Job 6:24

Teach me, I shall be silent,

   Where I have erred, make me understand.

(Written 3/9, Posted  3/30 )

The humble student. Who can find? This “teach me” attitude that Job is discussing is the most basic position for each of us to be in to learn pretty much anything. Here he is apparently giving the opportunity for his companions to teach him, but He is really asking God to show him. He has dismissed his companions as teachers and has turned back to only asking God.

I needed some continuing education hours, so I picked a topic a not totally unfamiliar to me to brush up on. In the end, the link to the material would not work, but the link to the test did. I took the test for fun. I am pretty sure I did not pass the first time, but I realized it told me which answers were wrong and did not change the questions.

“Instruct” was the only option for “teach”, but teach seemed exact enough. “Be silent” was chosen over “be quiet”, “hold my tongue”, “keep silent”, and “listen quietly”. I liked the absolute of “silence” over “quiet”, the implied “hold my tongue” over the explicit, and did not feel the promise of listening in the phrase.

The second stitch has three pieces; “Where I have erred”, “make me”, “understand”. Only half the sources had the understand part. “Make me” was chosen from “show me”, “cause me”, “tell me”, and “let me”. “Tell me” and “let me” lacked the teaching aspect of the first stitch, and “make” had more of a effectiveness requirement than “show” or “cause”. Options for “where I have erred” include “how I have gone wrong”, “where I have been wrong”, “where I am wrong”, “what I have done wrong”, and “where I went wrong”. I chose “erred” as it is different from “wrong”. The other variations of how and what and where seemed insignificant.

I have been coughing for a week now and I think I should be better by now. My sinuses continue to run, and it continues to make me cough. I wish I could figure out how to make it stop. Not enough to go to the doctor, but if God would supernaturally let me know that would be great. We are not sure how long Job sat and contemplated his condition before beginning to speak to his companions, but I have assumed he went over every aspect of his life with God in the meantime. He knew where he sinned, and he knew where he had erred. He was convinced that his condition was not due to those issues. He wants to learn. He wants to understand.  God continually brings us new opportunities to learn and sometimes the things we learn are not what we can learn from companions or even reading the Bible, but purely through revelation, once we have been properly prepared. I am not sure what learnings my future holds, but I know I want to learn, to listen, and to understand.