Job CLXXIX

 The fleeting nature of life, possessions, friends, acquaintances, positions, and the world as a whole is a topic most refuse to delve into or even acknowledge because of what it all implies. There are currently people who, rather than coming to terms with their mortality and the temporal nature of our existence here on earth, endeavor to find ways and means by which they can attain immortality, optimize their decaying bodies, and cling to this mortal coil with all the tenacity they can muster. These are not unintelligent people if we were to evaluate their intelligence in comparison to their contemporaries, but even intelligent people are no more than mere fools when they refuse to see the futility of their lives absent God.

You can have it all. Wealth, health, prominence, and fame, and absent God, it’s all for naught. It’s an illusion, perhaps even a self-imposed delusion, because try as you might to tell yourself you’re not getting older, the gray hairs and wrinkly skin say otherwise, and though you may insist that you’re as resilient, strong, and overflowing with energy as you were in your twenties, when the fifties come calling, you’ll realize you’re not.

Life is an ever-present tradeoff. When we’re young, most of us have strength, energy, and the vigor of youth, but lack wisdom. As we grow older, the strength, the energy, and the vigor begin to ebb, but in exchange, we grow in wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, and focus on the things that truly matter in life, the things that give it meaning and purpose beyond the momentary excitement of acquiring a new toy to add to our ever-expanding collection. That countless souls are growing older but not wiser should be a wake-up call, one that does not bode well for future generations, but we like to lie to ourselves and insist it will all work out, and eventually wisdom will make itself known even though we malign it, demean it, ignore it, reject it, and leave it bloodied in the street.

It is not given to us to know at what age Job attained wisdom, not the wisdom of this world, of a particular trade or ability to see value in what others didn’t, but true and lasting wisdom that echoes through eternity. However, given his integrity, spiritual maturity, and faithfulness, it was likely decades before his hour of testing came. Job had known for some time that the only thing that matters in one’s life, the one thing that is indispensable and you can’t do without, is God.

Possessions come and go, jobs come and go, even friends come and go, but if the one constant in your life is the presence of God, if the one constant is fellowship with Him, then though you may lose everything, you’ve lost nothing.

Whether Abraham, Jacob, Joshua, Moses, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Ezekiel, or Paul, every man who stood out as a hero of the faith, a fearless defender of truth, assigned the appropriate value to the presence of God in their lives. It’s not about your ministry, it’s not about your calling, it’s not about your natural abilities, it’s not even about your vision; it’s about knowing God, walking with Him, feeling He is present, and establishing true intimacy with Him.

Everything in one’s life, especially when it comes to ministry, must flow from the reality that God is preeminent and supreme over one’s existence in its entirety. If our focus shifts from God to something else, no matter how noble the endeavor, no matter how spiritual the pursuit, no matter how much it bears witness with your spirit or how many people cheer you on, it will not end well because your purpose has become something other than His presence in our lives.

It’s the same problem those who will claim to have prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, and done many wonders in His name will run into when they stand before Him on that day of days. They may have very well done those things, but they never knew Him; they never knew the Christ; they never had fellowship with Him; and He was never Lord of their lives.

It’s a heady thing to consider that men who exhibited more power than most mega-church pastors do today will be sent away because their purpose was the work, the ministry, or the authority rather than the excellence of the knowledge of Christ.

Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”

Job never attempted to highlight his attributes and insist he deserved better because of what he’d done. He didn’t itemize how many hungry he’d fed, how many poor he’d helped, how much time he’d spent in prayer, or how many burnt offerings he’d brought before God. He didn’t offer his relationship with God as proof of his innocence. None of our accomplishments are proof positive that we are in good standing with God; only God declaring that we are makes it so. Only being born again and washed in the blood of the Lamb transforms us, and there exists no substitute. You can’t work your way into heaven, give your way into heaven, preach your way into heaven, or earn your way into heaven.

