Help: biblical person raised by non-believers, became man of God?

by Awakened07 13 Replies latest jw friends

  • jaguarbass
    jaguarbass

    All the people in the old testament were unbelievers as far as I can tell. They were Jews which is not Christain and not JW.

    They deffinitely didnt believe in Jesus, thats why they killled him.

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    This may also be reminiscent of the rather flip-flopping WT treatment of Job.

    In the Insight book (1988), ad loc.

    A man living in the land of Uz, in what is now Arabia. (Job 1:1) God said concerning Job: "There is no one like him in the earth, a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad." (Job 1:8) This would indicate that Job lived in Uz at about the time that his distant cousins, the 12 tribes of Israel, were in slavery down in the land of Egypt. By then Joseph the son of Jacob (Israel) had died (1657 B.C.E.) after he had endured much unjust suffering but had kept his blamelessness toward Jehovah God. Moses had not yet risen up as Jehovah’s prophet to lead the 12 tribes of Israel out of Egyptian slavery. Between Joseph’s death and the time when Moses by his conduct showed himself to be blameless and upright, there was no human with integrity like Job’s.It was likely during this period that the conversations involving Job took place between Jehovah and Satan.—Job 1:6-12; 2:1-7.

    In the Watchtower 8/1 1992 (QFR):

    Should

    we understand from Job 1:8 that during the period when Job lived, he was the only human who was faithful to Jehovah?

    No. That conclusion is not justified by Job 1:8, which says:

    "Jehovah went on to say to Satan: ‘Have you set your heart upon my servant Job, that there is no one like him in the earth, a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad?’" God provided a similar assessment at Job 2:3, asking Satan: "Have you set your heart upon my servant Job, that there is no one like him in the earth, a man blameless and upright, fearing God and turning aside from bad?"

    The book of Job itself indicates that Job was not the only human alive whom God accepted as faithful. Beginning in chapter 32, we read about Elihu. Though being a younger man, Elihu corrected the error of Job’s outlook and magnified the true God.—Job 32:6–33:6, 31-33; 35:1–36:2.

    Consequently, God’s comment that ‘there was no one like Job in the earth’ must mean that Job was particularly outstanding as a man of uprightness. Likely Job lived in the interval between the death of Joseph in Egypt and the beginning of Moses’ service as God’s prophet. During that period a large number of Israelites resided in Egypt. There is no reason to think that all of them were unfaithful and unacceptable to God; probably there were many who trusted in Jehovah. (Exodus 2:1-10; Hebrews 11:23) Yet, none of them played a prominent role, as Joseph had, nor were those worshipers outstanding as to true worship, as Moses would be in leading the nation of Israel out of Egypt.

    Living elsewhere, though, there was a man of noteworthy integrity. "There happened to be a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man proved to be blameless and upright, and fearing God and turning aside from bad."—Job 1:1.

    Jehovah could thus mention Job as a conspicuous or notable example of faith and devotion. Similarly, Bible writers Ezekiel and James retrospectively singled out Job as setting a pattern of righteousness and endurance.—Ezekiel 14:14; James 5:11.

    Obviously they hadn't thought of Elihu before 1992.

  • Justahuman24
    Justahuman24

    Narkisson,

    I don't see where the "discrepancy" is. Just because they didn't mention Elihu doesn't mean he wasn't rightous or that the WTS didn't know or think Elihu was rightous. The point was that there was no one as righteous as Job was before Moses was chosen by God to lead the Israelites.

    Justahuman - but super nonetheless

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    Justahuman

    Note the shift from "faithful" to "faithful in a prominent role".

    The former version had been repeated several times before 1992 (actually I remembered it vaguely, and I left in 1986); afaik the latter one first appears in 1992, along with the mention of Elihu.

    Not that it matters a lot, of course...

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