(439) – GOD OF CONFUSION 2

We saw in the first study that men united with the purpose of getting to heaven. Jehovah declared that when men get together with one purpose there is no restriction to what they decide to do. And Jehovah confounded them and scattered them over the face of the earth, so that they might not carry out their project (Gen. 11:1-5). Could this be the only time that Jehovah confounded men? Concerning his people Israel, his firstborn son (Ex. 4:22), in the case of disobedience to the commandments, Jehovah says: “Jehovah will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me” (Deut. 28:20). And Jehovah says more: “Jehovah will strike you with madness, and with blindness, and with astonishment of heart” (Deut. 28:28). Astonishment is shock, faintness for terror. The fright and the confusion is so great, that the people lose control and find themselves lost. The text says: “And you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways: and you shall be only oppressed and robbed always, and there shall be none to save you” (Deut. 28:29). What confusion this is, for a chosen and beloved son (Hos. 11:1)! The confusion of Israel began on mount Sinai when they made the golden calf (Ex. 32:1-6). Stephen, the first martyr, reveals that god abandoned Israel so that they served the armies of heaven. And during the 40 years of wandering they served these idols (Acts 7:41-43). The scribe Ezra, around the year 457 B.C., 1,000 years later, in full Diaspora, said: “Since the days of our fathers we have been exceeding guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day” (Ezra 9:7). Amos the prophet also declares that Jehovah spread confusion among his people, saying: “The best of them is like a brier. The most upright is worse than a thorn hedge. The day of your watchmen, even your visitation, has come; now is the time of their confusion” (Micah 7:4). Micah lived from year 790 to year 750 before Christ.

Job, the sincere and upright, fearing god and who avoided evil, according to the words of the very Jehovah, became confused (Job 1:6-8), believing in the Scriptures where it says that Jehovah keeps the souls of his saints (Ps. 97:10). “For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the deadly pestilence” (Ps. 91:3). “No evil shall happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling” (Ps. 91:10). Job had ten sons and was very rich in cattle and sheep. And Job, faithful to Jehovah, sanctified his children. He rose up at dawn and offered sacrifices according to the number of them all, for he would say: “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts”. So Job continually did (Job 1:5).

What did Job reap for such a good sowing? Jehovah delivered him in the hands of Satan, saying: “Jehovah said to Satan, ‘Behold, all that he has is in your power. Only on himself don’t put forth your hand.’ So Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah” (Job 1:12). Satan killed Job’s ten sons, destroyed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yokes of oxen, and 500 donkeys, besides many servants (Job 1:3,15-19). What was Job’s reaction? He said: “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and JEHOVAH has taken away. Blessed be the name of JEHOVAH” (Job 1:21).

Satan, foaming with hatred with Job’s faithfulness, returns to Jehovah to try again to make Job blaspheme. Jehovah delivers Job again in the hand of Satan, who wounds him with malignant sores from the sole of his feet to the top of his head, this time (Job 2:7). For the second time Job did not sin with his lips (Job 2:10). But he plunged into confusion: Does not Jehovah, then, keep the house of his saints as it is written in the Scriptures (Ps. 128)?

Job, confused, declares: “When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness. My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me” (Job 30:26-27). And the confused Job continues to speak, saying: “My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will tell God, ‘Do not condemn me. Show me why you contend with me. Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?” (Job 10:1-3). Job, confused, questioned Jehovah: Why is this terrible evil happening to me? What about your promises? “If I have sinned, what do I do to you, you watcher of men? Why have you set me as a mark for you, so that I am a burden to myself?” (Job 7:20). Job keeps on asking Jehovah, saying: “Withdraw your hand far from me; and don’t let your terror make me afraid. Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, and you answer me. How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my disobedience and my sin. Why hide you your face, and hold me for your enemy? (Job 13:21-24).

Job was so confused and distraught, that he said to his friend Bildad, who was accusing him: “Know now that God has subverted me, and has surrounded me with his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard. I cry for help, but there is no justice. He has walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths. He has stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. He has broken me down on every side, and I am gone. My hope he has plucked up like a tree” (Job 19:6-10).

Jehovah declares that a curse without cause will not come (Prov. 26:2). And Job says: “For he breaks me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause” (Job 9:17). “God delivers me to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked” (Job16:11). “For God has made my heart faint. The Almighty has terrified me” (Job23:16). “For the arrows of the Almighty are within me. My spirit drinks up their poison. The terrors of God set themselves in array against me” (Job 6:4).

Whoever reads the Old Testament is terrified by the barbarous acts of Jehovah and his cruelty against all. Nobody escaped, and for this reason Paul declares that the Old Testament is the ministry of death and condemnation (2 Cor. 3:6-9).

Jehovah is the god of confusion! And if he does what he did with the righteous Job, what would he do with the unrighteous and the sinner?

We declare that we believe in the Holy Scriptures from cover to cover. They are the Word of God. We do not believe in Jehovah, the god of wrath, of the plagues, of pestilences, of curses, of death, of vengeances. We believe, instead, in Jesus Christ, who dove deeply in this abyss made by Jehovah to snatch us out of his hands.

  

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

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