And My Servant Job Shall Pray For You
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Concluding Day Of 1953 Class
Uranda August 14, 1953
We come to our morning class in the GPC Servers Training School on this fourteenth day of August 1953, and this is the day that concludes the pattern and training in the Class work—we have two more weeks in which we will be studying that which has already been presented, in the review pattern, and probably there will be some specific points brought out, but what we do in the Class must be done today.
In one of our earlier meditations we touched upon this pattern in relationship to the story of Job. We noted the sarcasm and the scorn, the insinuation, present in Satan’s attitude toward Job. I would like this morning to touch further upon this point because it is of such vital importance to us if we are going to serve God. Satan’s implication was that God had bought Job with special blessings, and if those blessings were taken away so Job would “curse thee to thy face.” Now, this outline has its application in relationship to the group, in relationship to the world as a whole, but it has its application in relationship to you. Your Job is your own awareness of spiritual things, your own consciousness of God, of what is right, the principle of centering in God. Your Satan is your own conscious mind, which sometimes gets self-active and tries to convince you that it’s impossible for you to find your own true fulfillment—perhaps it’s alright for someone else, but you can’t do it. And the Lord is your own reality, and attunement with the accepted pattern of focalization in the body of invisible Deity. Here is the revelation of yourself; not just someone in the long distant past—here is a picture of yourself. And Job’s wife represents your own self-active or uncontrolled emotional nature, feeling nature.
After all of these difficulties—we recall first that he lost his sons and his daughters; that was the initial step of the fall as it related to man as a whole, for this is the picture of the situation as it was in the Divine State, and then the picture of the fall of man, when Satan persuaded certain human beings, or certain ones of the Divine men and women of that day to become self-active. And the loss of the sons and daughters signifies the loss, from the standpoint of man as a whole, of the contact with the Seven Planes of Being, the loss of dominion over the three outer Planes of Being—the first step of the fall away from God. But Job remained centered. The pattern around him was breaking to pieces, but he remains centered. Here in this story of Job we see the whole panoramic picture of the story of mankind from the beginning to the pattern of the restoration.
Sometimes human beings think of Job and they say, “Well, that teaches us to have patience”, and we hear about the patience of Job. Well, there is patience, and it is important; but anyone who says that that is the main thing to be learned from the story of Job simply has never seen the story as it is; they’ve never come to realize that this one Book of Job gives the story from the beginning when man was first created, what he was in the beginning—Job or Adam; it’s the same story with a different name, a different method of portraying, allegorically, through real experience yes; there are historical facts involved—but fundamentally these stories are concerned with revealing principle, the allegorical revelation of principle, and the cycles of outworking. So, from the state of the Garden of Eden on earth, everything the way it was supposed to be to start with, and the cycle of the fall, and then man’s loss—not just of his contact with the Seven Planes of Being, not just his loss of dominion over the Negative Triune World with the loss of the three daughters; there comes then the fact that the Sabians, as it’s put here, fall upon the “seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses” and so on, and they’re all taken away, and so on until the servants and all are, as we have it here:
“And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them…” and so on. Now the fire of God from heaven is another way of describing the cataclysmic changes that took place when the planets of the Solar System were thrown out of their orbits—they weren’t then during those cataclysmic changes in their orbits as now, because the changes that took place on earth affected the whole Solar System—the cycle was not limited just to this Earth; and there was a period of time when Venus was out of its orbit and there was a threatening of an actual physical collision between the Earth and Venus, and there were great flashes of fire or lightning between the two planets; there were great upheavals within the earth; there were terrific earthquakes and fire was belching out of the Earth part of the time; and great fountains of steam, water contacted the internal heat of the Earth and there were great steam explosions, water appearing, etc. When we realize that about three quarters of the Earth’s surface was originally land and only about one quarter of the Earth’s surface was originally water, and the water was under the Earth in subterranean passages and so on, we can begin to get some idea of the terrific convulsions through which the Earth itself passed. And each of these points, if we took time to really study and enlarge them, and see their correlation with the various things that actually took place in history it would be a fascinating thing, but we don’t have time to do so—I only touch the points.
