Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: Job 28-30
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 61
Key Verse
Job 29:15 — “I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.”
Devotional Thought
Job has lost everything — his oxen and donkeys to the Sabeans, his sheep to fire from heaven, his camels to the Chaldeans, and his ten children to a collapsing house in a single day. His body is covered in boils. His wife tells him to curse God and die. His three friends sit with him for seven days in silence, and then spend chapters insisting his suffering must be punishment for hidden sin. In chapter 28, Job pauses his complaint and asks a question that has haunted humanity since Eden: where shall wisdom be found? He surveys the miners of his day, men who dig shafts into the earth, who overturn mountains by the roots, who cut rivers through rock and bring hidden treasures to light. They can find silver and gold and sapphires in the deep, but wisdom is not in the land of the living. The depths say it is not in me; the sea says it is not with me. It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir, nor valued with the topaz of Ethiopia. Only God knows the way to it, for He weighed the winds and measured the waters when He made the world. And then Job gives the answer: the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
Then Job turns to memory. In chapter 29 he recalls the days when God’s candle shined upon his head, when he sat in the city gate and young men hid themselves and princes laid their hands on their mouths. He was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame, a father to the poor, one who broke the jaws of the wicked and plucked the spoil from his teeth. He expected to die in his nest, his root spread out by the waters. But chapter 30 is the bitter reversal. Now those younger than he mock him, men whose fathers he would not have set with the dogs of his flock. They spit in his face. He cries to God and hears nothing. His harp is turned to mourning, and his organ into the voice of them that weep.
We know what Job does not yet know — that God will answer him out of the whirlwind, and that his Redeemer lives. But we also know what Job cannot see from the ash heap: that wisdom was never a formula for avoiding pain. It is a Person. The fear of the Lord is not a technique for keeping the mine shafts from collapsing; it is trust in the God who knows where wisdom dwells, even when we cannot find it. On this late May morning, with the garden greening and the days lengthening, we may be in Job 29 or Job 30. Either way, the rock is higher than we are, and the covert of His wings is open still.
Reflection
- When your prosperity has been stripped away and your counselors have failed you, are you still willing to say with Job, “He knoweth the place thereof” — trusting God’s wisdom even when you cannot trace His hand?
- Job feared God and departed from evil, yet he suffered greatly. What does that teach us about the difference between wisdom and earthly reward?
Prayer
Lord, You are the God who seeth under the whole heaven, who weigheth the waters by measure and made a decree for the rain. We confess that we have often sought wisdom where it cannot be found — in our own understanding, in the counsel of friends, in the security of our possessions. Teach us that the fear of the LORD is wisdom, and that departing from evil is understanding. When our hearts are overwhelmed, lead us to the rock that is higher than we are. Be our shelter and strong tower. Prepare mercy and truth to preserve us, and let our harps, even in mourning, sing praise unto Thy name. Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 61:1 — “Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.”