Job CCLXVI

 Job 26:1-4, “But Job answered and said: ‘How have you helped him who is without power? How have you saved the arm that has no strength? How have you counseled one who has no wisdom? And how have you declared sound advice to many? To whom have you uttered words? And whose spirit came from you?’”

You can push a man farther than you thought you could, but eventually, if you keep pushing, you will push a man too far. Everyone’s got their limits; everyone has a point beyond which they can no longer remain silent, unperturbed, or calm.

If ever there was an apt analogy, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back when it came to Job’s patience, and rather than answer Bildad, he turned the microscope on him and gave him a taste of his own medicine.

Although it seems Zophar had already given up trying to persuade Job and convince him of the wickedness he knew himself to be innocent of, this was Bildad’s third attempt at bat, and not only had he swung and missed, but he’d gotten enough of a rise out of Job where he was no longer on the defense, but went on the offense.

It’s a lot easier to lob unsubstantiated accusations, draw conclusions based on no evidence, and stand rigidly upon the self-righteous soapbox we all carry around in the hope that we can put it to good use than it is to be the object of the selfsame scrutiny we gleefully foist upon others.

Contrary to his three friends, Job did not level ad hominem attacks against Bildad, or accuse him of wickedness, but asked him a series of poignant questions that demanded answers, answers which could not be honestly given unless some soul searching and introspection took place.    

Let’s set aside the unfounded accusations of wickedness, let’s overlook your digs at my integrity, let’s gloss over your unwillingness to take me at my word, and pretend as though you never called me a liar to my face. What have you done, exactly? How have you helped him who is without power? How have you saved the arm that has no strength? How have you counseled one who has no wisdom?

These are questions we would do well to ask ourselves any time we have the inclination to demand that others do more.

I’ve been in ministry for thirty-nine years. I started at age 12 and am now eligible to join AARP. No, I’m not of retirement age, not quite yet, but the AARP is dedicated to persons over the age of fifty, and I qualify.

Throughout these almost four decades, I’ve seen a lot. Some things I remember fondly, others I wish I could forget, but the one thing that broke my heart every time was seeing decent, well-meaning men and women burn out not because of something God demanded of them, but because they gave in to the voices and the pressure within their respective circles to do more.

By all means, walk in the calling to which you have been called. Do what God commands you to do, but don’t take it upon yourself to try and speed up the process, accelerate growth, expand, diversify, or any of the other buzzwords being bandied about in ministerial circles nowadays.

It’s not your place to have a five-year plan, target demographics, increase your visibility, market share, or digital footprint. Walk in obedience to God, and He will grow you at the pace He decides, in the manner He decides, and by the means He decides.

If God called you to preach the Word, then preach the Word. It shouldn’t matter if it’s to five people or five thousand. You’re doing the thing God called you to do.

When we give in to the pressure of trying to please people rather than pleasing God, it never ends well. From broken marriages to wayward children to once prominent leaders walking away from the faith, this was never God’s plan or purpose.

It was men who decided to draw outside the lines, to stretch beyond their calling, to get ahead of God, and they paid dearly for it.

Every couple of weeks, I get an email from someone that, although varying in tonality, has the same underlying premise: if I were you, I’d be traveling and preaching nonstop! If I were you, I’d release all the dreams and visions for public consumption. If I were you, I’d focus on deliverance, prophecy, preaching, teaching, impartation, and a handful of other things that to the individuals in question seem more pertinent and important than what I am currently doing.

Rarely is there someone who says just do what the Lord told you to do, because that’s just the nature of modern discourse.

We are all called to serve, follow, and obey Jesus. That’s the baseline for every individual calling themselves a son or daughter of God. What He calls us to do beyond that, in whatever capacity, for whatever length of time, is intimate and personal, between the individual and God, and no man has the right to impose his will on that individual's calling.

I get that most people are well-meaning, but there are a handful who would rather judge another’s garden than tend to their own because it requires less effort to do so. Rather than focus on what someone is or isn’t doing, or insist that they should be doing more of what they already are, perhaps our time would be better spent asking ourselves the questions that Job asked Bildad: How have I helped? How have I counseled? How have I declared sound advice to many?

We all will stand before God one day, and we will not be judged by men or the opinions of men, but by the sovereign, omniscient Creator of all that is, and in His righteous judgment He will determine whether we were faithful servants, doing what He commanded, or faithless, double tongued, rebellious goats who exploited the people of God and supposed that godliness was a means of gain.

