Behold, the Fear of the Lord

God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. For he looks to the ends of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned the waters by measure, when he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder, then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.’
Job 28:23–28
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Behold, the Fear of the Lord
A simple question was asked in verse twelve and repeated again in verse twenty. “Where does wisdom come from?” Job’s friends try to convince him throughout the book of Job that wisdom lies in knowing your place.  And for Job his place was under God’s wrath and judgment.  And this is the problem that we all face when we trust in the wisdom of man.  We wind up placing ourselves under the Law.  From which there is no escape.  Often, we do forget our place, however.  We forget that there is only one God, and we are not Him. We try to take His place. Mankind, by ourselves, simply does not understand wisdom. But God understands wisdom! He knows where it is! (v. 23) Why shouldn’t He? He sees everything, all of earth, everything under heaven. (v. 24) Job exposes this truth in the last verse of this chapter.  “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding.” (v.28) This concluding verse serves as a capstone to this chapter.  It shows us that true wisdom, Godly wisdom, transcends human knowledge, but this does not mean that it is irrational, it is understandable.  And God alone is its source. And in the wisdom of God, we are made to know Christ as our Savior. The eyes of faith open and we know the truth of God’s love made manifest in Christ crucified for us.