There is an undeniable escalation in both insinuation and outright accusation with each of Job’s friends, culminating with Zophar, who could not bear to hear of anything as impossible as Job’s doctrine being pure without calling it out. Given Job’s current state, that notion could not be true, at least as far as Zophar was concerned. He could not reconcile a pure doctrine and uprightness with what Job had been reduced to, and the only viable conclusion in his eyes was that Job had so rebelled against the God he’d served all his life to the point that he was getting less than he deserved.
There’s what men think about you, and there’s what God knows
about you. This pendulum tends to swing both ways, wherein individuals who are
seen by their contemporaries as pillars of morality and uprightness turn out to
be the vilest of hedonists, while men who are walking humbly with their Lord,
working out their salvation with fear and trembling, are deemed forsaken and
lost. God knows the truth of it all, and it is before His throne that we will
stand to face judgment, and not before men.
Our duty is to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord, not fit
into some mold men fashion out of whole cloth, then insist we adhere to on pain
of eternal damnation. If you don’t adhere to this doctrine, if you don’t
practice this thing or that, if you pray with your eyes open, if you don’t
belong to this denomination, then you’re not going to heaven, buddy, no matter what
the Bible says. I, sister Karen of the church of self-importance and
overreaction, have deemed it as such, so you’d better get with the program.
Whenever some newfangled, heretofore unheard of doctrine
makes its way to the fore, the first and most important question we must ask is
whether God said to do the thing these men demand of us and whether it is
confirmed by Scripture. That’s the acid test that every teaching must pass in
order to be appropriated, absorbed, and adhered to. If it fails, then it’s a
no-go, regardless of who came up with it or how many influential leaders give
it their tacit approval.
Do what God says, live as He commands, even if it means
putting you in a contrarian position with your contemporaries, because it’s not
them that you will one day have to answer to, but to Him. God’s will, above
all, should be our baseline mindset, and when this becomes a reality, the way
forward becomes clear, and moments of indecision or second-guessing ourselves
will well and truly disappear.
Job 11:7-12, “Can you search out the deep things of God? Can
you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven – what can
you do? Deeper than Sheol – what can you know? Their measure is longer than the
earth and broader than the sea. If He passes by, imprisons, and gathers to
judgment, then who can hinder Him? For He knows deceitful men; He sees
wickedness also. Will He not then consider it? For an empty-headed man will be
wise, when a wild donkey’s colt is born a man.”
Some sayings and idioms stand the test of time, others not so
much. While we still say it’s raining cats and dogs, I have yet to hear anyone
insisting that an empty-headed man will be wise when a wild donkey’s colt is
born a man. It doesn’t roll off the tongue, and maybe that’s the problem, but
what Zophar was insinuating is that Job was too ignorant to understand the
gravity of his sin.
If you can’t see it the way I see it, that just makes you
empty-headed, and an empty-headed man being wise is as likely as a wild
donkey’s colt being born a man. Not only have you sinned, and gravely so, to
the point that your suffering is less than you deserve, but you’re too obtuse
to see the sin you committed.
This is usually the last stand of anyone losing an argument
or realizing their conclusion is flawed. Well, you just don’t see it the way I
see it because you’re too ignorant. This approach usually doesn’t work if it’s one-on-one,
the debate coming to a stalemate after each participant gives their point and
counterpoint, but it is effective when there is a chorus of voices against one
individual.
The reason we often see one individual being isolated and
then being piled on by everyone is because it works. It takes a steel spine,
will, and determination to be the one person in the crowd going against the
grain and standing on principle rather than acquiescing to the mob.
It’s easy enough to get carried away by the rushing waters of
compromise and feigned loyalty that has become common practice among many
today. In doing so, you’ll always be in the majority, feeling as though you
belong, but the purpose of we who are as strangers in a strange land isn’t to
fit in, assimilate, and conform, but to be more like Jesus every day. If that
means becoming outcasts, so be it. If that means standing out like a sore thumb
and suffering the ridicule and ire of the masses, so be it.
The temptation of conformity is an ever-present siren song
for those whose desire for prominence, influence, or climbing some ladder, social
or otherwise, is in direct competition with the mandate to obey God and walk in
His ways. It’s the lure of fitting in, of not standing out, of avoiding
conflict, even if it means compromising on our faith and values.
It’s not a one-and-done prospect, either. Every day, we are confronted
with the choice of holding onto integrity and speaking the truth in love, even
if those we are speaking it to will see it as hate, or making compromises,
holding back and omitting necessary truths, because of some implied benefit to
our current station if we were to do so. It is a conscious choice, and based
upon the choice we make, we reveal our true heart, whether that is doing the
will of God or desiring the honorifics of men.
By this point, Job must have realized that trying to placate
his friends wouldn’t work. They’d made up their mind as to why he was suffering
his torments, and no matter how much of a defense he attempted to mount, it would
have fallen on deaf ears.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
Posted on 8 March 2025 | 12:35 pm
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