Rethinking Job
This blog looks at the difficult Book of Job. Then an update on shop work, including getting ready to fabricate Jacob's branches for the Fig Tree. Finally, a headline review, especially the Houthis and Gaza.
Normal Views on Job
Long ago, Ryan and I were pretty active in certain church circles. One part was based in mainline denominations, the other was in spirit lead revival meetings.
That split aligns well with a common split in interpretation on the Book of Job. The question, ultimately, was Job in the right?
In our unscientific estimation, seminary trained preachers basically would preach that Job was in the wrong, and that Job's 3 friends were in the right. Job's 3 friends take positions that seem to resonate with modern preachers.
But, preachers who had personal encounters with Joshua (Jesus in those days) would side with Job. This mostly because such encounters are rare and usually life changing. The tail end of the Book of Job is the record of one such encounter. It does not matter much what was spoken to Job in that encounter. That Job had a face-to-face encounter is what matters most.
Joshua does not waste any time with those he is not interested in. Many people in the modern world who seek such an encounter never have them. If they do, it is rarely face-to-face and detailed like we read about in Job.
For this reason, Ryan and I have always sided with Job. But, we have had trouble with content of the book. The book itself is complicated. Let me review the content, and do that with a guest speaker.
Animated Summary of Job (Bible Project)
The link here is to an 11 minute video that goes through the book of Job. This is done by the Bible Project. The founders of that group graduated the same Bible college that Ryan did in Portland, so they are more sane than some preachers.
They outline the book, and give a conventional explanation of the purpose of Job. This is a little more balanced, they ultimately acknowledge that the book sides with Job.
They, of course, are not weighing in any possible editing. Their fundamental interpretation is driven by the stories at the very end of the book. The reason for Job's suffering is said to be caused by the ultimate complexity of the world.
For Ryan and I there are 2 fundamental issues that we grapple with in everything we are now doing. The first is watching for content that is obviously in an editor's voice. The second is watching for hidden references to the exhibits in the Tent of Time.
Job is particularly difficult for both of these points. But, we are looking again into Job using what we currently know in these 2 areas. Let me work through that to show you what might really be going on with Job.
Previous Cuts on Job
In previous iterations of the TT, the book of Job was cut back to a basic minimum of content. Something is likely to be inspired in this book, but the general plot and content is very hard to figure out. We were also constrained by a small story count, so Job was cut back to a relatively small book.
We now think Job covers 1 complete row of 25 stories. So, much of Job is likely to be inspired. The part not likely to be inspired is the tail. So the conventional interpretation, which hangs on that tail, is not going to stand up. The editors added the tail in order to deflect from an inspired literary purpose. I will return to that problem below.
Another observation about the story of Job is that nobody else in the text appears to go through the same sort of personal disasters as Job. Especially curious is how this is in part driven directly because of an encounter between an accuser and Joshua himself.
Job is very interesting because he would get Joshua's attention at the front of the book. Joshua is interested in Job because of his personal character. That interest in Job is the context for that famous personal encounter at the end. Understanding what makes Job so special is the central problem with understanding the Book of Job. Previously, this has been baffling to us.
Dating of Job
We have also previously dated Job as likely around the time of the Babylonian invasion of Jerusalem. We have assumed he was in a tradition that was based on the Hilkiah scroll found in Josiah's day, so likely part of Jeremiah's thread of the tradition. This is also likely false.
Job is a man from the east, so likely out of the tradition created by Jonah's
missionary journey to Nineveh.
We have generally ascribed the trouble that Job goes through at the beginning
of his book to the Babylonian army marching to Jerusalem. This would not be
Job's fault, and many people through history have been through similar disasters.
It is not unusual to be caught in wars where the people involved are victims
simply because of where they live. Think people living in Ukraine, or living in
Gaza, or living in the UK under Arab invasion, even people in WWII in Germany.
