Job CLXXXIX

 Job 18:5-9, “The light of the wicked indeed goes out, and the flame of his fire does not shine. The light is dark in his tent, and his lamp beside him is put out. The steps of his strength are shortened, and his own counsel casts him down. For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walks into a snare. The net takes him by the heel, and a snare lays hold of him.”

Generally speaking, what Bildad was saying was not untrue. In this particular instance, because what he was saying was targeted at Job, a man whom God deemed blameless and upright, it was. We can’t broad-brush every situation and draw conclusions based on historical precedent. There are times when exceptions to the well-established rules arise, and if we harden our hearts and shut up our ears, refusing to hear those we are accusing, we just might be judging wrongly, and inconsistently with the heart of God.

But I’m just defending the truth, brother! It may be that it’s how you see it, but you’re insinuating that because the light of the wicked goes out, and the flame of his fire does not shine, and this is occurring in real time to someone, they must be in the camp of the wicked, and you allow for no other explanation.

There are absolute truths we must defend to our dying breath, such as Jesus being the way, the truth, and the life, and that no man can come to the Father but by Him, but defending these truths and insisting upon someone’s wickedness because they are suffering or going through a trial are two separate issues. When we’re quick to accuse, assume, insist, and insinuate upon another’s sin or wickedness, yet become timid and reticent to defend the name of Jesus, it’s not only telling, but something that ought to be so alarming to us that we search our hearts and see if there are any deep-seated issues we must deal with.

It’s easy to kick a man while he’s down because odds are he can’t defend himself. You don’t run the risk of getting bruised, beaten, or vanquished by lashing out against someone who is defenseless, as you would if you stood toe to toe with the enemy of your soul. It takes a special kind of cruelty to relish the thought of heaping scorn upon someone who’s already scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to hope, but some souls feel vindicated in doing so, believing that they will be deemed more righteous still if they gleefully kick at the man lying in the dirt waiting to die.

There is something to be said for extending grace to those who are at their wits' end. I’m not talking about condoning sin, but rather about not jumping to conclusions and insisting that someone has sinned just because they are going through a season of trial. These are two separate issues, and while we are to confront sin in the camp, expose it, and tear it out from the root, it is unbiblical to become the accuser of the brethren because we’ve concluded that wickedness must exist because otherwise the individual in question would not be tested to such extremes.

If you can’t tell the difference, if you don’t know which is which, silence is your best course of action until the evidence supports your conclusion on the matter. If no evidence is forthcoming, then you must allow for the very real possibility that there is no wickedness, and what is occurring is something beyond your understanding.

This isn’t communist Russia. Our position ought not to be ‘show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime’, but rather ‘Lord, shed light on this matter, and let your heart be my heart in this situation.’

To Bildad and his friends, being right was the only thing that mattered. They took their initial impression of the situation and built a case against Job to confirm their prejudices, not allowing for his words, his pleas, his tears, and his prayers to sway them because it wasn’t about whether or not Job had sinned, but rather proving that he had sinned because they deemed he had.

Some people will continue to insist they are right even when they’re proven wrong because allowing for the possibility that they misread a situation, that there was a blind spot in their understanding, or that they jumped to conclusions before there was clarity is incomprehensible to them.

About two years into our marriage, my wife and I were living in Romania, and one day, I got a call from my dad asking if I could go pick up a cousin of mine at the train station. My dad’s entire family lived on the opposite side of the country, and one of his nieces had decided to visit. Since I had nothing planned that couldn’t wait, I told him I would and showed up at the station a few minutes before the train was to arrive.

My cousin got off the train, we hugged, I led her to my car, and we drove to the orphanage where I knew my dad to be. Within that fifteen-minute window, someone who knew my wife and me, and had seen me at the station, took time out of their busy day to hurriedly call my wife and insist that I was stepping out on her.

“I saw him, Monica. I saw him hug another woman, and they got in his car and drove away!”

My wife had already gone to work by the time my dad called, so she didn’t know anything about the cousin or that I had to pick her up from the train station. Even so, she knew me well enough to know that what I had been accused of was uncharacteristic of my nature.