Just remember, it’s binary: left or right, sheep or goat, beloved or cast out, obedient or faithless; there is no in-between.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCLXV

 It takes humility to acknowledge how little we know, and for Bildad, humility was in short supply. Only God can rightfully claim the title of omniscient. All others may claim full knowledge of their particular field, or a topic they’ve studied and researched ad nauseam, but as far as omniscience goes, it’s defined as all knowing, or knowing everything about everything. It’s not guessing, assuming, gauging probabilities, or calculating the odds; it’s full and complete knowledge of all things, whether hidden, secret, or out in the open.

Bildad and his friends were big on assumptions, correlations, and by all accounts worshiped at the altar of causality with such rigidity as to make a monk seem flighty and erratic. To them, the simplest explanation was always the right one, but what made it worse was that no other reason for Job’s suffering would be entertained or considered.

The sad reality is that Bildad was not the exception to the rule. We, each, in our own way, adopt this mindset whether frequently or infrequently, and conclude that if something hasn’t happened to us personally, if we’ve not experienced something ourselves, then it can’t be true for anyone else, no matter how different our circumstances or situations.

Whether the issue is prophecy, dreams, visions, or the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they are dismissed by a large swath of the contemporary church for the simple fact that they’ve never experienced them themselves. It’s like saying that just because I never jumped out of an airplane, anyone who insists they have must be lying.

When you insist that they, too, can have the same experience, that it’s not secret or hidden, and a drive to their closest small airport will likely give them all the proof they need, they will deflect, citing time constraints, a busy life, or some other arbitrary reason for not getting to the truth of the matter for themselves.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are no longer acquirable!

Have you asked God? Have you gone before Him and sincerely desired the spiritual gifts of which Paul speaks?

No, why should I? They aren’t available, so why should I waste my time?

But who said they’re no longer among us?

My denomination, of course, and our doctrine of covenants are sacrosanct.

That’s usually the way the conversation goes, and it’s no less myopic than Bildad’s stance that righteousness cannot be attained by anyone born of a woman, even though God Himself may have declared him as such.

Make sure the hill you’re willing to die on is a hill worth dying on. Make sure the person, institution, or doctrine you’re defending is one worth defending. Men and women throughout history have gone to their deaths with praise on their lips, not for some arbitrary, tertiary issue concerning some vague interpretation of a verse conveniently taken out of context, but for the sake of Christ Jesus their Lord.

It’s not only off-putting but downright suspect when anyone chooses to defend a theological position with more fervor, passion, and determination than they would the lordship of Christ.

What about Jesus? We’ll get to Jesus eventually, but first, you have to agree with me on this one issue, whether that issue happens to be the timing of the Lord’s return or that a particular denomination is superior to another.

We get so wrapped up in the minutiae that have nothing to do with salvation, regeneration, sanctification, or rebirth that, at some point, it becomes our de facto identity. We are no longer bondservants of Christ or followers of the Way, but Baptists, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Methodists, pre-tribbers, and post-tribbers. We insulate ourselves to the point of existing in an echo chamber, where everyone we come in contact with agrees with us on that one issue, never once concerning ourselves with whether or not they are serving and following Christ. They must be pure of heart and righteous beyond measure; they agree with me on my pet doctrine after all.

It’s one of the reasons so many wolves stand behind pulpits victimizing the sheep today. We are more concerned with whether they graduated from the right seminary than we are with whether they are above reproach. We are more concerned with how they dress and how much gel they use in their hair than with whether the Spirit of God resides in them and the words they speak are spoken in power.

We focus on the superficial, the irrelevant, the tertiary and secondary issues, while ignoring the things that matter because were we to hold our leaders to a biblical standard, we too would be called upon to live up to the same.

Bildad could not allow for the possibility of a man being righteous before God, because if he did, it would mean it was attainable, and something he knew himself not to be.

God doesn’t do that anymore, not because He can’t, not because He’s changed, but because He’s not doing it through me, and if He’s not doing it through me, He can’t be doing it through anyone, anywhere, at any time.

That type of self-importance is galling, but it also goes a long way into revealing how such individuals view themselves compared to their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s never said outright, but always implied, that they are by far the most righteous people they know, and if they have not experienced the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, then what hope do the rest of us have? It’s in God’s best interest to pick the best, and if He hasn’t picked me, He likely hasn’t picked anyone.

Luke 18:10-14, “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCLXIV

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCLXIII

 In his short and concise answer to Job, so short in fact that theologians of the past have surmised that it was truncated, or that the rest of his speech was somehow lost to time, Bildad epitomizes the danger of perceiving God as one-dimensional, and putting Him in a theological box of one’s own design.

