Job CCCXXIV

 Job 38:4-11, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!’”

It takes an almost limitless amount of intellectual dishonesty, coupled with a dangerously myopic view of everything that surrounds us, to conclude that everything was a happy accident, serendipity at its finest, working in perfect synchronicity and interdependence by happenstance or luck.

Sometimes we need to be reminded just how complex the world that surrounds us is, all the wonders it holds, and all the finite little things that have to work together perfectly, with no slippage or deterioration, for us to continue to exist. We’ve become used to all that surrounds us to the point that we take it for granted, refusing to acknowledge the One that put it all together and keeps it from falling apart, spinning out of control, or getting too close to the sun to the point that we all become crispy critters.

It’s like getting on an airplane and never considering the man-hours that went into making all the parts, putting them together, and making sure that the engines don’t give out halfway over the Atlantic. That’s all fine and dandy, but where are my complimentary bag of peanuts and my free can of soda?

It’s mind-boggling to consider that God, our Father, and the One who created all that our senses perceive as reality, couldn’t have an off day, couldn’t get it almost right, but had to get it perfect, one hundred percent of the time, without fail, just so we could enjoy a sunrise without having our retina burned away, or to be able to inhale and exhale without passing out, or looking like a fish out of water gasping for breath when none is to be had.

A few years back, there was a former president who went viral for saying that no matter how successful your business, no matter how much sweat equity you put into it, no matter how much you sacrificed, or how many sleepless nights you had to endure, in the end, you didn’t build that! Those who sit on the sidelines and watch the world go by agreed wholeheartedly, cheering him on for putting the boss men in their place, but those who, by sheer tenacity and work ethic, built something out of nothing were taken aback and voiced their objections to the blanket statement that they hadn’t done a thing, they hadn’t built anything, and somehow it came together for them as if by magic.

Men can say God didn’t build that until they’re blue in the face, but as long as God declares that He did, from the very foundations of the earth, then the claims of men are just that, the rantings of bitter souls unwilling to humble themselves and acknowledge His mighty works.

God begins to ask Job a series of questions that are rhetorical in nature. By that I mean God already knows the answers to the questions He is asking, but just so there’s no misunderstanding as to who built it, who laid earth’s cornerstone, or who shut the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb, God proffers a multitude of questions which are individually worthy of contemplation if one is ever inclined to get a glimpse of the vastness of the majesty and omnipotence of the God we serve.

Psalm 19:1-2, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.”

Men refuse to acknowledge God not because His handiwork is difficult to perceive, but because in their wicked hearts they resent Him for who He is, and harbor the desire to be as little gods in their own right. If God exists, if the heavens declare His glory and the firmament shows His handiwork, then they can never claim godhood for themselves, and that’s something their hubris cannot allow.

No matter how altruistic some of these men might sound, in the end it’s all about defiance and rebellion. We can do a better job than the One who laid the foundations of the earth. We know better. So send some rockets into space to cover the atmosphere in dust, cut down all the forests, seed some clouds, attempt to do what only God can, and that way we can pretend to be gods ourselves. Once we become gods, then we answer to no one but ourselves, and do as we will without the nagging reminder that one day we too will stand before the judgment throne.

Men can pretend God doesn’t exist, but they are not doing so because they believe it to be so. They do it as a coping mechanism to drown out their conscience, and that ever-present reality that one day lived is one day closer to the grave, no matter how much they would want it to be otherwise.

The need to dismiss the reality of God is so great that they have to contrive existential crises which they can later claim to have a fix for so they can validate their hubris.

The oceans are rising; the oceans are rising! That’s the claim we’ve been hearing for thirty years now, and those who do not believe that God said, this far you may come, but no farther, and here you proud waves must stop, fell for it to the point of selling their beachfront homes and moving inland.

