Introduction

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Let me begin with a story about Harry … a young Christian in his early 20s … who was on his way to church one rainy morning in his 2-seater sports car.  Yet as he’s driving down the road … he notices 3 of his fellow parishioners waiting at the bus stop.  They TOO are on their way to church … yet they’re all having to huddle together under the 1 umbrella while they await their bus.  First is Ethyl Stewart … a lovely old lady … who has been a stalwart of their church for some 70 years.  Next to her is Dr Brown … who has been Harry’s family doctor since before Harry was born.  And thirdly is Brianna Moore … a very godly and attractive young 21-year-old … who Harry has been interested in for quite some time now … but hasn’t had the courage to talk to yet.  Now Harry only has 1 seat in his car.  So what does he do?  Well … he pulls up at the bus stop … gets out and helps old Ethyl into the passenger seat … hands Dr Brown his car keys … and huddles under the umbrella with Brianna … quietly praying that the bus is late.

Now I tell that story … because today’s passage is about wisdom.  And while wisdom and understanding are often considered synonyms … they are slightly different in meaning.  The Hebrew word for understanding is biynah … which basically refers to knowledge of how something works.  So if you get a new smart watch for example … you’ll want to biynah … to understand how to use it.  The Hebrew word for wisdom is Chokmah.  And Chokmah refers to putting your understanding into practice.  So once you understand what your new smart watch is FOR … WISDOM will tell you NOT to use it to hammer in nails.

And here in lies the importance of wisdom.  You see there are SOME decisions in life that are clear cut.  Take for example the lady who stopped me in the street this week … asking for directions to the train station.  I could either say (i) lo siento … no abla englese, or (ii) I could send her in the exact opposite direction, or (iii) I could give her proper directions.  Now for the average person … that’s not a difficult choice to make.  WISDOM is knowing what to do with the other 90% of situations in life where there are NO clear-cut moral imperatives.  And the reason wisdom is so important is because we can make decisions that are NOT morally wrong … but are still damaging.  OK … the fool is the person who is constantly hurting themselves … or others … with their bad choices.

And in our passage today … Job outlines for us the importance of wisdom when handling times of suffering.  So for the last 2 weeks we’ve been looking at the various tools Job employs to answer the ‘how’ question of suffering.  HOW do I get through hard times?  It is (i) through receiving comfort, (ii) from feeling a sense of God’s presence, (iii) from understanding how that which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, and (iv) through hope for the future.  The fifth and final tool the book of Job gives us for handling suffering is wisdom.  Job 28 is the APEX of Job’s discourse with his 3 friends … where he outlines the immense importance of wisdom when handling suffering.

And I’ve got three points today … as your sermon outlines shows … to help us unpack this amazing passage on wisdom.  So Job 28 begins by outlining how incredibly valuable wisdom is … which I’ve titled (i) The importance of wisdom.  We’re then told that although wisdom is profoundly important … it cannot actually be found on this planet.  And I’ve titled this (ii) The inaccessibility of wisdom.  Thankfully Job concludes by sharing with us where wisdom CAN be found … which I’ve titled (iii) The source of wisdom.  And like last week’s topic … if we have this wisdom already packed and ready to go when suffering arrives … then we will be in the BEST place possible to be able to handle that suffering.  So please come with me … as we look at where true wisdom is found.

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The importance of wisdom (v. 1-11)

 

And our passage comes smack bang in the middle of Job’s final speech … where Job interjects a little excursus on the ULTIMATE answer to HOW to handle suffering.  Yet it begins in a very strange way … talking about mining of all things.  And the POINT of v. 1-11 is to highlight how if humans want something badly enough … they will go to incredible lengths to get it.  OK … humans have long coveted gold and silver … iron and precious jewels.  And they have gone to incredible lengths to find them.  So for example … v. 4:

Job 28:4 (NIV) Far from human dwellings they cut a shaft, in places untouched by human feet; far from other people they dangle and sway.

