Contemplative Bible Reading

Job 13:1-2 (New Living Translation)

1 “Look, I have seen all this with my own eyes
and heard it with my own ears, and now I understand.
2 I know as much as you do.
You are no better than I am.

Job the afflicted is talking to his friends. Job is trying to teach his friends what is right. Job’s friends are trying to teach Job what is right. This back and forth of “I know, you don’t” goes on for pages and pages and pages.

Consider verse 2. Notice the prominent use of the words “You” and “I.” What are the persons discussing? What is “this” mentioned in verse 1? We aren’t told. Who knows best has overshadowed what is right or wrong. What we are told is that two persons are arguing over who knows more and who is better. And these two persons are standing before God while they dispute the superiority of the two of them.

And I wonder how God doesn’t just whomp the two over the head with a baseball bat.

Take verse 2 and reverse the “I” and “you.” We now have: “You know as much as I do. I am no better than you.”

Perhaps that is how I should always begin a discussion where I disagree with another person. That reframes the conversation. Please God, help me remember that when I dispute another person, we both stand before you. We don’t really know much at all let alone know more than the other.