Job CXVI

 I have more respect for a country preacher who goes about rightly dividing the Word, with no aspirations of having a mega church or multiple campuses, than I ever will for those whose only purpose is to elevate themselves and make themselves out to be more important in the sight of God than their contemporaries. Humility is a noble virtue that has fallen out of favor with much of today’s leadership, and we are seeing the effects of their arrogance and pursuit of recognition and elevation. They stopped taking heed lest they fall, thinking themselves above the ability to fall, only to find themselves in the dirt, staring up at a starry sky, wondering how they got there.

By this point, Job understood that he would find no compassion in his three friends. All three took different routes but reached the same conclusion, wherein Job must have sinned; otherwise, all these things would not have happened to him. When the hearts and ears of men are non-responsive when, no matter what you say, they’ve already cemented their opinions, there is still God before whom we can plead our case and pour out our hearts.

God will neither shun you nor dismiss you. Even in His silence, He comforts those who cry out to Him and gives them the strength to persevere and cling to their faith during the process of pruning, trial, and testing.

Job had surrendered to the will of God, whatever that may have entailed. If He takes away, who can hinder Him? That was the conclusion Job had come to after months of torment. Oftentimes, God takes away the things we leaned on and trusted in so that we might reshift our focus on Him and learn to trust Him rather than the things that come from His hand. If we are wholly surrendered to God, when things are taken away, we do not bristle, grow bitter, or react in haste but understand that it did not occur accidentally or haphazardly. There was a purpose in it, perhaps beyond our understanding, but a purpose nonetheless.

From the moment it is born into the world and placed on its mother’s chest, a baby begins to develop trust. It knows it is safe and secure, will be tended to and looked after, fed, changed, and all the things that parenting entails because it has always been a constant. When we are born again into the kingdom of God, we are as babes, but with each passing day of seeing God’s faithfulness manifest in our lives, our trust likewise grows, and we come to understand that we are safe in His embrace.

Just as any parent does, sometimes God must discipline us, not because He revels in doling out chastening, but for our own good, our own growth, and our own maturing. The first time I had to discipline Victoria for something she did, which she was explicitly prohibited from doing, I cried more than she did. It broke my heart, and although it was more of a tap than any real discipline, she understood the gravity of the situation by seeing my own emotional distress in having to do it.

Love compels God to chasten His children. Not hate, not animus, not misplaced anger, but love. Due to the tragic reality that not all who sire children in our day and age are parents in the true sense of the word, mothers and fathers who care for, love, and cherish the gifts that God bestowed on them, many have difficulty understanding the true definition of love, and what it entails regarding God, who loves us with a perfect love.

Allowing children to do as they will when they will without instruction, direction, or correction is not love; it’s indifference and apathy. Not having guardrails and showing them right from wrong isn’t the height of good parenting, but an abject failure of one’s duties as a parent and a slow-moving tragedy waiting to happen.

In Job’s case, having known the goodness of God for most of his life, seeing himself in the state he was in, and knowing he had not sinned made it difficult for him to reconcile the God he knew with what he was enduring. Yet, on a fundamental level, he understood that God’s sovereignty, His absolute authority and control over all things, was not diminished by his personal suffering, and He does as He wills.

Job understood that while we can entreat God, pray, seek His face, cry out for mercy, and come before Him in faith, knowing that He hears, it does not necessarily mean He will do as we ask, and if He chooses not to, we have no right to question Him and ask, “What are you doing?”

Because they never understood what the sovereignty of God meant, many people today throw a tantrum every time God does not do as they demand, and rather than submitting to His authority, insist that it’s not God allowing something in their lives, but rather some nefarious force set on keeping them from living their best lives.

Unpopular as it may be in today’s self-obsessed climate, a servant does not have the right, whether implicit or explicit, to question their master or work against His will and purpose, thinking they know better.

We will all stand before Him on that day of days, and He will determine whether we were good and faithful servants or faithless and rebellious. Everything will be laid bare, and nothing will be hidden from His eyes. In that instant, the notion of faking it until you make it will die a quick and sudden death because God knows the inner thoughts of the heart, the things men think they can keep secret, and no justification will suffice, for God will know the truth of it. This inevitability of God’s judgment should make us feel accountable and mindful of our actions. It’s not something we can dismiss or wave off as insignificant or unimportant.

Those who were faithful and true will be welcomed into His Kingdom, receiving the reward for their faithfulness, while those who were faithless will be cast into the outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. We could try to blunt the blow of this reality or find ways to mitigate the full weight of what it means, but the truth is the truth, even when it makes us squirm in our seats.

For those walking in obedience, the reality of what is to come should not make them feel ill at ease but rather joyful and expectant. For those believing they can ride the fence and only pay God lip service while living in rebellion, it is a dreadful prospect, one they can readily remedy by genuine repentance of heart.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.