Pride in what you think you know

After more of Job’s moanings in chapter 14, Eliphaz speaks up again, and once again proclaims that only the wicked suffer.

But what I find even more interesting is how he begins the chapter.  He says,

Would a wise person answer with empty notions or fill their belly with the hot east wind?

Would they argue with useless words,
with speeches that have no value?  (Job 15:2-3)

And again,

Are you the first man ever born?
Were you brought forth before the hills?

Do you listen in on God’s council?
Do you have a monopoly on wisdom?  (7-8)

Eliphaz says this to criticize Job, but everything he said could have been applied to himself.  He was the one acting as if he had been the first one ever born.  He was the one acting as if he had listened in on God’s council, and had a monopoly on God’s wisdom.

And yet, he would find out later that he had been dead wrong about Job.  That it was he himself who had been filled with empty notions and hot air.  That it was he who had spewed out useless words and speeches with no value.

What about us?  Do we walk around thinking we know better than everyone else?  Are we quick to say our platitudes of wisdom, when all the while it is we who are walking around blindly to all that is really going on?

For many of us, like Job told his friends, wisdom would be to keep our mouths shut.

Am I saying that we should never share the wisdom we have with others?  Of course not.  But part of wisdom is knowing when and how to say something.

And wisdom knows much better than to speak when it really doesn’t know what it’s talking about.  Wisdom waits until it has all the relevant information before speaking.

How about you?  Are the words you speak really full of wisdom?  Or are you just full of hot air?