Searching For Wisdom
In All The Wrong Places
“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 28:12-13)
There was a man in the country of UZ named Job (Job 1), a man after God’s own heart who had ten children and over ten thousand different livestock.
The bible describes him as “The greatest man among all the people of the east.”
And in a single moment, he lost all of his livestock and all of his children.
Within minutes, they were gone.
To make matters worse, he suffered from a skin disease from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
Job is going through a life altering experience of grief and pain, and yet during his suffering, he says three things that have stayed with me.
“The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21)
“Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” (Job 2:10)
“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 28:12-13)
Reading these texts I learned Job understands and acknowledges something most of us spend years chasing.
Wisdom doesn’t come from man.
It isn’t something we create, accumulate, or hack our way into.
It’s something we receive from the Lord.
What Job understood in his suffering is later reinforced in the New Testament.
When Paul writes to the church in Colossae, he points to the same source of wisdom.
Colossians 2:3 - In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Expressing to them to look towards Christ for knowledge and wisdom.
This didn’t make sense to me why this was important until I looked deeper at the context.
The Colossians were practicing a lifestyle of severe self discipline and abstinence from simple pleasures in order to achieve higher spiritual, religious or philosophical goals.
I immediately saw the correlation to modern day practice of consuming self help knowledge and trying to substitute it for Godly wisdom.
The struggle the Colossians faced isn’t different from what we see today.
We stack habits all too familiar, thinking if we have early mornings, cold showers, digital detoxes, frugal living, and constant learning, we can optimize enough to feel complete.
But even after all the effort, something still feels off.
These are all powerful practices that can make a difference in our lives, but none should ever be held in higher esteem than the knowledge, wisdom, and fulfillment which can be found and achieved by following and practicing a relationship with God.
Self help focuses on control, while Godly wisdom is trusting the direction we don’t understand.
How often do we try to maximize ourselves without first consulting what God wants and has for us?
We can keep our tips and tricks, detoxes, challenges, and routines, but don’t forget they will eventually lead to emptiness. When we expect them to give us purpose, identity or fulfillment, they fall short.
Not because they are bad practices, but because they were never designed to carry the kind of weight intended for God.
Only God can be the source of full knowledge, wisdom, and fulfillment.
Job recognized God’s wisdom at his absolute lowest when everything had been stripped away.
So the question isn’t whether we’ll pursue wisdom, but where we will look for it.
Like Job, I hope we can all find it in God.
-G. Banks