Job CCCXXXIV

 Job 40:6-14, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ‘Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me: ‘Would you indeed annul My judgment? Would you condemn Me that you may be justified? Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like His? Then adorn yourself with majesty and splendor, and array yourself with glory and beauty. Disperse the rage of your wrath; look on everyone who is proud, and humble him. Look on everyone who is proud, and bring him low; tread down the wicked in their place. Hide them in the dust together, bind their faces in hidden darkness. Then I will confess to you that your own right hand can save you.’”

To a hypersensitive, perpetually offended, endlessly emotive generation insisting they’re the victim in every story, God’s words seem less than conciliatory. To some among the aforementioned generation, His words seem downright mean, because as is the case with every self-important naïve who insists that they could do everything better, they’ll rattle off a hundred things they would have done differently, or said differently, all beginning with the famous last words, “If it was me in that situation.”

If it was me in that situation, I would have picked Job up and held him close, and told him how great he was doing. If it were me in that situation, I would have praised Job’s steadfastness. If it were me in that situation, I would have never agreed to Job’s being so sifted by the devil. The thing is, it wasn’t you, it wasn’t me, and our ways are not His ways; our thoughts are not His thoughts, and rather than demand that God align His ways with ours, we must endeavor to align our ways with His.

God was not addressing a child; He was addressing a man. God was not addressing someone who crumbled under the weight of the first trial he’d ever had to endure, but one who walked through the valley and came out the other side with the scars to show for it. Modern-day preachers may coddle and excuse the sheep of His pastures as though any sort of correction were akin to being flogged in the public square, but God chastens those He loves and will not omit or ignore shortcomings for the sake of sparing our feelings.

It’s not out of cruelty, malice, or callousness that God corrects and chastens us, but out of love and a desire to see us grow in righteousness, holiness, and purity of heart. God knows what the end product must look like, and He will not accept an inferior iteration to avoid hurt feelings.

Correction is part of the process; it is part of the walk, and it confirms that God sees us as His own, sons and daughters whom He desires to see walking in the fullness of all that He has for them.   

Hebrews 12:7-11, “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

Absence of correction is not a demonstration of love; it is proof of indifference. Whether in a spiritual sense, or as it relates to one’s children, if love is the driving force, if love is what motivates, you will do your utmost to correct and chasten them whenever you see them doing something that will ultimately lead to either their destruction or a life absent joy, peace, and purpose.

We are where we are as a society because men have redefined indifference to mean love, and no matter how far-fetched a child’s ideas, they are validated and celebrated rather than corrected and challenged. I love my babies enough to let them destroy themselves utterly, mutilate their bodies in irreversible ways, and ensure that they have no future other than a lifelong cycle of pain and regret! Can that really be called love? You can call it many things, but love isn’t one of them.

That’s just one example, but there are plenty we can point to. The tragedy of it is that by the time the parents realize that permissiveness isn’t truly love, it’s far too late to do anything about it but mourn over what could have been had they done their duty and chastened their children, corrected them, and trained them up in the way they should go.

The Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and instructed him to prepare himself like a man. We’re going to have a conversation, you and I; I will question you, and you will answer me. Job wasn’t given the option to curl up in a corner and pretend as though he had not heard the voice of God, he wasn’t given the option to throw a tantrum and insist that he would only entertain God’s request if He spoke in a kinder tone, God answered out of the whirlwind and said, this is how it’s going to be, now man up, prepare yourself like a man, and let’s hash this out.

If the Lord tarries, perhaps one day we will look back on the last forty years and begin to acknowledge the damage that was done to the household of faith by those who, pretending to be shepherds, turned out to be nothing more than soothsayers, speaking lies and distorting the Word of life for fear of being deemed unkind or unloving. Perhaps, one day, we will acknowledge that turning a blind eye to sin, rebellion, and the twisting of the gospel was not the act of love they claimed it was, but something far more nefarious, destructive, and deadly.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.