All Bildad saw was justice without grace, wrath without mercy, a God just waiting in the shadows, ready to unleash His judgment at the smallest deviation, who would think nothing of crushing His creation underfoot, regardless of his uprightness.

To Bildad, the only answer that made sense for why Job was suffering as he was was karmic reciprocity. If you’d done well, you’d be okay; since you’re not okay, you must be wicked. It’s a theory that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, but one currently adopted by a large swath of the contemporary church. God is prospering me; therefore, I must be righteous. If prosperity were the metric by which righteousness is ascertained, then by that logic, Elon Musk must be the most righteous man walking the earth today.

That God would see a man as righteous was something Bildad could not wrap his mind around, especially Job and the condition he was in. It was an idea he would not allow himself to entertain, and so built a defense around his preconceived notion, insisting that there was no way man can be righteous before God, or that one who is born of a woman can be pure.

There must be something; we just haven’t figured out what that something is. To him, that Job had committed wickedness was a foregone conclusion. It wasn’t just a possibility or a probability; it was a certainty.

There is great danger in assuming that we know the mind of God and judging others based on those assumptions. Just because some things are as they seem, it doesn’t mean that they’re always as they seem.

As soon as she turned five, our oldest daughter got it in her head that she was a big girl. Whenever we’d go to the grocery store, she didn’t want to ride in the cart anymore and would walk beside it, usually picking out random items and throwing them in the cart as though they were free, gleefully selecting the most colorful boxes, whether we needed them or not, or whether she even knew what was inside.

One day we were in the cookie isle, and Victoria had already put three boxes of cookies into the cart, two of which I’d managed to put back on the shelf when she wasn’t looking, when she took another box off the shelf, ready to fling into the cart when with the stern voice employed by mothers the world over when their frustration level reaches a fevered pitch my wife said, “Victoria, no, that’s enough.”

An older lady happened to be pushing her cart within earshot, and the look she gave my wife was so fierce that one would think my wife was actively whipping the child rather than sternly telling her she needed to behave.

What the lady didn’t know was that we already had three untouched boxes of cookies at home that we were planning to donate to the local homeless shelter before they expired. Our daughter was doing what she was doing not because she was hungry or because she’d been deprived of cookies all her young life, but because she thought it was a game, fun, and she liked the colors on the boxes rather than what was inside. She assumed my wife was a bad mom just because she’d told our daughter no, when in reality she is the most attentive, caring, nurturing, and loving mother I’ve ever known, including my own.

It’s not that my mother wasn’t all of those things, but she was from the old school, and she had zero tolerance for foolishness. Couple that with the constant stress of making sure we had enough to eat, and working the handful of jobs she did in order to make it happen, and she didn’t have what one might call a long fuse.

Whenever we feel the compulsion to judge based on the information readily available to us, it would be wise to consider that we don’t have the full picture of the situation, and there are always unknown variables only God is privy to.

Bildad and his two friends had no such inclinations. They assumed they knew everything there was to know about Job’s situation and judged it accordingly. We’re all maggots and worms, but you’re wicked to boot because if you weren’t, then you wouldn’t be in the pickle you’re in.

All they saw was the severity of God, without acknowledging His goodness. They saw the rod of correction without acknowledging the possibility of the fires of testing, which would, once they’d run their course, produce a more refined Job.

Although the words Bildad spoke regarding the dominion, supremacy, and sovereignty of God were true, the purpose for which he spoke them was not to encourage, build up, or comfort Job, but rather to undergird and justify the verbal attacks he would shortly level against him.

There is a difference between speaking the truth with the intent to savage another’s hope, and speaking the truth in love with the purpose of edifying, encouraging, and building up. Over the years, I’ve had the displeasure of hearing some of the most ruthless, heartless, mean-spirited things come from the lips of believers, and their only defense would be, well, it’s the truth, isn’t it? True enough, but what was your purpose in speaking that truth in that moment, with that tone, and in the manner in which you spoke it?

Is the truth you choose to speak at the time you choose to speak it in service of binding up wounds, or pouring salt on them? Is it to edify, and comfort, or dispirit someone so thoroughly as to push them over the edge into despondency? If we were shown the same cruelty and indifference we so gleefully mete out to others, we would think those individuals monsters, yet have no qualms about doing it ourselves. Sometimes silence is a gift, and saying nothing is a surer sign of wisdom than anything we could have said.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCLXII

 Job 25:1-6, “Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: ‘Dominion and fear belong to Him; He makes peace in His high places. Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not rise? How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight, how much less man, who is a maggot, and a son of man who is a worm?”’

