Proof The Bible Is True

 Job 38:4-11, “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who shut the sea with doors, when it burst forth and issued from the womb; when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band; when I fixed My limit for it, and set bars and doors; when I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop!’”

It takes an almost limitless amount of intellectual dishonesty, coupled with a dangerously myopic view of everything that surrounds us, to conclude that everything was a happy accident, serendipity at its finest, working in perfect synchronicity and interdependence by happenstance or luck.

Sometimes we need to be reminded just how complex the world that surrounds us is, all the wonders it holds, and all the finite little things that have to work together perfectly, with no slippage or deterioration, for us to continue to exist. We’ve become used to all that surrounds us to the point that we take it for granted, refusing to acknowledge the One that put it all together and keeps it from falling apart, spinning out of control, or getting too close to the sun to the point that we all become crispy critters.

It’s like getting on an airplane and never considering the man-hours that went into making all the parts, putting them together, and making sure that the engines don’t give out halfway over the Atlantic. That’s all fine and dandy, but where are my complimentary bag of peanuts and my free can of soda?

It’s mind-boggling to consider that God, our Father, and the One who created all that our senses perceive as reality, couldn’t have an off day, couldn’t get it almost right, but had to get it perfect, one hundred percent of the time, without fail, just so we could enjoy a sunrise without having our retina burned away, or to be able to inhale and exhale without passing out, or looking like a fish out of water gasping for breath when none is to be had.

A few years back, there was a former president who went viral for saying that no matter how successful your business, no matter how much sweat equity you put into it, no matter how much you sacrificed, or how many sleepless nights you had to endure, in the end, you didn’t build that! Those who sit on the sidelines and watch the world go by agreed wholeheartedly, cheering him on for putting the boss men in their place, but those who, by sheer tenacity and work ethic, built something out of nothing were taken aback and voiced their objections to the blanket statement that they hadn’t done a thing, they hadn’t built anything, and somehow it came together for them as if by magic.

Men can say God didn’t build that until they’re blue in the face, but as long as God declares that He did, from the very foundations of the earth, then the claims of men are just that, the rantings of bitter souls unwilling to humble themselves and acknowledge His mighty works.

God begins to ask Job a series of questions that are rhetorical in nature. By that I mean God already knows the answers to the questions He is asking, but just so there’s no misunderstanding as to who built it, who laid earth’s cornerstone, or who shut the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb, God proffers a multitude of questions which are individually worthy of contemplation if one is ever inclined to get a glimpse of the vastness of the majesty and omnipotence of the God we serve.

Psalm 19:1-2, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.”

Men refuse to acknowledge God not because His handiwork is difficult to perceive, but because in their wicked hearts they resent Him for who He is, and harbor the desire to be as little gods in their own right. If God exists, if the heavens declare His glory and the firmament shows His handiwork, then they can never claim godhood for themselves, and that’s something their hubris cannot allow.

No matter how altruistic some of these men might sound, in the end it’s all about defiance and rebellion. We can do a better job than the One who laid the foundations of the earth. We know better. So send some rockets into space to cover the atmosphere in dust, cut down all the forests, seed some clouds, attempt to do what only God can, and that way we can pretend to be gods ourselves. Once we become gods, then we answer to no one but ourselves, and do as we will without the nagging reminder that one day we too will stand before the judgment throne.

Men can pretend God doesn’t exist, but they are not doing so because they believe it to be so. They do it as a coping mechanism to drown out their conscience, and that ever-present reality that one day lived is one day closer to the grave, no matter how much they would want it to be otherwise.

The need to dismiss the reality of God is so great that they have to contrive existential crises which they can later claim to have a fix for so they can validate their hubris.

The oceans are rising; the oceans are rising! That’s the claim we’ve been hearing for thirty years now, and those who do not believe that God said, this far you may come, but no farther, and here you proud waves must stop, fell for it to the point of selling their beachfront homes and moving inland.

If the oceans do rise, it is by His will, and there is nothing man can do to stop it. If the oceans recede, it is likewise by His will, and once again, there is nothing man can do to stop it. God is in control and has been since before He laid the foundations of the earth.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 38:1-3, “Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ‘Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me.”

You’ve undoubtedly said too much when God has to step in. There is a great divide between how Elihu saw himself and the words he spoke, and how God perceived them. While Elihu unashamedly declared that his lips uttered pure knowledge, God’s assessment was that the darkened counsel was by words without knowledge. Wise in his own eyes he might have been, but that didn’t make it true.

As someone who’s already seen a movie you’re watching, and they can’t help themselves, would say, we’re getting to the good part. Job had suffered the disrespect of his wife and his three friends, had been accused of wickedness he never committed, but Elihu’s bloviating seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back, and God stepped in.

Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? You may have a stronger constitution than I, but if God ever said that about me, I would deflate quicker than a popped balloon. Any haughtiness, pride, or high opinion of his own wisdom Elihu might have had was stripped away in one sentence. This was not a conciliatory question, nor was it formed in such a way that one would conclude that Elihu was partially right. All of his machinations, his attempted self-promotion, and his insistence that he knew better than Job flew out the window the moment God spoke.

Some have posed the question of why God would choose to speak to Job out of the whirlwind when He spoke to Elijah in a still, small voice. Short answer, because God does as He wills, speaks as He wills, and speaks when He wills.

As far as Elijah is concerned, God did not speak to him in the howling winds that broke the rocks in pieces, nor did He speak to him in the earthquake or the fire, but chose to do so in a still, small voice. The big takeaway here is a lesson we should all take to heart: do not assume God spoke until you know God spoke!

If Elijah did not know the voice of God, he could have presumed that the strong wind that tore into the mountains and broke the rocks into pieces was God trying to send him a message, and would have spent the rest of his days trying to decipher what the message was. Then the earthquake, then the fire, and had he not been still and waited for the voice of the Lord, clear and undeniable, by the time the still small voice spoke, he would have been a knot of confusion trying to interpret something which had no deeper meaning than that it was wind, earthquake, and fire.

When God speaks to His servants, it is clear. When men look for the voice of God when He has not spoken, everything from an oddly shaped cloud to a turkey crossing the road holds a deeper meaning, and rather than wait patiently for God to speak, they sprint down rabbit trails, creating an entire narrative around something that had no deeper meaning or spiritual implications.

I saw a squirrel in a tree; what does it mean, I wonder? That a squirrel was in a tree. That’s it. There’s nothing mystical going on; there’s no deeper meaning. You just happened to hear the rustling of leaves, looked up, and saw a squirrel.

We are bondservants of Christ, warriors of the cross, sons and daughters of Almighty God, not simpletons looking for the universe to send us a sign whether we should risk eating the expired can of tuna in the pantry.

When God speaks, you’ll know it whether He chooses to do so in a still small voice or out of the whirlwind, as was the case with Job. The issue at hand is knowing His voice so that when He speaks, you will know it's Him regardless of the manner in which He chooses to do so.

There should be no ambiguity as to whether God spoke or not, or whether or not it was Him. His sheep know His voice, and His voice is unique. There’s a difference between knowing you received a message from the Lord and hoping that you did, thinking that you did, or presuming that you did. Worse still are those who grow impatient, think God is taking too long in speaking, and presume to speak on His behalf, insisting that they know His thoughts and their opinions are just as valid as God’s own words. Not to belabor the point, but Elihu believed he knew the mind of God as well, and look how that turned out.

Few things could top the harsh rebuke of having God single you out and declare that you have darkened counsel by words without knowledge. When God steps in, everything changes. Every well-formulated narrative, every well-constructed theory, they all crumble under the weight of truth. Not some arbitrary truth, not some subjective truth, but the truth that comes from the mouth of God Himself.

After dealing with Elihu in no more than one sentence, God turns His sights on Job and tells him to prepare himself like a man because He has some questions for him, and not answering them is not an option. You shall answer Me! That’s as declarative as it gets, and Job had no option but to do as God commanded. If anything, hearing the voice of God was an unspeakable relief to Job. It is what his heart yearned for throughout the season of silence, and now, finally, God had spoken.

One thing that cannot go unmentioned is that even when God was silent, Job was faithful. Even when God seemed distant and far off, Job held tight to his integrity. Even when all seemed lost, Job clung to the hope that his relationship with God had fostered, to the point of remaining faithful when to human reason his faithfulness was fruitless and pointless.

We’ve all had our dry seasons. We’ve all had those moments when God is silent, and things seem to be spiraling out of control, and that is when the faith that we’ve built up over the years sustains us and gives us the endurance necessary to weather the storm.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 37:14-24, “Listen to this, O Job; Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. Do you know when God dispatches them, and causes the light of His cloud to shine? Do you know how the clouds are balanced, those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge? Why are your garments hot, when He quiets the earth by the south wind? With Him, have you spread out the skies, strong as a cast metal mirror? Teach us what we should say to Him, for we can prepare nothing because of the darkness. Should He be told that I wish to speak? If a man were to speak, surely he would be swallowed up. Even now men cannot look at the light when it is bright in the skies, when the wind has passed and cleared them. He comes from the north as golden splendor; with God is awesome majesty. As for the Almighty, we cannot find Him; He is excellent in power, in judgment and abundant justice; He does not oppress. Therefore men fear Him; He shows no partiality to any who are wise of heart.”

By the end of his heated and impassioned oratory, one gets the sense that Elihu realized he’d gotten ahead of his skis. He’d assumed, presumed, taken it upon himself to speak on God’s behalf, insisted that pure knowledge flowed from his lips, then wondered as if to himself, Should God be told that I wish to speak? Should I have gotten permission to say what I said, rather than assuming I knew the mind of God and the entirety of his plan for Job?

Even with that small dose of self-awareness, however, Elihu can’t help himself. He couldn’t stop himself from condescending to Job, insisting that Job teach them what they should say to God. It was not an honest request or a sincere desire to know how to approach God, but more akin to, well, if you’re so smart and so spiritual, why don’t you teach us what we should say to the Almighty? If you have all the answers, clue us in.

The problem is that Job never claimed to have all the answers. He was distraught at God’s silence and did not understand why he had been allowed to suffer the misfortunes he’d suffered. Even so, he neither found fault with God nor did he sin with his lips in his suffering. This was not something Job claimed; it is something God said.

It is frightening to see so many superimpose their opinions over God’s will, insisting that they are one and the same. Oftentimes, the opinions differ wildly from what Scripture declares to be the truth, but that doesn’t stop some from insisting that they know better, or that they are on equal footing with the Almighty when it comes to declaring what is pleasing in His sight and what He finds abhorrent. Men might be allowed to ramble on for a season, but in the end, God will have the last word. He will have His say, and He will judge with righteous judgment.

It is true, God shows no partiality to any who are wise of heart, for wisdom in and of itself is not something that God weighs in the scales when declaring a man blameless and upright. God sees the hearts of men, as they are, without artifice or pretense, and it is the heart, its focus, desires, and yearnings that He judges. Has the heart been transformed? Has it been regenerated? Has it been born again and set upon the path of sanctification, or does it remain as it ever was, as the individual in whom the heart beats boasts of his own righteousness?

Lest anyone think I am judging Elihu harshly, go back to when he was first introduced, and see the spirit in which he approached Job and his three friends. Within the span of three verses, we are told no less than three times that the wrath of Elihu was aroused against Job and his three friends, and it persisted throughout his monologue.

Angry people say dumb things. When one’s wrath is stirred, they don’t take the time to consider what they’re saying or whether it's factual and true. The anger dulls their senses, it unbridles the tongue, and they let fly, without a shred of humility, meekness, or self-awareness. Elihu wasn’t powered by Red Bull or caffeine; he was powered by wrath, and for five chapters he did everything he could to convince Job of his guilt, even though Job knew himself to be innocent.

Notwithstanding the oddity that Elihu appears on the scene, as if out of nowhere, spends a considerable amount of time slinging mud, and just as readily disappears and is mentioned no more, his presence was just another opportunity for the enemy to attempt to whittle down Job’s resolve. The enemy isn’t picky about who he uses to achieve his objectives. The ends are all that matter, and the means are a triviality as far as he is concerned.

Some within the leadership of the contemporary church have convinced themselves that God operates in a similar fashion, and as long as the pews are full and the electric bill gets paid, the way they conduct themselves is irrelevant. That in itself is a snare, and one many a soul has fallen into, and we see the aftereffects, the collateral damage, and the destruction such individuals leave in their wake. The Biblical standard is there for a reason. What God requires of His own was established for a purpose, and when men lose sight of this and justify their rebellion by pointing to the size of their church or ministry, it’s only a matter of time before they are exposed for all the world to see, and yet another mark is suffered by the household of faith.

The difference between knowing about God, His attributes, His might, or His perfect knowledge, and knowing God personally and intimately, is that one who knows God obeys Him in all things, while one who knows about God attempts to justify himself based on his own understanding of who God is and what He requires. Elihu knew more than most of his time about the attributes of God, but as far as knowing Him, he admitted to his own ignorance.

Just because someone is loud and brash doesn’t mean they’re right. Just because someone speaks about God, it doesn’t mean they know Him. It’s in the good fruit one produces that you can determine a good tree from a bad one. Everything else is noise. A good tree that produces good fruit will defer to the One in whom it is planted, knowing that the good fruit isn’t of their own making or design, but by His alone. A bad tree that produces bad fruit will never give God the glory rightly His, but attempt to elevate themselves, seeking the praise and honor of men rather than to be well-pleasing in the sight of God.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 37:6-13, “For he says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth’; likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. He seals the hand of every man, that all men may know His work. The beasts go into dens, and remain in their lairs. From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds of the north. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen. Also with moisture He saturates the thick clouds; He scatters His bright clouds. And they swirl about, being turned by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them on the face of the whole earth. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.”

It’s not uncommon for a man to be capable of speaking profound things while seemingly, within the same breath, speaking profoundly untrue things. Every discourse, and everything someone says, must stand on its own merits, individually, and not be influenced by previous oration, always meticulously filtered through the prism of God’s word to determine its veracity.

