IN SEARCH OF WISDOM
Job 28
Those still at school, Tech, or Uni know what it is to be drowning in data, but it's not only in the field of education that we're swamped with information. On the television we can watch the latest tragedy half a world away, live, while we eat dinner. The net gives us access to information ranging from philosophical discussion groups to instant soccer results throughout the world. But the avalanche of information that tumbles over us every day doesn't increase our wisdom.
The quest for wisdom is a quest for a grip on reality. It's a quest beyond information, beyond data and analysis, beyond what and how. It's a quest for wisdom and understanding. So, `where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell?'
Wisdom is about getting a grip on reality and living in the grip of reality
Getting A Grip On Reality
SCIENCE
The poet in Job 28 is impressed with our acheivements. Men and women have achieved remarkable accomplishments. Humanity's ingenuity, technology, persistence and courage have opened up the world beneath the surface of the earth. We've penetrated the darkness to see what the sharpest eyes amongst birds cannot. Our courage has taken us searching the farthest recesses in the blackest darkness in the hope of some prize, whether coal, gold, silver or the fame of simply being the first.
We've searched the sources of the rivers and brought hidden things to light, but we still haven't found what we're looking for. Wisdom remains out of reach.
Job 28:12 "But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding dwell?
13 Man does not comprehend its worth; it cannot be found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, 'It is not in me'; the sea says, 'It is not with me.'
15 It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price be weighed in silver.
A mate of mine, Stewart, was employed by a University in Queensland to operate a Mass Spectrometer
That's a scientific machine worth about a $1million. What it does is separates elements that differ by less than one thousandth of their mass i.e…
0.000000000000000000000001000 grams and
0.000000000000000000000001001 grams.
He tells me that knowing that difference can give us lots of information:- the difference in the weights depends on temperature so from a piece of coral that grew this week we can determine what the sea temperature was this week - okay I hear you saying 'stick a thermometer in the sea'
But if we cut up a piece of coral that grew during this week last year we can tell what the temperature was. So we can build up a record of sea temperatures for as far back as you can find corals growing. So far we have a record of changes in temperature from 1400 AD to the present which is being used to measure global warming. If the planet really is getting warmer it should show up in the change of mass measured by the mass spectrometer.
But there's more! Because each living thing has its own mass signature, they can take samples of mud and measure by the mass spectrometer how much input there is from fish, algae or humans. So, if we track this back in time by digging up sediment we can detect what impact humans are having on the Great Barrier Reef. If humans are going to a tropical island and pumping their sewage into the lagoon it will disturb the ecosystem. Using this machine they can track changes in carbon and nitrogen in sea water, sediment and living organisms and show how far the impact of human sewage is spreading on the reef.
Amazing technology. Does it sound like something worthwhile to you? Sure, so Stewart accepts the job at this University to operate their Mass Spectrometer. But what they didn't tell him when they employed him, was that the Mass Spectrometer was still sitting in a box and that they didn't have the money to build a building to house it. Lots of potential information but not a lot of wisdom. Getting a grip on reality takes more than gathering information on ourselves, the planet or the universe, because wisdom digs deeper than data. Wisdom digs for a grip on the why and the who as well as the what and the how things work.
LIFE
People have made lots of helpful observation about what works in the world. An Aunt of mine grouped a few of these together to cover every circumstance whenever her kids went out: "be good, stick together, don't fight, don't go out too far and watch out for sharks." There's truth there, but it's hardly a handle on reality. The insights gained are just pockets of truth aren't they, they're not the whole picture. Those pockets of truth prove inadequate when they bump up against the rock-face of reality: of getting on with people or coping with suffering. As soon as we try to reduce wisdom, to a formula or a slogan we come undone because reality proves too slippery to get a grip on.
Job's friends are a good example. In the book of Job some of Job's friends are questioning their mate's integrity by demanding that he own up to the things he must've done wrong to be copping such a hiding. While they're doing that, Job is daring to question God's integrity in putting the boot into him, an innocent man. And right from the start we know that Job is right, he is an innocent man, we know because God himself gives him a character reference
Job 1:8 Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil."
