Job CVII

 Job 8:1-7, “Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: ‘How long will you speak these things, and the words of your mouth be like a strong wind? Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice? If your sons have sinned against Him, He has cast them away for their transgression. If you would earnestly seek God and make your supplication to the Almighty, if you were pure and upright, surely now He would awake for you, and prosper your rightful dwelling place. Though your beginning was small, yet your latter end would increase abundantly.’”

If you thought Eliphaz’s remarks to Job were cutting, Bildad’s words were downright cruel. Being the traditionalist that he was, his take on the matter was that everything that had happened to Job thus far was deserved. He even went so far as to insinuate that Job’s sons had met their demise because they had sinned against God; therefore, He had cast them away for their transgression. Keep in mind that these were Job’s closest friends, men he’d likely known for decades, but as is evident, although they were keen on passing judgment, they lacked compassion of any sort.

Perhaps it was sitting in the dirt for seven days in silence that got to them, but while they sat in perfect health, Job had painful oozing boils to contend with on top of mourning the loss of his ten children and trying to process the loss of everything he owned. Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, had come to comfort him in his time of distress, but their words and actions often added to his suffering rather than alleviating it.

We cannot dismiss the possibility that the words Job’s friends spoke were influenced by some nefarious force, perhaps Satan himself, in an attempt to demoralize him even further. We got the sense that there was a duality of thought as Eliphaz spoke, where he caught himself speaking words intended to wound rather than comfort. Then Bildad comes along, and he holds nothing back, with the opening lines of his discourse being so caustic and acidic as to make one wonder if he considered Job his friend.

It seems as though Bildad was already tiring of Job’s words, even though, given the situation he was in, he had every right to voice his pain and the injustice of it all, whether real or perceived. Had he done something he’d known to have been a sin, then, at least, he would understand the reason this was happening to him, but having had months to go through the entirety of his life, he had yet to find one thing he deemed an offense to God.

That’s a high bar. To go back over all the years of your life and be unable to find a misstep, a mistake, or a situation wherein you fell short of the standard. There’s a reason God deemed Job unique among his contemporaries. It wasn’t something He did offhandedly or rashly. Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil. That couldn’t be said of anyone else living in his generation.

There is a time and place for simple, straightforward explanations. When your kids keep nagging you about why they should be eating broccoli when Sour Patch Kids taste so much better, it’s perfectly fine to tell them that broccoli is good for you and Sour Patch Kids will make your poo glow in the dark. I didn’t think that one through because now they really want to see if they can get their poo to glow in the dark, but the analogy holds nonetheless.

When it comes to life, spiritual battles, trials, hardships, and testing, a simple explanation just isn’t viable. Bildad thought there was, and he even reasoned out that there could be no other explanation save that Job had sinned. Does God subvert judgment? Or does the Almighty pervert justice? Obviously not; therefore, you must have done something, just as your sons must have; otherwise, you wouldn’t be in this pickle.

Psalm 11:3-7, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain coals; Fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.”

And with one Psalm, David blew Bildad’s entire theory, along with the cottage industry of the prosperity gospel, out of the water. The Lord tests the righteous. It is a truth we cannot overlook or circumvent because it’s inconvenient. If we cannot differentiate between testing and judgment, then rather than voice our opinion on a given situation, silence is our best course of action.

God does as He wills, and there is a purpose in all that He does. This truth must be the foundation stone of our faith, and if it is, nothing we encounter in this life; no hardship, trial, or testing we go through will shake us or cause us to crumble into the dust.

Once again, we come full circle as to why doctrine matters. If my expectations of a sovereign God only go so far as having a wish granter here on earth and eternity in paradise for the low, low price of raising a hand in a church setting, then whenever hardship or testing comes, my natural instinct will be to bristle, grow angry, bitter and disillusioned. I was promised this life of glorious prosperity, perfect health, no adversity or trial, and what I’m getting is being steamrolled by life, and even what seemed like easy wins manage to fall apart somehow.

But why can’t God just take my word for it when I promise I’ll be faithful? Why can’t He just bless and prosper me until I die peacefully in my sleep, well over one hundred years old, in my mansion on the hill? It sounds like God has trust issues if He can’t take my word at face value. God also knows that the hearts of men are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. He knows that fair weather fealty is easy to pull off, but when called upon to stand and fight, to go to war or defend the kingdom, the pledge of fealty gets a bit wobbly, and the excuses as to why it’s not the best time to be called upon to sacrifice pour forth like a breached dam.

God tests the righteous and chastens those He loves. If you are being left to your own devices, knowing yourself to be wandering from the light with no correction in sight, rather than a reason for rejoicing or concluding that God doesn’t mind the duplicity after all, it ought to be a reason for deep concern, if not outright fear.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CVI

 Deception can only ever be allowed to take root in a heart when that heart is not fully saturated with the Word of God. Just as pesticide kills weeds, the Word of God kills deception. Even if we have to admit that some dream, or some vision was not from God, eating a slice of humble pie is by far preferable to being judged by God for speaking something He never spoke and attributing it to Him. Sober-mindedness is not an option; it’s a mandate, a command, and something we must strive to be, especially when it comes to spiritual matters. There is certainty, and then there is guesswork. There is revelation, and then there is personal opinion. These concepts cannot be conflated, nor are they interchangeable.

Job was being tormented by dreams and visions, and he assumed they came from God. Assumption is a dangerous playground to spend time in because, whether consciously or subconsciously, our preconceived notions, prejudices, partialities, and preconceptions will come to the fore, attempting to sway us and insisting that this one time, we can ignore what Scripture says because what we think or feel better suits us than what the Bible says. Assume nothing. Verify everything, and use the Word of God as your plumb line, litmus test, and absolute authority in every matter.

Although we have the benefit of the written word, Job didn’t, and after months of torment, night terrors, and demoralizing visions, he assumed they came from God, not understanding the purpose or allowing for the possibility that there was a nefarious third party at work. We can look our noses down on Job and insist that we would have proceeded differently, but all of us have been guilty of blaming God for something we did to ourselves with our own two hands and trying to circumvent accountability by insisting it was the devil rather than our lack of self-control. The devil didn’t make you eat the chocolate cake! You drove yourself to the store, put the cake in your cart, paid for it, drove back home, and proceeded to devour it in one sitting. Even though the box said there were fifteen servings, we all know that’s arbitrary.

Don’t blame God for what the devil does, and don’t credit the devil for what God does. When we fall into this snare, we tend to project an image of needless cruelty on a good and loving God or conclude that the enemy of our soul isn’t so bad after all, just misunderstood.

Job 7:17-21, “What is man, that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart on him, that You should visit him every morning and test him every moment? How long? Will You not look away from me, and let me alone till I swallow my saliva? Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, so that I am a burden to myself? Why then do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and You will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be.”

