The Unsearchable Mine of God's Wisdom Text: Job 28:12-22
Introduction: Man the Prospector
The book of Job is a rugged, mountainous book. It is not a gentle stroll through a manicured garden of pious platitudes. It deals with the raw, jagged edges of reality: suffering, sovereignty, and the staggering distance between God's mind and ours. And right in the middle of this intense debate between Job and his miserable counselors, the discourse takes a sudden turn. Chapter 28 is an interlude, a magnificent poem about the search for wisdom. The first part of the chapter describes man's incredible ingenuity. He is a master prospector. He sinks shafts into the earth, he tunnels through rock in the dark, he dams up streams, and he brings hidden things to light. He can find gold, silver, iron, and copper. He is a marvel of technical skill.
But then comes the pivot, the question that brings all of man's proud achievements to a screeching halt. After cataloging all the treasures man can unearth, the question is asked, "But where can wisdom be found?" Man can find gold, but he cannot find wisdom. He can map the veins of silver in the rock, but he cannot locate the place of understanding. This chapter is a devastating critique of all humanistic attempts to find ultimate meaning. It is a declaration of intellectual bankruptcy for the natural man. Modern man thinks he can find wisdom with a super-collider, or a space telescope, or by sequencing a genome. He is just as deluded as the miner who thinks the next strike of his pickaxe will uncover the fear of the Lord.
This passage teaches us that wisdom is not a natural resource. It is not a commodity that can be mined, purchased, or discovered through sheer human effort. It is utterly transcendent, hidden from the natural man, and its value is beyond any earthly currency. It forces us to look up from our prospecting, to lift our eyes from the dirt, and to recognize that the treasure we most desperately need is not under our feet, but is hidden in a place we cannot reach on our own.
The Text
"But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth, And it is not found in the land of the living. The deep says, ‘It is not in me’; And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ Pure gold cannot be given in place of it, Nor can silver be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire. Gold or glass cannot meet its worth, Nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold. Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned; And the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot meet its worth, Nor can it be valued in pure gold. Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living And concealed from the birds of the sky. Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a report of it.’"
(Job 28:12-22 LSB)
The Futile Search (v. 12-14)
The poem begins with a question that hangs in the air over all human enterprise.
"But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its worth, And it is not found in the land of the living." (Job 28:12-13)
This is the fundamental problem. Man is looking for something, but he doesn't even know what it is, where it is, or what it's worth. He is like a man searching for a cure to a disease he refuses to diagnose. He thinks his problem is a lack of information, a lack of technology, a lack of resources. But his real problem is a lack of wisdom. And because he does not know its worth, he constantly trades it away for trinkets. He sells his birthright for a bowl of stew. He thinks wisdom is about getting a better job, or a bigger house, or a more compliant family. He doesn't realize that wisdom is the very operating system of reality. To lack it is to be fundamentally incompatible with the universe God has made.
Notice the verdict: "it is not found in the land of the living." This is a sweeping statement. Wisdom is not native to our world. You cannot drill for it. You cannot stumble upon it in your explorations. It is not a natural part of the fallen human ecosystem. All of our educational systems, our philosophies, our political theories, our self-help gurus, are all prospecting in a barren land. They are looking for something that isn't there. This is why our modern world, for all its technological prowess, is drowning in folly. We have more information at our fingertips than any generation in history, and we have less wisdom. We are sophisticated fools, educated idiots.
The search is then extended to the most mysterious and inaccessible parts of the natural world.
"The deep says, ‘It is not in me’; And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’" (Job 28:14)
The deep and the sea, in the ancient mindset, represented the untamable chaos, the very antithesis of order and structure. If wisdom were anywhere, you might think it would be in these primordial places. But even they confess their ignorance. They are powerful, but they are not wise. This is a polemic against any form of nature worship or pantheism. The creation, no matter how majestic or terrifying, cannot give you the wisdom you seek. It can declare the glory of God, yes, but it cannot give you the mind of God. General revelation is sufficient to condemn you, to leave you without excuse, but it is not sufficient to save you or make you wise. For that, you need a word from outside the system.
The Incalculable Value (v. 15-19)
The poem now turns from location to valuation. If wisdom cannot be found, perhaps it can be bought. But this door is slammed shut just as firmly.
