Job 28:6

Men do not find gold in veins like silver. They find it in quite a different way — very often in the form of dust, and sometimes of nuggets. But silver they find in large and rich veins.

"Its stones are the place of sapphires" — precious stones as well as these metals — "and it has dust of gold." … "But where shall wisdom be found?" No, there is no wisdom in all that. There is self in all that. Here is what will make a man rich. Here is what will bring money and perhaps distinction. But where shall wisdom be found?

This might look like an extreme case. But in truth it is the all too common experience of the human race. Men chase an empty show. They are eager for every other object under the sun — yes, deep inside the earth and in the depths of the sea. And they overlook the wisdom that consists in the fear of the Lord and can never be separated from it, and the understanding that turns away from evil.

Job next contrasts the doom of the ungodly rich, as described in the previous chapter, with the true riches, which can never be lost. … The opening part of the chapter describes the toil and care with which men search for the "delved gold," which so often brings but the "strife and curse which fall over it." He then passes on to the true riches — wisdom; where shall it be found?

Men will give their lives for gold. The fertile earth yields food for man's need, but that does not content them. They tear it open and search its depths like a fire burning and destroying. … Man seeks after wealth, gold, jewels and glory, and he is ready to barter his very life and soul for them. … The lesson pictured here is very clear: "If we have food and clothing, with these we will be content." Of course this does not mean that these precious things are sinful in themselves, or that their proper use is unnecessary. But the restless craving for them points to the poor heart of man, seeking what can never satisfy. If only he had used the same earnestness in seeking the true riches, how different the result would be.

They dig down. They divert the underground stream. They cut paths that the strongest beasts and the sharpest-eyed birds have never walked. But in all this searching they never find wisdom. This is the question he raised in verse 12, and he was quite right that no one finds it in these human activities. Men may discover much. Since Job's day they have discovered far more. But wisdom still eludes them. If Job could see man's activities and discoveries in our atomic age, he would say the same, only a hundred times more strongly.

They gain a keen sense of what is worth something — though by no means are they always right. Sometimes the miners in our country have thrown away as rubbish what was just as valuable as all that their mind was set upon. But as a general rule they learn what is valuable.

Men will travel to the ends of the earth for gold — gold refined in the fire and made into beautiful ornaments and the king's crown. But most people treat the true gold, the righteousness of God in Christ, as worthless.