If the oceans do rise, it is by His will, and there is nothing man can do to stop it. If the oceans recede, it is likewise by His will, and once again, there is nothing man can do to stop it. God is in control and has been since before He laid the foundations of the earth.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCCXXIII

 Job 38:1-3, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ‘Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”

You’ve undoubtedly said too much when God has to step in. There is a great divide between how Elihu saw himself and the words he spoke, and how God perceived them. While Elihu unashamedly declared that his lips uttered pure knowledge, God’s assessment was that the darkened counsel was by words without knowledge. Wise in his own eyes he might have been, but that didn’t make it true.

As someone who’s already seen a movie you’re watching, and they can’t help themselves, would say, we’re getting to the good part. Job had suffered the disrespect of his wife and his three friends, had been accused of wickedness he never committed, but Elihu’s bloviating seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and God stepped in.

Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? You may have a stronger constitution than I, but if God ever said that about me, I would deflate quicker than a popped balloon. Any haughtiness, pride, or high opinion of his own wisdom Elihu might have had was stripped away in one sentence. This was not a conciliatory question, nor was it formed in such a way that one would conclude that Elihu was partially right. All of his machinations, his attempted self-promotion, and his insistence that he knew better than Job flew out the window the moment God spoke.

Some have posed the question of why God would choose to speak to Job out of the whirlwind when He spoke to Elijah in a still, small voice. Short answer, because God does as He wills, speaks as He wills, and speaks when He wills.

As far as Elijah is concerned, God did not speak to him in the howling winds that broke the rocks in pieces, nor did He speak to him in the earthquake or the fire, but chose to do so in a still, small voice. The big takeaway here is a lesson we should all take to heart: do not assume God spoke until you know God spoke!

If Elijah did not know the voice of God, he could have presumed that the strong wind that tore into the mountains and broke the rocks into pieces was God trying to send him a message, and would have spent the rest of his days trying to decipher what the message was. Then the earthquake, then the fire, and had he not been still and waited for the voice of the Lord, clear and undeniable, by the time the still small voice spoke, he would have been a knot of confusion trying to interpret something which had no deeper meaning than that it was wind, earthquake, and fire.

When God speaks to His servants, it is clear. When men look for the voice of God when He has not spoken, everything from an oddly shaped cloud to a turkey crossing the road holds a deeper meaning, and rather than wait patiently for God to speak, they sprint down rabbit trails, creating an entire narrative around something that had no deeper meaning or spiritual implications.

I saw a squirrel in a tree; what does it mean, I wonder? That a squirrel was in a tree. That’s it. There’s nothing mystical going on; there’s no deeper meaning. You just happened to hear the rustling of leaves, looked up, and saw a squirrel.

We are bondservants of Christ, warriors of the cross, sons and daughters of Almighty God, not simpletons looking for the universe to send us a sign whether we should risk eating the expired can of tuna in the pantry.

When God speaks, you’ll know it whether He chooses to do so in a still small voice or out of the whirlwind, as was the case with Job. The issue at hand is knowing His voice so that when He speaks, you will know it's Him regardless of the manner in which He chooses to do so.

There should be no ambiguity as to whether God spoke or not, or whether or not it was Him. His sheep know His voice, and His voice is unique. There’s a difference between knowing you received a message from the Lord and hoping that you did, thinking that you did, or presuming that you did. Worse still are those who grow impatient, think God is taking too long in speaking, and presume to speak on His behalf, insisting that they know His thoughts and their opinions are just as valid as God’s own words. Not to belabor the point, but Elihu believed he knew the mind of God as well, and look how that turned out.

Few things could top the harsh rebuke of having God single you out and declare that you have darkened counsel by words without knowledge. When God steps in, everything changes. Every well-formulated narrative, every well-constructed theory, they all crumble under the weight of truth. Not some arbitrary truth, not some subjective truth, but the truth that comes from the mouth of God Himself.

After dealing with Elihu in no more than one sentence, God turns His sights on Job and tells him to prepare himself like a man because He has some questions for him, and not answering them is not an option. You shall answer Me! That’s as declarative as it gets, and Job had no option but to do as God commanded. If anything, hearing the voice of God was an unspeakable relief to Job. It is what his heart yearned for throughout the season of silence, and now, finally, God had spoken.