The seed had been planted, however, and that night as we were getting ready for bed she innocently asked, ‘What did you do today?’, to which I answered, ‘I picked up my cousin from the train station, took her to the orphanage, spent some time there, then went to dinner with her and my dad.’

The next day, she called the friend who felt the need to call her and tell her she’d seen me with a strange woman, and explained the situation, to which the friend answered, ‘That was quick thinking on his part. I’m sure there’s something more to the story.’

That was the day my wife stopped calling the individual her friend. Just because you want to be right about someone or something, it doesn’t mean you are. Be humble enough to admit when you are wrong, if you are wrong, and wise enough to keep silent before you know all the facts of a given situation. Wise as they thought themselves to be, by their actions and harsh words, Job’s friends proved that wisdom had eluded them.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXXVIII

 I recently had a protracted conversation with a brother about Christ’s warning to His followers to take heed that they not be deceived, and whether the current state of the contemporary church is due to catastrophic failure to heed His admonition on this matter. It was not a lighthearted or easy conversation to have because the first words out of my mouth were that what the church is currently experiencing isn’t deception but willful, open rebellion against the truth of the gospel. Deception and willfully disregarding what you know to be the truth of Scripture are two different things. Unless it’s self-deception, to be deceived requires a third party and an ignorance of the truth. 

When you know what the Bible says on a given topic, but you choose to disregard it, or do the opposite of what it says, it isn’t that you were deceived; you chose to reject the truth. What is happening isn’t deception due to the absence of the knowledge of truth, but a conscious choice to reject it and embrace the lie because they delight in wickedness.

If a preacher tasked with rightly dividing the word of truth delivers messages contrary to it, in opposition to it, and denouncing it, then by their actions, they unmask their true heart and are confirmed to be servants of their father, the devil. It’s not an oopsie. It’s not as though they didn’t see a pair of dark socks in a load of white laundry. It is a concerted, ongoing, deliberate effort to abandon truth, preach lies, and deceive those of the household of faith.

Unless someone can honestly say that the thousands of people sitting in the pews listening to someone preaching heresy never once cracked open their Bibles, never once read Scripture, never once happened upon the countless verses that contradict the words of the lauded man behind the crystal pulpit, then they’re willful participants in being led astray, and not innocent victims of deception.

Back in the day, shortly after communism fell and tourists began flocking to Romania because it was cheap and its geography had broad appeal, attracting both those who prefer the mountains and those who enjoy the sea, three-card monte became all the rage. For those with quick hands and no moral core, it was the sort of ‘business’ that required no upfront investment save for a cardboard box and a deck of cards. When something requires no barrier to entry and the upside potential has no ceiling, it will attract the worst society has to offer, and Romania was no exception.

The premise of the hustle is simple enough: you have three cards, usually two jacks and a queen, or two kings and a queen, facing down, and after the individual shows you the placement, he shuffles them around, and if you can pick the queen you win whatever money you were willing to bet that your eye was quicker than their hand.

You can honestly say that the first few people were deceived because they’d never happened upon anything of the sort; it seemed easy enough, and they were already counting their winnings before they walked away with empty pockets. After the first few, when those who had been tricked, deceived, and separated from their hard-earned money stuck around pleading with passersby not to participate because it was a trick, it was no longer deception but willful ignorance.

The promise of easy money was too tempting, and one after the other, people would sidle up and lose time and again, always justifying the loss as something other than what it was, an in-your-face, unapologetic con.

The same is true for those who having read, and having heard that you must walk circumspectly, be sober-minded, humble yourself, pick up your cross, crucify the old man, and deny your flesh, happen upon a peddler of sloppy grace, cheap salvation, and perpetual fire insurance. Even though they know the Bible says different, even though they’ve heard sermons on righteousness and holiness unto the Lord, the idea that they can have the best of both worlds and still be welcomed to the marriage supper of the Lamb is just too tempting a proposition to discount outright.

They talk themselves into believing that they can do what no one else has: have a divided heart, ride the fence, dip their toe into the mire without getting any mud on their feet, and still be in right standing with God. The promise of everything the world has to offer, and everything God has to offer, without there ever being a conflict of interest, is just too good to pass up, and that’s when the devil sees his opening.

