The Ear Tests Words

Note from today’s Bible reading: Job 32-35

Job’s three friends each attempted to explain why they believed he was suffering. Each time, Job responded by defending his integrity and expressing a desire to appeal his cause to the Lord. The result was that “these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes” (Job 32:1).

Elihu, a younger man, was present for all of this. He was angry with Job “because he justified himself before God” and angry with the three older men “because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job” (Job 32:2-3). So Elihu took his turn in addressing the patriarch. Interestingly, Job never responded to Elihu. Instead, God addressed Job after the young man spoke.

Elihu made an important point to the elders: “Hear my words, you wise men, and listen to me, you who know. For the ear tests words as the palate tastes food. Let us choose for ourselves what is right; let us know among ourselves what is good” (Job 34:2-4). He expressed a fundamental truth: God gave us the ability to hear, yet we must practice discernment so that we accept what is right and good.

Centuries later, Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 8:8). Yet we are not to accept everything we hear. Instead, we must “examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:21-22).

So remember that the ear tests words. We are to carefully consider what is taught to us before we accept it. God wants and expects us to be able to tell the difference between truth and error.