If one is diligent in searching the Scripture to determine whether what they heard is true, it will save them much heartache, confusion, and bitterness in the long run. It doesn’t matter who the individual is; if what they are saying is contrary to the Word of God, then they are not to be believed, and their message ought not to be allowed to take root in your heart.

For those possessing both time and patience, you can take the teachings of an individual who is demonstrably contrary to what the Word teaches, and trace it back to when they started going sideways and saying things that were no longer profound, but profoundly anti-biblical, to the point that, given enough time, they begin to teach abject heresy. Some of them did start out surefooted and rooted in the Word, only to end up tailoring their sermons to suit the wants of the sheep rather than the needs of the flock. Others didn’t even bother searching out the truth but, from the jump, began teaching fanciful imaginings whose genesis was their own bellies rather than any divine revelation or knowledge.

It’s those who started out on the right path only to swerve off it who pose the greatest danger to the household of faith, especially if those who are receiving and absorbing their teaching are not diligent in studying Scripture for themselves and in making certain that the two are in harmony.

Yes, men can stray from the truth of the gospel, and they do so more often than we would like to admit. If my baseline for whether I believe them is a sermon I heard ten years ago that was grounded in truth, rather than what they are currently teaching compared to the Word of God, it is more likely that I will swallow the bitter poison rather than reject it wholesale.

Elihu wasn’t entirely wrong in what he said. It would have been too obvious had this been the case. There are sparks of insight and glimmers of wisdom in his oratory, but for every true thing he says about God, he injects his own opinions and judgments about Job, using the nuggets of truth as a means of justifying them.

The duty of a servant is to rightly divide the Word and preach the gospel, not to use the gospel as a foil to support his far-flung theories. As far as examples go, there are plenty to be had, but generally speaking, you’ll know something is off when the individual is more adamant about protecting his pet doctrine than about lifting up the name of Jesus. When the entirety of their ministry revolves around a tertiary issue that has no bearing on salvation, insisting that it is, in fact, a salvific issue when the Bible clearly says it isn’t, you’ll know that they’re in the weeds and are attempting to build their own kingdom while pretending to build up God’s kingdom.

You don’t understand, brother. Unless you wear sandals and a linen tunic every day of your life, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. But that’s not what Jesus said! Well, He just didn’t get around to it, but that’s the key to the Kingdom that has been kept hidden from the masses. We’ve even made it convenient for you. You can visit our online store to purchase a tunic and sandals at a competitive price.

Every day, you say? Yes, every day. But I live in Wisconsin, and the winters are brutal. Hard to think I won’t turn into an ice cube in -25-degree weather with heavy winds. Ah, but that’s where faith comes in, my friend. Put on the tunic, strap on the sandals, and brave the snow to prove your faith. But why not just put on a parka and some boots? Because you would be proving yourself unworthy and lacking faith.

Any performative act required by men to prove their faith to men is folly and not Biblical. It’s neither my job nor a Scriptural requirement to jump through hoops to prove my faith to another. My faith is in God, and only He can measure it accurately.

This is, in essence, what Elihu was demanding of Job: prove your faith to me! Prove your innocence to me! Prove that I have judged you wrongly and you are not the wicked man I believe you to be! By what authority do I demand these things? My own, but if it makes you more cooperative, let’s just say I’m speaking on behalf of God. Did He send you? Did He speak to you? Did God give you the leeway to speak on His behalf? Well, no, but it sounds better than saying I’m just a random guy who decided to take a swipe at you.

One thing Elihu was right about, and it is something worth noting: God is sovereign. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy, whatever that thing might be. Couple that with the blessed assurance that we have a good Father, one whose love for us is beyond dispute, and we can be at peace even in the darkest of days and strongest of storms.   

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 37:1-5, “At this also my heart trembles, and leaps from its place. Hear attentively the thunder of His voice, and the rumbling that comes from His mouth. He sends it forth under the whole heaven, His lightning to the ends of the earth. After it a voice roars; he thunders with His majestic voice, and He does not restrain them when His voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things which we cannot comprehend.”

If there is one redeeming quality about Elihu, it’s that he did believe in God. He did not think everything came about accidentally, some serendipitous cosmic alignment that put everything in its place with such precision as to make a Swiss watchmaker blush with shame. If not for his repeated attempts to promote himself and his insistence that he knew the mind of God when he clearly didn’t, he would even be a sympathetic figure to some degree.

At least part of him knew he was full of hot air because he contradicted himself repeatedly when it came to hearing from God or knowing Him on an intimate level that went beyond mere platitudes. Though he claimed to speak on God’s behalf, insisting that he was certain of Job’s guilt, Elihu goes on to say that God does great things which we cannot comprehend. That he would not allow for the possibility that this was just such a case, wherein God was doing something that he could not comprehend, thereby abstaining from giving his opinion, veiled in the pretense that it was God’s judgment rather than his own, confirms that Elihu had a bone to pick with Job, for whatever reason, and this was his opportunity to twist the knife.

Elihu’s entire treatise, however, highlights a deeper issue with which much of today’s church must contend: the realization that there is a difference between knowing about God and knowing God on a personal level.

As James would later state, even the demons believe and tremble. Belief in God isn’t what saves; being born again does. If an individual believes in the existence of God, but does not take the prescribed steps the Bible sets forth for him to be saved, sanctified, and reconciled to God, he has not been transformed or regenerated, but simply holds to an intellectual acknowledgment that there is a Creator; there is a God.

Upon approaching Jesus, Nicodemus acknowledged that he, along with the other Pharisees, knew He was a teacher come from God, for no one could do the signs He did unless God was with Him. They didn’t presume, they didn’t hope, they knew God had sent Him, and rather than thanking him for the compliment and confirming that he was right, Jesus said to him: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Believing Jesus was special is not enough. Believing He did signs is not enough. Believing he was a prophet or a wise man is not enough. Believing in the existence of God is not enough. You must be born again! It’s not an option, nor is it a take-it-or-leave-it proposition absent afferent consequence; it is imperative. Unless one is born again, one cannot see the kingdom of God! There’s no wiggle room there; there are no hypotheticals that Jesus alludes to where someone can bypass being born again.

Men today are fond of playing the what-if game, thinking they can stump God or find a nonexistent loophole, wherein they can see the kingdom of God without being born again. Professing to be wise, they become fools in the truest sense of the word, believing wholeheartedly that they can argue, demand, or sneak their way into heaven.

Either Jesus lied, or He didn’t, when He said you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. If He lied about this, then everything else He said is suspect, because eternity is the greatest of issues one must contend with. If He didn’t lie, then no amount of bloviating or throwing out hypothetical situations will change the reality of what He said.

Shocking as it may seem, once you strip away the hyperbole, presupposition, feelings, emotions, and opinion, it boils down to one simple question: Did Jesus speak the truth when He said that you must be born again to see the kingdom of God?

As for me, the answer is an unequivocal yes, because of who He is, and the lengths to which He went on the cross that man might be reconciled to God. Once we’ve established that, then everything falls into place. Everything in my life must be in service to the singular ideal of denying myself, picking up my cross, and following after Him, for He has bought me, redeemed me, cleansed me, and set me upon the path that I must follow.

The notion that one who is saved and sanctified can remain inactive and unresponsive to the urging of the Holy Spirit to draw ever closer to God is anathema and has no biblical foundation. To be transformed is to be changed. To be born again is to die to your old self. To follow after Jesus is to do away with anything and everything that would inhibit you from doing so or stunt your progress and spiritual growth.

We treat too flippantly the thing for which the Son of God was born, lived, suffered, bled, and died that we might attain. We serve Him when it suits us, pray when there’s nothing else vying for our attention, read Scripture when there’s nothing good on the television, yet still have the temerity to insist that we are soldiers of the cross, fully committed, faithful to the end, and ready to receive our marching orders.

Perhaps God isn’t doing the things He once did among His people not because He can no longer do them, as though He were contractually obligated to stop doing what He’s always done, but because those claiming to be His pay Him lip service while living their lives in a manner unworthy of the gospel of Christ, wherein no glory or honor is brought to His name. It may be a hard pill to swallow, but perhaps the problem isn’t with God; it’s with us.          

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 36:22-33, “Behold, God is exalted by His power; who teaches like Him? Who has assigned Him His way, or who has said, ‘You have done wrong’? Remember to magnify His work, of which men have sung. Man looks on it from afar. Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; nor can the number of His years be discovered. For He draws up drops of water, which distill as rain from the mist, which the clouds drop down and pour abundantly on man. Indeed, can anyone understand the spreading clouds, the thunder from His canopy? Look, He scatters His light upon it, and covers the depths of the sea. For by these He judges the peoples; He gives food in abundance. He covers His hands with lightning, and commands it to strike. His thunder declares it, the cattle also, concerning the rising storm.”

Nestled within his multitude of words, Elihu said something that, in modern parlance, seems more like a Freudian slip than anything else. It rings different than all the other things he’s said thus far, and reveals something Elihu would have been reticent to admit had his mouth not gotten ahead of his brain: God is great, and we do not know Him! But you’ve been waxing poetic regarding God for the better part of four chapters. You’ve been talking endlessly about all the wisdom and knowledge that reside in you, flow from your lips, and have nested in your heart, to the point that everything you say is worthy of being chiseled into stone tablets to be preserved for future generations. You’ve been boasting about your knowledge endlessly, yet the one thing man should strive to know above all else, you admitted, you do not know.

It’s never been easier to learn more about the most obscure or niche topics than it is now. Everyone presumes they’re a genius because they have a smartphone and can get answers at the click of a button, without putting forth the effort of diligent searching. What once would have taken endless months in dusty libraries can be accessed within a breath, and for some reason, men equate that to their own wisdom being enriched and heightened.

Given the abundance of evidence on hand, I would submit we haven’t gotten smarter, wiser, or more knowledgeable, but the opposite. We’ve been dumbed down, duped into using technology as a crutch and a safety net, so dependent on it that if the Apple Watch doesn’t beep to remind us to drink water, we’d die of thirst.

I’m old enough to remember the good old days where you’d have to fork out ten bucks for an atlas if you were planning on driving cross country, mapping your journey, figuring out if you were going east or west, when now all you have to do is punch in an address four states away, and the device will not only tell you the best route to take, but an estimated time of arrival. Easier? More convenient? Most assuredly, but now you have people Google-mapping the grocery store they’ve been to a hundred times for fear of getting lost within four blocks.

We’ve taken to asking Siri about spiritual matters that only the Word of God can reveal, and what’s even more concerning is that we would take the word of a gadget over Scripture when it comes to salvific matters. Jesus said He was the way, the truth, and the life, but if you ask Siri how many paths there are to heaven, I’m sure it will list a plethora of them, because a soulless machine can never grasp the profundity of eternity, nor perceive what salvation means.

Some edgy, hyper-modern contemporary churches have even taken to embracing the notion of Artificial Intelligence delivering sermons, believing it to be viable, rather than the nefarious, destructive threat it credibly poses to something as existential as eternity. Yes, AI may use fancier words, better sentence structure, and more engaging story arcs, but what it can never possess is the unction and power of the Holy Spirit that the sons and daughters of God ought to. A machine, no matter how technologically advanced, can never feel the unction of the Holy Spirit or speak the words the hungry soul needs to hear. Likely, what you’ll get is a carefully curated word salad, akin to Elihu’s self-indulgent, bloviating speech, that neither challenges nor exhorts, and does its utmost to cause as little offense as possible.

Elihu inadvertently admitted that he did not know God, and, as any hubristic soul would, he had to include everyone else in his statement. If I don’t know God, then no one else can, so we, as a monolith, do not know Him! I can’t see it; I really can’t. Here I am speaking on God’s behalf, and I don’t know Him, and if someone like me can’t know Him, then no one else can. The probability that someone, anyone, would have a true and abiding relationship with God while I rattle off attributes about Him just doesn’t compute.

Look, I know stuff about God. He is great. He draws up drops of water which distill as rain from the mist. He scatters His light upon the canopy of the clouds and covers the depths of the sea, but as far as knowing Him personally, I don’t, so you can’t either, for we do not know Him! It’s hard to imagine anyone could be more presumptuous than Elihu, but to this day there are people who insist that, because they have not experienced something, it is therefore impossible for anyone else to have experienced it. Prophecy? Revelation? Divine healing? The indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Surely you jest. I’ve experienced none of these things, and I know a lot about God, so if I were not graced with these gifts, anyone who claims to have been graced with them must be lying through their teeth. Circuitous logic at its best, or at its worst, depending on how you view it, but if all else fails, ask Siri or Alexa; I’m sure they’ll have the right of it.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.

 Job 36:13-21, “But the hypocrites in heart store up wrath; they do not cry for help when He binds them. They die in youth, and their life ends among the perverted persons. He delivers the poor in their affliction, and opens their ears in oppression. Indeed He would have brought you out of dire distress, into a broad place where there is no restraint; and what is set on your table would be full of richness. But you are filled with the judgment due the wicked; judgment and justice take hold of you. Because there is wrath, beware lest He take you away with one blow; for a large ransom would not help you avoid it. Will your riches, or all the mighty forces, keep you from distress? Do not desire the night, when people are cut off in their place. Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, for you have chosen this rather than affliction.”

If Job had never cried out for help, Elihu may have had a point. It’s not that Job hadn’t cried out; it’s not that Job hadn’t pleaded with God for an answer, or asked to be shown his wickedness if there was any to be found. It’s that God had remained silent, and this, above all else, eclipsed what he’d been through and was a torment for his soul. It was the absence of God’s presence and voice that Job found most unbearable even though he’d been reduced to scratching at his festering boils with a potsherd.

It’s not that there was any evidence of Job’s guilt that compelled Elihu to conclude that he was filled with judgment due the wicked; Elihu needed Job to be guilty of wickedness to support his conclusion. It was an attempt to justify his judgment despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing because, above all else, Elihu needed to be right.

