WHERE TRUE WISDOM IS FOUND--Job 28:1-28
Proposition: True wisdom is more than knowledge, it is the right application of knowledge, especially a reverential awe and fear of our awesome God.
Objective: My purpose is to challenge people to know and experience the true wisdom of a reverential awe of God.
INTRODUCTION:
Illus: One of the commencement traditions at Harvard University is Senior Class Chapel. On the morning of their graduation, seniors gather in Memorial Church to hear the minister offer words of solace and encouragement as they leave "the Yard" to take their places in the world. The 1998 senior class heard the unvarnished truth from the Rev. Peter Gomes, minister at Harvard and the author of several books on the Bible…In his gentle ringing tones, that call to mind a cross between a Shakespearean actor and the TV sitcom character Frasier, the inimitable Doctor Gomes took no prisoners as he began: "You are going to be sent out of here for good, and most of you aren’t ready to go. The president is about to bid you into the fellowship of educated men and women and," - and here he paused and spoke each word slowly for emphasis - "you know just - how - dumb - you - really - are." The senior class cheered in agreement. "And worse than that," Doctor Gomes continued, "the world - and your parents in particular - are going to expect that you will be among the brightest and best. But you know that you can no longer fool all the people even some of the time. By noontime today, you will be out of here. By tomorrow you will be history. By Saturday, you will be toast. That’s a fact - no exceptions, no extensions." "Nevertheless, there is reason to hope," Doctor Gomes promised. "The future is God’s gift to you. God will not let you stumble or fall. God has not brought you this far to this place to abandon you or leave you here alone and afraid. The God of Israel never stumbles, never sleeps, never goes on sabbatical. Thus, my beloved and bewildered young friends, do not be afraid." What Doctor Gomes did for the senior class at Harvard, the Lord reveals to Job while he is in the midst of seeking to understand why he is suffering. He knew that wisdom is not the same as understanding even though knowledge is important.
IT IS WITH GOOD CAUSE that the term "information overload" was coined in recent years. Knowledge has increased within our generation almost beyond imagination! Here are just a few mind-boggling facts on this:
80% of all the scientists who have ever lived are alive right now.
Every minute they add 2,000 pages to man’s scientific knowledge. The material they produce every 24 hours would take one person five years to read.
Every day, the equivalent of over 300 million pages of text is sent over the Internet. According to Dr. Malcolm Todd, one-time president of the American Medical Association, about half of all medical knowledge is outdated every ten years. It is estimated that over 15,000 scientific journals are being published annually, and that throughout the world well over 1,000 new books are published every day.
In 1970, when the Apollo 13 spacecraft was lost in space, it took NASA computers 90 minutes to work out a way to bring it back. A scientist working with a pencil and paper would have taken over a million years to figure out how to accomplish the same feat.
Studies have concluded that human knowledge is currently doubling approximately every eight years. According to author H.L. Willmington, "By the time a child born today graduates from college, the knowledge in the world will be four times as great. By the time that child is fifty years old, it will be thirty-two times as great, and 97 percent of everything known in the world will have been learned since the time he was born."
What good is a head full of knowledge if our hearts are empty and we lack peace of mind and purpose in life?
His friends have fallen silent. Job is fully in control even in the midst of his extreme suffering as he steps back from the conflict to give what some call as “a beautiful hymn to wisdom.” Job truly was a man in dire need of divine wisdom. Job had listened to his three friends and was weary of their clichés and platitudes that they were giving him in the name of “wisdom.” His friends were sure that their words were pure gold, but Job concluded that they were tinsel and trash. His friends had knowledge but they lacked wisdom. If he was to face his sufferings successfully, he needed true wisdom . Here Job answers the question in v. 12, “But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?” This is a declaration of what is so desperately needed--heavenly wisdom from God, not worldly wisdom from man. Job extols the virtue and the true source of wisdom. He desires that his three friends might have spoken to him with such divine wisdom.
I. THE SEARCH: GOD’S WISDOM CAN’T BE SOUGHT (28:1-11) “Surely there is a mine for silver”--Man’s genius cannot discover wisdom. The first eleven verses are a very vivid description of the way men search in the earth for hidden treasure, for gold and precious stones. Remember, Job is the oldest book in the Bible, it comes from the very dawn of civilization. But here we have a description of mining practices that sound almost as though they were taken right out of contemporary life. Job describes the various ways man mines for gold in the earth but is unable to find wisdom.
