Job 12: 1 – 25
The Difference Of Knowledge And Wisdom
1 Then Job answered and said: 2 “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! 3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these? 4 “I am one mocked by his friends, who called on God, and He answered him, the just and blameless who is ridiculed. 5 A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; It is made ready for those whose feet slip. 6 The tents of robbers prosper, and those who provoke God are secure—In what God provides by His hand. 7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; 8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. 9 Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, 10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? 11 Does not the ear test words and the mouth taste its food? 12 Wisdom is with aged men, and with length of days, understanding. 13 “With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. 14 If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; If He imprisons a man, there can be no release. 15 If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth. 16 With Him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are His. 17 He leads counselors away plundered, and makes fools of the judges. 18 He loosens the bonds of kings, and binds their waist with a belt. 19 He leads princes away plundered, and overthrows the mighty. 20 He deprives the trusted ones of speech, and takes away the discernment of the elders. 21 He pours contempt on princes, and disarms the mighty. 22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to light. 23 He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them. 24 He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness. 25 They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
In my lifetime I have across people whom I considered had great knowledge and wisdom. Do you know the difference between the two? One is gathering information and retaining it. The other has the God given ability to use the knowledge that was gained. This is called wisdom. I use to work with one guy by the name of Lou. He was extremely intelligent but lacked common sense. I told him one time that he had more college degrees than Bayor has aspirins but not enough common sense to be able to park a bicycle.
Many times when I am preparing a study of a particular book in the bible I most likely have had personal experience with the subject or as I stand back I get an actual direct realization of the biblical truth. For example, and here is a little advice to Pastors and I know some business leaders can benefit from. When you look at the people the Lord selects for ministry, most if not all were reluctant to get involved. They were all busy doing something. When you get an eager beaver who is all smiles and promotes himself or herself, I would advise you to watch out!
I observed this one guy who never came to our church. He is very popular in the secular world. When the Holy Spirit began to do an amazing growth in our church then low and behold this guy shows up and flatters his way not only on to the church leadership roster but weaseled his way to coming on staff immediately as a Pastor even though he never served in a Pastoral capacity anywhere or at anytime.
The church staff saw how this guy had weaned his way into the closeness of the Senior Pastor. To flatter him they would go this guy for every Tom, Dick, and Harry question. This guy loved to be known as an expert on every subject known to man. I did not realize that God had produced a second Solomon. If you know me then you can probably guess that I did not buy into this guy’s scheme. So, I remained polite but distant. I just concentrated on what the Lord had designated for me to do.
Like the attitudes of Saul and Haman this guy developed a personal resentment for me because I wouldn’t bow down to his position or knowledge. Behind the scene he slandered me and tried every trick in the book to discredit me and get me canned from my Pastoral position.
All of us who have read ahead know that our Precious Holy Master came to Job’s rescue. Here in print I testify that He did the same for me. Ultimately, this Mr. Know It All was living a double life and ultimately it all came crashing down. It was so bad for him that he threatened on numerous occasions to commit suicide. The Lord instructs us not to rejoice when our enemies get theirs. To tell you the truth I felt sorry for this guy. The thing that I did greatly rejoiced in was the fact that my Holy Lord defended me. Thank You Lord!
In this and the two following chapters we have Job’s answer to Zophar’s discourse, in which, as before, he first reasons with his friends and then turns to God, and directs the thoughts of his heart to Him.
1 Then Job answered and said: 2 “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you! 3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you. Indeed, who does not know such things as these? 4 “I am one mocked by his friends, who called on God, and He answered him, the just and blameless who is ridiculed. 5 A lamp is despised in the thought of one who is at ease; It is made ready for those whose feet slip.
There comes a time when you have to stand up to evil arrogant people. The wisdom is to know when. We see in these verses that Job condemns these three so called friends in regards to what they had said of him, and the judgment they had given of his character. He upbraids them with their conceitedness of themselves, and the good opinion they seemed to have of their own wisdom in comparison with him. I love a quote that Albert Einstein made, ‘The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.’ Too bad Einstein wasn’t around during Job’s time.
He comments to them that their claim to having a monopoly of wisdom is wrong. A nice comment of Cicero that relates to this action is, ‘It is a peculiar quality of a fool to perceive the faults of others and forget his own.’ Amen to that statement.
You have heard of the statement, ‘He thinks that he is God’s gift to the world.’ It is foolish for us to ever think that there will be any great irreparable loss to any work or ministry when we are gone, or that we can be ill spared, Our Holy God can rise up others, more fit than we are, to do His work. When wise men and good men die it is a comfort to think that wisdom and goodness shall not die with them. It might be possible here that Job reflects upon Zophar’s remarks comparing him (as he thought) and others to the wild donkey’s colt.
Job does himself the justice to put in his claim to share in the gifts of wisdom. He says not this to magnify himself over the others. Job understood that it was no great ability of himself to say, I have understanding as well as you; no, nor to say, "I understand this matter as well as you;’’ for what reason had either he or they to be proud of understanding that which was obvious. To put it in Yogi Berra’s vernacular, ‘“I wish I had an answer to that because I'm tired of answering that question.’ Here is one I created for understanding the obvious. ‘See a penny and pick it up and all day long you have a penny.’