Men who at one time prophesied, cast out demons, and did many wonders in the name of Jesus will be turned away because, though they may have done these things, Jesus was not on the throne of their hearts; they were not born again, and practiced lawlessness throughout.

Job knew he had no ulterior motives when it came to loving God. There was no violence in his hands, and his prayers were pure. Few today in the higher echelons of Churchianity can say the same.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXVIII

 It is doubtless that by this point, Job had searched his heart countless times to see where he could have displeased the Lord at some point along his journey. It’s worth pondering that, even in his current state, his one constant was to make sure his hands were clean and that he had not sinned. God was the singular priority in Job’s life, and though he could bear the loss of all things, this one thing he could not bear. God is sufficient. He is more than enough, and the sooner we understand this valuable lesson, the easier our journey toward eternity will be.

It wasn’t because he thought that would extend his life; he had already come to terms with his mortality, acknowledging that on his eyelids was the shadow of death, but that he would meet his maker knowing he had run his race faithfully, not having been a hypocrite, or a man who hid his sin so well that those around him hadn’t noticed. Job understood that had he sinned, though men may not have noticed, God would have. It is a comfort and a joy to know that when you stand before God, it will not be in shame or reproach, but as one who walked uprightly, having acknowledged God’s omniscience and lived accordingly.

Job knew himself to be innocent of the accusations leveled against him. Due to his character and uprightness, it would not have been something he wouldn’t have considered and examined himself over time and time again. Each time, up until this point, he’d concluded there was no violence in his hands, and his prayers were pure.

Job wasn’t saying these things just to say them; he was saying them because they were true. His knowledge of God was deep enough and broad enough that he understood there was no point in trying to put on airs or insist upon his innocence when God knew otherwise. If he’d known of sin in his life, he would have confessed to it. If he knew himself to have been guilty of something, he would have repented of it.

Job was no longer trying to convince his friends of anything. They’d made up their minds, they’d chosen to scorn rather than comfort him, and the only place he could appeal to was heaven. God knows the truth of it, Job said, my witness is in heaven and my evidence is on high. It doesn’t matter if you believe me, it doesn’t matter if you think I’m lying, it doesn’t matter that you think I'm deserving of worse than I’m already enduring, God knows the truth of it!

Job was living out what John would later encourage those of the way to pursue in his first epistle.

1 John 3:18-21, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God.”

You know if you love someone. You don’t have to guess at it or wonder. Some people say it and don’t mean it, others say it and mean it, and others still never say it, but their actions bear out the reality that they love in deed and in truth.

Because so few take the time to think things through, and so many are addicted to the instant dopamine hit of hearing the words, they settle for being told they are loved without ever wondering why there is no action behind it. There is a fundamental difference between telling someone you love them and making the commitment to spend the rest of your life with them. Words are easy to manufacture; actions require active planning, commitment, and execution.

In modern-day parlance, if you’ve been dating for five years and he hasn’t put a ring on it, even though he may say he loves you, his actions suggest otherwise. True love isn’t about enjoying the highs; everyone enjoys a nice vacation, some sand between their toes, and swaying palm trees off in the distance. True love is about being there for the person when things aren’t so rosy, when they’re hurting, when they’re suffering, when the ever-present smile that used to light up their eyes is rare, and all you can do is put on a brave face, hold their hand, and be present.

Job didn’t say he loved God. Job loved God, both in deed and in truth. In deed, presupposes action; consistent, faithful action, coupled with intimacy and fellowship. In truth, presupposes brutal honesty with oneself, and acknowledging when it’s just words passing your lips, or an actual and present reality of one’s heart, mind, and soul. It’s the difference between saying I love you and showing I love you.

When we know we love God, when we conclude this truth with absolute certainty, we can assure our hearts before Him. What this means is simple enough. When we assure our hearts, we convince and persuade them that it is so. When the cry of my heart is I love you, Lord, and that sinister voice rises up and asks, Do you really, though? I can declare with complete assurance that yes, I do, and there is nothing that can sway me from that certainty.

