Drawing Your Conclusion

Scripture:
Job:42:1-8 (NIV)

Then Job replied to the Lord:

“I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know. 

“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.” 

After the Lord had said these things to Job , he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 

Devotional:

Matthew 7:1-2 (NIV), “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”  Jesus’ words can cut us like a hot knife through butter.  People tend to draw conclusions about something at a glance.  More than once I have looked at an image advertising a movie and drew my conclusions from that picture.  More than once I didn’t really want to watch a movie based on that image, only to find out the movie was really good.  Looking at the image and reading a brief description does not give enough information about the movie to be able to draw an accurate conclusion.

We tend to do the same thing with people.  We look at someone and think the worst, or just the opposite.  I remember a friend once told me about a man who dressed in a nice suit.  He took a hundred dollar bill and stood in front of a coffee shop.  As people walked by he would explain how he bought a cup of coffee but the store couldn’t break the hundred.  Could they spare a dollar?  The man supposedly made over ten-thousand dollars a year just by doing this on his lunch break.  How many people passing by drew the wrong conclusions based on a short fifteen second conversation and on how the man looked?  

Jesus clearly tells us not to judge others.  Sometimes I think we miss another aspect which is mentioned in Job.  It is important to make sure we get it right.  Eliphaz and his friends spoke falsely about God.  They drew incorrect conclusions and shared it with others.  We are not to judge others.  It is just as important not to speak out inaccurately.  A false witness or testimony goes against God as well.  Something I tell others is that there are always two sides to a story, and the truth is somewhere in the middle.  We need to make sure we do not accept something on the surface as being the total truth.  We must dig deeper to make sure we have an accurate picture of things.  Then we can give an accurate and truthful report.