Mortality from the Vantage Point of Angels

       ​In this encounter, the spirit was quoting the Word of God while making a wrong application in Job’s situation, similar to how the Devil quoted Scripture attempting to deceive Jesus Christ in Matthew 4:1-11.

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." - 1 John 4:1

"And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." - 2 Cor. 11:14

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed." - Gal. 1:8
 ​The Tempter can rarely succeed to ensnare godly men through outright immoral temptations, but through misinterpretations of Scripture or a misapplication of biblical truth he can deceive them by making them think that they are doing the right thing. Even so, where Satan failed to deceive the Son of God in Matthew 4:1-11, he succeeded with Eliphaz in Job 4:13-21 – thus Eliphaz and his friends were preaching and promoting right doctrine with the wrong application in Job’s unique situation. Demonic encounters serve their purpose as a little nudge to push godly men forward in a wrong direction. Where Eliphaz was cautiously suspicious before, he then became confident and resolved thinking that he knew all that he needed to know about Job’s situation (see Job 4:13-21, 15:15-16, 25:4-5).     The angel spoke the truth about how unjust and impure mortal men are in comparison to angels and God (Job 4:17). Job and his friends agreed with this doctrine. As the distant disciples of Adam, Seth, and Enoch, and the more immediate disciples of Noah, Shem, and Eber, these men knew all about the fall of angels and men in the Genesis of time, and the catastrophic consequences that followed in the justice of the Almighty (Job 4:18).

This is what the angel was emphasizing in his argument: the mortality of men (the presence of death) reveals their unrighteousness and impurity. For, even immortal angels were found to be impure in God’s sight (Job 4:18, Ezek. 28:15, Rev. 12:3-4); and, the angel argues, how much more are mere men to be despised, and justly condemned, seeing that men were made finite and weak insomuch that they perish every moment in comparison to angels.
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There is a bodily difference between men and angels (Lk. 20:34-38, 1 Cor. 15:35-51). The former are mortal and the latter are immortal. A man’s body is a physical and earthly body, while an angelic body is a “spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44, Heb. 1:14) – an otherworldly body whose excellence is like the flame of fire (Heb. 1:7). As it was written, “Who maketh His angels spirits; His ministers a flaming fire:” (Heb. 1:7). It is a good thing that God didn’t make the angels fleshly and earthly when they were originally created. The fact that God “maketh” the angels “spirits” is a marvelous feat of glory and excellence, namely because literally their spirituality is an excellence like “a flaming fire”.

If you were to see the unseen world of angels, their bodily appearance would look like fire. Of course, this is why the highest-ranking angels are called Seraphim or “Burning Ones” (Isa. 6:2), according to Isaiah the Prophet.

If you were to behold angels riding on heavenly horses, and angelic chariots, you would call them spiritual horses (Isa. 31:3), and thus you would describe them as “horses and chariots of fire” (2 Kings 2:11, 6:17). The same could be said of their weaponry. If you could see the kind of sword that these mighty angels wield, you would say that it is “a flaming sword” (Gen. 3:24). None could trespass the east side of Eden with the Cherubims standing guard.

If you were to behold the Throne of God in Heaven (Rev. 6:16, 20:11), like Daniel, then you would freely confess that “His Throne was like a fiery flame” (Dan. 7:9). Literally, the Seat of all power and authority in the visible and invisible universe, the Throne of God itself, is visibly and characteristically similar to the spiritual essence of other heavenly beings and objects.

If the Throne of God in all of its heavenly glory were to suddenly descend upon your location, as it did to Ezekiel by the river Chebar, the burst of majestic splendor at its sudden appearance would include “a whirlwind”, “a great cloud”, “a fire infolding itself”, and “a brightness…about it” (Ezek. 1:4). When and if you were able to make out the appearance of angelic beings in “the midst of the fire” (Ezek. 1:4), then “their appearance” would be “like burning coals of fire” or like “lamps” – a “bright” and otherworldly kind of “fire” that was mixed with the going forth of “lightning” (Ezek. 1:13). Visibly, the movement of the angels, in going & returning, would be “as the appearance of a flash of lightning” (Ezek. 1:14). Can you imagine it? This says a lot about the mobility of the Throne of God! While the Cherubim transported the Throne from beneath it like a chariot (Ezek. 1:4, 13-14), whether they were standing stationary at the moment, or they were moving in the transport of it, you would freely confess that the angels and wheels at the base of the Throne are like “wheels of burning fire” (Dan. 7:9; Ezek. 1:2-28, 3:13, 10:1-22, 11:22).

