Oh, that I had someone to hear me! I sign now my defense—let the Almighty answer me; let my accuser put his indictment in writing. – Job 31:35

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 16, 2015): Job 31

We want to be heard – we need to be heard. In the wake of the unrest that has shook the United States, this one fact seems to be repeated. We need to be heard, but sometimes it seems that no one is listening. I almost weep as I hear the sides face off against each other on various news programs. I think the words that hurt the most are “we know what happened.” I have heard the words repeated several times over the past few months, and they have become part of the problem. We don’t know what happened. We have suspicions, we can make conclusions given the evidence, but we don’t know. We have to stop throwing that word around as casually as we do.

Fox News had to apologize a couple of weeks ago for misreporting an incident that happened in Baltimore. According to Fox, the reporter witnessed the event. A black man went running past the reporter with police chasing. There was a shot, the black man fell with the police officers falling on top of him. The news report – a black man has been shot in the back by police officers. The truth was obvious. The arrogance of the reporter was – I know what happened - I saw it. The truth. A black man was being chased by police on suspicion of a weapons violation. In the act of running away the suspect threw away the gun he was carrying. As the gun hit the ground it discharged. The shot hit no one. The police tackled the man and place him under arrest. The veracity and accuracy of eyewitness reports to an event have been repeatedly questioned. The problem is that our minds are very powerful instruments that are capable of filling in the blanks as we watch something happen. We don’t even realize our brains are doing it. The result is that too often we do not see what is really happening, we only see what we expect to happen.

Job has argued his case. The problem is that both sides seem to know what is true. The actual truth is that both sides are wrong. The truth is held only by God. Here, Job’s argument almost seems to be brought to a premature end. In reading his words there seems to be so much more that he wants to say, but you can almost hear him mutter under his breath “what’s the use.” His friends are going to believe what they believe. No matter what Job says, it will not change the opinion of those who now gather around him.  It is a waste of his breath. The only one that can solve this argument is God, and for the moment God seems to be comfortable in his silence.

So now Job ends the argument. The New International Version says that Job attached his signature. The King James Version says that he closes with his one supreme desire – that God would hear him. But what Job literally says, which the NIV translates as signature and the KJV as desire is that he attaches his Taw. The word Taw is simply the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Job might simply be saying that we have run out of letters to use in our argument, we have reached the end. And unless God is going to speak, this is going nowhere, because you refuse to hear me and I can’t hear you. No one really knows other than God, therefore, this has to be the end.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 32