The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 4 – 5
Nothing better sums up the last lesson than the story of Job. As you’ve already learned, Job was not proud. Rather the opposite, for he had thoroughly humbled his heart or else he couldn’t have been “perfect and upright” under the terms of the OC! But what he hadn’t done was taught it faith! Read Job 3:25-26. Job had FEARED this might happen to him! Why? Job had done nothing wrong, according to God (and Job, and Satan). So why did he fear?
Because his beast did not trust his soul, or God! Job was “greatly afraid” that if he had “safety” and “rest” then through no fault of his own “trouble would come”. Compare this attitude to Luke 12:16-21. This doesn’t describe Job, but Job was afraid of BECOMING this man! He had been very worried about having “rest”, and then “trouble coming” (Job 31:24-28. See also Deuteronomy 8:12-19). This can only be evidence of a lack of trust in God – lack of faith – long before his trial!
Read Job 1:5. Job was offering preemptive sacrifices for his children just in case they sinned. Where does God command that? What sort of a person goes to the police station and pays fines for his children just in case they speed? A person with money to burn and a great fear of the law! Job was perfectly righteous, but God said it Himself – He feared God, which was only the beginning of wisdom! Job 1:1, 8, etc. By definition then, if he feared God, he was not yet made perfect in love! 1 John 4:18.
Remember what you’ve learned in these lessons: the beast fears its master even when it has done well because it doesn’t trust in its soul’s goodness! Job had ruled his beast, and made it be righteous! He had humbled it, so it obeyed him quickly! But his beast still lacked FAITH! What was the core problem with ancient Israel? Hebrews 4:2. Israel heard the gospel from Sinai, but they rejected it because they thought God was a “hard and an austere man” (Luke 19:21-22), a God who was eagerly awaiting their inevitable failure to keep His strict laws so He could smite them with boils!
But that’s not what God is really like… that’s what a faithless beast thinks God is like! And ironically, God is only unfaithful to those people who are themselves unfaithful! (Psalms 18:24-27). He doesn’t help those who believe He won’t help them! Job spent the entire book justifying himself for external righteousness (Job 32:2). He spent the book proving that he was ruling his beast! And he was! But neither he nor his three friends, nor the devil himself, could see the obvious internal problem, which was that Job’s beast lacked faith!
Job’s friends spent the book trying to prove that Job must have sinned or he wouldn’t be suffering. They couldn’t find anything specific just like Satan couldn’t, but they kept arguing that Job must be hiding a sin because nobody is perfect! THE SOURCE OF JOB’S FRIENDS’ ARGUMENTS Their reasoning missed the point because it was based on OC righteousness… which was all they COULD understand, being carnal themselves! In Job 4:12-19, Eliphaz relates a dream he had before coming to see Job. Eliphaz felt this dream was given to guide him in arguing with Job, and it was! But not by God! Remember, God had stepped back and Job was in Satan’s power (Job 2:6).
So in this devil-inspired dream Satan complained “May a man be upright before God? or a man be clean before his Maker? Truly, he puts no faith in his servants, and he sees error in his angels; How much more those living in houses of earth…” (BBE). Satan’s conclusion is that if HE, a brilliant and wise angel, could not obey God, no puny human made of dirt can do better! This dream set the theme for all the arguments from Job’s friends throughout the rest of the book (except Elihu, who spoke for God).
Job’s contention was that he hadn’t sinned, and yet was being punished unfairly; their contention was that he MUST have sinned “because nobody’s perfect!” Yet what did God command Abraham? Genesis 17:1. Was Noah perfect? Genesis 6:9. How perfect are we supposed to be? Matthew 5:48. See, Satan doesn’t believe man can obey God. He believes God asked too much of him, and that obeying God perfectly was unreasonable. You may remember that this was the heart of the antichrist doctrine, that Jesus either didn’t perfectly obey God, or else He wasn’t really a man at all, because no man can obey God perfectly!
This is stated even clearer later in Job 15:14-16; again Eliphaz is arguing based on this dream which Satan gave him,“What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?” saying men cannot obey God, so Job must have been sinning! Yet Jesus was fully human, and did conclusively prove that any of us could have obeyed God perfectly, in every way and never sinned. And that obedience judged the devil (John 16:11) and so did Job’s righteousness.
