Job 28--Job Continues: Where Is Wisdom?

Job Continues: Where Is Wisdom?
28 “Surely there is a mine for silver,
    and a place for gold that they refine.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth,
    and copper is smelted from the ore.
3 Man puts an end to darkness
    and searches out to the farthest limit
    the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
4 He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives;
    they are forgotten by travelers;
    they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro.
5 As for the earth, out of it comes bread,
    but underneath it is turned up as by fire.
6 Its stones are the place of sapphires,
    and it has dust of gold.

7 “That path no bird of prey knows,
    and the falcon's eye has not seen it.
8 The proud beasts have not trodden it;
    the lion has not passed over it.

9 “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock
    and overturns mountains by the roots.
10 He cuts out channels in the rocks,
    and his eye sees every precious thing.
11 He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle,
    and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

12 “But where shall wisdom be found?
    And where is the place of understanding?
13 Man does not know its worth,
    and it is not found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
    and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’
15 It cannot be bought for gold,
    and silver cannot be weighed as its price.
16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
    in precious onyx or sapphire.
17 Gold and glass cannot equal it,
    nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;
    the price of wisdom is above pearls.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,
    nor can it be valued in pure gold.

20 “From where, then, does wisdom come?
    And where is the place of understanding?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living
    and concealed from the birds of the air.
22 Abaddon and Death say,
    ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

​23 “God understands the way to it,
    and he knows its place.
24 For he looks to the ends of the earth
    and sees everything under the heavens.
25 When he gave to the wind its weight
    and apportioned the waters by measure,
26 when he made a decree for the rain
    and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
27 then he saw it and declared it;
    he established it, and searched it out.
28 And he said to man,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
    and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

---

Even though it appears Job has given his rebuttal to Bildad's closing arguments, he continues by asking where it is that one goes to find wisdom--we know to go to the mine to find silver and to the fields of grain from the earth to find the ingredients to make bread, but where does one go if they want to find the wisdom of God?  We know today that the answer for this is the Bible, the Word of God, but Job didn't have a Bible back then, so his question is genuine.  Job posits that a man could search everywhere on earth and never find it, because it is not something of this world.

Job makes sure to say that the evil one who promises knowledge and wisdom is a liar and that it is a mystery even to him.  Remember the temptation in the Garden of Eden, where the devil, who was is a liar from the beginning, told Eve (and Adam who was standing right there with her) that the fruit would open her eyes and make her wise like God.  Satan cannot promise anyone wisdom because God is the only one who knows the way to it according to verse 23.  This is why God was the one who gave wisdom to Solomon when he asked for it, and He gave it in great abundance.

James 1:5
English Standard Version
5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.


Job's last statement sounds a lot like the wisdom of Solomon in the book of Proverbs

Proverbs 9:10
English Standard Version10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
    and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

I think this is Job's way of expressing the sentiment of Paul in Romans 1:22 (though I admit this is taken a bit out of context):  "22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools."  I think Job is telling his friends that they can't have wisdom because they never went to God for it, and he knows they haven't gone to God because they don't know God or have a relationship with Him.  They may be simply be "highly intelligent fools" (a phrase that I've heard my dad use to describe people like the friends of Job in the past).  The "fool" according to the Bible is the one who denies God's existence or worships the creature rather than the Creator.  He has several other attributes as well that we learn about in the book of Proverbs and it seems clear to me that Solomon and Job were inspired by the same Holy Spirit even though they lived hundreds of years apart from each other.

Zophar will choose not to make a final argument and Job is going to continue in his closing arguments over the next few chapters before Elihu speaks.  Even though it doesn't seem like it, we're very close to the end of the book, so bear with me.  We've got about 10 more days of blogs left for this one.

I think I may go to the book of Philippians next to see how the New Testament tells us how to deal with pain and suffering.  It's a short epistle that the apostle Paul wrote while he was in prison (one of several "prison epistles").  I think that might fit nicely with what we have just studied in Job and I think I may also tackle the epistle of Galatians after that as that tells us how we should view the Law as Christians--something else we've talked about recently, and there are some references to circumcision (the sign of the Old Covenant) and Abraham there that you should better understand since we've gone through Genesis and Exodus now.

There's still much to be gleaned from the Old Testament.  It is still full of events that better explain the nature and character of God and help us worship Him both in spirit and in truth.  We need to worship a God that we know, not a god that we do not know, and what we know about Him is mostly found in His Word.