Job CCXI

 Job 20:1-3, “Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said: ‘Therefore my anxious thoughts make me answer, because of the turmoil within me. I have heard the rebuke that reproaches me, and the spirit of my understanding causes me to answer.’”

I hear you, but I don’t hear you. I acknowledge that you spoke words, strung together to make sentences, but as far as allowing them to take root in my heart or compelling me to a bit of self-awareness or self-reflection, not so much. Since it’s all about me, and the words you spoke vex me, I’m going to go on a protracted rant that will not only invalidate anything you’ve said, but remind you that I’m right, you’re wrong, and you need to see the situation for what it is.

Your willful blindness to the depth of our wisdom is what should concern you, not that you’re a heir’s breath away from death. At least before you go, acknowledge that we were right. Admit that you’ve sinned even though you can’t remember having done so. It would make us feel so much better. That was pretty much Zophar’s opening salvo as he took it upon himself to rebuff the words Job had just spoken.

It’s worth noting that while Job spoke of his Redeemer, Him walking upon the earth, and the hope of one day seeing Him face to face, Zophar proceeded to make it all about himself, his feelings, his understanding, his worldview, and his conclusions. When everything you hear from an individual is about himself and not about the One he claims to serve, be cautious and wary when it comes to allowing their words to take root in your heart.

You and your buddies have been berating and abusing a man on the verge of death, a man you claim is your friend, insisting that he deserved worse, manufacturing sin in his life in order to justify your inferences, but the rebuke that reproached you was beyond the pale and needed a counterargument? Do tell.  

It was not the spirit of the Lord that caused Zophar to answer, but by his own words, the spirit of his understanding. There was no divine inspiration or revelation in his words, but an intellectual reaction to being challenged, wholly tethered to his understanding. You hurt my feelings! What I did and said prior to your retort matters not.

I know what I know, and nobody, not even God, will sway me from that position. My understanding is supreme! If anyone or anything challenges my understanding, then they must be wrong. What’s worse, you had the temerity to rebuke me, and it landed. It stung. I felt reproach, and that’s not something I can let go unanswered.

It is said it’s far easier to teach someone new habits than try to get them to unlearn old ones. It’s one of the reasons you should train up a child in the way he should go from the onset, so that when they are older, they will have a stable foundation upon which to grow. Be honest, be responsible, be accountable, treat others with kindness, serve Jesus, extend grace, love mercy, all these values and a slew of others are what my parents instilled in me at a young age, and what I strive to instill in my daughters. We’ve all seen the rude, obnoxious kids in the grocery store screaming and pitching a fit because they couldn’t get a third box of Coco Puffs. It’s because they are not being trained but allowed to do as they will to their detriment and their parents’ shame. Getting them to unlearn these habits is a monumental task, and most end up being rude, obnoxious adults because it’s all they’ve ever known.

A clean slate is just that. Something that can be written upon without the added effort of having to wipe down the doodles, and half-fleshed out thoughts, ideas, or machinations of an already used slate.

During my first year of high school, the Spanish teacher had to share a classroom with the math teacher, alternating periods, and each time, without fail, the Spanish teacher would get heated because the math teacher didn’t bother to wipe down the chalkboard at the end of her class.

The quietest the room ever got was during the first few minutes of Spanish class, when we all wanted to hear what the teacher was mumbling under his breath as he used the dry eraser to erase the numbers, fractions, and equations from the chalkboard. Since he was American, his outbursts usually came in English, and some of the students took to translating what he’d said into Spanish and quoting it back to him just to see him get red in the face.

The point is that it takes more time and effort to explain to someone who considers themselves spiritual that it really doesn’t mean anything, and that they need to repent and be born again, than to take an individual who acknowledges their need for a savior and point the way to Jesus. Whether it’s praying the rosary or praying to Mary, going to confession via a priest, all of these practices need to be unlearned, and those in authority must possess enough patience, wisdom, and knowledge of Scripture to explain why.

Why can’t I pray to Mary? Because Mary doesn’t save, Jesus does. Why can’t I go to a priest for confession? Because there already exists a mediator between man and God, and that is Jesus. Why can’t considering myself a good person, a moral person, or a spiritual person ensure my eternity in God’s presence? Because your righteousness, noble deeds, selfless endeavors, or spirituality are as filthy rags before a holy God, and only being made clean through His Son’s blood will allow you to be welcomed into His kingdom. It’s not an accident that Jesus is the center of everything. He already told us as much when He said, I am the truth, the way, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me! Anything that takes away from the supremacy, sufficiency, and exclusivity of Jesus is wrong, no matter how right it may seem to our own eyes.

When we care more about being right than about the truth, we enter murky territory that fosters callousness and breeds indifference toward anyone other than ourselves. Whether intellectual superiority and elitism, or spiritual superiority and elitism, their roots are intertwined and take succor from the same source: pride. This was the frame of mind Zophar found himself in, and if his fake outrage at Job for having hurt his feelings achieved his desired end, he had no qualms about using it to its fullest.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.