Tempers get a little frayed as Job's mates demand that Job own up to whatever he must've done to be suffering so intensely and as Job asserts more and more boldly that he is innocent. Job's friends think they've got a grip on reality. They've reduced it down to a formula that goes something like this:
| Good Deeds |
===> |
Reward |
| Evil Deeds |
===> |
Retribution |
Now we could back that up with a lot of Bible references if we were on a debating team. But they also reverse the formula…
| Good Deeds |
<=== |
Prosperous Life (Reward) |
| Evil Deeds |
<=== |
Suffering (Retribution) |
If you're experiencing Rewards/Blessing in life then you must've been good. If you're experiencing Suffering then you must've messed up, it's pay back time. And the more the suffering the more the pay back. Job, who, overnight lost his business and had his 7 sons and 3 daughters die when the roof of the house they were partying in collapsed on the top of them… "Job must've blown it big time!" say his friends.
The poet in Job 28 is summing up what has unfolded in the book of Job so far. Job's friend's grip on reality is inadequate. They want life to fit into neat formulas, be good and be rewarded, be bad and be punished, but life isn't nice and neat like that is it. In our church recently a new born baby spent a week in hospital with pneumonia; out of the blue a woman's father committed suicide; a lovely old lady whose been looked after for years and years by her unmarried daughter developed dementia to the point where she had to go and live in a home. How can we get a grip in reality when it has a habit of turning sour? We can't unearth this wisdom. We won't find it under the earth or behind a rock called Yogi on Mars. And we can't simply sit back and observe life and hope that some day out of all our experience the answer we're looking for will suddenly emerge. We can't get a grip on reality, ultimate reality, because we're inside the system, we need the big picture, how can we step back far enough to get a handle on it?
If you have read nay of the Terry Pratchet novels you enter a very different reality. In this world you have to realise that that world is a Discworld rather than a globe. This disc is sitting on the backs of 4 elephants who are standing on the back of a Turtle who is swimming through space occasionally getting hit by meteorites. Those of us who have read his books have a handle on reality in Terry Pratchet's world because he has spelt it out for us. It's his world and he tells us what works in his world. He is the one and only person with the big picture, the integrated picture of what works and how things work and why things work on his world.
So who has the big picture on our world? Immediately we've made a big mistake haven't we? It isn't our world!!!! It's God's world and he alone has a grip on reality in his world.
Job 28: 20 "Where then does wisdom come from? Where does understanding dwell?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing, concealed even from the birds of the air.
22 Destruction and Death say, 'Only a rumor of it has reached our ears.'23 God understands the way to it and he alone knows where it dwells, 24 for he views the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens.
We're trapped within, God sees from without. He alone has the big picture, he alone is the Only Wise God
Living In The Grip Of Reality
The interesting thing is that as God assessed his world, his creation, he had in the back of his mind,
`what is the handle on reality that I can give to my favourite creations, to the two legged ones down there.'
He didn't give us mere information, he didn't give us a manual on how the world works, instead God tells us how to relate to him. The first step of wisdom is to get God right. He tells us that the handle we need to get a grip on is actually something that needs to get a grip on us.
What is wisdom: the fear of the Lord - that is wisdom and to shun evil is understanding
You don't get a grip on fear, it gets a grip on you. God tells is that wisdom isn't so much about getting a grip on reality as being gripped by the reality of who God is, who your are and the difference between the two.
God drove that point home with Job. Job finally gets what he asks for, a face to face encounter with God. There God asks Job what sort of grip on reality he thinks he has. Throughout the encounter God asks Job, "were you there?"
"Job were you there when we celebrated creation"
Job 28: 4 "Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone--
7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?
Where were you, Job, I don't remember noticing you as the distant stars and the angels erupted like the crowd at a rugby match when the home team scores. "Were you there Job, I was, there at the beginning."
Then God shifts from "were you there" to "are you there" as he oversees and rejoices in the birth of every living creature on his world.
Job 39:1 "Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn? 2 Do you count the months till they bear? Do you know the time they give birth? 3 They crouch down and bring forth their young; their labor pains are ended.
