Job XCI

 God does not attempt to perfect those who do not know Him. They are under judgment. Why would He offer such a priceless gift to those who despise Him? Why would He attempt to mold someone into the image of His Son if they are ignorant of Him?

Those who do know Him, who desire and hunger after Him, are continually being pruned because God’s love for us is such that He desires us to be complete in Him, in His image, walking in His authority, with no impurities or imperfections nesting in the corners of our hearts. God is our heavenly father, and He wants the best for us. What we define as best might not be what He sees as best. Just as any earthly father will discipline, mold, and teach his progeny things that may seem difficult at first glance but that will reap a lifelong reward once they are mastered, God grows us so we learn to walk by faith, daily stretching us and getting us out of our comfort zone so as to not remain static ever reliant on milk.

We grew up poor. By we, I mean my brothers and I. My mom worked odd jobs cleaning homes, my dad worked two jobs, and the first few years were difficult to the point of desperation. When you have the Mexican family in the adjoining apartment bringing you a block of government cheese, you kind of know where you stand.

I wish I could say that my childhood didn’t mark me, but it did. One of the most vivid memories I have of our first few months in California was walking to the local grocery store, seeing the aisles stock full of all manner of things, wanting to fill the cart with cookies and cereal, and my mom counting out quarters, nickels, and dimes hoping we had enough for a gallon of milk and a loaf of white bread.

I remember the feeling of seeing what seemed like wonderful things to my adolescent eyes and not being able to have them, and because of my experiences, I have to fight the urge to spoil my daughters and give them everything they want because I know it would not be good for them in the long run.

If they had their way, there would be nothing but chocolate in the fridge, the cupboard, and the pantry. All five food groups rolled up into one delicious morsel. Because I know an all-chocolate diet would be detrimental to their health, I have to curb my compulsion to say yes to everything or let them eat chocolate until they pass out, and although I can see the disappointment in their eyes, or that look emblematic of all children, I have to insist that they include broccoli in their diet as well. Do they love broccoli? Hardly. What child does? But they eat it because their mother and I insist upon it, and although they may not shower us with gratitude presently if we’re still around when they’re all grown up, they’ll thank their mother and me for not giving in to their desires.

You discipline your children, teach them right from wrong, and deny them certain things not because you’re mean but because you love them. You know that their momentary cheerfulness and joy at having received what they desired will have detrimental effects further down the road, and so, even at the risk of tears or pouty looks, you still say no. Getting everything you want may not be the best thing for you, and because God knows best, you must defer to Him in such matters. It’s as simple as that, but as with most things, we tend to complicate it to the point of insisting that our will supersedes His, and though He knows how many hairs you have on your head, He’s ignorant of this one thing you really want and insist you should have.

God chastens those He loves. He corrects, refines, and perfects those who are His. It’s a hard truth but a Biblical truth, and we must acknowledge it as such. What you may think is your ideal may be the snare that has you weeping in the dark, hoping that the sun never rises. What you may think would be the blessings of all blessings might be quicksand you’ll never be free of. Trust God. Not in some things, but in all things, and the beauty of His way will one day be clear to you.

God is a constant. He is a fixed point, and wherever you are, you can look up to see Him, and as long as you are journeying toward Him, you know you’re headed in the right direction. Because He promised that if we seek Him, we will find Him, there is never confusion, doubt, or a sense of being lost and wandering about without purpose or direction. He is the north star of our spiritual walk, and wherever we may be, His presence helps us find our way and orient ourselves.

It’s when we ignore Him or think we know a shorter path to Him that we tend to get in trouble, and although He is still there, a beacon of light in a world of darkness, many pretend as though He’s not.

When we find ourselves in seemingly untenable situations, the first instinct is to look to the left and to the right, hoping someone within our circle of friends, acquaintances, or brothers and sisters in Christ will lend a hand. Most assuredly, there is a time and place for the help of friends and family, but we must never forget that our help comes from the Lord. He may use people to bring it about, but rather than look around us in panic, hoping someone will step up, our first reaction should be to look up, fix our eyes upon Him, and press ever onward. It’s not something that is inherent or instinctual. It’s a learned reaction based on lived experience, wherein we know that if we trust in Him, He will make a way.

I don’t mean to spoil the ending for you, but in his current state, shattered and broken, a boil-covered husk of his former self, Job could not have foreseen a means by which everything he’d lost would be restored to him, but what seems impossible to man is more than possible to God. I know my redeemer lives. I know He will make a way. That alone is enough to carry me through the dark seasons of this life.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.               

