"We would like to know what God is doing! We would like to pull aside the veil and see the end from the beginning! We would like to know the way that He is taking us, but if we did, and if we could see, we would not need faith to believe and accept GOD’S WAY. So Job, in the midst of all his deep afflictions, found comfort, not in the fact that he knew the reason and the answer for all of God’s dealings with him, but he took encouragement in the truth that GOD KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING! 'He knoweth the way that I take,’ he said confidently, and then his faith leaped over every barrier, and as he looked into the distant future, he cried, 'When He hath tried — tested and proved — me, I shall come forth as gold!' What a testimony, and truly it is ours too!

"Sure enough, a few days later, the horse, being well-domesticated, came back to where he could be sure there would be water and food. In the process he brought back twelve wild stallions with him. They were all quickly captured and ushered into the corral. Now when all the town heard the news, they came and they applauded and said, 'Oh, thirteen horses, what good luck!'

And the wise, old Chinese man said, 'How do you know it's good luck?' The townspeople remembered his words the next day when his son, his only child, tried to break one of the wild stallions. In the process, he was thrown off, he broke his leg and was left with a limp forever. When the neighbors heard about that, they came to him again and said, 'Your son, forever a cripple. What bad luck.' But the wise, old man said, 'How do you know that's bad luck?'

"About a year later, a Chinese warlord came through town, conscripted every able-bodied young man, and took them off to battle. They lost the battle. In fact, every young warrior was killed. The only young man left in the village was the maimed son of the wise Chinese man, for he had never been conscripted, thanks to his limp. The moral of this story is that we do not know the way that God is taking us, or the 'why' of the happenings in our lives, seemingly good or bad, but OUR FATHER KNOWS THE WAY THAT WE TAKE AND THERE IS DIVINE PURPOSE IN ALL THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL IN OUR LIVES!

"'The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days.' (Rev. 2:10.)

"Those 'ten days!' Let me explain to you what those ten days mean. Ten is the number in scripture that refers to personal testing....Therefore, in our text it denotes the fullness of tribulation! It does not indicate that the time will be either long or short, but it indicates that a certain definite period is allotted to the devil to test and try and prove the called and elect of God! This period is not determined by the devil, for the devil possesses no power of himself, but by the will and counsel of the Lord. The time is both limited and meted out to him by God. We see a beautiful picture of this in the life of Job!

"It is the Lord saying to each of His sons, 'You are not in a position to know how long your trials will last, but I know, and I can assure you that they will not last a day longer than is necessary for you. If the very hairs of your head are all numbered, and I take note of every sparrow that falls to the ground, you may rest assured that the minutest details of those trials and testings are being carefully weighed in my loving and omnipotent hands, and you will not be tempted above that you are able to bear. Even if the length of your tribulation and trouble were to cover the whole of your lifetime, that will be but ten short days in the unfolding of my magnificent plan for you in the age and the ages to come!'...

"...God is constructing a temple, made of living stones, through which to manifest Himself throughout the ages to come, and Satan was created as a chisel and hammer to be used in the construction of this building. The living stones that are even now being placed in this temple have been chosen, says the Lord, in the furnace of affliction (Isa. 48:10). God, however, is mercy; God is love; God is compassion. He is a healer, not a destroyer. It was, nonetheless, necessary that an oven be heated in which to purify the gold — a furnace in which the wood, hay, and stubble were to be burned. But God, in His nature of love, could not perform the necessary affliction!

"It was for this reason that He created an instrument that was capable of performing this essential action in the lives of men, for in Satan, God literally created a chastening rod. If we can realize that behind the acts of Satan is the mighty hand of God working to bring forth gold from these earthen vessels, we can rejoice, as David, in our afflictions and trials and exclaim with him, 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes' (Ps. 119:7).

"Praise God! When we begin to see the good that comes from the assaults of Satan on our lives, we are able to appreciate all the more the greatness of our God and the depth of the wisdom of His great mind. He is truly a God of might and power, and all things are in His hand — even this adversary whom we call the devil!

"Now, since such glories are in store for the sons of God, can any man longer question why our all-wise heavenly Father should take such pains to bring His sons to perfection? None knows better than He exactly what is needed to transform His sons from corrupt and carnal creatures of the dust to beings of divine understanding and heavenly glory. I have often said that I have strong confidence in the ability of my heavenly Father to bring me to perfection and maturity as a son of God. My Father is a great son-raiser! What a colossal success He was with His firstborn! Anyone who can raise a son like Jesus knows exactly what He is doing and can surely handle you and me, my precious brother and sister.