1. A description (vvs. 1-3) “Man…searches every recess” (v. 3)--He uses the illustration of metal ore, gold being refined, iron take from the earth and copper being smelted from ore to show the effort that man will take in being a success in life. Digging deep below the surface of the earth, man penetrates into the depths of the earth. This refers to the operations of mining, as man delves into the darkest regions; he goes even to the outer limits of darkness; he penetrates every-where. Probably the allusion is derived from the custom of carrying torches into mines.
Illus: In his great book about the American West, "Men To Match My Mountains," Irving Stone writes about a mine in Leadville, CO. In 1877 a success-ful prospector bought the Robert E. Lee mine for $16,000. He then hired a crew and sank a shaft more than a hundred feet deep without finding any ore. When an-other group of prospectors offered him $30,000 for his mine he sent word down the shaft for his crew to pick up its tools and quit. The men down below were in the process of drilling a hole and putting the dynamite in. They asked the boss if they couldn’t shoot just this once more. "No, come up!" replied Dexter. "I won’t put another cent into this hole." The new owners "shot" Dexter’s last hole. When the smoke cleared they found they had exposed a vein of silver so pure that in 24 hours they had mined ninety-five tons of ore worth $118,500. The cost of bringing this fortune to the surface was exactly $60.
Illus: “You don’t have to be listed in Who’s Who to know what’s what.”
2. A desperation (vvs. 4-7) “They hang far from men; They swing to and fro”-- Then he describes how the miners work. They go into places where the foot yields no support, and they are obliged to suspend themselves in order to be sustained. He refers to scaffolding that is erected on the side of a mountain so that miners can get up into the mines and find the treasures that are there. Also, miners dig shafts in the dark underground and dangle from ropes to reach remote areas. Beneath the surface of the earth is in rubble as if it had been burned due to being overturned by the miners. Birds with keen sight and stealthily animals cannot see or walk on the underground treasure discoveries or finds. They remain unseen and undetected even by the trained eye. Now why will men and women not put that much effort into gaining God’s wisdom?
Illus: Dear Grandson:
I have become a little older since I saw you last, and a few changes have come into my life since then. Frankly, I have become a frivolous old gentleman. I am seeing five gentlemen everyday. As soon as I wake up, Will Power helps me get out of bed. Then I go to see John. Then Charlie Horse comes along, and when he is here he takes a lot of my time and attention. When he leaves, Arthur Rites shows up and stays the rest of the day. He doesn’t like to stay in one place very long, so he takes me from joint to joint. After such a busy day, I’m really tired and glad to go to
bed with Ben Gay. What a life.
Love,
Grandpa
P.S. A friend from church came to call the other day. He said at my age I should be thinking of the hereafter. I told him, "Oh, I do it all the time. In the basement, I ask myself, "Now, what am I here after?"
3. A depth (vvs. 8-11) “He overturns the mountains at the roots”-- Job says there is nothing in nature like a man’s desperate search for gold. Animals pay no attention to gold and jewels; it is men who seek after these things. And they will go to any limits to find them. Miners often have to dam up water that seeps into their mines in order to work them. Job shows how man gives up almost anything and goes to any lengths to find gold. We find that No human can discover divine wisdom unless God chooses to make it known. We learn that a person cannot find god’s wisdom by mere human efforts. It takes more than courage and native intelligence; it demands humility and spiritual perception.
Illus: There’s a story about a proud young man who came to Socrates asking for knowledge. He walked up to the muscular philosopher and said, "O great Socrates, I come to you for knowledge." Socrates recognized a pompous numbskull when he saw one. He led the young man through the streets, to the sea, and chest deep into water. Then he asked, "What do you want?" "Knowledge, O wise Socrates," said the young man with a smile. Socrates put his strong hands on the man’s shoulders and pushed him under. Thirty seconds later Socrates let him up. "What do you want?" he asked again. "Wisdom," the young man sputtered, "O great and wise Socrates." Socrates crunched him under again. Thirty seconds passed, thirty-five. Forty. Socrates let him up. The man was gasping. "What do you want, young man?" Between heavy, heaving breaths the fellow wheezed, "Knowledge, O wise and wonderful..." Socrates jammed him under again Forty seconds passed. Fifty. "What do you want?" "Air!" the young man screeched. "I need air!" "When you want knowledge as you have just wanted air, then you will have knowledge." It is the same with wisdom as well.
