Job 28:23

THE GREAT SECRET OF TRUE WISDOM REVEALED

"God understandeth the way thereof,

And he knoweth the place thereof.

For he looketh to the ends of the earth,

And seeth under the whole heaven;

To make a weight for the wind:

Yea, he meteth out the waters by measure.

When he made a decree for the rain,

And a way for the lightning of the thunder;

Then did he see it, and declare it;

He established it, yea, and searched it out.

And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.

And to depart from evil, that is understanding."

"There is but One who possesses perfect knowledge and wisdom, that is, [~'Elohiym]."[19] He is the omniscient, ubiquitous and omnipotent One. Infinite knowledge and understanding are His and His alone. "Any man who would travel in the direction of acquiring any portion of the true wisdom, of which only God is the possessor, must do so only as a moral and upright worshipper of the Creator."[20] "Not only is the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom, it is the chief part of it as well."[21]

"No amount of intelligence, or cleverness, or information, or knowledge, or of worldly or scientific wisdom will be of any avail for any man unless he starts with this beginning, `The Fear of the Lord,' (Psalms 91:10; Proverbs 1:7), building upon that as his foundation."[22]

That foundation of true wisdom Job most certainly possessed, as the concluding chapter of this remarkable book fully reveals.

We conclude this chapter with the observation that the fear of the Lord is not merely the `beginning of wisdom,' it also stands as the principal burden and assignment that God has laid upon all of his human children. "Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man" (Ecclesiastes 12:13).