Where is Wisdom? Part 1 of 3
I went to Haiti on a short mission trip a number of years ago. The first morning I was there I went up on top of the 2 story building where we were staying for some devotional time. It was the perfect spot to go because I could see over the walls of the compound and had a view of the city around me in the early morning hours.
Despite the great view from my perch, I was feeling somewhat unsettled. I had a few things weighing on my mind at the time and I also felt uneasy about being in Haiti. I’m not sure what I was looking for that morning but I definitely wasn’t feeling assured and peaceful. I decided to just open my Bible to see where God would lead me and find some peace in the midst of my unrest.
It seemed like a bad joke when I realized that I had opened my Bible to the Book of Job. Job, really?!? More specifically, I opened it to Job 28. While I had read Job before I certainly wasn’t familiar with this specific chapter. Little did I know that it would provide me exactly what I needed to see above the walls of my own situation. It has become one of my favorite passages in all of scripture.
We are all familiar with the story of Job. God allowed Job to be tested by Satan to see if he would renounce his faith and turn away from God. He lost his family and his fortune in the process but ultimately stayed faithful to God. Job’s calamities are noted in the first couple of chapters in the book while many of the following chapters recount his discussions with his 3 friends - Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. They cover a few key topics like “Why do the righteous suffer?”
In chapter 28 the topic of wisdom surfaces and each seems to have their own opinion as to the origin of wisdom. Eliphaz claims that it comes from “observing and experiencing life” while Bildad says that we should strictly “look to the past and learn from others.” Zopher claims that wisdom is only possessed by a few and we have to rely on those that have it.
While none of these opinions are entirely wrong, they don’t fully address the question of the true source of wisdom. Job speaks to this in Chapter 28 and we are going to go though these passages over the next couple of weeks starting with 1-11. It’s a beautiful piece of literature that is also loaded with truths that will help all of us in our search for wisdom.
Job 28:1-11
“Certainly there is a mine for silver
And a place for refining gold.
2 Iron is taken from the dust,
And copper is smelted from rock.
3 Man puts an end to darkness,
And to the farthest limit he searches out
The rock in gloom and deep shadow.
4 He sinks a shaft away from inhabited areas,
Forgotten by the foot;
They hang and swing, away from people.
5 From the earth comes food,
And underneath, it is turned over like fire.
6 Its rocks are the source of sapphires,
And its dust contains gold.
7 No bird of prey knows the path,
Nor has the falcon’s eye caught sight of it.
8 The proud animals have not trodden it,
Nor has the lion passed over it.
9 He puts his hand on the flint;
He overturns the mountains at the base.
10 He carves out channels through the rocks,
And his eye sees anything precious.
11 He dams up the streams from flowing,
And brings to light what is hidden.
In this opening passage, Job eloquently describes the process of mining the treasures of the earth. He goes into great detail about the extravagant lengths that man goes to find gold, diamonds and sapphires below the earth’s surface. Man invests a tremendous amount of time and effort in the mining process - even risking life and limb. Job’s purpose in this passage is to set up a comparison between what man is willing to risk and expend to find earthly treasures compared with his search for wisdom. This leads to some important questions for us:
How does our appetite for earthly treasure compare to our appetite for wisdom?
What are we willing to expend/risk to obtain each?
This world is drowning in information but starving for wisdom.
Hunger and thirst for wisdom,
Big E
Matt. 5:6