II. THE SIGNIFICANCE: GOD’S WISDOM CAN’T BE BOUGHT (vvs. 12-22) “It cannot be purchased for gold” (v. 18)--Job declares that wisdom, far more valuable than precious metals and stones, cannot be bought at any price. Man’s resources cannot buy wisdom. Wisdom is the full understanding of the plans of God - for this is the point of inquiry. The object of Job is to show that it is not to be found in the most profound science; by penetrating to the farthest extent of which man was capable in the earth, nor by any human investigations whatever.
1. The accessibility (vvs. 12-15) “The deep says, ‘It is not in me…’”-- He says men will go to any lengths to find that treasure, and likewise they look for the answers to the riddles of life. They can find the gold, but they cannot find wisdom. This is what he points out: the elusiveness of wisdom. Now what is this wisdom Job is talking about? All through this book we have been confronted with the question, "Why does God treat Job this way?" But we have information that Job does not have. He has no knowledge of the challenge that Satan has made to God about him, and so his questioning is even deeper than ours. But we often feel this way ourselves. Life presents many riddles to us. Now wisdom is the answer to that question, "Why?" Wisdom is the knowledge of the nature of things, the reasons behind what happens. Someone has described wisdom as the right application of knowledge, and that is a good description. It is how to use things in such a way as to make things work out rightly. That is what we lack.
2. The appreciation (vvs. 16-19) “Nor can it be valued in pure gold”--The value of divine wisdom surpasses all precious stones. It is so far beyond the best rubies that it is not even worth the negotiation. Wisdom is incomparable in worth. Even the best gold cannot purchase God’s wisdom. Wisdom far exceeds its value. Modern society thinks that anything can be obtained or accomplished if only you have enough money. Job mentions gold five times, silver once and names seven different precious stones; yet none of these treasures individually, nor all of them collectively, can purchase the wisdom of God.
Illus: “Remember, our seasoned citizens are worth a fortune, with silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys, lead in their feet, and gas in their stomachs.”
3. The answer (vvs. 20-22) “From where then does wisdom come?”--God as high as birds can fly and you won’t find wisdom there. Go as deep as Destruction (Abbaddon) and death, and wisdom is not there. Only God knows where to find wisdom, for God sees everything. He doesn’t have to dig into the earth to see what’s there! Dr. Henry Brandt told of an incident in his ministry as a Christian psychologist when a man and his wife came to see him about marital problems. He discovered that this man was a professional negotiator who made his money mediating difficulties, working out solutions in a peaceful way. But he and his wife drove to see Dr. Brandt in separate cars and sat on opposite sides of the room, unable to communicate with each other! The whole problem was that they could not decide what to do with their cat! Isn’t it amazing, that a man who makes his living putting divergent views together could not get together with his wife on what to do with their cat? Now that is why Job says man does not know the way to wisdom. It is not found in the land of the living.
III. THE SOURCE: GOD’S WISDOM COMES FROM ABOVE (vvs. 23-28) v. 28-“Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom”-- “Wisdom is knowing when to speak your mind and when to mind your speech!” God alone is the Source and Site of wisdom. The bottom line is this: A person is wise or foolish depending upon his attitude toward God. A life of wisdom is God-focused, God-centered and God-oriented. A fool is ego-centric, man-centric, self-centered, and self-oriented. "It’s all about ME!"
1. The Cause (vvs. 23-24) “God understands its way”--The Source of wisdom is found in God alone who understands and controls everything. His knowledge is unlimited, and his power infinite. God sees and knows everything. If wisdom could be bought the rich would be the happiest people on earth. But as many of us know, oftentimes they are the most miserable and have lost even the simplest enjoyments of life. Well, where does wisdom come from? How do you find answers? Job tells us in this verse that this is God.