I’ve known men who have gone down the slippery slope of just a little here and a little there that ended up being husks of their former selves, so far removed from truth, so resentful toward Scripture, so acrimonious toward God, that their new mission in life is to prove God wrong about something, anything, thinking if they can get one through the net they open up the possibility of Him being wrong about other things as well.

Just as no one who gets entangled with a con man dealing three-card monte ever walks away a winner, no man who sets himself against God and resists the truth will come out ahead. They may prosper for a season, their congregation may balloon, and money will flow like it was nothing more than printed paper, but in the end, it is destined to crumble for nothing that is built upon a lie, nothing that sustains itself with deception and deceit can hope to survive in the long run.

The cracks are already starting to show. Angry congregants are already beginning to shout down their supposed shepherds for not seeing the thousand-fold return in their bank account, for not seeing their breakthrough, or the infusion of prosperity promised to them if they helped pay off the ministry jet, or buy their bishop the watch that cost more than their entire house. It hasn’t even gotten bad yet, at least not if we believe what the Bible says about the last days.

How do you think these shepherds will fare when true famine sweeps across the land, and the just will live by faith? You spent decades selling people on a pipe dream, on fanciful tales, and vain imaginings, while you could have been preparing them for what the Word says is to come. Now that they have neither prosperity nor faith, now that the Father they claim as theirs, the Father you insisted will take them as they are for the low price of a hand wave, will not acknowledge them as His own because He never knew them, how will you be able to stand under those bright lights and stare them in the face?

Truth is lasting. It has permanence, and while others flounder in their rebellion and self-deception, grasping at straws, looking at yet another date upon which they will be disappointed and their hopes crushed, those who stand firm on the foundation of Scripture will weather the storms, look up, and see their redemption drawing near.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXXVII

 Generally, men react in one of two ways when confronted with wisdom beyond their capacity to process and understand. The first way is to pause, consider, and acknowledge that their understanding is limited, and that, within that limited knowledge, they are unable to grasp the full breadth of what is being said. They’re humble enough to admit that they don’t know everything, and there is still wisdom to be learned. So they ask follow-up questions, clarification, and detail, as was the case with Nicodemus when he came to Jesus by night.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee. He was no fool, nor one for whom wisdom was out of reach, yet the first words that Jesus spoke to him left him scratching his head, all his amassed wisdom no more than a ruin, because he could not wrap his mind around the idea of being born again.

The other way is to condescend, demean, brush off, and patronize, slinging insults as was the case with Festus upon hearing the wisdom of Paul.

Rather than admit to their own ignorance, those who think highly of themselves would rather react with scorn and ridicule because it keeps the image they have of themselves intact, even if it’s empty words and make-believe.

Hundreds of years after Job’s interaction with Bildad, Paul faced a similar retort after passionately detailing his conversion and the sacrifice, resurrection, and Lordship of Christ Jesus, before King Agrippa. A man named Festus spoke up and loudly said, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!”

What sparked Festus’s outburst wasn’t the concern that too much learning was driving Paul mad, but that what Paul was saying could not be found in the tomes he, too, had studied. This was wisdom and knowledge on another level, and it made Festus feel small and inferior. He had to save face. He was, after all, in the presence of the king, and it seemed as though Paul was making headway. That could not stand. If anyone were to be seen as a man of wisdom, it would be him, and if you can’t surpass another on merit and skill, you drag them down to your level because it’s the only option afforded to you.

It was the same spirit, just in a different context. There are only so many ways you can call a man a fool, a madman, someone who’s had a break from reality and is now in the throes of madness. Neither Job nor Paul was mad. Neither had lost their mind nor had they broken from reality. Their understanding of the spiritual, the supernatural, or God’s faithfulness in a given situation was simply beyond the level of those they addressed. As a universal defense mechanism, the spiritually inferior parties went on the attack, insisting that what they were saying could not be so because they did not concur or see it in a similar light.

Thankfully, in our day and age, we have a standard for the truth, a standard for godly wisdom, and a standard for knowledge, and though those who are perishing might still see it as foolishness, it is nothing less than the power of God. It’s not access to truth that transforms a man; it is the knowledge thereof, coupled with action, wherein once we know the truth, we are accountable to live it, submit to it, and follow its precepts.