Now these days mining is a little more sophisticated.  Let me introduce you to the bucket excavator named ‘Bagger 293’ … the largest land vehicle ever built.  It stands at over 95 metres tall … weights 14,200 tonnes … took over 5 years to build … and cost over $100,000,000.  It’s used in one of Germany’s coal mines … and does the equivalent work of 40,000 men with 10,000 dump trucks … every day.  That’s how far humans are willing to go … to find that which is precious.

Yet Job’s point is … wisdom is even more important than coal or iron or gold or diamonds.  The writer of Proverbs says it straight out.

Proverbs 3:13 (NIV) Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, 14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.

Proverbs 4:7 (NIV) ‘Get wisdom!  Though it cost ALL you have, get understanding’

And the REASON wisdom is so important … is because it helps us navigate the complexities of life.  Now let me say that again … because this is pivotal to our topic for today.  Wisdom is understanding that life is complex … and is knowing how to navigate those complexities.  OK … foolishness is thinking life is simple.  Because if you think life is simple … then you’ll come up with very simple solutions to life’s problems … that will end up doing more damage than good.  So EVEN if you’re trying to do the right thing in life … unless we understand that life is complex … we can do enormous damage.

Take poverty for example.  Progressives believe poverty is the result of oppression.  They think the reason people are poor is because the rich are exploiting them.  Now the problem with such a simple diagnosis is … it results in simple solutions.  Progressives think if we throw money at the poor … we’ll be able to lift people out of poverty.  WHY then do the majority of Lotto winners go bankrupt within just a few years?  Conservatives on the other hand are just as naïve.  Conservatives think poverty stems from laziness and a lack of personal initiative.  The solution according to conservatives is to tell people to just work harder … which can ALSO destroy families.

Or how about crime.  Progressives think crime TOO stems from oppression … and a lack of opportunities in life.  And because progressives don’t want to be seen oppressing the downtrodden … many progressive cities in the United States are now letting criminals off for things like shop-lifting or armed robbery.  That has then led to businesses pulling out of those cities … because they’re losing so much money.  So the REALLY oppressed … not the criminals, but the poor … are now suffering.  Conservatives think crime is due primarily to greed and wickedness.  So they focus on retributive justice … punishment … rather than rehabilitation.  And we wonder why almost half of ex-prisoners reoffend within the first 2 years of being released.

So Job’s point in v. 1-11 is … as precious as gold and silver and iron and gems are … humans should be going to even GREATER lengths than ‘Bagger 293’ to get wisdom.  We need to understand that life is complex … then learn how to navigate those complexities.  For if we don’t … we will just end up hurting ourselves and others … like the fool does.'

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The inaccessibility of wisdom (v. 12-22)

 

So that’s the importance of wisdom.  Yet Job then says something incredibly deflating … which is that wisdom cannot be found in this world:

Job 28:12-15 (NIV) But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell? 13 No mortal comprehends its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living. 14 The deep says, “It is not in me”; the sea says, “It is not with me.” 15 It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

Now you MIGHT be tempted to think this is simply rhetoric.  But it’s not.  He’s not saying wisdom is HARD to find.  V. 13 says wisdom CANNOT be found in the land of the living.  What he means is … humans cannot discern for ourselves the complexities of this life.  And the reason is simple.  If there is no God … no creator … then there is no cosmic standard of what is right or wrong.  There is no divine benchmark of what is good or bad.  Morality … is a matter of opinion.

What this means is … any society that doesn’t base itself on a religious benchmark … any secular society … will simply tear itself apart arguing over what is good and bad.    And that’s exactly what we’ve got in the West right now.  ALL secular nations are presently tearing themselves apart in culture wars over what is good and bad.  Why?  Because wisdom CANNOT be found in the land of the living.

Take human philosophies for example.  Pretty much every single human philosophy is debunked within a few years of being published.  Did you know that?  The word philosophy means ‘the love of wisdom’.  It comes from 2 Greek words; ‘philo’ … meaning love … and ‘sophia’ … meaning wisdom.  Yet every single philosopher who thinks they’ve cracked the recipe for life … have instead shown themselves to be utter fools.  Let me give you some examples:

Take scepticism.  Scepticism is the philosophy that says we must question everything … we must doubt everything.  Well OK then … I’m sceptical about scepticism.  Well … you … ah … yeah, you can’t be sceptical about scepticism.  You can be sceptical about everything else in life … just not scepticism.  Really!

