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Job 28

What could be more precious than gold? 

Job describes to us in the beginning of chapter 28 the lengths that man goes to in extracting valuable metals such as gold, silver and sapphires from the earth. 

He speaks of the mining of iron and copper.  He describes how man searches out every recess, cuts channels through rock, dams up rivers and digs though mountains.

My mind goes to historical accounts I have heard of gold rushes and how men would sell up, mortgage their homes or abandon everything in a mad rush to join others who had found gold.  

Why? 

Because it was so precious, so sought after, so full of promise for riches and comfort and all that one could desire in this life.

And yet there is something even more valuable and precious - wisdom and understanding.  

Not the wisdom and understanding that being educated and living on this earth gives us.  

That, although seemingly limitless is actually finite - Job is speaking of a wisdom that is infinite and so precious that the value of gold, crystal, sapphire, onyx, coral, pearls, rubies, silver cannot be given in exchange for it.  

Photo by J Yeo on Unsplash

The value of this wisdom is above all of these, but where can it be found?

Job tells us that only God knows the source of wisdom and understanding.  That his creation declares it.  That he prepared it. 

In Proverbs 8 we have this opened up as wisdom speaks,

'The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.  I was set up from everlasting from the beginning, or ever the world was...when he prepared the heavens I was there...I was daily his delight rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men...whoso findeth me findeth life'

Wisdom is more than a thing, it is more than a valuable metal, it is a living person.  It is life! 

Paul tells us that 'Christ Jesus, who of God, is made unto us wisdom' (1 Corinthians 1:30), and James tells us that 'wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy' (James 3:17). 

Does this not remind us of the fruits of the Spirit?  Of the qualities of Jesus?

Job sums up this chapter by declaring that wisdom is 'the fear of the LORD...and to depart from evil is understanding'.  A reverential fear and awe of God, which influences man (as Job did) to keep God's commandments. 

Photo by Sean Foster on Unsplash

Moses later told the children of Israel that if they feared God other nations would call them great observing their wisdom and understanding (Deuteronomy 4: 5,6).

But both the Psalmist and Solomon tell us that the fear of the LORD is the 'beginning' of wisdom or knowledge (Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 1:7)

It seems to me that this reverential fear of the LORD and a desire to keep his ways is the Holy Spirit working in the heart, giving it a desire to follow God and please him.

As God says in speaking of his mercy to the exiled Jews in Jeremiah 32: 39,

'I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me forever,...and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me...'

Do you and I have this fear of the Lord - this beginning of wisdom?

Joseph Hart*, hymnwriter of old, wrote of this fear of the Lord prolonging our days, keeping us from sinning and prospering our ways...

'The fear of the Lord is soundness and health;
A treasure well stored with heavenly wealth;...

The fear of the Lord is lowly and meek;
The happy reward of all that him seek;
They only that fear him the truth can discern,
For, living so near him, his secrets they learn...'

But how do we get this fear of the Lord, this beginning of wisdom - and what do we do if we feel we have lost it?

As we quoted above from Jeremiah, and as we read in Ezekiel 36, God gives us this fear - this new heart and new spirit which wants to serve and follow him, which loves him.  God gives us this wisdom found in, and which is Jesus.  And Jesus tells us to ask for it:

'If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?' (Luke 11:13)

Do you want this wisdom, this fear of the Lord - this indwelling of the Holy Spirit?  Then ask God for it! 

I venture to say that if you really desire it, you already have the Spirit within you!  If you truly desire God it is because he desires you and is drawing you to him.

But what about those times when we feel so far off from our Lord.  We wonder if we ever really had that true wisdom given to us - or we fear that we have sinned him away.  

I am reminded of a dream that John Newton had (see below).  A dream that illustrates how the gift of life, wisdom and the fear of God - the eternal life of souls - is so valuable that God doesn't entrust it to us.  Our eternal salvation is secure with him - he keeps it because if it was up to us we would lose it.

As these lines comforted me earlier this week, and perhaps they will you too,

'How oft have sin and Satan strove
To rend my soul from thee, my God
But everlasting is thy love,
And Jesus seals it with his blood'**

May we each be given that real understanding and wisdom that is everlasting, that fear of the Lord, the beginning of wisdom, that felt presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, our wisdom.  Wisdom which is more precious than all we call valuable, more precious than gold.

*Hymn 254 Gadsby's hymn book

**Hymn 83 Gadsby's hymn book (Isaac Watts)

John Newton's dream

At a time when John Newton was becoming further and further away from God he had a dream. 
He was at this time a sailor and had just sailed from Venice.  The scene of his dream was of the harbour of Venice.
It was night.  Newton was on watch on the boat deck.  As he walked to and fro he dreamt that a man came up to him and gave him a valuable ring telling him to keep it carefully.

The man told him that if he kept the ring safe he would be happy and successful but if he lost it he could expect nothing but trouble and misery.

Newton willingly accepted the ring and the terms thinking he could easily carefully preserve the ring and his happiness.
Photo by Sabrianna on Unsplash
After a while he dreamt a second person came to him and asked about the ring he was wearing.  This man was sceptical and expressed surprise that Newton believed such things.  He told Newton he was weak and asked how a ring could give such effects?

He urged him to throw the ring away.

Although initially shocked Newton started to think about what the second man was saying and began to doubt.

At last he took the ring off his finger and threw it over the side of the boat into the sea.

Immediately, as distinctly as if he were awake he saw the mountain ranges behind the city of Venice burst into flames.

As he stood aghast the second man told him that all God's mercy for him was in that ring - and he had thrown it away.

Newton understood that he must now come with him to the burning mountains and all those flames were kindled on his account.
As Newton stood on deck, trembling, feeling totally condemned and in an agony of hopelessness another person - or perhaps the first man -appeared and asked what was wrong?

Newton confessed his wilful ruin and that he deserved no pity, but when the man asked if he would be wiser if he got a second chance he could hardly answer because he thought there was no hope.

Imagine his joy and gratitude as this friend went down into the water where he had dropped the ring and soon appeared back on board with it in his hand.  

As soon as he appeared with the ring the flames in the mountains were extinguished and the second tempting man left, when Newton approached the man expecting to receive the ring again the man refused.

This man told him he would not be able to safely keep it, but would soon throw it away again.  Instead he said he would keep it for him, and whenever needful would produce it on his behalf.

Although the effects of this striking dream were short lived at this time  and he carried on rejecting God in his life, he was later able to look back, recognising how the dream showed his eternal life was safe in the hands of Jesus  despite Satan tempting him to renounce it all and live a life of sinful pleasure.



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