During the height of the Communist scourge, one of Joseph Stalin’s most infamous henchmen was an individual named Lavrentiy Beria. He served as the head of the secret police for some twelve years, and his famous quote was as chilling as it was succinct: “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” To him, guilt or innocence were irrelevant, as was the notion of fairness or justice. To him, the rule of law wasn’t something to be equally applied, but rather something to be used as a cudgel, a tool to get his way, and whether a man had done something worthy of punishment or death was irrelevant. As long as that man stood in the way of Stalin’s stated goal, he would find something to pin on him, even make it up out of whole cloth if need be, because his guiding principle was winning at any cost rather than discovering the truth of a thing. You presume the man guilty, then fill in the blanks at your leisure.

Elihu did not start out with a presumption of innocence when it came to Job. He’d already made up his mind. As far as he was concerned, the case had been adjudicated in the court of public opinion, and Job’s guilt was certain. Now all he had to do was backfill the narrative with incriminating tidbits, lean on causation to do the heavy lifting, and insist that he knew the mind of God when it came to Job. And so the entire thing could be wrapped up in a shiny bow, and he would be the man who’d proven what Job’s three friends could not.

This was Elihu’s version of “it is written” that would take place far into the future, as Satan unsuccessfully attempted to tempt Jesus into turning stones into bread, then later to throw Himself from the pinnacle of the temple, by misusing and abusing what was, in fact, written, but not in the spirit in which it was intended.

Jesus already knew who He was. Satan likewise knew who Jesus was, and any attempt at proving it was tantamount to tempting God. If you know who you are in Christ, you have no need to prove it to anyone, especially to someone who demands you do so in bad faith. Oh, you’re saved and redeemed? Prove it! Even if you decide to go through every detail of how Jesus transformed you, how you were born again, how you no longer pursue the things you once did but Him alone, it won’t suffice, it won’t be enough, because those asking for proof aren’t doing it out of a sincere desire to know, but in the hope that you come to doubt your place in God’s Kingdom.

Elihu was not well meaning, he wasn’t well intentioned, he wasn’t trying to get Job to repent of something he’d done, but rather to sow seeds of doubt regarding his relationship with God by repeatedly pointing to those who came before, who had rightly been judged for their wickedness, and insisting that Job was just like them, and he too had committed evil in the sight of God.

The sad reality is that Satan knows Scripture better than most believers, and if he thinks he can use it to sow doubt, he will not hesitate to attempt to pervert the truth of it toward his own ends. There is one surefire way to combat such schemes, and that is to know Scripture for yourself, consume it daily, and allow it to take root in your heart, so that when one of the devil’s minions comes calling insisting that it is written, you can likewise point to it and say, it is also written, and what you have stated as the basis of your argument is invalidated by Scripture itself, not parsed out, mutilated, twisted, and reimagined, but in context as it should be.

All things being equal, any one of us today would have a far easier time rebuffing the claims of Elihu because we have the written Word to fall back on, we have the Bible to which we can go and glean wisdom and understanding, while Job had none of those graces. What Job did have was unwavering faith in the God he served. He knew himself to be innocent of the things being said about him, and that was enough for him to weather the barrage of accusations and insinuations leveled against him.

If the day ever comes, let Scripture defend you if you know yourself to be a son or daughter of the Almighty, walking humbly in the way he has set before you. It’s the only effective defense, and the only surefire way to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 36:5-12, “Behold, God is mighty, but despises no one; He is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not preserve the life of the wicked, but gives justice to the oppressed. He does not withdraw His eyes from the righteous; but they are on the throne with kings, for He has seated them forever, and they are exalted. And if they are bound in fetters, held in the cords of affliction, then He tells them their work and their transgressions – that they have acted defiantly. He also opens their ear to instruction, and commands that they turn from iniquity. If they obey and serve Him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasures. But if they do not obey, they shall perish by the sword, and they shall die without knowledge.”

There is who God is, then there’s what men would like Him to be. There are undeniable attributes that God possesses, clearly defined in His word; then there are attributes that those who refuse to submit to His sovereignty project on Him as a way to excuse their rebellion and disobedience.

It is obvious Elihu wasn’t speaking about God from a position of having known Him personally and intimately, but rather from a position of assigning attributes to God that he would have liked Him to possess. He wasn’t saying anything new. One of Job’s three friends had already brought up the notion of karmic justice, wherein if you do good, only good will be visited upon you, and if you do wicked, evil.

I get the feeling Elihu would have made a spectacular modern-day prosperity preacher since he reduces everything to a give-and-take, tit-for-tat approach of God, not allowing for the possibility of refinement, correction, chastening, or testing.

If you have no worries, then you’re living right. If you’re obeying and serving God, then you’ll spend your days in prosperity and your years in pleasure. If you have trials and tribulations, you’re obviously doing evil, because everyone knows that status, wealth, and opulence are the surefire ways to know if God looks favorably on someone.

For a man who boasted that wisdom flowed from his lips and insisted that he was perfect in knowledge, Elihu said some ignorant things, showcasing his lack of understanding both of God and Job’s situation.

Because they refuse to consider context or weigh what a fragment of a verse says to the overall message of the gospel, some disreputable individuals could take Elihu’s words and make an entire doctrine out of it, not because it was true and in harmony with Scripture, but because his words confirmed their bias and spoke to the desire of their heart.

Look, it’s right there in black and white: you are on the throne with kings, exalted, seated forever, destined to spend your days in prosperity and your years in pleasure. Never mind that these words came from the lips of a man who had no true knowledge or understanding of God, and who proceeded to speak on God’s behalf words God never told him to speak.

Never mind that Jesus Himself said we would be hated for His name’s sake, and that in this world we would have tribulation. Elihu said we’re going to prosper and spend our years in pleasure!

Who said it matters. The context in which they said what they said matters as well. Some things are said with a negative connotation, but because we’re so focused on getting scripture to say what we want it to say rather than submit to what it says, we’ll flip it on its ear and pretend as though God Himself spoke the words that men took upon themselves to speak.

One of the most surreal moments that occurred not long ago was when none other than good ole’ Jesse had his wife on his program, and in an attempt to justify his excess, he went to the 49^th Psalm. The context of the latter part of the psalm has nothing to do with God prospering His own, but rather instruction not to be dismayed when the wicked prosper. Jesse, being Jesse, just took the first few words of the sixteenth verse and ran with it like his hair was on fire until his own wife called him out and pointed to the context, insisting that the verse didn’t say what he thought it said.

Psalm 49:16-20, “Do not be overawed when others grow rich, when the splendor of their houses increases; for they will take nothing with them when they die, their splendor will not descend with them. Though while they live they count themselves blessed – and people praise you when you prosper – they will join those who have gone before them, who will never again see the light of life. People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.”

When read in context, the meaning of the text is very different than not being overawed when others grow rich, and when the splendor of their houses increases, as though warning against jealousy and envy, which is what Jesse was attempting to convey. What the Psalm conveys is that all the wealth in the world is meaningless if one lacks understanding, because eventually the grave will beckon, as it has to all those who have gone before them, and if they didn’t know God, it would be for naught.

Elihu’s words might be appealing to the flesh, so much so that men would dismiss everything else the Bible says and cling to them as to a piece of driftwood on a roiling sea, but all they’re doing is clinging to the words of a self-important man who neither knew God nor His presence in his life. I’ve heard enough preachers insist on some variation thereof often enough over the years, but when considering what Jesus said to those who would follow Him, what they should expect while they walk the earth, and how the world would treat them, I have no expectation of being exalted or being seated on the throne with kings.

Sure, suffering persecution is far less appealing than sitting on a throne with kings, as is being hated for His name’s sake when the alternative is to be exalted, but between Elihu and Jesus, I believe Jesus, even if my flesh would rather I believed Elihu.

Who said the thing you’re clinging to with greater fervor than you would the Word of God? Touchy subject, I know, but one that must be confronted head-on, because many are coming in His name, speaking demonstrable falsehoods, and the household of faith is lapping it up and asking for seconds without once considering that Jesus said the opposite.         

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 36:1-4, “Elihu also proceeded and said: ‘Bear with me a little, and I will show you that there are yet words to speak on God’s behalf. I will fetch my knowledge from afar; I will ascribe righteousness to my Maker. For truly my words are not false; One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.”’

If you know what to look for, there is no shortage of red flags when it comes to Elihu’s speech. Once again, the way he frames it does not suggest that God sent him with a message or that God had spoken to him, but that he had taken it upon himself to speak on God’s behalf.

I’m not done, not by a long shot, and you’re going to hear everything I have to say on God’s behalf. On whose authority? By what authority? What permits you to speak on behalf of the Almighty? Could He not speak on His own behalf if He so chose? Surely, He could!

Men going without being sent and speaking on behalf of God, even though God never spoke to them, have become an epidemic in the contemporary church. It was such a common thing that the more astute among us concluded they needed to up the ante if they had any hope of standing out, because when everyone from Uncle Bob to Aunt Lucy takes it upon themselves to speak on behalf of God, it’s just not that special anymore.

And so we have the new breed of interdimensional travelers who teleport to heaven and back on the weekly, hanging out with God and watching old reruns of Little House on the Prairie, being used as a confidant and sounding board as to how God should rule the universe He spoke into being, because, you know, He second-guesses Himself so often, he needs some input from some spiky haired train wreck who discovered that a portapoti is the Star Trek equivalent of a transporter.   

Perhaps people are so hungry for some type of supernatural experience that they’re willing to swallow anything. Perhaps it’s the utter lack of Biblical literacy, but whatever the reason behind the rise of individuals who make greater, grander, and more bombastic claims regarding their own supposed experiences, it will not end well, not for them, and not for those who follow them.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul spoke of knowing a man who fourteen years hence had been caught up to the third heaven. There is a high probability that Paul was speaking of himself, but because he did not want to be seen as special or unique, he claimed it was some other individual. If it’s all about Jesus as some claim, then they’ll make it all about Jesus. If it’s all about themselves while claiming it’s about Jesus, they will be the ones standing in the spotlight, passing themselves off as superior in spirituality as well as experience, because they are the hero of their story, the star of their show, and there’s only room on the stage for one individual.

That Elihu would have the temerity to speak on God’s behalf was the first red flag, shortly followed by the second, which was elevating himself to the point that he deemed himself perfect in knowledge. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you! By whose qualification? By whose standard? By whose plumbline? My own, of course, silly. Who else can ascertain whether I am perfect in knowledge if not I? If anything, you should be grateful that one such as myself is taking the time to speak to you, rather than asking pesky questions like whether or not I have any evidence to back up my claims.

Trust me; I’m not lying; my words are not false. I am perfect in knowledge, and if you don’t see it, that’s on you. Anyone making audacious claims about interacting with the Almighty Himself and braiding His beard follows up their fanciful tale with trust me, I’m not lying; that’s a tell, and you should be aware of it.

What they are doing when they throw out the trust me line is attempting to short-circuit your rational thinking ability and guilt-trip you into thinking you’re too judgmental and unwilling to give the benefit of the doubt. It’s the same mind game confidence men like to play, where they pretend to be hurt and aggrieved when you call them out on their inconsistency.

You’re telling me that if I give you a hundred dollars today, you’ll give me five hundred in a week? But how can that be? What? Don’t you trust me? I’m not lying; my words are not false. And that’s when they have you on the back foot, no longer wondering why, if this individual could turn a hundred dollars into five hundred in a week, they need your hundred dollars, why they’re still driving a rusty Pinto, or why they smell like a cross between boiled head cheese and an outhouse.

Here they are, just trying to help me out, and I’m questioning their integrity. Shame on me.

Then the greed comes into play, and the question is no longer whether this person is lying or how this could possibly be real, but whether he can turn a thousand into five thousand rather than a measly hundred into five. Those playing the long con will even insist that you start out small, just to see that it works, and return in a week with five crisp hundreds, knowing that the next time it won’t be just a hundred bucks, but a thousand, or even ten.

If you don’t believe these are some of the same shenanigans being done in some churches, you’ve been sheltered, and I envy you for it. From the gold dust that never turns out to be real gold to people mysteriously finding fifty dollars in their Bibles after they threw five bucks in the offering plate, these are tricks intended to elicit a specific response.

Elihu was not motivated by justice, charity, love, or compassion. Elihu was motivated by Elihu and how others perceived him. His baseline was that he be seen as one who is perfect in knowledge and would accept nothing less. If that meant dragging Job through the mud and making him out to be a wicked man, so be it. You can’t have an omelet without breaking some eggs, after all, and it wasn’t like Job was long for this world regardless. Funny thing how, even to this day, people justify the most reprobate, vile, and evil things if they have a mind to.         

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Be wary of anyone who insists they have the market cornered on wisdom, and if perchance you desire some, the only means to attain it is through them exclusively. If the person, whoever they might be, places themselves as the middle man between you and the Word of God, and tries to convince you that only via their interpretation of the text and not your own diligent study and immersion in Scripture can you attain the wisdom you desire, at best, they have an ulterior motive and do not have your best interest at heart, spiritually speaking.

At worst, they are attempting to appropriate the authority of Christ and present themselves as an alternative messianic figure who must be obeyed, if not outright worshipped, ceaselessly minimizing Jesus while magnifying themselves to the point of seeing themselves on equal footing, if not superior to the Son of God Himself.

Delusion feeds on itself. Hubris is self-perpetuating. If an individual has started on the path of deception, they’re not going to get better, more balanced, or wiser, but descend further into folly, becoming unhinged to the point of saying and doing things contrary to the Word of God, the words of Christ, and dragging those who would follow them further into the deep.

2 Peter 2:1-3, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.”

Given that Jesus Himself warned of false teachers and false prophets rising up and deceiving many, the closer we get to the end of all things, the closer we get to His return, the more relevant His warning becomes because it will be in these last days that the enemy will go all out, doing his utmost to deceive, if possible even the elect. These warnings are there for a reason. They are not to be dismissed, ignored, or brushed off, nor are we to underestimate the power such individuals will display, even to the point of performing great signs and wonders. They are to be taken to heart, understood for what they are, so that when we see these things occurring, we will not be shaken, nor made to stumble, as many will.

