Wisdom We Need Series

Job 39:1 “Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does?

God is reorienting Job to the starting point again, the beginning of wisdom which is the fear of the Lord.

And Job gets it—God is Creator with His divine purposes, and God knows what He’s doing. And so Job shuts his mouth and HUMBLY DEFERS TO GOD rather than presumptuously objecting and rejecting God. Job steadfastly trusts in God and the book ends with God vindicating and restoring Job.

Now some of you might be feeling, “Well, that’s good for Job but that’s the faraway world of the Bible…how does that help with wisdom we need here and now?”

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

Let me tell you about it. Several years ago, I taught a course on Wisdom Literature but I didn’t realize how Job’s example help me personally as well. And then came January 2017, when two big storms hit our family simultaneously. My wife got diagnosed with her second cancer, this time far more harmful. On top of that, her younger sister while traveling in London suffered a massive stroke that left her paralyzed and unable to walk, speak, read, or write even to this day. Honestly, there were moments when we couldn’t understand WHY all of this was happening. And the troubles loomed larger and larger. But that’s when we went back to that first step, WHO God is, that He is our Creator, our Sustainer, our Redeemer, our Deliverer…and we TRUSTED that God knows what He’s doing—after all, that’s what I learned in Job! With the question of WHO securely answered, the questions of WHY or HOW somehow seem to shrink down to size. And with that proper perspective, we were able to continue to CHOOSE to worship and trust in God, to love and serve God and others as He gave us strength for each day. Our troubles didn’t consume our lives and what helped most is going back to the starting point of WHO God is as reminded through Scripture and the people of God.

And God was able to REDEEM even our trials for His purposes. A couple of years later, three sisters in our churches who were younger than Susanna were diagnosed with cancer and we were able to help guide them through those trials. It wasn’t just wisdom in medical treatment options, but I think the greater wisdom shared with them is to steadfastly cling onto God.

I realize most of you listening may not go through such extreme storms in your life. But there will be trials of various kinds where you will need wisdom to navigate through those tough times with godly choices, and I pray that the wisdom of Job can help you as it helped me. Some might be wondering, this message is supposed to be on wisdom but it somehow feels like a message on enduring through trials of faith. It’s actually YES TO BOTH because the most important wisdom is choosing to remain faithful and steadfast in your relationship with God.

We started with James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously” and I want to circle back to pick up the context that James was addressing; in fact, the context was TRIALS.