One thing that cannot go unmentioned is that even when God was silent, Job was faithful. Even when God seemed distant and far off, Job held tight to his integrity. Even when all seemed lost, Job clung to the hope that his relationship with God had fostered, to the point of remaining faithful when to human reason his faithfulness was fruitless and pointless.

We’ve all had our dry seasons. We’ve all had those moments when God is silent, and things seem to be spiraling out of control, and that is when the faith that we’ve built up over the years sustains us and gives us the endurance necessary to weather the storm.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CCCXXII

 Job 37:14-24, “Listen to this, O Job; Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. Do you know when God dispatches them, and causes the light of His cloud to shine? Do you know how the clouds are balanced, those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge? Why are your garments hot, when He quiets the earth by the south wind? With Him, have you spread out the skies, strong as a cast metal mirror? Teach us what we should say to Him, for we can prepare nothing because of the darkness. Should He be told that I wish to speak? If a man were to speak, surely he would be swallowed up. Even now men cannot look at the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them. He comes from the north as golden splendor; with God is awesome majesty. As for the Almighty, we cannot find Him; He is excellent in power, in judgment and abundant justice; He does not oppress. Therefore men fear Him; He shows no partiality to any who are wise of heart.”

By the end of his heated and impassioned oratory, one gets the sense that Elihu realized he’d gotten ahead of his skis. He’d assumed, presumed, taken it upon himself to speak on God’s behalf, insisted that pure knowledge flowed from his lips, then wondered as if to himself, Should God be told that I wish to speak? Should I have gotten permission to say what I said, rather than assuming I knew the mind of God and the entirety of his plan for Job?

Even with that small dose of self-awareness, however, Elihu can’t help himself. He couldn’t stop himself from condescending to Job, insisting that Job teach them what they should say to God. It was not an honest request or a sincere desire to know how to approach God, but more akin to, well, if you’re so smart and so spiritual, why don’t you teach us what we should say to the Almighty? If you have all the answers, clue us in.

The problem is that Job never claimed to have all the answers. He was distraught at God’s silence and did not understand why he had been allowed to suffer the misfortunes he’d suffered. Even so, he neither found fault with God nor did he sin with his lips in his suffering. This was not something Job claimed; it is something God said.

It is frightening to see so many superimpose their opinions over God’s will, insisting that they are one and the same. Oftentimes, the opinions differ wildly from what Scripture declares to be the truth, but that doesn’t stop some from insisting that they know better, or that they are on equal footing with the Almighty when it comes to declaring what is pleasing in His sight and what He finds abhorrent. Men might be allowed to ramble on for a season, but in the end, God will have the last word. He will have His say, and He will judge with righteous judgment.

It is true, God shows no partiality to any who are wise of heart, for wisdom in and of itself is not something that God weighs in the scales when declaring a man blameless and upright. God sees the hearts of men, as they are, without artifice or pretense, and it is the heart, its focus, desires, and yearnings that He judges. Has the heart been transformed? Has it been regenerated? Has it been born again and set upon the path of sanctification, or does it remain as it ever was, as the individual in whom the heart beats boasts of his own righteousness?

Lest anyone think I am judging Elihu harshly, go back to when he was first introduced, and see the spirit in which he approached Job and his three friends. Within the span of three verses, we are told no less than three times that the wrath of Elihu was aroused against Job and his three friends, and it persisted throughout his monologue.

Angry people say dumb things. When one’s wrath is stirred, they don’t take the time to consider what they’re saying or whether it's factual and true. The anger dulls their senses, it unbridles the tongue, and they let fly, without a shred of humility, meekness, or self-awareness. Elihu wasn’t powered by Red Bull or caffeine; he was powered by wrath, and for five chapters he did everything he could to convince Job of his guilt, even though Job knew himself to be innocent.

