I Wanna Be....Your Sledgehammer!

Today I hit Job 32-34.  It's the story of Eliphaz, this young dude who jumps into the fray with Job and his friends.  He's waited and listened to the older men while they spoke, but then his anger gets the best of him and he lets it fly.  He tells them in no uncertain terms that he too has wisdom, and they need to shut their mouths and listen to him for awhile.  He is strong on judgment and heavy with truth.  He gets a lot of his understanding of God correct.  But, it's incomplete.  You see, that's the back story to the book of Job.  Every one in the story has truth about God, but it's incomplete.  The problem is, Eliphaz speaks his out of anger. 

Truth is not a weapon in our hands to be used on other people.  It's not.  We think it is, but it's not.  The word of God is a sword, but it's to be used against our enemy, Satan.  Not other people.  It's God's job to convict with truth in other people's hearts.  We are to speak truth, and speak it in very tough spots.  We are to speak truth when it isn't convenient, or when someone doesn't want to hear it.  But if we are speaking it as a weapon in our anger, we are probably out of line.  Especially when we tie that anger to our pride.  We're in deep water then.

I have done, and continue to do this, far too much.  God is changing me as the days pass by, but it is taking alot of work on His part, to be sure.  What about you.  Do you believe that if you have truth, that gives you the right to swing it like a hammer when you are angry?  Have you used truth in anger to hurt someone lately?  What do you need to do about it?