Testing Words And Tasting Food

Job 12:11 “Does not the ear test words as the palate tastes food?”

So…not quite sure why this one verse stuck out to me today. I am not a man very concerned with the taste of food. My wife (Karie) is the most amazing cook in all of the world. If you owned a kitchen and sampled my wife’s cooking, you would no doubt offer her a job. So every meal brings really only one quality to my mind; good. If I have a contrary meal somewhere other than home the word bad may come to mind, but rarely do I sift through tastes while I eat.

I think that this verse interests me because it seems to be about discernment. It might even reveal why discernment is such a hard task for me which takes extreme effort. I do not naturally discern words, ideas, images, media, or anything for that matter. I can sit and absorb a two hour movie and not really process anything that comes at me. I finish the movie and simply think it was either good or bad. If you asked me what the movie was about, I would surely tell you; but I do not separate ideas and actively think while I absorb the show, read the book, or listen to the music. I just absorb much like a sponge soaks up water.

Job was not like me either in the way he listened, or the way he ate. He might have been one of those foodies that savored each morsel, and swirled his wine before he swallowed. He surely was one who listened carefully to the words and ideas around him. He discerned the world in which he lived. I can learn much from Job who was upright and blameless in God’s sight.

Blessings this Lord’s Day!

Scott