Notwithstanding the oddity that Elihu appears on the scene, as if out of nowhere, spends a considerable amount of time slinging mud, and just as readily disappears and is mentioned no more, his presence was just another opportunity for the enemy to attempt to whittle down Job’s resolve. The enemy isn’t picky about who he uses to achieve his objectives. The ends are all that matter, and the means are a triviality as far as he is concerned.

Some within the leadership of the contemporary church have convinced themselves that God operates in a similar fashion, and as long as the pews are full and the electric bill gets paid, the way they conduct themselves is irrelevant. That in itself is a snare, and one many a soul has fallen into, and we see the aftereffects, the collateral damage, and the destruction such individuals leave in their wake. The Biblical standard is there for a reason. What God requires of His own was established for a purpose, and when men lose sight of this and justify their rebellion by pointing to the size of their church or ministry, it’s only a matter of time before they are exposed for all the world to see, and yet another mark is suffered by the household of faith.

The difference between knowing about God, His attributes, His might, or His perfect knowledge, and knowing God personally and intimately, is that one who knows God obeys Him in all things, while one who knows about God attempts to justify himself based on his own understanding of who God is and what He requires. Elihu knew more than most of his time about the attributes of God, but as far as knowing Him, he admitted to his own ignorance.

Just because someone is loud and brash doesn’t mean they’re right. Just because someone speaks about God, it doesn’t mean they know Him. It’s in the good fruit one produces that you can determine a good tree from a bad one. Everything else is noise. A good tree that produces good fruit will defer to the One in whom it is planted, knowing that the good fruit isn’t of their own making or design, but by His alone. A bad tree that produces bad fruit will never give God the glory rightly His, but attempt to elevate themselves, seeking the praise and honor of men rather than to be well-pleasing in the sight of God.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCCXXI

 Job 37:6-13, “For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. He seals the hand of every man, that all men may know His work. The beasts go into dens, and remain in their lairs. From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds of the north. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen. Also with moisture He saturates the thick clouds; He scatters His bright clouds. And they swirl about, being turned by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them on the face of the whole earth. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.”

It’s not uncommon for a man to be capable of speaking profound things while seemingly, within the same breath, speaking profoundly untrue things. Every discourse, and everything someone says, must stand on its own merits, individually, and not be influenced by previous oration, always meticulously filtered through the prism of God’s word to determine its veracity.

If one is diligent in searching the Scripture to determine whether what they heard is true, it will save them much heartache, confusion, and bitterness in the long run. It doesn’t matter who the individual is; if what they are saying is contrary to the Word of God, then they are not to be believed, and their message ought not to be allowed to take root in your heart.

For those possessing both time and patience, you can take the teachings of an individual who is demonstrably contrary to what the Word teaches, and trace it back to when they started going sideways and saying things that were no longer profound, but profoundly anti-biblical, to the point that, given enough time, they begin to teach abject heresy. Some of them did start out surefooted and rooted in the Word, only to end up tailoring their sermons to suit the wants of the sheep rather than the needs of the flock. Others didn’t even bother searching out the truth but, from the jump, began teaching fanciful imaginings whose genesis was their own bellies rather than any divine revelation or knowledge.

It’s those who started out on the right path only to swerve off it who pose the greatest danger to the household of faith, especially if those who are receiving and absorbing their teaching are not diligent in studying Scripture for themselves and in making certain that the two are in harmony.

Yes, men can stray from the truth of the gospel, and they do so more often than we would like to admit. If my baseline for whether I believe them is a sermon I heard ten years ago that was grounded in truth, rather than what they are currently teaching compared to the Word of God, it is more likely that I will swallow the bitter poison rather than reject it wholesale.

Elihu wasn’t entirely wrong in what he said. It would have been too obvious had this been the case. There are sparks of insight and glimmers of wisdom in his oratory, but for every true thing he says about God, he injects his own opinions and judgments about Job, using the nuggets of truth as a means of justifying them.

