UNROLL
Dusk on a dark mountainside: a small square black shaft mouth cut into the rock, a clay lamp glowing inside it and a rope running down from a wooden beam, under a calm, empty, violet sky.

The Book of

Job 28

Job’s discourse goes on. Three rounds, and no one has an answer. So the book stops arguing and asks the question under all of it.

28 verses≈ 3 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1–3The testBlameless, stripped of everything, and his cry
  2. 4–14Round oneThe friends speak; Job answers
  3. 15–21Round twoMy Redeemer lives
  4. 22–31Round threeThen wisdom, and Job's last defenseChapter 28
  5. 32–37ElihuA younger voice
  6. 38–41The LORD speaksOut of the whirlwind
  7. 42The endJob prays and is restored

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

Job
Job

“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.

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Job
Looking up a narrow rock shaft from below: a lean miner hangs in a rope sling with a small clay lamp, a tiny square of daylight far above him.

Man puts an end to the darkness;

he probes the farthest recesses

for ore in deepest darkness.

Far from human habitation he cuts a shaft

in places forgotten by the foot of man.

Far from men he dangles and sways.

Job
Job
Job

The miner strikes the flint;

he overturns mountains at their base.

He hews out channels in the rocks,

and his eyes spot every treasure.

He stops up the sources of the streams

to bring what is hidden to light.

Reflect

What we dig for

People will go to astonishing lengths for what lies under the ground. What have you gone furthest to get? What would it look like to want wisdom that much? Write it down.

Job

But where can wisdom be found, and where does understanding dwell?

Job 28:12

Job
The open sea at noon under a blank sky, green swell running to the horizon with nothing on it.

No man can know its value,

nor is it found in the land of the living.

The ocean depths say, ‘It is not in me,’

while the sea declares, ‘It is not with me.’

Job
A hand holds a bronze balance level, both pans empty, over a cloth spread with plain gold rings, rough silver bars, deep blue and red stones and a branch of coral, in low lamplight.

What cannot buy it

Wisdom’s price

  1. Gold and silver

    It cannot be bought with gold,

    nor can its price be weighed out in silver.

  2. Ophir, onyx and sapphire

    It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,

    in precious onyx or sapphire.

  3. Crystal and fine gold

    Neither gold nor crystal can compare to it,

    nor jewels of fine gold be exchanged for it.

  4. Coral, quartz and rubies

    Coral and quartz are unworthy of mention;

    the price of wisdom is beyond rubies.

  5. Topaz from Cush

    Topaz from Cush cannot compare to it,

    nor can it be valued in pure gold.

Question

Quick question

The miner can’t find it. The sea doesn’t have it. Gold can’t buy it.

According to the poem, who knows where wisdom is?

Job

From where, then, does wisdom come,

and where does understanding dwell?

Job

It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing

and concealed from the birds of the air.

Abaddon and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor about it.’

Job
A vast sky over the sea and a far coast: slanting curtains of rain and one thin thread of lightning, far off, the wind visible on the water, a calm clear band above.

But God understands its way,

and He knows its place.

For He looks to the ends of the earth

and sees everything under the heavens.

When God fixed the weight of the wind

and measured out the waters,

when He set a limit for the rain

and a path for the thunderbolt,

0:15

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Job

then He looked at wisdom and appraised it;

He established it and searched it out.

Job

And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Job 28:28

Pray

Pray

Ask for the fear of the Lord. Ask for the will to turn away from evil today, in the thing you already know about. Ask for the humility to stop looking for wisdom anywhere but in God.

You’ve experienced

Job 28

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A verse to carry with you

And He said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’

Job 28:28

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