Job XC

 The lessons we learn in our season of testing are worth their weight in blood, sweat, and tears, and though the hurt, privation, hardship, and trials eventually pass, the wisdom of the lessons remains with us for the rest of our days. Many would rather forego any modicum of suffering at the expense of not gaining wisdom, learning, growing, and maturing because their fear of pain, lack, hunger, persecution, or privation is such that they will outright refuse to consider the benefits of the experience when it’s in the rearview.

We’ve all known someone who started a diet with all the enthusiasm of a fat kid in a candy store, only to throw their hands up in frustration and give up a couple of weeks in because they deemed it too hard. Others, however, stuck with it, persisted through the hardship and adversity, and committed to their course not for a week or a month but until they hit their goal and succeeded.

Every time something in life is challenging or difficult, there’s bound to be someone to offer a shortcut. An entire cottage industry has been created around shedding weight when its fundamentals could fit on a six-by-five card: Eat less, exercise more! That simply won’t do, however. You can’t monetize four words and expect people to shell out recurring monthly payments when all you’re offering them is something they’ve likely known all along. Put down the chocolate cake and go for a walk. Better yet, throw it out.

And so, in the most self-serving way possible, those profiting off the struggles of others complicate a simple premise to the utmost so they could be the ones to offer a solution for a reasonable fee. Take these pills, take these shots, eat cabbage soup until you’re soiling yourself on the way to work, stand on one leg, then on your head, say this mantra every morning, drink cod liver oil mixed with apple cider vinegar but make sure it’s with mother otherwise it won’t work, have a warm cup of water first thing in the morning, staple your lips shut an hour before bed, but whatever you do, don’t cancel your subscription to new year, new you!

Every fad works for a time, but if there is no lifestyle change, and your will is not strong enough to say no to the things you know you ought to, eventually, you fall off the wagon, roll into the weeds, and find yourself tipping the delivery guy who just brought three meat lovers pizzas, extra cheese, with a side of ranch to your front door.

Tragically, the contemporary church has taken the same model and applied it to salvation. Sure, narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it, but that was before we discovered this surefire shortcut that will simplify your spiritual walk and shave decades off the need to build up your most holy faith. Just repeat after me: This is my Bible; I am what it says I am; I have what it says I have; I can do what it says I can do! Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? We couldn’t make it any easier if we tried.

Everyone wants to attain the prize, but few acknowledge there is a cost, count the inherent cost, and are willing to pay the whole freight because they understand the value of the prize. It’s not because I say it, but because Jesus said it that it matters. Some things are the way they are no matter how much some may wish them to be otherwise, and the danger of not counting the cost and establishing the Lord in your heart is that when the road gets hard, and it will at some point, you will begin to grumble, resist, and grow bitter in your heart because it’s not what you envisioned your faith journey to be.

I’ve been told all my life that I’m a priest, a king, one who will rule the nations with a rod of iron, who will speak things into existence, bind up and loose at will, and here I am trying to find the coupon for a free gallon of milk. Either there was some miscommunication or a serious case of false advertising. This isn’t what I signed up for!

What the Temu version of Christianity gets you is disillusionment, disappointment, and bitterness. You’re promised one thing and end up with something that looks like the genuine article at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you realize it’s nowhere close to it. On the surface, it seems like Christianity, but soon enough, you can’t help but notice there is no power, no presence of God, no conviction, no hunger, just well-rehearsed sideshows that leave you hollow inside.

This is why it’s important not to sugarcoat the gospel or the cost of being a follower of Christ from the start. This is what it is; this is what it will cost; now, you must make the choice of whether or not you will embark upon the journey. Anything less than the truth is disingenuous and will lead to recrimination sooner or later because the individual was presented Jesus as being the fix-all for all their problems rather than the One to whom they must submit and who they must obey for the rest of their time here on earth.

When you go to apply for a job, there is a discussion of both compensation as well as expectations, a detailed job description, and certain non-negotiables required of you. The same applies to our walk of faith. Repentance, regeneration, sanctification, and faithfulness are non-negotiables, as is being born again, transformed, and renewed. This isn’t me being a curmudgeon or a stick in the mud; the Word of God says you must be born again. I’m just passing the message along.

