“God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.
Job has just searched mine shafts and sea depths, and every place gives the same answer: wisdom is not here. Verse 23 is the turn: the search moves from creation to the Creator, from where man can go to what God alone knows.
Where the search breaks down
One writer sums up why every search for wisdom comes up empty.
Samuel RidoutWhile man is told to seek, this wisdom is not found in nature, nor by human effort. The question is asked: Where is wisdom found? Where does understanding live? Man, frail mortal, does not know it and cannot pay its price, for it is not found in the land of the living. If it were within reach, then some would be able to attain it; some rich man would have the price to pay for it. But it is beyond man. In the bottomless deep, the call for wisdom wakes only one reply: "It is not in me." The wide sea, for all its size, does not hold this priceless treasure. Nature, in itself, is powerless to give even a simple clue to this heavenly, this wonderful good.
The moment before the answer
Read the preceding verses as a personal question and you feel the weight of this one. One writer puts himself in the place of the seeker:
C. H. MackintoshIf wisdom cannot be bought with gold or precious stones — if the wealth of the universe cannot equal it, and no cleverness of man can discover it — then where am I to turn? where shall I find it?
Nothing outside His sight
The verse says God knows both the "way" and the "place" of wisdom. One writer sets that knowledge beside the whole universe God governs.
If destruction and death can only say that they have heard its report, God understands its way and He knows its place. The universe in no degree distracts Him: He looks to the ends of the earth, He sees not only in but under the whole heaven. Nothing is too delicate or too vast for His knowledge and His rule. He gives the winds their weight and measures out the waters. He controls the rain and the lightning. Yet He also laid down the foundation of all righteousness, and this for man on earth to hear. It is to give God His rights.
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From Creator to Revealer
One writer follows the search from creation to its Author, and from the Author to a Person.
Samuel RidoutWe turn now from nature to its Author, from creation to God. He knows the way, and He alone can reveal it to man. And it is not merely God as Creator, but as Revealer in the person of His Son — "I am the way, and the truth, and the life." … He has seen wisdom; no, He is that Wisdom.
Another writer reads the answer of verse 23 as reaching past creation into salvation itself.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinYes, in all His creation He knows the way. Much more so in redemption: He is, in the person of His blessed Son, the way to Himself, and in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
Where wisdom begins
One writer turns to the person who leaves God out.
W. W. FeredayUntil God gets His rightful place in a man's mind and heart, he is incapable of viewing anything wisely. His thoughts are out of centre. His beginning is all wrong.
The practical edge
One writer names the secret of wisdom, and what works against it.
C. H. MackintoshHere, then, is the divine secret of wisdom: "the fear of the Lord." This sets the conscience directly in the presence of God, which is its only true place. Satan's aim is to keep the conscience out of this place. He works to bring it under the power and authority of man … He pushes something in between the conscience and the authority of Christ the Lord. It does not matter what it is. It may be a creed or a confession containing a quantity of truth — it may be the opinion of a man or a set of men — the judgment of some favourite teacher — anything, in short, that comes in and takes over, in the heart, the place that belongs to God's Word alone.
Summary
- Searched — Man digs and prices the whole earth. Nature cannot give even a simple clue to wisdom.
- Beyond reach — If wisdom could be bought, some rich man would already own it. It lies outside human effort.
- Known — God understands its way and knows its place. The universe never distracts Him, and nothing is too delicate or too vast for His rule.
- Revealed — He alone can give it. He does so not only as Creator but as Revealer in His Son, who holds all the treasures of wisdom.
- Feared — Wisdom starts when God has His rightful place. The conscience then stands before Him, ruled by His Word and nothing else.