Or how about deconstructionism.  I’d like to deconstruct deconstructionism please.  Well … you can’t … ah … yeah, you can’t deconstruct deconstructionism.  Just everything else.  Really?

Then there’s nihilism.  Nihilism says nothing in all of existence has any meaning.  Well … what do you mean?  I mean nothing has any meaning.  No … I heard you.  But the words you used to explain nihilism don’t have any meaning according to nihilism.  So everything you said was gobbledygook.  Oh … well the words ‘nothing has any meaning’ have meaning.  But nothing else does.  Really?

Yet the dumbest philosophy is postmodernism.  Postmodernism says ‘We have the absolute dyed in the wool truth.  And the indisputable, incontrovertible, unquestionable truth is … there is no truth.’  Right … so the statement ‘there is no truth’ is not true then?  What?  Well … you just said there is no truth.  So even the statement ‘there is no truth’ is not true.  Oh … well … the statement ‘there is no truth’ is true … but nothing else in all of existence is true.  Really?

And this is our big problem in life.  Even the greatest thinkers and philosophers in history look like complete morons when it comes to wisdom.  Why?  Because searching for wisdom … digging for wisdom … tunnelling for wisdom won’t work.  Wisdom CANNOT be found in the land of the living.

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The source of wisdom (v. 23-28)

 

So … Job has told us FIRSTLY that wisdom is of pivotal importance when navigating life’s complexities.  But SECOND … Job has declared this essential, fundamental, critical wisdom is nowhere to be found on the planet.  Kind of makes for a bit of a downer sermon … wouldn’t you say.  Well thankfully Job gives us a 3rd point for this sermon in v. 23-28.  Phew.  And that 3rd point is that although wisdom is hidden from every living thing … v. 21 … God knows the way to it … v. 23.  If you think YOU can figure wisdom out … then you’re every bit as much of a fool as those human philosophers are … who come up with self-contradictory philosophies.  ‘The truth is there is no truth’.  I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.  BUT … if you realise GOD has wisdom … then you can find your way to where wisdom dwells … v. 23.

Think about this this way.  What does Hamlet know about Shakespear?  OK … if Hamlet is a character in one of Shakespear’s plays … and we were to ask Hamlet what he knows about Shakespear … what would he say?  You see the only way Hamlet can know ANYTHING about Shakespear is if Shakespear includes information about himself in his play … right?  In the same way … if wisdom CANNOT be found in the land of the living … then the only way you and I can FIND wisdom is if the author … the creator of the land of the living … has written it into our life.  And thankfully he has … in the Bible.

And the MAIN thing the Bible tells us about suffering … is that like LIFE … suffering is complex.  Job’s 3 friends give us a WORLDLY view of suffering … a 1-dimentional view of suffering.  They think you only reap suffering if you sowed it yourself.  But the Bible tells us suffering is multi-dimensional.  Let me explain:

To begin with … the Bible tells us God created the world to work according to his righteousness.  So when we go AGAINST God’s righteousness … i.e. when we SIN … we’re going against the very fabric of reality.  And that has consequences.  For example … when we lie or steal or cheat … people will stop trusting us.  If we commit adultery … our marriage will fall apart.  If we gossip … people will no longer confide in us.  So according to the Bible … those who sow sin reap suffering.

But that’s not ALL the Bible says about suffering.  It ALSO tells us that when Adam and Eve sinned … God cursed the environment.  What this means is … SOME suffering is due to the environment working against us … like floods and tsunamis … bush fires and earthquakes.

But it gets even MORE complex when we hear about Joseph … who was his father’s favourite son.  And because of that favouritism … Joseph was on his way to becoming an entitled, spoilt and obnoxious brat … who told on his brothers to make himself look good.  So God subjected him to 7 years as a slave … followed by 7 years as a prisoner.  And that 14 years of suffering transformed Joseph into one of the greatest leaders ever … who saved more people than any other person in human history save for Jesus himself.