"There is a vast variety of events in our everyday lives uniquely designed to test every area the Lord would put His hand on. Each of us has had a unique set of tests and trials to go through to build the character of Christ in our life. Your trials have not been harder than mine, just different. We are distinct members of the Christ body, and the Lord's processings for each one varies according to His purpose in us and the place we shall fill.

When we were first called to this walk of faith, we had no idea what we were in for, and had we known we might have balked a little. Now that the heated reality is being driven home, we may want to balk a lot; but it won't do us any good if we have truly caught the vision of our calling. We are here for the long haul, and we will see the end together with and in our Lord.

While these processings forge on in our lives, we will be faced more and more with the one who has the power of death. We would love to see the accuser retreating for at least a short season; but let us not count on it right now; for it is not in his nature nor his calling to do so. He will continue to blow upon the coals until his work is done and we are finished. It is then that we will destroy him.

"That He through death might destroy him that had the power of death."

"It was, indeed, an awesome force to behold! There were legions of cancer and columns of heart disease; squadrons of viruses and battalions of infection. There were cohorts of malnutrition and armies of accidents. There were horsemen of fear and platoons of sin. There were squadrons of war and regiments of pestilence and plague. It was, indeed, the most fearful, the most formidable army which had ever been arrayed!

"He drilled them in the snows of the north and in the jungles of the south. He pitched the tents of the morgue, and threw up the embankments of the cemetery. He slew most with a single blow of the sword; others were taken by long sieges of evil habits. He knocked with his bony hands at the doors of hospital rooms, and at the doors of bedrooms. Presidents and prime ministers, kings and sultans, czars and dictators fell alike beneath the wheels of his war chariot. He was the victor in all battles!

"None could stay his hand or stop his advance, until……until that day when there appeared in Jerusalem one whose countenance was like the morning, one who strode forward unafraid and entered into the very camp of this giant himself. Death confidently reaches out its bony hands and takes this Jesus of Nazareth and lifts Him up from the earth and impales Him upon a cross. He then takes the mortal spear and plunges it into His heart. Jesus, with a loud cry, gives up the ghost and dies. Blackness and death cover the land and hope dies! There is none who can stay our foe, or so it seemed that dark day when the very earth trembled and shook under the power of death!

"Then — at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, when there was but the slightest shimmering of dawn on the horizon, a token of that which was to come, suddenly out of the blackness of the tomb emerged a figure clothed in white. Out of the tomb He came, His garments glistering with light. In the midst of that darkness the Prince of Life and the King of Death had been locked in mortal combat, the like of which the world had never seen. Christ came out, not to the roar of hundreds of thousands, but He came out alone, having conquered death within Himself. Like Sampson in Gaza, He tore up the gates of death and carried away the bars of the grave. Coming forth from that dark battle in the grave, He held in His left hand the broken seal of the sepulcher, and in His right hand the key to all the cemeteries of the world and every spectrum of death! And now the whole world is standing on tiptoe, waiting with bated breath, to behold the glorious sight of the FIRSTFRUITS OF HIS REDEMPTION coming forth — the many brethren of our Lord, who are destined by God's plan and purpose to be the next company to fully partake of HIS VICTORY!

"'For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own rank and order: Christ, the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His parousia. Then cometh the end (of the making alive), when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father....for He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death' (1 Cor. 15:22-26).

"Because of Christ's victory death shall be abolished for and in all men! Yet there is an order, a progressive unfolding of this wonderful work of God. The scripture quoted above clearly reveals that precise order. Jesus Himself was the first to fully and completely conquer death so that He lives, spirit, soul, and body, never to die anymore! Then by His parousia, which is His presence, His life shall so be raised up in a firstfruits company that these, His many brethren, the manifest sons of God, shall experience the full power of His resurrection and be so changed until their mortal and physical bodies are transformed and fashioned like unto His glorious body. Then, progressively, through God's great plan of the ages, this glorious salvation shall be ministered to all men everywhere by resurrection, restoration, and salvation. What a salvation! What a God! What a plan!" — J. Preston Eby, From The Candlestick To The Throne, Part 37.