And also I like to add something for your understanding, Lord willing.
There is
popular belief that Satan was created by God and used to live in Heaven. After his fall, Satan still had access into heaven among the "angels" and present himself before God.
However, this is a very widely held
misconception by much of the church, mainly
based on a misunderstanding of Old Testament Scriptures (like this one) and of Revelation chapter 12 referring to cast out angels. I do not believe that Satan was in Holy heaven with God, was commuting from heaven to earth, nor that he ever had came back into God's third heaven.
Nothing that offends is in the heaven where God dwells, the
heaven in view here is the Kingdom of heaven on earth, the congregation of Israel where God's people dwell. There is no sin in heaven, no hypocrisy, no Liar, no evil in heaven, only praise, glory and worship.
The context of Scriptures is also very important, and the context of this passage is the gathering together of God's people for feasts, communion and offerings unto the Lord for sin.
Job 1:4-5
- "And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
- And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually."
The context is
God's people on earth, their days of feasting and Job's faithful sacrifice and offering for sin. And on one of these days, Satan was allowed to come in among them so that Job could be tried, a portrait for all of us.
Job 1:6
- "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them."
The sons of God in Scripture refer to
believers (
Genesis 6:1; John 1:12; Romans 8:14; 1 John 3:1) who are
spiritual children/sons of the Father.
NOT Angels as is often assumed. And most certainly not "fallen Angels
As do I. However, this is a very widely held misconception by much of the church, mainly based on a misunderstanding of Old Testament Scriptures (like this one) and of Revelation chapter 12 referring to cast out angels. I do not believe that Satan was in Holy heaven with God, was commuting from heaven to earth, nor that he ever had come into God's third heaven. Nothing that offends is in the heaven where God dwells, the heaven in view here is the Kingdom of heaven on earth, where God's people dwell. There is no sin in heaven, no hypocrisy, no Liar, no evil in heaven, only praise, glory and worship.
The context of Scriptures is also very important, and the context of this passage is the gathering together of God's people for feasts, communion and offerings unto the Lord for sin.
Job 1:4-5
- "And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
- And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually."
The context is God's people on earth, their days of feasting and Job's faithful sacrifice and offering for sin. And on one of these days, Satan was allowed to come in among them so that Job could be tried, a portrait for all of us.
Job 1:6
- "Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them."
The sons of God in Scripture refer to believers (
Genesis 6:1; John 1:12; Romans 8:14; 1 John 3:1) who are spiritual children/sons of the Father.
not Angels as is often assumed. And most certainly not "fallen Angels."
Deu 14:1
- Ye are the children of the LORD your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
| The word translated children is the exact same word translated sons, illustrating God's people are the spiritual sons of God. |
Thus by allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture we see these
sons of God refers to believers, God's spiritual children on earth, and it is
they who come to present themselves before the Lord. Actually the language of "present themselves before the LORD" is also confirming the illustration of their coming for the purpose of sacrifice, offering and forgiveness of sin of the Lord's congregation. It
"is" the representation of the Lord's Heaven ON EARTH! It is
not an illustration of supernatural Angels or of Satan as a Angel presenting themselves in holy heaven in the presence of God. God says Satan was a Liar from the beginning, and
no liar can enter God's Holy Heaven. Period! Moses couldn't even stand before the glory of Holy God on the mountaintop, much less the epitome of evil and the father of lies come to stand where God dwells in
all His glory. Allowing Scripture to interpret Scripture we see that the language of "presenting oneself" before God, or [
yatsab], is the language of the congregation making obeisance, supplication,
oblation and contrition. It doesn't refer to literally standing in Heaven physically facing God. e.g.:
Leviticus 14:11
- And the priest that maketh him clean shall present the man that is to be made clean, and those things, before the LORD, at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation:"
1st Samuel 10:19
- And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes, and by your thousands."
Deuteronomy 31:14
- And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach that thou must die: call Joshua, and present yourselves in the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a charge. And Moses and Joshua went, and presented themselves in the tabernacle of the congregation.
Jeremiah 36:7
- It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people."
That is HOW the congregation in the Old Testament presented themselves before the Lord, on earth, and it is not in a literal/physical heaven before God. Just like we do in our churches. In God's economy,
heaven is often signifying the Lord's congregation "because" it is the Kingdom of heaven representing ON EARTH. For Example, as we read of Christ the Kingdom of heaven suffered violence until John. It wasn't referring to literal heaven! Or when Michael and His angels fought in heaven, again, not literally angels fighting in God's holy heaven. Likewise, when it says Satan came among them, he is among the congregation. This often happens as you can just look at some of the people in God's congregation and the things that they are teaching? It's not hard to understand that Satan comes in as a wolf in sheep's clothing. Didn't the sons of God build a golden calf to worship after being delivered from Egypt? Was that not Satan among them? Because it is their spirit of disobedience that works within man (
Luke 22:3), and he comes among God's people and does his bidding in the body of man (
John 13:27). This is
mysterious or secretive only in the fact that
so many professing believers cannot comprehend this most basic and fundamental truth. He comes preaching love, he comes preaching eccumemism, he comes preaching politics, he comes genealogy, He comes preaching lawlessness under the guyise of grace and peace. The list is endless. Satan is revealed in the man of sin, or more to our vernacular, "the sinful man!" in the spirit of his father, the Devil, he always comes in among the sons of God to try and bring them down, but it is really a trial of faith. Like Job, we should fear none of these things that we may suffer, be it tribulation, persecution or hate. If we are faithful unto death, we shall receive a crown of life better than anything this sinful world has to offer.