Job 42:1-6
Job is confessing the folly of babbling on about things far beyond him; making small talk about wonders way over his head; things about God that he had picked up second hand. Job’s admission is a bit concerning to someone who produces as many words as I have in relationship to God – especially since Proverbs tells us words should be used very wisely and that too many of them lead unavoidably to folly and sin. Yet…we are also told that they can be very refreshing and life giving. Matthew 10:27 tells us, “What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.
I pray that after these many years of following him that I am beginning to know the difference between babbling and proclaiming; from going on about some lofty scriptural proposition and simply telling my story. To be sure, I have done both. In reviewing some things I was writing between 1995 and 2005. I found much “Job-like” babbling. Beneath the words there were subtle questions regarding God’s goodness and His wisdom. On the surface, the words may have seemed to come from an honest spirit of inquiry but in truth they were coming from a heart that was embittered and had struggled for years to know much joy in its communion with God or others for that matter. What could be found in my heart was information, doctrine and, strangely enough, strong convictions. When I opened my mouth or pressed the keys on my keyboard, too often all that came out was a loveless, lifeless religious babble. (Check out Matt 6:23, 1 Cor 13:1)
Job, and the rest of us are sharing space with angels, demons and their commanders. We do not know who to blame at times for our plight. We all are familiar with this line of thinking: “If God is sovereign and He is good then why …. then we fill in the blank with what we have seen as apparent evidence to the contrary. Job and I had erred in how we were completing that sentence. If this supposed honest spirit of inquiry is at work in our hearts then the hymns of faith we are singing may just be our whistling in the darkness.
Whether our personal darkness is perceived as an attack or the woodshed I believe Hebrews 4:13 is the wisest way for us to interpret and react. This brief sentence has been life to me. “...all things are open and laid bare TO HIM WITH WHOM WE HAVE TO DO“. If we will persevere through our dark circumstances in deference to Him and each other, I am confident that we will emerge one day with first hand experiences with God and truth that we may proclaim with authority as our own.
These life giving words which only we are positioned to offer will not come off as sermonizing. They will have penetrating and catalytic impact on others because words are breathed from our spirit and when they match our character they carry authority and influence to impact those spirits around us. Story is our humble and disarming, first hand account of God’s current involvement in the affairs of our lives. That a good God is inclined toward us with mercy and kindness is the best and most hopeful truth that one spirit can convey to another.
I had acquired as much Bible knowledge, read as many books and listened to as many teachings as most, but like Job, in many ways, “I had only heard of Him by the hearing of the ear“. Usually what I had to say, with conviction mind you, was second hand and borrowed. However, after my season of darkness, like Job, I too retracted my questions and repented as best I could of my speculative babbling. Now, I fortunately have a degree of confidence in saying, “but now MY eye sees Thee“.
If we are in the darkness, let us give thanks because it is there where He will speak to us. What He whispers there in our ears then, we will in turn speak out as light and procalim it from the housetops.
Father, help us to each update our stories by listening in the midst of whatever our current distess may be, and whatever we may perceive as its origin. May we emerge from our circumstances in faith having fresh confirmation in our hearts of Your goodness, Your kind intention and Your power. May both the spirit of our questions and our words be flavored by love, by boldness and with a joy that is appropriate for the sons and daughters of a great king such as You. Amen.