Job CLVII

 Job 14:13-17, “Oh, that You would hide me in the grave, that You would conceal me until Your wrath is past, that You would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, till my change comes. You shall call and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of Your hands. For now You number my steps, but do not watch over my sin. My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and You cover my iniquity.”

It’s awe-inspiring to witness a man grapple with his inner turmoil, battling his instincts and senses, rising above despair and hopelessness, and reaching out to the only One he knows can provide comfort. Job’s response to Zophar and his plea to God is a testament to the courage found in vulnerability, in admitting the struggle we often try to mask with a brave face.

I deflect with humor. I always have, ever since I came to realize what I was doing, especially in uncomfortable situations or circumstances where merely the idea of confronting the pain is so unfathomable that I would rather ignore it for as long as I can.

Job had no such outlet. He didn’t try to deflect the pain he was feeling but poured himself out with all the pent-up frustration, fear, pain, and grief that he was feeling.

Being vulnerable with God is not a weakness. On the contrary, pouring one’s heart out to Him, crying out to Him, being honest, sincere, and even painfully so about the hurt one is feeling and the hardship they are going through demonstrates one’s awareness of their own limitations.

If I am broken, I can’t fix myself. If I have reached the end of my tether, by definition, there is nothing I can do of my own agency to get me out of a situation or predicament. Yes, we endure, yes, we press on, yes, we persevere and keep moving forward, but the hope of being made whole again must be tethered in God and His ability to do so rather than our own strength and resolve.

We can only white knuckle it through pain for so long. Eventually, without the aid, comfort, and healing presence of God, we will be crushed and ground into the dust of the earth, no matter how valiantly we attempt to carry on.

Job was aware of his limitations. He understood that there was nothing he could do but cry out to God, plead with Him, and cling to the hope that the goodness of God would prevail in his situation. Job was not picky about how his resolution would come about as long as it did. In his current state, the only remedy he saw was to go to the grave because our intellect often limits our willingness to hope for a miracle. We are told that something or other is impossible for so long that we come to believe it, ignoring the reality that nothing is impossible with God.

Throughout my years in ministry, I’ve found it telling that certain trials last only so long as it takes for the individual in question to abandon all hope in themselves, their abilities, and their resilience and rest their hope fully in the Lord.

Some of us must be stripped of the illusion that projecting strength is itself a form of strength. We’ve all encountered fake tough guys who talk big, but wilt at the first sign of pushback, and the reaction to such individuals is universal. True strength is not boastful, arrogant, or given to displays of grandiosity. As is often the case, those who talk big do little, and eventually, their shortcomings, inadequacies, and weaknesses come to the fore and are on full display for everyone to see.

Men can choose to stand in their own strength or stand in the strength that originates from God, something beyond their agency or ability. Those who stand in their strength discover the frailty of it eventually, some only doing so when they’ve exhausted themselves trying to do on their own what only God can do. It is a form of pride, I think, beating our chests and declaring how powerful we are in and of ourselves. As Scripture points out, God resists the proud while giving grace to the humble.

Looking back on my own life, with the benefit of hindsight, I can attest that there are innumerable instances where only the strength of God carried me, and nothing I could have done on my own would have sufficed. You can have the hosts of hell arrayed against you, but if God remains on your side, victory is certain because God is able to do what man cannot.

What could Job have done of his own volition to improve his lot and his situation? What could he have done to heal his broken body, restore his possessions, and return to the life he’d once lived? Absolutely nothing. The best he could manage was a potsherd with which to scrape himself, and eventually, even that became burdensome because the sores were painful, and he could no longer do it.

Standing in our own strength is a toxic mix of hubris, pride, and utter futility. Especially when going through a trial, a sifting, or a season of hardship, the best course of action is to lean ever more on God and acknowledge our frailty, knowing that He has strength in abundance and is ever willing to imbue us with it if we humble ourselves and ask it of Him. We have not because we ask not, and when we do ask, some of us ask amiss, hoping to deal with the symptom of something rather than the underlying cause.

There is no advanced warning system for trials. They come unexpectedly and unbidden, seemingly out of nowhere, with all the ferocity of a category-five hurricane. There is no escape, no circumventing them or putting them off until you have less to deal with in your day-to-day life. They come, and the only option you have is to go through them. The only choice you have is whether to go through your trial alone, in your own strength, or with God by your side, drawing strength from Him and standing firm in His promises.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLVI

Job 14:7-12, “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its tender shoots will not cease. Though its roots may grow old in the earth, and its stump may die in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and bring forth branches like a plant. But man dies and is laid away; indeed he breathes his last and where is he? As water disappears from the sea, and a river becomes parched and dries up, so man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, they will not awake nor be roused from their sleep.”

