Job CCXLVIII

Job 23:1-7, “Then Job answered and said: ‘Even today my complaint is bitter; my hand is listless because of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I first met Him, that I might come to His seat! I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me. Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. There the upright could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge.”’

If the enemy can’t steamroll you into submission, he will attempt to chip away at your conviction, assurance, and confidence that you have in Jesus. If a frontal attack won’t work, he’ll try the sneak attack, hoping he catches you off guard, or in the midst of celebrating that you resisted his frontal attack. Winning a battle is not winning the war. There will be enough time to celebrate once you’ve crossed the finish line; until then, keep pressing on.

By Job’s own words, it seems Eliphaz’s latest tactic had worked more than the others because it’s the first time we notice a lessening of the determined confidence he’d exhibited thus far. He went from declaring “For I know my Redeemer lives and in my flesh I shall see Him”, to “Oh, that I knew where I first met Him, that I might come to His seat.”

Sowing doubt is like planting seeds. Not all of them will take root, mature, and grow, but the enemy wasn’t looking to plant an herb garden. He was looking for a chink in the armor, for one seedling to grow, which he could then exploit to no end.

Every once in a while, we have to remind ourselves that Job was human. He was a man like any other among his generation, made unique by his faithfulness and uprightness before God. It wasn’t his wealth that made him stand out; it wasn’t his large family that caught God’s eye, but that he feared Him and shunned evil.

There’s a reason the Word tells us to be watchful and on guard without qualifiers. It doesn’t say to be watchful unless you’re a preacher, to be on guard unless you’re a pastor, or unless you’ve been in church for less than a decade. If the enemy never ceases trying to find a way in, then we should never cease being watchful and on guard.

How men who’ve been in ministry for decades, who’ve pastored churches since bellbottoms were en vogue, and who others looked up to as spiritual giants fall is no mystery. At some point along their journey, they stopped being watchful. They stopped guarding their hearts and minds, they stopped being wary of the devil’s plots and schemes because they thought themselves above it all.

I’m the head of an entire denomination; the devil could never get to me. I’m the head of an international ministry; the enemy could never blindside me. I’m on television every other day; Satan could never outmaneuver me. The problem with this mindset is twofold: first, you’re standing in your own strength rather than His, and second, you ceased to do what the Word insists you must, which is to be watchful and sober-minded.

1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

To take heed within this context is to be aware, to pay attention, to acknowledge reality for what it is, and not dismiss the warning signs that appear long before the bear trap shears your leg off at the knee.

There is a balance that must be struck: we are not seeing demons behind every tree and hiding in every bush, imagining demonic attacks even when they’re not there, but are also keen enough to notice when something isn’t right and to remove ourselves from the situation before it becomes a situation.

Whenever I travel back to the home country, I like to check in on some of the old guard who are still around. They were grown men when I was young, and now, in the twilight of their lives, it does my heart and theirs good to reminisce, break bread, and look back on all the things the Lord has done.

I was visiting a brother who used to play a mean accordion before the arthritis set in. During our conversation, after asking how he was, he arched his eyebrows and said, “The devil just won’t leave me alone”. Since I knew him to be a talker, I didn’t bother asking a follow-up question, knowing he’d continue his story, and he didn’t disappoint.

“Brother Mike, for the past few weeks, the devil has been trying to keep me from going to church. I’m fine the whole week, then the morning of, I wake up, get dressed, and the moment I put on my good shoes, there’s a shooting pain in the sole of my foot that makes it almost impossible to walk to church.”

Being the rationally minded individual I am, I asked, “You only wear those shoes for church?”

“That’s right, they’re my good shoes, so I only wear them to church, they’re right there”, he said, pointing a gnarled finger at the entryway. I saw the pair of Chinese-made fake-leather loafers he was pointing to well enough, and yes, they were nicer than the tennis shoes next to them. I bent over and picked them up, turning them over to look at the soles, thinking that maybe he’d stepped on a nail, when a decent-sized pebble rolled out of the left shoe and clinked on the floor.

I picked up the pebble, and smiling, I said, “I found your devil.”

Blushing, he arched his brows again and said, “I never thought to look inside.”

Some things have rational explanations and are not demonic attacks. Others are, and demonstrably so, and knowing the difference will keep us from hyperventilating every time a squirrel ruffles some branches in a tree, while concomitantly identifying the enemy’s snares and avoiding them.        

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.