Living not too long after the Tower of Babel, Job didn’t appear to have access to any kind of Scriptures. He certainly didn’t have the giant love letter we have today. Therefore, what he heard was all he knew. His knowledge of God, while considerably larger than your average joe in today’s society, was therefore incomplete. But following his struggles and his arguments with his friends, Job was privileged enough to actually meet God. Not face to face, of course, but God spoke through a whirlwind.
Having met God, Job was greatly humbled. Instead of continuing to wonder why God let him go through such grief, Job felt the full weight of his sin. He understood God’s character in ways he previously hadn’t, resulting in him repenting of sins he wasn’t aware he needed to repent of.
Fast forward a few millennia, people still know only what they hear. Even the "truth" we hear is often a little less than adequate. We tell Bible stories, but when we find them in Scripture, we see differences from the major to the minor. Take, for example, the cliche Nativity scene. If you pick up a Bible, you’ll see a few differences between pop culture and the Bible, and not just because you get the occasional joker who places a toy Yoda next to the manger.
The "three" wise men, for example, are actually not numbered, and they are called magi. The number of wise men is based on the number of gifts they brought. It’s also possible that they never found Jesus in the manger, but elsewhere. Herod ordered the deaths of every child under 2 years of age, so the magi very well may have been looking for Jesus for quite some time. Even the traditional date of Christmas is likely not accurate. The Bible nowhere states that Jesus was born in December.
These details are all somewhat “trivial”. They matter, but not to the extent of changing doctrine. But what we hear from our culture is still nothing compared to what the Bible actually says. Many people fail, or refuse, to open it, resulting in an incomplete knowledge of God.
Just as Job’s perspective changed when he met God, so also does our perspective change when we study His word. We were never meant to play our faith by ear. Rather, as Psalm 119 tells us, we should meditate on it day and night. In so doing, we may have a similar experience to Job. We may not hear God speak from a whirlwind, but as His words sink into our hearts, they convict us of our shortcomings, and show us just how Holy God is. The Bible was never going to reward those too lazy to study it, but for those who treat it with due diligence, there is great reward.