered into the treasures of the snow? or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
23 Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24 By what way is the light parted, which scatters the east wind upon the earth?
25 Who has divided a watercourse for the overflowing of waters, or a way for the lightning of thunder;
26 To cause it to rain on the earth, where no man is; on the wilderness, wherein there is no man;
27 To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth?
28 Has the rain a father? or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who has gendered it?
30 The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 Can you bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or can you guide Arcturus with his sons?
33 Know you the ordinances of heaven? can you set the dominion thereof in the earth?
34 Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send lightnings [understanding], that they may go and say unto you, Here we are?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? or who has given understanding to the heart?
37 Who can number the clouds in wisdom? or who can stay the bottles of heaven,
38 When the dust grows into hardness, and the clods cleave fast together?
39 Will you hunt the prey for the lion? or fill the appetite of the young lions,
40 When they couch in their dens, and abide in the covert to lie in wait?
41 Who provides for the raven [those covered in darkness] his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat [they wander without this deeper understanding – which has been hidden in ignorance caused by the men’s ways and ideas].
Psalms 40
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he has put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that makes the LORD his trust, and respects not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are your wonderful works which you have done, and your thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto you: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering you did not desire; mine ears have you opened: burnt offering and sin offering have you not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do your will, O my God: yea, your law is within my heart.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, you know.
10 I have not hid your righteousness within my heart; I have declared your faithfulness and your salvation: I have not concealed your lovingkindness and your truth from the great congregation.
11 Withhold not you your tender mercies from me, O LORD: let your lovingkindness and your truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart fails me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek you rejoice and be glad in you: let such as love your salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 But I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinks upon me: you are my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