Every great faith started out small. It’s a testament to the transformative power of faith that every mind brimming with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding once belonged to a babe who spent their days staring at their fingers, stacking blocks, learning to crawl, and finding the greatest amusement in playing with an empty box for hours on end.

We don’t like to hear it, but God doesn’t grade on a curve. He doesn’t see us as a monolith but as individuals, and we will stand before Him one day as individuals. We don’t get a passing grade simply because we deem ourselves of average faith, more faithful than Bob but less faithful than Jill, so right in the middle should be the sweet spot. Controversial? Most assuredly. Biblical? Quite so. Jesus said as much, but our self-righteousness will not allow God to be God and determine the standard by which He judges men. Trying to play de facto judge offers a higher perch, and for some, looking down on another who’s just starting out on their journey of faith, with shaky legs and a faith in its infancy, makes them feel better about themselves and their duplicitous hearts.

It’s easy to sit in judgment of Job in hindsight, given what we know regarding eternity, life after death, the home that Jesus went to prepare for us, and all that salvation entails. We read his words and tend to shake our heads at how little he understood regarding these things, especially if we fail to acknowledge the context of the time he lived in.

I understand that armchair quarterbacking is all the rage, and some are chomping at the bit to pick at the flaws of a man whom God deemed blameless and upright, but before we judge Job too harshly, we would do well to hold a mirror up to ourselves and acknowledge our imperfections.

With the knowledge he possessed and the faithfulness he demonstrated, Job was regarded as a man to whom God could point as having been unique among his contemporaries, both in his service and love of God. That’s not me saying it; that’s God saying it, so anyone quick to roll their eyes at Job’s ignorance of the broader picture of eternity and what comes after this life is spent would do well to acknowledge this truth.

That’s not to say Job’s outlook wasn’t bleak. He saw more hope for the tree that is cut down to sprout anew than for a man who dies and is laid away. No, I do not believe Job was contemplating reincarnation but rather a continuity of life beyond the point of death. In his limited understanding, he concluded that man lies down and does not rise again.

If your desire is to know Him, God will meet you where you are. You don’t need to be fluent in Hebrew or Greek or hold a doctorate in divinity from a seminary, but you do need to possess a broken and contrite heart that yearns for more of God. Job’s understanding of eternity was limited, yet God still saw him as a blameless and upright man.

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.”

Job was accountable for the things he understood during the time he lived in. If God keeps count of the hairs on your head, rest assured, He is fully aware of the level of faith, understanding, knowledge, and spiritual maturity you possess. If you’ve been given much, much will be required of you. We are individually accountable for the understanding we possess regarding spiritual matters.

Not knowing something was displeasing to God and doing it, and knowing that it was and doing it anyway, are two very different things. When something deserving of stripes is done in ignorance, the individual shall be beaten with few. Jesus didn’t say there would be no consequence, but God does take into account whether it was done in ignorance or with full knowledge that it would displease Him and was done anyway.

True enough, ignorance of the law is no excuse, at least in earthly courts. However, unlike man, God knows whether or not an individual is genuinely ignorant of something or merely pretends to be in order to escape punishment.

Whenever discussing topics related to repentance, holiness, sanctification, or obedience, there is bound to be at least one individual who uses the thief on the cross as an excuse for their rebellion. He didn’t repent or live a holy life; he just said, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” Why should I have to sanctify myself when he didn’t? In short, he was ignorant of Jesus, who He was, and the salvation He offered up until that moment.

Most people who reject the love of God, who reject Jesus and His redemptive power, knowingly do so because they harden their hearts toward Him and refuse to surrender and humble themselves. It’s not that they never heard the gospel or were ignorant of it; having heard it, they rejected it.

