In the Bible, wisdom is not theory, not abstraction, not something speculative. Biblical wisdom is a practical thing. If, for example, a person can...
In the Bible, wisdom is not theory, not abstraction, not something speculative. Biblical wisdom is a practical thing. If, for example, a person could make a beautiful object out of stone, wood, or metal, he could be called wise. Because what was needed here was not only skill, but also that sense of beauty which a person feels with the heart more than with the hands.
Wisdom was also the art of dealing with people, the ability to understand them and see the motives of their actions. And righteousness too was wisdom: the skill of righteous life, without which it was impossible to follow God in spite of one's own sins, following while stumbling as little as possible and not falling. In the time when the Book of Job was written, this skill of righteous life was called wisdom above all. But righteousness is first of all relations with God. And with people too, in accordance with the commandments given by God. And those commandments did not appear by chance. They are not a moral code invented by God specially for man.
The commandments reflect the spiritual laws according to which a person's relations with God and people's relations with one another are built. They have existed as long as the world itself. Or at least as long as man has existed in the world. But if so, then God conceived these laws even before the creation of man, when He was creating His world. That means wisdom is not a human matter. Not only in the sense that man did not invent it, but also in the sense that it was not invented at all.
Man does not invent wisdom; he discovers it. More precisely, God reveals it to him, and man receives this revelation. But the origins of wisdom, which Job sought so intently, are where the origins and first cause of everything else, of all that happens in the world, are: with God. In His eternity. In the fullness of His life. In the depth of His person. There, where His creative will begins. And therefore there, where man by definition cannot penetrate. The origins of wisdom are inaccessible to man. Wisdom itself is accessible insofar as man is ready to receive it from God's hands, not by right, which man does not have, but by God's mercy.
38 God begins with an awakening challenge, Job 38:1-3.
Proceeds to several proofs of Job's inability to contend with him, because of his ignorance and weakness: for he knew nothing of the founding of the earth, Job 38:4-7.
The limiting of the sea, Job 38:8-11.
Of the morning light, Job 38:12-15.
The recesses of the sea and earth, Job 38:16-21.
Of the treasures in the clouds, Job 38:22-27.
He could do nothing toward the making of his own soul, the producing of rain, frost, lightning, or the directing of the stars and their influences, Job 38:28-38.
He could not provide for the lions or the ravens, Job 38:39-41.
How then should he direct God's secret counsels? Here God takes up the argument, begun by Elihu, and prosecutes it in inimitable words, exceeding his, and all other mens in the loftiness of the style, as much as thunder does a whisper.
38:22 Treasures - Dost thou know where I have laid up those vast quantities of snow and hail which I draw forth when I see fit?
38:23 Trouble - When I intend to bring trouble upon any people for their sins.
38:24 Distributed - In the air, and upon the face of the earth. This is variously distributed in the world, shining in one place and time, when it doth not shine in another, or for a longer time, or with greater brightness and power than it doth in another. All which are the effects of God's infinite wisdom and power, and such as were out of Job's reach to understand. Which - Which light scattereth, raises the east - wind, and causes it to blow hither and thither upon the earth? For as the sun is called by the poets, the father of the winds, because he draws up those exhalations which give matter to the winds, so in particular the east - wind is often observed to rise together with the sun.
38:25 Overflowing - For the showers of rain which come down orderly, and gradually, as if they were conveyed in pipes or channels; which, without the care of God's providence, would fall confusedly, and overwhelm the earth. Lightning - For lightning and thunder?Who opened a passage for them out of the cloud in which they were imprisoned? And these are joined with the rain, because they are commonly accompanied with great showers of rain.
38:26 To cause - That the clouds being broken by lightning and thunder might pour down rain. No man - To water those parts by art and industry, as is usual in cultivated places.
38:27 To bring forth - Hitherto God has put such questions to Job, as were proper to convince him of his ignorance. Now he comes to convince him of his impotence. As it is but little that he can know, and therefore he ought not to arraign the Divine counsels, so it is but little he can do; and therefore he ought not to oppose Divine providence.
38:28 Father - Is there any man that can beget or produce rain at his pleasure?
38:31 Bind - Restrain or hinder them. Pleiades - The seven stars, which bring in the spring. Bands - By which it binds up the air and earth, by bringing storms of rain and hail or frost and snow.Orion - This constellation rises in November, and brings in winter.Both summer and winter will have their course? God indeed can change them when he pleases, can make the spring cold, and so bind the influences of Pleiades, and the winter warm, and so loose the bands of Orion; but we cannot.
38:32 Bring forth - Canst thou make the stars in the southern signs arise and appear? Arcturus - Those in the northern. His sons - The lesser stars, which are placed round about them; and attend upon them, as children upon their parents.
38:33 Ordinances - The laws which are firmly established concerning their order, motion, or rest, and their powerful influences upon this lower world. Didst thou give these laws? Or dost thou perfectly know them? Canst thou - Manage and over rule their influences.
38:34 Cover thee - Thy land when it needs rain.
38:38 Mire - By reason of much rain.
38:39 Hunt - Is it by thy care that the lions who live in desert places are furnished with necessary provisions? This is another wonderful work of God.
38:41 Raven - Having mentioned the noblest of brute creatures, he now mentions one of the most contemptible; to shew the care of God's providence over all creatures, both great and small. Their young ones are so soon forsaken by their dams, that if God did not provide for them in a more than ordinary manner, they would be starved to death.And will he that provides for the young ravens, fail to provide for his own children.