"Pure gold cannot be given in place of it, Nor can silver be weighed as its price. It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx or sapphire... Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned; And the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls. The topaz of Ethiopia cannot meet its worth, Nor can it be valued in pure gold." (Job 28:15-19)
This is an exhaustive list of the most valuable materials known to the ancient world. Gold, silver, onyx, sapphire, pearls, topaz. It's as if the author is piling up all the wealth of the world in one place and then declaring the whole heap to be utterly worthless in comparison to wisdom. You cannot buy wisdom. You cannot trade for it. You cannot put it on a balance sheet. Its economy is entirely different.
This strikes at the heart of our materialistic age. We think every problem can be solved if we just throw enough money at it. We want to buy a better education, buy a better lifestyle, buy happiness. But God has placed the one thing we need most completely outside the reach of our currency. This is a great mercy. If wisdom could be bought, then it would only belong to the rich, and the kingdom of heaven would be a gated community for the one percent. But God has priced it out of everyone's market, rich and poor alike, so that all must come to Him as beggars.
The book of Proverbs echoes this constantly. "How much better to get wisdom than gold! To get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver" (Proverbs 16:16). The world tells you to get wealth. God tells you to get wisdom. And if you get wisdom, you will know what to do with wealth. If you get wealth without wisdom, the wealth will destroy you. It will be a millstone around your neck.
The Hidden Source (v. 20-22)
Having established that wisdom can neither be found nor bought, the question is repeated, this time with a greater sense of desperation.
"Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living And concealed from the birds of the sky." (Job 28:20-21)
The answer is that it is hidden. It is deliberately concealed. It is not just lost; it is kept secret. It is hidden from "all living." No creature, by virtue of its natural senses, can perceive it. The perspective is then lifted even higher, to the "birds of the sky." The eagle, with its proverbial keen sight, soaring high above the earth, cannot spot it. This is a total lockdown. Natural man, using his own faculties, is blind to it. He is spiritually obtuse. As Paul says, "the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised" (1 Corinthians 2:14).
This is the Creator/creature distinction in the realm of knowledge. God knows, and we do not, unless He chooses to reveal it. To try and find wisdom on our own is the sin of Babel all over again. It is the creature attempting to ascend to the level of the Creator through his own efforts. It is the original sin of the Garden, wanting to be "like God, knowing good and evil" on our own terms. And the result is always confusion and ruin.
Finally, the search is extended to the very last frontier: the realm of the dead.
"Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a report of it.’" (Job 28:22)
Abaddon, or "Destruction," and Death are personified. They are the great devourers, the end of all things in the land of the living. And even they do not possess wisdom. They have only heard a rumor, a whisper of it. This is a chilling confession. Even at the final boundary of existence, wisdom remains elusive. Death can end a man's life, but it cannot give him understanding. This tells us that wisdom is not something you learn at the end of life, some final mystical insight. If you do not have it before you meet Death, you will not get it from him.
This is the bleak conclusion of man's search. Every avenue has been explored. The earth, the sea, the marketplace, the sky, and even the grave. All of them come up empty. Man by himself is utterly lost, blind, and bankrupt. He is a prospector in a land where the treasure is not buried, but hidden in heaven.
The Divine Answer
The chapter does not leave us in this state of despair. The final verses, which we will consider next time, provide the answer. "God understands its way, and He knows its place... And to man He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding’" (Job 28:23, 28).
Wisdom has a location, but only God knows the address. And He has not kept it entirely to Himself. He has revealed it. But notice how He reveals it. He doesn't give us a map to the mine. He gives us a relationship. "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom." Wisdom is not an abstract principle, it is a personal posture before the living God. It is the humble submission of the creature to the Creator. It begins with acknowledging that He is God and we are not.
And for us, who live on this side of the cross, this revelation is made even more explicit. All the dead ends that Job describes are meant to drive us to the one who is the beginning of the true path. In the New Testament, we are told that Christ is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). In Him "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). The search is over. The treasure has been revealed. God has not just told us about wisdom; He has sent us Wisdom in the flesh.
The world is still prospecting. They are still digging in the dirt, paying exorbitant prices for glittering fool's gold, and coming up empty. They look at the cross and, like the Greeks, they call it foolishness. But for those of us who have been called, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. The question "Where can wisdom be found?" has been answered once and for all. It is found at the right hand of the Father, in the person of His Son. And the only way to acquire this treasure is to abandon our own worthless currency, come to Him as beggars, and receive it as a gift of sheer grace.