Do Not Say What You Do Not Know

Note from today’s Bible reading: Job 40-42

Throughout his sufferings, Job maintained his innocence and expressed his desire to appeal his cause before the Lord because of the unfair treatment he was receiving. Yet after the Lord appeared to him, Job recognized his error.

“Then Job answered the Lord and said, ‘I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, now, and I will speak; I will ask You, and You instruct me.’ I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees You; therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:1-6).

Job was not suffering because of some sin he committed (as his friends supposed). However, he did err by presuming to speak confidently of things he could not understand.

We can be guilty of the same thing today. There are some things – the “secret things [that] belong to the Lord” (Deuteronomy 29:29) – that we simply cannot know. Rather than making confident assertions based upon speculations, we need to recognize our limitations and not feel the need to give definitive answers or make dogmatic statements on matters about which God has not revealed.

So do not say what you do not know. We can (and should) speak confidently of the things that God has revealed to us. But beyond that, we need to be content with the fact that we cannot know everything simply because we are not God.