Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

There is a mine for silver
    and a place where gold is refined.
Iron is taken from the earth,
    and copper is smelted from ore.
Mortals put an end to the darkness;
    they search out the farthest recesses
    for ore in the blackest darkness.
Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft,
    in places untouched by human feet;
    far from other people they dangle and sway.
The earth, from which food comes,
    is transformed below as by fire;
lapis lazuli comes from its rocks,
    and its dust contains nuggets of gold.
No bird of prey knows that hidden path,
    no falcon’s eye has seen it.
Proud beasts do not set foot on it,
    and no lion prowls there.
People assault the flinty rock with their hands
    and lay bare the roots of the mountains.
They tunnel through the rock;
    their eyes see all its treasures.
They search the sources of the rivers
    and bring hidden things to light.
But where can wisdom be found?
    Where does understanding dwell?
No mortal comprehends its worth;
    it cannot be found in the land of the living.
The deep says, “It is not in me”;
    the sea says, “It is not with me.”
It cannot be bought with the finest gold,
    nor can its price be weighed out in silver.
It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir,
    with precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it,
    nor can it be had for jewels of gold.
Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention;
    the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.
The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it;
    it cannot be bought with pure gold.
Where then does wisdom come from?
    Where does understanding dwell?
It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing,
    concealed even from the birds in the sky.
Destruction and Death say,
    “Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.”
God understands the way to it
    and he alone knows where it dwells,
for he views the ends of the earth
    and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind
    and measured out the waters,
when he made a decree for the rain
    and a path for the thunderstorm,
then he looked at wisdom and appraised it;
    he confirmed it and tested it.
And he said to the human race,
    “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom,
    and to shun evil is understanding.”

• Job 28:1-28

Job 25 ”Though Job had agreed that the wicked suffer (27:13–23), that explained nothing in his case, since he was righteous. So Job called on his friends to consider that maybe God’s wisdom was beyond their comprehension. That is the theme of this chapter. The wisdom of God is not gained by natural or theoretical knowledge. What God does not reveal, we can’t know.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

The Message

Matthew Henry states that this chapter is unlike anything else in the book of Job.  Suddenly Job becomes a philosopher or composer.  Job goes from sarcasm and a bit of taunting to waxing poetically about wisdom in general.  How can a feeble human mind even comprehend?

The first eleven verses are a discourse on mining.  Job talks of refining silver, gold, iron, and copper, but where do those ores come from?  They come from mines dug into the earth where animals have never trod.  The miners know the difference in rock, ore, and precious gemstones.  Lapis Lazuli is mentioned as an example.

My uncle was a geologist who determined the best markers in the rock to find uranium.  Rather than digging a hole and hoping, the mineral company would know there was uranium there.  That is the kind of knowledge that Job speaks of in the hymn of wisdom or interlude in the narrative.  Different translations give this odd chapter different names, since it does not seem to fit, according to Matthew Henry.

Looking in the rivers is briefly mentioned at the end of this discourse.  Why go into a mine deep in the earth with all its darkness and danger?  Some of what you might expect to find may be ‘mined’ by the springs and carried to the surface.

When I lived briefly in the Great Northwest, in the high desert of Washington state, I had a work friend who went to one stream or river to another almost every weekend.  He would see a sandbar or an interesting bend in the river and he would go panning.  If at a sandbar, he would dig some of the sand and pan that in the water.  In some streams, he would be looking for gold nuggets.  In other streams, he would look for gemstones.  He knew the rivers and streams of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and western Montana.  As such, he knew what to look for.  He might find gold dust in each location, but he always had a specific gemstone to look for.

This discourse of Job was a set up.  We know, at least some of us know, how to mine ore or pan for gold and gemstones.  We might even know enough to know which gemstones we were looking for.

But how do we pan for wisdom?

This chapter is illustrating the difference in wisdom and knowledge.  All the knowledge in the world does you no good without the wisdom to use it.  The fallacy of Job’s friends was not just a lack of evidence to prove Job was wicked, they had no wisdom to discern the knowledge that they possessed.  They should have known that Job was righteous since they were “friends.”

But Job does not point this out to them. No, Job extols wisdom.

To carry on the mining analogy, the sea and the deep say that wisdom is not within them.  All the silver and gold and gemstones that you have mined cannot be used to pay for wisdom.

So, where is wisdom?

Wisdom is in everything around us, even in the birds.

We would call it instinct that some animals hibernate in winter.  Some birds fly toward warmer climates in winter.  Thus a grain of wisdom is given to each creature for self-preservation and preservation of the species.

But what of Death and Destruction?  These are capitalized to anthropomorphize these evil things.  They have only heard of a rumor that wisdom might exist.  In other words, evil cannot comprehend wisdom.

God knows where wisdom dwells, only He knows.

God created the world.  He set the wind in motion; He brings the rain and thunderstorms.

And then the conclusion to this wonderful interlude:

“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

And now let us sing.

The following song is Christ Our Wisdom.  This is sung by Sovereign Grace Music.  Christ is God and we are not.

 

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Above all else, we need to remember that You are God and we are not.  Forgive us when we think we can do something on our own.  We owe You for the very air we breathe.  We may have multiple college degrees, but if we do not have Your Love in our hearts, we are nothing.  Give us wisdom, Lord.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.