For the ear tests words as the tongue tastes food. – Job 34:3

Today's Scripture Reading (July 31, 2021): Job 34

Inspirational author, Michael Bassey Johnson, comments that "You can believe in whatsoever you like, but the truth remains the truth, no matter how sweet the lie may taste." His argument reminds us of a couple of things. The first is that taste is not necessarily the best standard to decide what is good for us. I wish that vegetables tasted like an apple pie with ice cream or that eating that bag of potato chips was better for me than eating a salad, but that is just not true. My tongue can be deceived, and what tastes good is not always what I need to eat. And the second thing that Johnson reminds us of is that there is often a reason why it is easy to believe a lie. We can, and often do, phrase the lie so that it conforms to what we think and what we want to hear. It is the great danger of the echo chambers that we have built around us. We need to hear more than we do, primarily if they are words spoken by someone who does not necessarily agree with our stance on a specific issue. We need to hear the arguments, but more importantly, we need to learn to love through our differences. Our tendency seems to exclude those who believe differently, but that is like eating only ice cream and banning the salad that our body needs to thrive.

Elihu asks Job and his friends to listen to him. And in the process, he argues that the ear tests words like the tongue tastes food. And he is right, kind of, but it is also a double-edged sword. Elihu's logic is based on the idea that we can somehow taste what is good for us, but we know that that is just not true. Often what tastes good is not what we need. In the same way, it would be more accurate to say that our ear hears words the way that our tongue tastes food. But, just as our tongues fail to taste what is good for us, our ears can't hear wisdom; they just hear the words in search of something that sounds sweet, even if it is a lie.

Elihu's point is that if they just listen to him, they will know his wisdom by hearing his words even though he is young. Just as Elihu has listened to the words of Job and his friends and has heard that they lack wisdom, his wisdom will be heard if they listen. But that is not really what Elihu understood. He understood that neither Job nor his friends were in his echo chamber, He has heard the lie, and he wants to replace their lie with one that might taste a little sweeter to his ear, but regardless of how sweet Elihu's words might taste to the ear, the message is just another lie.    

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Job 35