For the thief on the cross, it was his last few hours on earth. He couldn’t schedule a baptism when the weather permitted or commit to living out his new convictions after this pesky crucifixion was over. Come the next sunrise at the latest, the life would have left his body, and he would be no more. Jesus knew he would have no opportunity to do what He’d instructed the rest of us to do, and in His grace and love, made allowances for that reality. That we would take an exception and make it the rule while ignoring the rule isn’t just obtuse; it’s dangerous.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CLV

 Job 14:1-6, “Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower and fades away; he flees like a shadow and does not continue. And do You open Your eyes on such a one, and bring me to judgment with Yourself? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one! Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass. Look away from him that he may rest, till like a hired man he finishes his day.”

Men like to think of themselves as more than they are and God as less than He is. If we were to make a base case for why there is so much rebellion, disobedience, and faithlessness, this idea would be among the root causes.

It would serve both the prince and the pauper alike to revisit the words of Job regularly and rediscover the timeless truth contained therein, for no matter how well-known, well-liked, well-heeled, or well-tended, the truth is that man comes forth like a flower and fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue.

It doesn’t matter how much kale you force down your gullet, how many handfuls of vitamins and essential nutrients you take every morning, how robust your exercise regimen is, or whether you subscribe to red light therapy or blue light therapy, everyone’s days are determined, and the number of their months are with Him.

Yes, the notion of quality of life is one that must be acknowledged, whether you’re stuck in a mobility scooter at twenty-five, wheezing through an oxygen mask, or being able to climb a flight of stairs without having heart palpitations is of consequence and something you have agency over, but as far as lengthening one’s days or extending the number of years we’ve been given, those limits have been appointed by God, and man cannot pass the limit that was set for him.

Given the technological advancements of recent decades, some have even taken it upon themselves to endeavor for immortality, something not given to man, no matter how rich, consequential, or willing to live as an echo of what they once were, a displaced brain in a machine, without the true spark of life, or the presence of a soul. It’s the fear of death that drives such individuals, and they fear death because they do not know life. They do not know life because they do not know God, and one cannot be known independently of the other.

They scramble about failing to live for fear of dying, believing they can circumvent divine order and extend the appointed limits that have been deemed unpassable. Men have always feared death to a certain degree, but given the anecdotal evidence available, none more so than this present generation.

It doesn’t take a deep dive to understand how void of hope in anything beyond this present life many have become. All it takes is looking back on the last few years and seeing how few of those who just months prior sang, “I’ve got a home, waitin’ in the heavenly kingdom, up where the streets are made of gold” until the rafters shook, did not give in to fear and continued about their lives rather than shrink wrap themselves and wait patiently in their basements for the all-clear. This shift in attitude towards death and the life to come is a clear sign of the fear that has gripped this generation.

Your days are determined, and the number of your months are with God. If that is the baseline of your reality, fear will never enter the equation or be allowed to hobble you in your duty toward Him.

If fear of death were a contributing factor to those who came before us, their testimonies would likely never have existed because, in their drive to spare themselves or extend their days, they would not have dared to stand before the masses who were set on their destruction, baying for blood, and proclaim the name of Jesus with their dying breaths.

Fear of death is bondage, and it’s usually those who are already dead that fear it, ever enslaved by it, more concerned about its inevitability and finality than receiving the life that would dispel it once and for all.

1 John 3:13-15, “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.”

Although the broader conversation John was having focused on the love of the brethren, it cannot be overlooked that he was firmly convinced that he, along with those to whom he was writing, had passed from death to life. It is an often-seen theme throughout the New Testament, and something Job was not privy to because the Christ had not yet come.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Job queried? No one! That was his conclusion, and at the time, he was not wrong. However, with the advent of Christ, we were given the grace to know salvation, transformation, and rebirth from death to life so that the bondage of fear would no longer hold sway over us.

Romans 6:8-10, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, he died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

Job had come to terms with his mortality, understanding that the only one who has agency over when we breathe our first and when we breathe our last is God and God alone. It’s undeniable that had Job had his way, he would have preferred it all to end till, like a hired man, he finished his day, but it was not up to him.

Your today will not determine your tomorrow, just as your yesterday did not determine your today. Yes, there are times and seasons in life when we cling to hope by the barest of threads, but the overarching assurance that if we died with Christ, we shall also live with Him gives us the strength to persevere and endure.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CLIV

 There is no end to human hypocrisy and the vanity of opinion. They are bottomless pits, and just when you think they can’t go any lower, they surprise you in the most unpleasant fashion. Natural wisdom, no matter how well-crafted, has cracks and fissures that become evident the moment pressure is applied to it. Philosophy for its own sake is oftentimes disjointed and at odds with itself, seeming to contradict one initial premise with another, deceiving people into thinking themselves wise, when any wisdom that does not originate from God and which doesn’t have Him at its core is a hollow husk of presupposition made up to seem like more than it is.

