A fierce standoff has been reached, a glaring stalemate fought in an atmosphere of raw emotion. What was first a caring and gentle conversation turned sour and harsh. One can almost hear the panting frustration as both Job and his friends stopped for a moment to catch their breath. What can possibly be said beyond what was said? How can they expand their case against Job? What can Job do but look beyond them?
Humanity works very hard. If you ever visited Kimberley in the Northern Cape, you will see a massive hole in the earth. A hill once stood where the hole is now. Humans uprooted the earth and dug deep into darkness, exposing rock that has been underground for generations. All with the goal of delving out riches from the depths. We bore holes kilometers into the crust of the earth to dig out gold. We send people into the depths for hours to stretch tunnels outward, breaking hard stones for ounces of gold. We look for silver, gems, and other valuable ores and metals. We use it to construct wonders that achieve greatness; we even start wars to secure riches and luxuries. Yet, what value do we place on wisdom?
Have you ever searched for something that you never found? Have you ever heard of people being missing and never found? You cannot merely replace them; no value can be given to replace them. With the same helplessness that Job must have felt in his loss, where can we find wisdom? And what would we even do when we find it—could we understand it? How could we measure or value wisdom? Considering the width and depths we go for wealth, how would we compare wisdom? Humanity has various avenues to find wisdom and meaning, philosophies that grasp and dig into the depths of meaning: humanism, nihilism, naturalism, religions. We even try to ignore this daunting reality by drowning ourselves in our great wealth and earthly honour and pleasures. Yet, we do not find wisdom. Job 28:12 asks, where can we find wisdom, and how can we understand it?
Job 28:28 replies to the question. It shows us where to find wisdom and how to understand it. God knows where to find wisdom; He knows how to understand it. Wisdom is found in fearing God. Understanding is found in turning away from evil. After a long search through freezing, vast, open emptiness and digging deep into the earth, wisdom is found with God. We see how Job feared the Lord God and he turned from evil. We see this in the opening chapters of Job; we even see how his wife calls on him to abandon his integrity and curse God and die.
We see that Job has found wisdom and that he understood it. He was righteous and he turned away from evil. We can feel the frustration of Job as he laments his life. He found wisdom and he avoided evil. He understood wisdom—this is why Job was vehemently upset with his friends as they indirectly told him that he did not understand and had not found wisdom. He was suffering despite understanding wisdom. In the next article we will explore the plea of Job as he presented his case before God and asked for a review.