Three-agent Universe (3) Job and Daniel

The new covenant changes our perspective on events in the world. It should especially change our perspective on events described in the Old Testament. The Old Testament writers did not fully understand the working of the spiritual realms. They saw God and humans as the only actors on earth. They lived in a two-agent universe, so every event was described as either being caused by humans or by God. Consequently, they attributed many evil events to God, because they did not understand what was really happening.

The writer of Job got a glimpse into the work of Satan when he came to understand the cause of the terrible things that happened to Job. His friends lived in a two-agent world, so they just assumed that they were caused by God. Job assumed that God caused them too, except he claimed that he did not deserve them. The first two chapters of the book are revolutionary, because they explain that these terrible events were caused by the spiritual powers of evil. Few other Old Testament writers gained this level of understanding.

Towards the end of Old Testament age, Daniel got a glimpse of the three-agent reality. He had assumed that God failed to answer his prayers despite the fact that he was claiming promises from the scriptures. The angel explained to him that the response to his prayer was held up by a powerful evil spiritual character called the Prince of Persia. This evil power needed to be defeated before God's promise to Jeremiah could be fulfilled.

Job and Daniel gained a glimpse into the three-agent universe, but most Old Testament writers did not fully comprehend the role of the spiritual powers of evil in events on earth. It seems that Moses did not fully understand the extent of the spiritual battles that he was engaged in.

Likewise, the prophets assumed that the bad things they warned about were being sent by God. They portrayed God as the agent of the things that were going to happen. This is how they saw the world, but their vision was incomplete. Most of the judgments announced by the OT prophets were not initiated by God, but were the work of the spiritual powers of evil attacking people who had lost their spiritual protection.

God did not initiate these consequences directly, but he created a world in which it would be possible for the spiritual powers of evil to gain a foothold. He does not shirk from that responsibility. That is why the scriptures often describe these events as God's judgment.