But by shifting Job to being an heir to Jonah's missionary journey to Nineveh,
we widen the possible timeline for Job. He is not likely caught in the Babylonian
invasion of Jerusalem. He now floats in time, maybe up to a couple hundred years
earlier.
More in keeping with the opening of the Book of Job, he was probably personally
attacked after Joshua himself called the test. So our normal villains, the
geographically disbursed heirs of the Jebusites, are likely personally attacking
him.
Let me go back across some these points so we can get to the heart of the Book
of Job.
When the Table of 400 app was expanded to 625, Ryan began a process of
reviewing all content across the text, looking for places where inspired stories
are likely lurking, but which have been overlooked for various reasons.
This is in an effort to fill out a grid of 625 expected stories. I have
previously covered work in this area. This includes the expansion of the NT to
include most of the Gospels. This includes a long cut of Revelation. It also
includes restoring a complete set of the various Epistles. Those earlier changes
were driven by this same work of filling out a table with 625 stories. This is
happening in part because we understand much better the exhibits that go with
the Megiddo Mosaic.
Tobit will probably also be added, but that review is still future. Tobit
is going to be in the same missionary flow as Job, in that Tobit will follow
under the missionary work of Jonah to Nineveh.
The Book of Job was another book where there was the possibility of finding
a complete run of 25 stories. This is relatively rare. Most books are shorter.
By covering 25 stories, Job takes up 1 complete row in the table. There is easily
enough content in the Book of Job passed to us by history to fill out a whole row.
What matters is making heads or tails of very difficult writing.
The first tool for finding 25 stories is to look at the content of the Book
of Job from the perspective of internal chiasm.
Each row of stories folds in on itself like the 25 letters of the alphabet
fold on each other. This folding shows up in written text as a chiastic
structure, so matched or folded internal content.
In chiastic writing, content at the beginning matches in some important way
to content at the end. For a full row of 25 stories this means the first 12
stories will match in reverse to the next 12 stories. Then there is going to be
a final lurking story that is not chiastic. That last story is the Quad glyph
and is often focused on Joshua in some way.
So the first pass was to see if Job has any pattern that would demonstrate
such a structure. Ryan found it, and has added notes to the 400 app for
what he found. Let me give you the link, and then move on to tackle what might
be going on with the literary purpose of Job.
The link here is to the front page of the 400 app. The book of Job is
currently listed on the Yo row, so the hand. Doing final placements of books
like Job on the rows of the table is still some time away. But, there is reason
to think Yo is a good candidate for the final location for the Book of Job.
The Yo is a hand. Hands can be used for many things, but the highest call of
the hand is to write. There is a famous quote from Job that plays well to this.
Job 19, starting at vs. 23, reads: "That my words were now written.
That they were inscribed in a scroll. That they were engraved with an iron pen
on lead or in the rock forever. For I know that my savior lives
and at the end he will reveal himself on the land."
This quote also has a bunch of implications relative to the exhibits in
the Tent of Time. To write inspired text requires that Job had access to
those exhibits. He must have known how to audit text and he must have known
how to cipher those texts.
Let me make clear, the Book of Job will have been written by Job himself.
He would have done so near the end of the events described within the book,
so perhaps decades after the opening disasters. All the words of Job's
friends are Job's retelling of those words, to fit some purpose of Job himself.
Skipping ahead here briefly, where did Job get access to the exhibit items?
Likely he is an heir not just to Jonah's missionary trip to Nineveh, but to
the artifacts in the tent that Jonah setup outside the city of Nineveh.
Jonah took a copy of those items to Nineveh. The Ninevites listened. Jonah
must have setup an ongoing tradition that survived for some time. Job must have
had access to those items in order to write inspired text.
But, let me suggest even more precisely. Building a tower is expensive.
This NT idea suggests that any attempt to fully build out the items is not
something just anyone could go do. When we set out ourselves to do this, we
are to consider the cost of the entire set of exhibits and the rooms they
inhabit. (See Luke 14:21.)
