Note: For those who read the post about my wife being in the hospital with no answers. She is now home after four days in the hospital. The GI bleeding has stopped, but they still have no answers as to why. My thoughts on God working miracles, and maybe an update, in a couple of weeks.

He sent dispatches to all parts of the kingdom, to each province in its own script and to each people in their own language, proclaiming that every man should be ruler over his own household, using his native tongue.

• Esther 1:22

my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.

• Job 27:4

the voices of the nobles were hushed, and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.

• Job 29:10

His mouth is full of lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue.

• Psalm 10:7

May the Lord silence all flattering lips
    and every boastful tongue—
those who say,
    “By our tongues we will prevail;
    our own lips will defend us—who is lord over us?”

• Psalm 12:3-4

The word “tongue(s)” is in the NIV 133 times.  The tongue can do great things, from tasting stuff to praising God.  The tongue can say bad words.  And the tongue can become mute, for one reason or another.

The title of the post references James 3, which starts with an admonition for us to tame the tongue.  Our Sunday school class usually took two weeks to go through each lesson in our study guide (using Rev. David Jeremiah’s), but when it came to taming the tongue, it took us three weeks.  For some strange reason, we couldn’t hold our tongues and we kept going on and on about it.

And with this introduction and the Bible verses above, there might be a hint or two.

The questions all relate to the verses that use “tongue(s)” in the NIV.  The questions are given in biblical order.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first mention of the tongue in the Bible is when Moses was saying that he could not go to Egypt because he was slow in two things, things that relate to each other.  What two things?
2	When Gideon was cutting down the number of his soldiers, the final test was to have them drink water.  One group cupped their hands and lapped their tongues like a dog to drink, and the other group knelt by the stream and drank from the stream.  Which group was chosen by God?
3	In his final words before he died, it is recorded that he said, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.”  There was more recorded, but who said this as part of his last words?
4	The one whose walk is blameless,     who does what is righteous,     who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no ____,     who does no wrong to a neighbor,     and casts no slur on others;
5	In Isaiah’s prophecies, he mentioned that tongues of what lick up straw?
6	Within a six verse stretch, Jeremiah liken the tongue to a weapon.  Both what shoots “lies” and the lies that are shot.  What shooting weapon did he mention, usually mentioned in terms of both parts.
7	What did God do to Ezekiel that kept him from talking for a long period of time?
8	Before we get to the section of James on taming the tongue, he suggests that we control our tongues similar to how a rider controls his horse.  By what method?
9	Peter suggests that to love life and to see good days, we need to keep our tongue from what?
10	And when the fifth angel pours out the fifth bowl onto the throne of the beast, the world goes dark. What will the people do to their tongues in agony?

As for the last question, it can be very frightening to be in total darkness.  I used to have very good night vision.  Once I got used to the dim light from the moon and stars, I could maneuver with not much problem.  That skill and a bit of problem solving helped my partner and I to win the night orienteering test for our class in Fort Belvoir one summer.  The problem solving?  We were walking down the road and started seeing signposts every 10-20 yards.  We paced off the distance and we were between two posts, but much closer to the one we had just passed.  My partner looked back, but he accepted my answer.  I looked forward, knowing that we were exhausted, and our stride may not have been as long as it would have been without a trek lasting half the night.  We got a trip back to the BOQ and a good night’s sleep while the rest of the class waited on the bus until they found the stragglers, not much before the sun came up.

