“Finding True Wealth” – FBC Morning Light (1/24/24)

Well a good Wednesday morning to you. In our Bible reading today, continuing in the book of Job, we're in chapters 25 through 28, and I want to zero in on chapter 28 and point out this question that Job asks a couple different times.

But before he gets to that question, he makes an interesting observation. Several years ago, well actually when

I was in college, one of my roommates was, I can't remember exactly where he was from, what state he was from, but anyway, he worked in the summer times for Island Creek Coal Company, and he would actually get down in the coal mines and he would work and dig coal out of the coal mines.

A few years later, after we were married, my wife worked for just a couple of months on a temporary job for Peabody Coal Company down in Evansville, Indiana.

They had an office there, and she worked in the office for a few months at Peabody Coal Company. It was interesting to hear about how some of the processes involved in mining coal.

And then a few years back, probably in 22 years now, we had the opportunity of going to Alaska, and while we were there, we saw an abandoned gold mine.

There had been gold in them thar hills, but I guess they had mined it all out. But it was a dilapidated gold mine, and obviously a lot of ore, gold ore, had been dug out of that mine.

Now the reason I mentioned that is because the way chapter 28 of Job begins.

He says, "...surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined, iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."

Then he goes on to talk about how man has become very skilled at digging into the depths of the earth and pulling out of it, extracting from it, these materials that are considered to be valuable and needful and helpful to us.

Silver and gold, copper and iron and so forth, all of these things.

And he goes on to talk about, in verse 6, other valuable things like sapphires and, you know, gold dust and so forth coming from the belly of the earth, and man's ability to extract these things in his mining operations.

Well, that leads him to this question in verse 12. Where is wisdom to be found?

Where is the place of understanding? Okay, we know where we can find gold and silver and ore and copper and all that, but where can we find wisdom?

Where can we unearth understanding? He talks about that for a minute, and then he comes back to the question in verse 20.

He says, from where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding?

He is raising a question that has perplexed man for generations.

Now, some people measure a degree of wisdom in making their way through this world and navigating through the challenges of life and so on and so forth, but Job's probing deeper than that.

He's wanting to know about, you know, wisdom regarding the ultimate realities of life, understanding how things really work and what's really going on in this world.

Where does this wisdom come from? Where does this understanding, where do we get this understanding? Well, obviously we're not going to dig it out of the earth, so where does it come from?

Well, he answers the question in verse 23. He says, God understands its way, and he knows its place.

So, left to ourselves, we will never unearth true wisdom. We will never come to a place of ultimate understanding.

We need God to reveal things to us. We need God's self -disclosure.

We need his perspective. We need his mind on things, and he has those answers.

God understands its way. He knows the place of wisdom. So then, in verse 28, he comes to a conclusion of the matter.

He says, therefore, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.

Okay, but look, how do you know truly what is evil? Isn't that one of the big problems of our world today?

Everything is turned upside down, it seems. That which is evil is called good, and what's good is called evil.

Modern man, with all of his knowledge, technological know -how, all the information that he has at his disposal, cannot come to a clear understanding of what is good and what is evil.

He's calling good evil and evil good. How do we know what is evil?

We only know, truly, we only know what is evil because God has revealed it to us, and we only know what is good because God has revealed that to us.

So, truly, as Job concludes, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.

Having respect and reverence and honor unto the

Lord, there is the beginning of wisdom, and departing from that which he calls evil, that's understanding.

Fortunately, Job answers his own question. Where is wisdom to be found? Where is the place of understanding?

It is with God, in his revealed Word, and we're thankful that he has revealed himself to us, and he has shown us in his

Word what he is like and what he likes. Fear him. Our Father and our

God, I pray that we would have hearts of wisdom, because we have hearts that truly fear you, and this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.