What if Job had been a proponent of the prosperity gospel? What would have happened to his faith, integrity, perseverance, and endurance? While he was rich, lacked nothing, and had everything a man could wish for, it would have worked swimmingly, but what about after? How would he have reacted if his conviction was that God’s primary purpose was to bless and prosper him, always? Would his faith have endured? Would he have clung to his integrity still?

What you believe regarding the nature of the God you serve matters, and what matters most of all is that what you believe about God aligns with His word. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job LXXXIX

 Job 5:17-27, “Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hand makes whole. He shall deliver you in six troubles, yes, in seven no evil shall touch you. In famine He shall redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes. You shall laugh at destruction and famine, and you shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth. For you shall have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. You shall know that your tent is in peace; you shall visit your dwelling and find nothing amiss. You shall also know that your descendants shall be many, and your offspring like the grass of the earth. You shall come to the grave at a full age, as a sheaf of grain ripens in its season. Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear it, and know for yourself.”

It’s easy to rationalize someone else’s pain and conclude that they’re reacting in a manner they shouldn’t be. We go back to the idea that every situation is unique, and every trial and the reaction to it is exclusive to the individual in question. We tend to generalize much more than we ought, and although generally speaking, the notion that the man whom God corrects is happy, in Job’s case, it was not correction; it was something wholly different, a new experience heretofore unheard of by Eliphaz and his two friends, and it was something they couldn’t wrap their minds around.

Correction is one thing. Giving Satan free rein to tear you down to the studs and then cover those with painful boils as a means of testing is something wholly different. Job’s friends couldn’t have known why these things were happening to him, and Job himself was likewise in the dark.

It’s even discombobulating for us who have the benefit of the Word and understand that sometimes God tests our faith for reasons that have nothing to do with correction, but as far as Job was concerned, he was the first, the prototype, the forerunner of being sifted, and tried to the point of unimaginable pain. He had no point of reference for what he was going through. There was no one he could point to in the past and reconcile his current lot with what another had gone through before.

Job’s friends had done their due diligence. They’d searched it out and concluded it to be true, but there had never been a man to have been sifted for the reasons Job was being sifted for, and so having a partial understanding of the situation, they spoke to him in words whose substance was undeniably true, but which did not apply to his current circumstance.

Having seen Job at his lowest, they’d concluded that his situation did not warrant the level of desperation or suffering he was feeling. God bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hand makes whole; all true, but difficult to see when you’re still being bruised and wounded for no reason that you can discern.

The promises of God hold true even if their fulfillment is delayed. That is an absolute truth we, as children of God, with the benefit of hindsight and the foundation of Scripture, can abide in and draw comfort from. Even when you don’t know the reason you’re going through testing, when you’ve searched your heart and know that there is no unconfessed sin therein, when you conclude it isn’t correction but something else, take strength from the knowledge that He will bind up, restore, and heal in due season.

The knowledge of this doesn’t make it any easier, but it gives us the strength to press on, to endure and persevere when others have fallen by the wayside and given in to despair. I don’t have hobbies. I don’t bowl, golf, hunt, or roller derby. One thing I have been doing as far back as I can remember is collecting stories of individuals who spent time in prison, were tortured, persecuted, and unfairly treated for the sake of Christ during the communist rule in Eastern Europe.

None of these people had any recourse. They couldn’t go to the justice system, appeal their arrest with a judge, and though they trumpeted their innocence, no one paid them any mind. There wasn’t even a promise of deliverance or that someday they would know freedom once more. All they had was the daily choice of remaining faithful or giving in to bitterness.

It was a binary thing. Either they persevered and committed their ways to the Lord in all things or requested an audience with an overseer and wrote down some names on a piece of paper. The reward for their betrayal was no small thing. They would get to go home to their wives and children, they would no longer be harassed by local officials, and the threat of torture and imprisonment would no longer hang over their heads like the sword of Damocles. Even so, many, if not most, endured untold horrors at the hands of those who saw them as less than human because they understood that there had not failed one word of all His good promises.

If there had been any doubt regarding God’s omnipotence, faithfulness, and sovereignty in the hearts of these individuals, the offer on the table would have been too good to pass up. With one stroke of a pen, all your problems went away. No more beatings, humiliations, hard labor, or psychological torture; all of it went away in an instant.

They could not see the promises of God being fulfilled presently; there was no particular date they could count down to, yet unshakeable faith in the God they served gave them the assurance that one way or another, their deliverance was a certainty. God will heal; He will bind up, restore, and make the crooked paths straight because He promised it would be so, but in His time and for His purpose. When we’re in the midst of it, every second seems like an eternity, and we wonder if deliverance will ever come, but rest assured, it will.  