The Bible is the only thing in existence whose widespread availability does not diminish its inherent value. Usually, the rarer something is, the more valuable it becomes, and the more of something you can find at your local five-and-dime, the less value it holds. While you can get a pair of decent sneakers for the price of a not-so-gourmet meal at Olive Garden, people are paying five and six figures for rare pairs of Jordans.

The same cannot be said for the Word of God. Whether, as is the case in certain parts of the world, it’s rare to the point that people will write entire books of the Bible by hand, as individual pages get passed through the community so that they can be copied, or you find one in the nightstand of every motel you spend the night in, the value inherent in Scripture remains constant, undiminished, and priceless.

Men who understood the true worth of the Bible sacrificed livelihoods, freedom, and even their very lives for its sake, making it their mission in life to get as many Bibles into the hands of as many hungry souls as they could. Some spent years in prison, others were not so fortunate and succumbed to the torture and privation they underwent for the high crime of being branded a Bible smuggler.

They were tireless in their endeavor, and no sacrifice was too big. It wasn’t because they treated the gospel as any other book, but because they understood that there was no other book in the world that came close to equaling the power it held, and the wisdom it contained.

To this day, men and women in certain parts of the world are laying down their lives to spread the message of the cross to any who would hear, as well as those who risk a life sentence or worse just to possess a copy of the book that many in the West treat so flippantly.  

That we would spend more time arguing endlessly over things that hold no eternal weight rather than studying the Word of God isn’t just telling but tragic. That we would ignore, dismiss, or disregard the Word for which so many have suffered in lieu of feelings, opinions, fanciful tales, fables, and vain imaginings is simply criminal.

This generation has much to answer for, for it was given much, far more than any other generation that came before it, yet they did nothing with all that they’ve been given. We have encyclopedic amounts of wisdom at our fingertips, everything from the Bible itself to Greek and Hebrew translations, to a glut of commentaries for every book of the Bible. Yet, we’re more confused, lukewarm, undecided, duplicitous, hypocritical, and situational about the faith than any generation to come before us.

We are reticent to obey, unwilling to sacrifice, and have come to believe that humbling ourselves at the foot of the cross is somehow beneath us. Yet, we’re always first in line when it comes to claiming blessings, prosperity, and insisting that we will be caught up first, before any untoward event could impress upon us the need to endure and overcome. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXXVI

 Job 18:1-4, “Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: ‘How long till you put an end to words? Gain understanding, and afterward we will speak. Why are we counted as beasts, and regarded as stupid in your sight? You who tear yourself in anger, shall the earth be forsaken for you? Or shall the rock be removed from its place?’”

Few things in life are more off-putting than being gaslit, and knowing it’s the case. Although not all may know the proper name for it, it’s likely that all of us have experienced it at one time or another. Gaslighting, for those unaware of the term, is a psychological manipulation technique in which a person tries to convince someone that their reality is untrue. It’s a more mature and refined version of don’t believe your lying eyes, or the ever-popular are you going to believe what you know to be true, or what I’m telling you is the truth? It’s a control mechanism, often used by those in power, with influence, and even by friends or family to gain control not only of the narrative but also of their intended target.

People who employ it will often play the victim, even though they are the victimizer, and insist that they have been wronged, misheard, and misinterpreted to the point that their victim becomes apologetic about being unjustly condemned for something they didn’t do. It’s no less than emotional abuse, and it is highly effective, especially with those who find themselves at a low point, are suffering, or have suffered some kind of recent loss.

Even after all three of Job’s friends had taken turns treating him like a human piñata, taking swings they hoped would connect and finally make the man burst open, Bildad takes up the charge anew and accuses Job of being a bully.

Come on now, buddy. I know we said all kinds of horrible things about you, accused you of being in sin so deplorable as to deserve being covered in oozing boils, sitting in the ashes of what was once your fiefdom, if not an outright entrepreneurial empire, but that doesn’t give you the right to hurt our feelings. I mean, you’re being kind of mean; isn’t he, guys? It’s almost like we aren’t even friends. Would a friend really call another friend stupid? That’s what you’re inferring, isn’t it? That we’re stupid? That we don’t know what we’re talking about?