When we falsely attribute a season of testing to punishment of some kind, self-recrimination is a given. What did I do? When did I do it? It must have been something grievous since I am suffering, but I can’t think of anything. Still, there must have been something; otherwise, why am I going through what I’m going through?

It took months for Job to come to this place, but he arrived here nevertheless. Given enough time, without proper understanding, we all arrive at the same spot. Again, because it’s so important and relevant, Job did not have the benefit of Scripture to bring him an understanding of the possibility that this could be something other than God’s punishment. He felt as though God was targeting him, and he wanted some understanding.

Why? Why is this happening to me, and if the reason was a transgression, why do You not pardon it and take away my iniquity? How long must I suffer? Should not the punishment be commensurate with the crime, and if I’ve committed a crime or some offense, could I not be made aware of what it was? At least then, I’d understand.

Imagine if every time you sat down to take a test, you got all the answers in advance. It wouldn’t be a test, would it? This is why faith is so crucial. It gives you the strength to press on, persevere, and endure, even when the why isn’t clear. As long as I know the God I serve, as long as I know that His mercies are new every morning, and as long as I know He is a good Father, the why becomes irrelevant. This faith is not just a belief but a source of strength and comfort in the midst of trials.

If you have searched your heart and know that your singular desire has been to walk circumspectly and grow ever more into the image of the risen Christ, then whatever valley you may be traversing, know that it will have a good end. Your faith will ostensibly mature, your spiritual man will ostensibly grow, and you will come to understand the Father in a far deeper fashion than you did before your testing came. This growth is not just a possibility but a promise that you can hold onto in the midst of your trials.

But that’s just an anecdotal conclusion based on personal experience. One may be anecdotal, but if everyone who goes through a trial experiences the same growth once they’ve persevered through it, it’s no longer anecdotal; it’s the expected outcome of something based on the aggregate data available. If everyone who grabs hot coal gets burned, the evidence that hot coal burns isn’t anecdotal any longer but a settled fact.

We do our best to circumvent the reality that God’s ways are to be trusted, not understood, because no one likes being left in the dark and having to guess at why they’re going through their valley of suffering.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CV

 Job saw in part, and he understood in part. He had no knowledge of Jesus or what He would ostensibly do in order to redeem mankind and reconcile humanity to God. If in his limited understanding he was able to attain blamelessness and uprightness, we who are privy to the Christ and all He has done for us, we who have limitless resources regarding salvation at our fingertips, we who have the written Word, have no excuse for not pressing in, growing in Him, knowing Him, and being faithful to the end.

If only we could learn patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, love, and self-control from books or workshops. We know what the fruits of the Spirit are, but they are not acquired simply by being aware of them or by some intense concentration exercises. They are birthed in us by the process of daily crucifying the old man and putting to death the deeds of the flesh. It is an exhaustive, often painful process, and not something that happens overnight or without exertion on our part.

It is a war within one’s own mind and heart, wherein we wrench ourselves from the comforts of the status quo and take a step of faith into that new life where Christ is King and Lord over all that we are, all that we do, all that we desire, and all that we pursue. There’s the easy way, then there’s the right way, and the right way isn’t easy, at least as far as the flesh is concerned. Not only are we starving the flesh of the things it previously reveled in, but we are actively mortifying it. The flesh will resist, just as anything that understands the existential nature of the battle raging within will, and if we show the flesh mercy or give it an inch, it will take a mile and drag us back to the dungeon and shackles from which we were set free.

Job 7:11-16, “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak with the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. Am I a sea, or a sea serpent, that You have set a guard over me? When I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint,’ Then You scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions so that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my body. I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone, for my days are but a breath.’”

By this point, Job was no longer addressing Eliphaz; he was addressing God. After months of suffering, his entire outlook had darkened, having come to the point of seeing no reason for living, no hope for redress, and no silver lining in the endless night of his torment. Part of him wanted to restrain his tongue. However, it had come to the point that he needed to speak with the anguish of his spirit, to release the pressure, to verbalize what he had been internalizing for months, and to try to process his current state.

There are those who speak their pain the moment they feel it and those who bottle it up to the point that they feel like they are going to explode. I must confess, I fall in the camp of the latter, not because of any misplaced sense of masculinity or because men shouldn’t cry, but because it’s my nature. You take life as it comes, rejoice when there is no pain, and grit your teeth and press on when there is. There’s something to be said for stoicism in the face of adversity, but everyone has their breaking point, the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back even though a camel is sturdy enough to carry supersized Western tourists through the desert without missing a beat.

The danger in bottling up your emotions and pushing down your hurt is that there is a good likelihood of overacting to something insignificant in a wholly unjustified manner because of all the pent-up emotions you’ve been trying to keep caged. When that moment comes, it will likely be toward someone who had nothing to do with the roiling sentiments you’ve been trying to suppress. They’ll just be a convenient outlet and likely undeserving of the flood of emotions they’re about to get drowned in because the dam broke.

Job had been bottling it up for months on end, and with each passing day, his outlook on the future as it related to him as an individual grew ever more stark. Time had taken its toll, and we see Job going from saying shall we indeed accept good things from God and shall we not accept adversity, to saying, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

Months had passed, and Job was still in the dark as to why all of this was happening to him. His health wasn’t getting any better, and to top it all off, he was having terrifying dreams and visions he assumed were from God but which were not. Satan had been given free reign over Job, allowed to do his worst except for taking his life, and the dreams and visions that assailed him were another layer in the enemy’s plan to compel Job to relinquish his integrity and surrender his faith.

Just because God allows something, it does not necessarily mean He is the originator of it. By the same token, just because one has a dream or a vision, it does not mean it was God inspired. This is why we must be ever cautious with what we deem revelation, whether in dream form or vision, and take the time to confirm that it was from God and not the product of our own machinations or, worse still, the enemy’s attempt at deception.

The easiest way to know if something did not originate from God is if what was received contravenes or contradicts Scripture. You don’t even have to ask for confirmation or pray for a sign as to whether the dream or vision was from God; you know that it wasn’t because God will neither refute dispute nor undermine His Word.

Far too many, it seems, are so excited about the prospect of being labeled a seer or a prophet that they don’t take the time to apply this all-important litmus test. When they are inevitably called on the carpet for speaking something contrary to the Word, chances are they’ll double down, reject the correction, and imply that their revelation is above Scripture. In such cases, your best course of action isn’t to back away slowly but to run at full speed, as fast and as far as your legs will take you.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CIV

 Job 7:6-10, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life is a breath! My eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be. As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave does not come up. He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore.”

In every situation we are confronted with, especially in the arena of faith, we can either focus on the strength of our adversary or the omnipotent power of our defender. That’s not to say we should dismiss our adversary altogether or insist he has no power or ability, but we must juxtapose that reality with the power and ability of the One who stands with us and keeps us from stumbling.