But, “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.” He didn’t violate his own polarity with God. He didn’t blame God. He didn’t charge God foolishly. Now, wherever we turn in the world today we find people charging God foolishly, blaming God for things for which God is not responsible—charging God foolishly. And so there is the recognition that Job sinned not; he stayed centered. But “Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD and Satan came also among them”, to present himself before the Lord—and we need to remember that Satan does come to present himself before the Lord. “And the LORD said unto Satan, From whence cometh thou? Then Satan answered the LORD and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” The same answer. “And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the LORD, and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath he will give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face. And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.” But save his life. “So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2017/11/he-sat-down-among-ashes-from-new.html]. Then said his wife unto him; Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”
“Curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.” Now, this is of such great importance to us. Satan took the attitude that meeting the vicissitudes that he could impose through the patterns of self-activity in the world would cause Job to curse God and die. He even made him suffer. If any of you have ever had a boil you know what it’s like; and if you were covered with boils from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head you know what an utterly miserable, physical state it would be—and yet even that did not cause Job to violate the pattern of his integrity with God. He did not charge God foolishly; and when his own wife derided him: “Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die”, he answered her, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women.” So, Job did not give in. Absolutely everything, including his own physical health was taken from him; all that was left was life. God had said, take not his life; leave that—that was the one point.
Now here we begin to see that Job represents also the mass body of humanity. There is this application to you as an individual, and we could perhaps well take time to study each of these patterns of application more fully but we do not have it to spend right now. The point is, the mass body of humanity is pictured. Some of the parts of the body of humanity have violated that basic integrity but the body of mankind has never died. We need to remember that. The body of mankind has suffered. Individual human beings have died, but the body of mankind has continued from the day that man was created until this hour. The body of mankind has never died. Once we actually realize that, we see that while all these things have been taken away from man because he became subject to the self-active mind, the same restriction that was placed on Satan by God with respect to Job has applied with respect to mankind as a whole, all the way through history, all the way from the time of the fall down to the present time, and the body of mankind has not died.
There have been times when man was covered with sore boils, all kinds of sufferings and difficulties and miseries, and things were pretty putrid, but the body of mankind has never died—that was the thing that God said to Satan, the self-active mind: but take not his life. How is it worded here, “He is in thine hand; but save his life.” The whole body of humanity. And, there has been a part of this body of humanity yielding to the blandishments of the self-active mind which has taken the attitude, “Curse, God, and die. What have we got to lose?” But there has been a constant strain of those, a constant thread, perhaps where there was not clear comprehension of what it was all about, not a clear understanding of God or His Laws perhaps, but regardless of the boils, regardless of anything else, there have been those thousands and tens of thousands of men and women who, to the best of their understanding, be it ever so limited, have never knowingly violated their integrity; they have never knowingly or willingly cursed God. So, we see that this is the picture of mankind, not just one man, but all of mankind, and yet it portrays the Principles of Being in relationship to you, each one.
Now, for many there is a point of suffering, or disturbance or loss, or some kind of unpleasantness that will make that person turn aside, that will make that person decide, “Well, my old ideas are satisfactory; my old beliefs, my old something.” All right, let them go. They’re not worth a snap of your finger—let them go! If they have a sellout point, let them go! Only those who do not have a sellout point can be of any value in the service of our KING. What is the quitting point? When some pet prejudice gets upset? When some pet superstition is threatened? When some pet belief is shown to be false? When arrogance and human pride rise up, what difference does it make? If any individual has a sellout point, the devil will find it and that individual will go out of the pattern—and I wouldn’t turn a finger over to stop them, because anyone who has a sellout point is worthless as far as I am concerned. But Job didn’t have a sellout point. What does it take to make you quit? Is there something that could make you quit and turn aside? Turn aside to what? The patterns have been in the world as they are for a long, long time. Millions have tried to do the impossible, and they have failed. Anyone who wants to waste his life trying to do the impossible, let them go!