Not only is this the shortest chapter in the book of Job, but it’s also the most disjointed, where about halfway through, Bildad seems to lose his composure and go off on a rant that would make every proponent of the self-esteem, positive affirmation crowd blush with indignity. Not that I’m a proponent of lying to yourself in the mirror, but there should be a happy medium between calling oneself brave, beautiful, capable, and fit when one knows themselves not to be at least half of those things, and screeching you’re a maggot and a worm at one’s reflection.

Perhaps say nothing at all, and just make sure you don’t have yellow discharge drying at the corners of your eyes and that your shirt is buttoned right before setting forth to brave the day.  

There’s a park in our neck of the woods, at least where we used to live before the girls came along, called Riverside Park. For those in the area, it’s in the city known for opportunity running through it, and never stopping to catch its breath. Whether you call it Watertown or Watertucky, it’s the quintessential middle America town, with this particular park being a major draw, especially during the summer months.

The park is divided by a creek, with a bridge connecting the two sides, and because there is abundant water, there are always ducks. The ducks draw families, families bring bread, and the ducks get so many frequent meals as to think someone was fattening them up with an eye for preparing them for the dinner table.

There are park benches and picnic tables, and it’s nice enough that it was an oft-visited spot in the early years of our marriage. Walks in the park are free. They’re far gentler on the pocketbook than walking through a mall, and the extra vitamin D is an added bonus. One day, we were walking by the creek, hand in hand, and stopped to watch a little girl holding a slice of bread, tearing off small pieces and throwing them near her feet for the ducks to snatch up.

It was idyllic. We stood there smiling, watching the little girl throw small crumbs of bread closer and closer to her feet until one brave duck got too close, and the little girl, quick as lightning, grabbed the duck by the neck and started dragging it away from the creek bank.

In an instant, the picturesque scene turned into something more akin to a horror movie, as the duck started quacking, flapping its wings, trying to pull away in vain, the girl’s mother began yelling for her to let it go, and with a determined look on her face, the little girl just kept pulling.

I get the same whiplash of emotions when I read Bildad’s brief and final answer to Job’s words. He starts out well enough, reiterating that dominion and fear belong to God. He acknowledges that God makes peace in the high places, is in awe of God’s grandeur, wondering if there is any number to His armies, and concludes that He is ever present, everywhere, for upon whom does His light not shine, but then something changes. There is a not-so-subtle narrative shift, and it’s as though two different people are focusing on two opposing sides of the same issue. It usually takes two to tango, and two differing viewpoints to have a heated debate or a disagreement, but not so with Bildad.

The same man who enumerated God’s power, omnipotence, sovereignty, and glory, comes out of left field and asks, how then can man be righteous before God? Well, because God declares him righteous. One would think the answer would be obvious enough, given that the same man who asked the question insisted upon God’s dominion a few seconds prior.

Rather than argue endlessly whether a glass is half empty or half full, perhaps we can come together and agree that there is a glass, and there is liquid in the glass, and whether it’s half full or half empty really doesn’t matter. If the way you interpret how you measure the fullness of the glass matters more to you than the reality that it exists and there is substance in it to the halfway mark, the issue is more about you being right in the way you view the glass than the existence thereof.

We engage in endless quarrels, hurt each other, wound each other, and speak ill of each other, not because we are defending the truth or defending the Gospel, but because we want to be right. We want the prism through which we see something to be the only viable option, and we can’t bring ourselves to admit that the glass is both half full and half empty.

No man is righteous simply because he declares himself to be. However, a man is righteous if God declares him righteous. It’s a simple solution to Bildad’s problem, but one he is unwilling to entertain because that would mean rethinking his entire framework regarding God, man, authority, and sovereignty.

Either you see yourself as a maggot and a worm, or one who has been bought with a price, redeemed, reborn, washed clean, and set upon the path of righteousness. However, what is imperative is that you see yourself as God sees you, and not as others see you.

To his friends, Job was a wicked man deserving of all that had befallen him and worse besides. To God, Job was a blameless and upright man who feared Him and shunned evil. Whose report he would believe was Job’s choice, and knowing himself to desire nothing more than the presence of God, he rejected the condemnation of his friends and their assessment of him.