With love in Christ, 

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job LXXXVIII

 Job 5:12-16, “He frustrates the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot carry out their plans. He catches the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the cunning comes quickly upon them. They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope at noontime as in the night. But He saves the needy from the sword, from the mouth of the mighty, and from their hand. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts her mouth.”

None of what Eliphaz testifies is wrong or wayward. God does frustrate the devices of the crafty; He does catch the wise in their own craftiness; He does save the needy from the sword and from the mouth of the mighty, but He does so as He wills, when He wills, for His purpose and glory. Whether wittingly or unwittingly, Eliphaz omitted that last part as though it wasn’t relevant or was not the fulcrum upon which his entire thesis rested.

In any given situation God can intervene, God may intervene, but whether or not He will is solely incumbent upon Him and His purposes. God does as He wills. He is sovereign. You can’t be praying “Your will be done” every morning, then throw a hissy fit when He does His will. His will being done on earth as it is in heaven is not dependent upon whether or not it’s in concert with your will or mine. That would mean my will supersedes His will, and I become some sort of defacto god looking for a wish granter who does my bidding, asks no questions, and requires nothing in return. It’s easier said than done, but we must receive the blessing as well as the testing from the hand of God with equal aplomb.

Some of us are so desirous to bring comfort to another that we take it upon ourselves to speak for God and insist that He will remedy the situation. Unless God has spoken that to you directly, and you heard His words clearly and know them to have originated from Him, telling someone God will do something He never said He would may give them temporary comfort, but the end will be worse than the beginning for they will surely give way to bitterness and resentment when what you said God said He would do never materializes.

We approach the entire realm of the prophetic or revelatory insight far too flippantly nowadays, thinking that there will be no consequence for speaking when God has not spoken, not realizing that He’s already laid out the punishment for such transgression in His word. God never said He would give someone a pass if the word they spoke in haste, that did not originate from Him was done with good intentions. A lie is still a lie, even if it was intended as a comfort.

Jeremiah 23:25-27, “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells their neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.”

Jeremiah 23:30-32, “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the Lord, “who use their tongues and say, He says. Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the Lord, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the Lord.”

These verses should be on the front page of every school of prophecy workbook in big, bold letters because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. They’re not, though, for fear that it will tamper the enthusiasm of the folks who forked over a grand or five to be taught how to prophesy and walk in their anointing. Prophecy is not guesswork, a gut feeling, or a personal opinion repackaged to make it seem like it came from God. We’ve seen the aftermath of the lies and recklessness far too often to ignore it, but we’re still beating the same drum and offering the same courses on tapping into your prophetic gifting regardless of how many souls are shipwrecked and how many hearts are shattered because of words they received that never came to pass because they never originated from God.

It’s not that the reckoning is coming; it’s already here. We’re seeing it in real-time, and it will only intensify because God will not be mocked, no matter how many individuals think otherwise.

By all means, be a comfort, a shoulder to cry on, a caring friend, and an empathetic brother or sister in Christ, but don’t presume to know the mind of God or give words you know full well did not come from Him.

Your first duty is to delineate between feelings, emotions, what you think the individual wants to hear or needs to hear, and a true word from the Lord. Don’t conflate the two or insist a word is from the Lord when it’s not, even if it makes you seem less spiritual than you might like to be viewed. Being deemed spiritual by others is not worth God’s wrath, and this is yet another lesson the modern-day soothsayers have failed to learn to their detriment.

Intent may hold weight when it comes to other things we do in this life but is wholly irrelevant when it comes to speaking in the name of God when He has not spoken and insisting He will do something He never promised He would do. That you wanted to be a comfort, a healing balm, a source of hope, or some other trope one might use to justify such actions, they will be dismissed offhand because, in your presumption, you appropriated the omniscience of God and spoke in His name.

Mark 4:22, “For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.” 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job LXXXVII

 When we are unaware of the possibility, perhaps even the probability of having our faith tested, of being sifted, of going through the valleys of life that make us cling to God all the more, while all seems pleasant and uncomplicated, while we are not being buffeted and the safety nets we’ve built for ourselves still hold ignorance may truly seem like bliss. It’s like the folks who don’t file taxes for years on end, thinking they’ve gotten one over on the rest of us, that they’ve found a loophole, or have discovered a heretofore unknown cheat code, only to get a knock on their door from a serious looking individual informing them that their wages have been garnered, and they own back taxes to the tune of six figures. I’m sure it was fun while it lasted, but the music eventually stops, and the reckoning commences.