Out of the two billion people on the face of the earth, I am convinced that there are enough who have no sellout point, so that the job can be done. There are enough who have their basic integrity; who are interested only in the truth, not old beliefs and pet superstitions and prejudices; human beings who are not cowards; who are willing to dare to look at the truth and to see what it is, and to face the issue, and let the patterns of consciousness be changed. Oh, the world is full of quitters, the world is full of cowards, we know that, and it will be a constant sifting and sifting and sifting—but out of the two billion who live on the face of the earth there are thousands of men and women, tens of thousands, who do not have a quitting point, who do not have a sellout point; who won’t quit because some pet prejudice is disturbed; who are interested in knowing the truth without regard to human opinion or belief or concept; who are willing to let the dead things of the past bury themselves in the limbo of the past; who are willing to take an honest look at God and the truth, the reality of God’s love; who are willing to take an honest look at the reason for which Jesus Christ came into the world, who are willing to begin to understand Him, and see Him as our KING on earth.
Now, anyone who is not willing for his beliefs to be changed, anyone who is not willing to see things that he never saw before, anyone who is not willing to give up old concepts for the truth, cannot be used in building the machinery of reality—and we have to have the machinery before we can get the job done. I am not trying to do the job. I am only interested now in building the machinery so that we can do the essential job. If we went out trying to do the job—some people might imagine that here we are primarily interested in spiritual healing, as such. No, we’re not; we’re not at all—we are interested in helping people find themselves in relationship to God so that they can be a part of the machinery of reality, a part of the true body of Job. And all the boils and the putrid matter may in season be cleansed away. The world body of mankind is suffering from boils. There is a terrific one over in Korea; there is another one in Soviet Russia, and so on; and we have quite a few little ones around here in our own country. It’s not just on the other side of the body of the world. No, there are boils all over the body of mankind—and mankind has sat down in ashes, and many people have decided that they are just worms of the dust, with all kinds of concepts and beliefs. But the Master said, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
And one of the big things revealed here in the story of Job is that there must not, cannot be a quitting point if we are to have meaning in relationship to our LORD and KING, in developing the machinery which will allow the manifestation of His Kingdom on earth. The sellout point—what will it take to cause any human being to turn aside?—the quicker we find that the better. And if a person has no sellout point, no quitting point, no coward streak, then that individual has quality and integrity, something that we can use to the glory of God and the blessing of the children of men. As you go into the field, or as you serve wherever it may be, here or anywhere on the face of the earth, you are going to find all kinds of people who will try to discourage you, and say you are trying to do the impossible thing, that with all of these difficulties that you face, why don’t you quit? Why don’t you give up? What’s the use? Why not quit? Curse God, and die. “Dost thou still retain thine integrity?” Blessed Ones, if you have a sellout point it will be found. If you have a quitting point, it will be found.
But before we conclude this Pattern of Service in our School together as a Class, I wanted to draw your attention to these things so that that if you be tempted, as you will be—Satan, the self-active mind, whether in the form of your own mind or someone else’s—Satan will tempt you to quit. Satan doesn’t want the work of God done on earth [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2018/05/if-world-can-help-it-no-leader-shall.html]. Satan wants to defeat and destroy. The son of perdition is lost, and any man or woman who joins the body of the son of perdition is lost. I don’t care what they believe, what church they belong to, any concepts whatsoever—they’re lost. It’s only as human beings are drawn into the Body of the Son of God, the body of mankind—and that body of mankind is not going to die. According to this portrayal, and God gave it in many ways to man, Job didn’t die, his body was healed—and why was his body healed? Just so he could get well? No. Why is any human being healed? Just so they can be well and go out and do as they please. Not for a moment! The individual who is healed is no longer his own to do as he pleases; and if he tries to do as he pleases he will pay a terrific price for the sellout. But, the healing of the body of the boils is only incidental. We can’t fulfill our Mission covered with boils. The body of mankind—yes, we are interested in helping clean up the mess, get rid of the boils. Why?