Moses took up an offering in order to pay for the construction of those
items in his day. Naaman the commander provided the funds to rebuild the
exhibits lost when Naboth was killed and his vineyard was taken.
Job was a man of means. He was probably not just familiar enough with those
items in order to write inspired text, he was probably something like the
guardian of Jonah's set of items that were still in existence in Job's day.
Those items are what someone destroyed early in the Book of Job. The accuser
that caused Joshua to lift his hand from Job was ultimately causing Joshua
to lift his hand of protection off of the eastern copy of the Tent of Time.
This was not an invading army, but a deliberate attack on Job's religion.
This was prefiguring what would later happen at the close of the NT. This is
prefiguring what happened to the room at the Megiddo Mosaic.
So going back to the 400 app, you can scroll down to the Yo row and see
that it lists Job as the likely content for this row. You can click on the
left header for that row. It pops up notes for the row and in those notes
Ryan lays out his current evidence for the chiastic structure of the Book of
Job.
So far, Ryan shows strong evidence for the front and back of this book
as having clear and strong chiasm. The stories in the middle, which are basically
the dialog between Job and his friends, are very much less clear. But, those
back and forth dialogs fill out the row in a clear and obvious way. The trouble
in the middle is only one of how to read those dialogs.
The important point to notice is the tail end of Job, from which we get the
traditional understanding of Job, that the world is complex, is not part of
the chiastic structure. An editor added a tail to the book to hide the inspired
literary purpose. Someone from the Jebusite's religious tradition attacked
and destroyed the remaining artifacts kept in the east.
In particular, note how the book starts with a dot, Job's possessions and
wealth. That folds to the colon, which lists the doubling of Job's possessions
at the end. So Job started with the exhibits. They were destroyed for a cause
not his own, and then they were restored. Job must have restored those items
himself in order to write his book.
Stepping 1 set into the chiasm, at Wa, the accuser goes up to god
and suggests that Job will not remain faithful should everything be taken from
Job.
Stepping 1 story back, at the Ta, this same story is matched to the famous quote
at the back of Job. Who is this that darken's my counsel. That speaks empty
words without knowledge. The chiastic structure suggests this famous quote
is written against the original accuser of Job's character. That Job's character
was sound.
But additionally, this Ta story is where Job is questioned in various ways.
The vocabulary of those challenges does not currently match vocabulary we know
surrounding the exhibits, but this is likely written as a challenge to readers
who know those exhibits. We are likely reading about them using yet more
symbolic vocabulary.
Stepping another pair into the structure, at the Ba, at the front, lists
the 4 messengers who reported the 4 calamities that happened to Job.
And again, stepping 1 story back, to the Sha, we find Elihu who is the 4th
to verbally attack Job.
These matches are enough to set the story structure in Job. The dialog
between Job and his friends nicely unfolds across the middle of the book
following the alphabet in the normal way. You can explore the row to see this
for yourself.
There are 24 thrones that encircle Joshua's throne in the throne room. Those
seats are filled with exemplary men who demonstrated high faith in their own
life stories on earth.
Examples include Noah, Abraham and Moses. All 25 of these men usually endured
particular hardships. For example, Noah had to build a ark, he transfers from
the old world to the new. Abraham left Ur to live in tents in Canaan.
Moses, left the good life in Egypt for a life of a shepherd. But then Moses was
called back to Egypt and ultimately lead his people in the wilderness.
The men who occupy those seats appear to be writing prophets. Job is one of
them.
So the test of Job is going to be like the various tests that the other
permanent occupants of the throne room also went through.
The test at the beginning, where Joshua focuses attention on Job, is likely
a test to see if Job is someone who is qualified to occupy a seat in that throne
room. This whole test of Job is his personal version of the tests that the other
occupants of those thrones also went through.