Job’s love of God was not feigned or situational. He didn’t love God only when He blessed him; he didn’t serve God only when things were going his way. He accepted both good and adversity from the hand of God, understanding that though he might not see it, there was a purpose to it.

Through it all, it’s easy to forget Job was still human. He still hurt, felt loss, wept tears, cried out, prayed to God, appealed to his friends for a bit of compassion, and made peace with his own mortality. Job was not a man afraid of death. His only genuine fear was that God had set Himself against him, because he understood that if that had occurred, all was lost, and his fate was sealed. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXVII

 Awareness of one’s own identity in Christ matters. The full assurance that we are sons and daughters of God keeps us at peace even when chaos reigns all around. It’s those who are not, or who harbor doubt as to whether they are sons and daughters of the Most High, that wither in the face of trials, that lose heart seeing the oncoming storm, and that are ill at ease when the enemy rages.

Therein lies the danger of a superficial faith absent true fellowship, intimacy, and relationship with Christ. Those who have not humbled themselves, repented, picked up their crosses, and followed after Christ are constantly wondering whether they truly are what they claim to be, whether saying a handful of words on a given night is enough to claim sonship, and whether God will answer when they call.

When things are going well, and even when, once in a while, life hands you a lemon, you manage to make lemonade, it’s easy to argue that fence-straddling is a perfectly reasonable option, in which you’re not fully committed to the light nor entirely devoted to the darkness. Never mind that the Word insists that existing between two worlds at odds with each other is impossible. Never mind that Scripture states without equivocation that we cannot serve two masters; we’ve found a workaround, a way of ensuring that the flesh gets what it wants and God gets what we can spare.

All well and good until the music stops, the other shoe drops, and we are faced with a situation that requires divine intervention. It is then that men discover the folly of their way, and that what they’ve told themselves was acceptable in the sight of God turns out not to be.

That Jesus will look upon many who paid Him lip service and conclude He never knew them is not hyperbole or a fear tactic to make us behave. It is a truth that Scripture declares as something sure to occur at some future time when we stand before the great white throne of judgment. The heart of man cannot be Switzerland. It cannot be neutral. It will always belong to one master or the other. Those who have bought into the lie that they can faithfully serve two masters simultaneously have done so because they’ve already chosen which master they will serve, and it is not the God of the Bible.

Had Job not had the relationship with God before his trial commenced, had he not known the goodness of the Lord but only pretended to, he would have given in long ago. There would be no Book of Job, and likely not even a footnote in history as to his existence. Our faith in God, our knowledge of Him, our relationship with Him, and the assurance that He is a good Father carry us through the dark times and difficult seasons of life, while others, without the benefit of knowing God, have long been swept away.

That once we come to the knowledge of truth and are born again, we will nevermore have trials, tribulations, hardships, disappointments, or struggles is a modern-day invention that is an absurd if fanciful lie. It’s not that we will cease to have valleys in life that give us hope and peace; it’s the knowledge that God will be with us every step of the way that buoys our spirits to the point that those observing our hardship question where the strength is coming from.

Job 16:15-22, “I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and laid my head in the dust. My face is flushed from weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death; although no violence is in my hands, and my prayer is pure. O earth, do not cover my blood, and let my cry have no resting place! Surely even now my witness is in heaven, and my evidence is on high. My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God. Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor! For when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return.”

Just because God is silent, it doesn’t mean He isn’t there. Just because He may seem distant, it doesn’t mean He isn’t present. We try to rationalize why something is happening with our own intellect, refusing to acknowledge that our ways are not His ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts, to the point of doubting His presence in our lives when prayer after prayer goes unanswered and when nothing but our groaning breaks the silence.