If we consider Job’s latter state, what happened? He again has seven sons and three daughters, and all the things that were taken away from him or that he lost were restored unto him double; and he had fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she asses, and so on. Now if we try to do it so that we’ll get that reward, we’re going to fail. That won’t work, if we’re trying to get a reward. If you try to get to heaven, or get the reward of eternal life just for yourself you will fail. No, we’re not working for a reward, but to reestablish the pattern of the Garden of God on earth, or the Kingdom of God, for the Garden of God and the Kingdom of God mean exactly the same thing. We begin to see that we are here to serve our KING, to reestablish the pattern of the Kingdom here on earth; not to get something for ourselves, but to be the power of God, the Kingdom of God, the glory of God be made manifest on earth. And, when we do our part we share that which comes into fulfillment—that is true—but we are not trying to get something for ourselves. We are not even trying to be saved.
We must be able to walk into the valley of the shadow of death without fearing any evil, without responding to it. We will be working for a good while yet, probably more than the present lifetime of a good many of us, in clearing this pattern. We will be walking in the valley of the shadow of death. If we fear evil, if we are afraid to face the issues of life, if we are afraid to look at the truth for fear our pet superstitions will be dislodged, we are not going to get very far. It’s always been an interesting thing to me to watch human beings who are controlled by prejudice and superstition, because they have their pet ideas but they have so little faith in their pet ideas that they don’t dare to look at some other ideas. If you know the truth you can look at anybody’s ideas and not have to run. If you can’t walk into the valley of the shadow of death without a tremor, you’re not a real server. If you can’t look at any issue anywhere, without a sellout point, without a quitting point, you’re not a real server.
We’re not so much concerned about what happens to our physical lives. We want to serve God as much and as fully and as long as we can. But danger to the physical life sometimes causes people to turn aside, and if we have so little faith in that for which we stand that we would quit rather than establish some danger for our own physical lives, we don’t amount to much. Danger for our lives—what are we trying to do? Just keep ourselves alive to get a reward of some kind. No—not if we’re serving our KING. It isn’t that we’re going to try to die for Him. We’re going to live for Him. But if it means danger to the physical life, our loyalty, our patriotism, our integrity would not permit us to turn aside. We are to function according to wisdom, the sense of the fitness of things, to do the right thing, but if we are more concerned about saving ourselves than we are about serving others, we can’t serve others. We destroy ourselves.
“Dost thou still retain thine integrity?” And there will be those who whisper, sometimes even your own human mind, “Curse God, and die! What’s the use! I’m going to throw up the sponge and go out and do what I want to do, the way I want to do it.” OK, go ahead. If under that stress pattern you turn to me for help to retain your integrity, I’ll help you; but if you decide just to quit I’ll help you do that too, and give you a nice boost right on out, because I don’t care about the individual. I love to have individuals respond; my love is for each one, but only in relationship to value to my KING—that’s all! As soon as an individual violates that, reveals a quitting point, in the sense of actually determining to do it and setting out on that course, I’m not interested any more. I don’t care what happens to that individual—just not interested any more. I don’t care who it is. Why? Because my hands are full serving those who have integrity, who aren’t cowards, who are willing to face the truth, willing to let their pet superstitions be tossed into the trash heap; and there are too many people responding, too many people who do have that integrity, and who are important to the outworking of God’s Plan. I’ll work with them, and I haven’t any time to waste with quitters. If there is a weak point I am willing to assist, yes, because I would that each and every one should share the victory. But for the quitter, I have nothing. That’s right—for the quitter, nothing. After he is a quitter, I don’t even have contempt; as far as I am concerned he doesn’t exist—he’s done! he’s finished! he’s through! We need to come to the point where we realize that our job, the fulfilling of our task is more important than we are individually—more important than I am as a person, or you, or anyone else—getting our job done for our KING, to serve Him.