The encounter with Joshua at the end of Job is explaining that he has passed
this test and he has been accepted as another king to sit in one of those thrones.
The king at the front, who roams throughout the earth, is likely Moses.
Remember, the term "accuser" is the translation of satan. The king who came to
Balaam had come to satan him, or accuse him. Anyone can take on that role.
But, what was Job's actual test? What was the attack? What was Job's
task such that he recovered and showed himself to have passed this test?
Short answer is that Job had to do the same work as Moses. Job had to
rebuild a complete set of Tent of Time exhibits. Some of this would have
been from his knowledge of the 3d system's first principles.
The 3d systems are not enough. Some of this must be "found in the vault"
as it was in Joshua's day. For us, from the Megiddo Mosaic floor. For Job,
Abraham's cave was far away and could not be used. Job would have used his
detailed personal knowledge of the exhibits that were lost. He knew what to do
because he knew well the set of exhibits from Jonah that was destroyed.
Job presumably had to do this himself. It was a serious test of how well
he knew those items. Lest those around him loose the ability to become walk
offs. What was in his head was the equivalent of what was in Abraham's cave.
Job also had to do this from a starting point of poverty. He is recorded
as having lost so much wealth that he had to beg is own sons for food. So he
had to do this with Joshua's favor and provision.
Consider the vocabulary use of friends and family around Job, both at
the front and back of his book. These are probably symbolic for the community
that was centered at those same exhibits. They were gone when the exhibits
were gone. They returned when the work of recovery was done. He had to do
this mostly alone.
The Book of Job appears to be the telling of an event in history when
the complete set of exhibits were both lost and recovered in the long life
span of a single man.
But the macro lesson is that various parties will want to destroy those
exhibits in order to prevent spread of the true texts, the true gospel.
Normally, but not always, Joshua will protect those exhibits. But there
are times when he will not. We are currently in a very long period in history
when those exhibits have been lost. Currently we are around 2000 years since
the last time those items were lost.
We can take some comfort from the stories in Daniel that suggest a stone
will strike the statue and slowly grow to fill the earth. The time for that
to happen is in our generation. Once that happens, it will not be lost again.
The link here is to a story in Job 40 which appears to be Job's commission
after Job has passed his test.
He is told various things, but in particular, to dress himself in glory
and beauty. This is fitting for a throne room king. Then he is told to look
on everyone who is proud and demean him. Finally, to cast the wicked into their
place.
Besides having earned his spot in the throne room, he does some of this
within his own book. Ryan has found a first example, and likely the entire
book is written this way. Let me show you.
The link here is to Job 8 in the BRB. Use the options menu to turn on
Notes and Enumerations to see what is going on here. At this chapter there
are 2 tables in the notes section. The first lists off the alphabet and the
letter meaning. The second table, the Folded Table, shows Bildad's speech
folded through the verse level chiasm.
Remember, this is Job writing many years later.
Each point seems to highlight the differences between Bildad and Job.
Bildad is telling on himself.
Wa/Ta: Bildad is the speaker, but those who hate (Job) will be destroyed,
including their wicked tent. So Bildad hates Job and took part in destroying
the tent that Job maintained. Bildad will eventually will loose his synagogue.
Ba/Sha: Job is accused of speaking proud words, but Job's mouth will be
filled with laughter and song. So, this calls out the poetic structure of Job
and indicates Job is not operating from pride, but truth.
Ge/Re: Does god pervert justice? No, and he does not help evildoers.
So, Job was helped, not Bildad.
Du/Qu: Does god pervert the right? No, and he does not reject upright men.
So, Job is upright, Bildad is not.
Fe/Ze: Sons sent away for own transgressions. Others will spring up.
So, Bildad will be replaced.
Ve/Pe: Make supplications to god. He will say I have not seen you.
So, Bildad may make supplication, but will not be heard.
Jo/Oo: Habitation prosperous. House will become a heap of stones.
So, Job returned to prosperity, but Bildad's house became a heap.
