Job VII

 As is the case with most things in life, context matters when it comes to the Book of Job. Understanding the timing of when it was written only serves to broaden our appreciation of Job’s story, his life, his testing, and his faithfulness. We have an idea of when this book was written, both by what is there and by what isn’t.

What is apparent is that Job’s family was established in a patriarchal fashion. Although patriarchy has become a dirty word of late, this means that Job was the head of his household and was responsible for the well-being of all those within his sphere of influence, whether that meant his children or those who worked for him.

His length of life also lends credence to the idea that Job lived during the time of the patriarchs, given that after his travails, he lived another hundred and forty years. By all accounts, by the time his end came, Job was at least two hundred years old, perhaps even close to a quarter of a century.

As I said, what isn’t in the Book of Job likewise gives us insight into when Job walked among men. There is no mention of Israel, the tribes, the law of God, or the tabernacle of meeting Moses erected toward the latter end of Exodus. If these had existed in Job’s day, it would have been highly unlikely that they would not be mentioned within the context of the book. There would have been some reference to either the law of God or the people of God had they been established during the life of Job. It’s not a stretch to conclude that Job predated Moses, which in itself makes his faithfulness all the more noteworthy.

He did not have the law, the prophets, or a historical record of what God could do, as there was after the people of Israel were led out of bondage, yet he cemented a relationship with God and remained faithful throughout.

It’s also telling that Job did not take his relationship with God for granted. His love and fear of the Lord did not wane with the passing of time, and he was diligent in bringing burnt offerings for his progeny, as well as maintaining his subservience to God. This says more about his character and the way he viewed his relationship with God than anything he could say about himself. An individual’s consistent actions will speak on his behalf even when he remains silent.

We live in an age when men like to elevate themselves and speak so highly of their accomplishments as to dwarf even the labors of someone like Paul. To hear them tell the tale, all save a handful of people on a remote island somewhere who haven’t heard their great preaching and oration have been blessed by them, and if not for their being on team Jesus, the church would be a shadow of its current self. Even if all the inflated accomplishments were genuine, they weren’t yours. It is God who gives the word, it is God who gives the utterance, and it is God who gives the gifts.

To take credit for something God has done is to relegate Him to the back of the bus and insist that He couldn’t have done it without you. If He must make the stones speak, they will, but God’s word will go forth with or without you or me. Because men see themselves as indispensable to God and His kingdom, and because the true desire of their heart is something other than to serve the body of Christ, pride finds a willing host and brings friends along to boot. Once this occurs, the fall is inevitable because pride will facilitate and perpetuate it.

Job’s worship of God was not for show. It’s not as though his neighbors were watching or he was trying to impress someone with his diligent worship of God. There was no one to impress. There was no one he felt the need to appear spiritual toward. It was who Job was to the deepest recesses of his heart, and what was in his heart flowed forth into his actions. His worship of God was a reflection of who he was.

If the desire of your heart is to know God in a more profound and intimate way, you don’t need degrees or diplomas in order to attain a deep and lasting relationship with God, but simply the humility to follow where He leads and do as He commands. People who put on airs, are overly performative or feel the need to have an audience whenever they do anything on behalf of God are suspect in my book because intimacy naturally presupposes a very reduced number of participants, namely you and God.

Nobody needs to see you praying, worshiping, giving, weeping, singing, or rejoicing, but be assured God does, and when we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. Acting spiritual isn’t the same as being spiritual, but we will settle for the former rather than the latter because the latter requires consistency and a pure heart in which the Holy Spirit can reside.

Even though save for Jesus on the cross, no man suffered the likes of what Job did, he understood intuitively what Paul would later put into words, that our afflictions, light or otherwise, are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

To understand how an individual defines something, you must look at their life in the aggregate to see their lived experience. When Paul speaks of light affliction, his lived experience was being lashed with whips five separate times, at thirty-nine lashes per event, beaten with rods, stoned, and shipwrecked, among other things. That was his frame of reference when he spoke of light affliction. And yet, he looks back on all the pain, hardship, and travail and concludes that it worked a more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

I don’t know about you, but if I were to compare my affliction to his, it wouldn’t even be worthy of mention.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.