As faithful servants of the one true God, we must strike a balance between understanding that our enemy is real, he seeks to devour and is set on our demise, and the reality that the God we serve is able to sustain us, strengthen us, and give us the wherewithal to come through any situation victorious if only we cling to Him and trust Him to guide our steps.

When we insist that we possess enough strength in and of ourselves to stand against the enemy without God by our side, without His presence and aid, is when we get in trouble, and a seemingly little thing becomes insurmountable because we thought we could overcome it of our own volition rather than by the blood of the Lamb.

The fierceness with which the enemy attacks is meant to stir fear in our hearts. Fear then makes us react contrary to God’s purposes, oftentimes irrationally, and we find ourselves battling against the enemy before us and the fear within us, which blooms and grows like a flame at any gust of wind. The only time fear gets a foothold in our hearts is when we do not look upon a given situation through spiritual eyes but rather through physical ones. In the physical, there will always be situations that seem insurmountable, that seem so overwhelming as to cause us to not even raise our shield or our sword, thinking the battle lost before it’s begun, but in the spiritual, the reality of God’s presence becomes a strength and a reason for courage and boldness.

When Elisha’s servant went out and saw that horses and chariots surrounded the city, fear overtook him, and his reaction was one of trepidation, “Alas, my master! What shall we do?” was his only question, the subtext being that there was no way they could resist the enemy, there was no avenue of escape, and the best course of action would be to surrender, and hope for mercy from the enemy.

Elisha, however, perceived the situation through spiritual eyes, and rather than acquiesce to the fear that was coming off his servant in waves, he prayed that his servant’s eyes might likewise be open so that he could see the situation was not untenable, the battle was not lost, and hope still remained a viable refuge. It wasn’t misplaced hope or wishful thinking; the reality of the horses and chariots of fire around Elisha were real; the servant just didn’t have the eyes to see it.

Once his eyes were opened to the spiritual reality of the moment, and he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha, the servant understood that it was not they who were in the minority even though they were two men standing against an army.

In moments of trial and testing, it’s easy to forget who’s on our side, and as such, we begin to entertain the idea that all is lost, allowing despondency to settle over us like a wet blanket, smothering our faith in the God we serve. For all of his uprightness and blamelessness, Job had allowed this mindset to divert his gaze from the God he served, and now the only thing he saw was his eventual demise, his death, and the reality that soon he would no longer be.

He considered his lot; he saw the circumstance he was currently in, and the only avenue of escape he saw for himself was the grave. Thankfully, even when we are faithless, He remains faithful because God cannot deny Himself.

We tend to idolize those who came before us, seeing them as more than mere men. Due to the prism through which we see them, we tend to adopt an inferiority complex, thinking we could never achieve similar results as them when it comes to a relationship with God, until we realize they were flesh and blood men and women just like you and me who had their seasons of hardship, desperation, trial, and despondency, only to endure and persevere through them not in their own strength, but by clinging to the One who gives strength.

It’s not that we can’t replicate the faithfulness, tenacity, or intimacy of those who came before us; it’s that most today are unwilling to pay the price in order to acquire these things. The one common denominator of all who came before, who are seen as heroes of the faith, is that they surrendered all to God. There was nothing they held back, nothing they retained control over, no area of their lives they were reticent to surrender that they might know God. If we hold anything back, by definition, we are not fully His.

Philippians 3:7-11, “But what things were gain to me, these things I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

In his current understanding, Job believed that he who goes down to the grave does not come up. With the advent of Christ, His death, burial, and resurrection, we know that we too may attain what Job deemed impossible, which lends those of this generation, and all the generations that have come and gone since Jesus, a new layer of hope, that we too will one day rise, just as He rose.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CIII

 Job 7:1-5, “Is there not a time of hard service for man on earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hired man? Like a servant who earnestly desires the shade and like a hired man who eagerly looks for his wages, so I have been allotted months of futility, and wearisome nights have been appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, “When shall I arise, and the night be ended?” For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn. My flesh is caked with worms and dust; my skin is cracked and breaks out afresh.”

While the destruction of everything he had, including his ten children, came in quick succession, Job’s physical suffering was a long, protracted, and drawn-out thing. We don’t have to guess at it or assume; it’s plainly written in the text, and his ordeal, by this point, had been going on for months. Although the pain of loss may not have been as fresh on his mind these months later, the torment he suffered in the flesh grew incrementally worse, to the point that his flesh was now caked with worms and dust, and his skin cracked and broke out afresh.

The night itself brought no solace. There was no rest, no blissful slumber for a few hours where he could descend into the land of dreams. He tossed till dawn, and the nights were wearisome to him. The length and depth of Job’s suffering are essential to understand for two main reasons. First, it gives weight to his desire to be done with it all, to have a finality to his struggle, and to go back to the dust of the earth. There are times and situations where death is not the worst thing that can happen but rather seen as a grace. I realize that sounds harsh, but having been by the bedside of enough souls who were languishing in abject pain for months on end, I can attest that when the time came for them to shuffle off this mortal coil, they saw it as a blessing.

Just as we have no choice as to when we enter the scene, we have no choice as to when we exit. It’s becoming ever more popular for individuals to decide for themselves the when and how of their exit from this life, but this neither makes it right nor biblical. Even with his flesh caked with worms and dust, his skin breaking out afresh, being unable to sleep, wallowing in misery, and desiring to die, Job never once entertained the thought of doing the deed himself or circumventing the sovereignty of God just because it would put an end to his pain.

The second all-important truth we discover from Job’s travails is that the imagery of our enemy walking about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour is not exaggeration or hyperbole. There is no mercy, sympathy, or kindness in our foe. His heart is not moved by your suffering or mine; rather, he revels in it, hoping that it will be the means by which he can displace our faith and trust in God or sow the seeds of bitterness and despair in our hearts. He is a cruel taskmaster even to those who serve him, for their destruction is assured, and the road to it is paved with untold pain and privation.

I have yet to meet a happy or contented addict. I’ve met quite a few former addicts who were able to leave the shackles of their old life behind and embrace the freedom that is Christ, but as far as those currently surrendered to addiction, not one. Their stories are simultaneously unique and eerily similar. Even if they started on different rungs of the societal ladder, with varying degrees of means at their disposal, they all ended up in the same place, at the bottom, wondering how they’d gotten there, having destroyed their lives, families, livelihoods, and any semblance of joy in the single-minded quest of satisfying their compulsion.

To top it all off, those to whom Job might have looked for comfort turned out to be less than comforting. It’s one thing when strangers let you down, disappoint you, or fall short of your expectations; it’s another when friends do it. It’s a more stringent kind of pain, one that can only be understood when you’re on the receiving end of it, especially when it seems that those you deemed friends turn on you and choose to believe the worst possible explanation rather than reason out the situation based on the prior friendship they had with you.