We know that many will be deceived because that is the word Jesus used. It won’t be a handful, a few, or some negligible number, but many. What is deception? In simple terms, anything that attempts to replace the lordship, sovereignty, uniqueness, and indispensable need for Christ. The Word tells us there is one way, one truth, and one life, all encompassed in the person of Jesus, who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on a cross hanging between two thieves, rose again on the third day, and ascended to heaven forty days hence.

There is salvation in none other than in Jesus, nor is there any other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Anyone attempting to add to or take away from this principle, absolute, unequivocal truth, is sowing deception.

People love playing at being the gatekeepers to wisdom. They love insinuating there are alternatives to Jesus, or that something more than humbling ourselves, repenting of our sins, being born again, denying ourselves, taking up our crosses, and following after Him is required. It makes them feel special, spiritually superior, a cut above the rest, which feeds their insatiable pride. Sure, Jesus is all great and good, but you need a little something extra, a little extra spice, the secret to the secret sauce that only I have the recipe to, and if you want the full experience, you have to do this other thing I’m about to share with you in confidence.

Make sure that what you believe is in harmony with the Word of God. If it isn’t, then no matter how much you might want to believe it, no matter how good it makes you feel, no matter how much you might want it to be true, it isn’t, and that’s just a plain fact. The way I feel about the reality of something does not change the reality of the thing. I may feel like I’m in my twenties, but the reality is that I’m well past fifty, and no matter how hard I might try to talk myself into believing I’m twenty, the creaking bones, achy joints, and wrinkly skin say otherwise.

God does not negotiate terms and conditions. Any man who insists they are exempt from the guardrails the Bible sets forth is either lying to themselves or lying to you. There are no backdoors into heaven; there are no secret passages that only a select few are given to know, and if you follow after someone who claims as much, they aren’t leading you to the promised land but to a place of sorrow, grief, resentment, bitterness, and disillusionment.

It doesn’t matter how often this scenario plays out; it seems as though we never learn our lesson. Every time a wolf is proven a wolf, another steps up to fill the vacuum, insisting that though they act as a wolf, growl as a wolf, consume and devour as a wolf, they are not a wolf. And so, the way of truth is blasphemed anew, and a fresh crop of souls gets shipwrecked, because they allowed themselves to believe something that the Word did not confirm or agree with.

What does this have to do with Job, you might ask? Job knew God, and God knew Job. He did not allow external pressures to dictate his relationship with the Almighty, nor did he allow himself to be swayed by his friends and family into abandoning his integrity. If your relationship with God is anchored in truth, it will abide. If the foundation of your spiritual house is built upon the Word of God, it will weather the storm. Men might call you stunted, backward, antiquated, a relic of a bygone era when people were satisfied with serving God, worshipping Him, knowing Him, and being in fellowship with Him because they didn’t know any different.

I mean, people were happy with the radio before television came along, content with AM FM before satellite, shifting into gear and using the steering wheel before autonomous driving, but now that these things exist, they’re more exciting and cutting-edge. All of that may be true, but where we err is in equating the eternal God and Creator of all that is with technological advancement, concluding that if one has changed, the other must as well. God changes not, from age to age, and generation to generation. There is no improving on God because there is no improving on perfection. Likewise, there is nothing that can be added to a genuine, sincere, and consistent relationship with Him that can make it more satisfying.

Those who seek something other than knowing Him and being known by Him never knew Him to begin with, for had they known Him, they would have realized He is sufficient.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 35:9-16, “Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out; they cry out for help because of the arm of the mighty. But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night, who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of heaven?’ There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not listen to empty talk, nor will the Almighty regard it. Although you say you do not see Him, yet justice is before Him, and you must wait for Him. And now, because He has not punished in His anger, nor taken much notice of folly, therefore Job opens his mouth in vain; he multiplies words without knowledge.”

The only thing more off-putting than condescending, sanctimonious self-importance is when you couple them with an inflated ego that thinks it not only knows everything, but the reason for everything. Sprinkle in the name of God liberally, not because you are deferring to Him in the matter at hand, but using His name as validation of the rightness of your position, and it becomes difficult, if not outright impossible, to see the individual as likable.

My dad was one of the most gracious people I’ve ever known. He would extend the benefit of the doubt and try to see the good in someone even when scraping the bottom of the barrel and finding little, if any, redeeming qualities. Even the man who once commented that an individual trying to pass himself off as a Bible scholar who obviously knew nothing of what Scripture says, at least had straight teeth, had his limits.

That moment came shortly after my dad became pastor of the Messiah church, the church built next to the orphanage so the children would have a place to attend regular services, since there was no such church in that part of the city. Believers still gather, fellowship, and worship to this day, and it has grown over the years, but back then, it was only a couple of hundred people, plus the children and the orphanage staff.

One day, my dad got a call from another pastor in a different region of the country asking if we would host an evangelist from England and let him speak in our church. The pastor, whom my dad knew well enough, vouched for the preacher, and my dad agreed, slotting him to speak at a Sunday morning service.

My dad was informed that the evangelist would be in touch to hammer out the details, and a few days later, true to his word, he called. Anyone who knew my dad can attest that he was a jovial and gregarious man. He was always smiling, always had something nice to say, was always polite to a fault, and never went out of his way to drone on about his bona fides. Not so with this individual. After giving his name and asking if this was the pastor of the church he was to minister at the following month, he proceeded to regale my dad with all the places he’d preached, and once that was done, he went on to itemize his list of demands.

He needed three hotel rooms for himself and his entourage, nothing primitive, preferably something with at least three stars, a car to shuttle them from the hotel to the church and back since they would be arriving by train, and if the church was planning on any sort of post-service meal, there were a handful of dietary restrictions we should make the cooks aware of. By dietary restrictions, he did not mean allergies, but rather trivial things like a fresh fruit plate instead of a fruit salad, individual rolls instead of sliced bread, and so on.

My dad had planned to put him up in a hotel, although finding one with multiple stars in the area is a big ask, so that didn’t bother him overly much. He likewise understood that people have their preferences. Even though one could question why you would insist on being an unnecessary burden on a church body you were supposedly coming to serve by demanding things that were not, culturally speaking, normal fare as far as food goes, that didn’t push him over the edge either; what did it was the man’s insistence on being addressed by his title, rather than his name, if any of the congregants wanted to engage him in conversation.

“If any of the people want to approach me after my talk, please have them address me as Evangelist Rick,” were his exact words. Not brother Rick, but specifically evangelist Rick, as though that carried a greater weight than being called a brother.

That was when my dad’s inscrutable niceness cracked. Although he was never quite as barbed or acidic as yours truly can be, and often is, my dad was no lightweight. In the calmest voice he could muster, in his heavily accented English, my dad said, “Let me stop you there. I get the feeling we lowly folk are not deserving of being graced with your presence, sir. Perhaps you need a bigger venue to prove that you can walk on water. Have a good day.”

As I was reading Elihu’s words to Job, the same smug, condescending, entitled spirit stood out, reminding me of this event. If all one ever does is look down on everyone else, demanding respect without earning it, demanding to be heard even though what they have to say is banal and lacking in insight, it’s not because they are spiritually superior; they just think themselves to be.

It wasn’t Job and Elihu that God looked upon and deemed blameless and upright. There was only one whom God singled out: Job. Yet Elihu, in his hubris, saw himself as more righteous by far than Job, insisting that he knew the mind of God, His purpose, and His reason behind why Job was in the state he was in.

If you have to tear someone down to build yourself up, that tells me everything I need to know both about your character and your level of spiritual maturity.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 35:1-8, “Moreover Elihu answered and said: ‘Do you think this is right? Do you say, ‘my righteousness is more than God’s’? For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’ I will answer you, and your companions with you. Look to the heavens and see; and behold the clouds – they are higher than you. If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him? If you are righteous, what do you give to Him? Or what does He receive from your hand? Your wickedness affects a man such as you, and your righteousness a son of man.”

The older I get, the fewer the words necessary for me to get my point across in any given situation. Not so with the young. They have the energy and stamina to prattle on, and do it with an almost infectious enthusiasm. I have two daughters, and they are both natural-born storytellers. A point they could have made in less than thirty seconds turns into a fifteen-minute dissertation about how the dog got off its leash, and they had to chase it through the neighborhood, and by the time the story is well and truly over, they’ve also sprinkled in ample excuses for why her harness wasn’t fastened properly.   

Elihu was young, admittedly so, and he had no qualms about speaking his mind, being repetitive for effect, and saying the same thing in a slightly different way, in the hope that he could wear Job down to the point of finally admitting that he had sinned. I have no problem with lengthy conversations as long as they are necessary. Some things need to be discussed for longer than two sentences; others not so much.

Even assuming that Elihu was sincere in his discourse, and he wasn’t looking to elevate himself, stroke his ego, or prove his self-evaluated wisdom, the continued attempt to put words in Job’s mouth, words that he never spoke, simply to come out on top or prove that he was right about his judgment of Job, is wrong, and casts a shadow on the intent with which he addressed him.

Job never said that his righteousness was more than God’s, never even hinted at it, nor did he ever query whether pursuing holiness was a pointless endeavor since there seemed to be no profit in it. Job wasn’t looking to work an angle or gain some profit from being a blameless and upright man; he was compelled to pursue these things by his proximity to God and his desire for God’s presence in His life.

The presence of God molds, the presence of God transforms, the presence of God purifies and sanctifies an individual. If the desire of the individual in question is more of God’s presence in his life, he will naturally gravitate toward the good, the noble, the ideal, and the virtuous. He will shun evil, reject the temptations of the world, and the fear of the Lord that is present in his heart will direct him toward a life of obedience to God’s will.

Your pursuit of God is not based on a speculative transaction wherein you hope to get more than you put in, but a sincere and overarching desire to have an abiding relationship with Him, to know true fellowship with the Almighty, and feel His presence throughout.

That’s the one thing Elihu and Job’s three friends didn’t understand: the one constant in his life, the presence of God, was missing from him. God was silent; His presence seemed a far and distant thing, and that’s the one thing Job couldn’t live without.

If you’ve ever asked someone why they are a believer and their answer was because they didn’t want to go to hell, the foundation upon which their spiritual house is built is not love but fear. It is not out of a pure desire to have fellowship with God, to know Him, worship Him, praise Him, serve Him, and love Him, but to avoid eternal judgment.

When man is motivated by fear, all that he does in the attempt to allay it is done grudgingly, with the smallest task seeming like a burden threatening to crush him beneath its weight. The worship is performative, the declarations of fealty insincere, and if one were to come along and make them a better offer, or assure them that they can avoid eternal judgment without serving God, they would jump at the chance in a heartbeat.

When love for God is the motivation and the driving force, we set about doing the work of the Kingdom joyfully, without grumbling or thinking it beneath us, because whatever it is God would have us do, whether preaching from a pulpit or vacuuming the sanctuary, is deemed an honor and a privilege. Love carries you farther than fear ever will, and those with sincere, abiding, and unflinching love for God can endure when those motivated by something other than love have long given up the fight.

One needs only read the letter to the angel of the church of Ephesus to understand the importance of love as the driving force and motivating factor in their worship and devotion. Unlike the church of Laodicea, the church of Ephesus was hitting the mark in every area save one. They labored, they were patient, they could not bear those who are evil, they tested those who say they were apostles and were not, they persevered, had patience, and labored for His name’s sake without becoming weary, yet there was charge against them that Christ Himself insisted must be remedied lest He come and remove their lampstand from its place: they had left their first love!

They were doing all the right things, commendable and worthy of mention, yet the love that once burned bright was now but a flicker, and the warning they received was dire indeed if they did not take steps to repent and remember from where they had fallen. It wasn’t a slap on the wrist; it wasn’t a timeout; it was a warning that, lest they returned to their first love, their lampstand would be removed from its place. A lampstand holds the lamp that provides the light. Without it, they would be in darkness, lest they repent and return to that glorious, all-consuming first love that left room for nothing else in their hearts.

Boast as he might about his own wisdom, Elihu did not understand the type of love that motivated Job, a love that wasn’t a means to an end, but the end itself. All Job desired was God’s presence, without guile, artifice, or ulterior motive. Because he could not fathom such a love, Elihu believed Job to be a proud, arrogant, and self-righteous man who had rightly been brought low, which couldn’t have been further from the truth.       

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 34:31-37, “For has anyone said to God, ‘I have borne chastening; I will offend no more; teach me what I do not see; if I have done iniquity, I will do no more’? Should He repay it according to your terms, just because you disavow it? You must choose, and not I; therefore speak what you know. Men of understanding say to me, wise men who listen to me: ‘Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without wisdom. Oh, that Job were tried to the utmost, because his answers are like those of wicked men! For he adds rebellion to his sin; he claps his hands among us, and multiplies his words against God.’”

Look, it’s not just me thinking this way, lest you think I have a bone to pick with you, or anything of the sort. Men of understanding and wise men who listen to me have also approached me and complained about some of the things you’ve said. Some have even gone so far as to say that your answers are like those of wicked men. So why don’t you just get with the program, acknowledge that we were right, submit to our feigned authority, and perhaps the Almighty will have mercy on you? Otherwise, there isn’t much hope save for you to continue to suffer in perpetuity until you go to the grave.

Think of it this way: could all these people be wrong? You have what amounts to an army arrayed against you, from your friends to your wife to men of understanding who know the situation you’re in, and let’s not forget, myself. We’ve all come to the same conclusion; in our own way we’ve all said, basically, the same thing, and for you to continue insisting upon your innocence, for you to say that you’ve done nothing wrong and there is no wickedness to be found in you, just adds rebellion to your sin.

When you juxtapose Elihu’s words with what the Word declares, confirming that in all this Job did not sin with his lips, nor charged God with wrong, you come away with one fundamental understanding of men’s natures that has remained consistent throughout the history of mankind: men hear what they want to hear, and interpret what they hear in such a fashion as to confirm their biases, and undergird their conclusions.