Since Satan’s defense rests on this argument, he cannot let someone obey God without challenging it; without trying to show that the man isn’t really righteous at all; or if he is forced to admit that, that he wasn’t really a man; or if he has to concede that point too, he’ll argue that the test was unfair, that in some way the man cheated. The devil challenged Job’s righteousness on the grounds that Job had been bribed to do good (Job 1:9-11). Which is hardly obeying God for righteousness’ sake! After all, any beast will obey you for sugar cubes! And however impure Satan’s motives, God had to concede that this was indeed a possibility – so He let Satan test him (Job 1:12).
MAN CAN’T PLEASE GOD
Eliphaz did not “try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1), so both sides spent the entire book repeating and rephrasing the same arguments. Job’s friends tried dozens of different ways to make their points; some of Eliphaz’ key points are in Job 4:7-8, Job 5:2-7. And what did Eliphaz recommend? Job 5:8-9, 17. His conclusion is that Job has sinned, and Job should repent. How did Job respond? Job 6:8-9. What did he think his friends should have done? Job 6:14-15. Did Job think he deserved this punishment?
Job 6:22-23. Did Job invite his friends to show SPECIFIC examples of his sins?Job 6:24. Did Job say his friends spoke the truth?Job 6:25-26. Did he complain because there were no SPECIFICS in their arguments? (Same verses). The same thing that made Elihu angry at the end of the book! They had found no answer, but they condemned Job anyway! They didn’t have any SPECIFIC examples of sins Job had committed, so they just said; “only the wicked are cursed; so you MUST be wicked!” And Job responded, “I agree! But where have I sinned? Whom have I hurt?” (paraphrases, both).
Note that their arguments were not wrong. Satan rarely uses lies when a misunderstood or misapplied truth will work just as well. What was wrong was their fundamental assumption, their foregone conclusion that man cannot please God, therefore Job must have sinned, so he just needed to repent! Let’s imagine you call your child to you, and say “son, you’re in trouble!” and he promptly responds, weeping “I’m so sorry dad! I’ll never do it again!” and runs off. Is he really sorry for his sin? Or is he simply sorry that you’re upset? How can he repent of a sin, change, and be a better person, if you haven’t told him what it is??
Yet that’s exactly what Job’s friends wanted him to do; repent of a sin he couldn’t find, apologize and beg God to forgive him for something he didn’t do!! And a true Christian can’t do that, because it would be a lie! (Compare a similar idea in John 8:55). Job’s friends wanted him to repent of his unknown wickednesses, and beg forgiveness for them… but when you think about it, that’s exactly what Job had BEEN doing before all this started! (Job 1:5). Offering sacrifices “just in case” is literally the same as repenting “just in case”, which is what his friends were counseling him to do! Only a false Christian can beat their breasts and weep huge tears for imaginary sins they don’t really believe they’ve committed! (Matthew 6:16).
JOB’S BIG MISTAKE
Knowing there had to be SOME reason for his suffering (and there was), yet finding no help from his friends, Job turned to something else in Job 7:20-21. Up until now, Job was taking it pretty well; by Job 2:10, he still hadn’t sinned with his lips. He was understandably confused and frustrated, but he still hadn’t crossed the line. But here Job hit upon the idea that perhaps this was because God had not FORGIVEN him for past sins! He revisits this idea again and again, for instance Job 13:23-27.
Job had sinned as a youth; everyone has. Job had repented and God had forgiven him. And Job believed that at the time. But now he was suffering and couldn’t think of any better reason; so he finally concluded that God hadn’t forgiven him, and was still blaming him for those old sins! And that was Job’s mistake. That was where Job exposed the flaw that no one else in the universe could see, because it requires God’s spirit to see the heart (Hebrews 4:12). Only God, or those who have His spirit, can see the problems in a heart! (1 Corinthians 14:25).
