The Wisdom of God

Coming up today on Renewing Your Mind, life's big questions in the book of Job. Does life have any meaning?

Does life have any purpose? It's what Job is being forced to ask. It's what you and I are forced to ask when we find ourselves at the mercy of an enormous tragedy, an enormous suffering. When we do suffer, we feel overwhelmed. Just going through the routines of life can be challenging, and the question that always looms large is, why? Why is God allowing this to happen? That's a question no one should presume to answer, but there are answers in the book of Job that allow us to face the difficulties of life. Indeed, it's where we find the wisdom of God.

Here's Dr. Derek Thomas. We're going to jump forward to Job 28. Job 28, it's a little cameo, a little poem about wisdom. Job is, in fact, responding. It begins in chapter 26, but he's responding to the shortest speech from any of Job's friends, Bildad, and that's in chapter 25. And Bildad runs out of steam after just five verses or so.

And then Job responds. But in chapter 28, there's a little cameo. It reminds us a little bit of other portions of Scripture, wisdom literature, like the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us a little bit of some of the Proverbs. What is wisdom?

Let's pick up a verse, verse 12 of chapter 28. But where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding? In many ways, the book of Job is about wisdom. Where can I get an answer to the question of the problem of pain?

Where can I get that solution to the issues that have bedeviled me from the very beginning? Where shall wisdom be found? Not the devil's wisdom, not the world's wisdom, but God's wisdom. There's a battle here, and it's a battle about the heart, and it's a battle about the spirit, but there's a battle about the mind. There's a battle here about understanding. There's an epistemological battle raging in the book of Job. Isaac Watts, in the rendition of Psalm 147, he formed the stars, those heavenly flames.

He counts their number, calls their names. His wisdom's vast and knows no bound, a deep where all our thoughts are drowned. His wisdom's vast and knows no bound. Where can I find wisdom?

And Job 28 is a kind of an interlude, a poem, a moment of reflection. He's looking for, well, a metanarrative. He's looking for an explanation of how things are, of the world, of the universe, of cosmology, to make sense of everything, a metanarrative that puts, well, the whole together, not just the parts, but the whole together. What is wisdom? That's a question that the Bible posits. Wisdom literature asks that question. Book of Ecclesiastes, the preacher, sometimes known as cohelath, using the Hebrew word, the preacher is asking, where can wisdom be found? And wisdom in the Bible sense is, well, the power to see, the inclination to choose the best and highest goal with the surest means of attaining it. That's biblical wisdom. There's a goal, and there's a means of attaining that goal, and it's the highest goal.

It's the best goal. Where can this kind of wisdom be found? Science posits an answer, the universe in which we find ourselves.

Let's begin in chapter 28. Surely there is a mine for silver, a place for gold that they refine. Iron is taken out of the earth. Copper is smelted from the ore. Man puts an end to darkness, searches out to the farthest limit, the ore in gloom and deep darkness. He opens shafts in a valley away from where anyone lives.

They are forgotten by travelers. He's talking about mining, going down into the earth, looking for minerals, looking for iron and copper and precious stones, and so on. And there are these tunnels, man going where no man has gone before into the depths and darkness of the earth. He picks up in verse 7, that path no bird of prey knows.

The birds in the air, they've never been down in these caves. They're hidden from them. What lies there is unknown to them. Verse 10, he cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing.

He damns up the stream so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light. So, here is man, the explorer, and he can find gemstones, and he can find copper, and he can find silver and gold and so on. But where can wisdom be found? You can dig down into the earth and discover these things, but where can wisdom be found? Science has attempted to answer this question.

Where can wisdom be found? What is the answer to the causation of the universe? Where did the universe come from? The Big Bang. What was there before the Big Bang? What was the Big Bang?

What was there a millisecond before the Big Bang? And science, of course, has no answer, because all that science can say is that there wasn't anything. Philosophy.

Let's try to answer this question. It is the same question. It asks the question perhaps in a more sophisticated manner, but it's the same question.

It asks the question but it's the same question, only it's a more complex question. Think of John Cage in the 20th century, a composer, and he wrote a piece of music. It's a very famous piece of music. It's called Four Minutes and 33 Seconds, because it lasts for four minutes and 33 seconds. It was built in a concert recently, I noticed. It's total silence. No one plays anything. The orchestra just sits there for four minutes and 33 seconds.

He was commissioned to write this piece of music. He was talking about, well, he was trying to give an epistemology. He was trying to give a statement about wisdom, and it's nothing. There is no ultimate answer. There is no big picture. There is no one metanarrative that puts everything together. John Cage is a product of postmodernity or what we might call late modernity, and there is no big picture.