People can have an intellectual response to God just as they can have an emotional response to Him. They can acknowledge His existence, yet their hearts will continue to remain cold and unyielding until He becomes both a need and a desire, something one cannot live without.

God cannot be one among many for which our hearts pine, but the singular treasure we seek, everything else falling by the wayside and becoming ever more irrelevant the more we get to know Him. He is an existential need, like oxygen, food, and water, for the human soul. God is not a hobby; He is not something we relegate to the sidelines, the attic, or the shed until we have need of Him or a mere acquaintance, someone we know in passing rather than a heavenly Father.

Most people treat God like a life mechanic, the same way they treat a car mechanic, paying Him no heed and thinking nothing of Him until their life starts falling apart, and there’s nothing they can do to stop the freefall. That is not the sort of relationship God is after. That is not the sort of relationship that will grow you and mature you spiritually because, by definition, it’s not a genuine relationship.

In His grace and love, God has given man the opportunity to know Him, fellowship with Him, worship Him, and grow in Him. This relationship has the power to transform us, to bring us peace, comfort, and hope. That we would squander this greatest of gifts for the fleeting things of this earth only goes to show that we do not understand the value and worth of a relationship with Him.

When our priorities are rightly aligned, and God is first in all things, we will have peace even in the midst of chaos, we will have comfort even in the midst of pain, and we will have hope even in the midst of the storm. It’s when we shift our focus from Him and from following Him in humble obedience to trying to do on our own only what He can do that our progress is impeded and our walk needlessly burdened. But when we align our priorities with God, we can rest assured that He is with us, guiding us through every trial. It is not God’s duty to align Himself with man. It is not God’s duty to be in harmony with me. It is my duty, as well as the duty of every person, to align oneself with God and be in harmony with Him.

This begins with acknowledging that we are not the captains of our ship, the masters of our destiny, or whatever clichéd trope people tend to use nowadays. We are servants of God and, therefore, must remain under His authority in obedience and faithfulness, whether the road is easy or hard.  

Even in his torment, Job’s priorities were properly aligned: God first! In all things, God first. His presence, His voice, His guidance, His comfort, His strength, His will. There was nothing Job was willing to trade the presence of God for, whether restoration of his health or his wealth because he understood the fleeting nature of man and the waning appeal of the material.

Job 13:23-28, “How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin. Why do You hide Your face, and regard me as Your enemy? Will you frighten a leaf driven to and fro? And will you pursue dry stubble? For You write bitter things against me, and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth. You put my feet in stocks, and watch closely all my paths. You set a limit for the soles of my feet. Man decays like a rotting thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.”

Job’s anguish is palpable, not so much the physical pain but the idea that God chose to hide His face from Him and regard him as His enemy. The notion that Job not feeling the presence of God weighed more heavily on him than all the loss he suffered, and all the torment he’d endured is revelatory and humbling.

Countless souls are walking about today, beating their chests and declaring that they belong to God, but whether the presence of God is felt in their lives or it’s no longer there makes no difference and has no impact as far as their disposition is concerned.

If we groan and weep at the loss of material things with greater fervor and intensity than we do when we do not feel the presence of God, it says more about our spiritual condition than anything we could declare with our lips. That alone reveals our perspective regarding the importance of His presence, the value we place on intimacy with Him, and how existential we view our fellowship with Him to be.

How one reacts to something reveals their inner heart. It’s in those moments when something is snatched away or goes awry that the well-crafted masks so many wear slip off, and the true intent of their heart is made clear.

Job’s singular desire was to know the presence of God afresh. It’s the one thing he’d concluded he couldn’t live without, eclipsing everything else in his life. There’s a reason God considered Job to be a man apart, unique in his generation, upright and blameless. It’s because he put God first above all else, desiring only fellowship with Him.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.     

Job CLIII

Job wasn’t looking to his friends to save him. He knew that even if they wanted to, they couldn’t because his situation wasn’t one that could be remedied by the intervention of men. Job entreated God because he knew where his salvation would ultimately come from if there was salvation to be had. He will be my salvation! Not you, not your accusations, not your judgments, but God will be my salvation, and it is before Him I must search my heart, and not before you.