Job next complains of the great contempt with which they had treated him. A lesson to be learned here is that those that are haughty and think too well of themselves are commonly scornful and ready to trample upon all who are about them. Job found it to be the case. Nothing is more painful to someone that has fallen from the height of prosperity into the depth of adversity than to be trodden on, and insulted over, when they are down.
There are two things which are bothering Job:
1 That these guys were his neighbors, his friends, his companions so their words hurt more than others. We see this truth revealed in the book of Psalms 55 verse 12 – 13, “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; then I could bear it. nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, my companion and my acquaintance.”
2. That theses guys were individuals who also believed in God. He knew that they also called upon God, and said that He answered them. Knowing this about them that they now would have the audacity to mock someone who was down and out. In the book of James chapter 3 verses 9 -10 say, “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.”
It is sad that any who call upon God should mock their brethren, and it cannot but lie heavily on a good man to be thought ill of by those whom he thinks well of.
Job had knowledge of our God most high and he knew that what was being thrown at him was not right. He reveals these truths first of all in that he had a God to go to, with whom he could lodge his appeal. This is a truth for all of us to remember -If our friends are deaf to our complaints, God Is not; if they condemn us, God knows our integrity; if they make the worst of us, He will make the best of us; if they give us hurtful answers, He will give us kind ones.
In addition, Job took comfort in knowing that a lot of honest good people have been despised and derided so it is not that strange if he now is included in this type of verbal attack.
What he suspected to be the true cause of their opinions of him was because they were themselves rich and at ease, and therefore they despised him who had fallen into poverty. It is the way of the world; we see instances of it daily. Those that prosper are praised, but of those that are down are abandoned. People somehow feel that if you do not distance yourselves from these misfortunate people you will go down with them. He that is ready to slip with his feet and fall into trouble, though he has formerly shone as a lamp, is then looked upon as a lamp going out like the snuff of a candle, which we throw to the ground and tread upon, and is accordingly despised in the thought of him or her that are doing okay.
Job now is going to contradict and confront what they had said of the destruction of wicked people in this world, showing that they often prosper. Job’s friends all of them went upon this principle, that wicked people cannot prosper long in this world, but some remarkable judgment or other will suddenly light on them: Zophar had concluded with it, that the eyes of the wicked shall fail. This principle Job here opposes, and maintains that God, in disposing men’s outward affairs, acts as a sovereign, reserving the exact distribution of rewards and punishments for the future state.
7 “But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you; And the birds of the air, and they will tell you; 8 Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you; And the fish of the sea will explain to you. 9 Who among all these does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this, 10 in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind? 11 Does not the ear test words and the mouth taste its food?
Job asserts it as an undoubted truth that wicked people may, and often do, prosper long in this world, Even great sinners may enjoy great prosperity. Wicked people are robbers, and by their ways provoke God. It is supposed that what is injurious to men is provoking to God, the patron of right and the protector of mankind. It is not strange if those that violate the bonds of justice break through the obligations of all religion, bid defiance even to God Himself, and make nothing of provoking Him.
It seems that Job is thinking about the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who had robbed him, and had always lived by spoil, and yet they prospered; the entire world saw they did, and there is no dispute.
He appeals even to the inferior creatures for the proof of this—the beasts, and fowls, and trees, and even the earth itself; consult these, and they shall tell this truth. Nature reveals this lesson in our cursed world that even among the creatures the greater devour the less and the stronger prey upon the weaker, and men are also as the fishes of the sea. Wicked people serve the downtrodden like fish served up on a plate.
Any one may easily gather from creatures that the hand of the Lord has wrought this,’’ that is, "that there is a wise Providence which guides and governs all these things by rules which we are neither acquainted with nor are competent judges of.’ In Almighty God’s hand is the soul of every living thing. All the creatures and mankind particularly, derive their being from Him, owe their being to Him, depend upon Him for the support of it, lie at His mercy, are under His direction and dominion and entirely at His disposal, and at His summons must resign their lives. All souls are His; and may He not do what He will with His own?
Does not the ear try words, as the mouth tastes meat? The mind of man has as good a faculty of discerning between truth and error, when duly stated, as the palate has of discerning between what is sweet and what is bitter. Job therefore demands from his friends a liberty to judge for himself of what they had said, and desires them to use the same liberty in judging of what he had said.
The interesting thing about the book of Job is for us to discern when something is stated incorrectly or is right on in its truth. Job now will agree to what they had said of the wisdom, power, and sovereignty of God, and the dominion of His Providence over the children of men and all their affairs. He confirms this truth of God Almighty and enlarges upon what they have said about our Holy Maker.
