What is the last thing you learned?
With the overwhelming news of human suffering around me, much of it beyond my control and deeply disconcerting, the last biblical lesson I have learnt is this: silence in the face of suffering is not morally innocent, yet speech must still be governed by wisdom.
That is the tension.
On one side, Scripture does not flatter silence when the vulnerable are being crushed. Proverbs 31:8–9 calls us to speak for those who cannot defend themselves. Isaiah 1:17 ties righteousness to seeking justice and defending the oppressed. Esther 4:14 bears the hard truth that keeping quiet at a decisive moment is itself a choice. To remain mute may well be regarded as an act of omission, and perhaps even a form of complicity.
On the other side, the Bible does not praise reckless speech either. Matthew 10:16 commends being wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Colossians 4:6 suggests that our speech should be gracious and fitting. So the lesson is not merely to speak, but to speak faithfully.
Here lies the difficulty. It is not only that one may be troubled by what is happening; one must also remain alert to what is at stake. At times, wisdom may require restraint, patience, and attentiveness to the right moment to speak. Yet one must also reckon with the sobering possibility that the “right moment” may never come.
So, if I were to put it plainly, my latest biblical lesson is this:
Balance.
I am not called to comfortable silence, but neither am I called to careless noise.
I am called to truthful, courageous, and wise witness.
Ehiyeh-Sh’Ehiyeh 