“God alone understands the way to wisdom;
    he knows where it can be found,
 for he looks throughout the whole earth
    and sees everything under the heavens.

And this is what he says to all humanity:
‘The fear of the Lord is true wisdom;
    to forsake evil is real understanding.’”

(Job 28:23-24, 28 NLT)

I love Job 28. I love it. I love it. I love it! ❤

“Why, Job?” That is the question his wife asked. Why are you still holding onto your integrity if you are not getting what you deserve for it?

Because, he finally truly answers here, God is still smarter than me. And he says this is best.

Job 28 opens with Job extolling the heights of human ingenuity – that we can dig deep into the earth to pull up treasures from places where not even the wild animals can go.

People know where to mine silver
    and how to refine gold.
They know where to dig iron from the earth
    and how to smelt copper from rock.
They know how to shine light in the darkness
    and explore the farthest regions of the earth
    as they search in the dark for ore.

These are treasures no bird of prey can see,
    no falcon’s eye observe.
No wild animal has walked upon these treasures;
    no lion has ever set his paw there.

(Job 28:1-3, 7-8 NLT)

But – he says – but they cannot find the one thing of real value.

But do people know where to find wisdom?
    Where can they find understanding?
No one knows where to find it,
    for it is not found among the living.

(Job 28:12-13 NLT)

There is one thing, he says, that is rarer than the rarest jewels. Rarer than all wealth. No one perceives it except God himself. Wisdom.

In the previous two chapters, we saw Job establish that he knows who God is, that God is in charge, and that he is, in fact, still determined to hold onto his integrity, despite what his friends believe. But this. This is the secret his friends are really missing. This is what Job understands that his friends do not, the bedrock, the underlying principle of his success: he never did what was right for the reward.

He did it because it is right.

He did it because God said it is right.

He did it because he believed God.

He did it because he knows God has searched out the universe, turned over every stone, examined every evidence, left nothing unknown in all of creation – and God says this is the best way. God did not say it is the best way to get what you want. He says it is the best way to live because he knows it is. He says it is wise.

Then he saw wisdom and evaluated it.
    He set it in place and examined it thoroughly.

(Job 28:27, NLT)

Because God says so, Job says, I believe it. Even if I lost everything, Job says, it does not change what God says is the best way.

Wisdom begins when we understand God rightly – when we know, as Job does, that

“These are just the beginning of all that he does,
    merely a whisper of his power.
    Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of his power?”

(Job 26:14)

Wisdom grows when we accept what God accepts and reject what God rejects not because we will get anything for it, but for the mere sake of what is good. The peace, the satisfaction of knowing it is best, it is right, is reason enough to do it. It is a pleasure in and of itself.

Job, in chapter 28, says – I hold onto my integrity because I found something rarer than the rarest gems, more difficult to obtain than minerals forged in the molten earth, something God alone has the skill, ability, and resources to have mined: wisdom. I am convinced God is right, and it brings me satisfaction to do what he calls right.

The wisest do what is right because it is satisfying to have done what is right.

Unfortunately for the Accuser, the one who set Job up to fail by stripping from him his rewards – Job’s best reward was internal. “Internally motivated,” we call it. He was convicted of more than the belief that he would get something, some external reward, for doing it, but rather was convicted by the belief that the action was the reward. He believed God that completely.

And as God showed us through Abraham, believing God is what God calls righteousness. When he says to the Accuser in the beginning of the book that there is no man on earth more righteous than Job, he means there is no one who believes him with as thorough a conviction as Job does.

People say Solomon was the wisest man to have ever lived. And yet, Solomon’s book of wisdom begins with this echo of Job’s:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
    but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

(Proverbs 1:7)

and continues with this one:

Blessed are those who find wisdom,
    those who gain understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver
    and yields better returns than gold.
She is more precious than rubies;
    nothing you desire can compare with her.

(Proverbs 3:13-15)

Why? Because the wisest man in the world knew wisdom existed long before he did. He did not set out to invent it. He only sought to compile it. He only sought to pick up the torch and carry it forward. So when he saw these words of Job’s, he knew what he had found.

Wisdom. The gem mined from the heart of the universe by God himself.

Job has established his respect for God’s power and right to rule, his agreement with the meting out of justice, and his reverence for true wisdom. He has refuted his friends’ arguments against his character. Now that he has corrected the fallacies in their arguments, now that he has established this base of his true convictions, he can build on top of it the fully accurate truth of his situation. Now, he moves from correction, from rant, into lament.

So at the end of this beautiful chapter, we still find Job’s closing speech

to be continued…