I’ve always been an introvert. Being a social butterfly has never been in my wheelhouse, and I think that spared me the disillusionment of fake friends for the most part, but I’ve had my share of experiences when it comes to ministry and trusting people who turned out to be untrustworthy, and it stings. I’ve thought about why the sting is so pronounced when the blow comes from one you deemed a friend rather than a stranger, and I believe it’s because while you have to deal with being stabbed in the back, you’re also trying to reason out how you could have been so foolish, how you couldn’t see the telltale signs, and how you allowed yourself to be blindsided so thoroughly.

Job even reminded his friends that he hadn’t sent out telegrams or asked them to visit; he never asked them to bring something to him or deliver him in any matter, and although it’s commendable that they came and sat with him for seven days, their attitude toward their friend and their assertion that he had sinned was pouring salt on an already open, and painful wound.

Those who bear the scars of life have come to understand the truth in Solomon’s musing, that there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, who will never be absent, indifferent, cold, or callous, who will give wise counsel, and even carry you when you are weary. Lean on Him, trust in Him, and follow Him, for He will lead you in the paths of righteousness and make you to lie down in green pastures.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job CII

 Job 6:24-30, “Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; cause me to understand where I have erred. How forceful are right words! But what does your arguing prove? Do you intend to rebuke my words, and the speeches of a desperate one, which are as wind? Yes, you overwhelm the fatherless, and you undermine your friend. Now therefore, be pleased to look at me; for I would never lie to your face. Yield now, let there be no injustice! Yes, concede, my righteousness still stands! Is there injustice on my tongue? Cannot my taste discern the unsavory?”

Some people speak out of ignorance, regurgitating snippets of conversations they overhear or contextually misplaced headlines they read either because they want to seem more intelligent than they are or they’re trying to impress somebody. It’s akin to the meme that’s been floating around where two men are discussing space travel and lamenting the fact that we could never land on the sun because it’s too hot when someone chimes in, “Why don’t we try going when it’s dark?”

A handful of politicians come to mind who seem to be suffering from diarrhea of the mouth, needing to have an opinion about everything, wanting to seem like specialists in every field, only to deliver such vapid word salads as to make them seem poetic. Still, this malady is by no means exclusive to politicians. Many church folk seem to have gotten in on the act, and some of the things their machinations produce are truly a wonder to behold.

Then there are those who speak from a position of knowledge, of having acquired and attained understanding but taking what they’ve acquired and reallocating the original intent to bolster their own positions or prejudices. When the Word tells us that to whom much is given much is required, it runs the gamut to every area of life, including knowledge and understanding.

When Job spoke certain things out of ignorance, God did not hold it against him. When his friends spoke certain things from a position of knowledge, God rebuked and reprimanded them. I see this often with mature believers looking down on baby Christians, expecting them to understand the deeper truths of Scripture from the moment their head breaks the surface of the pool they got baptized in.

If you’re expecting a newborn to run a marathon only to find out they can’t, it’s not the baby’s problem; it’s your problem. Your level of expectation exceeds the baby's ability in its current growth cycle, and try as you might to encourage them, chastise them, and do the whole carrot and stick thing, hoping to get them to start sprinting, it will not work. They are incapable of doing what you expect them to do because they have yet to learn to crawl, never mind run.

Even in his current state, having been accused of sin against God by his closest friends, Job was humble enough to allow for the possibility of a blind spot. He was still teachable and implored his friends to show him the error of his ways if there was one. Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; cause me to understand where I have erred. If you know something I don’t, now’s the time to say it. If you have gleaned something I wasn’t privy to, now’s the time to set me straight. Otherwise, the back and forth and arguing proves nothing. It’s pointless.

Looking back on all my years of ministry, one of the few regrets I have is that I didn’t learn the folly of pointless arguments earlier on in life. If we cannot agree that the Word is the final authority, or if you insist that your feelings supersede the Scriptures, I will kindly bow out of the back and forth and continue on my merry way. I could have banked an extra few months of watching sunsets and sunrises had I been wise enough to learn to disengage from fruitless arguments earlier on in life.

Even though Job’s friends had conceded that his righteousness still stood, their inclination was still to assume he had sinned or done something against the will of God so well hidden that they had not seen it. Rather than pursue the course of Occam's razor theory, wherein, in explaining a thing, no more assumptions need be made than are necessary, Job’s friends had concluded that there was something more to it.

The simplest course of action for Job’s friends would have been to conclude that something they had not yet been confronted with and did not fully understand was happening to their friend. Instead, they layered assumption upon assumption, whereby there needed to be something more than what was evident in his life in order to be brought so low. Rather than take things at face value and acknowledge the potentiality that they didn’t know everything, that this may be the exception that proves the rule, Job’s friends went out of their way to explain his situation through the direst prism afforded them, which is that he had sinned.

Far too often, our self-righteousness and overriding need to be right blinds us to the words Jesus spoke in His sermon on the mount, where He said blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

You may not be in Job’s position currently, and for this, you should be thankful, but you may well be in the position of one of his three friends, being called upon to show compassion and grace to someone who is suffering. Do not withhold these things, because it just may be your kind words and your compassionate heart that will see them through the valley of trial. The lessons the book of Job teaches us are layered, and depending on who we’re focused on, we can learn what to do and how to react to adversity in our lives, but also how to react toward those who are currently going through adversity.

Yes, there will be those instances when your compassion will be abused and taken for granted, but that’s not on you; that’s on them. There will be times when you pour yourself out for someone, and they turn around and accuse you of not doing nearly enough. Again, that’s not on you, that’s on them. If I give of my time or my resources as unto the Lord, it is the act itself that He rewards, not what the individual to which I showed compassion does with it. I have no control over what others do with the kindness I show. It is, however, within my ability to show kindness, and I must because it is what the Word calls me to do.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job CI

 The various ways in which God teaches us profound truths should come as no surprise, yet somehow, they still do. For those willing to humble themselves and learn, for those with a teachable spirit, even the most mundane of events in one’s life can have an impact and open our eyes to the undeniable reality that we have not arrived; we don’t know it all, and clinging to Him with all the strength afforded to us is the only means by which we can traverse this life and finish well.

I have what some might construe as a messy closet. I’ve never been a fashionista, so most of my wardrobe consists of t-shirts and shorts, and whenever a load of laundry gets done, I tend to shove them into whatever nook or cranny is available to me.

Since they’re still too young to be left home alone, my wife and I plan our schedules accordingly so one of us is always present. Usually, I give my wife a ten-minute advance notice as to when I’ll be arriving, and her car is already running as I pull into the drive.

Recently, my wife informed me she had a walk-through she couldn’t miss, so I left the office early, got home in time for her to make her appointment, and since it was getting a bit chilly, I went upstairs to rummage through my closet to try and find a sweatshirt, only to find an entire shelf full of my not so fineries on the bedroom floor.

