Job XXVI

 Anyone who claims to have been in God’s presence without showing the requisite reverence is lying through their teeth about their alleged experience. Yes, I could have been nicer in my wording, but at some point, we have to be grown-ups and understand that sometimes harsh words must be spoken in order to avoid calamity in the future.

Perhaps it’s because we roll our eyes and brush off such claims and don’t confront them outright that those making them feel emboldened to continue in their foolishness. With each retelling, it gets more grandiose, and those given to believing fables stand in awe and astonishment of foolish people making foolish claims as though what they imagined in their fevered burrito dream actually had some basis in fact.

You’re telling me your heart went pitter-patter more profusely when you saw some aging musician strolling through the airport than when you stood in the presence of God? Meeting some D-list actor or some semi-famous individual gave you the goosebumps more than sitting on God’s lap, as you claim? Got it. Thanks. I think I’ll pass.   

Isaiah had a vision of God in His majesty, and a vision was all it took for him to declare that he was a man undone. If the presence of God does not reveal our own shortfalls and shortcomings, if His righteousness does not compel us to see our own unrighteousness more clearly, then we should be skeptical of the entire experience.

Brother Mike, that sounds a bit harsh. Are you saying? Yes, I am. An increasing number of people are trying to bolster their own authority by claiming to have seen God face-to-face, and the absence of reverence, awe, and veneration is the first clue that they are lying. You’re not on par with God, no matter how much of your donor’s money you spent on lip fillers and Botox injections.

Man’s reaction to glimpsing an image of the glory of God can be nothing less than reality-shattering. You can’t help but be humbled to the point of being undone. Isaiah had been a prophet of the Lord and had received prophetic words before his vision of God’s glory. It was not as though he’d been anything less than a servant of God before that experience, yet here he was declaring he was a man of unclean lips. His righteousness, no matter how close to the mark, was as dross when compared to God’s glory, and he was humble enough to understand this.

Likewise, Job knew the God he served. He knew of His majesty and accepted His lordship over his life, and as such, with all that befell him, he neither sinned nor charged God with wrong. If you hang around church folk long enough, you’re bound to hear someone say that God has wronged them. When you ask how so, the answer usually revolves around them not getting something they really wanted, whether a promotion, a new car, or straight teeth. You juxtapose this mindset with what Job lost while still maintaining his blamelessness and not charging God with wrongdoing, and you realize we have a long way to go in both understanding the nature of God, the dynamics of our relationship with Him, and the type of servanthood required for God to see us as blameless and upright.

Job didn’t go to seminary; he didn’t have a doctorate in hermeneutics, yet he possessed the existential realization that we end as we begin. Naked, we come from our mother’s womb, and naked, we return there, some sooner, some later. Knowing that our end will be as our beginning, the only thing that should matter is the eternity that follows. Do we know God? Do we serve God? Have we been born again and washed clean by the blood of Christ that we may be where He is?

The evil day is just that. It is a season, temporary, passing, and with an established expiration date. Eternity is forever, beyond our minds to comprehend, yet so many choose to focus on the fleeting and passing things of this earth while ignoring the reality of time without end once they are gone. Existence transcends this present life, and we would do well to remember this reality, for with each passing day, we are that much closer to it.  

Job was a man whose priorities were well-established and hierarchically correct. God first. His will first. His lordship first. Then everything else. If everything was taken, it was the Lord’s to take, for He was the one who gave, and even in the midst of heartbreak, disaster, tragedy, mourning, and loss, blessed be the name of the Lord.

Oh, to have such a faith, such a clarity of purpose as to look upon the ashes of the life we’ve built and still glory in the God we serve. To look upon the devastation of having everything snatched away and not only keep from sinning but worshipping God in the midst of it.

Blessings are always easier to accept than testing. As those who understand the sovereignty of God, however, we must thank God for the testing just as readily as we do for the blessing. Granted, it’s easier said than done, and oftentimes, in the midst of the testing, the last thing on our minds is to come before God with thankful hearts, but we must nevertheless do so because even in the seasons of sorrow that come upon us His love and goodness are ever-present.

We don’t always understand why some hardship or tragedy befalls us, but we can always trust that God does. Knowing He is a good Father gives us the strength to carry on, persevere, endure, and continue to worship Him in spirit and truth.

Job exalted God in the midst of his trial, and from the outside looking in, one could rightly conclude that he’d lost the thread. The world will never understand how you can have joy in the midst of sorrow or peace in the midst of tumult because they do not know the God you serve. Therefore, their ability to understand your reaction to suffering is nonexistent. They will likely deem you mad with grief upon seeing you worshipping God in your trial, but you know something they never will unless they, too, come to the saving knowledge of Christ: life is but a flicker, a breath, a drop of water in a raging sea, then comes eternity. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.