This story of Job pictures the cycle of man’s fall, the period of his degradation, and the beginnings of his movement back to the Divine Estate. We live in this story. This story includes the moment in which we now live. We have a part to play because part of the story extends into the future, yet beyond us. Part of it is behind us. But if we turn over here, we find the Great Examination—the great examination that is of vital importance to each and every one of us. And following that examination, we find the story of the restoration: “And it was so, that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job, the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath.” Now Job had three friends—perhaps we ought to stop and take just a moment, because it is so interesting; just a moment to see how these three friends came to try to comfort him.
“Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him—Job’s three friends; three again; three again; the three outer phases of man’s being, yes; the three outer Planes of Being; and three aspects of man’s nature. Now let us see—“they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite”—and if you want to find something interesting look up in a Bible dictionary the meaning of these names. Zopher the Naamathite means the chatterer. The chatterer, the individual who is living primarily from a physical standpoint; they’re always running off at the mouth. They chatter, chatter, chatter and never say anything; they’re absolutely not worth listening to; they’re just running off at the mouth. The chatterer, and wherever you go you’ll find chatterers, and so on. Stop and look at that, perhaps look it up for yourself and see what those names mean according to the Bible dictionary. You might find something interesting, something helpful.
Anyway, Job’s three friends tried to comfort him, and they said all kinds of things, and they kept insisting that Job had sinned, that Job had done something wrong! Now look all around us in the world, the concept with respect to original sin, for instance—the three friends, the three wise men, here is Job in this state and his three friends do their best to convince Job that he had sinned or he wouldn’t be in this condition—and all around us we have people believe that God produced evil, that God somehow willed the tragedy, that God intended man to fall, that every human being is under some kind of a stigma of original sin. Superstitions and concepts alla round us that absolutely deny the fact. But Job sinned not—he refused to take the position that he had violated, himself, the principles of Being. And so, while he remained humble before God he did not take the attitude of charging God foolishly.
And the LORD continued, “Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering”—not for Job. He didn’t say take seven bullocks and seven rams and go and offer up an burnt offering for my servant Job. He says, “offer up for yourselves a burnt offering.” Now what are the seven bullocks and the seven rams? The bullock is the consciousness, the symbol of the mind, in relationship to the Seven Planes of Being—your awareness of the Seven Planes of Being to be offered up as a burnt sacrifice given in love to God; and your physical awareness, and emotional awareness, mental awareness, must be offered up. Whatever that awareness is, with respect to the things of God, the Seven Planes of Being, etc, sooner or later you must offer it up, a burnt sacrifice—give it to God in Love, inadequate though it may be, incomplete, because your awareness is limited yet, but once you give it to God—He says, “And offer up for yourselves a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you.” It wasn’t a request that they should pray for Job so that he could get out of his difficulties.
If you are a part of the Body of Job you won’t be trying to get out of the pattern of limitation, you won’t be charging God foolishly; and there will be those who are quick to advise you, quick to tell you, quick to say, “Well, I know all about this, and I know all about that”—all kinds of fancies, hallucinations, erratic concepts. But if you stay centered as Job did, regardless of what it seems you are losing, regardless of the boils, regardless of what you suffer, regardless of how people react, regardless of how your friends misunderstand and abuse you, as Job’s three friends did, when it comes to the final showdown you will be ready to pray for your friends. You won’t be praying for yourself, or trying to get something for yourself, or get healing for your body. Here is the spirit of the server portrayed.