Although none of us has been where Job was, we’ve likely felt like he felt at times. Although Job meant it literally, we’ve all had seasons where we metaphorically sewed sackcloth over our skin and laid our heads in the dust. Those moments and seasons where everything is dulled, and nothing holds any flavor, where all you can do is fall on your face before God and cry out to Him. I’ve had situations where my face was flushed from weeping, and my eyes poured out tears to God. If that makes me less spiritual in someone’s eyes, so be it. It shouldn’t, though, at least not if we understand that while He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust, only those who are His sons and daughters will be welcomed into His kingdom. What is this life compared to eternity? What trials may come, we know our destination, our home, is waiting for us. 

I can neither delude myself nor lie to you and say that if you follow Jesus, every day’s a Friday, and you’ll walk around for the rest of your life with a perpetual grin and glazed-over look in your eyes. That is not what the gospel promises, it is not what God promises, and for anyone to insist it is so is to speak contrary to Scripture.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXVI

 So you’re saying all I need to do is trust God in everything, all the time? Sounds a bit reductionist. Don’t you think? If I were trying to sell you a course, perhaps. I couldn’t justify charging fifty bucks for a sentence, could I? Thankfully, I’m not trying to sell you anything. I give what I have as a gift, so I don’t have to needlessly complicate a simple principle in order to make myself seem indispensable.

Even when the way is hard, trust God. Even when there is no obvious path forward, trust God. Even when those around you call you a fool, because they have no eyes of faith by which to see what God has shown you, trust God. Trust, like faith, grows, stretches, and expands with each new iteration of God’s faithfulness in your life. It grows and matures, as is the natural cycle of all living things, but unlike all living things, it need not wither, grow old, and die.

Every day, we trust God more. Every day, we build our faith a little more because there is no limit when it comes to these two virtues. Trust and faith do not plateau; they do not peak, and if you find yourself thinking you have less faith and trust in God today than you did yesterday, it is a symptom of a larger issue that must be identified and dealt with.

Men do not run out of faith and trust; they abandon them. Men do not lose faith and trust like a pair of keys or an old wallet; they forfeit these virtues in an attempt to do what only God can do on their own terms. That there were explicit terms and conditions when it came to following Jesus was general and accepted knowledge by the early church, because not only had the disciples heard it from the lips of Christ Himself, they followed through, and walked by faith, submitting to the process of sanctification, and clearly defining what it means to be saved and born again. They did not shrink back from preaching repentance, regeneration, sanctification, faith in Christ, and the picking up of one’s cross.

If the enemy can convince you to trust in the arm of the flesh, or that there can be a material solution for a spiritual problem, the battle is already leaning heavily in his favor. Satan knows that without the authority of God, without His protection, His presence, and His guidance, the best of us are easy pickings, prey huddling by a campfire waiting to be devoured.    

Job 16:10-14, “They gape at me with their mouth, they strike me reproachfully on the cheek, they gather together against me. God has delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over to the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but He has shattered me; He also has taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces; He has set me up for His target, His archers surround me. He pierces my heart and does not pity; He pours out my gall on the ground. He breaks me with wound upon wound; He runs at me like a warrior.”

Even if Job were to consider placing his hope in friends, family, horses, or chariots, none of these options were available to him. His fortune was gone, his flocks were scattered or stolen, his friends gaped at him with their mouths and verbally struck him reproachfully on his cheek, and to Job it seemed as though God had set Himself against him.

For a man of faith, Job’s biggest fear seemed to have been realized; he concluded that God had delivered him to the ungodly, and turned him over to the hand of the wicked. What hope does a man have when God sets Himself against him? There is nothing he can do, no plans he can hatch up, no paths he can pursue to right his ship because the one who controls the storms is set against him, and just when he gets his head above water, a fresh wave crushes him against the rocks anew.

If not for the grim subject matter, Job could handily have been considered a poet in our day and likely the greatest poet of his day. By his choice of wording, by the interplay between hope and despair, by some of the comparisons he draws in his descriptions, we come to understand that Job was an intelligent man.

