Job 28:12  But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?
13  Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living.
14  The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me.
15  It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
16  It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17  The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
18  No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19  The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20  Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding?
21  Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air.
22  Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
23  God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof.
24  For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven;
25  To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure.
26  When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder:
27  Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
28  And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

Job continued his challenge to his three friends. They assumed they had wisdom but they proved otherwise. Job reminded them that wisdom is not something that just falls upon people. It is something that must be sought after. Now, in verse 12 he asked the question: where is wisdom found? Where should a person look for wisdom? Our society tells us that it is found in government run daycares, and then the public schools and then government run colleges and universities. The fact is that none of these place offer any wisdom at all. They feed an anti-God philosophy to young minds that are very easily trained. We should not be surprised to see the nature of our politicians, police forces and doctors and nurses. They have been brain washed and most do not even care to consider that fact. Even sadder is the fact that most religious leaders today have also been brain washed and they are busy teaching their followers to imagine a false god. They are quite successful at it as well.
Jesus reminds us that the devil is a liar and a murderer from the beginning. We are all born as lost people easily deceived by the devil and it is no wonder our world is in the mess that it is. It is no wonder that God says:

Romans 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

All of this is because man is not the source of wisdom and the natural man is not even interested in wisdom.
In our text today, Job states the value of wisdom. Wisdom is worth more than man realizes. Lost people see no value in wisdom. We know that Cain did not desire wisdom. We know that Lamech was not interested in wisdom, neither was Nimrod and many others. Most people go through life and never stop to consider the importance of wisdom.
Over the past three years our governments and most doctors and nurses and police officers have proven that they are not interested in wisdom. They have operated in darkness and have assumed that they have demonstrated wisdom in their response to a lab originated virus. They followed a plot, but they lied to the public all the way along.
Job reminds us that wisdom is not found on this earth. It does not matter how deep a hole can be dug or how much exploration in the sea is done. Man will never find wisdom in these places. The sea and all that is in them give evidence of great wisdom, but they are not the source of wisdom. Charles Darwin chose to look at the evidence of wisdom and drew completely evil conclusions. He followed the lies of his father and grandfather, rather than seeking truth.
Wisdom is worth more than the finest of gold. It is more precious than the precious minerals that people seek after. The gold and precious stones of this earth will all be burned up with fire one day. Yet wisdom will never be destroyed.
The corals, that some people are so concerned with preserving, are not enough to purchase wisdom. No pearl can pay for wisdom either. In verse 20, Job is again directed to ask the question: where does wisdom come from? Where does understanding come from?
We mentioned the tragic shooting in the U.S. in yesterday’s devotional. How come so many are drawing wrong conclusions from that sad event? How come so few are speaking truth regarding this and many other tragic events. The president of the U.S. came out joking about his ice cream stash before he would even address the matter. In our country there have been stabbings four days in a row and the government wants to ban guns. They are not even thinking. How does banning guns stop people from stabbing others? They cannot even respond to that because they have an agenda. That agenda is to disarm the public so that they can have greater control over us. It is much easier to control a person with a knife when the other person, namely government officials have guns. You have to get up close to do damage with a knife, unless the person knows how to throw a knife with accuracy. You can stand quite a ways off and kill someone with a gun. As we noted yesterday, the missing factor in all the violence we are facing is wisdom and understanding. Society is not interested in truth. They do not want to know God. They love to slander Him, but they do not want to know Him. They want to control things on their own. Every politician and every counsellor believes they have the answer. Give the people some drugs and tax them more and go on more expensive trips and let people kill each other off and eventually we will be down to a “manageable number”. They do not stop to calculate where the money will come from for their expensive lifestyles if there are only a few people paying taxes. They have not figured out yet that money does not grow on trees.
Wisdom will never be found through the humanistic means of man. In verse 23 we learn that God knows where wisdom is. God is over all and He sees all that is going on and He knows everything. God is in charge of the wind. Job tells us that God knows the weight of the wind and He also knows the weight of the water.
God sets the standard for where and when it will rain. There was no rain on this earth until the time of Noah’s flood. God changed things and sent an abundance of rain. The fountains of the deep were opened up and the heavens were opened up and the waters covered the highest mountains. Everything was under water. God did that. Every spring and summer and fall, God sends the rain. He knows just how much we will have in any given year. He is much wiser than the weather forecasters who guess at things and sometimes they happen to be right. God is always right.
Job concluded that the fear of the Lord is the place of wisdom. To depart from evil is to gain understanding. When a person has the proper reverence for God, he or she is able to accept and receive His wisdom. When a person receives God’s wisdom, he will know what evil is. He will understand that producing alcohol for human consumption leads to tragedy after tragedy. Noah discovered this the hard way. He could have sought after God’s wisdom and gained understanding and saved himself and his children much grief. Nimrod did not need to try to build a tower to reach heaven. If he would have sought after the fear of the Lord, he would have known that was a futile effort that would never work. He could have understood what he should have been doing. Instead, he chose to set in place the foundations of the Catholic religion, the Muslim religion as well as many others. They are destructive and they are also very popular among lost people.
Those who walk in the fear of the Lord can see the destructive nature of those who despise God. The lost cannot see that. They cannot even identify the destruction. They know trouble comes with using drugs and alcohol, but they never connect the dots. A young father was found dead and wrapped in a blanket in the U.S. recently. He had gone missing and found dead. The autopsy said he had alcohol, fentanyl and cocaine in his system. Two people have been arrested and they are looking for one more in this case. The man was on a business trip and decided to go to a bar before going to bed. He never arrived at his hotel room. It seems others at that bar saw an opportunity to give this man poison and he eventually died. We do not know if they robbed him or not. But the problem in that entire situation is: no wisdom and no understanding on the part of all those involved. Meanwhile a mother and some children have no husband and father. They also do not know the fear of the Lord and they lack understanding. More tragedies will face them yet unless they turn to God in repentance and are saved.
Job had some fear of the Lord in his life and he had some understanding. He needed more and God would graciously give him more. His friends lacked both and were not interested in having any. They are a picture of the many who assume they are wise and yet have nothing. They cannot see real value.
There may be some who read this who are in this place. Maybe you “stumbled” upon this devotional. God is being gracious to you. Will you listen to the voice of God in your heart today? Will you turn to Him in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you? You have been given this opportunity to be saved. Don’t squander it. Trust in the Lord and know His peace and blessing.
Pastor Bartel