Remember, this test was God’s idea (Job 1:8). And God would never have let this happen if it were not for Job’s own good. Setting aside the benefits of proving God right and Satan wrong, we ourselves need to know if our beast trusts us or not. And if not, we need to see where we need to improve, as Job was about to learn. In Job 8:2-6 Job’s second friend Bildad (correctly) resented Job assigning blame to God for this trial. That was indeed a mistake, because Job should have trusted God’s word to forgive him! But then Bildad says something that shows he has the same prejudice against Job that Eliphaz had: “IF you were pure and upright…” Remember! God Himself had said Job WAS pure and upright! Job’s friends were wrong about this!
Bildad then gave many examples of how the righteous are blessed and the wicked suffer. And Job again responded with “Yes, I know, but where have I sinned?? What can I do about it?” (Job 9:2-3), and then Job gets back to his own conclusion that God has not judged his sins fairly in Job 9:3-4, Job 9:12-18. Then in Job 9:19, Job 9:32-35, and Job 10:2-13 he gets the idea that if he could go before God’s judgment seat face to face to debate his case, and convince God he really HAD repented, then the trial would be over!
As the book progresses, we watch Job get more and more convinced that God has not forgiven him. He doesn’t understand why he is suffering the same as the wicked, or why his suffering is getting worse (Job 9:14-16), and wants to confront God about this unjust judgment.
THE THIRD FRIEND
Zophar says the same things in Job 11 as Job’s two other friends had been saying, condemning Job for thinking he is “pure” and being “clean in his own eyes”, and spouting platitudes about how the righteous are blessed and the righteous suffer. Each friend tells Job the same thing, “the wicked suffer, so stop sinning!” and each time Job responds with ever-increasing frustration, that he KNOWS the wicked suffer, but he ISN’T sinning! I know I keep saying this, but it can’t be stressed enough because of how today’s Christians understand this subject: God also said Job wasn’t sinning! Just because all HAVE sinned in the past (Romans 3:23), doesn’t necessarily mean they are sinning at this exact moment (1 John 5:18). And lacking faith is not a sin… it just tends to create environments where sinning is easier.
In Job 12:1-3, Job sarcastically says “no doubt you are the people, and wisdom shall die with you!” and then tells them how OBVIOUS the things they’re telling him are, saying “who DOESN’T know these things!” He then spends the rest of the chapter saying similar things to what they’ve said about the greatness of God and how the righteous are blessed, to prove that he knows them too! In fact, Job says that even beasts understand these things! (Job 12:7-9). Do you notice how information like that hides in plain sight… and how easy it is to understand, now that you know what a “beast” really is? Because while Job specifically meant cows and such, these things are true in every possible layer.
And that means that God, who inspired this book, also meant “even selfish human hearts can understand these things”! Even carnal OC humans like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar could grasp the idea that obedience will be rewarded but rebellion will be punished! What they COULDN’T grasp was that God not only wants obedience, He wants obedience WITH TRUST! Because hearing and obeying the gospel doesn’t work unless it’s mixed with FAITH in those who hear it! (Hebrews 4:2).
ACCEPTING GOD’S PERSON
After that, in Job 13:1-2, Job reiterates that he KNOWS everything they’re telling him; and that he AGREES with it, but it isn’t helping because he isn’t sinning! So that’s why he believes his only option is to argue with God personally ( Job 13:3). He then (correctly) condemns them because they are willing to believe that God is right, even if God is wrong ( Job 13:7-11). God is not above His law; if God does something wrong – even something that SEEMS wrong to you – a righteous man says so (Genesis 18:25). God hates “accepting someone’s person”, believing them just because of who they are, or how rich or powerful they are (Deuteronomy 1:17, Leviticus 19:15). God doesn’t need you to accept His person!
He doesn’t need you to make lying arguments to justify His actions – they are justified on their own! TRUTH justifies God! But if you THINK God is wrong, and instead of calling Him on it, you make up an argument to defend Him just “because He’s God, He MUST be right”, then you’re literally bearing false witness against yourself! (Exodus 20:16). And “He will surely reprove you!” – and that’s exactly what happened in Job 42:7-8. Chapters 4-31 are just the same story over and over; Job says he hasn’t sinned and wants to confront God about why he hasn’t been forgiven; then one of the friends says the wicked suffer and the righteous are blessed, and Job should stop sinning. Job says he can’t, because he isn’t sinning; another friend says the wicked suffer and Job should stop sinning. And so on.
