Read Job 42:1-17

“And so it was, after the LORD had spoken these words to Job, that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.” (Job 42:7)

Eliphaz was one of the three friends of Job, if you could even call them friends, who thought of themselves as spiritual counselors to Job. If you go back and read their many words about God, you might even believe them! They appear to sound right and theological. They seem to be doctrinal and spiritual. But instead their words about God were errant and inaccurate. For this, God was angry with Eliphaz and his friends, and calls them to repentance.

In this, we learn something extraordinary about God. God requires and desires accuracy. That is, accuracy in how we speak about Him. In our current age, it’s terrifying how few who proclaim the name of Jesus are actually interested in speaking accurately about Him*.* Contemporary worship songs are littered with misguided theology. Pulpits are filled with pastors who speak fluently of God using erroneous doctrine. Church curriculum is cluttered with unsound lessons the Lord grieves over. Such worthless Christian books are heaping up in piles that I wouldn't be surprised if God Himself burned those pages in hell. When did the church decide that precision was no longer a necessary virtue in our Bible studies?

Somewhere along the way clear teaching was replaced by whimsical rambling; anointed preaching for casual pulpiteering; deep conviction in God’s Word for spineless and unstudied oration around God’s Word.

Have we forgotten the discipline of the Lord on Moses for misrepresenting God by striking the rock? It was a seemingly minor mistake from our perspective, but from God’s perspective, it was such a grave sin that it kept Moses out of the promise land! (see Numbers 20:11) Speaking rightly about God is that important. It is, what we might call, biblical precision.

This is why Paul the Apostle specifically asked the Colossian church for prayer in speaking clearly about Christ.

“Pray for us, that God would open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in chains, that I may make it clear, as I ought to speak.” (Colossians 4:3–4)

Look more closely at those words again: “that I may make it clear as I ought to speak." Later, Paul would tell Pastor Timothy to —

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.” (2 Timothy 2:15–16)

Notice that rightly dividing the Word of Truth is compared against idle babbling which increases ungodliness. There is no mistake about it, we must be intentionally accurate in how we speak about God and His Word.

This is why we must be students of the Word of Truth ourselves and desire accuracy in our understanding of God. Not only for the sake of understanding, but also for the sake of guarding our hearts of erroneous teachings about God. We should know when inaccurate statements about God are in the air and be able to

“cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

We would be much better to be as Job, who rather than embracing the empty words of his friends, chose instead to stand on the knowledge of God that was accurate. After all, in the end, it was Job who was vindicated for he was right and faithful to speak accurately.

Dear church, we must test all things before we trust anything we hear about God; and we certainly must verify that all we may speak of our Savior that it is biblical, accurate ,and according to His Word of Truth. As the Bereans, we must search the Scriptures to verify all!

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1 John 4:1)