The duty of a servant is to rightly divide the Word and preach the gospel, not to use the gospel as a foil to support his far-flung theories. As far as examples go, there are plenty to be had, but generally speaking, you’ll know something is off when the individual is more adamant about protecting his pet doctrine than about lifting up the name of Jesus. When the entirety of their ministry revolves around a tertiary issue that has no bearing on salvation, insisting that it is, in fact, a salvific issue when the Bible clearly says it isn’t, you’ll know that they’re in the weeds and are attempting to build their own kingdom while pretending to build up God’s kingdom.

You don’t understand, brother. Unless you wear sandals and a linen tunic every day of your life, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. But that’s not what Jesus said! Well, He just didn’t get around to it, but that’s the key to the Kingdom that has been kept hidden from the masses. We’ve even made it convenient for you. You can visit our online store to purchase a tunic and sandals at a competitive price.

Every day, you say? Yes, every day. But I live in Wisconsin, and the winters are brutal. Hard to think I won’t turn into an ice cube in -25-degree weather with heavy winds. Ah, but that’s where faith comes in, my friend. Put on the tunic, strap on the sandals, and brave the snow to prove your faith. But why not just put on a parka and some boots? Because you would be proving yourself unworthy and lacking faith.

Any performative act required by men to prove their faith to men is folly and not Biblical. It’s neither my job nor a Scriptural requirement to jump through hoops to prove my faith to another. My faith is in God, and only He can measure it accurately.

This is, in essence, what Elihu was demanding of Job: prove your faith to me! Prove your innocence to me! Prove that I have judged you wrongly and you are not the wicked man I believe you to be! By what authority do I demand these things? My own, but if it makes you more cooperative, let’s just say I’m speaking on behalf of God. Did He send you? Did He speak to you? Did God give you the leeway to speak on His behalf? Well, no, but it sounds better than saying I’m just a random guy who decided to take a swipe at you.

One thing Elihu was right about, and it is something worth noting: God is sovereign. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy, whatever that thing might be. Couple that with the blessed assurance that we have a good Father, one whose love for us is beyond dispute, and we can be at peace even in the darkest of days and strongest of storms.   

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCCXX

 Job 37:1-5, “At this also my heart trembles, and leaps from its place. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth. After it a voice roars; he thunders with His majestic voice, and He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend.”

If there is one redeeming quality about Elihu, it’s that he did believe in God. He did not think everything came about accidentally, some serendipitous cosmic alignment that put everything in its place with such precision as to make a Swiss watchmaker blush with shame. If not for his repeated attempts to promote himself and his insistence that he knew the mind of God when he clearly didn’t, he would even be a sympathetic figure to some degree.

At least part of him knew he was full of hot air because he contradicted himself repeatedly when it came to hearing from God or knowing Him on an intimate level that went beyond mere platitudes. Though he claimed to speak on God’s behalf, insisting that he was certain of Job’s guilt, Elihu goes on to say that God does great things which we cannot comprehend. That he would not allow for the possibility that this was just such a case, wherein God was doing something that he could not comprehend, thereby abstaining from giving his opinion, veiled in the pretense that it was God’s judgment rather than his own, confirms that Elihu had a bone to pick with Job, for whatever reason, and this was his opportunity to twist the knife.

Elihu’s entire treatise, however, highlights a deeper issue with which much of today’s church must contend: the realization that there is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God on a personal level.

As James would later state, even the demons believe and tremble. Belief in God isn’t what saves; being born again does. If an individual believes in the existence of God, but does not take the prescribed steps the Bible sets forth for him to be saved, sanctified, and reconciled to God, he has not been transformed or regenerated, but simply holds to an intellectual acknowledgment that there is a Creator; there is a God.