The girls don’t usually get into my things, but as there’s a first time for everything, I called to them, and once they dutifully came, I pointed to the mound of clothes on the floor and asked who’d done it. The synchronicity with which the ‘not me’ chorus began was impressive, and even after I pointed out that they were the only ones in residence, they still denied any culpability. I even went so far as to assure them I wasn’t upset and that there would be no finger-wagging if one of them were to fess up and admit to having ransacked my closet, yet they both continued to insist upon their innocence.

Even though they’re my kids, and I know them as being honest and telling the truth, I still harbored suspicions that either one or both of them had a hand in it, but since it wasn’t something worth pressing them over, I let it go and asked if they’d help me put my clothes back on the shelf, to which they consented.

By the time evening rolled around and we were sitting down to dinner, I’d forgotten all about it until my wife offhandedly said, “I had to go through your closet today. I was looking for a blouse I thought I’d put in there. Sorry about the mess.”

No sooner had my wife finished speaking and I felt eyeballs on me, even though I wasn’t looking in their direction. “Daddy thought we did it,” Malina chimed in, “yeah, we told him we didn’t, but I don’t think he believed us,” Victoria added.

I felt like a slug. They’d told me the truth, and I had no reason not to believe them, yet I’d harbored doubts as to the veracity of their assertions. I apologized to my daughters for assuming something that hadn’t turned out to be true, and I realized how much of a teachable moment that interaction was for me. All pointed to one of them being the culprit, up until my wife added the last piece of the puzzle that clarified the situation.

Jumping to conclusions, especially as to the reason someone is going through a hardship or trial, is likely the worst possible thing we can do when we don’t possess all the relevant information. Job’s three friends had already made up their minds that he had sinned, that he’d done something so foul and odorous as to deserve what was happening to him. Even though Job insisted upon his innocence, his friends would hear none of it.

Until God stepped in and clarified the situation, they lived with the firm conviction that sin was the cause of Job’s troubles, and nothing he said swayed them from their position.

It’s not as though Job didn’t try to convince his friends of his innocence, but once he saw it wasn’t going anywhere, he began to plead his case directly to God. Although Job makes reference to his friends and their remarks and the things they said, Job’s fundamental concern is still God and whether God had anything against him.

If you spend all your time trying to get people to understand you, like you, or be your friend, for the most part, it will be wasted effort with little to show for it. After almost forty years in ministry, I’ve come to realize that the only one whose favor I should garner is God. It’s not a recent realization. It’s something I’ve known for decades now because while men are fickle and inconsistent, God is always there, a present help in times of trouble.

Run to God in your triumphs and defeats. Run to God in your season of plenty as readily as in your season of famine. Run to God when everyone seems to want to be your friend and when the world entire despises you for His name’s sake. Lean on Him, rely on Him, and spend time with Him because prioritizing Him above all else pays eternal dividends.

It may be true that all is vanity in regard to toiling under the sun and laboring to acquire something we can’t take with us to the grave, but it is not the case when it comes to having a relationship with the God of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, the One who formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into Him.

Most things aren’t worth pursuing. They’re not worth the time and effort required to acquire them, and only after we’ve toiled and labored, only after we’ve bled and fought and missed out on life, do we realize that the shiny new car is only so until the first rust spot appears, the McMansion we’ve lusted after isn’t spared woodpeckers and hailstorms just because it’s ours, and that new designer brand shirt is just as susceptible to tomato sauce stains as the one you could’ve gotten for a couple of bucks. What remains is what matters, and the only thing that remains once we are gone from this life is whether we knew Jesus as Lord, King, and Savior of our life.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job C

 Other than being mentioned in the book of Job, nothing more is known about his three friends. Given their words and individual approach to Job’s suffering, one can readily discern that these men were not dullards but rather men of great intellect and wisdom. It’s not a stretch to conclude that between the three, the entirety of what has come to be known as philosophy in our modern age was proffered to Job as an explanation for his suffering, concentrated in the handful of words each of them spoke.

Eliphaz was clearly an empiricist, given to utilitarianism, who insisted that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses. In his discourse, he constantly pointed out the things he’d seen, heard, and experienced as proof positive that what Job was going through was a direct result of something he’d done to displease God. His conclusions were not based on things he’d read but rather on things he’d seen, and the prism through which he saw Job’s condition was one of empiricism. Eliphaz thought in straightforward lines based on lived experience. If this, then that, and it must be so because all I’ve ever witnessed has confirmed the truth of it.

On the other hand, Bildad is what we can readily define as a traditionalist. He is a man for whom history is of paramount importance because learning from history means never repeating the mistakes of the past in the present. History was his forte, and his insistence upon the things which have been a guiding light for the things which are and which will be is evident in his utterances. Others have come before us, as others will follow, and we have not attained the zenith of wisdom by any means. He calls back to the former age and the things discovered by their fathers as a means of explaining Job’s predicament.

Then there is Zophar the Naamathite, a textbook rationalist if ever there was one, who bases the entirety of his discourse on reason and logic rather than a religious belief or emotional subtext. The prism through which he sees Job’s situation is one of causality because, in his mind, there must be a cause for every effect. To Zophar, there will always be a logical, rational, lucid, and analytical reason for why something is happening at any given moment, and to him, Job was no exception. Due to his predisposition toward rationalism, of Job’s three friends Zophar tried the hardest to convince Job that he had sinned because, in his understanding, he saw no other possibility than this.

When the hubris of man collides with the wisdom of God, there can only ever be one clear winner. It won’t even be close. Whether the philosophies of men or their long-held beliefs, they aren’t even in the running when stacked up against the wisdom of God. There are things men suspect; then there are things God knows. There is the wisdom of man, which is nascent on its best day, and then there is the wisdom of God, which dwarfs the most brilliant mind of any age without even trying.

Insisting that we know the mind of God because we attended junior college and have a piece of paper confirming that we’re biblical scholars of world renown when even one such as Job, whom God considered blameless and upright and who sought to know Him all the days of his life wouldn’t make such a claim calls into question whether our estimation of our own understanding isn’t baselessly inflated.

It’s more difficult by far to convince someone who is sure of their position and who believes they have attained all truth that things are not as they seem to their eyes than it is someone who is genuinely and sincerely seeking after truth. It takes less time to write on a blank slate than it does to clear it of preexisting scribblings so that you can write upon it anew.

Those who’ve already determined they know everything they’ll ever need to know are looking for either confirmation of their preconceived notions or an echo chamber where their opinions are spoken back to them by others of like mind. Such individuals detest the idea of iron sharpening iron or having to defend their position biblically and in any meaningful way.

If history has proven anything, it’s that people can be rooted in a particular belief and be genuine in their assertions yet still be wrong because the litmus test isn’t whether or not notable figures agree with us or a given denomination has given the green light to our machinations, but whether God agrees and consents. The whole world can think you’re right, but if God says you’re wrong, you’re wrong, and there’s no two ways about it.

