Job XX

 The last servant came in with the worst news because that’s usually the coup de gras or the death blow to one’s constitution if there is a chance that they might bend and break. You soften them up with a few punches to the mid-drift, then go for the uppercut, right cross, or haymaker straight to the jaw while they’re trying to catch their breath from having just had their ribs bruised.

You save the best or worst for last, depending on which side of the coin you’re on, and you hold nothing back. This should have been Satan’s crowning achievement, his moment to gloat and insist that he was right after all, but it was not to be.

Oxen, donkeys, sheep, and camels could be replaced, but the last messenger to rush in brought news of Job’s children, who were all gathered in their oldest brother’s house drinking wine when a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, killing all of them. As was the case the previous three times, one solitary servant escaped to bring the bad news to Job.

Throughout my life, I’ve noticed that whenever there’s bad news, there’s always someone to deliver it. Some even do it with glee, as though delivering some bit of devastating news to you sets the world aright and confirms their suspicions that if there was justice in the world, something bad needed to happen to you. Just as God has His messengers, Satan has his messengers too. Although I don’t believe that the servants who survived and came to tell Job of his misfortune were knowingly doing the devil’s bidding, for whatever reason, some within the church today are.

Not every messenger is of God, nor is every messenger who claims to have been sent by God. This is a crucial conversation worth having within the household of faith because many go without being sent, and many give a word without having had a word given to them. It’s in our hands to discern the true messengers from the false ones.

It’s easy enough to know which is which if our hearts are not clouded by the desire for experience rather than relationship. Many ignore the clear alarm bells going off when such a messenger come through with the promise of a personal prophecy for everyone and their grandma, a practice that often leads to vague or self-fulfilling predictions, or healing services wherein no one is left untouched, a spectacle that can be more about showmanship than genuine spiritual healing, because the appeal drowns out the alarms.

First, I cannot guarantee something I am not entirely in control of. Prophecy comes from God via the Holy Spirit. Unless one claims to be the Almighty themselves, they cannot guarantee a word from the Lord for everyone present, the same way I can’t pick a restaurant at random and promise everyone a free meal if they show up. It’s not my restaurant. I made no prior arrangements with the owner, yet I take it upon myself to promise everyone a pancake breakfast if they come in on a given day at a specific time.

Who wouldn’t want a free breakfast? Anyone would, but they’re not mine to give out. The same principle applies to those who insist that everyone gets a personal word of prophecy if they come to the local Holiday Inn on a random Wednesday. No man can promise to give you something that is not theirs to give. Whether that’s prophecy or healing, it is God who chooses when and if, and not man.

Another telltale sign is when the man esteems himself and points to himself rather than the One who supposedly sent him, making himself indispensable in the eyes of those he is addressing. Messengers are servants in service to their Master. Their duty is not to draw glory to themselves but to give glory to the One who sent them if they were truly sent by Him.

If I’m constantly trying to draw attention to myself, my accomplishments, and my ministry while downplaying Christ as the singular way, truth, and life, then I’m doing Him a disservice, and my motives are something other than bringing glory to His name. A testimony is not about what I did as an individual but what God did through me. A vessel is a vessel. It is there to be used at the Master’s discretion and can take no glory for being used no matter how frequently or in what manner.

I’ve gotten into the habit of picking up a hat or a coffee cup whenever we travel somewhere as a family. It’s my way of remembering the places we’ve visited, and although we have a shelf in the house filled to the brim with coffee mugs of all shapes and sizes, there is still one mug I use more often than any of the others because I like the way it fits in my hand, and it’s big enough to accommodate the amount of coffee I drink on a given morning.

The mug I prefer is no better than the rest that are sitting on the shelf gathering dust; I just prefer it. As long as it remains intact and doesn’t crack or start leaking, I will likely continue to use it, but that in no way makes it worthy of any particular praise or reverence. When a vessel insists that they are deserving of high honor for being a vessel, that’s when you back away slowly and find the nearest exit.

Job understood the dynamics of his relationship with God. Just as he had servants who were beholden to him, he was a servant beholden to God. Had he seen himself as something other than a servant, his reaction to the things he’d been told had taken place in quick succession would have been different than it was.

Job 1:20-22, “Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said: ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.