The Mystery of Wisdom

INTRO

In today’s chapters, Job continues to wrestle with both what had happened to him and how his friends had responded to him. Job’s responses were both specific to things his friends had said to him and general about the nature of life and suffering.

TEACHING

Job 28:1–11: Job describes the processes for obtaining precious metals from the earth, including silver, gold, iron, and copper. He highlights that mankind has developed knowledge to mine beneath the earth’s surface to bring out needed materials. In the process, mankind has seen and walked in places no other creature in the world had ever seen or walked. Humanity’s knowledge is so developed he cuts “channels in the rocks” (v. 10) and “dams up the streams” (v. 11).

Job 28:12–19: After he observed many of humanity’s technological advancements that demonstrated their ingenuity and intelligence, Job asks a pointed question: “But where can wisdom be found, and where is understanding located?” (v. 12). Job pointed out that wisdom could not be found in the oceans or the seas. Wisdom could not be bought with gold or silver.

Wisdom was much more valuable than any precious stone: gold, silver, onyx, lapis lazuli, coral, quartz, pearl, or topaz.

Job 28:20–28: After pointing out the source for many types of precious commodities and emphasizing the value of wisdom over precious stones and valuables, Job again asked, “Where then does wisdom come from and where is understanding located?” (v. 20). Job notes that wisdom “is hidden from the eyes of every living thing” (v. 21); even Abaddon and Death have only heard about the source of wisdom (v. 22).

After carefully listing all the things humanity knows, how much more valuable wisdom is than any other precious commodity, and highlighting the hiddenness of wisdom, Job declares, “God understands the way to wisdom and He knows its location” (v. 23). God established wisdom when He created the world and made limits to natural processes like wind, rain, and lightning. Because God established wisdom, Job concludes, “The fear of the Lord is this: wisdom. And to turn from evil is understanding” (v. 28). Knowing the ways of the Lord was equal to fearing the Lord and was how one obtains wisdom. Understanding, the thing that made a person turn from evil, was a response to the fear of the Lord.

“He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He planned in Him for the administration of the days of fulfillment-—to bring everything together in the Messiah, both things in heaven and things on earth in Him” (Ephesians 1:9-10). “The mystery of His will” was what Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar had all been trying to figure out.

“The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. By reading this you are able to understand my insight about the mystery of the Messiah. This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (Ephesians 3:3–5). Job and his friends wrestled with an incomplete revelation. They did not have a complete knowledge of Christ because He had not yet come.

“This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of the Messiah, and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things” (Ephesians 3:8–9). Job

understood much about the natural world, but he struggled to understand the intricacies of God, especially regarding God’s divine justice.

“For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). This was the perspective Job lacked. Paul understood that in spite of the sufferings he experienced in this life, there would be a final payday in which the glory he received would make the sufferings he experienced pale in comparison.

“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Job and his friends struggled with this because it had not been revealed to them yet. They processed Job’s experience with human reason and reached a limit to their understanding. They could not reason their way to understanding the kingdom of God and its relationship to earthly humanity.

God will make all things new. He will come back and restore all things. When we are able to see our situations from God’s perspective, we will view them in a proper way. When we view our situations from God’s perspective, we understand that, even if we die, to be present with Him in glory is gain. When we view our situations from God’s perspective, we understand that He has worked all things out for our good and that our future glory will far outweigh our present suffering. But Job didn’t fully understand these points.

Job 29:1–25: Job expresses a lament for the way things used to be. In the past, he felt God’s friendship (vv. 4–5a), he still had his children (v. 5b), he had a position of authority (v. 7), he was thought to have great wisdom (vv. 8–11), and he helped the poor and the oppressed for the sake of justice (vv. 12–17). In the midst of his suffering, Job knew God had a place in his life. He seems to be wondering, “Why does serving God have to be this hard?”

CLOSING

When we made the choice to live for the Lord and live according to His Word, we were separated from some things. But that same choice joins us to others who are like-minded in faith and we will find a new place of belonging.