For the most part, men don’t want their minds changed; they do not want to weigh the merits of a differing opinion; they just want to exist in an echo chamber where everyone says exactly what they say, thinks exactly as they think, and any deviation from the monolith of thought in that particular clique is dealt with quickly and viciously.

Likewise, any idea at the core of a group or clique of people, no matter how illogical or outside the realm of possibility, becomes self-perpetuating; not only does it become the one thing that defines and unites them, but also becomes the purity test by which all others who want to enter their sphere are measured.

It’s no longer about declaring the whole counsel of God, but about being in lockstep with a singular tertiary doctrine, and amplifying that one thing above everything else, even above Christ Himself. Paul addressed this readily enough when writing to the Corinthians, after discovering that rancor had arisen within the household of faith because, rather than declaring themselves to be of Jesus, they bickered among themselves, due to some being of Paul and some of Apollos.

1 Corinthians 3:4-9, “For when one says, ‘I am of Paul,’ and another, ‘I am of Apollos,’ are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.”

If a tertiary issue becomes a salvific doctrine and the litmus test by which others determine whether or not someone is saved and sanctified, it is no longer about Jesus, but about the issue which then becomes an idol of sorts which men elevate above what should be its rightful place.

Take your pick; there are plenty to choose from, whether the timing of Christ’s return, referring to Him by His Hebrew name exclusively, insisting that the Pauline epistles were the devil’s way of infiltrating Scripture, the frequency of communion, water baptism and whether one is baptized in the name of Jesus, or the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the availability of spiritual gifts, and the list goes on.

If any one issue becomes the defining marker of your faith and it’s not the risen Christ, humbling yourself at the foot of the cross and receiving forgiveness, being washed, made clean, reborn and sanctified by Him, through Him, and in Him, it’s idolatry, pure and simple.

We brush off the things the Word tells us we ought to be doing like praying, fasting, studying Scripture, and building up our most holy faith, and instead choose to bicker endlessly, throw mud at each other, and evict others from the Kingdom as though we were the landlords rather than God.

I get that believing we have the authority to declare who enters the Kingdom and who will be left on the outside looking in is an ego boost that few other things can match, but there will come a day when we will be called to account for presuming God’s judgments and our own are interchangeable.

The greatest of all the people of the East had been brought low, and now everyone was piling on. That neither changed who Job was, nor how God viewed him. The words of Elihu did not change God’s opinion of Job, nor did He concur with the assessment of those who approached Elihu in confidence and shared what they thought of the man.

If your relationship with God is grounded in Biblical truth, and the desire of your heart is His presence, then it matters not what men say about you, or how many array themselves against you. If God is on your side, everything’s going to be all right.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 34:21-30, “For His eyes are on the ways of man, and He sees all his steps. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. For He need not further consider a man that he should go before God in judgment. He breaks in pieces mighty men without inquiry, and sets others in their place. Therefore He knows their works; He overthrows them in the night, and they are crushed. He strikes them as wicked men, in the open sight of others, because they turned their back from Him, and would not consider any of His ways, so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him; for He hears the cry of the afflicted. When He gives quietness, who then can make trouble? And when He hides His face, who then can see Him, whether it is against a nation or a man alone? – That the hypocrite should not reign, lest the people be ensnared.”

If God’s eyes are on the ways of man and He sees all his steps, it is God and God alone that can determine the rightness of his way, for only God knows all, the things both open and secret, the things done in the shadows and the brightness of the day. It is the logical destination Elihu never arrived at, because he was too busy puffing himself up and insisting that men wiser than he lend him their ears to realize that he was attempting to appropriate God’s authority and pass judgment regarding Job.

Men can couch a lie in the truth often enough, but what they fail to realize is that the lie at the center of the truth in which it is encased pollutes it, and twists it into something other than the truth it began as. Factually, there was nothing wrong about what Elihu said. God’s eyes are indeed on the ways of man; He does see all his steps, and there is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves. All true, save for the presupposition that because Job had been brought low he must have been one such worker of iniquity.   

I have exceedingly more respect for someone who says they don’t know something, whether regarding spiritual matters or otherwise, than one who assumes, presumes, or tries to make out like they know the intricate details of a thing when they are wholly ignorant of it. In an attempt to save face, or keep their pride intact, men will double down on insisting they know something they clearly don’t until their ignorance is so evident as to be undeniable, or they are called out by someone who knows what they’re talking about.

Given that most people don’t like confrontation and they go out of their way to avoid it, the shameless among us who insist upon things that are clearly untrue usually get far before they are rebuffed, called out, or run out of steam.

When there is no pushback, when there is no resistance, they become more emboldened and, as such, become louder, to the point that they begin to believe their lies, passing them off as the truth. I’m sure you can think of a handful of things off the top of your head that are demonstrably false, that have, nevertheless, been passed off as the truth, and because few, if any, stood against them, they are now regarded as unimpeachable truth.

Elihu continues building his narrative, sprinkling in what God does with the wicked and the workers of iniquity, inferring that Job himself must be one such man since that is precisely what God does to them. Because God strikes wicked men, and Job himself had been stricken, then Job must be a wicked man.

Not only does Elihu detail what God does to the wicked, but he also insists he knows why, which is because they turned their back from Him, and would not consider any of His ways, and so Job must have, likewise, done these things since he had been stricken.

Generally speaking, Elihu is not wrong about God’s justice, or that He hears the cry of the afflicted. These are both true and factual statements, yet he applied them to Job, insisting this was the only viable explanation for why Job had lost and endured so much.

Elihu had already gone beyond judging Job, to condemning him for perceived wickedness he had no evidence of, not because he was a warrior for truth, or because justice flowed through his veins, but because he saw an opportunity to elevate himself by demeaning another. Before jumping on any bandwagon and adding to the chorus, perhaps it would be wise to determine why one individual has it out for another, and whether the intent behind their accusation is justice or their own self-aggrandizement.

Guilt or innocence are determined by whether someone actually did what they’ve been accused of doing, and not whether or not you like the way they come off, present themselves, or what denomination they belong to. To deem a man guilty when you know him to be innocent just because you don’t like his attitude or the manner in which he speaks is sinful. It is equally sinful to deem a man sinful when you know him to be guilty just because they’re likable or they belong to your particular clique.

God is not a respecter of persons. He will not judge you by your pedigree, lineage, level of education, or what continent you were born on. What impresses men does not impress God, and what disappoints and frustrates them isn’t what disappoints and frustrates Him. He knows you as you are; He sees beyond projection, façade, or image, to the heart of you, and when He looked upon Job, He saw a blameless and upright man, one who feared the Lord and shunned evil. Can the same be said about you or me? If not, then why not? It is not an impossible feat, after all. Job proved as much.     

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 34:16-20, “If you have understanding, hear this; listen to the sound of my words: should one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn Him who is most just? Is it fitting to say to a king, ‘You are worthless,’ and to nobles, ‘You are wicked’? Yet He is not partial to princes, nor does He regard the rich more than the poor; for they are all the work of His hands. In a moment they die, in the middle of the night; the people are shaken and pass away; the mighty are taken away without a hand.”

If you cannot convince someone of your position by the soundness of your argument, your next best bet is to wear them down with the multitude of your words. I envy people who can tell the same banal story a thousand times with the same enthusiasm and fervor. Unfortunately, I am not one gifted in this area of oratory, and to the dismay of those who hear me preach, teach, or drone on for the hour or so on the radio program every week, there isn’t much repetition.

In what seems like another life, I was an interpreter for my grandfather. When we traveled, and it was often, those who came to hear him wanted to hear his testimony, and he told it not because he wanted to elevate himself in any way but because it was a springboard to the real message of repentance and holiness unto God lest judgment be visited upon this nation.

I never found that dull or tedious, because it was his testimony, and he was, after all, my grandfather whom I loved and had great fondness for. What I do find dreary and lackluster, however, is when out of the entirety of the Bible, sixty-six books in all, some preachers choose one favorite passage from which they preach the same message to the point that the audience can quote it verbatim, and they never seem to tire of it.

It’s the reason I’m reticent in retelling my grandfather’s testimony: it’s his testimony, and as far as the message for America goes, it’s available for free, on multiple platforms, whether in written form or audio, so for me to retread already tilled soil seems like an ill use of the time I’ve been given.

It would be no hard thing for me to endlessly hopscotch down rabbit trails, and regurgitate my grandfather’s testimony ad nauseam, but to what end? There must be a purpose to what we do beyond endless self-promotion, or the attempt at riding someone else’s coat tails for the sake of clout. The time I spent traveling with my grandfather wasn’t always easy; oftentimes it was brutal, but they are all fond memories because I got to spend a solid decade and change with the man who taught me how to ride a bike, made me my first slingshot, and was a consistent example of servanthood and obedience. There are far worse ways to spend your teenage years, but I am a teenager no longer, and the calling to which I have been called differs from that of my grandfather, perhaps not substantively but in the granular details.

You can tell a lot about a person by the things they say and what they choose to focus on. Elihu was so wrapped up in himself, so eager to prove his mettle and unveil his genius, that he demanded anyone within earshot stop what they were doing and listen to the sound of his words. It is, after all, the only way you will see how wise I am, how brilliant, how compelling, and you will walk away knowing how unique and special I am. By the end of his oratory, they may have walked away thinking him special, but not in the way he would have liked.

There are some nuggets of truth buried in Elihu’s self-honoring, self-promoting speech that deserve to be unearthed and pondered, chief among them the reality that God is not partial to princes, nor does He regard the rich more than the poor. It is men who judge other men based on their appearance, their wealth, their position, or their prominence. None of the things men judge others by are what God judges men by. We are all the work of His hands, fashioned from the same clay, and the only things that set men apart and are noticed by the Almighty are the selfsame things that made Job stand out: being blameless, upright, and fearing the Lord.

Do you belong to Him not just in word but in deed? In modern parlance, are you merely talking the talk, or walking the walk? Is Jesus on the throne of your heart? Is His presence the overarching desire of your heart? These are all questions we can answer for ourselves as individuals, and if the answer is no, then no amount of influence, authority, or prominence will make Him regard you in a better light.

The rigidity with which Elihu viewed God and the implacable, unbending conclusion that there are no exceptions to the rules he established is what made him so myopic. This is the way God must operate, and no other. This is the way God must do things, and no other possibility exists. You, who was once the greatest of all the people of the East, are now a wretch, a pitiable thing covered in boils, and this can only mean one thing: you have sinned, committed wickedness, such wickedness that cannot be expressed given the extent of your troubles. Proof? No, there is no proof. There is no evidence, but your present condition is all the evidence I require.

The failure to understand that God does as He wills, and is not subject to the preconceptions of His creation, is one of the quickest ways to run afoul of God Himself. Creation will never be in a position to dictate what the Creator can and cannot do, and to claim such is to place oneself above His sovereignty.

You can declare and proclaim until you’re blue in the face, and if God does not will it, it’s for naught. When we pray “Your will be done,” it is in all things, not just the ones that benefit or profit us in some form or fashion. Often, God’s will humbles us and brings us low, but even in such instances, His purpose is to draw us ever closer to Him. While Job was honest enough to acknowledge that he did not, as yet, understand God’s purpose in his suffering, Elihu was supremely assured that he did. The only problem is that Elihu was wrong.      

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 34:10-15, “Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding: Far be it from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to commit iniquity. For He repays man according to his work, and makes man to find a reward according to his way. Surely God will never do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert justice. Who gave Him charge over the earth? Or who appointed Him over the whole world? If He should set His heart on it, if He should gather to Himself His Spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.”

There’s nothing like a man’s own words demonstrating his ignorance that clarifies the situation beyond any doubt, or the ever-present, “that’s just your opinion, I think he’s really smart”. Granted, some people have a blind spot for certain individuals, and no matter the inane word salad that spills from their lips, no matter how incoherent, banal, illogical, or counterintuitive, they’ll still swoon and heap praise upon them as though wisdom itself had at last found a permanent home.

If ever Elihu’s wisdom was in question, uncertain as to whether he had the wherewithal to follow through with his claims, we now have a definitive answer and definitive proof. After endlessly puffing himself up and extoling his own wisdom, Elihu’s argument boils down to karma.

If you do good, good will come to you; if you do evil, evil will be visited upon you. Perhaps when all is said and done, the flesh is no more, and we stand before God, there was truth in Elihu’s words, that God repays man according to his work, and makes man find a reward according to his way, but what happens between now and then, between the moment a man is born and a man goes the way of all things has nothing to do with karmic justice, or karmic reward. Bad things happen to good people, the wicked prosper, and the righteous hang on by the skin of their teeth, and that has nothing to do with whether God is showing one favor over the other, or blesses one above the other, unless you boil everything down to how much is in a person’s bank account and equate that number with their level of righteousness.

If prosperity were the plumb line by which holiness were measured, then Elon Musk is the holiest man walking the earth today. If Elihu’s banal conclusion of karmic justice and reciprocity held any truth, then there is no man walking the earth that has done more good than the world’s first trillionaire.

It’s always tempting to wax poetic on things and topics we have no clue about, but it is a temptation we must resist lest we do as Elihu did, and go on a protracted rant regarding the nature, character, purpose, and sovereignty of God without having a clue as to what they entail.

Elihu might have known certain aspects about God, but he did not know God, at least nowhere near the level Job did. There is a different level of understanding between knowing about someone from what others have told you and knowing them personally, having had fellowship, broken bread, and spent countless hours together. Job knew God personally. Elihu, it seems, had heard about God, learned about Him, but as far as having a relationship with Him goes, knowing Him personally and intimately, it seems unlikely.

That didn’t stop Elihu from demanding that everyone listen to him, because although ignorance may not be a virtue, it is a warm blanket that shields against self-awareness, or objective introspection. We’ve seen it often enough in our day and age wherein everyone is an instant expert on the most niche of topics, and once they’ve made up their mind, once they’ve decided that they’re right, no amount of evidence to the contrary will sway them.

