"After the Lord said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken truth about Me..." (Job 42:7 NIV)
Yesterday’s devotional reading pointed it out to me: Job is a book about friends who failed to listen. In a crisis, they gave lousy counsel, inaccurately quoted scripture and misrepresented God. Instead of offering comfort, they offered escalation.
It didn’t start out that way. In fact, when Job’s world first fell apart, his friends attempted sit with him and sympathize. And while they sat silent for the first seven days, they eventually opened their mouths and proved unhelpful to the situation. Their encouragement quickly disintegrated into criticism, even accusation. These ‘friends’ misrepresented God and multiplied Job’s misery. When Job finally received his healing in chapter 42, God had repentance instructions for his well-meaning friends.
Job reminds us: we have an obligation to speak the truth about God to our friends. God expects us to be forthright with our knowledge of Him AND accurate in our theology. Anything less injures. Forthright and inaccurate bludgeons the beholder. Timid but accurate won’t accomplish anything Kingdom.
Job’s friends were held accountable even in an ancient time when personal access to scripture would have been limited. Job may even predate the full Torah (chronological Bibles list Job after Genesis), but God still expected Job’s friends to rightly witness because they knew Him.
How much more are we expected to tell the truth about God today? We have access to scripture. The veil is torn, we have unrestricted access to God Himself. And we have been empowered with the Holy Spirit as well! We are without excuse! If God expected Job’s believing friends to speak truthfully about divine things, I’d imagine His expectation of us is even greater.
What holds us back from speaking truth?
Fear: We may have fear of damaging our relationships or social standing. We may have fear of rejection, fear of offense, fear of being misunderstood, villainized, canceled or ostracized.
Biblical Illiteracy: We cannot speak truth if we don’t know it. The average believer has very little working knowledge of actual scripture. They may possess a lot of assumptions: things they’ve heard from pulpits or social media or a well-meaning neighbor, but overall our nation is blissfully unaware of the bulk of scripture. You can’t accurately represent what you don’t know. Lifeway.com reports that 11% of Americans have read the bible through at least once. In my experience, that number feels inflated.
So how do we avoid the sin of Eliphaz and his friends?
- Read the bible in it’s entirety. Not just once, but again and again. Trust me: you will be transformed on each and every journey from Genesis to Revelation. You’ll see new things, you’ll make observations and connections that will thrill your soul and change your perspective. There are many reading plans available; you can google an annual plan or you can use YouVersion on your phone or tablet. At my natural pace, I typically read the bible through every three years, but I often push myself to read it annually as I am again now. Read scripture daily. The more exposure you have, the more understanding you gain.
- Employ SOAP. Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer. In your regular reading plan, pay attention for a scripture that snags your heart. When it does, make an observation about that scripture. What is God saying? Doing? Proving? Then make an application to your own life. Lastly, pray that application into your own story. Go ahead and write all this down, involving more senses will strengthen your muscle memory.
- Pay attention to the Holy Spirit’s leading at all times. In that converstion with your friend or coworker, He’d like to speak through you! If you have been faithful to deposit truth, He will be faithful to retrieve truth. He can’t fetch what you haven’t hidden.
- Repent when you miss the opportunity or mess it up altogether. God is gracious and forgiving. He meets our repentance with more of Himself. Ask me how I know! 😉
We are expected to speak truth, but we can also beat folks up with truth if we aren’t mindful of the Lord’s leading.
It’s interesting. I wrote all this early yesterday morning. Rob had a retinal tear and we were off to Houston for surgery by 8am so I didn’t take time to publish. We were half way there when his watch buzzed to let us know that Wade v. Roe had been overturned. We were immediately overjoyed, like it was hard to see the road because of happy tears. If you are a regular reader, you know how foundational the Imago Dei is in my understanding of God. We love babies, but we also love the elderly, the socially awkward, the disabled, the disenfranchised and the mentally ill. Souls are souls.
In the wake of our joy over this win for the pre-born, Rob and I realized the potential for even wider divisiveness in our nation. We are already a people living so far apart from one another: willing to blast each other on facebook but unable to participate in a civil conversation on a tender issue. We’ve proven this over and over again in the past few years and this afternoon, my facebook feed proves it again.
Friend, the Lord will hold us accountable for our words and our faces. He’s keeping tabs on our actions and our attitudes. He has a divine opinion about the articles and memes and diatribes we share on social media. We are expected to speak truth, but we are also asked to speak in a way that encourages, not discourages. Ephesians 4:15 urges us to speak the truth in love. These essential but delicate conversations can’t take place on Instagram accounts or Facebook threads. Sounding off on social media will not make way for folks to experience God. We must sit with one another face to face, bible in hand or heart, and let the Holy Spirit take the lead.
"[There is] a time to be silent and a time to speak." (Ecclesiastes 3:7 NIV)
Lord, please fill us with compassion for the hurting world around us. May we listen more and speak less. Listen to the suffering. Listen the Holy Spirit. May we follow Your promoting and only speak the truth we learn first from You. Amen.