There are little pictures, but there's no one grand narrative. George Lucas. Star Wars.

The latest movie has come out, but we think of the previous movies. Star Wars. George Lucas says about the meaning of life, there is no why.

We are here. Life is beyond reason. That's his philosophy of life. May the force be with you, and so on. Where can wisdom be found? What is the meaning of life? And it's about the force, whatever that is.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that, a little bit of Eastern mysticism, and so on. What about the epicureans? Let us eat and drink and be merry, because tomorrow we die. There's no grand narrative. There's no metanarrative. There's only now. There's only today. So, enjoy it.

Make the most of it, because you don't know what's going to happen. There's no big picture. Well, that's the question that Job is asking here in verse 12. Where shall wisdom be found? Does life have meaning? Does it make sense in the face of disaster, in the face of trial, in the face of difficulty?

Are we simply subject to blind forces, fate, chance? Don't you say when disaster comes, one of these terrible shootings in our country. Sandy Hook Elementary School is an example. One of these terrible, terrible tragedies that befalls community, and people are killed. Young people, children, high school students, college students are killed. It's interesting, in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Samuel Friedman wrote in the New York Times, in a crisis, the humanists seem absent.

Have you noticed that? In a crisis, the humanists seem absent. They don't come flooding in with their trucks and so on, and offering counseling sessions in humanism to explain the tragedy that has just happened. That there is no God. There is no one meta-narrative. We're all subject to the blind forces of chance. In a largely secular society, all the funerals that folk attend, it's interesting that in the Sandy Hook Elementary School, even the president preached what was almost a sermon.

He actually quoted from 2 Corinthians 4 and 5. The humanist message doesn't work when there's a tragedy, when there's a trial. Humanists have nothing to offer.

They've got nothing to say. Does life have any meaning? Does life have any purpose? It's what Job is being forced to ask. It's what you and I are forced to ask when we find ourselves at the mercy of an enormous tragedy, an enormous suffering that is so comprehensive.

It is so large that it forces upon us the big questions. You know, remember back in chapter 18, being marched off to the king of Teros. This was Bildad. This was his sermon, remember, before Job gives that peroration. In chapter 19, I know that my Redeemer lives.

He talks about being marched off to the king of Teros. This is Bildad in his sermon about death and so on, and about death being the great leveler. Death is the great leveler. Everyone is going to die. The rich and the poor, the famous and the infamous, everyone is going to die. We're here for a season. Our life is but three score years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be four score years, yet it's all weariness and it's all toil.

Maybe Koheles, the author of the book of Ecclesiastes, you know, maybe he's right. Everything is meaningless. Vanity.

All is vanity. Life. Work. Play. Relationships.

Friendships. It's all a vanity. It's all a mirage. It's a cloud. It's a mist. It comes and it goes. Everything is without meaning.

Everything is without purpose. Go back to Job chapter 7 and verse 15. And we read here, in this meaningless life, he says, what is man? You see there in verse 17? What is man that you make so much of him and that you set your heart on him?

Visit him every morning and test him every moment. It actually sounds like a play on the eighth psalm, doesn't it? What is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you visit him?

Except that Job is asking this almost, I think, almost from a point of view of cynicism. I mean, what is man? Why do you set your focus on individuals, on man? How long, verse 19, will you not look away from me, nor leave me alone till I swallow my spit? If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark?

And so on. He's asking the question, what is life? What's it all about? What's my purpose?

Why am I here? What is it that Robert Herrick wrote, Asperides, gather ye rosebirds, while ye may, old time is still a-flying, and this same flower that smiles today, tomorrow, will be a-dying. Gather ye rosebirds, as you know, while you can, because time is marching on. Time is marching on. The clock is ticking. The hours, the minutes, the seconds, they go by, and tomorrow we will be dead, and we will be buried and perhaps forgotten. And a generation from now, two generations from now, they'll hardly remember that we were ever here.

What is the purpose and meaning of life? Job just will refuse to let go of his belief system. Just pop back to chapter 27 and verse 6, I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. Now, that sounds, you know, you can misunderstand Job and you can say, well, how can anybody say that? But what he's saying is, I'm holding fast to my position here. His argument is that he hasn't committed any particular sin that warrants this particular visitation of judgment, of trial and difficulty.

Now, you may have some problems with that. Calvin had lost patience with Job by chapter 27. He had defended him, but now he's losing patience. But don't lose patience with Job. You know, Job is a man that is notorious in the Bible. You've heard of the patience of Job. Well, there's a sense that Job isn't patient. He's steadfast, and I think that word in the book of James, and it's in chapter 5 of the book of James, and we will look at that as a lesson at the end of our studies together. But that word, you've heard of the patience of Job, perhaps should be better translated. You've heard of the steadfastness of Job, the perseverance of Job. In the midst of his trial, he kept on going like a Duracell battery. You know, he keeps on going. Well, here in chapter 27 and verse 6, I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go.