12 Wisdom is with aged men, and with length of days, understanding. 13 “With Him are wisdom and strength, He has counsel and understanding. 14 If He breaks a thing down, it cannot be rebuilt; If He imprisons a man, there can be no release. 15 If He withholds the waters, they dry up; If He sends them out, they overwhelm the earth. 16 With Him are strength and prudence. The deceived and the deceiver are His. 17 He leads counselors away plundered, and makes fools of the judges. 18 He loosens the bonds of kings, and binds their waist with a belt. 19 He leads princes away plundered, and overthrows the mighty. 20 He deprives the trusted ones of speech, and takes away the discernment of the elders. 21 He pours contempt on princes, and disarms the mighty. 22 He uncovers deep things out of darkness, and brings the shadow of death to light. 23 He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them. 24 He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness. 25 They grope in the dark without light, and He makes them stagger like a drunken man.
One thing we can learn that applies to our own lifetime is how others observe us Christians Sometimes it seems that the breakdown of Christianity is easy. You have Roman Catholics and then there are us Protestants. Not so quickly my friends to see it this way. If you do a self study you will realize that there are hundreds of different groups within both major church categories. When I do a funeral as you know it is filled with a whole variety of people. You have some believers and some non- believers. I address the group of mourners and keep it simple. I share the beauty and truth of our Lord Jesus so it can be palatable for all. I try to cover or focus on scriptural facts that all most all can agree with.
In verse 12 we see how Job asserts the unsearchable wisdom and irresistible power of God. It is allowed that among men there is wisdom and understanding. With God there are both wisdom and strength - wisdom to design the best and strength to accomplish what is designed. Our Holy Creator does not get counsel or understanding, as we do, by observation for He has it essentially and eternally in Himself.
What is the wisdom of ancient men compared with the wisdom of the ancient of days! It is but little that we know, and less that we can do; but God can do everything, and no thought can be withheld from Him. Happy are those who have this God for their God, for they have infinite wisdom and strength engaged for them.
Foolish and fruitless are all the attempts of men against Him. There is no contending with the divine providence, nor breaking the measures of it. If our Holy Maker takes away who can hinder Him? There is no rebuilding what God will have to lie in ruins. There is no releasing those whom God has condemned to a perpetual imprisonment. Is anyone that crazy in his thinking that if he has requested hell as his final destination that he can just walk out if he so decides?
Someone might contend with this reasoning that one is talking about something they have not yet experienced so Job gives an instance, for the proof of this doctrine in nature. El Shaddai has the command of the waters, and He can punish humans either by withholding the rain or allowing for an over pouring of it.
Job now gives instances of God’s powerful management of the children of men, crossing their purposes and serving His own by them and upon them, overruling all their counsels, overpowering all their attempts, and overcoming all their oppositions.
Our Holy Ruler knows how to make use, not only of those who are wise and good, who willingly and designedly serve Him, but even of those who are foolish and bad, who, one would think, could be made no way serviceable to the designs of His providence. Therefore, the deceived and the deceiver are His; the simplest men that are deceived are not below His notice; the slickest of men that deceive cannot with all their subtlety escape His awareness. Isn’t it true that the world is full of deceit; the one half of mankind cheats the other, and God suffers it to be so, and from both will at last bring glory to Himself. The deceivers make tools of the deceived, but our great God makes tools of them both, wherewith He works, and none can hinder Him. He has wisdom and might enough to manage all those fooled and those who fool others in the world. Our Great God knows how to serve His own purposes by them, notwithstanding the weakness of the one and the wickedness of the other.
We see in verses 17 through 21 Job’s identifying men and women who are important in the eyes of the common citizen. Even with these individuals our Holy Master can turn and toss them at His will. Those that are high and in authority are brought down, impoverished, and enslaved, and it is God that humbles them.
That which was secret, and lay hidden, is strangely brought to light and laid open: He discovers deep things out of darkness. Plots closely laid are discovered and defeated; wickedness closely committed and artfully concealed is discovered, and the guilty are brought to punishment
As you study the Old Testament you see how our Majestic Holy God has developed kingdoms and allowed them to grow into Empires and just as quickly make them disappear. We see this today in various churches. Our Precious Holy Spirit has anointed a certain small church and brought forth a great increase in sheep. Then if the Pastor causes sin to enter his camp, the Holy Spirit departs and soon you see a ‘For Sale’ sign on the front lawn.
Look with me again at verse 24 and see for yourselves that it speaks of our country - 24 He takes away the understanding of the chiefs of the people of the earth, and makes them wander in a pathless wilderness.’ Stop and look for yourselves. There are just a few common decent leaders in our country. The overwhelming majority are corrupt. The President has a favorable rating of less than half the population of the US. It is even worse for our politicians. There favor rating hasn’t grown much past a measly 10 percent.
Job goes on to mention these failed leaders who were operating with full speed and success are strangely bewildered and at a loss; they know not where they are nor what they do, are unsteady in their counsels and uncertain in their motions, off and on, this way and that way, wandering like men in a desert, groping like men in the dark, and staggering like men who are drunk.
These are things we should expect from unbelieving people. We however, have a challenge from our Holy Lord and I close with this Scriptural reminder in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 verse 14, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Let’s get to work people!