To add to the growing list of things we shouldn’t do, Elihu goes on to presume the mind of God, and establish what God can and cannot do based on his underlying belief that karmic justice is the only true and viable explanation for Job’s suffering. This type of hubris is becoming commonplace in the contemporary church, with men declaring, in full authority, that there are limits to what God can do, or that, because they’ve decided it is so, there are things He no longer does.

They come to their conclusions not based on what the Bible says, not based on Scripture, but based on their individual, intellectual reasoning, and the most relevant thing of all, it isn’t happening to them, or they’re not personally experiencing it. It is flawed logic at best. It presupposes that if they never learned to swim, then everyone else is incapable of swimming by the sheer fact that they can’t.

Have you tried, though? Why would I bother? It’s impossible! But other people have experienced it, so it can’t be impossible. They’re just lying, that’s all, because if it were a possibility, then I would be doing it!

When we presume to declare what God can and cannot do, we are, in essence, limiting His omnipotence, appropriating His authority, and speaking on His behalf when He said nothing of the sort.

Although Elihu had the right of it when he declared that God would never do wickedly nor pervert justice, what he failed to acknowledge was the reality of the enemy of all that is upright, blameless, and pure, as well as God’s ability to test one’s faith by allowing the enemy to buffet and harass the righteous.

Yes, Job was a unique case, but if the enemy were given free rein to do as he wills, we would all be as Job, lying in an ash pile and scratching at our boils. There are no limits to the enemy’s hatred of God’s children. It is a hatred so overarching and all-consuming that only by God’s mercy and protection and the limitations he places on the devil as to what he can and cannot do to come against us can we still be about the work of the Kingdom.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 34:1-9, “Elihu further answered and said: ‘Hear my words, you wise men; give ear to me, you who have knowledge. For the ear tests words as the palate tastes food. Let us choose justice for ourselves; let us know among ourselves what is good. For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, but God has taken away my justice; should I lie concerning my right? My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression.’ What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water, who goes in company with the workers of iniquity, and walks with wicked men? For he has said, ‘It profits man nothing that he should delight in God.’”

The more Elihu speaks, the worse off he comes. There are a plethora of things to unpack in these nine verses, but in the hope of keeping the word count of this second volume under the benchmark of War and Peace, I will only focus on three.

First, Elihu continued to make it all about himself. It wasn’t about hearing the word of the Lord, but about hearing his words. It wasn’t about seeking an answer from outside of himself, but about those present giving ear to him. There’s a difference between being wise and being wise in one’s own eyes. The wisdom to which I am referring is not book knowledge, or the attaining of degrees and diplomas, but the wisdom that comes from God, which only He can give to whom He chooses, at a time He has appointed.

In reading the words Job spoke, and the depth of wisdom he possessed, it is undeniable that he wasn’t the source of his wisdom. He spoke of things he had no way of knowing, or discerning with human reason, and one could readily tell that it was of divine origin.

Young as he was, perhaps Elihu had some head knowledge; perhaps he’d read a parchment or two, he’d happened upon a dusty scroll and perused it, sat in the counsel of those older than him and gleaned some measure of understanding, but he wasn’t anywhere near as wise as he believed himself to be, yet that in no way kept him from declaring his wisdom to any who would hear.

Hear my words, and give ear to me is what Elihu declared to those present. There was no mention of the Lord, or hearing the voice of the Lord, or giving heed to His counsel. We’ve got it from here, and we will determine whether Job is guilty or innocent. Whatever the Lord’s input, whatever the Lord’s judgment, whatever He might have to say on the matter is now moot, for I, Elihu, have come to pass judgment.

Elihu’s second blunder was assuming he had the right or authority to determine what justice looked like, or that he had the wherewithal to know what is good based on the partial information he possessed regarding Job.

“Let us choose justice for ourselves; let us know among ourselves what is good.” And who exactly gave you the authority to do this? Who appointed you judge, jury, and executioner of a man God Himself deemed blameless and upright? If the Lord has spoken, if the Lord has sent, if the Lord has appointed, then by all means speak what the Lord has spoken and go where He has sent you, walk in His authority as you go about His work, but to claim and appropriate an office, a position, or an authority that He has not given you is a recipe for disaster on a grand scale.

The difference between walking in His authority and yours is the difference between victory and defeat. The difference between speaking His words and your own in His name is that one will be rewarded due to the obedience required to go and speak a difficult message to someone reticent to hear it, and the other punished for appropriating God’s authority and speaking in His name when He never spoke. Be absolutely certain that when you speak in His name, they are His words, for all men will be held to account for the words they speak and whose name they speak them in.

Every time I speak, whether on the radio or before an audience, I go out of my way to delineate between personal opinion and revelation, between the word of the Lord and my own words. Although asked to do so on multiple occasions by various individuals, I refuse to take a word from the Lord, a prophecy, or some revelatory insight, and interpret it, flesh it out, or give my opinion on what I think it means, because that’s not my place. I do not have the authority to do it.

If God gives a message, deliver it verbatim and be done with it. If you want to wax poetic on why you should include tofu in your diet for better gut biome health, do your worst, but never claim it was something the Lord commanded His children to do.

As an aside, if God gives you, personally, a specific instruction to either abstain from something or do something, it does not automatically become general doctrine for everyone else. When Samson’s head was shaved, he lost his strength. This does not mean that everyone with long hair will have Samson's strength. He neither went around demanding everyone grow out their hair, nor did he insist that the reason they did not have his strength was that their hair wasn’t long.

The third and most egregious thing Elihu did was that he put words in Job’s mouth that Job never uttered just to make his point and position more credible. Although Elihu claimed Job had said that it profits man nothing that he should delight in God, those words never passed his lips.

If you are so inclined, go back through the previous thirty-two chapters, and see for yourself. Job never said that! What he said was the opposite of what Elihu claimed he’d said, insisting that God was the only thing worth pursuing in this life, and whether prince or pauper, whether rich or poor, if the presence of God abided, it was more than enough and the only thing his heart desired.

Whether he’d misheard Job’s words, or he did so knowingly, Elihu lied. Given that his lie served to bolster his assessment of Job’s situation, I tend to lean toward him knowingly insisting Job had said something he never did just to get a win. If saving face, or keeping your pride intact, is worth besmirching and lying about what another has said, there is something very wrong in your heart that must be dealt with before any claim of wisdom, or being on a mission from God, can be made.         

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 33:29-33, “Behold, God works all things, twice, in fact, three times with a man, to bring his soul from the Pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life. Give ear, Job, listen to me; hold your peace and I will speak. If you have anything to say, answer me; speak, for I desire to justify you. If not, listen to me; hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom.”

In all of his self-serving diatribe and repeated attempts to elevate himself to a position of authority he had no right to appropriate, Elihu did happen upon a nugget of wisdom that cannot be dismissed or readily brushed off. In an admittedly roundabout way, Elihu hit upon the grace and mercy of God, wherein He will endeavor to bring a man’s soul from the Pit not once, but twice, in fact three times as Elihu states, and for some even more than that.

I’ve never been a fan of modern technology, and with the increase in spam calls, or individuals trying to sell me extended warranties for a car that isn’t worth the monthly premium of said warranty, the ringer on my phone is permanently on silent. I don’t like distractions, especially when I’m spending alone time with God, and wouldn’t you know it, that hour or two in the morning that I carve out as both intentional and exclusive to get into the Word and spend time in prayer is when everyone decides to reach out.

I often find three or four missed calls when I finally get around to checking my phone after I’m done with my quiet time, and they're always spam, potential spam, or an unknown caller who picked that specific time to dial my number.

I learned early on that one of the most often used and undeniably effective tools of the enemy is distraction. You commit yourself to a time of prayer, or study, you purpose in your heart that this thirty minutes, an hour, or two hours will be used exclusively for that pursuit, and suddenly everyone wants a piece of you, a moment of your time, something that can’t be put off or delayed, because if the enemy can keep you from spending time with God one day, he will attempt to rinse and repeat the rest of the week, then the month, then the year.

It never ends up being the emergency it was presented as being, and you find yourself having missed that window of being alone with God, because once the day gets started, it never stops. Between rushing the kids to school, packing their lunches, going to work, or the hundred other things we need to do to keep our head above water, the moment has passed.

The point is that a relationship must be reciprocal. If you want to know God on a deeper level, you must make the time to spend with Him. If you want understanding about a given biblical topic, you must make the time to study it. Yes, God works all things twice, in fact three times, to bring a man’s soul from the Pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of life, but it requires the individual’s consent and participation insofar as he does not resist the spirit of grace, nor turn his back on the proffered love.

God doesn’t take hostages. He will not keep you in His kingdom at gunpoint. Jesus Himself said if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. This is the way, walk in it.

Jesus did the heavy lifting. His purpose on earth was to reconcile us to the Father, something He alone could accomplish, and by His sacrifice made a way for us to be with Him in paradise, saved from the Pit, born anew, sanctified, and cleansed of what we once were, to be transformed into an image of Himself. In His own right, God extends grace, mercy, and forgiveness to all who humble themselves, but He will not force Himself on anyone. He knocks, and we open. He calls, and we answer. He molds, and we submit, not growing brittle or stiff-necked, but remaining malleable.

Any goodwill Elihu may have fostered by his mention of God’s grace gets canceled out when he once again attempts to bring the spotlight back on himself and insists that Job should listen to him, hold his peace, and allow him to teach him wisdom. A person who thinks they know more than they do is a danger not only to others but also to themselves. There was no humility in Elihu, no allowance for the possibility that things weren’t as they seemed at first glance, and like a bull intent on goring whatever stands before him, Elihu pushed ever onward, insisting that anything he had to say was wisdom personified.

Elihu was the quintessential armchair quarterback, the man who not only knew everything but believed he would have acted and reacted to a specific situation better than the individual in question. He never bothered to consider all that Job had lost, all that he had been through, or all that he’d endured thus far. His narrative was firmly established, and he would not be swayed from his position. He was wise in his own eyes, and he was sure to let everyone know it, for after all, if you don’t point out your wisdom, who’s going to do it?

You see this happening in churches and ministries often enough: a soon-to-retire pastor or head of a ministry brings on a young, unseasoned individual to take the helm, only to have them reimagine the ministry's mission statement and transform it into something unrecognizable within a matter of months. Never mind the hostile takeovers taking place in the corporatized Christian landscape, wherein someone believes they can do a better job than the individual who spent decades building up the work. The one question that’s rarely asked, and one that should be asked more often, is if you’re so star-spangled awesome and you have the vision to grow something exponentially, why covet another’s ministry rather than starting your own?

As was the case with Elihu, the sad reality is that some men’s hubris exceeds their intellectual ability, and when it comes to ministry, many go without being sent, doing more harm than good in their single-minded pursuit of something that was never theirs to begin with.   

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 33:23-28, “If there is a messenger for him, a mediator, one among a thousand, to show man His uprightness, then He is gracious to him, and says, ‘deliver him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom’; His flesh shall be young like a child’s, he shall return to the days of his youth. He shall pray to God, and He will delight in him, he shall see His face with joy, for He restores to man His righteousness. Then he looks at men and says, ‘I have sinned and perverted what was right, and it did not profit me.’ He will redeem his soul from going to the Pit, and his life shall see the light.”

If you get the sneaky feeling that you’ve met Elihu before, you’re not alone. The reason for this is that you’ve likely run across an Elihu type in your life, as I have, because they are more common than one might think. Elihu was the type of individual who, no matter the situation or circumstance, had the ability to make it all about himself. He was the star of his own show, and everyone around him was an extra.

If a typhoon devastates an entire region, the Elihu type will bemoan the fact that their flight might get delayed or diverted. Never mind that thousands of people are missing and presumed dead, or that an entire nation is without power for going on two weeks; your plans got ruined, you were inconvenienced by having to wait in an airport for two extra hours, and that was the real tragedy.

Elihu took what was happening to Job, and you guessed it, made it all about himself, and how Job was lucky, or at least should feel lucky, because God had sent him along to act as mediator, and by Elihu’s very presence, his selfless act of standing in for Job, he would be spared from the Pit if he would only confess and admit to having sinned and perverted what was right.

In his hubris, Elihu saw himself as one in a thousand, and if he’d had a say in the matter, the book would have been called the Book of Elihu rather than the Book of Job. Job was auxiliary, as far as Elihu was concerned, and the real story here was the selflessness Elihu exhibited by being willing to mediate between Job and God.

Even at the pinnacle of his success, Job never made it about himself. He didn’t go fishing for accolades or seek the praise of men; he didn’t see himself above the need to have a true and abiding relationship with God, nor did he forego the time he spent in God’s presence.

By the time the story of Job begins to unfold, his children were already grown, each in their own houses, yet, even then, Job would send and sanctify his children once the days of feasting had run their course, and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all.

He understood that everything was dependent on God, His good pleasure, and His sovereign will. For some, once they “make it,” whatever that entails and however that plays out in their minds, God becomes less relevant, less necessary, less important, because their desire was never to have intimacy with God but to succeed, to outshine their competition, and to reach their earthly goals. Not so with Job. By any metric, he’d made it. He was the greatest of all the people of the East, yet that did not dampen his desire to be in God’s presence and walk uprightly.

It’s not as though Job was secretive about his desire for God, nor about his relationship with the Almighty. By his own admission, Elihu had overheard the back-and-forth between Job and his three friends, had witnessed Job’s repeated insistence that he had not done wickedness and that God remained his singular priority and pursuit, but Elihu refused to believe him.

If Job had lived his life incongruent with the will and plan of God up until that point, not only would God not have singled him out as blameless and upright, but there would have been enough evidence to point to and rightly call him a liar to his face when he claimed innocence. He was well known enough that, had he done something wicked, it would have been discovered no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

Job wasn’t trying to save face or claim innocence when he knew himself to be guilty; he wasn’t trying to get off on a technicality, asking what the definition of wickedness was; he knew that he knew himself to be one who feared the Lord, and was not reticent in saying it.

Anyone who seeks to judge others before they judge themselves is not acting out of love, kindness, or righteous indignation, but a desire to elevate themselves and highlight their own perceived righteousness.