Beyond the wisdom that he gained from God and the insights he could glean only from somewhere other than himself, Job was not a simpleton, he wasn’t slow, and he wasn’t dim-witted. By all the things we know of him thus far, and the words he used in response both to his wife, his friends, and in addressing God, we can conclude that he was of above-average intelligence as far as aptitude is concerned.

Why does this matter? It doesn’t, not really, not in the grand scheme of things, but it does take the air out of the blowhards who insist that only the ill-informed, unintelligent, and unmotivated resort to following God. Professing to be wise, they became fools, indeed.

Contrary to the smug, condescending, modern-day dumpster fires that endlessly drone on about how living a life of faithfulness, obedience, and submission is merely a coping mechanism for those who fail at life, knowing God, forming a relationship with Him, and desiring to know more of Him each day is the pinnacle of both intellect and human achievement. Although many a man has tried to leave an indelible mark, strived to be remembered after they were gone by those who forgot them as soon as they returned to the dust of the earth, the handful who walked with God, who lived in obedience to Him, are remembered throughout the generations, never to be forgotten, but more importantly remembered by God Himself.

Does God know you? Do you know Him? Are you His? When you cry out “Abba”, does He address you as son or daughter? These are the things that truly matter in life, no matter the circumstance or situation you may be facing. The world itself is passing away, but he who does the will of God abides forever. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLXXV

 By the seventh verse, Job was no longer addressing his friends. He’d said all he needed to say to them, calling them miserable comforters, but then there's a tonal shift as Job addresses God himself.

Sometimes, not knowing why we’re going through a season in the valley is as difficult as the journey itself. We oscillate between hope and despondency, whether the news is good or bad, whether the treatment worked or didn’t, and with each extreme, the wind is knocked out of us. Why is this happening to me? It is the cry of many a heart, a cry that becomes a chorus, and even though we may desperately want to know the answer to this all-encompassing question, sometimes we are kept in the dark and not given to understand it.

It is during such times that we must trust in the wisdom, love, faithfulness, and sovereignty of the God we serve and conclude that He knows best, even though we might not see the benefits of it in the moment. Your view will never be as broad or all-encompassing as God’s. That’s just the reality of it. He knows the end from the beginning; we see a few hand spans in front of our own noses. The two cannot compare.

When trust in God is well established, when we don’t simply acknowledge with our lips that He knows best, but believe it in our hearts, then whatever the trial, whatever the hardship, whatever the valley or the cross, we bear it knowing there is a purpose beyond what we can see or perceive.    

It would be nice to know the why of every event in our lives, but much of the time, we are not given that knowledge. Whether it’s because our faith must be tested, or because our trust in God must be matured, God has His reasons, and we must make our peace with it. We know that faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. If we were given all knowledge of why we are going through a trial, then it would no longer require faith to cling to the promises of God and fully trust that He will make a way.

It’s easier for the flesh to have turn-by-turn instructions when going from one place to another, but sometimes God takes us by the hand and leads us on journeys where His singular purpose is to teach us to trust Him more. If He leads, we must follow, fully assured that He knows the destination and how to get there, fully aware of the hills, valleys, uneven roads, and wilderness we must traverse. He will not cause us to wander endlessly without knowing what we will become during the course of our journey, or without a destination in mind.

The reason some men never see the full measure of the good the trials in their lives produce is that they give up halfway, no longer willing to trust the sovereignty of God but taking it upon themselves to ease their burden or find an easier path. It’s not that He can’t make your journey less trying, it’s Him knowing that not doing so will make you stronger than having done it ever would. It’s about the finished product and becoming a vessel of honor in His hands, not about the refining process we had to go through to get there.

We can resort to the tried-and-true example of pressure turning coal into diamonds, but you already know it, and I don’t enjoy being repetitive. God knows what He is doing. He knows where you need to be in order for Him to use you as He desires to. If the cry of your heart is whatever it takes, then don’t flinch away when He proceeds to do just that.  