2. The consideration (vvs. 25-26) “To establish…and apportion…when He made”--All this was done with wisdom that God alone possesses. There is a wonderful scientific accuracy running through the analogies that Job uses in that passage. For many centuries men did not know that wind had weight, but Job knew that. "God measures out the waters, and makes a decree for the rain; he makes a special way for the lightning." These have counterparts in the scientific discoveries of our day, but Job seemed to understand these things. He said, in effect, that when God created the universe, that is when he made wisdom. He understood what he was doing and he understood how it would work and all the problems that would be involved.
Illus: “A wise man learns by the experience of others. An ordinary man learns by his own experience. A fool learns by nobody’s experience.”
3. The confirmation (vvs. 27-28) “Then He saw wisdom and declared it…Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom”--That is, wisdom is the result of fearing God and reverencing Him. Reverence toward God is the primary quality that makes us wise. Not until we stand in awe of the greatness of God and His limitless attributes can we become truly wise. Wisdom and evil cannot exist in the same heart, one displaces the other. That is the quality that characterized Job from the beginning (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). The meaning here is, that real wisdom is connected with a proper veneration and reverence for God, and with submission to Him. Spurgeon said, "Wisdom is the right use of knowledge.!" Wisdom is knowing what to do, skill is knowing how to do it, virtue is doing it!
Illus: This was in the missionary letter of Carol Brown, a personal friend, in Venezuela: Like other survivors of the bus accident, Pedro often wondered why his life had been spared while two friends from his Guajibo community died. With the loss of an eye and hearing in one ear, he sometimes wonders why he made it, especially during the months of agonizing physical therapy after each surgery. Yet, it was during those days that he came face to face with his Savior. Pedro and his friends had wasted the morning at a local bar spending what was left of their week’s wages. With one last drink in hand, the men headed down the dirt road toward San Juan Viejo. "Get out of the road", was the last thing Pedro remembered shouting to his friends before the bus hit them from behind. Seconds later he lay unconscious. After months of hospital stay, Pedro headed back to his village. It was a long walk home that day. Yet, their small house at the far end of San Juan Viejo looked like a mansion. Once inside, Pedro lifted his face up to the heavens. The words spilled out from within "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you." Unashamed, Pedro tells everyone that it is God alone who had purposed to spare his life that day. Now Pedro is learning to follow God’s leading day by day.
CONCLUSION:
1. Evaluate the choices of your life. How many demonstrate God’s wisdom?
2. True wisdom is not found in a PRINCIPLE but true wisdom is found in a PERSON. We get wisdom by obedience. “Wisdom is received by separating ourselves to God, opening our hands to Him and allowing Him to reveal to us the way of the chaos in our lives.”
3. Ask God for wisdom in dealing with life situations, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” James 1:5--The word “wisdom” is used 237 times in the Bible.
4. The Biblical wisdom is “the wisdom that is from above” according to James 3:17 “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”
5. Ask Jesus to come into your life. Ask Him to give you understanding.
Illus: “Experience comes from what we have done. Wisdom comes from what we have done badly.” Theodore Levitt, Harvard Business School.
Illus: Husband Sends a $17,000 Apology--After 17 years of marriage, Marianne finally left Larry. "It was a culmination of things," said Larry. "But I am desperately trying to save our marriage." Marianne left their home in Orlando, Florida, and went to her parents’ home in Jacksonville. She changed her cell phone number so he couldn’t reach her. Her parents blocked him from entering their gated community, so he sent her five-dozen roses. His goal was to ask forgiveness, to plead for the chance for the two of them to work on their relationship. When none of those actions brought any response from his estranged wife, Larry took out a full-page ad in the Florida Times-Union on January 25, 2005. The ad read: "I can only hope you will give me the chance to prove my unending love for you. Life without you is empty and meaningless." The cost of a full-page ad meant that Larry sent Marianne a $17,000 apology. A relative told Larry that his wife had seen the ad. "She said my wife read the ad and started crying," he said. "But so far I’ve had no response from her." After being ignored by the ones he loved, our Redeemer God put a billboard on a hilltop just outside Jerusalem. Written in blood, the message says He is willing to pay the ultimate price—giving His only Son—to have a relationship with us.
Prepared by:
Gerald R. Steffy
6206 N. Hamilton Road
Peoria, IL 61614
E-mail: grsteffy@yahoo.com
