Job CCLXIV

There is no end to human ignorance, and as you look around, it’s sobering to realize that it’s not getting better, but worse. I think it has a lot to do with people equating their access to knowledge and possessing knowledge as one and the same, believing themselves to be wise in their own eyes simply because a device in their hand can tell them what Tutankhamun named his pet cat.

If anything, the constant availability and easy accessibility to knowledge and wisdom have created a generation of superficial illiterates who fancy themselves miniature Einsteins and Teslas because they can tell you the square root of pi, not because they know it offhand, but because they can ask Siri.

There no longer remains a sense of wonder or the willingness to dig deeper than surface level, because if something can’t be learned within the span of a TikTok reel, then it’s not worth learning. If you think there’s a deficit in attention spans now, give it ten years. It’ll make the youth of today look downright scholarly in hindsight.

We’ve already whittled down church services to forty minutes from start to finish, and even that seems too long for some. I’m waiting for some intrepid soul to either start a drive-thru church, where the congregants can hand the bishop their tithe and get a special blessing while sitting in their car, or someone to start advertising the condensed fifteen-minute service because time is precious, don’t you know.

True enough, time is precious, but isn’t the best use of one’s time being in God’s presence? Would my time or yours, for that matter, not be better served in fellowship and prayer rather than endlessly doom-scrolling and going down rabbit trails so far removed from truth that we start sounding like a less talented version of H.G. Wells? We say we want eternity with Him, but can bear to be in His presence for longer than it takes to microwave a burrito. How does that make any logical sense?

In a nutshell, this was Bildad’s problem. He thought he knew more than he actually did, and his words betrayed his ignorance. It’s evident that Bildad knew of God. It’s likewise evident that he did not know God on a personal, intimate level.

Take any prominent figure today, and you can likely know a lot about them if you are so inclined. From what school they went to, to their net worth, to what they prefer to eat for breakfast, to the type of cologne they use. No matter how much you can know about them, however, their sons or daughters will always have a deeper insight and know things about them that you could never be privy to.

That was the difference between Job and Bildad and how they viewed, perceived, and understood God. Bildad had amassed knowledge of God, rightly concluding that dominion and fear belong to Him, and that He made peace in the high places. Job had a relationship with God that went beyond itemizing His attributes, to knowing His presence, feeling His love, and walking in His way.

James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe – and tremble!”

Awareness of God, belief in God, even fear of God, must be coupled with active obedience of His will, submission to His purpose, and walking in His way in order to get beyond the superficial knowledge of Him and into a relationship and fellowship with Him.

If you’re so smart, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? If you are the righteous man you claim to be, is there any number to His armies? Intimacy with God does not require answering trivia questions, nor do you need to pass man-made purity tests in order to have fellowship with Him.

The one thing God requires is your heart, not in part but in full. Whether you pray standing up, kneeling, or sitting down won’t make a bit of difference if your heart is not His to do as He wills, mold as He wills, prune as He wills, clean as He wills, and fill as He wills.

Even if Job had an answer to Bildad’s question, it would not have sufficed. Had he come up with some arbitrary number and said, “This is the number of His armies”, Bildad would have insisted that Job was just guessing.

The same can be said with the purity tests we like to put others to, wherein if they say they pray while kneeling, there’s always the follow up of how long, what name they use to address God, is it in the morning or evening, eyes closed or eyes open, and on and on until they find that thing that does not harmonize with their canned answers, and that’s all it takes. Nope, you’re not doing it right. It was a trick question. One eye must be open and the other closed; that’s the only way to pray, and anything less than checking every box and jumping through every hoop I’ve concocted means you’re not really a believer.

Job 2:13, “So rend your heart, and not your garments; return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness; and He relents from doing harm.”

While the rending of one’s garments can be performative, nothing deeper or more profound than emotive theater, the rending of one’s heart cannot be faked, and doing it is something seen by God rather than by men. Yes, there are times when the rending of one’s heart is obvious to those present, replete with tears of repentance, groaning, and heart cries to the Almighty, but when it occurs, it’s not for the sake or benefit of others, but a sincere outpouring of one’s repentant heart to God alone.

Job had experienced the rending of his heart on multiple occasions by now, but Bildad not once, and so he could not relate to Job. His pride refused to allow for the possibility that Job knew God on a deeper level than he did, and so, rather than approach his friend with humility, his arrogance is on full display.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.