There are a few things that are offputting about Elihu and his approach of Job, but for me, worse than any other, it is the prism through which he saw Job, from an elevated position, thinking himself righteous and within his rights to pass judgment on a man who had, up until this time, denied all the accusations leveled against him, and conducted himself in such a manner as to make those who had been arguing with him have no retort or counterargument.

Elihu might have been a fresh face on the scene; he may have seen himself as superior since Job’s friends were, in his words, very old, but when he opened his mouth to speak, we soon realize he was the worst of the lot. Say what you will about Job’s three friends, but none of them had the temerity to appoint themselves as mediators between Job and God as Elihu had.

As the adage goes, respect isn’t given; it’s earned, and although Job’s friends had earned his respect by traveling to him in his time of need, Elihu had done no such thing. He saw an opportunity to exalt himself, and he took it, thinking it would be an easy thing given Job’s state. What Elihu hadn’t counted on was that it wasn’t any man who was Job’s defender but God, and when God is your defender, no matter what men might say, you will continue to stand firm and resolute.         

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Job 33:19-22, “Man is also chastened with pain on his bed, and with strong pain in many of his bones, so that his life abhors bread, and his soul succulent food. His flesh wastes away from sight, and his bones stick out which once were not seen. Yet his soul draws near the Pit, and his life to the executioners.”

If Elihu ever failed at being Job’s self-appointed spokesman before God, he could readily try his hand at being an utterer of personal prophecy in our modern era. He would likely get more traction than some of the new brood of internet prophets, who have measurably less insight and awareness than Elihu. What Elihu was saying wasn’t revelatory by any means; it was the conclusion to which he’d come based on Job’s suffering, because if a man suffers from pain in his bones to the point of abhorring bread, surely he must be under God’s chastening.

It’s funny how the faces change, but the means by which those who claim revelatory insight use the same deductive reasoning to reach their conclusions. It’s also the reason that focusing on the mechanisms and contrivances that such individuals use, rather than on the individuals themselves, is a better use of one’s time.

The false prophets, teachers, evangelists, and those pretending to be sheep but are inwardly ravenous wolves are like the hydra of legend, wherein if one head is lopped off, two others grow in their place. Different face, same scheme, time and again, but if you are able to articulate and properly define the scheme, the face won’t matter because you will know them by their fruit.

Matthew 7:15-20, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”

One of the biggest scandals within the prophetic movement in recent years was self-titled prophets using Facebook to mine data about individuals, then passing it off as authentic prophetic utterance. People were wowed and impressed as though they were there for a magic show rather than a church service, smiling and clapping like trained seals when they were told the street they lived on, or the name of their pet poodle, not bothering to think it through and conclude everything they’d heard was public knowledge, but receiving it as words from on high.

Those who understand how such individuals operate and can identify the mechanisms they employ know that the street number or the name of their recently deceased grandmother is just a springboard to what they’re really after. It never ends with “Your cat’s name is Mr. Whiskers, very original”; it begins with it. Sooner rather than later, also under the guise of prophetic utterance, the manipulation will begin in earnest, and whether it’s sowing a faith seed for the new parsonage that will allow for greater spiritual interactions with the Almighty, or coming under their mentorship which they then use to exploit toward nefarious ends, the victims go along with it because he knew my pet hamster’s name offhand, so he must be what he claims to be.

As an aside, when did the purpose of prophecy become to confirm to you something banal and spiritually irrelevant that you already knew, or could readily discover by looking at your driver’s license? When did we lower the bar to the point that we equate prophecy with a variety show put on by the local high school to raise money for its summer camp outing? What we are seeing today is what happens when desire to witness the supernatural meets unwillingness to live lives worthy of the name Jesus. We want the experience without the repentance; we want the words of knowledge without sanctification; we want the power without the indwelling presence because the indwelling presence demands a clean vessel, and that, in turn, demands that we mortify the flesh and deny ourselves daily.

You can’t have one without the other, but you can pretend to. It may work for a while; the crowds may be wowed, and the gullible may swoon, but the end will be worse than the beginning, and eventually the truth will out.  

If by some miracle we run across someone with true prophetic gifting and they speak a word that challenges us, calls us to repentance, chastens us, or isn’t what we expected to hear, we brush it off and go prophecy hunting until we hear the one we want to hear, because it was never about what the Lord would say but about confirming our biases and hearing a word that is little more than an echo of our own machinations.

I really didn’t like the word about humbling myself and striving for righteousness because it challenged me and made me feel some kind of way, but that one about being highly favored and God having a plan for my life where I would reach millions with my gift - that one hit home. It bore witness, don’t you know, so it must be God’s honest truth. Never mind that I know I’m not where I’m supposed to be in my walk with God. Never mind that although by now I should be on a steady diet of meat, I’m still on milk, and even that only enough to subsist; the man on stage said that I too would be a prophet to the nations.

Elihu didn’t go so far as to prophesy or claim he was prophesying, but he allowed his worldview to determine Job’s guilt and then created a narrative to support his conclusion. It’s like insisting you know the answer to a math equation before you’ve heard the equation itself. It’s four; I know it’s four; I don’t care if the equation is seventy divided by two; the answer is still four.

Such people are impossible to reason with because they will not allow for a different answer, no matter how much evidence exists that they were wrong.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 33:8-12, “Surely you have spoken in my hearing, and I have heard the sound of your words, saying, ‘I am pure, without transgression; I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me. Yet He finds occasions against me, He counts me as His enemy; He puts my feet in the stocks, He watches all my paths.’ Look, in this you are not righteous. I will answer you, for God is greater than man.”

Though he believed himself to be the possessor of pure knowledge, one from whose lips nothing else could flow, Elihu’s first action was to fall into the logic trap Job’s friends had likewise fallen into, not allowing for the possibility that there was something beyond what they understood taking place.

I’ve heard you say you were pure, without transgression, and that there is no iniquity in you, but if that were the case, why would God find occasion against you? If you were an innocent man, then God would not count you as His enemy; ergo, you are not an innocent man!

With all the build-up, with all the bloviating words Elihu used to introduce himself, one would think his first address to Job would have contained a tad more wisdom than it did. After talking himself up to the point of appointing himself as Job’s spokesman before God, his hot take was basic and banal. There is nothing new. There is no epiphany, no nugget of wisdom that would make one believe Elihu was as profound and intellectually gifted as he thought himself to be, but that’s the thing about hubris: it always makes the individual suffering from it think more highly of himself than he has any right to.

One thing Elihu said was true: God is greater than man, but given the subtext of his words, he also concluded that even though God is greater than man, God must see Job’s situation as he did, thereby making God beholden to him in His thinking.

I have judged you guilty; therefore, God will judge you guilty as well. It matters not that you insist upon your innocence or that there is no evidence of sin or wrongdoing; I am Elihu, and I have judged you thusly.

Presumptive human reasoning based on one’s own prejudices and the mind of God don’t mix. To assume that the two are in harmony, and appropriate the authority of God in one’s assertions isn’t merely dangerous; it’s sinful. God will not share His glory with another, nor will He allow His authority to be misappropriated and abused.

When one comes in the name of the Lord, they are there to speak His words, do His bidding, deliver His message, and nothing more. He must have been sent by the Lord in order to come in His name, and everything he does in his duty toward the Lord must be within the boundaries of what the Lord declared. You neither have the authority to wing it nor interpret the words that God spoke and assume that it’s what God meant. Your duty is to repeat the words God spoke verbatim, meaning in exactly the same words as were used originally.

Elihu had not been sent; he had no message; he had no word from the Lord for Job, yet he presumed to know the mind of God and placed himself as the sole mediator between Job and God.

Job 33:13-18, “Why do you contend with Him? For He does not give an accounting of any of His words. For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men, and seals their instruction. In order to turn man from his deed, and conceal pride from man, He keeps back his soul from the Pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.”

As I read Elihu’s words, the one analogy that comes to mind is of someone trying to teach a fully grown, adult Shakespeare the alphabet, insisting that he needs to know the basics of language before he can hope to read a sentence, never mind write one. Job was a man who was so accustomed to the presence of God that his singular terror was His absence, yet Elihu was going on about the varied ways He can speak to mankind, yet mankind, being obtuse, does not perceive His message.

Job’s greatest lament was God’s silence. Not that God had spoken and he’d missed it, or that he did not understand the message he’d received in a dream or a vision of the night, but cry out as he might, God remained silent to him.

Job had made this clear enough in his discourse, but Elihu heard what he wanted to hear, and had formulated his conclusions based on the premise that God was punishing Job for something he had yet to admit to, and what’s worse, in Elihu’s estimation, God had been speaking to Job all this time, but Job was too dense to perceive it.

He hasn’t gone quite so far yet, but at some point it would be no surprise if Elihu went with the standard, “If I were in your shoes, this issue would have been resolved a long time ago. I would have perceived what God was telling me and would have acted accordingly, but you refuse to do so. God has tried to turn you from your deeds, but you did not turn.”

It’s evident that although Elihu thought pure knowledge flowed from his lips, he had no clue what he was talking about regarding Job and his relationship with God. He judged the situation for what it was without spiritual insight or allowing for the possibility that something more was happening, just as Job’s friends had done.

We’ve all been guilty of getting caught up in thinking we were right about something to the point that it becomes all important to prove just how right we were. When it turns out we weren’t, that we’d misjudged a situation or a person, one of the hardest things is to admit as much, to acknowledge that we’d judged wrongly, and that we need to repent of it.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 Job 33:1-7, “But please, Job, hear my speech, and listen to all my words. Now, I open my mouth. My words come from my upright heart; my lips utter pure knowledge. The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. If you can answer me, set your words in order before me; take your stand. Truly I am as your spokesman before God; I also have been formed out of clay. Surely no fear of me will terrify you, nor will my hand be heavy on you.”

In contrast to Job, who was humble enough to know what he didn’t know, Elihu was a young man whose self-assurance and self-importance were ones for the ages. It wasn’t God who declared Elihu a man of upright heart, but Elihu himself, unlike Job, whom God deemed blameless and upright.

Grandiose doesn’t come close to describing Elihu’s attitude, because he didn’t just consider himself a man of upright heart; he also believed that his lips uttered pure knowledge. Every word that comes out of my mouth should be carved into stone to be remembered for ages to come, in my humble opinion. Can anyone validate my claim that my lips utter pure knowledge, you ask? No, then again, they’re all beneath me, so why would I consider their input?

Try as one might to see Elihu as a sympathetic figure, his words and attitude make it difficult, if not outright impossible. How would you react if, after a lifelong relationship with the Almighty, having lost everything, lying in the dust, scratching at yourself with a potsherd and barely clinging on to life, someone came along and insisted that they were your spokesman before God?

But I speak to God every day. I entreat Him to show me the error of my ways, if any error is present; I long to feel His presence and have fellowship with Him. How is it that you’ve appointed yourself my spokesman before God?

On the one hand you say we’re the same, both formed out of the clay; on the other you position yourself as spiritually superior, insisting I should fear you and that your hand would not be heavy on me. Who exactly are you? Why should, after all I’ve been through, endured, and suffered, be at all concerned with the weight of your hand on me? These are all valid questions Job could have asked, but Elihu was not interested in having his bona fides questioned. His only concern was that Job take his stand and answer him as though he were judge, jury, and executioner all rolled up into one.

There are a handful of practical yet important lessons in what not to do regarding Elihu’s approach, demeanor, and overall delivery of what he had to say that would serve any of us well as a cautionary tale.

The first of these is to reject the often appealing sense of self-importance. Not only did Elihu consider himself a man of upright heart, but he also insisted that his lips uttered pure knowledge. That’s quite a boast, one not even Job had made, yet Elihu felt perfectly comfortable making it.

Whether it’s Robert Tilton back in the day claiming to be the apple of God’s eye, or the more recent individuals who have no qualms about declaring themselves the solitary conduit of wisdom, knowledge, and prophetic insight, anyone who attempts to elevate themselves and claim exclusivity regarding an attribute that God gave to the household of faith as a whole is suspect and should be engaged with caution if at all.

If one such as Paul dared not elevate himself beyond the station of bondservant of Christ, what gives any person living today the right to make claims and boasts of such grandiosity as to make one think they were interchangeable with the Almighty Himself?

The second thing that Elihu did, that we should avoid at all costs, is presume to know the mind of God, and assume that He thinks as we do, judges as we do, or sees things through the same prism and the same light as we do.

Isaiah 55:8-9, ‘“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’”

If Job didn’t know why he was going through the things he was, surely Elihu didn’t have a clue. Yet, in his hubris, he was fully assured that he knew the right of it, and all that was left was to convince Job of it. Set your words in order before me, answer me, take your stand; I will determine whether you speak the truth, I will determine whether you are innocent, and will eventually prove your guilt.

Elihu wasn’t without his bias. He had already made up his mind regarding Job, and had concluded, as had Job’s three friends, that he’d done something truly wicked to suffer in such a manner. He presumed to know the inner workings of the mind of God Himself, and was not reticent in declaring as much.

The third thing we should avoid, and one that has become epidemic within the household of faith, is claiming titles God never gave you, or offices to which you were never called. Elihu had assigned himself the position of Job’s spokesman before God. God never called him to be so, nor had Job solicited his aid in beseeching God. Elihu took it upon himself to claim something to which he had no right, and many today are doing the same thing within the context of ministry.

Everyone and their grandma is suddenly an apostle or prophet, not because God called them to be, or equipped them to be, but because the title gives them clout and perceived authority. It hits different when a message comes from a supposed prophetess than from Aunt Midge with the sixteen cats and neon hair, doesn’t it?

In the end we will all be called to account for the lives we’ve lived, the titles we claimed, the authority we misappropriated that was never ours in the first place, the boasts we made, the words we spoke, the pride we felt, and the glory we took for ourselves that rightly belonged to Him.