Although all three of Job’s friends sat on different branches of the philosophical tree and made cogent arguments defending their conclusions, although all three were well-educated men who had more than a passing understanding of deeper truths those of their day likely did not possess, ultimately they were wrong because they neither knew the mind of God nor did they have insight into what was truly going on with Job.

If something you feel certain about is contradicted by the Word, your feelings and certainty matter, not a whit. The Word is the final authority in all manners spiritual, and we must defer to it even if it means swallowing our pride and admitting our errors.

Job’s response to Eliphaz was straightforward enough, insisting that to him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, but neither Bildad nor Zophar took the rebuke to heart. I’m hurting over here, and the best you can do is kick dirt in my eye. Perhaps a bit of grace, a bit of kindness, a bit of empathy would be warranted, don’t you think? Nope, you did something; we know you did because that’s the way it’s always been. Cause and effect, buddy, there’s no escaping it. Your suffering is a direct consequence of something you did; you just have to think about it and figure out what it was.

It’s the worst kind of feeling being accused of something you know yourself innocent of, and rather than taking your word for it, the other party doubles down. Through it all, God knows the truth of it, and in His embrace, we find the comfort that may be lacking in friends and family alike.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job XCIX

 Job 6:11-23, “What strength do I have, that I should hope? And what is my end, that I should prolong my life? Is my strength the strength of stones? Or is my flesh bronze? Is my help not within me? And is success driven from me? To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away, which are dark because of the ice, and into which the snow vanishes. When it is warm, they cease to flow; when it is hot, they vanish from this place. The paths of their way turn aside, they go nowhere and perish. The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope for them. They are disappointed because they were confident; they come there and are confused. For now you are nothing, you see terror and are afraid. Did I ever say, ‘Bring something to me’? Or, ‘Offer a bribe for me from your wealth’? Or, ‘Deliver me from the enemy’s hand’? Or, ‘Redeem me from the hand of oppressors’?”

Save for the power of God, which sustains him, no man can hold out indefinitely. Whether in reference to physical torture, psychological torture, or suffering on a scale we can scarcely fathom, every man has a breaking point. Those who have gone through it, come out the other side, and have the scars to show for it can readily pinpoint the moment their strength and determination ended and God’s all-sustaining power took over.

There is a difference between thinking oneself invincible and possessing the knowledge that your invincibility comes from the power residing within you. It’s only men who’ve never shed a drop of blood or suffered a modicum of cruelty at the hands of others who have the temerity to beat their chest and insist that they stand in their own strength rather than God’s and what they’ve been able to accomplish had nothing to do with providence, but their keen ability to connect with people. When we acknowledge that we are walking in His strength and not our own, humility and gratitude will be constant companions on our way to eternity, giving God the glory for every victory, whether great or small.  

I even heard a very popular preacher wax poetic about how he is now a brand, and you can’t judge him based on the criteria you would use judging a country preacher. If the devil can convince you that your strength is enough, you’ve already lost; you just don’t know it yet.

Job had reached the end of his strength; he’d tapped all the reserves, drained every ounce, and now found himself in a contemplative state, concluding that to hope in his own strength would be folly. Even in the midst of his suffering, Job had enough self-awareness to understand that were he to go forward beyond this point; it would not be in his strength or might.

Even the desire to live had fled from him because everyone, including himself, could see his condition worsening, and the inevitability of his demise was so certain that prolonging his life seemed needlessly cruel to his eyes.

Medical minds and other intrepid souls have tried to suss out the malady Job was suffering from by using the symptomology outlined in the book of Job to no avail. Whatever pain cocktail Satan had brewed up was likely the worst his hateful mind could conceive of because he had a goal and wouldn’t let the pain of one man stand in the way of his trying to prove God wrong.

By Job’s own words, they’d all concluded the die had been cast, his life was nearing its terminus, and each new sunrise and sunset held no hope, only pain.

There’s nothing that will put life into perspective like a terminal diagnosis. Even though the clock is running out for all of us since we are temporal creatures in ever-degrading vessels of flesh, being presented with a stopwatch and seeing the minutes tick down makes it real and imminent.

Thankfully, what is absolute with men isn’t so with God. The world and everyone in it could write you off; as long as God hasn’t, there is hope. It’s why we pray for those who are hurting and suffering because we know the power of the God we serve to heal, deliver, and restore.

I can’t begin to count all the situations I’ve been through or been witness to where all seemed lost, and hope was nowhere to be found until God stepped in and did what He does best, which is confound the wise and work together for good what the enemy had intended for evil. There’s nothing like seeing the hand of God delivering you so clearly and undeniably that even your enemies pause to witness your deliverance.

We learn to trust God by walking with Him. Having an abstract knowledge of Him without daily seeking to know Him more is a surefire way to allow doubt to worm its way into our hearts. It’s one thing to see His faithfulness in your life day in and day out and another to hear about it secondhand. Testimonies are all well and good; they help to encourage and show what God can do, but living off the experiences of others is no way to live. What God has done before, He can do again. He is not limited in His power by time, circumstance, or severity of circumstance.

The onus is on us to desire Him above all else. He will answer the cry of our hearts and make Himself known for His desire is one of relationship with His creation. Strive to have the kind of fellowship with Him wherein He will make His presence known in your time of adversity without you having to call or cry out. Strive to have His presence in your life with such consistency that if, perchance, on a given day, it’s not as strong or vibrant, you feel His absence and press in all the more.

It’s hard to understand people who can go weeks and months without having fellowship with God, without talking to Him, being in His presence, and feeling His touch, and not miss it or think nothing is amiss, yet still insist they love God. All you have to do is replace the idea of spending that little, infrequent time with God with your wife or husband to understand how damaging it is to a relationship of any consequence. If I came home once every few weeks, said hi, rummaged through the fridge to see what I could snack on, and then left for another few weeks, it’s doubtful I’d be married for very long.

Daniel was commanded not to pray for thirty days. Many contemporary Christians would shrug their shoulders and conclude that it would not bother them to be absent from God’s presence for a month, but Daniel couldn’t go a day without it. It’s not as though he held out for a week and finally decided he couldn’t be absent from God’s presence any longer. That same day, in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt on his knees three times, prayed, and gave thanks before his God.

God is the source of life. You cannot be absent from His presence for any length of time and insist you still possess it. This is a lesson worth learning for those who diminish the importance of daily prayer and supplication before the Almighty.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

Job XCVIII

 Attempting to place conditions on your affection, worship, or obedience is venal, immature, and sure to leave you spiritually hollow. It’s no better than having a rabbit’s foot you rub for good luck, then once the luck doesn’t materialize, you throw it away because it didn’t do what you hoped it would. We keep trying to convince each other that God cannot exist independently of us. Therefore, His need for our presence in His habitation is far greater than our need for Him in our lives, and we can use that to twist His arm to do our bidding and get our way, even if it be against His will. In case you haven’t heard, God is eternal. He’s been around forever, countless eons since before Adam took his first breath, and will be around long after we take our last, forever, in fact. A God with no beginning and no end is just that. Self-importance is offputting enough on its own. Delusional self-importance is downright stomach-churning.

