Chapter 28
More from Job:
The science and intellect of man have discovered much that is hidden - gold, silver, iron ore that must be smelted, sapphires and so on. Man goes into the most remote and out of the way places and digs holes into the darkness that no one and nothing has ever explored, and there he finds things of great and enduring value - in earthly terms. Man can discover all these highly unlikely and valuable things....BUT,
Where is wisdom?
13 Man does not know its worth, and it is not found in the land of the living. 14 The deep says, 'It is not in me,' and the sea says, 'It is not with me.' 15 It cannot be bought for gold, and silver cannot be weighed as its price. [Job 28:13-15 ESV]
Job names off some places wisdom is not. It is elusive. It is intangible. It cannot be bought at any price.
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living and concealed from the birds of the air. 22 Abaddon and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.' [Job 28:21-22 ESV]
2023 - I believe this is the second use of "Abaddon" in this book. I know he is the King of those in the abyss. IS that where he was at the time Job was written, or was he still free to roam?
He is mentioned 3 times in Job, once in Psalms, twice in Proverbs, once in Revelation. Still...that is a lot of times for one we know so very little about. And the name is ancient. Hmm...BLB, looking at the Strong's definition, uses abaddon as a place within Sheol for lost or ruined dead. as development of earlier distinction of condition in Sheol. So...I think sometimes abaddon is a place - this place for the ruined dead - we might interpret this as for the lost dead - and sometimes Abaddon is that King from the pit. Perhaps those he leads in Revelation are the ones from the "abaddon" of Sheol, perhaps they are the ruined, lost, hopeless dead who are confined to the pit until the end, and then thrown forever into fire. Perhaps they are burning even now, but the current punishment is minor compared to what they know is coming. Perhaps these too can see hell from where they are now. However, I do note that in every place the ESV uses "abaddon", it is capitalized. We know that the usage in Revelation is as the name of King. Here are the OT occurrences of the word:
6 Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering. [Job 26:6 ESV]. If we use context, Abaddon is equated with Sheol, which is surely a place in this verse. As Sheol is a specific case, and so capitalized, so Abaddon is a place, a specific place, in this verse.
22 Abaddon and Death say, 'We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.' [Job 28:22 ESV]. In this verse, Abaddon and Death are both personified. They are spoken of as "individuals". I don't think we'd say "as people", but "as angels" seems very possible.
12 for that would be a fire that consumes as far as Abaddon, and it would burn to the root all my increase. [Job 31:12 ESV]. Abaddon as a place here.
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? [Psa 88:11 ESV]. Surely Abaddon in this usage is a place, not an angel, not an entity.
11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man! [Pro 15:11 ESV]. A place here also.
Except for the personification in Job 26:6, and the verse in Revelation, Abaddon is always a place. Pretty much have to throw in the verse from Revelation:
11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon. [Rev 9:11 ESV]. John clearly saw Abaddon as an angel. The angel of destruction who pillages the earth.
So wisdom is not in the land of the living, and vs 22 says it is not in the land of the dead. It is not in either place.
23 "God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. [Job 28:23 ESV]
God alone has access to wisdom, and it is only obtained through God.
Vss 25-28 are very powerful. This ties, I believe, with what is written in Proverbs about wisdom being there from the beginning, as God created all that is, wisdom was there also. God created according to wisdom - to order, to cause and effect, to predictability. The earth was not created with randomness as a foundational rule. Nothing falls "up", but always down. There are rules, as dictated by wisdom. So in physical terms, in a corrupt physical world inhabited by physical beings, where do we look for wisdom?
28 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 ESV] In a righteous, God-fearing life, shunning evil of all kinds. This is how you bring yourself into step with the way of the LORD. You sync up with the mind of the creator, and live according to His ways. This is harmony - with God first, then with all that God created.
Wow. This principle has been so abused by the devil over time to tell us that we are one with nature and the spirits and the heavens and so on. He says that if we are one with them we should worship them. This is "The Force", this is "The Great Spirit", this is "Enlightenment". All these religions, these world views, are just a corrupted version of the connection God built into the universe. We ARE one with the creation because we are part and parcel of it, created with it, to function in it. It was created to "work" for us. We are part of it. We are created from what was created! In this way we are one with the universe. But when you try to leave God out of that chain back to the beginning - when you try to stop at dirt instead of going back that one more step to God creating that dirt - you miss the whole point. And this is why the fear of the Lord is wisdom. You have to understand, you have to go back that one last step that makes God the initiator of all that is instead of making science the initiator of all that is. God is the unified field, and science will not admit that.
2023 - I finally see a FB post here, using Job 28:28.
2024 - And wow again. Job is asking about the source of wisdom. It is not a commodity for which we can barter, not even with the most precious and valuable things known to man. You can perhaps buy an education - you can buy knowledge, facts, the ability to study, you can BUY SCIENCE we do it all the time...but you can never buy wisdom. How can we explain that? From where does wisdom come? It is not like all these other things we consider. Science can tell us how things work but not why they work that way. Science is not the "answer". The more complicated our explanations, the more minutely we understand the processes at work in the world, the more it begs the question of "WHY". Why does it work this way? And the answer is that an intelligent, rational, ordered God DESIGNED it to work this way! All things work together too well to be random.
There are at least two places where the language of Job is very reminiscent of the language of Solomon. As if perhaps Solomon wrote Job, and later wrote all the proverbs.
Found this in Proverbs on 3/9/20:
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. [Pro 9:10 ESV]
2021-The phrase "the fear of the Lord" is used 13 times in Proverbs. This first thought - that fear = wisdom - is stated four times. In one place, 16:6, it is connected with turning away from evil. This seems to me a strong connection between Proverbs and Job, and as such, a strong indicator that Job was written down by Solomon, though it was likely a much older story.
2025 - It is wisdom, NOT KNOWLEDGE, that leads to life, to peace, to meaning and to purpose. It is not about smart it is about wise, and you cannot buy wise. You have to personally work at it. And this chapter ends with the key: 28 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 ESV]. Wisdom comes ONLY from the Word of God. It cannot be found anywhere, ANYWHERE else.
Compare this to:
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. [Ecc 12:13 ESV]