While the humble, obedient, and faithful cry out, Come quickly, Lord Jesus, there are those within the household of faith who look upon that day with dread and great terror because they know God knows, and their farces have not fooled Him in the least.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.  

 No one asked him to do it, no one inquired of him, but Elihu took it upon himself to educate Job and his three friends, and he had nothing good to say about any of them. Job had offended his sensibilities by declaring his innocence; the three friends had offended him by being unable to challenge Job’s assertions; and, of all the men present, he thought himself the sole possessor of wisdom and understanding.

With the advent of modern technology, it has become far easier to highlight one’s ignorance and put it on full display for all to see, and the chorus of those screeching “Listen to me, I also will declare my opinion” has become the soundtrack of life, ever present in the background, like the buzzing of a hornet or the stridulation of a grasshopper. You try to tune them out, even succeed on the good days, but more often than not they get so loud as to become impossible to ignore, a cacophony of noise with no underlying substance.

The first impulse is to add our own noise to the chorus, to speak our mind, to have our say, to throw our two cents in to a growing mountain of pennies. Surely, if the guy with the squeegee, offering to clean your windshield for some spare change, has an opinion on geopolitics and global affairs, you should have one too; at least you own a car, and technically, delivering DoorDash to lazy people is a job, so you have one of those too. Yep, that’s what I’ll do. I’ll give him a piece of my mind and tell him what I think because I have just as much right to an opinion as he does to his, and my opinion is likely the correct one anyway.

If we surrender to that first impulse, all that occurs is that our voice is added to the noise, and we find ourselves trying to talk over others, each holding to their position, becoming ever more impatient, erratic, and vitriolic. Soon enough, it’s no longer about the position, but about the person, and the ad hominem attacks come in hot and heavy, focusing on the individual rather than their premise, because if the message is bulletproof, the messenger likely isn’t.

I’ve found that the wisest thing to do in such situations is refuse to participate entirely. People who’ve made up their minds about one thing or another are rarely willing to hear dissenting opinions, or allow for their minds to be changed on the matter. If I’m asked my opinion, I will give it, but beyond that, I refuse to engage in a war of words that will likely produce nothing but bitterness and animosity.

If the matter is of a biblical nature, then all I can do is point to what Scripture says, because I am subordinate to it, and not it to me. If it’s a trivial matter, we all have our preferences and will not judge another for failing to tuck in their shirt or wear khakis to the park when it’s blistering hot outside. Do I think that wearing knee-high socks with open-toe sandals is a good idea? No, but it will neither bring one closer nor distance them from Jesus, so why should it matter to me?       

Job 32:15-22, “They are dismayed and answer no more; words escape them. And I have waited, because they did not speak, because they stood still and answered no more. I also will answer my part, I too will declare my opinion. For I am full of words; the spirit within me compels me. Indeed my belly is like wine that has no vent; it is ready to burst like new wineskins. I will speak, that I may find relief; I must open my lips and answer. Let me not, I pray, show partiality to anyone; nor let me flatter any man. For I do not know how to flatter, else my Maker would soon take me away.”

For well over half of the book of Job, no one even knew Elihu was present or that he even existed. His name had not been brought up, he had not been included in the conversation, none of what was said pertained to him, yet he was full of words, and the spirit within him compelled him to speak. Which spirit, I wonder?

This wasn’t about giving an arbitrary opinion on the weather; it wasn’t as though he was asked to chime in, but Elihu took it upon himself to speak; otherwise, he would burst. In his mind, what he had to say mattered so much that had he kept silent, he would find no relief.

If you’ve ever had someone jump in mid-conversation without understanding the context or knowing what was said before they decided to give their hot take, you know what Job and his three friends felt like. I’m sure you’re right, and Fords are unreliable, but the conversation wasn’t about cars. You misheard “afford” and thought it was “Ford”, and now we’re onto a whole new topic when the initial conversation centered around how no one could afford health insurance anymore.

There is wisdom in the admonition that one ought to be slow to speak and quick to listen. Granted, Elihu had been listening to the back and forth between Job and his friends, but he had no reason for injecting himself into the conversation save for hubris and the elevated opinion he had of himself and his opinion.

He knew what he was going to say before he said it, and likewise knew it would not land well, so he couched his words in a self-serving, “I’m just being honest, not looking to flatter, or show partiality” preface before launching into his diatribe. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, believing him at his word that his desire was not to show partiality to any one individual over the other, the question remains: why say anything at all? It’s not as though Job asked him to jump into the conversation, nor had his three friends enquired of his opinion or asked for his aid in convincing Job that his uprightness was an illusion. Even so, in Elihu’s mind it was either speak, or burst like a new wineskin, and there was no in between.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 As we proceed further into the chapter, we are made aware of a fifth individual, one who, up until this moment, had watched and heard the interaction between Job and his three friends but had remained silent.

We are informed that he is Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, and by all accounts, he was an angry young man. His wrath was aroused against Job, against Job’s three friends, and as any youthful hubris is likely to do, he thought he knew better than everyone and proceeded to set them straight. He’d held his tongue up until this point. Perhaps his parents had taught him to respect his elders, and although he’d been present for the back and forth between Job and his three friends, and managed to hold his tongue and not speak, that time had come and gone, and now he would give them a piece of his mind.

His wrath was aroused against Job because he viewed Job’s discourse as justifying himself rather than God, and against his three friends because they found no answer, yet condemned Job. Young Elihu was an island unto himself and had convinced himself that he knew better than everyone, and he’d prove it.

Evidently, it’s not just this generation of young people who think they know better than those with decades under their belt. It’s not a new malady, it seems, but something that has been around for thousands upon thousands of years.

The first words out of Elihu’s mouth could readily be seen as an insult to the other four men, calling them very old, rather than wise or experienced. If you have children of a certain age, you’ve likely had at least one such conversation wherein the things they said revealed a lack of practical life experience. When we were children, we all thought as children. Tragically, even though fully grown, some men still think as children, but generally speaking, the way of things ought to be that the grayer your temples, the greater the wisdom you possess.  

There are no substitutes for some things. While you can substitute sugar for Splenda or coffee for tea, there are no substitutes for lived experience, and the wise among us tend to learn from the mistakes of others instead of making the same mistakes themselves.

There are countless examples in which the good advice parents gave their children was summarily ignored, only for the very same children to come back years later and grudgingly admit that their parents were right. Perhaps the face tattoo wasn’t the best idea. Perhaps mom and dad were right, and gainful employment did have its benefits, like not starving, after all.         

Job 32:10-14, “Therefore I say, ‘Listen to me, I also will declare my opinion.’ Indeed I waited for your words, I listened to your reasonings, while you searched out what to say. I paid close attention to you; and surely not one of you convinced Job, or answered his words – lest you say, ‘We have found wisdom’; God will vanquish him, not man. Now he has not directed his words against me; so I will not answer him with your words.”

No one asked it of me, but I will, nevertheless, give my opinion, and you have no choice but to listen to me. Although the Word does not go into detail about who this young man was, other than that he was from the family of Ram and the son of Barachel the Buzite, it seems he thought highly of himself and was not shy about it. It’s one of the things the household of faith contends with more and more these days, because everyone not only has an opinion about everything, but they feel it is within their right to voice said opinion, and insist that everyone listen.

It’s one of the reasons we have strayed so far from Biblical truth that we now require a roadmap just to get back to its general vicinity. It may deflate some egos, but when it comes to Biblical truth and what the Word of God says, your opinion is irrelevant. I know, but I’m me, and I’m important, and people should listen to everything I have to say, even if it contradicts Scripture itself.

As I heard a young man ask the cashier at the local grocery store when she denied his coupons because they’d expired, “Who you is? Who do you think you is?”

We have foregone discipleship, seasoning, maturing, studying, learning, and growing, because those things take too long, and we have a five-year plan for our ministry. I got saved on a Wednesday, and started teaching the Word on a Sunday, even though the first time I ever cracked open a Bible was the previous Thursday, but listen to me, and I also will declare my opinion!

Then they start playing their own version of “Did God really say?” with scripture that is obvious and unambiguously declares what God said, because in order to stand out, you have to put a new spin on the old text, and in order to do that, you must go beyond the bounds of what it states.

Now that you’re old, you just have a problem with young people in ministry. Not so, but I do take issue with brash young people in ministry who attempt to twist the Word of God to fit their reimagined version of what they think Christianity should be instead of what the Bible says it is. Being loud doesn’t make you right; it just makes you loud.

Speaking of things that can’t be substituted, discipleship is one of those things, at least if the desire of your heart is authentic ministry and not just a get-rich-quick scheme you’ve dreamed up. Who one chooses as their mentor in spiritual matters tells me everything I need to know about the true desire of their heart. There are those who follow after Christ, laying aside their plans, dreams, aspirations, and desires in the process; then there are those who pretend to follow Him to fulfill their plans, dreams, aspirations, and desires. One will lead to a humble, well-lived, obedient, and Biblical life. In contrast, the other will lead to compromise, because being Biblical will never draw the crowds that being worldly will, and if the heart is set on the things of this world, then every decision will focus toward that end.

The worst thing the young can do is seek to be discipled by flash over substance, unless what they really want is to mirror the flash, without regard for what the Bible says a bishop, elder, or teacher of the Word ought to be. We’ve seen the consequences of these choices time and again, and we’re just getting started.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

 Job 32:1-9, “So these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Then the wrath of Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was aroused against Job; his wrath was aroused because he justified himself rather than God. Also against his three friends his wrath was aroused, because they had found no answer, and yet condemned Job. Now because they were years older than he, Elihu had waited to speak to Job. When Elihu saw there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his wrath was aroused. So Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, answered and said: ‘I am young in years, and you are very old; therefore I was afraid, and dared not declare my opinion to you. I said, ‘Age should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’ But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding. Great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always understand justice.’”

If you can’t win an argument on merit, if you can’t accuse someone of wickedness based on the evidence, the only thing left to do is start slinging mud and frame the individual in question as either pompous, elitist, or self-righteous. You don’t see things the way I do; you don’t come to the same conclusions as me, so there must be something wrong with you. We can’t put our finger on it; we can’t identify what it is, but sure as the sun shines, something is amiss; otherwise, you would have relented and acquiesced to our judgment. That’s what Job’s three friends had concluded, and, comforting themselves with the notion that he was being righteous in his own eyes, they ceased answering him.

The easiest way to see someone’s true character is to disagree with them on some small matter that in the great scheme of things is tertiary and irrelevant, and watch their reaction to it. People who think they’re always right can never admit to it when they are wrong. In their minds, being wrong is an impossibility, and so they eliminate the possibility thereof altogether. It’s never considered, it never enters the equation, and so they have to rationalize it to themselves by finding reasons to support their conclusion.

I don’t think it was ever intentional, but my grandfather had a gift for putting people on the back foot and watching them react. He wasn’t mean about it, just honest, but even back then, some took honesty as an affront and an insult. For all the years we lived in California, we didn’t have a dedicated ministry office or a dedicated line. Everything was run out of the two-bedroom apartment seven of us lived in, and the ministry line was the same as our home phone number, which became a bit of a nuisance when it would start ringing as early as four or five in the morning because those calling hadn’t figured in the time difference between the East Coast and the West Coast.

One morning, we got such a call with someone asking if they could drop by for a visit, as they were traveling to California the following week, and since we are the hospitable sort, we told them they could drop by any time, and we would have a prayer, a meal, and a talk.

He showed up four days later, and immediately, one could tell something was off. There are humble, pious people, then there are those who pretend at it, and this man was the latter, both in his mannerisms and the condescension he exhibited at seeing the humble apartment we lived in.

“You live here?” he asked, arching his eyebrows and wrinkling his nose.

“Indeed, we do,” my grandfather answered in Romanian, and I dutifully translated into English.

We invited him in, pointed to the table, offered him a chair, and suggested that if he wanted to place the large bundle he was carrying under his arm against the wall, he was more than welcome to do so.

“Oh, this is far too important to lay on the floor,” he said, and placed it across his knees as he sat.

My grandfather pulled up a chair across from him. I sat next to my grandfather, and we waited to see what the man wanted. Meanwhile, my mother was busy making lunch in the kitchen, and since it was a small apartment, you could hear the sizzling of the pan and the clanging of the pots, to which he said, “Can she be a bit less noisy? I have an important message to deliver to you.”

“She’s doing her best,” my grandfather said, a look of annoyance flashing on his face, “what brought you to our humble home?”

“I am here to reveal to you that I am King David, and you are to be Prince Moses, and we two are to be the voice of God throughout the land. As he said this, he reverently lifted the bundle from his knees and placed it on the table between us.

“This is your staff, Moses,” he said.

My grandfather arched his brows, shrugged his shoulders, and, without missing a beat, asked, “Why do you get to be a king, and I a lowly prince? I want to be king.”

The flush in the man’s face was instant. “No, that’s not the way it works,” he spluttered. “I’m King David, and you’re Prince Moses. That’s the way it works.”

I translated what he’d said, trying not to grin, and after taking a deep breath, my grandfather answered and said, “I have already received my marching orders, I already know what my duty is to God, and if there were to be a change of plans, He would have told me as much. I cannot be the Moses to your David, but you’re more than welcome to break bread with us, have a time of prayer, and fellowship.”

“I will do no such thing,” the man answered, pushing his chair away from the table, “I’ll shake the dust off my feet, is what I’ll do, you are not the man I thought you to be.”

“That’s fine,” my grandfather said, “my daughter will vacuum later.”

To that, the man stood and stormed out of our apartment, without another word, leaving the staff of Moses behind in his haste. It turned out to be a nice walking stick, ornate and beautifully carved, that my grandfather used on occasion when his gout and arthritis got to be a hindrance.

The point of the story is simple: the man had walked in with a preconceived notion, an assumption that he was certain was the right one, and would not allow for the possibility that he was mistaken. When his assumption was challenged, there was no introspection, but rather angry retorts and combativeness. Be humble enough to allow for the possibility that you misread a situation, that you prejudged someone not based on evidence but on emotion, and if you discover this to be the case, be humble enough to repent of it.    

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.