Yes, only God can judge you, and that is either a reason for great rejoicing or great dread, depending on whether you belong to Him or only claim to. Job had searched his heart repeatedly and found nothing he needed to repent of, not because he ignored the things he knew were wicked in his life, but because there was no wickedness in his life. If you stood before God today, could you say the same?      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCLXI

 Job 24:22-25, “But God draws the mighty away with His power; he rises up, but no man is sure of life. He gives them security, and they rely on it; yet His eyes are on their ways. They are exalted for a little while, then they are gone. They are brought low; they are taken out of the way like all others; they dry out like the heads of grain. Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?”

Any power, might, or ability to bend the universe to their will that someone might think they have is illusory. It is imagined, deceptive, and misleading, and by the time they figure out that the might they thought they possessed was nothing more than mist and illusion, a construct of their own id, a byproduct of pride and the pretense of authority, the grave beckons and try as they might to avoid it, or keep from taking that one-way journey back to the earth from which they came, it’s too late.

No matter what heights they reach, no matter how much wealth they amass, no matter how indelible the mark they leave on the world, though he rises up, no man is sure of life. Man is born, and man dies. The length of one’s days is in God’s hand alone, and though they may think they can outrun the clock, that by sheer force of will they can continue to be among the living once the sand in their hourglass runs out, vanity is all it ends up being.

Yes, they may be exalted for a little while, rely on the security He’s given them, insisting that it was of their own doing, but God’s eyes are on their ways, and His accounting is impeccable. No matter how high they rise, no matter how much power they wield, all men are brought low and taken out of the way. One’s station will not shield them from the eyes of God, one’s office will not make them bypass the grave, and in a world of uncertainty where everything has an expiration date and a limited shelf life, it is no less than wisdom itself to cling to and humble ourselves before the eternal One, the maker of all that is seen and unseen.

Prince or pauper, a man is just a man. Wise or fool, we all share the same end, the moment of which is known only by the One who created us and knew us from before He formed us in our mothers’ womb.

From the very first verse of the book of Job, we are told of his priorities and what he dedicated his life to. We were likewise shown a glimpse into the mind of God and made to understand what He deems worthy of note, what draws His eyes, and what He counts as a life well lived. We were not told Job was a shrewd businessman, a great orator, or a poet, but rather that he feared God and shunned evil.

All his other successes were secondary issues to the primary one, which was that he dedicated his life to having a deep and meaningful relationship with God. He dedicated his life to the pursuit of growing his spiritual man first, and the sheep, camels, oxen, donkeys, and very large household were secondary concerns.

Had his priorities been inverted, had he dedicated himself to amassing more of the things he already possessed, when they were stripped from him, it would have broken him. He would have surely been brought to ruin, a broken man with a broken spirit, because his identity would have been wrapped up in his possessions rather than in the God he served.

The uniqueness of Job was that he not only understood what mattered most in life but also lived in such a way as to exemplify the practical application of that understanding. I know that all things come from God, I know my Redeemer lives, I know there is something beyond this mortal coil and sagging flesh, and knowing these things, I strive to live accordingly, and in light of that reality. I shun evil because it is evil. I fear God because He is supreme and sovereign.

You can live your life chasing after things the world deems worthwhile, or laying hold of what God deems worthwhile. One must take precedence over the other; one will be sought after with greater aplomb than the other, because it’s clear that no man can serve two masters, and you will defer to one over the other depending on the desire and yearning of your heart.

Job yearned for God, and in his final response to Eliphaz, he drew the comparison between the mighty who lean on their might and those who lean on God, depend upon Him, and trust Him to carry them through the dark times. Your trust is only as unshakeable as what you put your trust in.

Psalm 20:7-8, “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright.”

Job outlined the way of the world, not from the outside looking in, not as someone who never had possessions, but as one who was once the greatest of all the people of the East. His final analysis was as simple as it was profound: God is the only thing that matters. Knowing God, serving God, fearing God, loving God, worshipping God, and obeying God are the only things that will set you apart, give you hope, and give you purpose.

If it is not so, who will prove me a liar? If you can poke holes in my analysis, feel free to do so, but I know you can’t. The truth is the truth whether men reject it, bristle at it, or rage against it. Do you know Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Does He sit on the throne of your heart? These are not questions we can get around to answering when we have a bit of downtime, but the most important questions we will ever have to contend with on this side of eternity. Job knew. He knew that his Redeemer lived, and one day he would see Him face to face. Do you?      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCLX

 You’ll know you’re over the target when the response to your quoting Scripture is an ad hominem personal attack that has nothing to do with the initial discussion. When men can’t defend their positions because they are contrary to what the Word says, it becomes personal, and whatever they can do to deflect from their error, they will do with gusto.