In our modern age, we’ve taken the idea that God knows our heart and mutilated it to a point wherein it is used as an excuse and justification for anything and everything we pursue that is contrary to Scripture. I know I do all these horrible things, but God knows my heart. Yes, He does, and in light of this, the fear of the Lord should make you tremble like a reed in a hurricane.

Job was fully assured that God knew His heart, but he also acknowledged that a hypocrite could not come before Him. We tend to appropriate the first part but dismiss the second part because the second part holds us accountable for our actions and the choices we make throughout our lives. I cannot live in rebellion and disobedience and use the notion that God knows my heart as a justification for it.

There was no hypocrisy in Job’s self-assessment. He didn’t insist upon his innocence to try and impress his friends or make himself seem spiritually superior to them. He wasn’t playing at being an upright and blameless man; he was an upright and blameless man. This is not a distinction without a difference. Pretending to be something and being something are two very different things.

Job 13:20-22, “Only two things do not do to me, then I will not hide myself from You: withdraw Your hand far from me, and let not the dread of You make me afraid. Then call, and I will answer; or let me speak, then You respond to me.”

By the twentieth verse, Job was no longer addressing his friends or trying to convince them of anything. He realized it was a lost cause, so he began petitioning and beseeching God directly.

If there was ever any doubt over Job’s deep devotion and love for God, the two things he asked for should dispel it altogether. Job didn’t ask God to restore his health, his wealth, or his family, nor did he didn’t ask God to make him forget the past few months or take the pain away. His two requests were that God not withdraw His hand far from him and that the dread of Him would not make him afraid.

Even in his condition, Job’s uttermost priority and the singular desire of his existence was the continued presence of God in his life. Do not withdraw Your hand far from me! I can bear all these other things. I can bear the loss of my children, the loss of my wealth, the loss of my health, and the loss of the respect my friends had for me once upon a time, but what I cannot bear is the absence of You!

When it came to Job’s hierarchy of needs, God wasn’t competing with something else or positioned alongside health, wealth, and a comfortable life. He wasn’t one need among many; He was the need, the one thing Job could not live without, the one thing Job desired above all else.

Anyone with a superficial understanding of God will never reach the point where all that they desire is more of Him. They will, perhaps, acknowledge the benefits of knowing God, even go so far as wanting to know more of Him, but as far as reaching the point of desperation where everything else in this present life is as ash and dust compared to His presence, one must possess an understanding of His character, nature, and majesty.

If Job had ever been underwhelmed by the presence of God, if spending time with Him had ever grown banal or fallen short of his expectations, if the God he served failed him more often than He came through, his singular desire would not have been for God not to withdraw His hand far from him.

Whenever the weather permits, my girls are outside playing, whether making forts out of sticks, trying to outdo each other on who can do more cartwheels, climbing trees, playing hide and seek, or anything else their imaginative minds can conjure. Since we live in Wisconsin, there are days when they are forced to remain indoors, and that’s usually when they get into a spirited game of “Would You Rather.”

If you don’t know the rules of the game, it’s quite simple: one person asks a question starting with “Would you rather,” followed by a binary choice, and the other has to pick one. I’ve heard it all. Would you rather have the ability to fly or breathe underwater? Would you rather be able to speak to animals or walk through walls? Would you rather lose your sense of smell or taste, and the list goes on and on? 

For Job, every answer was God. Given the choice between more wealth or God, he chose God. Given the option between health and God, he chose God. Given the option between anything in this world, anything material, whether all the earthly treasures of men or a position of prominence and authority, and God, he chose God.

We’re often envious of the relationships those who came before us had with God, not realizing that we can have the same if our desire is for God above all else, every day, no matter the situation or circumstance. The reason God reveals Himself to some and not others is because those to whom He reveals Himself desire Him alone, exclusively, without expecting anything more than the knowledge of Him in return. Men today do not know God because they lack a genuine desire to know Him. The only thing they’re interested in is how they can profit from claiming to know Him rather than desiring a true and abiding relationship, and it shows.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CLII

 Job 13:13-19, “Hold your peace with me, and let me speak, then let come on me what may! Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hands? Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. He also shall be my salvation, for a hypocrite could not come before Him. Listen carefully to my speech, and to my declaration with your ears. See now, I have prepared my case, I know that I shall be vindicated. Who is he who will contend with me? If now I hold my tongue, I perish.”