For those living in the land of fantasy where the peaches are always perfectly ripe, the sun is always shining, and no ill or trial can ever be visited upon them, it’s all sunshine and lollipops until it’s not. Don’t get me wrong, if it wasn’t such dangerously faulty logic, it would be fun to entertain.

Once in a great while, we’ll show up for church, call money down from heaven, get a pat on the back for showing up, and go on about our lives unencumbered by the constraints of righteousness or holiness unto God. Building up our most holy faith sounds like too much work, so we’ll pay the fifty bucks per month to get an AI chatbot to spend time with God on our behalf, and that way, we won’t have to miss our tee time.

I’m still waiting for the sin eaters to make a comeback, but given the trajectory the modern-day church is headed in, it’s only a matter of time.

If one is not aware that trials, testing, and hardships are part of the Christian walk, when they make their presence felt, they will either retreat or be frozen to the spot, not knowing what to do and fearful that any course of action may only exacerbate the situation.

There is a reason we are repeatedly warned via Scripture that we have an enemy, that he seeks our destruction, and that he is ruthless and single-minded in his desire to keep us from finishing well. Anyone not aware of this hasn’t been reading their Bible or has been taught that it’s within their purview to ignore the parts of it they don’t like.

Once in a while, you hear stories of starry-eyed tourists who travel to dangerous corners of the world trying to prove the warnings wrong and unfounded only to end up dead in a ditch, butchered like so much cattle, because ignoring reality doesn’t change the fundamental nature of it, and pretending as though something does not exist doesn’t make it so. This isn’t the Matrix; you can’t just tell yourself there’s no devil and make that your reality.

It’s not as though some of the words Eliphaz spoke weren’t beautiful, true, and even poetic, words that resonate to this day in their delivery, but not all true and beautiful words apply to a given situation. You can have an entire tool bag full of tools, but if you don’t have the right tool for the job, you still lack what is necessary for the current situation. It goes without saying that Eliphaz was a wordsmith. It’s also undeniable that he was an intelligent man who was a deep thinker and pondered the deeper truths of his existence, but in the current situation, watching his friend Job suffer both physically and emotionally, he did not possess the right tools to remedy the situation. It’s no slight on him; sometimes, the only one who can heal a broken heart and give hope is God, and no matter who it is standing before us, either trying to comfort or rebuke us, they fall short.

If you’ve ever been in a situation where you’ve tried your best to lend a hand, be a support, bring comfort, or give wise counsel and knew yourself to have fallen short of the mark, it wasn’t you, or your inability to be a good friend in due season, it was the fact that only God could have put back together the pieces that were shattered.

It’s one thing to give good counsel, and it goes unheeded; it’s another when the counsel you give falls short in some way. You can’t help but feel responsible in some capacity, and although I’ve gotten better about beating myself up over being unable to be of help in certain situations, it still gets to me. It used to wreck me utterly. Although I was not personally responsible for the situation the individual found themselves in, being unable to do anything to fix it made me feel like a failure.

The worst by far is wayward children and broken marriages. You sit down with the individual and go through the Biblical steps required for healing; they go through them, and though they prayed, wept, and showered their progeny with love, their hearts are still hard, and the spouse still refuses to reconcile. What more can I do? They would ask pleadingly, and all I could offer was to repeat the steps because you can’t change someone’s heart; only God can.

I had to humble myself enough to come to terms with the reality that my abilities were limited, that I’d done all I could, and must now surrender it to God and allow Him to have His way in the matter. Not every story has a happy ending. Not every prodigal finds their way back home; not every marriage can be put back together, and I discovered that my trying to make it so by sheer will alone was a folly of the worst kind. There is a difference between God can and God will, and we cannot conflate the two.

As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood before the raging flames of the furnace, their answer to the king wasn’t that God would surely deliver them from the burning fiery furnace but that He was able to. Whether He did or not was solely up to Him. One thing was certain, and three young men said as much; one way or another, they would be delivered from the king’s hand that day.