It’s not about what God will do for you; it’s about what God has already done. He sent His only begotten Son who hung on a cross and died upon it, only to rise on the third day, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

If that’s not enough to deserve your lifelong devotion, then I dare say you don’t understand the value of Christ’s blood and what He did upon that cross. Well, eternal life is all well and good, but what about some sheckles? What about a new car, some straight teeth, and a fully house-trained puppy?

In scope, it’s nowhere near comparable, but it’s like someone giving you the keys to a house you never even allowed yourself to dream of possibly owning, fully paid and furnished, and shrugging your shoulders, you ask if they’re throwing in maid service for life. You have this precious, priceless gift you could never hope to acquire in ten lifetimes, no matter how hard you worked, how much you did, or how much you wanted it, and although it’s within your ability to keep it clean, you’d rather someone else do the elbow work, because you’re a homeowner now, and have a reputation to maintain. You’re only a homeowner due to the grace bestowed to you by God and through what Christ did. Tend to the garden, mop the floors, wash the windows, keep it tidy, and appreciate the fact that an immeasurable blessing has been bequeathed you through no merit of your own.

Far too many people today suffer the consequences of their choices and actions, do nothing to change their trajectory, but expect God to swoop in and fix it all the moment they wave a hand in church. Why should I have to work two jobs when I could win the lottery instead? Why should I have to watch what I eat when I could just pray the calories away?

If what Jesus did on the cross isn’t enough, nothing in this world will ever be enough because you do not possess the ability to assign value to what you’ve already been given. Give a toddler the option between a bar of gold and an empty box, and they’ll likely pick the box because of the varied ways they can play with it. This isn’t hypothetical; I’ve lived it repeatedly, not so much the gold bar, but toys and stuffies I’d buy my daughters only to have them spend an hour straight playing with the box they came in. I’d sit there, biting my tongue and rolling my eyes because I’d just spent ten bucks on a stuffed tiger they barely even glanced at, while the box in which it came was the highlight of the day.

When men dismiss Jesus and His sacrifice, when they undervalue what He did, and overvalue the baubles and worthless dross of this earth, desiring them over Christ, it is a comparable tableau. If we would live out the songs we sing, perhaps we’d get somewhere. All I need is You. You are my heart’s desire; I’m desperate for You, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. If only. Nowadays, it’s likelier that men will sing lies rather than tell them, but they are what they are whether there’s a melody to them or not.

Jesus isn’t someone we identify with or pay lip service to once a week between ten and twelve. He isn’t someone we can relegate to a box in the attic until we have need of Him, or have a problem we require Him to solve. Either He is our all in all, or He is nothing at all. There is no in-between when it comes to surrendering one’s life to Christ. We can’t be playing at being weekend warriors for Jesus while we are doing the enemy’s bidding the rest of the week.

In the olden days, it was common practice that once a fleet of ships reached their destination, they would set fire to their own boats, both eliminating the possibility of retreat and ensuring that they would do their utmost to achieve victory or die in the trying. As children of God, we must possess a similar mindset, wherein we don’t have a backup plan if the whole Jesus thing doesn’t work out, and we don’t have safety nets in case the road gets hard. We commit to the course, we commit to the way, and retreating from the face of the enemy is not a viable option.

Halfhearted commitment will get you dismal results when it comes to your spiritual growth, as is the case with everything else in life. Between someone who shows up to work an hour early and leaves two hours after everyone is gone and someone who’s always five minutes late clocking in, the one who puts in more time and effort will inevitably get more accomplished.

Paul wrote almost 40% of the New Testament while he was being hunted, hounded, imprisoned, and persecuted. The disciples of the early church traveled to the far reaches of the world, not by air or rail, but on rickety ships, the backs of donkeys, and on foot to spread the gospel of Christ. Closer to our modern age, there have been individuals such as George Muller, who cared for 17,000 orphaned children throughout his ministry, established 117 schools offering Christ-centered education, traveled to 42 countries, and gave away 280,000 Bibles, all without the internet, telephones, combustible engines, or public relations firms.

What’s our excuse? What can we possibly say that will justify our indifference, apathy, and disinterest? The cold, hard truth is that it’s less about ability or resources than it is about desire and willingness. If the work of the kingdom is your priority, you will find a way to do the work of the kingdom. If it’s not, you won’t.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job XCVII

 I’ve flown enough in my life to conclude that waiting is the hardest part. Whether you have a five-hour layover somewhere or rush to be at the airport two hours before your flight only to discover that it’s gotten delayed another three, it’s not the flying that’s cumbersome; it’s the waiting for something to happen.

The worst ones are those that keep delaying your departure time, keeping you in limbo, increasing your expectation that thirty more minutes of sitting next to the person who smells like head cheese and garlic in the waiting area is all it will take, only for someone to come on the loudspeaker and inform the gaggle of impatient souls that their departure was pushed another two hours.

The last flight we took together as a family got pushed back no less than four times, and what was supposed to be a five pm arrival ended up being a little after two in the morning. After the first two times, trying to instill patience in my daughters or insisting that this time they weren’t lying like they had the other two times became a pointless exercise. Sometimes, all you can do is wait. It’s annoying, irritating, uncomfortable, and draining, but it’s the only option afforded to you, and no matter how much you balk, scoff, or roll your eyes, it won’t make it go any faster. Getting home is not an option; it’s a necessity, and in order to get home, you must suffer the indignity of being told that a few more hours of sitting in an airport shouldn’t be that offputting.

This is the type of limbo Job found himself in, wherein God had not crushed him utterly and taken his life, but the life he currently had could hardly be called that. Time is a constant, yet depending on what you’re doing at any given moment, a day can seem like a breath or stretch on for ages. How we perceive the passing of time depends on whether or not what we are doing is cumbersome or enjoyable.

If I sit down to write, an hour can seem like a few minutes, but if I’m helping my daughter with her math homework, who is currently traversing the minefield known as fractions, a handful of minutes can seem like an eternity. When time seems to stretch, the intrusive thoughts attempt to burrow their way into one’s mind. What if I’ve forgotten the basics of fractions? It has been a minute since I had to sit in class and go through it, after all. What if I give her the wrong answer, and when the teacher asks why she hadn’t worked out the problem, my daughter spills the beans and informs the teacher I was the mastermind behind her failed attempt at getting the right answer?

It’s one thing to be informed that your child is failing math. It’s another to be informed that they’re failing math, knowing you’re the one who’s been doing their homework for them. What does that say about your mental wherewithal? For the sake of full disclosure, no, I’m not doing my daughter’s homework for her. She works out the problems, and I confirm whether she has the right answer or not. That I use the calculator on my phone to confirm it is a shame I will never live down, but we’re all gifted in different areas, and fractions is not one of mine.