Lord, show me your glory! “Gladly,” He answers, “it’s just beyond the season of pruning, sifting, humbling, breaking, transforming, and sanctifying. It is the way, and there is no other.”

There are no fast passes, no way to jump the line or circumvent the purifying required for us as men and women to be able to behold His glory. Because some fail to count the cost as Jesus instructed multiple times, believing the voices that told them it would be easy and that no sacrifice was required, they wither in the furnace of affliction, trial, and tribulation, retreating from the prize they enthusiastically insisted they wanted. Others, understanding the true worth and value of the prize, endure, persevere, and come through stronger, seasoned, tested, and proven.

Purpose and attitude will determine the outcome. Is your purpose fame, riches, and the adulation of men? If so, when affliction comes, your attitude and inclination will be to shrink back, beg it off, and find something easier for the flesh. If, however, your purpose is the excellence of the knowledge of Christ, then whatever is required for you to reach your goal, whether it’s the loss of friends, family, status, or employment, you sacrifice them gladly.

Trials, testing, and affliction have a way of stripping us of the things God finds off-putting — such as performative spirituality, pretense, and pride — peeling the layers one at a time until what remains is something He can work with, mold, and refine. Anyone who thinks they start off as a clean vessel within and without, pristine in every way, and not needing refinement, sanctification, or the infilling of the Holy Spirit is fooling themselves into believing they are more than they know themselves to be. Perhaps it’s a byproduct of the participation trophy generation, or the entitlement mindset that seems to have wormed its way into the household of faith itself, but whatever the reason, the results are dismal, and evident enough for us to question the veracity of the claims some men make wherein they can live as they will, do as they will, walk as they will, and still be used of God.       

If we are given to understand why, then getting through it becomes easier in one respect. It eliminates the constant questions of whether we’ve done something we were unaware of to displease God, and, if so, wondering what it was so we may repent of it. When we are in the dark as to why we are going through a trial, it’s inevitable that at some point along the way, the enemy’s whispers will insist that we’ve been abandoned by the God in whom we put our trust.

Yes, Job was at a low point. Yes, his suffering was beyond what we can imagine, yes, all seemed lost, and even his friends had turned against him, but God had not abandoned Him, just as He will never abandon you or me. Cling to Him, knowing that He will make a way, and His way is perfect.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CLXXIV

 Job 16:6-9, “Though I speak, my grief is not relieved; And if I remain silent, how am I eased? But now He has worn me out; you have made desolate all my company. You have shriveled me up, and it is a witness against me; My leanness rises up against me and bears witness to my face. He tears me in His wrath, and hates me; He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.”

Few feelings in life are more of a gut check than being between a rock and a hard place. It’s like a game of chess where you realize you’re two moves away from checkmate, no matter what move you make going forward. It’s the helplessness, I think, that’s the worst part of it, especially for someone once resilient, in control, a leader of men and head of his household, with the ability to multitask to the point that up until Satan asked to test him, everything was well in hand.

When there is no right move, when there is nothing you can do, and you can’t see a clear path forward, you can choose to fall apart or trust in the captain of your salvation to see you through. We possess more knowledge of God’s promises and assurance that He is faithful, and more examples of Him doing what seemed impossible to man throughout history than Job ever did. We have the canon of scripture, we can run to it in moments of uncertainty, testing, despair, or spiritual attack, but what we lack in our modern era is the sort of relationship Job had with God.

God’s people may be perishing for lack of knowledge, but doubly so for lack of commitment. We may possess more knowledge than those of Job’s day, but evidently not enough to understand that God detests duplicity, hypocrisy, lip service, and fake devotion. We know His standard, we know His Word, but we refuse to live by them, submit to them, and follow after Him.

Luke 12:48, “But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”

Knowledge, in and of itself, is not an exemption from accountability; it is the measure by which we will be held accountable. Do you know that Jesus is Lord, King, and Savior? Do you have faith in Him? Then dedicate your time to that fundamental truth and grow in Him, know Him more, and mature your relationship. You would never reach the limits of Jesus, who He is, how He loves, and what He did on behalf of mankind, were you given a hundred lifetimes, so why get distracted by tertiary matters that hold no spiritual weight?