But it gets even MORE complex in John chapter 9 … where the disciples ask Jesus whether a man was born blind because of HIS sin … or his parents’ sin.  And Jesus says it has NOTHING to do with sin.  He was born blind ‘so that the works of God might be displayed in him’ … John 9:3.

But it gets even MORE complicated in 1 Corinthians 11 … where Paul says the REASON some of the Corinthians were falling ill … or had even died … was because they were misusing the Lord’s Supper.  So according to the Bible … SOME people suffer as punishment for their sins.  So the FIRST thing God’s wisdom teaches us about suffering is it’s multi-dimensional.  It’s complex.

The SECOND thing it tells us … is that humans do not have the capacity to understand these complexities.  We are like infants when it comes to understanding suffering.  When Logan was 18 months old … he contracted an acute gastro bug.  And because he couldn’t keep ANY fluids in … he had to be hospitalised.  My first job when I got to the emergency room was to help hold my little boy down … while the doctors and nurses poked and prodded him with needles.  And he just looked at me screaming and in tears … as if to say ‘please make them stop daddy’.  Now I really WANTED to explain to him WHY he was suffering.  But I couldn’t.  Infants just have a different order of reality to adults.  But I HAD to allow that suffering to continue … so they could rehydrate my child.

Now if you multiply the difference in reality between an infant and an adult by about a billion … you’re getting close to how different God’s order of reality is to ours.  This is why you and I just don’t have the capacity to grasp all the complexities of suffering.

The third and final piece of wisdom the Bible gives us is what do we do … if we can’t understand the complexities of suffering:

Job 28:28 (NIV) And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

If the complexities of suffering are too much for our feeble human minds to comprehend … then the only thing to do when suffering hits is to (i) fear the Lord, and (ii) shun evil.  Now to shun evil has to do with morality.  OK … don’t let suffering lead you to think you DESERVE some sin right now.  All that will do is lead to more suffering … because you’re going against the fabric of reality.  If you put your hand in the fire … you’re going to get burned.

But shunning evil isn’t enough.  We also need to fear the Lord.  Now what does this mean?  Well its MORE than being scared … though that’s part of it.  In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe … when Mr Beaver is asked if Aslan is safe, he says ‘He’s a lion.  Of course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good I tell you’.  So fear means having a healthy level of respect for God’s power.  But it ALSO includes an element of awe and wonder at his beaty and goodness.

So WHEN suffering comes … we can either get really anxious … or even ANGRY at how God is doing everything wrong.  OR … we can remember that the distance between an 18-month-old and a parent is nowhere NEAR the distance between our reality and God’s.  He sees everything.  To fear the Lord in the midst of suffering is to have a crazy level of trust in God’s love … even when it feels like he’s abandoned us.  For it is that TRUST that makes us a better person … a stronger person.  Just like when you put coal under pressure … it turns into a diamond … so too when you put a Christian under pressure … your FAITH can be turned into a precious diamond … if you trust in God’s love for you.

The beauty for Christians is … we have even MORE reason to fear the Lord than Job did.  And that’s because God didn’t just write WISDOM into our world … he wrote himself into our world.  You see Job didn’t know that God was going to come into our world … in the form of a man … to suffer for our sake.  As such … Job only had the PROMISE of God’s unconditional love for us.  We have the PROOF:

John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

And when we focus on Jesus being obedient through suffering for OUR sake … it strengthens us to be obedient through suffering for HIS sake.

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Conclusion

 

So brothers and sisters … the number 1 tool in handling suffering is to understand that we don’t understand suffering … but to trust God anyway.  It is to say ‘Lord … I’m in pain.  And I don’t understand why.  But you do … because you see the whole picture when I don’t.  So I’m going to trust you and obey you.  I can’t want for it to be over.  But while I want … THY will be done’.  And if we can do that … not only does it help us get through affliction … it helps us become an even better Christian for it.  For God has said to the human race:

Job 28:28 (NIV) “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”