Job CXII

 In hindsight, the worst of times can turn out to be the best of times, depending upon the prism through which we view them and the growth we experience as a direct result. It’s not exclusive to physical pain or the loss of something, or even everything, but in every area of life where we feel buffeted, harangued, put out, dismissed, rejected, refined, tested, tried, or persecuted. Whether we use the visual example of a threshing floor or a wine press, the one commonality between the two is that the existing iteration of the wheat or the grape must be crushed in order for the dross and impurities to be sifted out that what remains may be pure and useful.

My daughters love butterflies. Since the local museum has a butterfly garden or vivarium for the nerdier folks among us, and we made so many trips just to stand there and hope a butterfly would land on us, I even got a yearly membership. They are beautiful. Colorful, eccentric, large and small, lazily flying around and from time to time choosing to land on an outstretched hand or a shoulder.

It’s easy to get lost in their beauty and fail to realize that they all started as caterpillars. Yep, those fuzzy, wormy things that crawl on the ground and aren’t much to look at, usually given a wide berth and ignored because they are so offputting. For the caterpillar to become a butterfly, a metamorphosis must occur. This metamorphosis can be seen as a spiritual transformation, whereby, after spending ten days of pupation in its chrysalis, it emerges as an adult butterfly. Similarly, in our spiritual journey, we all start off as ‘caterpillars,’ but through faith and perseverance, we can undergo a transformation and emerge as ‘butterflies’ in the eyes of God, something He delights in because He sees the image of His Son in us.

It’s not an instant transformation, and it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time for it to become what it was intended to be, and although most wouldn’t have given the caterpillar a second look once the transformation is complete, they stand and stare in wonder at its delicate beauty.

Not all butterflies are the same, having different sizes and colors, but they’re all butterflies. Their basic nature and what they have become is that of a butterfly with certain noticeable variations.

As believers, we must all strive to be Christlike, walking in obedience to God’s Word and fully committed to His way. That is our DNA, the commonality we all share, but this doesn’t mean we’re a monolith or that we’re all supposed to be identical in appearance in order to be deemed a child of God.

In any given church, you’ll find people in suits, in jeans, wearing t-shirts or button-down shirts, with beards, freshly shaven, with make-up or au natural, wearing floral prints, or monotone colors, unless you happen to be Amish, of slimmer or sturdier built, but they’re all children of God if they’ve been reborn, just as all the butterflies in the vivarium are butterflies regardless of their color or size.

Our primary concern should not be whether we look like everyone else but that we resemble Christ. Even a toddler is able to spot the difference between a bat and a butterfly. You can’t mistake the two or replace one with the other. The biggest issue the modern-day church must contend with currently is that we’ve allowed men to dictate what passes for a butterfly and shut down anyone who insists that it’s a lizard with wings we’re all staring at. There are clear and verifiable markers that define what a butterfly is, and if we ignore those, then what you have is a wilderness, not a sanctuary.

As far as Bildad is concerned, his one misstep was assuming that God must adhere to his presuppositions, not allowing for exceptions to the rule or a different course of action than what the fathers had experienced. Since it had always been the case that those who forgot God were cut off, then this, too, must be a similar situation. When men assume there is something God can or cannot do, they not only appropriate His authority but demand that God bow to their will or understanding.

I’ve heard the ‘God doesn’t do that anymore’ tome countless times, and my reply has always been the same: says who? You? Unless God spoke it, or it is evident in His Word, not by twisting the gospel into a pretzel or omitting the texts that do not adhere to your belief, but by rightly dividing Scripture and allowing it to reveal the truth, then all you have is personal opinion.

It’s not just foolhardy but outright dangerous when we place ourselves or our opinions above the sovereignty of God and insist that it is He who must bend to our will rather than we who must submit to His. God doesn’t have to do what you want Him to do. He doesn’t have to solve a problem the way you would like Him to. He is God, Creator of all, and we are creations whose purpose on this earth is to serve and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Job did not fit the mold of Bildad’s presuppositions, but Bildad insisted that he must. Because he was so ingrained in his belief, he couldn’t even allow for the possibility that what was happening to Job may be beyond his understanding or ability to perceive and process.

When I used to get frequent gout attacks, everyone had an opinion. Either I was drinking too much water or not enough, I was consuming too many vegetables, or I should cut out vegetables altogether, I should ingest copious amounts of apple cider vinegar, cherry extract, or cayenne, and that would surely make it go away instantly, and various other ideas. Did any of the people offering opinions suffer from gout? No, they didn’t but they had plenty of opinions nonetheless. Were some of them valid? Perhaps, but they assumed I hadn’t tried everything already or that I was being stubborn in not adopting their dietary protocol. Some even went so far as to insist I deserved the pain because I hadn’t bowed to their wisdom and done as they’d instructed.

Eventually, I figured it out and dialed my diet in to the point that it’s been years since I’ve had a gout attack, and unsurprisingly, it wasn’t due to any of the things people insisted I should do.

Bildad assumed he knew the cause of Job’s suffering, and he would not be swayed from his thesis. Even having full assurance that he was right and he’d unraveled a great mystery, Bildad, along with his other two friends, turned out to be wrong. More often than not, we are left with egg on our faces when we assume things we have no understanding of. Never assume. Always take the time to confirm, and make sure that when you open your mouth to speak, it’s not out of ignorance. It’s a good rule of thumb for young and old alike.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.