God willing, this post begins a series that will examine wisdom in the last part of the Book of Job.
There are three books in the Old Testament that talk about wisdom more than any others. They are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job. In Job we have a practical demonstration of the truth that knowing what wisdom is and being wise are two different things. In chapter 28 Job talks accurately and movingly about wisdom, and in the chapters following fails to live up to it.
In the first 25 chapters of the book Job and his friends were arguing and not agreeing about some very big and profound questions. Why do we suffer? What is the relationship between suffering and righteousness and wickedness? How can we understand God’s ways? What is the purpose of life? What is man’s proper relation to God?
In chapter 26 Job begins a very long speech – it continues all the way to the end of chapter 31 – and it is his final speech. It has three parts marked off by the following statements. “But Job answered and said… (26:1),” “Moreover Job continued his discourse… (27:1),” and “Job further continued his discourse… (29:1).” At the end of this speech the direction of the book changes. Job’s friends have no more to say; “So these three men ceased answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes (32:1).” Elihu, a fourth friend and the youngest present, who had not spoken before, begins a speech that continues through all of chapters 32-37. Then, at the end of Elihu’s speech, the Lord answers Job out of the whirlwind (chapters 38-41).
Chapter 28, in the middle of Job’s long speech, has two parts. In verses 1-11 Job talks about mining and makes three points. First, it takes a lot of strenuous and dangerous labor and ingenuity for men both to find and extract gems and minerals from the earth. They have to go where the king of beasts cannot go and see what the birds, who see more than any other living creatures, cannot see. Secondly, they go down into darkness and the shadow of death. They go to the depths of the earth where the dead are found and death threatens them there. “He puts his hand on the flint; he overturns mountains at the roots. He cuts out channels in the rocks (v.9-10).” Thirdly, they bring up many valuable things: gold, silver, copper, iron and precious stones.
Job brings us to the point of all this in verse 12: “But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?” Mining wisdom is even more difficult than bringing ore and gems from the depths of the earth.
In verses 12-19 he seems to suggest that it is impossible to find wisdom. It is not found in the land of the living. “The deep says, ‘It is not in me.’” It cannot be purchased with gold or precious stones. Man does not know its value (v.13). That does not mean only that man cannot put a price on it, but that it is so precious a thing that its value is entirely incomprehensible to him.
In verses 20-22 he asks again, where can wisdom be found? “Where is the place of understanding?” Again, he finds no answer. No living eye can see it. It is concealed from the birds of the air. Destruction and death have heard a rumor of it, but in the end can do no better. I think Job has in mind something like what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 7:1-4:
A good name is better than precious ointment, And the day of death than the day of one’s birth. Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men, And the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, For by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
But Job concludes that even death and destruction cannot teach wisdom.
In the final verses of the chapter (23-28) he shows us the way to wisdom. That way begins with understanding that wisdom is in God. He understands its way and knows its place. He made all by wisdom and his governing of the creation is visible evidence of it. This wisdom of God is past finding out. Man cannot attain to it or even understand it.
God also teaches man wisdom. He saw, declared, prepared and searched it out. This is man’s wisdom:
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
And to depart from evil is understanding.
Wisdom for us is to tremble before the God of wisdom, and in that fear to depart from the evil that is very deeply embedded in our lives and even in our natures.
The striking thing about Job’s description of wisdom is that it contains strong echoes of what both Elihu and the Lord say to him later in the book when they are rebuking him for his lack of wisdom. Job’s understanding was more intellectual than practical.
Next time we will begin to see how Job fell short of the lofty understanding he displays here.
Click here to listen to William Boyce’s anthem, O Where Shall Wisdom Be Found.