Job 28

¹ “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold that they refine. ² Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore. ³ Man puts an end to darkness and searches out to the farthest limit the ore in gloom and deep darkness. ⁴ He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro. ⁵ As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. ⁶ Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. ⁷ “That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. ⁸ The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it. ⁹ “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots. ¹⁰ He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. ¹¹ He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light. ¹² “But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? ¹³ Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. ¹⁴ The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ ¹⁵ It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. ¹⁶ It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. ¹⁷ Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. ¹⁸ No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls. ¹⁹ The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. ²⁰ “From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? ²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. ²² Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’ ²³ “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. ²⁴ For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. ²⁵ When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, ²⁶ when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, ²⁷ then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. ²⁸ And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

One of the most unsettling films I have ever seen is Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 movie, “There Will Be Blood,” which is a film adaptation of Upton Sinclair’s 1926-1927 novel, Oil!. The film version is visually and psychologically jarring. It follows the rise of oilman Daniel Plainview from his meager beginnings mining for gold and then digging for oil in the dug-out pits of the western United States deserts to his eventual rise to wealthy oil tycoon to his final descent into madness. There is a fascinating story surrounding Plainview, but Plainview’s character takes center stage.

The opening shot of the film and the closing shot of the film present us with a shocking contrast. The opening shot is a stark panoramic of a bleak desert wilderness which appears to us in the film accompanied by a growing and discordant symphonic accompaniment that itself portends great dread. It is here in this wilderness that poor Daniel Plainview is in a hole beneath the earth mining for gold. The final shot is of a raving, disheveled Plainview sitting in one of the lanes of the bowling alley in his huge mansion beside a man who he has just bludgeoned to death with a bowling pin.

Needless to say, it is not a feel-good movie! But as a depiction of human depravity and, in particular, as a depiction of one central point, it is a genius film. Here is that point: one may grow wealthy by mining and drilling in the belly of the earth and yet miss the greatest treasure of all: wisdom.

Plainview grew wealthy with what he took from the earth, but in all of his digging and mining and drilling and searching he never found wisdom. He died alone, having driven away his friends and his own son and having murdered a man in his own home. Truly one may grow wealthy but miss the greatest wealth of all!

Man can obtain anything by his own ingenuity…except wisdom.

Strikingly, Job, in Job 38, draws a distinction between the wealth that man takes from the earth and the true wealth of wisdom that cannot be found there. He begins with a statement about the extent and ingenuity of man’s search for and seizure of wealth out of the earth itself.

¹ “Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold that they refine. ² Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from the ore. ³ Man puts an end to darkness and searches out to the farthest limit the ore in gloom and deep darkness. ⁴ He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives; they are forgotten by travelers; they hang in the air, far away from mankind; they swing to and fro. ⁵ As for the earth, out of it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire. ⁶ Its stones are the place of sapphires, and it has dust of gold. ⁷ “That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. ⁸ The proud beasts have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it. ⁹ “Man puts his hand to the flinty rock and overturns mountains by the roots. ¹⁰ He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. ¹¹ He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light.

There is indeed no end to which man will not go to obtain the earth’s treasures! Rivers and oceans and mountains and valleys, all of these are to man but further opportunities for his own increase and advancement. Even so, with all of his digging and searching and taking, there is one treasure that man can never and will never get from the earth.

¹² “But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? ¹³ Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. ¹⁴ The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ ¹⁵ It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. ¹⁶ It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. ¹⁷ Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. ¹⁸ No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls. ¹⁹ The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. ²⁰ “From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? ²¹ It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. ²² Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

Gerald Jantzen points out that “verses 15-19 in Hebrew contain precisely seven verbs, all with the negative particle” and “the extensive catalogue of precious things numbers only thirteen. Yet a moment’s reconsideration discloses that there is a fourteenth – it is the wisdom of verse 18b.”[1] In other words, there are seven negative verbs concerning what cannot be done with wisdom. Wisdom is utterly unobtainable by man. And thirteen precious things are mentioned, one less than fourteen which is two sevens. Compellingly, the fourteen is made complete only by wisdom. While we should be careful with numerological theories concerning scripture, the coupling of these two numerological dynamics makes the point clear enough: wisdom cannot be seized by man, the precious things of the earth fall short of its value, and wisdom is the culmination and height of all the wealth of the world. It is the most valuable thing.

In the 6^th century, Gregory the Great interpreted Job 28 allegorically. He saw in the references to the natural phenomenon of land, pits, and sea depictions of human nature.

What is denoted in this passage by the title of the “land,” except the soul of man? Concerning which the psalmists says, “My soul thirsts after you, as a land without water.”…“The bottomless pit says, “It is not with me.” What does he call the “bottomless pit?” The hearts of people who by their fall are now floating in darkness and the murkiness of double dealing…“And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.” For what is there denoted by the name of the sea except the bitter disquietude of worldly minds, which while they fall foul of one another in enmities by turns, dash themselves together like encountering waves.[2]

Gregory made an interesting point. If wisdom cannot be mined from the earth the way that all other valuable things are, then certainly wisdom cannot be mined from the heart of man. Man, after all, is made from the elements of the earth and life is breathed into him by God. But if wisdom cannot be found in the land, then it also cannot be found in the soul. If it cannot be found in the pit, then it cannot be found in the heart. If it cannot be found in the sea, then it cannot be found in our “worldly minds.”