It’s no less than what Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar attempted to do to Job, with an added layer of unsubstantiated accusations leveled against him, because he’d exposed the one thing they couldn’t admit to: not everything is black and white, not every situation is clear-cut, and anyone who insists they know the truth of every matter, regardless of how nuanced, complicated, or shrouded in mystery, is doing it to feed their ego. For some, the hardest words they will ever utter are “I don’t know” and “I was wrong.” They are so difficult to pass our lips that we would rather drag someone through the mud, accuse them of wickedness, attack their character, and latch onto things that were never part of the initial conversation, all in the hope of avoiding saying them.  

“The Word of God says to resist the devil, strive to enter through the narrow gate, and walk circumspectly because the days are evil.”

“You’re fat!”

“Thanks for the reminder. I do own a mirror. Now what about the thing the Bible says?”

“You’re still fat!”

So much for reasoning together and allowing the Spirit of God to bring clarity. So much for iron sharpening iron and allowing the Word of God to have the final say on the matter.

When all we’re told repeatedly from various pulpits of various denominations that the only thing for us to do is wait for the catching away, perhaps picking some belly button lint just to pass the time, but nothing more aggressive than that, it’s no wonder the world is still lost and the devil is making headway into places and institutions once considered sacrosanct and beyond his reach. We have become warriors without armor, sojourners without a destination, leaders without vision, followers without purpose, shepherds without integrity, and servants in open rebellion to their Master. But sure, tell me more about how we’ll rule the nations, how justice will run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty river.  

The household of faith has a purpose on this earth, and it’s not being ineffective, indifferent, and unconcerned. Neither is our purpose to build up our earthly kingdoms or promote ourselves as individuals as though we were a viable replacement for the King of Kings, or on equal footing with Him and His authority. Any authority we have was given to us by Him, and if we boast in anything, may it be in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.

When we start seeking celebrity rather than obedience, the enemy will be more than happy to facilitate it, because he understands human nature and knows that if the heart yearns for name recognition rather than faithful submission to the will and purpose of God, compromises will be made to attain that goal. Oddly enough, the compromise never errs on the side of truth, righteousness, or sanctification, but always toward permissiveness, duplicity, and more worldly-minded pursuits.

When a wicked man points to other wicked men attempting to highlight their wickedness, it’s not from a sense of justice, but rather a means of deflection. Sure, I’m rotten to the core, but look at those guys over there, they’re as rotten as me just in other areas of life.

When God calls us to righteousness, holiness, and sanctification, it’s not so we can boast about them or perceive ourselves as spiritually superior to others, but to draw nearer to Him and feel His presence in greater and greater measure. God’s closeness should inspire greater humility in the heart of man, rather than boastful buffoonery. The clearer we see His righteousness and holiness, the more evident the insignificance of our own righteousness becomes. Any man who boasts of his righteousness or holiness has not been in close enough proximity to God to understand the folly of their boast.

It would be both refreshing and jarring to see a self-titled spiritual leader today have the self-awareness of Isaiah, and declare that all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags, and it’s because of our iniquity that God has hidden His face from us and consumed us. That would not play well with a modern audience, I fear.

The faux-shepherds can’t risk telling the truth, the pretend sheep don’t want to hear it, and they’ve come to an unspoken, tacit agreement that as long as the preacher keeps preaching lies, the sheep will continue to pretend it’s the truth because the gravy train needs to keep chugging along, and the congregation just wants some fire insurance rather than true transformation.

The farmer already knows which is wheat and which is chaff. The threshing facilitates the separation of the two. God, likewise, already knows those who are His in word and in deed, and those who pretend to be. It’s not a mystery to Him; He doesn’t have to guess at it, but the trials, uncertainty, and persecution on the horizon will separate the sheep from the goats just as surely as the threshing separates the wheat from the chaff.

What some of the more obstinate among us fail to realize is that you can’t fool God into believing you belong to Him when you don’t. God singled out one man and declared him blameless and upright, even though there were doubtless others who pretended to be. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can never fool God. Not even once, not even a little bit, because He knows the hearts of men and nothing is hidden from His sight.

Saying we love God and loving God are two different things. One is performative, self-serving, and self-aggrandizing; the other is authentic, active, and perpetual. If men claim to love God only when they need something from Him, and fall out of love the minute they get what they wanted, it was never love; it was usury. We love God not for what He might do for our career, our net worth, or our romantic endeavors, but for what He has already done, giving His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.