Upon approaching Jesus, Nicodemus acknowledged that he, along with the other Pharisees, knew He was a teacher come from God, for no one could do the signs He did unless God was with Him. They didn’t presume, they didn’t hope, they knew God had sent Him, and rather than thanking him for the compliment and confirming that he was right, Jesus said to him: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Believing Jesus was special is not enough. Believing He did signs is not enough. Believing he was a prophet or a wise man is not enough. Believing in the existence of God is not enough. You must be born again! It’s not an option, nor is it a take-it-or-leave-it proposition absent afferent consequence; it is imperative. Unless one is born again, one cannot see the kingdom of God! There’s no wiggle room there; there are no hypotheticals that Jesus alludes to where someone can bypass being born again.

Men today are fond of playing the what-if game, thinking they can stump God or find a nonexistent loophole, wherein they can see the kingdom of God without being born again. Professing to be wise, they become fools in the truest sense of the word, believing wholeheartedly that they can argue, demand, or sneak their way into heaven.

Either Jesus lied, or He didn’t, when He said you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. If He lied about this, then everything else He said is suspect, because eternity is the greatest of issues one must contend with. If He didn’t lie, then no amount of bloviating or throwing out hypothetical situations will change the reality of what He said.

Shocking as it may seem, once you strip away the hyperbole, presupposition, feelings, emotions, and opinion, it boils down to one simple question: Did Jesus speak the truth when He said that you must be born again to see the kingdom of God?

As for me, the answer is an unequivocal yes, because of who He is, and the lengths to which He went on the cross that man might be reconciled to God. Once we’ve established that, then everything falls into place. Everything in my life must be in service to the singular ideal of denying myself, picking up my cross, and following after Him, for He has bought me, redeemed me, cleansed me, and set me upon the path that I must follow.

The notion that one who is saved and sanctified can remain inactive and unresponsive to the urging of the Holy Spirit to draw ever closer to God is anathema and has no biblical foundation. To be transformed is to be changed. To be born again is to die to your old self. To follow after Jesus is to do away with anything and everything that would inhibit you from doing so or stunt your progress and spiritual growth.

We treat too flippantly the thing for which the Son of God was born, lived, suffered, bled, and died that we might attain. We serve Him when it suits us, pray when there’s nothing else vying for our attention, read Scripture when there’s nothing good on the television, yet still have the temerity to insist that we are soldiers of the cross, fully committed, faithful to the end, and ready to receive our marching orders.

Perhaps God isn’t doing the things He once did among His people not because He can no longer do them, as though He were contractually obligated to stop doing what He’s always done, but because those claiming to be His pay Him lip service while living their lives in a manner unworthy of the gospel of Christ, wherein no glory or honor is brought to His name. It may be a hard pill to swallow, but perhaps the problem isn’t with God; it’s with us.          

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CCCXIX

 Job 36:22-33, “Behold, God is exalted by His power; who teaches like Him? Who has assigned Him His way, or who has said, ‘You have done wrong’? Remember to magnify His work, of which men have sung. Man looks on it from afar. Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; nor can the number of His years be discovered. For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man. Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading clouds, the thunder from His canopy? Look, He scatters His light upon it, and covers the depths of the sea. For by these He judges the peoples; He gives food in abundance. He covers His hands with lightning, and commands it to strike. His thunder declares it, the cattle also, concerning the rising storm.”

Nestled within his multitude of words, Elihu said something that, in modern parlance, seems more like a Freudian slip than anything else. It rings different than all the other things he’s said thus far, and reveals something Elihu would have been reticent to admit had his mouth not gotten ahead of his brain: God is great, and we do not know Him! But you’ve been waxing poetic regarding God for the better part of four chapters. You’ve been talking endlessly about all the wisdom and knowledge that reside in you, flow from your lips, and have nested in your heart, to the point that everything you say is worthy of being chiseled into stone tablets to be preserved for future generations. You’ve been boasting about your knowledge endlessly, yet the one thing man should strive to know above all else, you admitted, you do not know.