Ha/Sa: House starts small, great at end. House will not endure.
So, Job's house doubled, and became very great at the end. Bildad did not endure.
The/Ne: Ask former generation. Will forget.
So, Job restored what was passed to him, the exhibits. Bildad's lineage forgets
those items.
Yo/Mo: Short lived. Wither when green.
So, Bildad accuses Job of being short lived, but Bildad will wither when green.
Ku/Lu: Papyrus grows. Reeds grow.
So the text grows as writing on Papyrus, but a reed will judge Job's writing
as inspired.
The list I have sketched out here suggests that there is a way to read
the Book of Job based on the low level internal structure driven by the alphabet.
There is still very much work to do. It will be much easier to do once Job has
been through the letter level audit process. That work is still ahead.
I spent several days over the past couple weeks working on software for the
VR app. This is not yet finished, but is intended to allow us to merge the
Greek text into the existing Hebrew/English version of the VR. This software
handles the very nasty problems related to divergent versification. More details
on this work in future weeks.
This week my shop work has mostly been focused on the new 3d printer.
Mechanical assembly, wiring, and microcode flashing was finished. This version
of the printer uses a "can bus." This electrical and communication system was
originally designed for use in automobiles. It dramatically simplifies wiring.
Broken wires are the main cause of reliability problems in the original
design for this model of 3d printer. But, use of a software controlled
communication bus means a more complex software setup. This was new to me and
had a serious learning curve for what turns out to be a pretty simple system.
Finding accurate documentation for the software install was a problem. The
electronics boards that came from China with the kit are the most recent versions.
Some of the manufacturer's documentation for those boards was written in English
but by Chinese who are ESL. This is only fine if the buyer already knows
generally how these boards work. Some of the key data was simply screen captures
of various tools.
Most of the existing, and usually better, online documentation was 1 hardware
generation back. Finding the correct versions of the online docs meant crafting
of the right search terms. This was not easy. Search engines, especially AI
driven search engines, are based on majority voting, thus usually wrong.
For anyone working on AI systems, let me remind you all, Wide is the road that
leads to destruction. Narrow is the road that leads to life. Only a few will
find it.
In the end, the controller boards needed to be flashed with the correct
controller related software and configuration values. That was finally done
with the most recent software revisions late this past week.
Preflight testing of installed hardware is next, then calibration and first
prints are still to come. Hopefully this will be finished next week. Once this
printer is running well, I intend to update the electronics of the older Voron
that is still in the shop.
The link here is to Genesis 30:37 in the BRB. This is the start of a passage
where Jacob prepares branches using the watering trough for his flocks.
The procedure he uses is normally thought to be responsible for why his flocks
multiplied. As such it makes little sense. Editors probably bulked up this
passage in order to force this as the reason his flocks multiplied. Ryan has
had this grayed out for a long time.
This passage is actually about how Jacob prepared the branches for the Vine and
Fig Tree exhibits that he was building. Like Job later, Jacob had to build his
own set of exhibits. When Jacob was sent away from Esau, Jacob was separated
from Abraham's set.
In particular, that passage describes peeling those rods to partially expose
the lighter interior color of the rods. It describes soaking those rods in water
in order to be able to bend them into the permanent shapes that are needed for the
exhibits.
Jacob's flocks probably did multiply because of this. But this passage is a
symbolic passage about how the Fig Tree was constructed and how it allowed
multiplication of Jacob's collection of stories. That exhibit would thus have
created the favor of Joshua on Jacob, which is how the flocks multiplied. Same
pattern as Job.
There are good 3d reasons why these branches should be fabricated as 8 sided
and in 2 colors. So in the 3d printed plastic versions that I am working towards
building, I need to do the design for multiple different plastic filaments. I
thus need the equipment for 3d printing these parts.
One of the Prusa printers in the shop has a multiple filament feeder. I
added it late last year when I updated the printers. This has turned out to
make running the shop much easier for many of the printed parts in the exhibits.
