Job 35:16 Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplieth words without knowledge.
You Only Know Half the Story
Have you ever stood in a corner and watched two friends argue a point? They both make brilliant arguments and are really passionate about what they are debating. As you watch, it occurs to you that both of them are wrong.
There was a man named Elihu, and that’s the way he felt after listening to Job and Job’s so-called friends discussing Job’s calamities. Job was defending himself, and the others felt as if they were defending God. Elihu just could not contain himself any longer.
Job 32:1-2 says, “So these three men ceased to answer Job… then was kindled the wrath of Elihu.” Elihu felt like he just had to say something, and he was nothing if not confident. In Job 33:6 he basically said, “Job, you’ve been asking for someone to represent God, and here I am.”
On two occasions, Elihu says that Job doesn’t know what he is talking about, and there was some truth to that. Job didn’t know the whole story; Job’s friends didn’t know the whole story, and Elihu certainly didn’t know the whole story.
Job only saw the tip of the ice burg. When it comes to the good, the bad, and the ugly of your life, you only know a little part of your story. In the long discussion between Job and his friends, they spoke about Job and they spoke about God, but there was a third character involved in this whole story that no one even mentioned because no one knew.
Job 1:6 says, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.” Job was involved in this, God was in control of all of this, but Satan was involved as well. And yet no one who was discussing Job’s calamities even knew all the parties who were involved, let alone why things were happening the way they were.
The one question we all want an answer to is, “Why?” Not only do you not know “why,” you don’t even know “who”! You don’t know if the devil is involved or not. You don’t’ know what is going on. Job had no way of knowing how well his story would end up because he hadn’t read it.
If God gave you a book revealing the rest of your life, what would you do differently tomorrow? How would you think differently today? And how would you feel differently this very moment?
I think you would stop guessing. If you knew the rest of the story, you’d have no need to guess. Job was guessing and his friends were guessing because they did not know the rest of the story.
You would also start trusting. If you were able to see in a graphic way that God literally knows the rest of your story and that God is good, you would start trusting God. If you would do that, then why don’t you start doing that today?
Stop guessing as much; start trusting more than you are, and realize that God is in control and has good in His heart for you.