FBC Morning Light – April 25, 2022

A good Monday morning to you. I've got a question for you. Do you get frustrated by the seeming total lack of common sense today? I don't care if you're talking about the White House or the Schoolhouse, it just doesn't seem to matter.

From top to bottom in our society we're seeing so many expressions and evidences of just a complete lack of wisdom. You see a lack of wisdom when it comes to simple financial matters, you see a lack of wisdom when it comes to matters of something as basic as male and female.

We're just reading too much lately about what's happening with children who at very young ages are questioning, they're tomboyish or they like dolls or whatever, and then there are adults in their great wisdom who say, we need to start changing your gender to the other gender.

The insanity is just so frustrating for many of us. That brings up a good question that Job asks in our Bible reading today, in Job chapter 28. He asks the question, where can wisdom be found? I sure wish there were a whole lot more people asking that question, where can wisdom be found?

Then he seeks to answer it in this way. He says, in the first place, man doesn't seem to pursue it because he doesn't seem to value it. In verse 13 he says, man doesn't know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living.

On the one hand, the typical person doesn't really value deep wisdom. Wisdom is the skill to handle knowledge rightly. That's a good definition of wisdom. Wisdom is the skill to handle knowledge in the right way.

Who determines the right way? That's the question. What do we do with knowledge? That's the issue. What do we do with the knowledge that we gain? Where is wisdom to be found? Where is that skill to handle knowledge rightly?

Where is it to be found? Unfortunately, man doesn't value it as he should. As you look on in the text, you find out that it's not found in the land of the living. The deep says, it's not in me, so you're not going to go to the bottom of the ocean and find the depths of wisdom.

You can't find it in a mine shaft somewhere. It's not going to be found there. Wisdom is not something you're going to be able to purchase. He continues and says, wisdom can't be purchased with gold, nor can silver be weighed for its price.

It's beyond the value of gold. That's the problem. We don't value it rightly. If we did, we wouldn't be chasing lesser things, things of lesser value. He indicates that wisdom is not something that can be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold.

In verses 18 and 19, he says, for the price of wisdom is above rubies. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. You know how much the price of gold is an ounce right now?

I haven't looked in a while. A couple of weeks ago I looked, and it was $1 ,700, $1 ,800 an ounce, or an ounce of gold. Multiply that times 16 to get a pound, and so forth. Then I realized there's different weights when it comes to gold.

But nevertheless, an ounce of gold, $1 ,800. Job correctly says that the value of wisdom can't be determined by the weight of pure gold. Wisdom is more valuable than much fine gold. But still, the question remains, where do we get this?

Where do we get this skill to handle knowledge correctly? Job asked this question twice. Once in verse 12, he says, where can wisdom be found? In verse 20, he asks it again. From where, then, does wisdom come, and where is the place of understanding?

We can't find it. It's hidden from our eyes. That explains why there is so much foolishness that is being perpetrated upon society and culture today. In every venue, it doesn't seem to matter. We can't find it.

It's hidden from the eyes of the living. Where do we get it, then? Job answers his own question. He says in verse 23, God understands its way, and he knows its place. That's why the writer of Proverbs says that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, the knowledge of God, the respect and reverence of God.

That's the starting point. No, we're not going to be able to find it by ourselves, but wisdom is granted by the one who minds it from the depths of his resources. Wisdom comes from God, and we need him.

We need his word, we need his revelation. It is no coincidence that the further away our culture and society gets from its interest in, and reliance upon, and turning to God's revelation of himself the Bible and the denial of God's revelation of himself even in creation, the further we get away from that, the more bound we are to foolishness.

Just watch it increase. Watch the foolishness continue to abound apart from a turning back to God, his word, his revelation, his wisdom. We need it, and it can only come from him. I trust today that you look regularly and frequently to the word of God to guide your thinking, to give you insight and understanding, that you might have the skill to use knowledge correctly.

God is a source of wisdom. Go to him for it. Our Father, today we are grieved by the lack of wisdom in our society, in our culture, and yet at the same time we are grateful that you give wisdom, that you reveal it, you provide it to those who will fear you and look to you, and seek out your wisdom in your revelation.

May we be that kind of a people, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. May God bless you this week, and may your week get off to a good start. I do want to remind you, though, that tonight at our church Mark Chansky is speaking, and he's doing a little Bible conference for us at Faith Baptist, and it's all on the subject of encouragement, based on a book he's written, and based on God's word.

He takes the word of God and shows from the Scriptures how we can be encouraged and be an encourager. If you can make it out at 7 o 'clock this evening, I encourage you to come. It would be a good time together in the word of God.

You have a good rest of your day, and good week. God bless.