But I have been plunged into total darkness.  It is very disorienting.  But the pain was from the earlier pouring of bowls.  Odd how you can be in really bad pain and then when you add something like total darkness, the pain that you were starting to get used to becomes the only thing you can think about, overpowering any of the other senses that could help you fumble around in the dark.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first mention of the tongue in the Bible is when Moses was saying that he could not go to Egypt because he was slow in two things, things that relate to each other.  What two things?	Exodus 4:10
2	When Gideon was cutting down the number of his soldiers, the final test was to have them drink water.  One group cupped their hands and lapped their tongues like a dog to drink, and the other group knelt by the stream and drank from the stream.  Which group was chosen by God?	Judges 7:5
3	In his final words before he died, it is recorded that he said, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.”  There was more recorded, but who said this as part of his last words?	2 Samuel 23:2
4	The one whose walk is blameless,     who does what is righteous,     who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no ____,     who does no wrong to a neighbor,     and casts no slur on others;	Psalm 15:2-3
5	In Isaiah’s prophecies, he mentioned that tongues of what lick up straw?	Isaiah 5:24
6	Within a six verse stretch, Jeremiah liken the tongue to a weapon.  Both what shoots “lies” and the lies that are shot.  What shooting weapon did he mention, usually mentioned in terms of both parts.	Jeremiah 9:3-8
7	What did God do to Ezekiel that kept him from talking for a long period of time?	Ezekiel 3:26
8	Before we get to the section of James on taming the tongue, he suggests that we control our tongues similar to how a rider controls his horse.  By what method?	James 1:26
9	Peter suggests that to love life and to see good days, we need to keep our tongue from what?	1 Peter 3:10
10	And when the fifth angel pours out the fifth bowl onto the throne of the beast, the world goes dark. What will the people do to their tongues in agony?	Revelation 16:10

I have on occasion said things that were very hurtful.  I will have to confess that I have said some of those hurtful things on purpose, but most of the time, I said them because my brain fails me and something stupid comes out.  As an introvert, I like practicing what I am going to say before I say it, but when people are looking at you to say something, they get very nervous when you give them a dumb look and a mouth that moves, but nothing comes out.  So, I have been known to blurt out something to break the silence.  And on some occasions, I have regretted doing so.

We should all tame our tongue, and it is very hard to do.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible References	Answers
1	The first mention of the tongue in the Bible is when Moses was saying that he could not go to Egypt because he was slow in two things, things that relate to each other.  What two things?	Exodus 4:10	Slow in speech and tongue
2	When Gideon was cutting down the number of his soldiers, the final test was to have them drink water.  One group cupped their hands and lapped their tongues like a dog to drink, and the other group knelt by the stream and drank from the stream.  Which group was chosen by God?	Judges 7:5	The 300 who lapped their tongues like dogs.
3	In his final words before he died, it is recorded that he said, “The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.”  There was more recorded, but who said this as part of his last words?	2 Samuel 23:2	King David
4	The one whose walk is blameless,     who does what is righteous,     who speaks the truth from their heart; whose tongue utters no ____,     who does no wrong to a neighbor,     and casts no slur on others;	Psalm 15:2-3	slander
5	In Isaiah’s prophecies, he mentioned that tongues of what lick up straw?	Isaiah 5:24	Fire
6	Within a six verse stretch, Jeremiah liken the tongue to a weapon.  Both what shoots “lies” and the lies that are shot.  What shooting weapon did he mention, usually mentioned in terms of both parts.	Jeremiah 9:3-8	A Bow and Arrow
7	What did God do to Ezekiel that kept him from talking for a long period of time?	Ezekiel 3:26	His tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth.
8	Before we get to the section of James on taming the tongue, he suggests that we control our tongues similar to how a rider controls his horse.  By what method?	James 1:26	We rein the tongue in.
9	Peter suggests that to love life and to see good days, we need to keep our tongue from what?	1 Peter 3:10	Evil.
10	And when the fifth angel pours out the fifth bowl onto the throne of the beast, the world goes dark. What will the people do to their tongues in agony?	Revelation 16:10	Gnaw on their tongue.

Since you did so well or even if you did not do too well, here is Kelly Nelon Thompson and Guy Penrod, with the Gaither Homecoming crowd singing Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.

Okay, that was not the hymn I grew up with.  Here are the Grace Levites singing Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing.

Okay, that was the right words, with one additional verse not in my old hymnal…  Okay, no more fooling around.  Here is Oh for a Thousand Tongues to Sing the way I sung it growing up.  This is from the Shepherd’s Conference 2013.

The next song is The Love of God, sung by the Gaither Homecoming crowd, with a trio of Joy Gardner, Guy Penrod, and David Phelps.  What does this have to do with the “tongue”?  The first line is “The love of God is greater far, than tongue or pen can ever tell.”

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.