Let it go. He has a belief system, and his belief system is that he's a man of integrity. He's a man of godliness. He loves the Lord. He's devoted his life to serving the Lord. He's not sinless, but God himself has testified to this in the prologue.

He's corroborated Job's testimony. He says, I hold fast my righteousness, and he's not buying the explanation of his friends. Their worldview is that suffering is always punishment. It's always God's visitation of judgment. It's always retribution. You get out of life what you put into it.

You reap what you sow. That's the only song they have, and they've sung it to death. They have a terrible argument, but they've made their case very well.

And Job has a good case, except that he's arguing it very badly. I hold fast my righteousness. What do you say to someone who's passing through pain and trial and difficulty? And they're godly people. They're people of faith. They're people who love the Lord Jesus.

They follow him. They want him to be everything in their lives, and yet these trials come, these difficulties come. And maybe they're saying, what's the point of it all? What's the point of it all? What's the point of godliness? What's the point of following Jesus?

What's the point of the gospel? Look at me. Look at what's happened to me. And you're just a hair's breadth away from cynicism, being cynical about life, being cynical about God. And maybe you're asking this question, where shall wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding?

Well, let's follow the argument. Verse 13, man does not know its worth. It is not found in the land of the living.

The deep says it's not in me, and the sea says it's not with me. It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Orphir, in precious onyx or sapphire.

Gold and not equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. You can't buy wisdom. You might be a businessman and an entrepreneur, and you've made millions. You've made billions of money. You've got a private jet and seventeen houses in various locations, and you've made it in this world. You're a man who's made it. You're an example of, well, the best of capitalism, and you've succeeded, and you may have been nothing, and now you have everything, and you've climbed that ladder.

You've made it. You're one of the great examples of the American spirit, a self-made individual, but have you bought wisdom? Can you buy it?

Can you go to a store? Can you go online, put it in the shopping cart, wisdom, and purchase it, and have somebody deliver it in a truck, a brown truck, or a FedEx truck, and it comes, and it's a box, and it says wisdom, and here it is, the understanding of all things, the knowledge of how everything gets put together, and you open it up, and it's a little Amazon Alexa, it's called, and you speak to it, and she tells you stuff, and she can provide you with wisdom. Give me wisdom.

Tell me wisdom, and you pause for a second, and a little blue light goes on, and she says, I do not understand your question. He's searching for wisdom. The world is searching for wisdom. Young people are searching for wisdom.

College students are searching for wisdom. From the meaning of life, what puts it all together? Why am I here? What is my purpose?

What is my function? So, Job is imagining this in terms of a mining expedition, and so on. Man can do so much. It's incredible what man can do. Does man have wisdom? Does he understand who he is? Where can wisdom be found? And you see Job's response in verse 23, God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.

It's a little hint, in fact, as to where this book of Job is actually heading. Where can you find the meta-narrative that puts everything together, that understands even the problem of pain and suffering? And the answer is, God understands it. Job is beginning to see here that man, by his efforts, and searching, can never plumb the depths of reality that includes such things as pain and suffering.

But God can, and submitting to Him, trusting Him, is where wisdom will be found. And it is natural to question why God allows difficulty in our lives, but the biblical perspective, the godly perspective, is to rely on the fact that God understands it, and we rest in the knowledge that we belong to Him. The Heidelberg Catechism says it so well when it answers the question, what is your only comfort in life and death? The answer is, that I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Dr. Derek Thomas has been our teacher today here on Renewing Your Mind with a message from his series on the book of Job. In 12 Messages, Dr. Thomas considers the difficult question of how to square God's sovereignty with the existence of evil, with the existence of pain and suffering. We'd like to send you this series on two DVDs, and you can request it with your donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries.

You can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343, but you can also make your request online at renewingyourmind.org. We have many other resources which deal with this important topic. For example, I searched the website for our monthly devotional magazine Table Talk and found an article titled, Where Can We Turn in Fearful Times? I think it will be helpful to you, and you'll also find several other articles there. You can subscribe to Table Talk at TableTalkMagazine.com, and while you're there, sign up to receive Table Talk's free weekly email digest so you never miss any of our online exclusive articles. The web address again is TableTalkMagazine.com. When we are facing trying circumstances, it's easy to overlook one overarching truth. Tomorrow we will look at the comforting fact that God is sovereign.