The Wisdom of God

Charlie Boyd - 8/28/2022

Job 28 Audio Sermon Notes (PDF) Ask a Question

SERMON SUMMARY

Understanding and embracing the wisdom of God in all things is the key to your hope and your peace as a follower of Jesus in this broken world.

SCRIPTURE: Job 28

SERMON SCREENSHOTS & KEY POINTS

If you’re facing a hard time that you don’t quite know how to process; if you’re facing a decision that you don’t quite know how to make; if you’re facing a complicated relationship and you don’t quite know how to navigate it; what you need is wisdom. What you need to see is that, in all these things, God is lovingly wise in all his dealings with you and the ones you love. God’s wisdom means that God always chooses the best outcomes and the best means to those outcomes. To understand God’s wisdom, you must first know that God is all-knowing (omniscient). He knows the beginning and the end of all things. He knows everything in between and beyond the end of all things as we know them. He sees and knows all things at once. He never learns or forgets anything. And that means he knows you inside and out (read Ps139:1-6 NLT). For King David, God’s all-knowingness was a comfort and a joy to him. That’s because he also knew God was wise and understanding in all his dealings. (Passages that affirm God’s wisdom—Rom16:27; Job19:4; 12:13; 36:5; Isa40:28; Ps104:24)

Read Job 28:1-28 — Here’s what I want you to see in Job’s speech. Clearly, Job speaks the profound truth here. He affirms that God alone is wise, so Job knows that wisdom and understanding can only be found in God alone. But at the same time, b/c he can’t make sense of all the tragedy God has allowed to come into his life and into the life of his family. He believes he doesn’t deserve all the terrible things that have wrecked his life. So, he questions God’s wisdom. Job affirms God’s wisdom, but at the same time, he questions God’s wisdom. He affirms God’s wisdom but thinks and speaks as if he is wiser than God. This whole book (pretty much) is about Job ranting and raving about how he doesn’t deserve what’s happened to him. In fact, at one point, Job challenges God, “If I could take You to court, I could prove You wrong.” Job affirms God’s wisdom, but because of what he suffers, he questions God’s wisdom.

Would you agree with me that this is our problem as well? I believe that a lot of our prayers are us questioning God’s wisdom—telling him what he really needs to be doing—what he needs to be fixing—as if he needs to be informed. There are an awful lot of Christians who don’t really trust God’s wisdom. What they are really saying is that they know better than God how life ought to go. That’s why you’re so anxious. That’s why you’re so worried. That’s why you’re praying so furiously and frantically. That’s why you’re telling God what to do. You’re not really trusting God’s wisdom. You’re trying to use God to get him to do what you think needs to happen according to your wisdom. (Discussion about John Goldingay’s book, “Walk On,” chp3 entitled “Calamity”—orientation, disorientation, renewed orientation—in conclusion, he writes— “The story of Job suggests that sometimes there may be explanations for calamity that we do not know, but we have to live with God without knowing them.”)

Where does wisdom come from?

You have to accept the fact that God, the Scriptures, and life in this broken world are complex.
You can only find wisdom in God (Job 28:13, 21-24)—in understanding creation, fall, and redemption.
You grow wise by resting in God’s wisdom.

Verse 28 says, “The fear of the Lord is true wisdom and to forsake evil is real understanding.” The “fear of God” is not being scared of God (Ps130:4). The “fear of God” is having a “reverential awe of God and all that he is.” Author and Bible teacher Graeme Goldsworthy said, “The fear of God is a truly reverent awe of the One whose infinite greatness, wisdom, and care reach far beyond anything we can comprehend.” Jim Thompson says, “The wisdom of God is the mortar between the bricks of all the other attributes of God that hold them all together.”

A.W. Tozer writes—“It’s as if God were saying, “What I am is all that need matter to you, for there lie your hope and peace. I will do what I will do, and it will all come to light at last, but how I do it is my secret. Trust Me, and be not afraid.” The testimony of faith is that no matter how things look in this fallen, broken world, all God’s actions and inactions are undertaken in perfect wisdom. What we need most is to be still and rest in the wisdom of God. Tim Keller writes: “You will never be still under suffering for God’s sake until you see God in Jesus Christ being still under suffering for your sake.” On the Cross, Jesus shows us what it means to “be still and know that God is God.” The fear of the Lord, the reverential awe of God, especially as you look at Jesus, will make you truly wise.

*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.

Talk about your own experience of tragedy and loss and how you processed what God didn’t do that you prayed he would do. Spend some time on this.
How is it possible to affirm that God is wiser than you and question his wisdom simultaneously?
Talk about John Goldingay’s framework of how we grow in wisdom as God, in his wisdom, takes us through “orientation, disorientation, and renewed orientation.”
- (Orientation is knowing who God is and how God works in the world; knowing facts and information about God and his plans for the world, your life, and those you love. Disorientation is when what you know about God doesn’t fit with what is happening to you in your everyday experience. Your marriage falls apart. You lose your job. Someone you love suffers and dies. How do those things fit into your previous knowledge of God? Renewed orientation is growing in wisdom. It’s understanding that life in this broken world is more complex than you previously thought. It’s coming to rest because sometimes there may be explanations for calamity that we do not know, but we must live with God without knowing them).
How does the Cross help us to be still and know that God is God?
What was your “biggest takeaway” from the teaching on Job 28?
What might it look like for you to be still and know that God is God in a time of disappointment and loss?