Job 28:28

Job 28:28

I. Wisdom is not learning. A great part of what his contemporaries admired in Solomon consisted of the accumulated mass of facts with which his memory was stored. Yet it is an observation we are constantly forced to make how much a man may know and yet what a fool he may be. That Solomon, for instance, with all his wisdom, was a wise ruler, we have not the slightest reason to suppose. The hasty reader is so impressed with all that is told of his magnificence that he often fails to take notice of what is also told of the cost at which it was kept up the corvées of forced labour, the grinding taxation of the subjects. We find that on the king's death the people insisted on an absolute change of system, and failing to obtain it, hurled his dynasty from the throne.

II. Wisdom is not cleverness. I refer to that kind of ability which finds it easy to invent arguments in favour of any line of action it wishes to commend, which is not easily taken by surprise, is ready with plausible answers to objections, and can throw into the most attractive form the reasons for coming to the desired conclusion. All this is but the cleverness of the advocate. What we really want for our practical guidance is the wisdom of the judge.

III. "The fear of the Lord is wisdom," is the declaration of the Old Testament. Wisdom teaches us to provide for our happiness in the most enlightened way. But in the New Testament we have what seems quite a different rule: Seek not your own happiness at all; live and work for the happiness of others; give up all thought of self, all calculation how you may make yourself greater, or more honoured, or more prosperous. That may be noble conduct, but can it be said to be wisdom?

IV. The key to the paradox is found in that golden saying of our Lord, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." And there is no difficulty in understanding that this really is the case. Those to whom God has given powers find happiness in their exercise quite independently of the fruits these powers may gain. And in the case of work done for others, it is not only that there is pleasure in the exercise of our powers, it is not only that it is more flattering to our pride to give than to receive, but the heart must be cold which does not find delight when through our gift happiness springs up for others, and their sorrow is turned into joy.

V. If, then, the New Testament has taught us to understand by "the fear of the Lord" something more than had been distinctly revealed in the Old Testament, still we can truly say that the fear of the Lord is wisdom. It is eminently true of love, "Give, and it shall be given to you." If one were found by experience to be perfectly free from selfish aim, one by whom no unkind word was ever spoken, one who was always planning some act of kindness to others, it is impossible but that such a one would inspire such perfect trust, and would be surrounded by such love and gratitude, as would brighten his own life as he strove to brighten those of others.

G. Salmon, Non-miraculous Christianity, p. 171.

References: Job 28:28 . Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 57; Clergyman's Magazine, vol. vi., p. 21.