Adult Class
Job
Lesson 6
Job 28
In three cycles of speeches, Job's friends have presented the traditional understanding of pain and suffering: God punishes the wicked and rewards the righteous. In each case, Job maintains his innocence and declares that this received wisdom just does not apply in his case. Human malice and natural disaster combined to strip him of everything for which he had worked. Yet Job was a righteous man and had done nothing worthy of this kind of retribution. Something else must be at work in this.
Wisdom
In the Bible, wisdom literature includes Job, some of the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon. Wisdom has to do with practical lessons about life-how things really work. The two main emphases concerning human conduct in the Old Testament deal with: a) Salvation and redemption in the future (and these themes are often associated with David), and b) Present life in the presence of God (very often associated with David's son, Solomon). Wisdom is for present life.
Although we have pointed out some faults and inconsistencies in the speeches of Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, it is important that we recognize that these three men stand firmly in the tradition of wisdom. They are sages, "wise men," who naturally feel quite competent to explain and to teach someone like Job how "things really are." They understand the complexities and underlying principles of life and are ready with a practical answer to the problems people face. Their inadequacy here is not due to stupidity or arrogance-it is due to lack of information. They are sincerely trying to help Job and his situation, but their knowledge is imperfect.
By the time we get to Job 28, Job has exhausted the arguments he has against their wisdom. Consider, for example, some of his more pointed rebuttals of their wisdom traditions: Job 9:4; 12:2; 26:3-4. They claim wisdom to guide him; he holds up their wisdom as insufficient. Yet Job is convinced that within the realm of wisdom lies the answer to his misery. He needs to find that answer.
Job 28 speaks of wisdom as something independent and transcendent. This same kind of thinking is used in Proverbs 1, 8 and 9 to discuss wisdom. This poetic discussion of wisdom finally issues in the one truth that Job can accept: God alone knows where wisdom is to be found.
Man knows where to find wealth-Job 28:1-11
Job describes the laborious process of mining the riches of the earth. Men will illuminate the depths of the earth and undergo all sorts of dangers in order to draw up the resources of the earth. They will patiently exhaust themselves in shattering rock in a depth where nothing lives. Job draws a picture of living men immersing themselves in the underworld to plunder the treasures there.
Here, Job mentions "sapphires," although true sapphires were not known until Roman times. The word is properly translated, "lapis lazuli," for the gemstone noted for its dark blue color. Blue was highly prized in the ancient world since there were few chemical dyes and blue is very rare in the vegetable world. Lapis is very similar to turquoise and figured prominently in Egyptian jewelry and ornamentation. Like gold, silver, iron and copper, lapis lazuli is found in deposits, not in isolated discoveries. Once a vein is located, the miners would attack it and mine it until the deposit was exhausted.
Job knows that for things of value, men will actually move mountains. But where is wisdom found?
Where is wisdom?-Job 28:12-19
The frustration with wisdom is that it cannot be bought. It is not subject to discovery and mining. Men do not even realize the full scope of its worth, and all their searching is in vain. Wisdom cannot be purchased at any price. The key to understanding this chapter, and Job's insight into wisdom, is found in verse 13: wisdom is not found in the land of the living. In effect, it will require supernatural influence to reveal wisdom to mankind.
This section of the chapter is filled with textual difficulties. The identification of various gemstones is problematic, as is the decision to use "glass" or "crystal" in verse 17. Still, Job's central idea is clear: man cannot storm the storehouses of wisdom and plunder it the way he does a vein of gold in a mountain.
The source of wisdom-Job 28:20-28
Wisdom is not something that can be seen from above, by the birds, or below, in the realm of death. Wisdom is only found with God; He alone sees everything that exists. God created all things, including the things that are true, but invisible-like the force of the wind or the path of a thunderstorm. In the same way, He is responsible for the invisible truth of wisdom. God Himself used wisdom in the establishment of the earth.
Here is the supernatural revelation of wisdom: God makes it known to humanity. The fundamental teaching of wisdom is to fear the Lord and to do what is right. This is repeated throughout the wisdom literature: Psalm 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10; Ecclesiastes 12:13. There is no wisdom that does not begin from that bedrock.
All the wisdom that the friends brought to Job was conventional, traditional, and based on the observation of life. Their message was wrapped up in the idea that the righteous/wise will be rewarded on their earth while the wicked/fools will suffer for their misdeeds and persistent rebellion. This was firmly based on both their instruction and their personal observations. However, this wisdom did not speak to Job's condition.
He was a man who lived a righteous life, as he well knew. The wisdom offered by his friends did not answer his situation. In fact, the foundation of his wisdom has been rocked by the stunning series of events that fly in the face of conventional, traditional wisdom. And now, where can he find wisdom to guide his life? What has happened to his world?