We cannot presume that our deliverance will come by being spared the flames. In many an instance, our deliverance comes by standing in the fire.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job LXXXVI

 Given the historical context of the time, Eliphaz was likely the eldest of Job’s three friends, as great value was placed on the wisdom of age in those days. It used to be that the younger deferred to the older among them, whatever the situation might be. It’s easy enough to trace back the decline of society and correlate it to a growing disrespect for authority, one’s elders, one’s parents, and those who’ve been where you are and may have a thing or two to teach you about it.

Just because you know how to change the background screen on Google doesn’t make you omniscient, and although you can watch YouTube videos on how to hammer in a nail, that first time you crack your thumb with the business end of a claw hammer, you’ll come to appreciate the many times your dad told you to always be aware of where your thumbs are placed. There are some things only experience can teach. Either that or find someone with experience and ask them to teach you. It is a wiser course by far since you’ll be circumventing the pain of failure on your way to learning whatever the individual might have to impart.

It’s telling that Eliphaz was the first of Job’s three friends to speak up and that the other two deferred to him and did not attempt to interject or add their own ideas to what he was saying. Their turn will come in short order, but for now, it was Eliphaz who took up the reins.

Job 5:8-11, “But as for me, I would seek God, and to God, I would commit my cause – who does great things, and unsearchable, marvelous things without number. He gives rain on the earth, and sends waters on the fields. He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety.”

If you’d read the entire chapter through from start to finish, it is here that you begin to wonder if the same individual is speaking. Up until this point, he was disparaging both Job’s faith and his integrity, questioning the power of the God he served, and suddenly, he reverses course and begins to wax poetic about the power of God and the marvelous things He does without number.

But wait; weren’t you the guy insisting that no one was there to answer and wondering which of the holy ones Job would turn to next? Weren’t you the one doing your utmost to vex Job’s spirit and crush him even deeper into the dust if that were at all possible?

Any reasoned dive into this chapter would lead to the conclusion that two people were speaking. The first person through the seventh verse and the second person from the eighth verse onward. Whether it was Eliphaz coming to his senses or resisting the enemy’s whispers, we cannot know, but what is evident and beyond doubt is that the entire tone of his discourse shifts, and he begins to list the attributes of God, who is worthy of being sought, and to whom one’s cause is worth committing to.

The view from an ash heap and a high horse are markedly different. You get a different perspective, one looking up, the other looking down, and Eliphaz decided that after having rebuked Job, it was an opportune moment to highlight his virtues and insist that were he to be brought low and be in Job’s position, he would seek God and commit his cause to Him, as though Job had done any different.

It’s easy to pontificate when you’re not the one struggling. It’s easy to sit in judgment of another when you don’t know the details of the hardship they’re going through or the effort it’s taking for them to hang on by the skin of their teeth. When someone is beaten into the dirt, surprised at themselves for not having given up already, the last thing they want to hear is how someone else would have done it differently. In theory, they might have, but in practice, they may have been more of a blubbering mess than the individual they’re trying to illuminate as to where they went wrong.

What happened to Job wasn’t bad decisions, bad investments, gambling addiction, unwise relationships, faithlessness, duplicity, or lack of reverence for God. There was nothing he could have done to mitigate the disaster that consumed him because the devil had been given leave to do as he willed with Job’s family, possessions, and health.

Some trials cannot be hedged for, planned for, mitigated, or avoided. The best we can hope is that we suffer well through them and that our faith is so rooted and well-established that we will weather the trial and come out stronger for it.

When Jesus had his heart to heart with Peter, informing him that Satan had asked for him that he may be sifted as wheat, the only consolation he received was that Jesus had prayed for him that his faith should not fail. It wasn’t that he be spared the sifting, it wasn’t that he be sheltered from the trial, it was that his faith would be strong enough in the face of it that it would endure the pressure of the testing.

If you believe yourself to be spiritually superior to Peter or somehow more highly favored than he was or more blameless and upright than Job, that’s one thing. If you don’t, rather than assume you will never be tested or sifted, your time would be better spent building up your most holy faith that when your season of sifting comes, it should not fail.