It’s never been easier to learn more about the most obscure or niche topics than it is now. Everyone presumes they’re a genius because they have a smartphone and can get answers at the click of a button, without putting forth the effort of diligent searching. What once would have taken endless months in dusty libraries can be accessed within a breath, and for some reason, men equate that to their own wisdom being enriched and heightened.

Given the abundance of evidence on hand, I would submit we haven’t gotten smarter, wiser, or more knowledgeable, but the opposite. We’ve been dumbed down, duped into using technology as a crutch and a safety net, so dependent on it that if the Apple Watch doesn’t beep to remind us to drink water, we’d die of thirst.

I’m old enough to remember the good old days where you’d have to fork out ten bucks for an atlas if you were planning on driving cross country, mapping your journey, figuring out if you were going east or west, when now all you have to do is punch in an address four states away, and the device will not only tell you the best route to take, but an estimated time of arrival. Easier? More convenient? Most assuredly, but now you have people Google-mapping the grocery store they’ve been to a hundred times for fear of getting lost within four blocks.

We’ve taken to asking Siri about spiritual matters that only the Word of God can reveal, and what’s even more concerning is that we would take the word of a gadget over Scripture when it comes to salvific matters. Jesus said He was the way, the truth, and the life, but if you ask Siri how many paths there are to heaven, I’m sure it will list a plethora of them, because a soulless machine can never grasp the profundity of eternity, nor perceive what salvation means.

Some edgy, hyper-modern contemporary churches have even taken to embracing the notion of Artificial Intelligence delivering sermons, believing it to be viable, rather than the nefarious, destructive threat it credibly poses to something as existential as eternity. Yes, AI may use fancier words, better sentence structure, and more engaging story arcs, but what it can never possess is the unction and power of the Holy Spirit that the sons and daughters of God ought to. A machine, no matter how technologically advanced, can never feel the unction of the Holy Spirit or speak the words the hungry soul needs to hear. Likely, what you’ll get is a carefully curated word salad, akin to Elihu’s self-indulgent, bloviating speech, that neither challenges nor exhorts, and does its utmost to cause as little offense as possible.

Elihu inadvertently admitted that he did not know God, and, as any hubristic soul would, he had to include everyone else in his statement. If I don’t know God, then no one else can, so we, as a monolith, do not know Him! I can’t see it; I really can’t. Here I am speaking on God’s behalf, and I don’t know Him, and if someone like me can’t know Him, then no one else can. The probability that someone, anyone, would have a true and abiding relationship with God while I rattle off attributes about Him just doesn’t compute.

Look, I know stuff about God. He is great. He draws up drops of water which distill as rain from the mist. He scatters His light upon the canopy of the clouds and covers the depths of the sea, but as far as knowing Him personally, I don’t, so you can’t either, for we do not know Him! It’s hard to imagine anyone could be more presumptuous than Elihu, but to this day there are people who insist that, because they have not experienced something, it is therefore impossible for anyone else to have experienced it. Prophecy? Revelation? Divine healing? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Surely you jest. I’ve experienced none of these things, and I know a lot about God, so if I were not graced with these gifts, anyone who claims to have been graced with them must be lying through their teeth. Circuitous logic at its best, or at its worst, depending on how you view it, but if all else fails, ask Siri or Alexa; I’m sure they’ll have the right of it.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.

Job CCCXVIII

 Job 36:13-21, “But the hypocrites in heart store up wrath; they do not cry for help when He binds them. They die in youth, and their life ends among the perverted persons. He delivers the poor in their affliction, and opens their ears in oppression. Indeed He would have brought you out of dire distress, into a broad place where there is no restraint; and what is set on your table would be full of richness. But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice take hold of you. Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow; for a large ransom would not help you avoid it. Will your riches, or all the mighty forces, keep you from distress? Do not desire the night, when people are cut off in their place. Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, for you have chosen this rather than affliction.”

