‘end’ aim or purpose of an action does affect the moral character of the ‘means’ or method used, as is even recognised in a court of law when criminal actions are involved.

although the purpose or intention may not justify an action, it remains more important than the action itself,

for the motive determines the essential moral character of any action.

principle comes demonstrably into play in the judicial confrontation between God and Satan concerning Job, as presented to us in the Bible book of that name.

Satan accuses the motive behind Job's righteousness behaviour, to which God had drawn attention, as being the blessings Job obtained from God. In other words, by blessing Job, God is rewarding Job's self-interest, selfishness, selfishness, which is the root of sin.

because Job's motive was self-interest and therefore unclean, his behaviour, his 'good' behaviour, was really false, corrupt.

It was not good for its own sake. It was good for Job's sake.
(This is the essence of the difference between the rule of God and the rule of Satan in this world).

the tragic events which follow in Job's life demonstrate that, in spite of his loss of all the blessings of God, Job, broken and depressed, remains loyal to the Lord. Job's blessings had not been God's bribes for him to be good.

Job's 'comforter' friends however did not understand this (like some prosperity-preachers today) and assumed that blessing always rewarded good behaviour or faith and so vice versa, therefore logically Job must have hidden sin or unbelief somewhere in order to have lost God's blessings. So God instructs these presumptuous believers, sadly common in modern Christianity, to turn to Job whom they had judged 'guilty' in order for Job to pray to God on their behalf and intercede for His mercy on them, which he does.

Motive, intention, purpose (not method) is central to righteousness, justice, morality!

history of God’s relationship to this world, as portrayed throughout the Bible, illustrates a wide variety of methods used by God to help humanity: methods such as in merciful answers to prayer, and judgment by stopping evil through terminating opportunity or existence. But although methods may infinitely vary, the essential character or motive of all God’s actions or methods may be summed up in the crowning statement of the Creator’s involvement in His creation –

A little thought however should take us deeper into God’s intention.

taught that God cares about a sparrow –

This caring concept of the Creator’s relationship to His creation is also reflected in God's rebuke of His prophet Jonah –

No matter what one believes about the age of our world, in spite of all its beauty it shows a world of suffering, which legitimately raises the question ‘why’ if its Creator knew all things beforehand and really cares.

the Bible’s portrayal of the method of God's actions in human history (the ‘how’) we naturally tend to see God's actions as a response or reaction to the events of history, but God precedes history.

Therefore, God's essential relationship to all contained within the history of our world arises, not from the character of this world or simply a response to it, but His relationship is rooted in His motive, reason, purpose, or original intention for the existence of this world that we are a part of.

answer lies in His purpose or original intention for the existence of everything other than God – everything created.

Original intention concerning God does not imply some change, for God does not change. He is revealed in Holy Scripture as eternal and infinite in all respects. He has no limit, and therefore His original intention in the existence of everything remains forever.

Genesis One portrays God as creating in six days and resting on the seventh, as an example to humanity, which is created by Him "in His image", both male and female, to therefore practice ‘dominion’ or rule over their world.

This is a humanity designed to represent God, the Infinite; to represent Him to all that is finite, that was made by Him.

This is a humanity that is not designed to fill the loneliness of God or to simply add to the number of His subjects,
but is designed to truthfully represent, reveal, express, His rule over all.

methods may vary, but His original intention does not. His ultimate intention remains.
This truth holds together all that is revealed within the pages of Holy Scripture and is the reason why the end of its last book portrays God’s people as His *cubic capital-city, the New Jerusalem, in which is the Throne of God.

the invariable ultimate purpose = humanity expressing the eternal infinite to the finite.

This is the core character of what is later called the 'kingdom of God', the rule or authority of God expressed/made known/made visible to the finite. There is no other kingdom for humanity in God's original design. This is why to Daniel, in contrast to the four human kingdoms portrayed as animals (Babylon to Rome) preceding the rule of the Most High being established, God's kingdom is portrayed/symbolised as a 'son of man' (not Jesus; but a Semitic idiom for human), a human being!

our thinking there is a deviant tendency for ‘method’ to take the place of purpose (as church liturgy amply illustrates), BUT even God's own given method is never an absolute.

Human living in a garden environment was God's method. Cain’s own disobedience banishes him to be a wanderer (Nod = ‘wandering’, Gen.4:12, 16), but instead he builds the first city, so eventually God’s purpose uses a city, Jerusalem, as method in the historical process of restoring His original intention.

Human beings were not meant to die but to live forever by the Tree of Life neutralising the natural effects of aging. Adam’s disobedience leads in history to the Second Adam (Jesus) through whose own death comes resurrection which does not restore the method but turns it into an intergalactic body (‘like the angels’) for the original intention.

The Mosaic Law given to the Israel warned against kingship, and the regulations to prevent tribal territory coalescing into one were meant to maintain Israel as a confederation under God's priestly rule as teachers of His Law. Yet, in king Saul's disobedience, God gives them David and makes him a dynasty that leads to the ultimate king, the second Adam, through whom God's original intention will be ultimately restored to all humanity.

moral character of God (infinite love) may in His wisdom even use the fruit of human disobedience as a method toward the ultimate restoration of His awesome original intention of His ultimate purpose.

in God’s 'image' they were ‘male and female’ (Gen.1:27), yet neither God nor His angels have a female component. The masculine ‘he’ simply expresses leadership, shown in Adam being made first (1 Tim.2:11-15). In the resurrection, as Jesus had said, there is neither male nor female as original intention or purpose is the goal and not its method or the pathway to it.

This reality needs to be born in mind when reading the Gospels concerning the life of Jesus. He the Saviour is not simply God's merciful reaction to our sin. Jesus, as Son of Man, demonstrates the true-human as God had intended from-the-beginning, thus in Jesus, as God's 'second Adam', humanity is called to a new beginning to restore God's original intention.

we will judge angels (1 Cor.6:3) for we are destined for the Throne/rule-of-God over all, when the ultimate Reversion comes (when Heaven shuts down) by the Throne of God being transferred to the ‘New Jerusalem’/Bride of Christ (Rev.22:3), for its cubic dimension and multiples of 12 (the structure of time) declare it (God’s people) to be the ultimate Holy of Holies –

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