Job 28-30 - Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

Job 28:20 LSB - 

[20] "Where then does wisdom come from? 

And where is the place of understanding?

Job 28:21 LSB - 

[21] "Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living 

And concealed from the birds of the sky.

ii. “He seems to say that, though men should explore the deep places of the earth with all the diligence of miners seeking gold and silver, though they should exert all their mental force, as miners use all their muscular vigor, and though they should employ all the machinery within their reach, as men do who pierce through the rocks in search of precious treasure yet it is not within the range of human labor and skill to attain unto wisdom. That can only be found by another and a higher method; it must come to us by revelation from God, for we cannot find it by our own efforts.” (Spurgeon)

Job 28:23 LSB - 

[23] "God understands its way, 

And He knows its place.

Job 28:28 LSB - 

[28] "So He said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; 

And to turn away from evil is understanding.'"

Job Continues His Discourse

Job 29:2-5 LSB - [2] "Oh that I were as in months gone by, As in the days when God kept me, [3] When His lamp shone over my head, [And] by His light I walked through darkness, [4] As I was in the prime of my days, When the [intimate] counsel with God [was] over my tent, [5] When the Almighty was yet with me, [And] my children were around me,

Job 30:23 LSB - [23] "For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living.

“Under depression of spirit he felt sure that he must very soon die; he feared that God would not relax the blows of his hand until his body became a ruin, and then he would have rest. But he did not die at that time. He was fully recovered, and God gave him twice as much as he had before. A life of usefulness, and happiness, and honor lay before him; and yet he had set up his own tombstone, and reckoned himself a dead man.” (Spurgeon)

Job 30:25 LSB - [25] "Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

ii. The sensitive soul of Job was another demonstration of his godliness, and appropriate for any servant of God. “I know that a man in the ministry who cannot feel had much better resign his office. We have heard some hold forth the doctrines of grace, as if they were a nauseous medicine, and men were to be forced to drink thereof by hard words and violent abuse. We have always thought that such men did more hurt than good, for while seeking to vindicate the letter, they evidently missed the spirit of the faith once delivered unto the saints. Cold and impassive are some of our divines; they utter truth as though it were no concern of theirs whether men received it or not. To such men heaven and hell, death and eternity, are mere themes for oratory, but not subjects for emotion.” (Spurgeon)