God is All Wise--Job's Third Response to Bildad--Part 2--Job 28

Job continues his "monologue" which began in Job 26. [We discussed Job 26-27 in a previous blog]. Job affirms that God is ALL POWERFUL--BUT HOW does God use his power?--Thus, Job 26-27.

Now, Job affirms that god is ALL WISE--Job 28. This section falls into two parts.

I. Human beings mine or quarry or excavate all kinds of precious elements on earth: silver, gold, iron, copper, sapphire, coral, crystal, pearl, crysolite, onyx. Miners devise various means of finding and unearthing and refining all these elements. Verses 1-11.

II. BUT, "where shall WISDOM be found?" The obvious answer is that it is impossible for human beings to mine or quarry or excavate wisdom the ground like they quarry all these other precious gems. Verses 12-28.
a. Mortals cannot devise or find wisdom. Yet, wisdom is much more precious than gold and silver and onyx and sapphire. So "Where does wisdom come from? Verses 12-22.
b. Job declares that GOD understands the way to wisdom. When God "saw it and declared it, he established it, and searched it out." Then God said [revealed] to human beings:
"Truly, the fear of the Lord, THAT IS WISDOM,
and to depart from evil is understanding." Verses 23-28.

Job affirms that God ALONE is all wise. ANY and ALL human wisdom comes from God. And by God's revelation, in essence Wisdom is "fearing the Lord and departing from evil." We emphasized this near the beginning of our study of the Book of Job.

NOW, Job knows and believes that God is ALL WISE. But, as we will see in Job 29-31, Job asks: HOW does God use his wisdom? And Job believes right now that God is using his wisdom wrongly.

What are YOUR thoughts about Job 28? This is a wonderful chapter, contrasting wisdom with all earthly treasure. How do YOU respond to this? Share your ideas with others. Let me hear from YOU.

John Willis