Job 28:13

"He dams up the streams so that they do not trickle, and the thing that is hidden he brings out to light. But where shall wisdom be found?" No, there is no wisdom in all that. There is self in all that. There is what will make a man rich; there is what will bring money and perhaps distinction; but where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding?

Man, frail and mortal, does not know the price and does not have it to pay, for wisdom is not found in the land of the living. If it were within reach, then someone would be able to reach it; some rich man would have the price to pay for it. But it is beyond man: "it is high; I cannot attain it." Down in the bottomless depths — "the waters under the earth" — the call for wisdom goes out, and the answer comes back, "It is not in me." The wide sea, for all its vast expanse, does not hold this priceless treasure. Nature, by itself, cannot give even a simple clue to this heavenly, this wonderful good.

Where all is morally wrong and departed from God, there can be no right path. Adam did not need a path. He had only to stay where he was. When we have gone wrong, and are driven out by God, and so need a path, none can be found. There is none... Destruction and death say we have heard the fame of it with our ears. So they have. They tell us how empty this whole scene is, and above all how empty man is at the head of it, which is the most painful point of all. But it is only negative. This is an immense truth, that there is no way for living man fallen from God.

Does it not seem like a hopeless case for any poor ignorant mortal to search for this wondrous pathway? No, blessed be God, it is by no means a hopeless case, for "He understands the way to it, and He knows its place."

True wisdom and true understanding not found in the earth at all! It comes down from heaven. It is found only in Christ, and Christ had not yet come. This came out even more clearly in Christ's rejection and death... There was a report of that One who is Himself wisdom, and who is the Giver of wisdom to the meek. It was by death that it came to us, but they did not know it.

Yes, God knew the wisdom that was needed. When that "hidden wisdom" came out in Christ, and the world crucified the Lord of glory, then death and destruction heard its fame! It was at that wonderful Cross that God brought His attributes and His nature into harmony, so that sinful man could be blessed.

"And He said to man, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding." ... So until God has His rightful place in a man's mind and heart, he cannot see anything wisely. His thoughts are out of centre. His beginning is all wrong.