Where Can Wisdom Be Found? With God!

We live in the “Information Age” – we can find out anything on the internet with the click of a button. But where can wisdom be found? With God!

Scripture:       

Job, chapters 28-29; Galatians, chapters 1-2

Job 28:12-28 (CEB):

But wisdom, where can it be found; where is the place of understanding? Humankind doesn’t know its value; it isn’t found in the land of the living. The Deep says, “It’s not with me”; the Sea says, “Not alongside me!” It can’t be bought with gold; its price can’t be measured in silver, can’t be weighed against gold from Ophir, with precious onyx or lapis lazuli. Neither gold nor glass can compare with it; she can’t be acquired with gold jewelry. Coral and jasper shouldn’t be mentioned; the price of wisdom is more than rubies. Cushite topaz won’t compare with her; she can’t be set alongside pure gold.

But wisdom, where does she come from? Where is the place of understanding? She’s hidden from the eyes of all the living, concealed from birds of the sky. Destruction and Death have said, “We’ve heard a report of her.”

God understands her way; he knows her place; for he looks to the ends of the earth and surveys everything beneath the heavens. In order to weigh the wind, to prepare a measure for waters, when he made a decree for the rain, a path for thunderbolts, then he observed it, spoke of it, established it, searched it out, and said to humankind: “Look, the fear of the Lord is wisdom; turning from evil is understanding.”

Observations: Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

In the midst of his petition for God to hear his case, Job comes to a question: Where can wisdom be found? Certainly not in the words of his “friends,” for they continue to roll out the same old platitudes and proverbs. Their “wisdom” comes from their flawed observations of a limited part of God’s creation. Those observations are flawed because they are tainted by their preconceived notions of what is true. “What do you know that we don’t know; what do you understand that isn’t among us?” (Job 15:9). They are unwilling to listen to anything that doesn’t fit their narrative.

Job is not so close-minded. He recognizes that there is much that he doesn’t know, that no one can explain. Wisdom is not found in the land of the living. It is not among the dead, either (that’s what the phrase The Deep says, “It’s not with me” means in verse 14). Wisdom cannot be bought, as though it were a commodity. People search, thinking that they can find it, but she’s hidden from the eyes of all the living.

God Understands Her Way

But the quest for wisdom is not hopeless; God understands her way. And because God understands wisdom, and knows where it can be found, we too can find it. God observed it, spoke of it, established it, searched it out, and said to humankind, “Look, the fear of the Lord is wisdom; turning from evil is understanding.”

Application: Where Can Wisdom Be Found? With God!

“But anyone who needs wisdom should ask God, whose very nature is to give to everyone without a second thought, without keeping score. Wisdom will certainly be given to those who ask” (James 1:5). That’s what Job means when he says that the fear of the Lord is wisdom. To “fear” the Lord is to acknowledge Him as God, as Sovereign of the universe. From the beginning, sin has involved our attempts to obtain knowledge apart from God. “God knows that on the day you eat from it, you will see clearly and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5, emphasis added).

“Knowledge makes people arrogant, but love builds people up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). Knowledge makes us arrogant because we can acquire knowledge through our own efforts. And the more we come to know, the more arrogant we become – unless we remember that God is the source of all knowledge. And that’s what wisdom reminds us. The fear of the Lord is wisdom. In fact, Paul goes on in the next verse of 1 Corinthians 8 and says, “If anyone thinks they know something, they don’t yet know as much as they should know” (8:2).

The more we search for wisdom apart from God, the more frustrated we get – because only God can give us wisdom. But when we search for wisdom with God, He gives it to us! And He gives it to us by telling us “which way to go.” Seeking our own way leads to destruction; seeking God’s way brings life. As Job closes today’s passage: turning from evil is understanding. Wisdom helps us to see that God’s way is the only way!

Prayer:

Father, thank You for reminding us that wisdom can only be found in You. Thank You also for the promise that when we ask You for wisdom, You give it to us. Help us to continue to seek Your wisdom, and to put it into practice each day by walking in Your way. “The truly happy person doesn’t follow wicked advice, doesn’t stand on the road of sinners, and doesn’t sit with the disrespectful. Instead of doing those things, these persons love the Lord’s Instruction, and they recite God’s Instruction day and night!” (Psalm 1:1-2). Amen.