Collaborative
Say What You Know And Know What You Say
Job 15:2-6
Should a wise man utter vain knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk? Or with speeches wherewith he can do no good? Yea, thou cast off fear, and restrain prayer before God. For thy mouth utter your iniquity and you choose the tongue of the crafty. Your own words condemn you and not I: yea your own lips testify against you.
People talking about you, they make accusations, accuse or charge with a shortcoming or error, bring charge against someone for a misdeed, or bring an allegation against, a statement asserted to be true, without proof, supposed and presume what they think they know. You can only be a witness to what you have seen or experienced. Therefore you can’t testify to the truth if you have not seen anything. Then you have to be careful about what you are seeing. For what you may think you see, might not be that at all. The Bible says to believe none of what you hear and very little of what you see. A wise man utters knowledge about those things that they only know. Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad was Job’s well meaning friends who confronted him about his condition he found himself in.
Job was an upright man, highly favored of God, father to his family, the priest of the family, and lived in Uz located near Edom. Now you know the story of Job. Some events happened that could only be testified of from our reading of Job. It seems to demonstrate to us the inadequacy of human reason to account for the suffering of the innocent. Here Job’s friends is trying to find reasoning for Job’s afflictions, doubting that he had surely did something to displease God. However we read that God was pleased with Job, he had blessed him. He was wealthy, a homeowner in a large city of the region, respected and a popular Judge, benefactor of his fellow citizens, a righteous man in God’s eyes. Everything that happened, was initiated by God for God did not allow Job trials because of any sin in his life and as you will see Job’s testimony was that of going through a severe test that brings you to a fresh appreciation of God and who he is, that he is surely able to bring you through and his grace is truly sufficient for you in your life.
We know how Satan revealed looking for any evil reason he could find to bring before God, that he may bring an attack against you. Well he didn’t seek Job out, but God offered Job his servant for the attack. Yielding to Satan to remove the hedge from around Job, he permits Satan to test Job. As we know Satan’s power is always exercised under God’s control. He is limited by the unlimited power of God. The disasters that befell Job were of human agency and of natural sources, but behind Satan demonic powers. All the tragedies took place on the same day, leaving only four servants to come and testify of the bad news. Human life was lost in all four disasters but Job never cursed God, but worshipped him instead. In Job 1:20-22 Job’s body was attacked but he still blessed God. His wife wanted him to curse God and die, but yet he blessed God. God allow bad things to happen, but they all have good endings if we hold on to God. After seeing he was doomed and his attacks did not work on Job, he found yet another way to attack, through his friends. They came and brought many unmerited accusations against Job as they tried to justify what sin he had committed. Yet Job never cursed God but blessed him. He cursed his own birth instead. It is something how people will look at what’s going on in you life and try to make their judgment call. Here his friends try to show Job that God is great and he judges sin, indicating that Job had sin in his life. They want to show him the principles of justice and the concept of retribution. They even go as far as to moralize or emphasize to him the principles of wisdom, which they suggested Job had violated. They had negative views of Job believing he had done something to bring this trouble on himself. They had the view that if you plow iniquity, you reap the same, meaning you reap what you sow suffering from sin.
Some of them Job just listened to before he answered as he was in so much grief that he said his grief was thoroughly weighed and his calamity laid in the balances together. He said, oh that I might have my request and that god would grant me the thing that I longed for, even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand and cut me off. Then should I yet have comfort and harden myself in sorrow, wondering yet about his strength, and what is his hope. Job never answered them, but asked of them mercy and pity. He calls for them to give some specific charges and turned to God. These friends of Job, not really knowing what was happening with Job, only speculated. Who had sinned, Job, his son or daughters? Often time people will say what they don’t know. They just need to say something, anything. Yet Job never took the opportunity to do as his friends had done, giving their opinion, their counsel, no doubt wisdom shall die with you. He had a bit of sarcasm in his speech, but yet being appropriate for them. For his friends had all the answers to what Job needed to do to remedy his condition. Job realized that God was God and he could do whatever he wanted to do and he had to accept that which God has allowed. He was omnipotent, but also he could be on to allow destruction, he never lets you down and don’t bring you back up. Say what Job said, though he slay yet will I trust in him.
In the second round of talks, being more eruptive than the first, Job has finally given them a challenging answer and is considered to be a bit arrogant. He is accused of undermining God and his devotion to God. He was accused of deceitfulness, iniquity and of being crafty. They just assumed Job’s sincerity was undeniable false. Sometime we try to justify ourselves to others and it always make things worse. We need to say what you know and know what you say.
In I Samuel 16:7 the Lord tells us to look not on the countenance or on the height of his stature, for God see not as a man see, because man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. Some of the time we look at the wrong things. We see it as we see it, but we need to see it as god sees it. In Christ we don’t make preconceived statements. We find out what is fact and testify on only to that we know. We make declarations of truth, fact. We need to support our statements with facts. When we bear witness or submit testimony, a declaration or affirmation of fact or truth, as that given before a court, we need evidence to support the fact or assertion, proof, the collective written and spoken testimony offered in a legal case, a public declaration regarding a religious experience, we need to declare it under oath publicly, because what we say, we ought to know.
The Bible say to get wisdom, get knowledge and in all thy getting get understanding. If someone is going through something and you don’t understand, shut up. If you don’t understand what’s going on with you, and after careful examination, you can’t figure it out, shut up and continue to praise God.
Isaiah said our transgressions are multiplied before us and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them.
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Thank you for this insightful article. People use their influence in the wrong way sometimes, to point fingers or to get back at another. The story of Job in the Bible is a very good example in making your point.
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