All of the writing on colored squares, so all the quilt squares, are run on that
machine.
But the branches, especially with the long cubit, will be run on the large
format Vorons, not the Prusas. So I also need a multiple color add on for those
printers.
I purchased, but never built, an ERCF filament feeding kit for this. I
started printing parts long ago, but was prophetically told to stop. I would
later learn that design was so bad that few builders got it working correctly.
There is a version 2, finished in mid 2024, but most Youtubers dealing with that
kit also report various troubling build failures related to a poor design.
I have my eye on a radically different Voron capable filament feeder, the
Box Turtle feeder, which I may add to the shop here soon. More on that later.
Worst case, I can do filament changes by hand, and will design the parts so
a filament feeder is not absolutely required.
Starting around Saturday, March 15, 2025, the Israeli occupied US Navy began
bombing operations on various Houthi targets in Yemen. The Houthis had verbally
come against resumed genocide against people living in Gaza, in particular
cutting off food, water and electricity from the Gaza strip. A couple days later
the Israelis opened a second front and began again to bomb targets in Gaza.
Israel also started cutting Gaza into 2 parts, following nearly their same battle
plan as October 7, 2023.
This is likely the start of the 20 prophetic days we are currently watching for.
In particular that story calls out Canaan as the venue. When I wrote up that
watch date I had not considered the Houthis as a possible fulfillment. They are
about the only active allies of the people living in Gaza.
If this is the correct headline match, it should end around April 5, 2025.
There is several days of slop in this dating. Is it the resumed ground blockade of
Gaza? Is it the US Navy bombing Yemen? Is it bombing of Gaza? Or something
else? So the April 5, 2025 date is sloppy.
There is widespread speculation that Netanyahu will use the American military,
as well has his own, to attack Iran in the coming days. We will see if this
happens within this prophetic window, or else if it happens in a future prophetic
cycle. It is unclear from the prophetic stories why Iran would be involved
at this time.
Complicating factors with an attack on Iran is how Iran has some amount
of backing from China and Russia. Iran is also thought to be a formidable
military foe, able to target Israel at will. Iran can more importantly
target Arab ports supplying oil to the west. Iran is the last formal opposition
to Netanyahu's greater Israel plans.
Something else, say an attack on Iran, could still trump this particular
Yemen based headline selection. In any case, the 20 day interval should end by
April 19, 2025.
Here are some specific headline links that are related.
Not sure exact time, but 2025-03-15, so Saturday night, it looks like
the US bombed Houthi targets in Yemen. Yemen then retaliated with attacks
against the USS Truman in the northern part of the Red Sea.
The link here is to commentary on Judge Nap with Scott Ritter. This is
being widely thought to be in preparation for an attack on Iran, a long held
objective of Israel.
Israel may want the Houthis to sink the USS Truman to bring the US public
on board with a war against Iran. Think USS Liberty.
The link here is to an RT post on X with drone video of large protests
in Turkey over Erdogan's arrest of his main political rival, the current mayor
of Istanbul.
Turkey is one of the wild cards in the Middle East. Currently apparently
working with Israel to subdue Syria, but perhaps not an ally forever. Who rules
Turkey will have a major say in future events in the Middle East.
The link here is Hal Turner's website. He posted an article that indicates
France has ordered citizens out of Iran. This is almost certainly because
officials in France know the Israeli war plan. Specific articles go behind a
paywall, so search their if you want the particulars.
More Later,
Phil
Expanding The 400
Table of 400 App
Job Row Chiasm
So Why Did This Happen?
What Test, Exactly?
Risks of Loss
Job 40:6+ (BRB)
Job 8 (BRB)
Software Work
Shop Work
Jacob's Branches
Multiple Colors
Watch Dates
US Bombs Houthis
Large Protests In Turkey
France Orders Citizens out of Iran