I won’t go through the whole book here, but just to illustrate the point read Job 15:14-16, 20 (Eliphaz); Job 16:1-5, 17-21; Job 17:5-7 (Job); Job 18:1-4 (Bildad); Job 19:1-7. In this final example Job complains they’ve accused him ten times, and STILL no one has told him WHAT his sin is, if any! Both sides of the argument spoke true things; Job as well as his friends. But Eliphaz’s dream was inspired by the devil, and his one clever lie fed their conviction that Job must have sinned because not even angels are perfect! And even though most, if not all, of what they said was TRUE, it was twisted and misused to condemn a righteous man. That is Satan’s greatest talent!
ELIHU
God, of course, was watching this process. God heard Job’s requests for an audience with Him, and granted it by proxy, by inspiring Elihu to speak with him – Job 33:4-7 (compare to 2 Corinthians 5:20). Elihu was angry with all four of them – righteously angry, because all four were wrong! But they were wrong in different ways, as Job 32:1-3 showed. He couldn’t help but conclude, that although “Days SHOULD speak, and multitude of years SHOULD teach wisdom… Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment” (Job 32:7-9).
He listened to them patiently (Proverbs 25:8), and heard them out fully (Job 32:11-13). But as he watched their arguments spiral into tighter and tighter circles, he concluded, as you nearly always will, that both sides were wrong (Proverbs 13:10). God didn’t give the understanding to Job’s wise, respected friends. He gave it to an insignificant youth to “confound the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). These statements shocked them speechless (Job 32:15). And so now we finally get down to the truth of what was really going on here, from an objective, spiritual viewpoint (1 Samuel 16:7).
As I said, God stirred Satan up and allowed him to torment Job for Job’s own good (Hebrews 12:5-11). So how did this profit Job? Or what was Job doing wrong, to cause all this? How was God justified in allowing such suffering to happen to him? That was the question Job never asked! Job sought to find answers to justify HIMSELF, not to justify God! (Job 32:2, Job 40:8). So Elihu had to justify God for him (Job 36:2-4). When Elihu was sent to Job, he brought SPECIFICS! You can find these in Job 33:8-12 and Job 34:5-6, 9. Elihu says Job was WRONG to say this… but which part? Was Job wrong to say, “I am innocent”, “I am righteous”? God didn’t think so in Job 1 Job 2! So it was the OTHER part of that statement which was wrong!
God wasn’t cruelly chasing him down to punish him for the sins of his youth! God was actually HELPING Job and a heart that trusted God would never have doubted that! Elihu answers the charge that God had perverted Job’s judgment in Job 34:10-12, 23. What does Elihu say Job SHOULD have done? What was the RIGHT ANSWER to his problems? It’s summed up in Job 34:31-32. These are among the most important verses in the Bible. To avoid this trial, Job SHOULD have humbly said, “I have borne this punishment; I will not offend again; that which I don’t see, teach me; if I have sinned, I will sin no more”. And continued saying – and doing – that as long as it took. And if Job’s beast had trusted his soul, and his soul had in turn trusted God, that’s exactly what he would have said!
Another example of what Job could have said is Psalms 22:1-5. If Job had said either of these things instead of saying, “God has perverted my judgment”, the trial would have been much shorter – and if God had been sure Job was the sort of person who WOULD say that, it wouldn’t have happened at all! Elihu was mad at Job for saying that all his righteousness had no meaning to God, and serving God didn’t bring the blessings he’d been promised (Job 35:3). And finally, Elihu summarizes the problem in Job 35:14-16. God had been watching, and God was judging faithfully; therefore, said Elihu,
TRUST IN HIM!
But now because it WASN’T SO – because Job DIDN’T trust God – THAT IS why God allowed Satan to bring this suffering on Job! See Job 36:16-18. It was because of Job’s LACK OF FAITH! God WOULD have delivered Job long before this IF Job had handled this problem correctly! But after chapter 2, when Job started “sinning with his lips” he “fulfilled the judgment of the wicked”. Isn’t that an odd phrase? But think about it! Satan had said Job would turn on God if he faced personal suffering (Job 2:4-6). And Job was heading down that road, and making the devil right! He was “fulfilling the judgment of the wicked”!
