Job CXVII

Throughout all this time, as Job’s friends were taking shots at him, questioning his faithfulness, and wondering out loud if he’d forgotten God altogether, his condition was worsening, and his suffering was escalating. It’s not as though his pain had peaked and now was lessening. With each new sunrise, Job was declining, his health was failing, and his flesh was caked with worms and dust, cracked and breaking out afresh.

Even those with overactive imaginations would have a hard time picturing the state Job was in at this point, something so ghastly to behold as to cause individuals he once knew to give him a wide berth for fear of contracting likewise. There was no liniment, ointment, medication, or poultice one could apply to ease his suffering, and by this time, everything they could have thought of would have been tried already.

Even dying in peace was beyond his reach because although Satan had free reign to touch every area of his life, including his body, he was not allowed to take his life. By this, we know that God can place limitations on the devil and that the devil cannot go beyond those limitations. He can’t break the rules once God spells them out, no matter how much he’d like to. If given the chance, Satan would have likely ended Job’s life out of spite, if nothing else, because he’d gambled, and he’d lost, and that surely didn’t feel good. He had one shot, one opportunity to prove God wrong by getting Job to sin or find fault with Him, and this pesky human clung to his integrity like he had something to prove.

There’s no doubt Job wanted to die, but he wasn’t willing to curse God in order to do it. He was unwilling to surrender his integrity or find fault with God in order to experience the release of oblivion, to be done with the pain and the torment, and the constant drumming of his friends insisting that he had sinned.

Yes, I’ve heard all the one-liners: tough times don’t last, tough people do, tomorrow is another day, the sun will shine again, look for the silver lining in every cloudy sky, if you don’t mind it, it doesn’t matter, et al. Easier said than done when your flesh is covered with worms and dust, and every day, you’re oozing anew from a new tear in your flesh and cracked skin.

When we attempt to minimize the extent of Job’s suffering, it’s easy to try and find a soap box or perhaps even a high horse from whence we can proclaim his frailty and weakness. It’s not as though they’re hard to find; his friends managed to find both high horses and soapboxes, and they went to town on a man who was their friend and had been reduced to not much more than rotting flesh and a pulse. Instead of providing comfort, their words and actions added to Job’s suffering. If nothing else, this should be a stark reminder to us all of the power of our words and the need for empathy in times of distress.

Whether as a nation or an individual, we do not value or appreciate God’s hedge of protection until it is removed. It’s not as though the first time Satan had heard of Job was when God mentioned him. He’d had his eye on him, roaming about, trying to find something he could exploit, but Job was an upright and blameless man whom God favored, so all Satan could do was watch and seethe.

It was only when Satan received permission to sift Job that the hedge around him and his family was suspended, sort of like an electric fence meant to keep predators out being shut off, and the floodgates opened wide. When we perceive our existence through the prism of God’s grace, protection, mercy, and providence, we learn to appreciate every sunrise and every sunset, every smile, and every breath because it is His hedge that is keeping us from being utterly devoured and trampled underfoot by the enemy.

There’s no such thing as a small grace; we only perceive them as such. The other day, I was on my way to the local grocery store to buy some milk for the girls when the light turned yellow. The car in front of me gunned it because waiting thirty seconds for it to turn green again was too much time for them to waste sitting at a red light, while another car that was turning left decided it was a good time to try and play chicken. The inevitable collision occurred not twenty feet in front of me, with one car spinning out, having been t-boned by the other, blocking traffic and causing havoc.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, but as I sat there, watching the accident unfold and then waiting for the police to show up, I couldn’t help but think that all it would have taken for me to be the one getting in a wreck was two, maybe three seconds.

Every day, a million things can go wrong that don’t, but we never acknowledge them as being God’s grace and protection. We go through life taking for granted the reality that angels have been given charge over us, watching us, protecting us, and keeping the enemy at bay. It's important to recognize and appreciate these everyday blessings and acknowledge them for what they are: manifestations of God’s grace and protection in our lives.

Psalm 91:11-12, “For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.”

When we’re going through a trial, a testing, or a sifting, it’s easy to forget all His benefits and all the times He plucked us from the clutches of the enemy, delivering us from seemingly impossible situations. We are so focused on the present that we dismiss His faithfulness in the past, which ostensibly leads to either bitterness or desperation. Trust God. He will make a way. He always has, and He always will. It may not be as soon as you would like or in the manner you thought it, but His faithfulness is a certainty no matter the situation we might find ourselves in. This unwavering faith in God’s faithfulness is the key to enduring and overcoming trials.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.