Job 28:12–13 “But where can wisdom be found? / And where is the place of understanding? / Man does not know its value, / Nor is it found in the land of the living.”

December 23rd, 2023 by Pastor Ed in devotional

While the human race has gained and continues to gain an ever-increasing amount of knowledge (data, facts, information) about the material universe, we remain painfully ignorant of the real issues of life. We can explain the how of things but not the why, as we fail to use our acquired knowledge and information with any wisdom. Gold remains the standard for wealth and is greatly prized, but wisdom is still far more valuable. Sadly, few exert nearly as much effort trying to discover wisdom as they do metals and gems.

The author H. G. Wells wrote a short story called “The Country of the Blind” about an inaccessible, luxurious valley in Ecuador, where, due to a strange disease, everyone is blind. After 15 generations of this blindness, there is no longer any memory of sight, color, or the outside world. A sighted man from outside the valley falls from a high cliff into their forgotten country. Despite his best efforts, he can’t make them understand what it means to see, and they simply think he’s crazy. He falls in love with a girl, but her father, Yacob, doesn’t want her to marry someone crazy. So he consults the valley’s doctor.

“I think I may say with reasonable certainty that, in order to cure him complete, all that we need to do is a simple and easy surgical operation—namely, to remove these irritant bodies [his eyes]!” said the doctor.

“And then he will be sane?” her father asked.

“Then he will be perfectly sane, and quite an admirable citizen.”

“Thank Heaven for science!” said old Yacob.

The man would not be allowed to marry the daughter unless he submitted to an operation that would blind him. What would he do? Wells wrote:

He had fully meant to go to a lonely place where the meadows were beautiful with white narcissus, and there remain until the hour of his sacrifice should come, but as he walked he lifted up his eyes and saw the morning like an angel in golden armour, marching down the steeps. It seemed to him that before this splendor, he and this blind world in the valley, and his love and all, were no more than a pit of sin.

And the man who could see, climbed out of the valley of the blind.

The world we live in is very much like the country of the blind. Our society is extremely proud of our science and knowledge, but it is for the most part blind to the supernatural workings and wisdom of God. And often, when they hear the truth, they think it and we are crazy.

“LORD, please give us eyes to see clearly this day in Jesus’ name.”

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Job 28 KJV

¹ Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it .  ² Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone.  ³ He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection: the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. ⁴ The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the watersforgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men. ⁵ As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire. ⁶ The stones of it are the place of sapphires: and it hath dust of gold.  ⁷ There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: ⁸ The lion’s whelps have not trodden it, nor the fierce lion passed by it. ⁹ He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots.  ¹⁰ He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing. ¹¹ He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.  ¹² But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? ¹³ Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living. ¹⁴ The depth saith, It is not in me: and the sea saith, It is not with me. ¹⁵ It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.  ¹⁶ It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. ¹⁷The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be forjewels of fine gold.  ¹⁸ No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies.  ¹⁹ The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. ²⁰ Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? ²¹Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. ²² Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. ²³ God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. ²⁴ For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; ²⁵ To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. ²⁶ When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightning of the thunder: ²⁷ Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out.  ²⁸ And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.