I mean, if anyone’s stupid in this situation. It’s three against one, and even your wife agrees with us, so maybe be a bit humble and gain some understanding. Afterward, we will speak. How does that sound? Maybe use this time to repent for hurting our feelings, that would be swell. Can you believe this guy? You’ve got some gull buddy. All we’re trying to do is help you here. We’ve decided that the best course of action is for you to give up hope and admit to your sin. Why can’t you see that’s the best thing for you?

It’s rare to find another chapter in the entirety of scripture that is as grim, dark, absent of hope, arrogant, and self-assured as Bildad the Shuhite’s second attempt at convincing Job that he is in the wrong for clinging to hope and not confessing to sins he had not committed. If anyone was on the fence about his likability, this second diatribe should settle the matter once and for all.

You may think you’re special, but I’m here to tell you, you’re not! What? Do you now expect the earth to be forsaken for you? Are you so deluded as to believe the rules don’t apply to you? It’s always been a matter of course, going as far back as our fathers’ fathers. The wicked is punished for his wickedness; ergo, if you are being punished, it is because you committed wickedness. Let’s put an end to this charade. Just admit what you did, and we can all get on with our lives, and you can lie here in the dust until you breathe your last, which is nothing less than you deserve.

If ever Bildad had shown the inclination to reason, or extend grace, if ever he’d desired to hear Job out and accept his friend’s words at face value, all that was now gone. He begins his monologue with insults, and just gets worse from there.

Before we can have any meaningful dialogue, you have to come to your senses. You’re talking like a crazy person, and someone has to call you out on it. Gain understanding first, then, perhaps, if you’re willing to acknowledge the brilliance of our arguments and admit wrongdoing, we can have a starting point.

How someone reacts to being challenged is telling in ways mere words could never convey. Job had suffered through three diatribes, always able to state his case, pleading with God, pleading with his friends, and insisting upon his innocence, but once he called them miserable comforters, once he challenged their accusations, all pretense of friendship or kindness went the way of the dodo bird.

It wasn’t that Bildad was interested in Job’s side of the story, or open to an explanation different than what he had concluded. He wanted confirmation bias and wouldn’t let something as silly as facts stand in the way.

You can hear someone without hearing them. Sure enough, the words coming from their lips make a sound in a language you are familiar with; those words construct sentences, but as far as really hearing them, listening, and allowing their words to have an impact on a preconception or a particular worldview, not so much.

I can’t say I’m proud of it, but there are times when I’m in my office, clicking away, so focused on the task at hand that the wife will have been talking to me from the kitchen for a good minute before the ever dreaded “are you hearing me?” breaks through and I acknowledge her asking her to repeat what she’d said. Thankfully, she does, even if it’s with the requisite eye roll, but we’ve been married for twenty-five years, so we know each other well enough by now to extend grace in such matters. The difference between Job’s friends and me is that my not hearing my wife and acknowledging her is not intentional on my part. Their unwillingness of Job’s friends to listen to him and hear what he’d said had intentionality behind it.               

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXXV

 Being a son or daughter of God, not just in name but in deed, is the highest attainable ideal in the universe. It matters not how high you’ve climbed, how much you’ve squirreled away, how many people know your name or recognize your face, if you are not redeemed, blood-bought, and reconciled to God, it’s all for naught.

Tragically, there are many within Christendom today who insist that you should retake the baggage you laid at the foot of the cross, stack those chips on your shoulders until you have enough to build a cottage, and insist upon being seen, known, and perceived as something more, different, or other than a child of the Almighty. Whether it’s the lineage of one’s bloodline, their pedigree, upbringing, social standing, perceived influence, or self-assigned title, to focus on any of these things rather than being a saved and sanctified believer, knowing Jesus as your Lord and King, is both folly and vanity.

We are constantly bombarded with thoughts, feelings, emotions, feedback, criticisms, for the singular purpose of distracting us from walking humbly with our Lord and being about the work of the Kingdom. I’ve had numerous heart-to-heart conversations with pastors, evangelists, and elders, whose main complaint was that they felt unappreciated or that the work they were doing felt little more than spinning their wheels.

Those feelings then translated into their excitement and willingness to walk in the calling to which they’d been called, being dampened to the point that some were just going through the motions, not really engaged, or running their race in such a way as to obtain the prize.

