Readings for today: Job 24-28, Psalms 141
Our world is awash in desire. Enslaved to feelings and emotions. Adrift in an ocean of chaos. How else to explain heartbreaking insanity that passes for truth these days? We reject any kind of sexual boundaries and are shocked when it leads to abuse, objectification, disease, and violence. We reject our bodies and are shocked when it leads to depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation. We selfishly exploit the resources of the earth and are shocked when it leads to pollution and sickness and war. We refuse to repent over past oppressions and are shocked when it leads to ethnic conflict. We refuse to restrain our greed and are shocked when it leads to class warfare on a social and political stage. Our unwillingness and inability to follow the ways of Jesus leads us into all kinds of pain and suffering and heartache which we then turn around and try to pin on God.
Our world is filled with knowledge. We have so much knowledge we literally do not know what to do with it. So much information coming at us from every angle. The average person is inundated with well over a hundred emails every day. Not to mention texts. Phone calls. Social media interactions. A single issue of the New York Times contains more information than a person a hundred or so years ago might have learned in an entire year. The news is relentless. The fake news endless. Technology ubiquitous. We cannot escape. We cannot rest. And what has all this knowledge gained us? Rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide. Rising rates of fear, violence, and hate. All this in a world that is demonstrably improving with each passing year. Why? What are we missing? What is the source of our persistent discontent?
Wisdom is the key to fulfillment in life. But, sadly, we simply do not know the path to wisdom or we refuse to take it. Today’s reading from the Book of Job is on point. "Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the ground, and copper is smelted from ore. The miner uses a flint tool and turns up ore from the root of the mountains. He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eyes spot every treasure. He dams up the streams from flowing so that he may bring to light what is hidden. But where can wisdom be found, and where is understanding located? No one can know its value, since it cannot be found in the land of the living.” (Job 28:1-2, 9-13 CSB) Human beings are capable of great things. We climb to the highest mountains. We delve in the depths of the earth. We’ve learned to fly. We’ve explored the bottom of the oceans. We know how to do so very much. But for all our strength and power and knowledge and ability, we have yet to find the path to wisdom. We didn’t find it on the mountaintops. We searched for it in vain in the trenches of the seas. Despite our vast wealth we could not find a vender who sold it.
Only God knows the path to wisdom. Only God knows how to take all of our knowledge and order it in such a way that it leads to blessing and human flourishing. “Where then does wisdom come from, and where is understanding located? It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing and concealed from the birds of the sky. Abaddon and Death say, “We have heard news of it with our ears.” But God understands the way to wisdom, and he knows its location. He said to mankind, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom. And to turn from evil is understanding.” (Job 28:20-23, 28 CSB) Fear the Lord. Submit to His ways. Surrender to His will. Let Him guide and direct your steps. This is the path to wisdom. God’s promise to those who follow Him is that He will lead us into green pastures and beside still waters. To places of peace where our souls will be restored. Job understands we cannot find these places on our own. We cannot get to these places in our own strength. Our knowledge is simply not enough. We must let God take us by the hand. We must trust God with our lives and our future. We must have faith that He knows best.
Readings for tomorrow: Job 29-31, Psalms 142 (No devotionals on Sundays)