The Treasure of Wisdom
September 16, 2018

Scripture: Job 28

I. Human beings have not been able to find wisdom.

A. The last words of one of Job’s three friends that are recorded in the book are found in Job 25:6: Man is a maggot and worm. This is about as far as Job and his friends have been able to get. Nothing has been resolved in all of the debates between Job and his friends. So, where do we find wisdom? Job says that man is much more than a maggot or worm. In fact, in vs. 1-12 Job expresses his admiration for the ingenuity of human beings. He writes about all the technology human beings have created to dig mines to unearth buried treasure.

B. These metals and jewels are definitely worth searching for, but they are not easily found or extracted from the earth. The search for buried treasure is similar then to the search for wisdom. Job knows that Job’s friends don’t have any wisdom. Their answer to the why question of suffering is wrong. But Job himself doesn’t have any answer either. By the time we reach Job 28 Job has reached the point of frustration in thinking that he will never get wisdom. Job has to know the answer to the question why. But he absolutely cannot find the answer (vs. 12).

II. Human wealth cannot buy wisdom.

A. In the first section of Job 28, Job has made it clear that jewels are valuable, but they are inaccessible from the top of the earth. Beginning in vs. 13 Job is saying that wisdom is just as valuable as jewels, but wisdom is unobtainable. Even if you dug mines and spent all kinds of money, you would never be able to get the valuable wisdom you want. We see this truth in vs. 14. But wisdom is so valuable to us that we as human beings believe it must be found. In vs. 15-19 Job lists a dozen or more valuables that are used to try to buy wisdom.

B. But the pessimistic conclusion that Job reaches about your ability to buy wisdom is found in vs. 20-22: wisdom cannot be bought. No matter how much money you spend in an attempt to buy it, you won’t be able to purchase wisdom. We get a hint at why in what God said to Adam and Eve in Genesis 2:16-17: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

III. God alone has wisdom which He reveals as a gift.

A. The answer Job gives with regard to wisdom is in vs. 23-24: “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.” Wisdom is found only in God, and man obtains it by revelation from God. Yes, God is the source of all wisdom, and God knows where to find wisdom. But no God does not always tell you the answers to your questions. So, in vs. 28 God tells us what to do. “Stop seeking an answer to your questions. Seek me. Bow before me in humility. I may not give you the answers you are seeking. But I will give you something better than answers. I will give you the best possible gift. I will give you myself. Do not seek answers. Do not even seek wisdom. Seek me.” When we seek and find God, we will do two things. We will turn away from evil (vs. 28). And we will be satisfied. We will find the joy that we can find nowhere else.

Application:
Join a growth group. Seek God. There is nothing and no one greater than Him.

Sources:
The book of Job
Commentaries on Job by Christopher Ash and Francis Andersen