I can’t say I’ve ever reached the end of my tether, but I’ve come close enough to understand what Job was going through. He had reached the point in this back-and-forth between himself and his friends where the aftereffects of what he said and what followed were of no concern to him. Let me speak, then come what may. You can hate me, judge me, loathe me, unfriend me, but I’m going to speak my mind.

He’d tried to explain, tried to de-escalate, tried to make his friends see that they were judging him wrongly, but to no avail. It is said everyone has a breaking point, and Job had reached his. The dam had finally broken, and what were once fissures, cracks, and minor leaks in his resolve was now a torrent.

Although there are countless profound, thought-provoking, and inspirational things Job said that later laid the foundation of wisdom from the likes of David, Solomon, Paul, and others, there is one that, in my eyes, stands head and shoulders above the rest, especially given Job’s current situation and the sifting he was going through. Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.

I’ve spent hours pondering this handful of words, and every time, they engendered a deep sense of humility. When Job spoke these words, they weren’t theoretical. He wasn’t being blessed coming and going, his cup wasn’t running over, everything wasn’t in its proper place, and the future didn’t seem bright. He was a man in pain, bereft of sleep, being accused of sin by his friends, covered in worms and open sores. He had reached the bottom, and there was no next tier of descent for him, yet at his lowest, in the depth of his sorrow and pain, he declared that though God saw fit to slay him utterly, he would trust Him because he knew the nature and character of the God he served.

When all your senses, circumstances, friends, and family insist that you have been forsaken, that God has turned His back on you, that you are alone amid the maelstrom with nothing to cling to and no hope of rescue, only an anchored and well-established faith can give you the strength to say you will continue to trust God and mean it.

It’s one thing to declare we trust God when all is well, when things are going right, and when anything we set our hand to grows, multiplies, and is met with enviable success. It’s another thing entirely to see everything you’ve worked for turn to dust and ash, having your body wracked with pain and your sleep invaded by nightmares, and still make the same declaration.

Were He to slay you, would you still trust Him? Were He to remove every safety net, everything you counted as constant, everything you held dear, would you still have the strength, faith, and presence of mind to declare as Job did that you will trust Him?

The underlying question is, do you know God well enough to trust Him in the valley just as readily as you do on the mountaintop? Do you know His character and nature well enough to trust Him in your trials as unequivocally as you do in your victories? Have you taken the time to build a true and lasting relationship with Him to the point that though He slays you, you will yet trust Him?

From an individual standpoint, the answers to these questions are far more imperative than who the Antichrist will end up being or whether praying while lying flat on your face will increase the chances of God hearing you more than standing up.

As an aside, either works, just pray. We get so caught up in the minutia that we fail to see the overall picture. There is no right or wrong way to beseech God. Hands clasped in front of you, hands raised in the air, hands hanging by your sides - it makes no difference as long as the desire of your heart is sincere and your supplications are heartfelt.

Yes, I will trust God, even if He chooses to slay me, but this does not mean I will admit to something I didn’t do, Job insists. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. I know what I know, and no amount of you telling me I’ve sinned when I know I haven’t will change the reality of it.

I’m all for discourse and debate, for reasoning together as we ought, but when my disagreeing with your opinion on a non-salvific matter on which the Bible has no declared position automatically means that you consider me cast out, doomed to suffer the eternal anguish of hell, it’s no longer a debate, but you playing judge, juror, and executioner.

For some, their pet doctrine eclipses brotherly love to the point that they will cut ties, disfellowship, and shun anyone who is not in lockstep with them. Again, these are not salvific issues but rather appropriated nuances that are elevated to the status of canonical scripture, magnified in the eyes of those who insist upon them to the point of overshadowing Scripture itself. Pet doctrine doesn’t save; Jesus does. It’s the one thing anyone waking up itching for a doctrinal fight must be aware of, lest they reject Christ for the sake of their stated position.

Every day seems to bring about a new bone of contention, a new reason for division, and a reformulated theory that the Bible debunked long ago, but no matter, we keep going at each other as though this faith of ours was a blood sport, not fought between the household of faith and the hosts of darkness, but between each other.   