Wisdom is not within man. We are by nature bereft of wisdom and left destitute in our own ignominy. It cannot be taken from the earth and it cannot be found in the hearts of fallen human beings. In this way, it is unlike the means of wealth that can be found in the earth.

This contrasting of wisdom with the elements of the earth happens elsewhere in the Bible as well. For instance, in Proverbs 16 we read:

¹⁶ How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

And in Proverbs 20 we read:

¹⁵ There is gold and abundance of costly stones, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

Let us be clear: the wealthy man who has no wisdom is truly poor and the poor man who does have wisdom is truly wealthy.

Yet God knows where wisdom is to be found: in the fear of God.

There is one who knows how to find wisdom, though. The Lord knows where it is located.

²³ “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. ²⁴ For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. ²⁵ When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, ²⁶ when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, ²⁷ then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. ²⁸ And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Let us first acknowledge than when Job depicts God as essentially coming across and discovering wisdom Himself, he is speaking anthropopathically. That is, he is attributing to God human psychological categories so that we can begin to approach the dynamic of what is happening. God, of course, does not stumble across wisdom. He is simply keeping with the metaphor of searching the earth, of mining and exploring the earth for treasure.

God alone knows where wisdom is located. And where is it located? It is located in God. For human beings, it is located in “the fear of the Lord.” To fear God is to put yourself in a position to receive divine wisdom. The man who does not fear God cannot receive and therefore cannot find wisdom.

In Psalm 111, the psalmist writes:

¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!

Likewise, we read this in Proverbs 1:

⁷ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

In Isaiah 33, the theme of Job 28 is pressed even further when Isaiah says that the fear of God is a “treasure.” Thus, once again, wisdom, which is obtained through the fear of God, is likened to the greatest of precious and valuable things.

⁵ The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, ⁶ and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.

In Micah 6, we are told that wisdom comes specifically in fearing the name of God.

⁹ The voice of the Lord cries to the city— and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it!

This is perhaps a strange thing for our ears to hear. We live in a day of theological reductionism in which God and His attributes have been greatly whittled down. In fact, they have been so whittled down that the “God” who is left can no longer inspire reverence and awe, much less fear. What is more, we live in a day of great emotional and psychological fragility and coddling. The idea of a God who should be feared strikes many today as unhealthy and potentially even psychologically damaging. We want a God who is our friend, our buddy, our pal.

But God as He is, the God who is attested to in the scriptures, the God who is the Father of Jesus Christ, the God who is creator, sovereign, Lord, and King – this God is indeed a God before whom men tremble. To be sure, through Christ we will cast out the fear of judgment and come to Him as our heavenly Father. Even so, we still fear God in recognizing that He is utterly holy, utterly powerful, utterly wise. To be in a relationship with God is not to be flippant about or casual towards or chummy with God.

God being our Father does not make God become our pet.

It is ever and always the case that one who cannot tremble before God is one who has yet to see God as He is. To love God is to fear God, not, to be sure, the way a cowering slave fears a cruel master, but the way that a child knows there is great power in his father hands even as he trusts and knows that those hands will never be used to hurt or abuse him.

What is most awe-inspiring of all is to realize that our great God has come to us in the humility of the Son. He loves us that much.

Christ is the wisdom of God come to us and living among us.

We too can now find wisdom. It is there, in Christ the Lord. The life of Christ is therefore the demonstration of what divine wisdom looks like when set loose in the world. The words of Christ are therefore what divine wisdom sounds like when articulated. And the cross of Christ is both what happens when this wicked world encounters actual wisdom as well as being the scandalous wisdom of God to save the lost and suffering human race.

Just as Christ is to be received through faith, so too is the wisdom of God. James put it like this in James 1:

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

We receive Christ through faith. We receive wisdom through faith. Christ is wisdom. Wisdom is the Lord with us. Wisdom went to the cross for us. Wisdom, having been crucified and then buried, rose again.

Wisdom is always rising again in the hearts of all who will humble themselves to receive it and then ask in faith for it. Wisdom is calling to us. Wisdom is named Jesus.

We conclude with Michael Card’s song, “The Way of Wisdom.” It nearly perfectly captures the essence of what Job is saying in Job 28.

The Way of Wisdom starts out

With a step of holy fear

And it makes its way alone

By every good word that you hear

It has to do with passion

And it has to do with pain

It has to do with One

Who has both died and rose again

Died and rose again

And the Way of Wisdom is living

The Path of Peace is forgiving

Behold the Man of Meaning

Behold, He is the Lord

The way of understanding lies

In not how much you know

Where the pathway is a person

That you’ve come to love and so

You can stop pretending that it all depends on you

For it’s not how much you love

As much as how much He loves you

How much He loves you

And the Way of Wisdom is living

The Path of Peace is forgiving

Behold the Man of Meaning

Behold, He is the Lord

The Way of Wisdom beckons us

To find the end of fear that perfect love pursues

Wisdom did not come to simply speak the words of truth

He’s the Word that makes us true

The Way of Wisdom starts out

With a step of holy fear

That’s only the beginning

And there’s much more that is clear

The path leads on to love

And love is fearless in its ways

For Love Himself was not afraid

To die that we’d be saved

To die that we’d be saved

And the Way of Wisdom is living

The Path of Peace is forgiving

Behold the Man of Meaning

Behold, He is the Lord

 

[1] J. Gerald Janzen, Job. Interpretation. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1985), p.194-195.

[2] Manlio Simonettie and Marco Conti, eds. Job. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed., Thomas C. Oden. Old Testament VI (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), p.145.