No Knowledge, No Answer

“Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.” (Job 37:19 AV)

Elihu was the only honest one.  He correctly states there is a lack of sound logic in finding the cause of Job’s problems.  The reason he gives is stated above.  They are walking in darkness.  They do not have enough information to determine God’s intent or cause for such circumstances.  They have failed to find fault with Job.  They assume there is fault, or will be fault, and that alone justifies God’s actions towards Job.  But they cannot find and specific cause or sin of which Job is guilty.  Elihu takes it upon himself to defend the LORD.  He does not directly accuse Job of any specific sin nor does he condemn Job in any specific statement as being wicked.  What he does do is clarify statements which Job made because he misinterpreted Job’s statements.  His utterance above is an honest one.  One that concludes all of man’s wisdom before God speaks.

There is a time to admit that we don’t know as much as we think we know.  There are times to separate fact from opinion.  Elihu was the only honest one here.  Probably because of his youth and being surrounded by elderly and wiser men, he admits his limitations.  In doing so, he also admits these same limitations on the others.  This statement above is also a prayer which Elihu offers up to the LORD.  He is admitting this on behalf of all assembled to the LORD because they cannot make sense of, what seems to be, senseless events.  He is admitting to the LORD they have exhausted all human reasoning and cannot come to a sound explanation.  He is being transparent before the LORD for all of them.  This is why God’s answer follows Elihu’s prayer.

Admitting that we don’t have the answer of solution is hard.  Specially for men.  We are wired to fix things.  We are programmed to find a solution and advance.  Life is a challenge, not an experience.  We see obstacles and we want to overcome them.  Our ego and pride will not accept defeat.  If there is a discussion, we have a point of view that needs to be considered.  One of the great practical truths that we learned in Bible College is how to say, “I don’t know, but I can get back to you on that.”  Ignorance may be a weakness, but admitting ignorance is not.  It shows humility and dependency.  Both towards the One who has all the answers!