Job’s friends weren’t interested in discourse. They had no interest in hearing what Job had to say as long as it wasn’t an admission of the sin they imagined he’d committed for being brought so low. Their minds were made up, their positions firmly established, their conclusions unwavering. At this point, nothing Job could have said in his defense would have swayed them.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CLI

 There are few absolutes in life without the caveat that there is always an exception to the rule. Even the one about not getting out of life and alive had its exceptions, since both Enoch and Elijah never died a natural death but were taken by God. One such absolute without a carve-out or exception is that God will not be mocked. Men have tried; they even thought they’d gotten away with it for a time, but eventually, the bill comes due, and there’s no squirming your way out of paying it.

Another such absolute is that your sin will find you out. This particular one is specifically tailored to those who pretend to be something they’re not, who insist upon their righteousness, and who present themselves as beacons of holiness when, in fact, they are heavily ladened down with sin and depravity.

Even if the sin in question occurred so long ago that the individual has forgotten about it altogether, if it remains unconfessed and unrepented of, it will be exposed, and the shame of it will be put on display for all to see. The most recent debacle with the pastor of the biggest church in America at its center is a testament to this absolute, wherein heinous sin, and by the metric of law, a crime that was committed four decades ago, has come to light.

Even in his rebuke of his friends, Job had enough love for them in his heart to warn them of the severity of the punishment that is visited upon those who speak for God when He has not spoken and who mock Him as though he were a man. It wasn’t so much a ‘God is going to get you’ lecture as it was a reminder of who God is and that He will not be mocked. Do you know what you’re doing? Are you aware of the consequences of your actions, or is your overriding need to find me guilty of something I didn’t do blinding you to the reality of the judgment you are bringing upon yourselves?

Unlike them, Job wasn’t being condescending or giving off an air of spiritual superiority, although, to be fair, it would have been hard to do so in his current state. Yes, he was direct in his response to Zophar the Namaathite, but unlike him, he wasn’t being belligerent and sanctimonious.

You can speak the truth in love, but you can also speak truthful words in a spirit of division or to try and defend a point that is more a personal conviction than it is a biblical direction. Especially when attempting to comfort someone who is going through a trial, it’s advisable to search our hearts and determine whether the counsel we are providing is coming from a place of love and compassion or one of antagonism and spiritual elitism. A wise man will curb his instinct to condescend or pour burning coals on another’s head just to make themselves feel spiritually superior, while a foolish one will do as fools often do, and whether to mollify their inferiority complex or feed their need to seem great in their own eyes, they will do so at the expense of another’s pain.

Another warning shot across the bow and a reminder by Job to his friends is that God would surely rebuke them if they secretly showed partiality. We’ve all seen situations where self-professing objective arbiters of truth turned out to be anything but. The same individuals who would tell anyone who would hear that they are unbiased and objective as though they’d been tasked with being the town crier reveal themselves for who they are in the partiality they show.

You cannot play favorites when it comes to rightly dividing the Word, nor can you show partiality to an individual at the expense of the truth. We’ve all seen the mind games some individuals like to play when it comes to their favorite preacher or teacher, who has demonstrably, verifiably, and undeniably strayed from the path yet continue to be vociferously defended, whether because of the good they did in the past or the size of their ministry. It always ends in a similar manner, wherein those defending the indefensible must backtrack and apologize for having shown partiality, whether secret or otherwise.

As far as platitudes are concerned, it is undeniable that they’ve become common fare for today’s modern church, and as was the case with Job’s friends, most of them are platitudes of ashes, absent of life or instruction. Some men build kingdoms on platitudes alone. They spend their entire lives repeating the same tired tropes, and because there is no insistence on the deeper things of God, those content with a superficial faith lap it up as though it were a fine feast.

It’s not that proverbs or even platitudes don’t have their place once in a while, but a steady diet of them, especially when they are vapid and superficial, only serves to weaken the desire for the deeper things of God and drive people to cling to mantras they repeat in the mirror every morning rather than to Christ.

Everything you’ve said to me is as ash and clay. It is as dross swept away by the wind, with no permanence of foundation. Try as you might to seem wise in your own eyes and lean on sanctimony, you’ve fallen short of the mark. If ever your desire was to comfort me, that too has failed, yet I am not forsaken or alone because I still have God to whom I can run, I still have God upon whom I can call, and I still have God in whom I trust.

This was the crux of Job’s rebuke of his friends and one that was heartfelt and filled with sorrow. In seeing their reaction to his suffering and their insistence that he had sinned and thus deserved what was happening to him and perhaps worse, Job realized what many throughout the ages have since come to realize: only in God is there permanence. Only He is a strong tower that abides.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.