Pattern for the Subjugation of Satan

Chapter Providence of Restoration centering on Moses and Jesus

A Biblical passage says, "Surely the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets." (Amos. 3:7). The Scriptures contain countless secrets concerning God's providence of salvation. However, without knowing the principle of God's providence, men have not been able to understand the secret meaning of the words in the Bible. Even a record of the life of a prophet in the Bible is not merely the history of the man, but is, in fact, an explanation of the way for fallen men to take. Here, we are going to study how God revealed the pattern of Jesus' providential course for the salvation of mankind by having Jacob and Moses go through the providential course of restoration.

Section I

Pattern for the Subjugation of Satan

In the providence of restoration centering on Isaac's family, the entire course of Jacob was a pattern for Moses' course, and also was the pattern for Jesus' eventual substantial course. This pattern also set the course for the Israelites and the whole of mankind, who were to subjugate Satan in order to fulfill the purpose of the providence of restoration.

1. Why God set up Jacob's Course and Moses' Course as the Pattern for Jesus' Course

The purpose of the providence of restoration is to be fulfilled ultimately by man's becoming able to naturally subjugate Satan and to dominate him through the fulfillment of his own portion of responsibility. Jesus came with the mission of the Messiah as a perfect human ancestor, in order to pioneer the final course for the subjugation of Satan and to have all the saints follow this course.

Satan, who had not obeyed nor surrendered even to God, would by no means obey and surrender to Jesus as the human ancestor, much less to the saints. Therefore, God, taking responsibility in the Principle for His having created men, set up the symbolic course to subjugate Satan through Jacob's pattern.

Moses could subjugate Satan by going through the "image" course with Jacob's course as the pattern, because God foreshadowed through Jacob the typical course to subjugate Satan. Jesus, as well, could subjugate Satan by going through the substantial course, with the course of Moses as the pattern, for Moses had trodden the course shown by Jacob. All the saints, too, could subjugate and dominate Satan by going through the same course.

When Moses said that God would raise up a prophet like himself (Acts 3:22), he meant that Jesus would have to walk the providential course of restoring Canaan on a worldwide level, using Moses' course as the pattern. The Bible says, "The Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever He does, that the Son does likewise." (John 5:19). The Biblical meaning is that Jesus was going through the very course God had revealed through Moses. Thus, Moses became the model for Jesus' later actions (Acts 3:22).

2. Moses' Course and Jesus' Course, after the Pattern of Jacob's Course

Jacob's course enabled him to subjugate Satan. The course to subjugate Satan must be followed in a way reverse to that in which Satan invaded. Let us now study Moses' course and Jesus' course, which they went through with Jacob's course as their pattern.

(1) Man originally should have kept God's commandment not to eat of the fruit at the risk of his life. by failing to overcome the temptation offered by the archangel, he fell. In order for Jacob to complete the restoration of Canaan on the family level by restoring the foundation to receive the Messiah when he had returned to Canaan with his family and wealth from Haran, he had to win a victory by trial in fighting against Satan at the risk of his life. to overcome such a trial, Jacob fought the angel at the ford of Jabbok. By defeating the angel, he received the name of Israel (Gen. 32:25-28). God tested Jacob by placing the angel in the position of Satan. The purpose was not to drive Jacob into misery. God's purpose for the trial was to set Jacob up as the lord of the restoration on the family level, by having him establish the position of Abel with his victory in the fight to restore dominion over the angel. The angelic world, also, was to be restored through the act of the angel in playing the main role in the trial.

In the case of Moses, in order for him to become the lord of the restoration of Canaan on the national level, returning to Canaan with the Israelites, he had to overcome a trial in which God tired to kill him (Ex. 4:24). If man had been given the trial not by God but by Satan, he would fall prey to Satan if he were defeated. Therefore, we must know it is from God's love of man that He would test man from His side. Jesus, too, had to win the fight against Satan at the risk of his life in the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11).

(2) Jacob had to set up the condition to remove the fallen nature, because this came about due to Satan's invasion of man's flesh and spirit. Therefore, Jacob had to restore Abel's position in setting up the condition of indemnity to remove the fallen nature by taking the birthright from Esau, at the cost of bread and the pottage of lentils (Gen. 25:34), which symbolized the flesh and spirit.

For the same purpose, God intended, in Moses' course, to have the Israelites set up the condition of indemnity on the national level to remove the fallen nature by feeding them quail and manna (Ex. 16:13), symbolizing the flesh and the spirit and through this giving them a strong sense of gratitude and the consciousness of being God's elect so that they might obey Moses.