The LORD said, “My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept.” Now there’s the pattern; not something else—any variation from that pattern, as we see it portrayed by Job, and it is not acceptable—but the LORD said, “for him [Job] will I accept.” Get him to pray for you. My stars, it looked like they hadn’t had any losses! They weren’t sick; they didn’t have the boils! And the LORD told them to go and do some repenting. “And my servant Job shall pray for you.” The man with the boils! The man who had stayed centered regardless of all the limitations, all the things that mankind or Satan could impose upon him. The man who had no quitting point. And the LORD said, “Go to my servant Job … and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly”—you better go and do it, “lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right.” In that ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right! All the arguments pro and con about human beings, and about ideas and concepts—that’s more or less beside the point: but ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right! Turn it to God, and if you speak the right thing with respect to God, and stay centered, regardless of anything else, regardless of appearance, regardless of who comes or goes, what comes up or goes down, it makes no difference. It makes no difference who turns aside—if you can be turned aside you will be. If there is anything that can turn you aside, you will be turned aside, and you may as well face the fact. But if you have your integrity, and if you refuse to say the wrong thing about God, refuse to charge God foolishly—“In that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job.” Job spoke the right thing about God; he did not violate his pattern of relationship with the LORD.
Then what happened? “So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the LORD commanded them”—and they represent the three Planes of outer self-active expression in the world, of the whole world body of mankind. Sooner or later, if we have the Body of Job actually in manifestation on earth, regardless of the seeming limitations, regardless of the fact that it seems like we don’t have very much—no, you don’t come out here and find wealth, do you? or luxury? No. What went ye into the wilderness for to see? A man clothed in fine linen? You’re looking in the wrong place! We begin to see that if we do the right thing, and develop the right pattern of the machinery of reality, the three negative phases of this world will finally come to the point of doing what the LORD commands them—and so they “did according as the LORD commanded them: the LORD also accepted Job.” There are four—notice? three and one make four—four again. “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends.” Now, go praying for yourself, and be damned! There it is. Go praying for yourself, and be damned! “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends.” There is the spirit of service. That is what we stand for as servers—not trying to pray for ourselves, or get something for ourselves. If we have a boil or two, or if we have a loss or two, if something has been taken away from us, it makes no difference! We are not going to charge God foolishly and we are ready to serve our friends, pray for our friends.
What is an attunement? What is prayer? True prayer is attunement with God, and attunement is just a different way of talking about prayer, because the world concept of prayer is all haywire. There are millions of Christians who think they pray who don’t know the first thing, or have the foggiest notion, about what true prayer is. Prayer—and here we have the word, “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” Now, if you try to do it to get the twice as much you’ll be sly with the LORD and it won’t work. “Then came there unto him all his brethren”—then came! O yes, you’ll find there are fair weather friends! While you have your boils, while you have your losses, they stay far, far away; but then after you begin to get well, and after the thing is working out all right, and after they see they won’t be poisoned if they come near you; and they begin to wonder, and get curious: “Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before”—then they began to come back—“ and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him and comforted him.” Then they were comforting him! “Wasn’t it too bad what you what through? Oh, we were so sorry to hear about all your trouble, but it’s so nice that you’re almost over it now. Everything is coming along fine, isn’t it. Look, you’ve got all you things back. That’s really nice. We’re glad to come and comfort you.” Then they came and comforted him. He was already comforted! You’ll find that with friends, and brethren, and sisters, and acquaintances. Oh yes, after you’ve come out on top, then they’ll show up! Well, don’t be surprised.
But “every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold.” In other words, they came actually to begin to receive blessings. He was a server. He began to serve, to give blessings, and they began, everyone, to give him a piece of money, and earring, something of value. The returning cycle was begun because he served his fiends; because he served those who responded he was ready to pray for his friends, even though though they had made life so miserable for him while he was going through the valley: he was still ready to pray for his friends, if they would accept it. And so it is with a server; and serving truly, holding steady, we find that that same pattern begins to appear in relationship to us. And, “every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one [that is, every woman] an earring of gold.” They began to give in recognition of the service that he had rendered, and was rendering.
