Job III

 Job 1:1-5, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.”

Everyone loves a redemption arc. They have become emblematic of novels, movies, songs, and stories because there’s something that resonates with all of us when we hear a testimony of someone who reached rock bottom only to continue digging until one day, that moment of lucidity gives way to an epiphany that compels them to climb out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves.

Whether it’s the angry soul who holds a puppy for the first time and then goes on to start a no-kill shelter or the alcoholic who one day pours all the booze down the drain, never to touch another drink, then goes on to start a rehab clinic, the notion of redemption resonates deep within the hearts of men.

But what if you hadn’t sabotaged your life wholesale? What if you didn’t end up bruised and broken on the side of a highway before you realized you were on a short journey toward a quick death and the life you were living couldn’t be called a life by any objective metric? What if you lived a noble existence, feared God, shunned evil, and were blameless in the sight of God, and one day, an ordinary day like any other, everything turned to dust before your eyes? What if you did everything right, then in the blink of an eye, everything went wrong?

If karma were a real thing, then Job would have been golden. He was a man who consistently shunned evil, made sure his house was in order, and even rose up early to offer burnt offerings on behalf of his children, just in case they’d strayed and sinned against God. He was blameless both in the sight of God and of his contemporaries.

Some men are singled out for their bravery, others for their wisdom, and still others for their inventiveness or ability to captivate an audience with their oration, but few throughout the Bible were singled out for being blameless and upright.

Job’s singular claim to fame as far as God was concerned was that he feared God and shunned evil. Even in those days, this was such a rarity that he stood out among his contemporaries like a beacon of righteousness. The first thing we discover about Job, after his name and that he was from the land of Uz, is that he was blameless and upright, feared God, and shunned evil.

Those attributes, more than anything, were what mattered in the sight of God, and that by a country mile. The Book of Job doesn’t start out by telling us that there was a man named Job from the land of Uz, and he was filthy rich. It doesn’t begin by telling us his station or his title, but that he feared God and shunned evil.

First things should always come first, and there must be a hierarchy of priorities that places godliness and uprightness at the very top. How the world sees you is irrelevant. What matters is how God sees you. Whether you amass fortunes or climb the ladder of success to the last rung is likewise illusory if God is not foremost in your life and your relationship with Him is not the focus and priority.

Job was likely loving, considerate, generous, and a good father and husband, all qualities and virtues a godly man must possess. But God noticed first, before any of his other accomplishments, that he was a blameless and upright man.

One cannot become blameless and upright by being loving, considerate, and generous, but being blameless and upright will make you a virtuous man or woman who is these things and more. All noble virtue flows from godliness. We do not practice them because they make us more godly; rather, because we are godly, we naturally practice them. We gravitate toward the things of God and shun those of the devil, experiencing a transformative power that shapes our character.

If we are of the light, we cannot abide the darkness. We cannot walk in it, court it, validate it or accept it because light and darkness are diametrically opposed and an existential threat to the continuity of the other. If light is present, darkness scatters. If darkness encroaches upon the light, it too suffers and is weakened.

Before men see anything else about you, they should see that you are a godly individual. Before noticing that you’re good with numbers, with words, running a business, or coming up with a better mouse trap, they should see Christ living in you. A godly individual will possess a godly character. His yes will be yes, his no, no, and he will walk according to the Word of God though he walks alone. His purpose is not to be accepted, liked, embraced, or otherwise fawned over by the godless or those of the world but that all he does will be pleasing in the sight of the Lord. A godly man is willing to suffer the loss of all things in the pursuit of godliness and deem their loss as frivolous and unworthy of mention.

Once we establish in our hearts that Jesus is our everything, that His word is the great treasure we seek, everything else will flow from there, yet never overshadow Him and His presence in our lives. Men must see Jesus first. Then, as they get to know you and notice other things about your character and conduct, the way you carry yourself and the way you are, you can point back to Jesus and give Him the glory for the individual you’ve been transformed into.

A caterpillar that remains a caterpillar for the whole of its existence never reaches its full potential. It did not become what it was meant to be. Sadly, that’s the state of most contemporary Christians today, wherein they raise a hand, say a prayer, and then return to the life they’ve always known, never being transformed, reborn, and renewed in mind and heart.

The question isn’t whether God sees you as a Pentecostal, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, or Non-denominationalist. The question is whether God sees you as blameless and upright, as one who fears Him and shuns evil.

Another question worth pondering as we begin this journey is whether a man can truly fear God if he does not shun evil. I’m not asking whether or not they say they do, but do they actually possess the fear of the Lord if they do not consistently shun evil? In light of the shaking that’s been taking place in the modern-day church of late, it is a reasonable and appropriate question.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.