Job XVI

 Satan presumed he knew Job’s character and conviction better than God. Other than being Satan, one of the most consistent while simultaneously distasteful character flaws he possesses is being presumptuous. Although he is not omniscient, Satan likes to pretend that he is.

We’ve all run into those types of people from time to time, the type who think they know everything, but when you press them on the issue, it turns out they know very little. Regurgitating talking points you hear spouted on the evening news isn’t knowledge or being informed; it’s parroting someone only mildly less idiotic than yourself. If the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that the specialists and the authorities are just as in the dark as anyone else; they just pretend as though they’re not.

We trusted the science and watched loved ones die behind sheets of glass with no one there to hold their hand as they breathed their last because we believed the blowhards had an inkling of what they were dealing with or presumed they wouldn’t dare make things up out of whole cloth just for the sake of fearmongering. Well, ha-ha, the joke’s on us.

Satan was presumptuous and self-assured in his abilities to put so much pressure on Job that he would eventually bend, then break, then curse the God whom he’d faithfully served all his life because he assumed that Job was made of the same stuff everyone else was. He should have paid attention when God said there was none like him on the face of the earth, but in his mind, he was already celebrating his win. Surely, no man could withstand the pressure he was planning on bringing to bear. Surely, every man has a breaking point. That all depends on whether the man in question believes that he still belongs to himself or is the master of his own destiny rather than belonging wholly to God and submitting to His will, whatever that might be.

It’s a high bar, to be sure, but one we must aspire to. Given that others have met it throughout the history of mankind tells us that it’s not out of reach. It’s not out of the realm of possibility or something we cannot attain.

The first man to run a four-minute mile was an Englishman named Roger Bannister in 1954. Since then, almost eighteen hundred others have accomplished this feat, which was thought nearly impossible until its accomplishment. Some credit the psychology of knowing that it could be done with the others who’ve achieved it, others the advancement in running shoes and supplements, natural or otherwise, and still others the advancements in available data regarding training, diet, and the environmental conditions on a given day. Whether you have headwinds or a mild breeze blowing at your back could mean all the difference between a tenth or two-tenths of a second.

The truth is that it’s likely all of these things combined that led to an explosion of individuals who were able to run the mile in four minutes or under, but you have to acknowledge the accomplishment of the first guy who pulled it off. Give credit where credit is due. When Roger Bannister ran his four-minute mile, there were no shock-absorbing running shoes, high altitude training masks, or treadmills, no Nike or Reebok to engineer a shoe made specifically for one athlete’s foot imprint, just an Englishman in a pair of leather shoes that managed to do a seemingly impossible thing.

Job is the prototype for a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil long before the law, the prophets, the advent of Christ, or the written word. He was the guy in the leather wingtips who managed to do it because of unequaled commitment and tenacity. Because of the age of grace, because of all the cumulative knowledge we have access to, because of the examples that came before us and the Word of God that is a light unto our path, it should be easier, not harder, for us to achieve what Job achieved as far as shunning evil and fearing the Lord, but here we are, and the aggregate evidence points to the contrary.

God has defined evil, He has defined good, He has given us the roadmap and shown us the way in which we must walk, but for whatever reason, we’re reticent to commit ourselves fully to the pursuit of Him as Job was.

Romans 1:20-21, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

We tend to overcomplicate things and then pretend they are untenable because we have made a mess of a once simple premise. The Word tells us that if we knock, He will open. If we seek Him, we will find Him. If we cry out, He will answer. Yet, to hear some men tell it, you need to balance on your head while reciting Psalm 119 by heart in the middle of a tornado in order to get God’s attention. It can’t be as simple as glorifying God, desiring to know Him, and walking in His ways. If it were as simple as all that, there would be no need for the endless parade of courses on offer promising to teach you how to access God’s favor, obtain the keys to the kingdom, unleash your prosperity thinking, or bind and loose in the unseen realm. If there were any substance to these things, I wouldn’t have a problem, but the reality is that they’re nothing more than funnels to the next course that will likely come with an extra zero attached compared to the previous one.

It’s like these gurus you run across who teach you how to make a fortune from a dime if you buy their fifty-dollar course, and once you’ve bought it, you realize it’s just a sales pitch for an in-person group coaching session that’ll set you back a thousand bucks. Whether you decide to go further down the rabbit hole is up to you, and even if you don’t, they still have your Ulysses S. Grant tucked away in their wallet.

God sees what men fail to see. He values what men dismiss. What stands out to Him is purity of heart and a desire for more of Him. You can’t impress God by trying to impress Him. You impress Him by walking humbly, circumspectly, and obediently in His will, picking up your cross, and daily growing in Him.   

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.