Because the spiritual understanding of many contemporary Christians is superficial at best, they fail to differentiate between God’s protection, provision, and providence in their walk of faith and those seasons where we are allowed to be tested and sifted. The two are not mutually exclusive because God chastens those He loves, and our faith is strengthened, refined, and proven in the flame of the trials He allows in our lives.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job LXXXV

 Job 5:1-7, “Call out now; is there anyone who will answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn? For wrath kills a foolish man, and envy slays a simple one. I have seen the foolish take root, but suddenly I curse his dwelling place. His sons are far from safety, they are crushed in the gate, and there is no deliverer. Because the hungry eat up the harvest, taking it even from the thorns, and a snare snatches their substance. For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble spring from the ground; yet man is born to trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”

The subtext and innuendo in Eliphaz’s discourse are staggering to behold. As we continue into the fifth chapter of Job, about halfway through, you can see the tonal shift once again, as if two different men were speaking. If we pay close attention, we can see where Satan’s influence ends and Eliphaz’s own thoughts begin.

You’re all alone, buddy, is what the subtext implies. Call out now. Is there anyone who will answer you? You trusted in God, you served Him, you feared Him, and He’s brought you to this low point in life. You’re crying out, and He’s remaining silent. Perhaps he wasn’t worthy of your veneration. Perhaps you misplaced your faith. Which of the holy ones will you turn to now? Given that this God has failed you, which god will you pursue now? The depth of evil in Satan’s implications is jarring. That he would use one of Job’s closest friends to deliver this message is cunning and unseemly.

Not to belabor the point, but oftentimes, you can tell when someone is speaking their words, sharing their heart, and when an external, nefarious force is using them to sow despair in your heart. Perhaps unintentionally, unwittingly, without his knowledge or consent, but it is evident that Satan was using Eliphaz to dispirit Job, to the point of questioning if he’d picked the right God to serve and obey.

This was not Eliphaz talking. It was his voice, his tongue, his cadence, but as far as words are concerned, these were not his words. It’s a terrifying prospect when you start to think about it. Here he was, having traveled a long way, having sat with his friend in silence for seven days just hoping to be a comfort, and now that he opened his mouth to speak, his words were anything but comforting or encouraging. On the contrary, up to this point in his monologue, his entire focus was on getting Job to doubt his resolve and make him question whether his service to God was worth it.

If the Word tells you to hold fast to your faith, to put on the whole armor of God, to resist the devil, and to persevere, and a friend, a family member, or even one you deem a spiritual authority comes along and tells you it would be better if you just gave up, packed it in, perhaps find another religion you should gravitate toward because the God you currently serve isn’t taking any calls, you should know without doubt that they are being used of the enemy to try and shake your faith.

The enemy is fully aware that faith to the spiritual man is like oxygen to the physical man. It is the stone thrown into a still pond, causing ripples in every area of life. Once you begin to understand faith, you cannot remain unchanged, unaffected, or unmoved. If you deprive the physical man of oxygen for any lack of time, then he will surely die. The same is true for the spiritual man, and the enemy’s goal for anyone who comes to faith in Christ is to diminish, weaken, or destroy the faith of the individual, knowing that it will separate him from the vine, wherein he will shrivel and begin to die because no life is flowing into him.

If the devil can use some circumstance, acquaintance, temptation, or sin to separate you from faith in Christ, he has ostensibly separated you from Christ Himself. True faith is an active reality that fuels our desire to grow deeper and stronger in God, leaving the world and the things of the world behind.

The entire argument within the household of faith regarding faith and works is utterly pointless because when you possess true faith, the fruit thereof will be evident for all to see. It is faith and hope in the life to come, the eternal reward, the saving power of Christ, and His sacrifice that gives us the wherewithal to endure and persevere. Don’t let the enemy shake your faith or separate you from it, for if he accomplishes this, then victory will forever be out of reach for you.

This was now the enemy’s new strategy: to use Job’s friends to weaken his resolve and shake his faith in the God he served. If at first you don’t succeed, try, and try again seems to be the devil’s motto when it comes to attacking God’s faithful, and this is a truth we would do well to remember. Far too often, we are busy celebrating a victory and don’t notice the next attack that’s more devious than the last. There will be time to celebrate, to rejoice, and to be exultant, but that’s when we’ve finished the race, crossed the finish line, and stand before God, hearing well done. Any celebration or chest-beating before that glorious day is a recipe for disaster, and a moment of inattentiveness can set our faith journey back months if not years.

The journey isn’t over until it’s over. Whether in a valley or on the mountaintop, whether you can’t wait to escape the season you’re in and be on to the next, or you want to remain in it because it’s comfortable, your duty is to look up and keep walking toward Jesus with the same enthusiasm, focus, and commitment. It’s the goal, the prize, the finish line that we must focus on regardless of current circumstances, and with faith that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, we press ever onward.

Romans 6:4, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.