Saturday 4 October 2014

Job 28 Interlude

Job 28

This chapter seems a bit out of place here, it is a song about finding Wisdom 

Many years ago now, during my A levels we did a school chemistry field trip to Cornwall in the extreme south west of the UK studying mineral process chemistry.

As part of that trip we went down a very deep tin mine and our guide quoted from this chapter of the Bible - the method of extracting tin from the earth is similar to Gold and silver.

Precious valuable minerals are often found in very thin seams , what the miners do is carve a tunnel sideways to the direction the seams seem to run and when they find a promising seam in the tunnel wall they dig out sideways, up and down to extract the rock.

Mining is an extremely hazardous job, yet the riches make the pursuit worthwhile.
The tin mine in Cornwall was over 1 mile down and actually under the sea.
Following hidden paths that not even a keen eyed hawk can trace they crush the rocks, set fires (sometimes) and extract the value from the earth bedrock

Wisdom is no less valuable, yet where can wisdom be found?
Where does understanding live? 

Nobody can find true wisdom that is complete - If I took a submarine to the bottom of the deepest sea (a place where fewer people have been than walked on the moon) I don't think I would find wisdom's roots. 
I've been down dark mines under the ground and the sea, and did not find wisdom there (apart from don't wander off and keep your torch on!) I've flown at high altitude on jet aircraft, and I did not find wisdom there either - at seat entertainment just ain't that good folks!

I cannot buy wisdom with money - precious stones are not even enough to start bartering with when it comes to wisdom.
Is it wise for a rich person to pay a poorer person to work in a hold in the ground digging up valuable things that he then gives to the rich person. 
The rich person then has the valuable things made to look pretty and then shuts them up in a hole in the ground!

Where then does wisdom come from? 
Destruction, hell and death have only heard a rumour about wisdom.

God understands the way to wisdom and he alone knows where to find wisdom because he can see the ends of the world , seeing everything that happens, measuring the winds, plotting courses for thunderstorms.

God looked at wisdom and appraised it, confirmed and tested it and then he said to the human race ,
"The fear of the LORD - that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding"

You know the difference between wisdom and knowledge?

A knowledgeable person knows that tomatoes a a fruit (technically) while a wise person refrains from putting them in a fruit salad!


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