Even Noah, Daniel, and Job

Ezek. 14:14
“…even if these three men – Noah, Daniel and Job – were in it, they could save only themselves by their
righteousness, declares the Sovereign LORD.”

This passage from Ezekiel is part of a sobering prophecy about judgment, but it also points us toward one of God’s
precious promises – the saving power of the Blood of Jesus. The passage stands out from others in the Major
Prophets, because it refers to “any country” that may come sunder God’s judgment, whereas most of the messages of
these prophets were directed specifically to God’s people, Israel. The universality of the judgment that God describes
here helps us appreciate the universal application of Jesus’ blood that he shed on the cross.

There are four main reasons that the Lord mentions these three men in particular, as opposed to other combinations
of Old Testament characters, and together these give us a rich understanding of God’s Work of salvation in the world.
We explore each of these points below.

1. Noah, Daniel, and Job - The Scriptures suggest each of them was more righteous that any other person alive in
his generation. Each lived in completely different periods, separated by hundreds of years. Noah was a Patriarch who
lived around 3000 B.C. Job was a wise man in the land of Uz (probably Seir/Edom) before the Israelites were even
established in the Promised Land (around 1500 B.C.). Daniel lived around 500 B.C., a thousand years later. These
three figures mentioned here emphasize that we cannot be saved by the righteousness of other men. Our parents’
religious devotion cannot save us if we ourselves do not follow Christ faithfully. Our pastors’ spirituality will not count
for us in earning God’s mercy, if we do not heed the preaching and put the teachings into practice in our own lives.
Only one thing can save us from our sins: the Blood of Jesus. Each of these men had a personal righteousness that
came by looking forward in faith to the redemption in Christ.

Noah alone found favor in the eyes of the Lord in his era. (Gen 6:5-8). He was the only one God chose to save,
along with his wife and sons and his son’s wives. He stands as an example, therefore, of an especially righteous man,
someone the Lord singled out from the whole earth for his faithfulness. His story also provides an example of a
righteous man who cannot save the sinners around him from judgment – the rest of his generation all perished in the
Flood. The Faithful Church today is preaching to the world, and everyone who joins the Body will be saved – just as
those who entered the Ark in Noah’s day will be saved – when the Lord Raptures the Faithful Church just before the
Great Tribulation (judgment) comes on the earth. Those who remain after the Rapture will have no more opportunity
for salvation, but will be lost. (There is an exception for the special case of Israel, which is a separate topic).
Therefore, even if we have a relative of associate as righteous as Noah – who was the more righteous than anyone
else in his day – it will do us no good if we ourselves fail to repent. Matthew 24:38-39 compares our day to the days
of Noah.

Daniel was the only man in his generation, as far as we know, whom the Lord “highly esteemed.” (He tells Daniel
this repeatedly - see Dan. 9:23, 10:11, 10:19). Daniel is one of the few in the Old Testament whom the Lord
specifically promised would rise to eternal life (Dan. 12:13). Like Noah, Daniel testified to those around him, but all
three kingdoms in which he lived – first Judah, then Babylon, and then Persia – came under God’s judgment and fell
to their enemies. Daniel had salvation – the Bible tells us so in the last verse of his book. Most of his peers and
fellow government officials were not. Today, the faithful church exists in nations all over the world. These nations will
not escape judgment because of this. The faithful church will leave at the Rapture, and their neighbors who stay
behind will continue to judgment. (Matt 24:40-41).

Job was so much better than his contemporaries that God would use him (and only him) as a counter example when
the Adversary came to accuse the other servants because of their sins. “Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you
considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him…” (Job 1:8). The Bible teaches, therefore, that
Job was the most sanctified person alive on earth in his time (he probably lived shortly before Moses was born). Even
so, like Noah and Daniel, Job’s fellow citizens apparently were not good believers – they were strangers to God’s
covenant with Israel - and even his closest friends did not understand the Lord very well. (See Job 42:7-9). Job
testified about the Lord and offered sacrifices on behalf of those close to him (Job 1:5). The faithful servants today
pray for our relatives and neighbors, but they only receive salvation when they repent and plead for the blood of
Jesus.

