If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom. – Job 13:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (April 29, 2015): Job 13

Abraham Lincoln is thought to have said “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.” The attribution to Lincoln isn’t solid. Others have suggested that Mark Twain is the author of the saying (the Twain version is often phrased slightly differently - It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt). The humor of the saying would seem to fit well with Twain, but it is probably even less likely that Twain said it than it is that Lincoln said it. The first appearance of the phrase, at least in this form, appears to be in the early 20^th Century. But the bottom line is that we are not really sure who actually said it.

Except that Job gives us an ancient version of the saying. Addressing the friends who had gathered around him, he tells them that their silence reveals more wisdom than their words. Every time they open their mouths, they reveal their own foolishness. And yet they insisted on speaking.

But there is something beyond just a restatement of the Lincoln/Twain phrase that is found in Job’s words. The truth is that Job didn’t need their words (or their supposed wisdom). All Job really needed was their presence. The presence of the friends, sitting with him and supporting him in his hour of pain, would have been very positive experience. But the friends turned what could have been a positive experience into a negative experience with their words. Their silence would have been the action of the wise.

But the friends couldn’t just support Job, they felt the need to make a moral judgment. The problem was that even if they were right, they were wrong. This just wasn’t the time for the judgment.

What is surprising is that we still make the same mistake with our own friends. Too often when people simply need our presence, we can’t help ourselves and we make a moral judgment. Oh, we are doing it out of love. We want our friends to find personal improvement through their time of suffering, but even if we are right - we are wrong. Sometimes we need to just shut up and be there with them. In those moments, our silence is the only wisdom that they need. And nothing else is appropriate.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 14