Eating Salt and Rice

Friday, 18th January 2008

There is a saying "I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice" which is often used by an older person to chide a younger person that he has had more experience in life since he has lived longer.

This would be the general consensus, but having read the book of Job, I realise that there was an exception to the rule recorded in there.

Job had 4 friends altogether -- Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar and Elihu -- who offered him advice. The first three were "years older" than Elihu, hence he allowed them to speak to Job first (Job 32:4). We also find from reading Job 32-37 that what he said to Job was filled with more wisdom and made much more sense than the other three.

There's another saying, "With friends like that, who needs enemies?" That was probably what Job felt about Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar.

Towards the end of the book, in Job 42:7-9, we find that God was also upset with the three of them, and required them to offer bulls and rams to Him as burnt offerings. But this was not required of the younger Elihu.

As I reflected upon this, the Lord brought to mind another story as recorded in 2 Kings 5. There was this army commander named Naaman who was suffering from leprosy. His wife had a young slave girl (whose name is not even recorded) who told her mistress about Elisha. To cut a long story short, Naaman listened to the advice of that slave girl, was brought him to Elisha and he was cured of his leprosy after he bathed in the Jordan river 7 times.

From these 2 incidents, we see that God sometimes uses the foolish to humble the wise, so we should not be too quick to despise or discount the advice of someone who may be (many years) younger than us.

Yes, we may have eaten more salt than that younger person has eaten rice. But, the Holy Spirit saw fit to record the advice of Elihu as well as that slave girl, so maybe we should take the occasional heed.