Job XXXVIII

 The devil is shameless. Even when he knows he’s been beaten, even when he knows he’s lost, he doubles down and continues with his machinations in the hope that he can sway the faithful and bring them harm. Empathy is as foreign to him as algebra is to a pet hamster, and he does not seek to tamp down his hatred of God’s people. When it suits him, he will attempt to mask it, hide it, or slip a sheep mask over his wolf snout, but as far as wanting to change, there is no desire for such things.

Satan pulled no punches when it came to Job, yet through it all, Job did not sin with his lips. Pressure reveals the true character of a man. When he gets blindsided, what’s in his heart flows forth from his lips. We’ve all seen exchanges between people who seem affable and cool as cucumbers get needled to the point of letting their mask slip, then the claws come out in quick fashion, and the things that come out of their mouth are wholly antithetical to the image they tried to project. Job did not sin with his lips because he had God in his heart. It is a lesson well worth learning, given that we see the tailspins some individuals go into and the things they say they later apologize for but, in the heat of the moment, fail to control.

Job was at his most vulnerable. He was likely still processing all that had happened to him, mourning, grieving, dealing with the pain of his boils, then his wife all but calls him a fool for holding on to his integrity and suggesting he’d be better off dead.

It is said you can only push a man so far. In Job’s case, he could be pushed no further. Satan had been commanded to spare his life, and this was the only reason Job was still breathing, but as far as living, far from it. Being alive and living are two different things. You’re technically alive if you’re drawing breath, but if you’re laying on a pile of ashes, pain wracking your body, it’s more akin to surviving than living. It’s a hard thing to imagine, going from being the greatest of all the people of the East one day, then sitting on an ash pile scratching at your boils with a potsherd the next, with your wife being used by the enemy to encourage you to pack it in, curse God, and die.

This is the sort of pressure that turns coals into diamonds, the type of pressure about which stories are told, and the men who persevere through it are seen as heroes of the faith and examples worthy of emulating.

Comfort and ease of life make men soft and given enough time, living a life of ease tends to make one forget that trials, tribulations, and hardships are only a breath away. When the sun is shining, we tend not to appreciate the value of a life vest, but come the storm and the battering waves, come the howling winds and the sheeting rain, we’re quick to strap it on, tighten the fasteners, and prepare for the worst.

Analogously speaking, some have had it so good for so long, and their life preservers have been out of mind for so many years that they failed to notice they’d gotten moldy and rotten, and when they reach for them, they crumble between their fingers. Most men remember God in their times of hardship, but up until that point, they’ve ignored their relationship with Him for so long that when they need Him, they discover He has become little more than a stranger or a long-forgotten acquaintance.

The authenticity of our relationship with God is readily discerned when we hold fast to Him, serve Him, and worship Him during our season of plenty as readily and wholeheartedly as we do in our time of distress. When men run to God only when they need something from Him, it denotes an underlying lukewarmness and an underhanded usury, wherein they don’t spare Him a second thought until they need Him to intervene on some matter or another.

God is beyond being deceived by situational affection. I love you, Lord, now fix this problem for me. But where were you when there were no problems in sight? Where were you when all was well, things were running smoothly, and the focus of your existence was yourself?

You can’t fake loyalty and faithfulness to God. He sees through the charade readily enough. He sees all that resides within the hearts of men, whether true love or duplicity, obedience or feigned allegiance, and nothing is hidden from Him.

The intent of the heart matters. It’s the reason God called David a man after His own heart, even though he was flawed in many ways. David was not a perfect man, far from it. Unlike Job, God never looked upon David and deemed him blameless and upright. However, through all of his ups and downs, David’s singular desire remained to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord and to have a genuine and reciprocal relationship with Him. When David sinned, he repented. When God called him out on his failures, David did not deny it or try to justify it but humbled himself in the sight of the Lord and felt genuine remorse for what he’d done.  

The Word of God serves as both His love letter to mankind as well as an instruction manual for His creation. We have both positive and negative examples, virtues and practices we should strive for, and flaws and shortcomings we should avoid and steer clear of. We have the benefit of aggregate wisdom spanning thousands of years in a handy volume we can carry anywhere and read at any time. It is a grace most don’t appreciate and do not avail themselves of except superficially, taking little account of all the sacrifices made throughout the centuries so that they could possess that book that’s been gathering dust on a side table for months without once being cracked open.

When it stands before God, one day, this generation will be without excuse. Especially those who have lived in freedom to the point that they’ve abused it, taken it for granted, and begun to pine for the shackles others bled and died to be free of. God doesn’t judge on a curve. He judges according to His standard, which is immutable.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.