Commentary on the Book of Job part thirty nine

                                         Job 21:1-34

God happens to be the only ultimate Judge. One person dies after a good life, and another dies after a bitter life, but that has little to do with God's judgment of them. All go to the grave and are eaten by worms. But the word "worms" in the Bible (KJB) always symbolizes sin and evil. Isaiah 66:24; Psalm 22:6; Mark 9:44, 46, 48. Job had become saved by God's grace and that meant that when he died he would go to a place called Paradise in the earth, and there he would wait until Jesus came and preached the gospel to him and the other Old Testament saints. At that time, Job and all the Old Testament saints, would believe the gospel, be cleansed of all their sin and evil by the blood of Jesus, be translated to heaven forever, and be separated from all sin and evil forever. Ephesians 4:7-10. The Church age saints will be translated to heaven at the Rapture of the Church. I Thessalonians 4:13-18. The Tribulation saints will be translated to heaven at the beginning of the millennial reign of Christ. Revelation 20:4.

But all those who have not been saved by grace will still retain the filthy "worms" of their sin and evil when they physically die. Because God cannot accept their sin and evil into heaven, He will temporarily consign their soiled souls and spirits to one of three places of punishment following their physical deaths according to how they lived their lives. Revelation 20:13. But even in these places of punishment, they will still retain the good and living image of God that He put into them when He created them. Genesis 1:27; Genesis 1:31; Luke 17:20-21.

God can never lose anything He has ever created. Ecclesiastes 3:14; Romans 11:36. For this reason, God has devised a plan to recover and recreate His good and living images from every human soul trapped within those hellish places. In order to do this, God must reawaken their faith that He put into them when He created them in His image. One day at the end of the world, God will appear to His living images in all humans within the regions of the dead as prophesied in Isaiah 45:21-24 and in Philippians 2:9-11. God will reawaken their faith by the majesty of His appearance, and they will worship Him as "the Lamb" who has saved them. Romans 12:3; Revelation 5:13. In the end of the world, God will resurrect all of His living images from the regions of the dead, cleanse them of all their sin and evil by the use of His consuming fire, and recreate His living images as righteous humans to live on His recreated earth. I Corinthians 3:11-15; John 5:28-29; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:1-5. Christ will consign the dead parts of these humans, which are totally evil, to the lake of fire forever. Revelation 20:11-15.