In such instances, my question was always the same: are you doing what you’re doing for accolades or to be appreciated, or because it’s what God called you to do? Are you being obedient for the sake of obedience, or for something other than faithful service to God?

Throughout my years of ministry, I’ve been called aloof more times than I can count, because those passing judgment didn’t understand that I do what I do because God called me to do it, and for no other reason. It’s not to build something, grow something, or with the vested interest of seeing my name up in lights. It’s not about me, it never has been, and it never will be. Once we make it about ourselves, once we see ourselves as the commodity, as something indispensable, as something the Kingdom of God itself can’t do without, we’re operating from pride rather than obedience, and that’s a recipe for disaster.

Are you doing what God called you to do to the best of your ability? If so, then it matters not what people say, how they perceive you, or how they malign you. Don’t let it get under your skin. Don’t let the noise deter you from walking in obedience because that’s what the enemy wants.

The devil doesn’t care what tool he uses to detour you from the narrow path. If he can use pride and the praise of men, he will do so. If he can use temptation and greed, he will use those as well. If he can use discouragement and men’s barbed words, he will likewise have no qualms about employing them. It’s not about the means; it’s about the ends. Whatever means he can use that are at his disposal, he will do so without pity because his goal is all-consuming.

The devil has one purpose, and he is single-minded in it. He doesn’t have a job, he doesn’t have a mortgage, he doesn’t have hobbies, and he’s not looking for a significant other. The only thing on his mind all day, every day, is your destruction. He hates all of God’s creation, but not equally so. Those who pose no threat to him and his plans, those who have not learned to put on the whole armor of God and stand, those who are still playing games and have not fully submitted themselves to God, those who do not resist him and force him to flee, are still loathed and hated, but not nearly as much as those who know what it is to walk in the authority of the Almighty.

What started as an attempt to prove God wrong regarding Job’s uprightness turned into something more personal to the devil because his nature is to be petty and vindictive and attempt to hurt those clinging to hope just for the sake of doing it.

By this point, Satan likely knew Job would be a tougher nut to crack than he had previously thought, even allowing for the possibility that it wasn’t going to happen, but that did not deter him from continuing his onslaught. All he really needed was a crack, a moment of doubt, some intrusive thought that he could exploit and use to further his objective.

Depending on where we place our trust, suffering and trials can either shatter us or ennoble us. They can either break our will or exalt our faith upon seeing the plan of God at work, and feeling His comforting hand upon us as we journey through the valley. Job’s faith and full assurance were in the God he served. His faith rested in the sovereignty of the One who spoke the universe into being, and he saw no other way but to continue clinging to Him.

Job did not hope that his Redeemer lived. He knew that his Redeemer lived. The certainty of the presence of God gives us strength when we are weak and hope when we are at our lowest. With God on our side, all things are possible. Without Him, even the simplest of plans and most probable outcomes fall short and fall apart because all things are within His purview and control. Job knew this and refused to budge. He would not surrender his hope, no matter how much his friends insisted he should.

To abandon one’s hope is a choice. To cling to one’s hope is likewise a choice, and between the two, holding strong to the faith we have in God is by far the better one.        

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXXIV

Our titles, positions, possessions, or fame do not justify us. Nothing the world values, as far as prominence is concerned, moves the needle when it comes to whether God sees us as a son or daughter He knows as one of His own, or someone He’s never known. We are justified by faith through Christ’s sacrifice, and His shed blood washes us and makes us clean in the sight of God.

How others see us, view us, or perceive us is irrelevant. How others judge us, whether for good or ill, should not affect our countenance in the least, because the opinions of men are wholly irrelevant, as long as God sees us as redeemed and reconciled to Him.

Many are quick to label themselves as good people because they think of themselves as such for some act of kindness they performed, a charity they gave to, or for adopting a cat from the shelter that one time. They assess themselves and decide on their goodness in a vacuum, using anecdotal acts of kindness and self-serving judgment to reach this conclusion. Even if they were to compare themselves to others, it’s never someone they deem more virtuous or noble than themselves, but always someone so far removed from humanity, kindness, empathy, or goodness that the contrast makes them out to be a saint of the highest order.