I encountered Jesus fifteen years ago, but ever since that first encounter, I’ve busied myself with planetary alignments, aliens, the rapture, hand gestures, and their demonic roots, the identity of the man of sin, and whether Jesus takes offense at being addressed as Jesus. Have I had fellowship with Him? Well, no, busy bee and all that. I have conspiracies to unwind and people to warn about accidentally being photographed picking their noses. It’s Illuminati, especially if you pick your left nostril with your right index finger!

Although it wasn’t the case with Job, many today back themselves into a corner, exhaust every option they have at their disposal, come to the point of desperation and ruin before they humble themselves and seek God’s counsel, His guidance, and His instruction.

They know they should stop digging, but they can’t help themselves. All the self-care, the therapists, therapies, mantras, and motivational quotes haven’t worked thus far, so they double down and keep doing what has been proven not to work in the hope that, for some unexplained reason, tomorrow it will.

While my wife is brilliant in most areas of life —excelling at her job, taking care of the girls, and managing the homestead —her one blind spot is her car. I hadn’t ridden with her in some time, and one morning we decided to go to breakfast as a family and take her car. As we petered down the highway, I started hearing a banging and clanging whenever I turned the wheel. When I asked her if she’d noticed it, she said, Yes, it’s been making that noise for some time, but I just thought it would go away on its own.

I know this woman. She is an intelligent, rational human being, so it was hard for me to reconcile her words with who I knew her to be. “You know those noises don’t just go away on their own”, I said, “and if it’s getting worse, it will just keep getting worse until you call me from the side or the road one day asking if I’m in the area so I can come pick you up.”

You can’t keep doing what doesn’t work and expect it to work one day. You can’t ignore patterns you’ve developed in your life that consistently rob you of joy, peace, and fellowship with God, hoping that one day, out of the blue, the ship will right itself and you will shake off the slumber.

If every time you interact with strangers on the interwebs and a friendly debate turns into a war of words, rather than hoping that men’s nature will one day change and they will react wisely when their theories are confronted, step away. Take that time you would have spent checking your pulse because you’re starting to feel lightheaded and your cheeks are flushed, and be alone with God. Go before Him in prayer. Ask Him for wisdom and a greater measure of self-control. Don’t keep doing the thing that robs you of peace, expecting that one day peace will flow like a river.

That’s not the way it works. You may want it to work; someone may have told you it does, there may even be testimonies online of people swearing by it, insisting that it was the breakthrough it needed, but the proof is in the pudding, and if what was supposed to bring you peace robs you of it, what was supposed to bring you joy takes it away, the longer you put off making a change the worse it will get.

This was precisely where Job was, as he’d concluded that though he spoke, his grief was not relieved, and if he remained silent, it would not do a thing to ease his suffering either. Either way, the hurt would remain, but at least he could try to convince his friends of the truth while he waited to die.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CLXXIII

 What provokes you that you answer? Other than calling his friends miserable comforters, the seemingly innocuous question stood out in the text because it’s one we could each ask ourselves over and over again. It’s not a question that felt directed at Eliphaz or his other two friends, exclusive to them and not at all relatable in any other context, but a question that could have been directed at each of us in turn.

In any given situation, what provokes you that you answer? Whether someone is heaping praise upon you or reacts negatively to you, whether they speak well of you or ill of you, what provokes you to answer? Whether you feel you’ve been slighted, wronged, ignored, or maligned, what provokes you to answer? If we could answer that singular question before we open our mouths to speak, if we could be honest with ourselves about ourselves, what motivates us and when, we would be the cause of more smiles and fewer tears as we journey through this life.