By this point, Job was weary. He’d been in this state of subsisting for so long that death would have been a comfort to him and something he’d requested of God. Oh, that it would please God to crush me, that he would loose His hand and cut me off! At least then, there would be a finality to the pain and torment he suffered. At least then, there would be an end.

I can’t say I’ve ever been in such a mental state; then again, few men have gone through what Job went through in mankind’s history. It’s one thing to suffer persecution at the hands of others. You know who’s doling out the suffering, and you know what you’re suffering for. Understanding the purpose of something makes it easier to endure. If you know the ‘why,’ the knowledge of it will fortify your resolve and give you strength you never knew you had. Job, however, was ignorant of what had taken place between God and Satan or that he’d been given free rein to be sifted. All he knew was that he’d lost his possessions, position, progeny, and bodily health, yet had no explanation for it. He knew himself not to have concealed the words of the Holy One, regardless of what Eliphaz had implied, and he was ready for it to be over.

The thing about being sifted or tested is that you don’t get to determine the length of time it will last or its severity. You can only determine whether or not you will cling to God, remain faithful, and defer to His sovereignty in all things. If we had it our way, none would be tested, none would be tried, and none would be sifted. It would be akin to the modern-day narrative of raising one’s hand, saying a prayer, and enjoying smooth sailing and sunny skies for the rest of our days.

Whether or not we possessed true faith would be irrelevant, as would whether or not we’d established our hearts to follow Christ no matter the cost. The only problem is that this is neither true faith nor is it the true way. There’s no such thing as a pampered soldier. You can’t claim to be a warrior if you’ve never trained for war, nor can you claim to be a true follower of Christ if your commitment to Him extends only insofar as He blesses you coming and going. Your devotion, faithfulness, and obedience are not conditional upon whether or not God gives you something you really want or someone you really desire. A servant does not make demands of his master, and he does not cease to serve if his master does something contrary to his desires.

To hear some tell the tale, it is God who is subservient to us, not we to Him, and this mindset is the root of rebellion that seems to have dug deep within the hearts and minds of many within the church. God isn’t looking for my consent or yours. There is not one instance within the entirety of scripture where God came to someone and said, “Hey buddy, do you think I should do this? I’m struggling here; give me your input since I value it more than my inclinations.”

When we see ourselves as more than bondservants of Christ and servants of God, entitlement becomes a given, and when what we feel we’re entitled to doesn’t materialize, we grow bitter and resentful for not getting our way.

Job knew that God was sovereign. He understood that He does as He wills, and even though Job would have preferred to be done with it all, God had other plans and denied his request.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job XCVI

 Job 6:1-10, “Then Job answered and said: ‘Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea – therefore my words have been rash. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me. Does the wild donkey bray when it has grass, or does the ox low over its fodder? Can flavorless food be eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the white of an egg? My soul refuses to touch them; They are as loathsome food to me. Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant me the thing I long for! That it would please God to crush me, that He would loose His hand and cut me off! Then I would still have comfort; Though in anguish I would exult, He will not spare me; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.’”

There’s what men think, then there’s what God knows. As is often the case, what men might think about a particular situation may not be what God knows about it, so when we are faced with the opinions of friends and strangers alike, our only recourse is to plead our case before God.

After Eliphaz had his say, it was Job’s turn to respond, and the first words he spoke were an attempt to try and get his friends to understand the depth of his pain, the depth of his grief, and the depth of his anguish. They could not know the sorrow of his heart because they’d never been in a comparable situation. Intellectually speaking, you understand the feeling of loss when someone loses a loved one or when their world crumbles around them, but until you’re the one going through it, it’s an intellectual exercise rather than the feeling that your heart is being raked over hot coals while being pricked with sharpened bamboo shoots without any relief in sight.

When I was younger, I used to get frequent gout attacks. For those with gout, you know that the pain can be excruciating, and although friends and family alike understood that I was experiencing pain, they could not fathom the level of pain because they’d never had to suffer the like. At first, they’d try to sympathize, but as they saw me hobble from one area of the house to the other, cringing and gritting my teeth, they couldn’t help but wonder if I was leaning into it, exaggerating the pain because surely nothing could hurt so bad as to make one’s eyes well up with tears from simply standing up.

While Eliphaz was speaking, Job had time to reflect, and although he found merit in his words, he began his response with an attempted explanation of why he was in the state he was in. Oh, that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it on the scales! For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea – therefore my words have been rash. You think you know what I’m going through, but you really don’t was the summation of Job’s response, for if my calamity were laid on the scales, it would be heavier than the sand of the sea. My words may have been rash, but given the situation, they are justified, Job proffered.

It’s nigh impossible to put pain into words. Poetic as Job’s words may have been, he still hadn’t scratched the surface of the tumult in his heart, layer upon layer of pain and grief that continued unabated.

The book of Job is no less than an existential drama, played out before our eyes, and at first glance, it would seem Job had given in to hopelessness and desperation, but it is not so. Yes, he stared into the bottomless vortex of despair, and save for his faith in the God he served, he would have likely delved headfirst, but faith sustained him, even if marred, bruised, and broken as he was.

To expect someone to go through what Job went through and be wholly unaffected is unrealistic. If this had been the case, and if he’d brushed everything that had happened to him off as if nothing had happened, one would likely question his sanity, if not his humanity. It’s not a sin to feel loss; it’s not a sin to mourn, but we cannot give in to despair and despondency no matter how great a loss we may be feeling at the moment. Job felt despair but did not surrender to it. He felt despondency but did not relent in keeping his faith and hope firmly tethered to God.

It’s easy to trust God when everything is going your way. It’s easy to place our trust in Him when every choice we make turns out to be the right one and every task we undertake is met with great success. The challenge, and something that can only be accomplished by having fellowship and a well-established relationship with Him, is maintaining faith and trust when everything goes sideways. The hard part is concluding that though He slays me, yet I will trust Him and meaning it.

The answer to whether or not we will continue to trust God when everything is crumbling around us when all seems dim and hopeless, is contingent on the level of intimacy we have with Him, whether we spent the time we were given building up our most holy faith, and growing in Him. Trust is a process. It doesn’t materialize overnight. I trust God more now than I did five years ago, and I trusted him more five years ago than I did ten years before that. It is because He has proven His love, His goodness, His faithfulness, and His kindness that my trust in Him is established and cemented, and I would wager if given more time on this earth, I will trust Him more with each passing day due to the aggregate experiences through which He has shown His power and presence.

If you can’t trust God in the little things, or during the seasons of plenty, chances are you will not trust Him in the big things, or when the world descends into a permanent tailspin from which it can’t course correct. Your actions today will determine the level of your faith tomorrow. Knowing this, the paramount question we must answer in all that we do is whether or not the action itself is helping to build our faith and trust in God. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.