Job IX

 Job was wholly ignorant of what was taking place in the halls of heaven or that his name was the topic of conversation. It’s one thing for an individual to call themselves virtuous, blameless, or upright, and it’s quite another for God to see you as such and single you out as the solitary figure in the entirety of the world possessing such attributes. How we see ourselves matters little. How God sees us is what counts, and though we might have fallen for the ruse that one’s self-esteem, self-worth, self-regard, or self-assurance dictates their true heart, far too many nowadays boast of things they do not possess and elevate themselves to positions they have no place being in.

Job wasn’t going around calling himself righteous. He wasn’t telling anyone within earshot how he was blameless and upright. He lived out his faith in God, shunning evil and fearing Him, not because of some accolades he might receive or honorifics men might bestow upon him, but because the desire of his heart was to obey God in all things and walk circumspectly with his Lord.

Although the author of the Book of Job remains a mystery to this day, its divine inspiration is undeniable. Whether the author was shown the sons of God coming and presenting themselves before the Lord, or they took dictation, penning what they heard, it took substantial faith to begin writing, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them,” then keep going.

The type of unshakeable faith and obedience required for one to receive a message from the Lord and then faithfully deliver it without adding, taking away, or trying to interpret it through the prism of their understanding is rarely discussed nowadays, but in light of all the self-appointed prophets coming out of the woodwork speaking all manner of things, perhaps it should be.

Whether it’s Isaiah prophesying the virgin birth or the author of Job describing the sons of God presenting themselves before the Lord, the men tasked with writing down the messages they received had to have had a firm and longstanding relationship with God before any of it took place. They walked with God, knew Him, trusted Him, and obeyed Him without question to be able to be used by Him in such a fashion.

Another aspect of this tableau that stood out from the first sentence is that Satan came among the sons of God when they came to present themselves before the Lord. What makes us think Satan is not present among congregations if he was able to come among the sons of God? That is a question worth pondering for anyone who believes that everything they hear being preached from pulpits today is the Word of God rightly divided or that there is no attempt to plant seeds of deception among the brethren when we are gathered together.

We let our guard down and dismiss that still, small voice more readily when we are in a church setting than anywhere else, and we do so to our detriment. If you hear something that rings false or that you know is antithetical to the Scripture, do not receive it just because you hear it spoken by someone in a suit standing behind a pulpit. It is your individual duty to study the Word and show yourself approved, and no one can do it on your behalf.

The problem with being spoon-fed is that you don’t get to determine what’s in the spoon. It may be easier than checking the ingredients and making sure that what goes into a spiritual meal is wholesome, virtuous, and biblical, but easy doesn’t make it right, and due to men’s laziness regarding spiritual matters or indifference as to what they consume spiritually, there is an epidemic of powerless souls roaming about the church, uncertain of what they believe, why they believe it, or if it has anything in common with the Scriptures.

Satan is an ever-present reality with which we must contend and a tirelessly committed enemy that we must resist. There is nothing wrong with being hyper-vigilant, nor is it sinful. On the contrary, hyper-vigilance is recommended, given the lengths to which the enemy of our souls will go in order to try and shipwreck our faith. The only caveat is that in our hyper-vigilant state, we do not reject a word or a message because of how it was delivered or by whom. The only metric we must use to determine if something is of God is the Word of God.

If it’s biblical, although we might not particularly care for the individual’s appearance because they’re wearing a t-shirt rather than a bespoke suit, or his manner of delivery because he tends to raise his voice rather than try to mimic an NPR host, it does not take away from it being scripturally sound.

There is a difference between rejecting a message because it’s not biblical and finding every excuse under the sun to reject it because, although we know it’s biblical, we don’t like what it implies or what demands it makes on our lives. Men gravitate toward teachers and teachings that harmonize with the desire of their hearts, and if the desire of their heart is something other than total submission to the will and Word of God, they will find ways of circumventing them that seem wholly illogical to an objective observer.

Men would rather descend into mysticism, numerology, astrology, shamanism, and all manner of occultic practices because they are unwilling to humble themselves, fear God, and shun evil. All it is is the flesh trying to find another way when God has declared that there is only One Way. It’s rebellion in its basest form, and though men may think it makes them superior to their fellow man, it doesn’t register on God’s radar. What God notices, what He sees, what He takes note of, are those who, in a sea of duplicitous, half-hearted, lukewarm, and situationally faithful souls, stand out for being blameless and upright, fearing Him and shunning evil. How rare are such individuals? In Job’s time, there was none like him on the earth. That should clue us in as to how small the remnant truly is.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.