Job CL

 Typically, a physician studies the symptoms in the hopes of identifying the malady so that he can prescribe a remedy. When Job called his friends worthless physicians, it was no small slight. He was either insinuating that they were not as bright as they thought they were or that all of their wisdom amounted to a goose egg, as far as he was concerned. All three were certain of their diagnosis, unshakeable in their resolve about Job’s sinfulness, and all three couldn’t be further from the truth.

Proverbs 26:4-5, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.”

By Solomon’s reckoning, there are two ways to answer a fool, and both are equally effective. You can answer a fool according to his folly, but you run the risk of being like him, or you set a fool straight lest he be right in his own eyes.

When men speak foolish things, and no one calls them on it, they continue to believe they are right in their own eyes, emboldened by the absence of pushback or confrontation. It’s the reason so many aberrant and foolish teachings not only survive but also thrive within the church nowadays. Whether due to a lack of conviction, a lack of backbone, or a desire to ingratiate themselves with those in authority, even when they hear foolishness pouring forth unbidden, they bite their tongue and nod along, clapping like seals whenever the pregnant pause gets a bit too long.

If you’re going to answer a fool according to their folly, however, make sure you have a cogent argument handy, lest you also be like them. I’ve seen biblical debates descend into shouting matches because neither party had the Biblical knowledge to defend their position, or worse, they had no Biblical leg to stand on.

Job was loaded for bear. He wasn’t speaking about God in the abstract or via secondhand accounts of who God was, but from a deeply personal and intimate place, having lived the experience of seeing the hand of God active and present in his life. He wasn’t heralding the fathers of old as an example of who God is but speaking in the present from the understanding he had gleaned over the course of decades.

You can always tell when someone is espousing theories about God and when someone is relaying lived experiences with Him. Knowing about God and knowing God are two very different things. Hearing testimonies about the power of God and being a living testimony daily experiencing it likewise have very different implications.

Those who daily deny themselves, pick up their crosses, and follow after Christ, faithfully carrying out the things He commands, don’t need to be able to spin a good yarn or make up stories about porta-potties acting like a poor man’s teleportation device to heaven. Rather than seeking out the spotlight, they shun it because they know it’s not about them but about the One they serve, and they are content to give Him the glory and honor that are rightly His.

Oh, that you would be silent, and it would be your wisdom! In other words, if you three hadn’t gone on a diatribe of epic proportions, the illusion of your wisdom would have remained intact. Given that you chose to speak, the depth of your ignorance is laid bare, and you have no one to blame but yourself.

Job 13:6-12, “Now hear my reasoning, and heed the pleadings of my lips. Will you speak wickedly for God, and talk deceitfully for Him? Will you show partiality for Him? Will you contend for God? Will it be well when He searches you out? Or can you mock Him as one mocks a man? He will surely rebuke you if you secretly show partiality. Will not His excellence make you afraid, and the dread of Him fall upon you? Your platitudes are proverbs of ashes, your defenses are defenses of clay.”

It’s evident that many prominent preachers, evangelists, and pastors today never bothered to read the book of Job and heed the warnings discovered therein. There is a cost to speaking wickedly in God's name and talking deceitfully on His behalf. God will search out the heart of every man and discover the truth of it, no matter how much they might protest or point to the multiple campuses they’ve built as temples to themselves.

Job’s friends were similar to many believers today, wherein the excellence of God does not make them afraid when they speak things He has not spoken, nor does the dread of Him fall upon them when they teach abject heresy from the pulpit insisting it is the new and shiny path that will lead to the same destination as the old path, just with a lot less self-denial, spiritual maturity, and growth.

If you could have the best of both worlds, why wouldn’t you? If you could live as you will and be guaranteed a seat at the marriage supper of the Lamb, why not avail yourself of this offer?

If you can live off the fat of the land and enjoy the bounty God provides, then turn tail and run at the first sign of the enemy while maintaining good standing in His army, there is no downside. I suppose all the people being martyred throughout the world didn’t get the memo; otherwise, they, too, would have found a way to extricate themselves from the situations that led to their martyrdom.

If our service to God is predicated on whether He showers us with material excess, then whoever comes along to offer more —whether more money, fame, or fortune —will become their new master.

Before you think that would never happen, let me remind you that it’s happening every day. With each new bombshell, exposure, evidence-laden prosecution, or heretical teaching that sounds more like paganism than Christianity, there is a fresh bruise that the household of faith must contend with and a new defense it must mount, reminding the world that we’re not all alike. It becomes even more challenging to convince anyone of this when it’s revealed that entire elder boards have been covering up the egregious sins of their leaders for years, as they didn’t want to rock the boat or jeopardize their cash-generating enterprise.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.