If Job had never cried out for help, Elihu may have had a point. It’s not that Job hadn’t cried out; it’s not that Job hadn’t pleaded with God for an answer, or asked to be shown his wickedness if there was any to be found. It’s that God had remained silent, and this, above all else, eclipsed what he’d been through and was a torment for his soul. It was the absence of God’s presence and voice that Job found most unbearable even though he’d been reduced to scratching at his festering boils with a potsherd.

It’s not that there was any evidence of Job’s guilt that compelled Elihu to conclude that he was filled with judgment due the wicked; Elihu needed Job to be guilty of wickedness to support his conclusion. It was an attempt to justify his judgment despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing because, above all else, Elihu needed to be right.

During the height of the Communist scourge, one of Joseph Stalin’s most infamous henchmen was an individual named Lavrentiy Beria. He served as the head of the secret police for some twelve years, and his famous quote was as chilling as it was succinct: “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” To him, guilt or innocence were irrelevant, as was the notion of fairness or justice. To him, the rule of law wasn’t something to be equally applied, but rather something to be used as a cudgel, a tool to get his way, and whether a man had done something worthy of punishment or death was irrelevant. As long as that man stood in the way of Stalin’s stated goal, he would find something to pin on him, even make it up out of whole cloth if need be, because his guiding principle was winning at any cost rather than discovering the truth of a thing. You presume the man guilty, then fill in the blanks at your leisure.

Elihu did not start out with a presumption of innocence when it came to Job. He’d already made up his mind. As far as he was concerned, the case had been adjudicated in the court of public opinion, and Job’s guilt was certain. Now all he had to do was backfill the narrative with incriminating tidbits, lean on causation to do the heavy lifting, and insist that he knew the mind of God when it came to Job. And so the entire thing could be wrapped up in a shiny bow, and he would be the man who’d proven what Job’s three friends could not.

This was Elihu’s version of “it is written” that would take place far into the future, as Satan unsuccessfully attempted to tempt Jesus into turning stones into bread, then later to throw Himself from the pinnacle of the temple, by misusing and abusing what was, in fact, written, but not in the spirit in which it was intended.

Jesus already knew who He was. Satan likewise knew who Jesus was, and any attempt at proving it was tantamount to tempting God. If you know who you are in Christ, you have no need to prove it to anyone, especially to someone who demands you do so in bad faith. Oh, you’re saved and redeemed? Prove it! Even if you decide to go through every detail of how Jesus transformed you, how you were born again, how you no longer pursue the things you once did but Him alone, it won’t suffice, it won’t be enough, because those asking for proof aren’t doing it out of a sincere desire to know, but in the hope that you come to doubt your place in God’s Kingdom.

Elihu was not well meaning, he wasn’t well intentioned, he wasn’t trying to get Job to repent of something he’d done, but rather to sow seeds of doubt regarding his relationship with God by repeatedly pointing to those who came before, who had rightly been judged for their wickedness, and insisting that Job was just like them, and he too had committed evil in the sight of God.

The sad reality is that Satan knows Scripture better than most believers, and if he thinks he can use it to sow doubt, he will not hesitate to attempt to pervert the truth of it toward his own ends. There is one surefire way to combat such schemes, and that is to know Scripture for yourself, consume it daily, and allow it to take root in your heart, so that when one of the devil’s minions comes calling insisting that it is written, you can likewise point to it and say, it is also written, and what you have stated as the basis of your argument is invalidated by Scripture itself, not parsed out, mutilated, twisted, and reimagined, but in context as it should be.

All things being equal, any one of us today would have a far easier time rebuffing the claims of Elihu because we have the written Word to fall back on, we have the Bible to which we can go and glean wisdom and understanding, while Job had none of those graces. What Job did have was unwavering faith in the God he served. He knew himself to be innocent of the things being said about him, and that was enough for him to weather the barrage of accusations and insinuations leveled against him.

If the day ever comes, let Scripture defend you if you know yourself to be a son or daughter of the Almighty, walking humbly in the way he has set before you. It’s the only effective defense, and the only surefire way to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.