THAT was making God angry, but not very angry (Job 35:15). Elihu was showing Job how righteous God’s judgments were, and giving Job reasons why he should have had more faith in God (Job 36:19-26). Remember how in the previous lessons, your soul should remind your beast “Remember of all the situations we’ve survived when you trusted me?” – that’s exactly what Elihu was doing for Job’s beast since Job’s soul hadn’t already done it!
And after showing many examples of God’s greatness, Elihu shows the POINT of all this was to teach that God does not afflict people for no reason, as Job was saying He did! (Job 37:14, 23-24). It was at that point God stepped in, personally, and took over the argument from Elihu. God’s point is the same as Elihu’s.This speech about “where were you, Job, when I…” wasn’t to abase Job’s PRIDE, as the entire world believes; it was to teach Job that God was great and He should be trusted, because His judgments were Truth!
LACK OF FAITH
The funny thing is that Elihu said Job’s three friends were “wicked men” (Job 34:36) – and yet the entire Christian world takes their side in condemning Job’s pride! They call him “self-righteous”, which was exactly what Job’s wicked friends said (Job 32:1). Which REALLY angered God (Job 42:8). Job didn’t know what his sin was, because there wasn’t one! Because not trusting God is not a sin! It’s a character defect, but it’s not a sin under the law! Because the law does not involve faith!! (Galatians 3:12).
In the beginning, when Job said “that which I greatly feared has come upon me”, we see Job was afraid that, even though he’d done everything right (and he had), God might allow punishment to come on him anyway! And it was, ironically, that FEAR that something would happen – that lack of faith – that CAUSED something to happen! A lesson so many could benefit from today! Job was perfectly righteous but Job was not perfectly faithful! Satan couldn’t point out that flaw, because Satan doesn’t understand faith, having none himself! Job’s FLAW, which God could plainly see long before Satan came to visit heaven, was that Job did not fully trust God. He trusted Him some; but not ENOUGH (Job 13:15).
And by pointing him out to Satan, God gave Job exactly what he needed to learn to trust God! So God manipulated this whole sequence of events, with Satan, Job’s friends, and Elihu, to show Job that men – himself included, and in particular – cannot be trusted absolutely; but that God CAN be. This is the lesson Job learned from this (Job 42:1-6) and he repented bitterly for his lack of faith. Because NOW he could see a flaw he could repent of, and that’s all his soul had wanted from the beginning!
The lesson had to be taught this way so that Job could see that he wasn’t truly ruling his beast! (Job 39:9). He had humbled it, but it didn’t truly serve him, it served its own fears! Not only did his soul fail to teach the beast to trust it, his soul was trusting his beast, not God! (Job 39:10-12). For he let the beast’s fears mean more to him than the promises of God! Seen in this light, you can finally see that most of God’s speech in Job 39 Job 41 was about ruling, humbling, providing for, or conquering various kinds of beasts! (Job 38:39-41, Job 40:19-30, etc.). Specifically, binding beasts into a covenant to obey Him (Job 41:1-4).
And the point of all of it was that God was willing and able to take care of beasts… and that Job had failed to convince his own beast of that fact! Job failed to apply the golden rule to his relationship with God, because you can’t truly understand the golden rule and lack faith in God. If Job had simply applied the golden rule, he would have put himself in God’s shoes; if one of Job-as-God’s children had broken a cup when they were five years old, would Job-as-God still be harboring resentment for it thirty years later??
So if Job had understood the spirit of the law, he would have known that an ancient sin that had been put “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalms 103:12) couldn’t be the reason Job-as-God wasn’t helping his own children! Therefore even his beast should have been confident that there was no way that was the cause of God’s apparent punishment! (2 Peter 1:9). Likewise, you shouldn’t assume that just because someone hasn’t answered your email yet it’s because they’re mad at you! But your beast always does. Likewise, if God goes ten seconds without answering, it’s proof of the beast’s fears that God is a kid with a magnifying glass and we’re the anthill!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Job describes what he learned during this process as the difference between HEARING about God, and SEEING God (Job 42:5). And if you’re paying attention, you’ll remember that’s the difference between the OC and the NC! Israel SAW God on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 24:10-11), because that was meant to be a spiritual covenant! But they rejected that covenant offered to them, and “they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will HEAR: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19). They went from SEEING God (the NC), to only HEARING about God through Moses (the OC)! But Job was traveling in the other direction; Job was under the OC at the beginning of this book, and was as righteous as a physical, carnal man can be; but Job only understood the letter of the law!