Jesus said:

Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died...I say to you unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. (John 6:49-53)

Signifying that he, too, walked in the same course as the pattern previously established by Jacob and Moses. This means that fallen men cannot restore the original nature endowed at the creation unless they serve him and minister to him as the Messiah after they set up the condition of indemnity on the worldwide level to remove the fallen nature by believing in and obeying Jesus, who was in the position of John the Baptist (cf. Part II, Ch. 2, Sec. III, 2.1--347).

(3) Due to man's fall, even man's dead body was invaded by Satan. Jacob's body, already sanctified with the blessing, was embalmed for 40 days to set up the condition for his body to also be separated from Satan by the victory in the battle against him (Gen. 50:3). With Moses, who walked a course after this pattern, there also was a dispute concerning the location of his body after death (Jude 9). After the death of Jesus, there also were problems concerning his body (Matt. 28:12-13).

(4) Due to the fall of the first human ancestors, Satan invaded man during his growth period. In order to restore this, through indemnity, God has worked His providence to set up the number representing the period as follows (cf. Part II, Ch. 3, Sec. II, 4--381): there was a three-day period of separation from Satan when Jacob returned from Haran into the land of Canaan (Gen. 31:22); there was also a three-day period of the same kind when Moses returned from Egypt into Canaan leading the Israelites (Ex. 5:3); and Joshua, too, could cross the river Jordan only after the three-day period (Josh. 3:2). Jesus also had the three-day period in the tomb (Luke 18:33) for the separation from Satan in his spiritual course of the restoration of Canaan on the worldwide level.

In order to horizontally restore through indemnity, in the generation of Jacob, the vertical conditions of indemnity ranging over 12 generations from Noah to Jacob, that had been delivered in Satan's hands, Jacob had to have 12 sons (Gen. 35:22). Therefore, Moses had 12 tribes (Ex. 24:4), and Jesus had 12 disciples (Matt. 10:1).

In order to set up the condition of indemnity to separate Satan, who had invaded the 7-day period of creation, Jacob had 70 family members (Gen. 46:27), Moses had 70 elders (Ex. 24:1) and Jesus had 70 disciples, each group respectively playing the central role in each course (Luke 10:1).

(5) The staff, being a symbolic representation of the will to smite injustice, to lead the way, and to support, symbolized the Messiah to come (cf. Part II, Ch. 2, Sec. II, 2.2--301). Therefore, the fact that Jacob entered the land of Canaan across the Jordan leaning on the staff which had such a profound meaning (Gen. 32:10), foreshadowed that fallen men would enter the ideal world of creation traversing the sinful world by smiting injustice, following the example of the Messiah, and by being led by him and by leaning on him. Therefore, Moses led the Israelites across the Red Sea with his staff (Ex. 14:16), while Jesus, too, had to lead the whole of mankind into God's ideal world of creation across the troubled sea of this world with a rod of iron representing himself (Rev. 2:27, 12:5).

(6) Eve's sin formed the root of all sin, and her sin became fruitful when Cain killed Abel. According to the principle of restoration through indemnity, a mother and a son have to effect separation from Satan in mutual cooperation, because Satan invaded man through a mother and a son, thus producing the fruit of sin. Accordingly, Jacob could separate from Satan after the blessing, because his mother cooperated with him in a positive way (Gen. 27:43). Without his mother's cooperation, Moses, too, could not have served God's will (Ex. 2:2). Jesus, too, had the cooperation of his mother, who took refuge in Egypt, with her son, escaping from King Herod, who sought to kill him (Matt. 2:13).

(7) The central figure responsible to accomplish the will for the providence of restoration must go through the course of restoration from the Satanic world to the Heavenly world. Therefore, Jacob walked the course of restoration from Haran, the Satanic world, into the land of Canaan (Gen. 31:17-21). Moses walked the course of restoration from Egypt, the Satanic world, into the blessed land of Canaan (Ex. 3:8). Jesus also had to take refuge in Egypt, immediately after his birth, and then returned, in order to go through the same course (Matt. 2:13).

(8) The ultimate purpose of the providence of restoration is to destroy Satan. Therefore, Jacob buried the idols under the oak tree (Gen. 35:4), while Moses burnt the idol of the golden calf with fire, ground it to powder, scattered the powder upon the water making the people of Israel drink it (Ex. 32:20). Jesus, too, had to destroy this sinful world by subjugating Satan with his words and power (cf. Part I, Ch. 3, Sec. III, 2.2--114).