​​The sight of the Throne being stationary is equally impressive. If you were to watch from afar as hundreds of millions of angels in their courses are coming and going from before the Throne of God, like Daniel did (Dan. 7:9-10), even as the angels are attending to the divine commandments that can be audibly heard from the Throne, then how do you think you would describe the vision? As the fiery angels go to and fro all at once with unimaginable speed like lightning (Ezek. 1:13-14, Ps. 103:19-22), the vision of the angelic thoroughfare in the eye of the beholder would appear to be “a fiery stream” that is coming out from the Throne of God (Dan. 7:10).   What a dreadful sight this must have been for the prophets of old! Nevertheless, “Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:” (Job 4:18). Despite their dignity and superiority, God didn’t even put his “trust” in “His angels” (Job 4:18). Alas! They were found to be untrustworthy in the fall (Rev. 12:3-4).

Therefore, the angel that was speaking to Eliphaz implied that Job, as a mere man, shouldn’t trust in himself, for in doing so he is exalting himself against angels and God. Do you understand this ancient line of reasoning (Jude 1:8-10)? The sinfulness of men is magnified in the fragility of their mortal lives – they dwell in “houses of clay”, and their weakness and movableness is like a “foundation” in “dust” (Job 4:19; Matt. 7:26), namely in that they are easily “crushed” – like the garment before the moth, inglorious men are feeble and defenseless before the power of the worm (Job 4:19-20). The feeding stages of the moth when it devours garments is before metamorphosis, when the moth is a mere larva worm.

The angel went on to say, “they perish for ever without any regarding it” (Job 4:20), which is to say that men perish so frequently, and nearly continuously, there are people dying worldwide “from morning to evening” (Job 4:20). Statistically, a staggering 56 million people worldwide die every year! This comes out to around 6,000 people every hour, 106 people every minute, and ≈2 people dying every second of the day. Immortals looking on at this situation are amazed to behold the destruction. The frail bodies of the strongest of men can fall sick in the morning and utterly perishing in the evening, not unlike grass dies in a single day when exposed to the burning heat of the sun (Ps. 90:6). Like an insignificant grass blade, which perishes without anyone “regarding it” (Job 4:20), even so it is with men in respect to their mortality as it is compared to a superior race of immortal angels. The mortality of men is their doom. By the virtue of committing one sin…they all must die (Gen. 2:16-17, Ezek. 18:4, 20). Therefore, mortality is the curse of human depravity.

However, this dogmatic declaration, “they perish for ever” (Job 4:20), or others like it (Job 14:14, 16:22), do not deny the existence of the resurrection, seeing that Job and his friends knew about and believed in the resurrection (Job 14:14). This statement perfectly agrees with other declarations of Scripture that emphasize the destruction of wicked sinners without denying the resurrection (Ps. 39:13, 92:7). The constancy of death seizing mortal men throughout all time is being emphasized.

Nevertheless, with respect to the afterlife, men who die in want of salvation do indeed perish forever. Evidently, in this sense, these words are fulfilled in the resurrection of the damned. For, even though the damned souls of sinners are resurrected, and thus rejoined to their human bodies, it is not so that they would live among the inhabitants of the earth, or return to life as normal in the world that they loved; rather it is for them to be judged by Christ before the Great White Throne, and from thence to be cast into the Lake of Fire (“the second death” – Rev. 20:6, 14, 21:8), which will eternally destroy both the bodies and the souls of sinners.

In conclusion, the dogmatic statements of the Book of Job need to be taken in context. Otherwise, interpreters will assume that the belief system of these ancient saints was very primitive and even erroneous. Many heretics resort here to support false doctrines that are contrary to the full body of Holy Scripture.

“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” - Job 14:4 [Job 15:14, 25:4-6]
 One might think that Job and his friends imagine everyone to be unclean, or that true righteousness is unobtainable to sinners, or that nobody can truly be forgiven of their sins (Job 14:4, 15:14, 25:4-6), but that is obviously not what they are meaning in these various instances based upon other acknowledgements within the discourse. The dogmatic statements made by ancient saints must be interpreted within the context of all that they affirm to be true in the lengthy doctrinal discourse of the Book of Job.