And that’s why his beast didn’t have faith! Because beasts are made of flesh, and flesh cannot see the Kingdom of God! (John 3:3). So anyone who is led by their beast cannot see God. They can only hear about God indirectly! This ability to see God through faith, starts with hearing (Romans 10:16-18), just as Moses told Israel about God long before they had a chance to see Him! But when they reached that critical turning point, as Job did, Israel turned away in fear! Why? Ephesians 4:17-20, Romans 1:21. When you are blinded, you can’t SEE God or Christ! (John 12:40, 2 Corinthians 4:4).
Seeing God is something only a spirit can do (1 Corinthians 2:9-14), for He only reveals Himself to those who obey Him (Acts 5:32). If you had to sum up the difference between the OC and the NC in one word, that word is FAITH. The Word – the spirit of Christ – was not mixed with FAITH in the Israelites, so the spirit of Jesus didn’t profit them! (Romans 9:31-33). But it WAS mixed with faith in Moses, Caleb, and Joshua… and now Job! Romans 10:4-5. Job had obeyed the law… but now he believed in the spirit behind the law! 2 Corinthians 3:12-16.
That’s why after his trial was over, he received TWICE as much as he had before (Job 42:12) just as the first resurrection (NC) receives TWICE the inheritance of the second resurrection (OC), because those who rule well are worthy of a double portion! (1 Timothy 5:17). Remember, God doesn’t stutter! These are the elders who labor in the word AND the doctrine… in the spirit and in the teachings. Those who teach others to rule the SPIRIT and the HEART! And, of course, rule their own bodies, their own houses for God, as well! (1 Timothy 3:4-5). Remember… true in every sense!
The story of Job is about the removal of that veil that prevented their HEARTS from SEEING God behind the laws! At the beginning of the book, Job’s fear stands out – the mark of the OC! He believed God’s word, obeyed God, but that was not mixed with faith! Elihu condemned Job’s lack of faith, and Job was humbled by that, and realized his mistake! He repented bitterly and at that point Job passed into the New Covenant and SAW GOD! (2 Corinthians 4:3-6, 3:18). The purpose of the book of Job is simply summed up in a single scripture, as always. For it’s the same story that happens to everyone God tries to save in this time.
Acts 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Job realized how foolish his heart had been, and how foolish his soul had been for ever humoring its fears, for it made him behave “as a beast before thee” (Psalms 73:22)… and a beast cannot come to the mountain of God! (Hebrews 12:18-20).
That was why the beast-ruled Israelites were terrified because in their hearts they knew they were beasts! And any beast who approaches the Kingdom of God must be killed, because flesh and blood cannot inherit that mountain! (1 Corinthians 15:50). And that is why Paul said “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31). This is what it means when we are commanded to present our BODIES as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1). That’s why we must mortify – kill – the deeds of the body (Romans 8:13), crucify the flesh as Jesus did (1 Peter 4:1-2).
Read the original story in Exodus 19:12-13. The context of this is when the “trumpet soundeth long”. When is that? 1 Thessalonians 4:16. So this apparently trivial rule about an ancient mountain is in fact a prophecy of the return of Christ and the requirements for being able to approach that mountain when He returns!! For your soul to approach the mountain of God, your beast must die. It can either be stoned by God (Daniel 2:34) at His return to try again in the second resurrection with a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26), or cast through with a dart (Luke 2:35) by using the spirit of God to symbolically kill the beast yourself BEFORE His return! (Hebrews 4:12).
Job was called to approach that mountain. It was time for him to realize just how strong the beast had ahold of his soul, so he could set to work sacrificing it upon the altar daily, casting the word of truth through his heart like a spear to kill the works of the flesh. Because before you can ascend that mountain and be a part of the government of God, there cannot be the slightest chance that you would ever put the desires of your beast above the Truth. Any beast can hear about God, but if you ever hope to see God… you’ll have to leave your beast behind.