Continuity  Of  Integrity

  

An  Increase

from   Moment  Of  Truth  #2

Martin Cecil   September 6, 1981

Something came to point after our comment period at my house which I would like to introduce to you and expand upon. It relates very much to all that has been happening over the ages and what is now coming to a time of climax and fulfilment. I mentioned that Job was the oldest book in the Bible. There is a story here which carries considerable significance. There is also the story of the failure of human beings recorded at the beginning of the Book of Genesis. That story, and the story at the beginning of the Book of Job, are a portrayal of two aspects of the same thing. We usually hear about Adam and Eve because that failure has been emphasized in human consciousness, chiefly through the subconscious sense of shame and guilt. So the failure is apparent by reason of Adam and Eve. While initially it may have involved just two people, it shortly involved considerably more, until now the whole human race is in this state of failure. Something different, however, is portrayed with respect to Job. Job represents those who kept their integrity.

On the one hand there were those who kept their integrity, and on the other there were those who lost it. Because there were those who kept their integrity the possibility of restoration has remained a very real potential. In fact this restoration has been anticipated. This of course is portrayed in the Book of Job. There were thirty-eight chapters of mess, and then the fulfilment came. It came because Job had kept his integrity. He was asked by his wife to curse God and die, but he wouldn’t. He didn’t follow this female suggestion. The suggestion of course was to lose his integrity. After all, he was badly afflicted. There seemed to be every valid reason for him to curse God and die, but he would not do that.

There have been those down through the ages, who were represented in this story by Job, individuals who kept their integrity in spite of everything. We have various outstanding examples of this, coming to a point of culmination in the One called Jesus. He would not curse God and die, so He lived. Simple! I know from my own experience that there have been a great many people who have, in their various ways, suggested to me that I curse God and die. So far I haven’t done it. Usually that suggestion has been brought by a female, as it was in the story of Job and as it was also in the story of Adam and Eve. Adam lost his integrity. Job retained his. Because that integrity was retained, there has been a continuity of integrity present among the children of men ever since, as well as a very broad continuity of the loss of integrity.

So we come to this present time when the sea of glass clear as crystal has begun to re-emerge so that God might speak out of the whirlwind and claim attention. This thread of continuity, maintained by those who have kept their integrity, has been so slight that most of the time it went unnoticed. But it was there, just as it was in Job, so that the time might come when there was sufficient substance present for the radiation of the spirit of God to become known in a direct, conscious sense. Something is called to remembrance on this basis, by the Spirit of Truth. We and others have shared that remembrance to a certain extent, either by hearsay, which is one thing, or by actual personal experience, which is another.

When Job finally came back into position to receive what the Lord was offering, and had been offering all along, it turned out to be considerably more than it was at the time when the human failure first put in an appearance. This is an interesting thing to note. I suppose there are those who have thought of it in terms of God being particularly pleased with Job because he kept his integrity, and so He was going to reward him accordingly. But that is a human nature portrayal, if there ever was one. It doesn't happen that way.

An apt analogy of what occurred would be seen in an orchestra who were originally being conducted according to the score that was present, and bringing forth a beautiful symphony. But then the human failure occurred and one by one the orchestra members dropped to sleep, so gradually there was nothing left but the conductor. Rather a tiresome position for the conductor to be in—wearying, to say the least. All the orchestra members were asleep, but the score was there; the conductor went on. From time to time perhaps an orchestra member would stir in his slumber, wake up a little, look at the score, trumpet out a few notes and go to sleep again. This wasn’t a very satisfactory symphony, certainly, and would give a peculiar impression. And those who heard the sound in their sleep would probably be quite critical of it, not realizing that it was that way because they were asleep. Finally the time comes when the responsible members of the orchestra begin to awaken, pick up their instruments and play. But obviously, in the intervening years, as it has proved to be—millennia in fact—the conducting has continued. There has been continued movement, in other words, even though nobody was aware of it. But becoming aware of it and awakening, the orchestra members find that the score is what it is now, not what it was then.

Very often people are inclined to try to look back to what the true state was. They’re not very successful in finding anything that has much meaning, but even if they were successful, what would be the point? That was played long ago. It has moved on since then, and something else is to be played. There has been an increase, an expansion, a movement, occurring in all this blank space when human beings have been asleep. So when the awakening comes they pick up their instruments and play the score as it now is. And that is something else. There is consequently an increase. From the standpoint of this score it isn’t a repetition, over and over and over endlessly, throughout eternity. No—something new, something fresh, something building upon what went before. As the awakening comes, there we are. As is portrayed in Job, he had twice as much as he had before. This is rightly what is now occurring.

Continuing a bit with that analogy, as various orchestra members do awaken and play their instruments there is rather an imbalanced sound, because the whole orchestra isn't awake yet. So what’s the answer to that one? Shall we all go to sleep until everybody wakes up? Do you think everybody would ever wake up on that basis? Maybe they will wake up because of the apparently discordant sound. “Oh dear,” they say, “now I had better put my instrument to work too, and we'll begin to have a real symphony.” Looking at it this way we can see the absolute futility of judgment. There is simply the individual matter of awakening. As individuals we can only awaken for ourselves. We can't awaken for anybody else. We’ve been told this before, I believe, almost ad nauseam; but it is true, strangely enough. And it’s not so strange, is it? It’s obvious. But the habits of slumber seem to die hard. So we awaken and, in awakening, we begin to become aware of the score and of the conductor.

© Emissaries of Divine Light