Because they deem it foolishness, they never come to understand that the Word is the standard by which all will be judged, and though in the eyes of men, be they few or many, they are deemed as virtuous and good, if held to the standard of the gospel, they fall short every time. We do not stand in our own righteousness, but are made righteous through the salvific work of Christ.  

The words of Job’s friends had gotten under his skin, and he didn’t like it. He’d been affected by something he knew full well ought not to have affected him. He realized it wasn’t productive, uplifting, or positive for his spiritual man to dwell on their words, when their words were akin to a battering ram, bruising his heart, insisting that not only should he abandon hope, but that any hope he still retained was illusory.

We all know that one person in our life who can’t say an encouraging word to save their life. Job happened to know three, and his wife didn’t do much to lift his spirits either. Whatever the situation may be, there’s always that one individual whom you love dearly but know in your heart that if you happen to run into them on a day when everything is falling apart, they’ll end up putting the final nail in the coffin. It’s not even that they’re intentionally cruel. Whether it’s their inability to read the room or sense the level of turmoil coming off you in waves, they always seem to say the wrong thing at the worst possible time, then continue the conversation as though they didn’t just metaphorically gut-punch you.

Somehow, they always tend to lean toward the letter of the law rather than the spirit thereof, and like Job’s friends, interpret what they see through the prism of intellect without allowing for the possibility that something different and heretofore unseen is taking place that would upend their conclusions in a heartbeat. Yes, more often than not, causality is a viable theory, as is the consequence of choice, but there are instances, as was the case with Job, where something bigger is at work, something that the human mind cannot properly rationalize.

You got the diabetes because all you eat day in and day out are candies, cookies, Twinkies, and cheesecakes. But I never touch the stuff. My diet consists of chicken breast and rice, you retort. Nope, that can’t be, and the fact that you have it proves that you aren’t being truthful!

Your suffering is a direct result of your sin! This was the conclusion all three of Job’s friends had come to, even though he insisted time and again that his prayer was pure, his hands were clean, and he had not done anything to displease the Lord. If you hadn’t sinned, you wouldn’t be suffering, and because you’re suffering, you’ve obviously sinned. Circular logic? Sure, but we can’t let that get in the way of winning an argument, can we?

My youngest has a notebook she brings home from school, and every morning, I have to sign off on whether she read for fifteen minutes the previous day as part of her curriculum. Serendipitously, she loves to read, so she’s always doing it for more than the required fifteen minutes. Sometimes I’ll grab the notebook from her backpack and sign it even before she asks. The other morning, I’d failed to sign her notebook, and after telling her as much, she went rummaging through her backpack to get me to sign it. After going through a couple of the pockets and coming up short, she came into the office with a sour look on her face and said, “Daddy, where’s my notebook?”

“I don’t know,” I answered, “I didn’t touch it.”

“Well, it’s not in my backpack, so you must have taken it.”

“Look again,” I said, “I promise I didn’t take it, so it must be where you last had it.”

With an incredulous look on her face as though it were some grand conspiracy, she went back to her backpack, and wouldn’t you know it, the notebook was on the bottom of her book bag, under piles of papers, books, and other sundries she carries as though she were training for some lifting competition. She’d made an assumption based on previous experiences, and it turned out to be wrong. It’s the same thing Job’s friends did, only on a much grander scale.   

Believing that he had sinned and not trusting their friend’s word wasn’t the worst of it. It was insisting that he relinquish the hope he clung to in the God he served that was the icing on the cake. They prescribed a remedy to a situation they’d concluded must be the truth as it lies, when it would have been the worst possible thing Job could have done.       

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXXIII

 Shortly after we were married and my wife and I moved to America, I got a job shoveling wet concrete for an outfit that paved driveways. It was honest work for an honest wage, and contrary to the notion that preachers and evangelists not only deserve but should expect to be nosediving into pools of greenbacks like Scrooge McDuck, we weren’t really flush with cash at the time. I needed the work, the pay was decent, and I wasn’t about to sell my soul and start preaching prosperity for a few extra shekels in my pocket. It’s not that I wouldn’t have if it were biblical, but it’s not, so I didn’t, still don’t, and never will. Why sell people on false hope when true hope exists? Why sell people on material possessions when you can point the way to the virtues, attributes, and gifts exclusively reserved for the children of God?

