Hosanna Restoration Church

Do you ever watch detective shows on the Television? When someone is arrested, the first thing that a person is told is that they have the right to remain silent. It is my personal belief that this would always be a good thing to consider. After all, God does say that we should “be still and know that He is God.”

If you have studied Job much I think you would agree that he would have been much better off if he just kept his mouth shut. He made a quality decision in the beginning of his ordeal. He refused to curse God and die as his wife suggested. But then as his friends talked, he sort of lost his perspective. We can look at what Job did, and we can look at how Jesus handled things and it is easy to see, that silence was a better choice. Believe me, I know that we have a tendency to think that since we have a right to say what we want that it is okay to say whatever is on our mind, but honestly how often does that really turn out in our favor, and how often does it just cause more trouble.

Look again at Job. He was talking about things that he did not understand. He was declaring that he had a right to complain against God. He was blaming God for things that God did not do. We have the good fortune of knowing the rest of the story. And because we know the rest of the story, we could have given some good advice to Job and to his so-called friends. How often do we open our mouths without knowing the whole story?

There is a lot truth spoken in the book of Job. There is also a lot of false accusations made against God. There is no doubt that Job was going through some really bad times. His friends would drive anyone crazy, but that still did not give him the right to complain against God. His friends maybe, but not God.

Oh I know that God does not fall off the throne when people complain. He loves us too much, and He knows we are weak. Still, we would all do well to learn from Job and exercise our right to remain silent rather than to complain. Just think how much simpler it would have been if Job had just said he could not understand what was going on, but he was just going trust God anyway. His soft answer probably would have quieted his friends. But when Job felt the need to justify himself, they felt the need to prove they were right. Does this sound like something you have done? Silence can save us all a lot of problems.

In the end, God cleared things up. Job realized that he did not know God at all, and his friends learned a lesson in keeping their mouths shut as well. If we are wise, we will learn a lesson too. Instead of declaring our right to complain, we will do much better learning to know Him more in every situation. Before we exercise what we think is our right, we should consider what it might produce.