Whether it’s the unction of the Holy Spirit, righteous anger, pride, ego, or the flesh, identifying what provokes us to answer in the manner we do will allow for us to know when we should speak and when we should keep silent; when we should give our two cents, or keep them to ourselves and add them to the other hundred dollars in pennies we’ve been collecting.

Not every thought is worth verbalizing, not every opinion is worth disseminating, and when we know the difference between divinely inspired utterances and those produced by the flesh, by ego, by pride, by jealousy, resentment, sanctimony, or self-righteousness, we will know when to bite our tongue and keep silent, and when to speak because it is necessary and timely.

Hindsight is a powerful teacher if we are willing to learn. Each of us has had those moments of epiphany when, looking back, we would have chosen to keep silent rather than speak, or, conversely, to speak up when we kept silent. We can’t change the past, but we can learn from it. This is how we grow and mature, ensuring that the words we speak are seasoned and echo the heart of God rather than our own ruminations.   

We’ve gone from insisting that we should be sober-minded, pursuing wisdom, and understanding the God we serve on a deeper level, to the notion that there’s no such thing as a dumb question, a bad opinion, and nothing we could ever say could be counter-productive because it’s we who said it, and only wisdom doth flow forth from our lips, does it not? It’s a self-serving, self-aggrandizing mindset that feeds the flesh to no end, and the instinct and desire to have an opinion on things we know nothing about becomes overwhelming because the possibility that it may inflate our pride and self-esteem is too tempting.

Whether crime scene investigation, geo-politics, bullet trajectories, or the date upon which Christ will appear in the heavens, there is no limit to the things some people claim to be specialists in at the drop of a hat, even though the closest they’ve been to a crime scene was the fallout from the Taco Bell meal they scarfed down while driving home the previous night.

Given that Job asked what provoked his friends to answer rather than whom, it’s clear that he was unaware of the conversations between Satan and God, or the level to which his friends were being influenced by the enemy. He’d concluded it must have been some emotion that provoked his friends to answer, whether unacknowledged resentment of him having been so favored in the sight of God, or vindication of their supposition that no one could be blameless and upright in the sight of God.

We knew it; we knew it all along. At least some of your faithfulness, integrity, worship, relationship, and fellowship with God were feigned. You were putting on airs. You wanted people to see you as something more than you were, and now God has finally had enough!

In Job’s case, he knew that if he could understand the what, he would understand the why. It’s one thing to be berated by friends and family for having done something foolish. It’s another to be berated by friends and family for something you haven’t done, and you know yourself to be innocent of.

What provokes you that you answer? Are you provoked by the desire to defend the truth or yourself? Are you provoked by the desire to defend Christ or a denomination? Are you more animated and vocal in defending the inerrancy of scripture than you are in defending a personal preference that scripture is not declarative and explicit on? If not, why not? What provokes you that you answer?

We know what happens when we get in the flesh and go to war over trivial matters while ignoring the crucial ones. There have been church splits, the breaking of fellowship, and denunciations by half of a congregation insisting that they were Ichabod over something as trivial as instruments during worship or the wearing of wedding bands by married couples. Just as small foxes destroy the vine, minor disagreements lead to chaos and destruction because those who should have asked what provoked them to take a hard line on such a tertiary matter did not.

If your soul were in my soul’s place, I, too, could be cold, callous, glib, judgmental, self-righteous, sanctimonious, accusatory, and self-serving, but knowing myself, I know I wouldn’t be any of those things. Instead, I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief. It’s not that I couldn’t be as hurtful as you have been; I would choose not to be, building up rather than tearing down, being a comfort rather than a source of pain and despondency.

The words I would speak would comfort you and relieve your grief rather than add to it, because I am your friend and possess brotherly love in my heart for you. One would think that such an answer would embarrass Job’s friends or cause them to pump the brakes on their vitriolic accusations. One would think it would prompt introspection or at least enough self-awareness to make them acknowledge that they had not been the kind of friends they could have been. Alas, as far as they were concerned, it was too late for all that.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.