The first few days were brutal. Even with the work gloves, by the time the day was done, my hands were blistered and raw, and it was all I could do to unclench my fingers. The pain in my hands and fingers was so pronounced that I barely noticed the back spasms. Quitting was not an option. I had a wife to provide for, and rent to pay, so every morning I took to shoveling concrete with gusto.  

After the first week, I realized the pain was beginning to ebb. The blisters had calloused over, my skin was rougher, and my body was getting used to holding a shovel for eight hours per day. The temporary pain had made me stronger. Before my skin could toughen up, it had to first break down and bring on a feeling of discomfort and heretofore unexperienced pain. One cannot become physically stronger without going through the process of putting stress on a muscle, working it to failure, and breaking down the tissue so that when it rebuilds, it does so improved.

The same is true of our spiritual man. Trials are not purposeless. Hardships are not purposeless. Tribulations are not purposeless. They all serve to put stress on the spiritual man so that he might grow stronger through them. Hindsight is a powerful teacher when it comes to gauging spiritual progress. I know without equivocation that had I endured some of the more recent trials of life twenty or thirty years ago, it would have taken me much longer to recover, and I would have likely suffered far more scars and bruises to boot.

It’s not hyperbole or positive thinking that led Job to conclude that he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger; it was a conclusion he reached based on observation and personal experience. He knew that his own strength had long since failed him. He couldn’t lie to himself about the condition he was in or pretend as though he wasn’t scratching at his oozing boils with a potsherd. He realized he was stronger than he ought to be, even in his current condition, and based his declaration that indeed, he who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger, on what he knew to be an irrefutable truth.

Job 17:10-16, “But please, come back again, all of you, for I shall not find one wise man among you. My days are past, my purposes are broken off, even the thoughts of my heart. They change the night into day; ‘The light is near,’ they say, in the face of darkness. If I wait for the grave as my house, if I make my bed in the darkness, if I say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘You are my mother and my sister,’ where then is my hope? As for my hope, who can see it? Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have rest together in the dust?”

Groupthink and the madness of the crowd are not new inventions. It started long before the crowd cried for Barabbas rather than Jesus, and even before the people demanded that Aaron build them an idol to worship. The only difference is the size of the crowd. In our modern era, with the benefits of connectivity, you can get a sea of people agreeing on the most asinine of things, because the wider the net you cast, the more fish you're liable to catch.

I’ve even watched interviews during protests where individuals in the crowd had no idea what they were protesting on that day, simply being drawn by the group of screaming people and joining in because they seemed so passionate about it. Who’d have thought so many people were so passionate about the government providing free wood to woodchucks, because though they may not be human, free wood should be a human right. It’s the deforestation that caused a decrease in available wood, after all, and that led to the woodchuck’s inability to find the one thing that gives them purpose.

The same people protesting for the right to murder babies are all aflutter about saving the Sprague’s pipit, even if it means leaving millions of people without potable water. Sacrifices must be made! The Sprague’s pipit must survive; babies, not so much.

Job had weighed the words of his friends and found that they parroted each other. He understood they fed off each other’s ideas, drawing the same conclusion, and in an almost acerbic manner said, Take a breath, collect your thoughts, and come back with new arguments. Not in so many words, but that was the undertone. Even so, I shall not find one wise man among you because you are insisting that I surrender the one thing that keeps me alive, present, and engaged, which is hope.

I have nothing left but that one thing, and you, my friends, are insisting that I give up on it, abandon it, simply to validate your preconceptions about my life up until this point. Granted, Job’s friends had said some of the things Job himself had stated, but the intent with which they spoke the words was to tear down rather than build up, and to dispirit rather than encourage.

I find it telling that the only one of those who appear in the book of Job to have addressed God directly, to have prayed repeatedly, and cried out to the heavens consistently, was Job. Neither his three friends, his wife, nor the yet-to-be-revealed individuals in this book bothered to cry out to God or to pray for wisdom, understanding, or clarity in this situation. Only Job had, because unlike his friends, he understood that only He had the answers. God knew the truth of it. Everyone else was just guessing.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.