"Are you there Job as every living creature is born: every calf, every dolphin, every bird hatches, every butterfly emerges, as every flower blooms, as every drip in a limestone cave falls to form a beautiful formation? Are you there, because I am and I love every second, I revel in every second of it. I see every thunderstorm, every lightening show, every tornado, every falling star. I see it all, I call it all into being and it delights me, every second of it, and every centimetre of it delights me"
"So, were you there, are you there, you who want me to justify myself to you? You who think life sucks and somehow God owes you an apology."
The goal was never to humiliate or terrify Job, God goes on to bless him more than he had before. But Job now knows the fear of the Lord at greater depth. You see we've defanged the tiger of truth, we've tried to tame the lion. We read `fear' as some level of super-respect. But the fear of the Lord is the response of awe that comes from understanding who God is, who we are and the difference between the two. Being awstruck, amazed, knocked off your feet. But even more, there is terror and dread here as well.
Job 42:1 Then Job replied to the LORD:
2 "I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted… 5 My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. 6 Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes."
Wisdom isn't just about getting a grip on reality it is about being gripped by the reality of who God is who you are and the difference between the two.
Job isn't the only one to encounter God, to be stopped dead in his tracks and staggered by a glimpse of God's greatness and our weakness
Remember Peter in Luke 5:1-5. Jesus has just used Peter's boat as a platform to speak to the crowds. Luke doesn't tell us what Jesus said to them but he does tell us what happened next. Jesus suggests to Peter that they go fishing. But Peter has been out all night fishing without so much as a nibble, still he hops into the boat and out they go.
Luke 5:6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
Now if Peter had half a brain he'd be offering Jesus a job wouldn't he? But Peter's response is very different.
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,
No storm, no thunder, no lightening, just a boat load of fish, Peter and Jesus. Peter got a lesson in the power of Jesus and it left him feeling exposed. Gripped by the reality of who God is, who Peter is, and the difference between the two.
God has stepped closer than a storm in his encounter with the human race, in his disclosure of wisdom. He has sent Jesus who not only tells us what works in God's world but who grips us in the terrifying grip of grace.
THE TERRIFYING LOVE OF GOD
We shouldn't fear that God will let us down. We shouldn't fear that he will unfaithful to his promises. We shouldn't fear that he will not forgive us. What we should fear is his fierce determination to complete what he has begun. His fierce determination to make us holy. His fierce determination to do whatever it takes to carve the image of Christ out of our hard hearts. We do well to fear that God is the ultimate perfectionist, and He gets what he wants.
He is the potter, and He intends vessels of holiness. No, we don't fear that God will fail us or give up on us, but rather that He is faithful to finish what He has started.
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Phil 2:12-13 (NIV) ...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Mike Yaconelli: "… The Church needs to become a gloriously dangerous place where nothing is safe in God's presence except us. Nothing - including our plans, our agendas, our priorities, our politics, our money, our security, our comfort, our possessions, our needs.
"Our world is... longing to see people whose God is big and holy and frightening and gentle and tender... a God whose love frightens us into His strong and powerful arms where He longs to whisper those terrifying words, 'I love you.'"
The wise man or woman lives in the grip of that reality. Isn't that what happened after the birth of the church…Acts 9:31 Then the church …was strengthened; and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it grew in numbers, living in the fear of the Lord.
Isn't that what Paul calls us to …Romans 11:22 Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness.
Fear and Love are not mutually exclusive. The right sort of fear is a right of passage to other things, including love.
That's why Proverbs tells us that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."
Someone has put it like this. The fear of the Lord is like a virgin's fear of sex with her husband. It is not a fear by itself, but a fear coupled with passion to do the thing that is so fearful. "This is going to HURT, but I want it SO MUCH." To be careless about the gift of yourself to another person is a tragedy. To be overly fearful makes the whole thing rather cruel and loveless. So a couple deeply in love, deeply desiring each other are seized with passion and fear at the same time.
As we grow as Christians as the Bride of Christ, we long for his return. He is coming for us, and we want Him so badly. And yet we know that he wants much from us, he wants us completely surrendered to him so that we might be drawn into the depths of his love and joy. We live in the grip of fear and passion.
Wisdom is about getting a grip on reality. Knowing what works in God's world. The wise person lives in the strong grip of the reality of who God is, who they are and the difference between the two.