Job CXXV

 The tapestry of Job’s responses to his friends is so rich, vivid, and brimming with wisdom that could only have come from above that it’s easy to miss some crucial nuggets, thereby minimizing the depth of knowledge and understanding someone who many would consider uneducated, primitive, and antiquated possessed. But Job was wealthy! True enough, but being wealthy doesn’t make you wise; being godly does. We’ve all seen the foolish things rich people do, so having material wealth does not equate to having wisdom. If it did, then most of our politicians would be Rhodes scholars with IQs north of 165, but they’re not.

The wisdom Job possessed was otherworldly. It did not originate from books, scrolls, or manuscripts but from God Himself. He understood there was a verifiable and demonstrable difference between flesh and soul, between this present existence and something beyond it, to the point that he begins the tenth chapter by declaring that his soul hated his life.    

Job 10:8-12, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity; Yet You would destroy me. Remember, I pray, that You have made me like clay. And will You turn me into dust again? Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews? You have granted me life and favor, and Your care has preserved my spirit.”

It’s a special kind of pain to know that God’s hands have made you and fashioned you in intricate unity, yet the same God would now destroy you. For those who never knew the goodness of God and those who do not acknowledge Him as the creator and architect of all that is, the source of their suffering is laid at the feet of happenstance, chance, bad choices, or even bad luck. They do not acknowledge the divine hand of supreme authority, and their understanding is forever marred due to their unwillingness to humble themselves before Him and view this existence via the prism of divine order.

Job was still trying to make sense of the incongruence of the God he knew and worshiped with what was happening to him, unable to wrap his mind around one day being molded like clay and the other being turned into dust again.

Job was not hubristic when it came to acknowledging God’s role and presence in his life. He did not take credit for the things God had done, nor did he claim that the things with which he’d been blessed before they were snatched away were somehow due to his ingenuity or prowess. He acknowledged God in all things, declaring that God had granted him both life and favor, and it was His care that preserved his spirit. That acknowledgment alone places him ahead of the pack of most of the modern-day church, wherein a modicum of success is ceaselessly trumpeted and declared to be the work of the man or woman in question rather than the favor of God.

There is a reason God gives grace to the humble while simultaneously resisting the proud. There is a reason why God would rather use a humble individual with no natural ability than a proud one with charisma, eloquence, or a powerful presence. The humble tend to be more obedient on their worst day than a proud man is on his best day, and what God is searching for is an obedient heart that He can mold, purify, fill, and use.

When God calls you to service, when He places a task before you, even if it may seem impossible to human understanding, be fully assured that He will give you the necessary tools to see it through. These tools may include wisdom, strength, boldness, courage, and divine favor. He will give you the words to speak and provide the opportunity to speak them, and as long as you remain humble and acknowledge Him in all your ways, He will continue to use you.

I’ve seen countless ministries, churches, preachers, pastors, and evangelists come and go throughout my forty years of ministry, and it’s not because we planned better, were smarter, or preached a message the masses were desirous to hear. On the contrary, the message is a hard one, and few have ears to hear. As far as being overly deferential and heaping praise upon people undeserving of it, those who know me know that it’s never been something we’ve done. The one thing I can point to that I know without doubt was the reason for our longevity was obedience.

We didn’t have five-year plans or public relations firms on retainer; we didn’t give away new Kias or Hyundais every year or offer one-on-one sessions with the leadership in return for a substantial donation; we did what God told us to do, and we trusted He would make a way even when it seemed impossible.

When God told my grandfather we would be building an orphanage in Romania, seven of us were living in a two-bedroom apartment, my dad worked two jobs, my mom cleaned homes on weekends, and we had less than a thousand dollars in the bank. Even though back in the day, the dollar stretched far, and the exchange rates were favorable, it didn’t stretch that far. How it would come about was never part of the conversation. If it had been, we would have never started, but if God said we must do it, He would have to provide the way by which it got done, and He did.

I recently got a message on one of our YouTube videos from a young man who had been in residence at the aforementioned orphanage from 1998 to 2009. He just wanted to drop a note and say thank you. Who knows what road this young man would have gone down had we deliberated about not having enough resources to get the project off the ground rather than simply being obedient to what God commanded us to do?

Were there moments when bills were due, and there was nothing to pay them with? Most assuredly, but rather than panic, we prayed, and God always made a way. Theoretical faith is easy enough to pontificate about. Practical faith, however, requires steadfast resolve that not only can God make a way but that He will. It is God who makes a way; it is God who ensures that His word will not return void. What is required of us is to obey and be unshakeable in our faith as we walk in that obedience.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.