Our associations with other men cannot save us. Only Jesus’ blood can save us from the judgment that is
coming on all sin, on all flesh. The blood is the first thing a sinner needs when they come to Christ for salvation. “…
The blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7); “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not
only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2). “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he
was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him.” (Isaiah 53:5) We see this
aspect of the Blood as far back in the Bible as Adam and Eve. God used the skins of slain animals to cover Adam &
Eve’s shame after their sin. (Gen 3:21). After their sin, Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to cover their
shame. This represents our human efforts to remove our sin. God slaughtered some animals and made leather
garments for them, showing that there had to be the death of a creature to cover the shame of sin. Today we can
confess our sins and have our shame covered by the blood of Jesus.

One of the worst teachings ever to infiltrate Christianity is the idea that saints in heaven can intercede on our behalf
with God. People who cling to this teaching think that praying to Jesus’ mother or other godly people who have
passed already to eternity will somehow convince God to overlook their sins. No saint in heaven, not even the holiest
ones, can convince God to forgive our sins, answer our prayers, or show us favor. Only the Blood of Jesus can do
that. “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.” (Rom 3:25). “Since we have now
been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him!” (Rom. 5:9). When
people pray to saints from previous eras, it insults the blood of Jesus, which is the only atoning sacrifice for our sins.

2. A second reason that God uses Noah, Daniel, and Job specifically for this point is that they also symbolize the
Scriptures, as the religious Jews understood them. The Israelites divided the Old Testament books into three
categories – the Law (first five books, which they called “the Torah”), the Prophets (major and minor prophets), and
the “Writings” (everything else). Noah was, in a sense, the earliest Patriarch (all nations descended from him), and
represented the Law. The Jews believed that he was the first one to receive part of the Law from God (because
Gen 9:4-7 later became part of the Mosaic law). Daniel was a prophet, and Job was one of the "wise men"
whose “writings” were always put together with Psalms and Proverbs. In other words, just having the Bible is not
enough for salvation (as these three men representing the three sections of the Scriptures in that day). “The Letter
kills, but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Cor. 3:6). Some people think that merely reading or believing in the Bible, or
attending a Bible-believing church, will save them. Yet even Noah (the Law), Daniel (the Prophets), and Job (the
other Scriptures) cannot save those under judgment. Only the blood of Jesus can save us. The Bible is valuable
when the Holy Spirit gives revelation through it that points us to Christ Himself.

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. 1:7); “But now in Christ Jesus you
who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.” (Eph. 2:13). This is God’s promise –
hallelujah!

3. A third reason for using these three men is to emphasize the point that sin is universal, as is God’s offer of
salvation. This passage from Ezekiel is unusual because it mentions "any nation." It is universal, while most of the
book is about Israel alone being under God's judgment. This passage, however, describes the universal problem of
sin and the judgment that comes on the entire world in the last days. The three Biblical characters - Noah, Job, and
Daniel - are similarly unusual in that they represented the universal nature of God's Work. All three lived outside
Israel, unlike most of the other characters in the Old Testament. Noah was the father of all the nations, of course,
after the Flood. God made a covenant with him that was supposed to apply to all humanity, not just Israel (see Gen.
9:12-16). Job was from the land of Seir (Edom), as far as we know, probably before Israel even left Egypt - he was
not an Israelite. Finally, Daniel lived almost his entire life in Babylon & Persia, and his prophecies - unlike those of
the other Major Prophets - focused primarily on the rise and fall of empires outside Israel, rather than the future of
Israel itself. They were the perfect characters to illustrate the universal problem of sin and judgment (“for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Rom. 3:23), and the universal solution that God provides – salvation
through the blood of Jesus (“all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus,”
Rom. 3:24). “Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the
whole world.” (1 John 2:2).

4. The Operation of the Trinity – As explained above, each of these righteous men illustrates the faithful church
in the last days – which leaves this dying world at the instant of the Rapture. Most importantly, we can see the
operation of the Trinity, which is striving in the world today to save people. The Trinity’s project of salvation saves
only those who repent and join this project through the blood of Jesus, while the world continues toward judgment.
God puts these three together in this verse in Ezekiel to show us this prophetic point:

Noah - Father of Nations The Father

Job - Suffering Servant The Son
Daniel - Prophet Holy Spirit

The project of God saves the people who become participants in it. It does not save our culture, our economy,
or our society. Instead, is brings us into the Kingdom of Light and prepares us for eternity, where we will go at the
Rapture. God’s Project of salvation (operation of the Trinity) comes from eternity, passes through man’s world, and
returns to eternity, bringing home with it the people who chose to belong to this project, who receive this salvation
through the Blood of Jesus and active participation in his Body.

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