¹“Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place for gold to be refined. ²Iron is taken out of the earth, and copper is smelted from ore. ³Miners put an end to darkness, and search out to the farthest bound the ore in gloom and deep darkness. ⁴They open shafts in a valley away from human habitation; they are forgotten by travelers, they sway suspended, remote from people. ⁵As for the earth, out of it comes bread; but underneath it is turned up as by fire. ⁶Its stones are the place of sapphires, and its dust contains gold.

⁷“That path no bird of prey knows, and the falcon’s eye has not seen it. ⁸The proud wild animals have not trodden it; the lion has not passed over it. ⁹“They put their hand to the flinty rock, and overturn mountains by the roots. ¹⁰They cut out channels in the rocks, and their eyes see every precious thing. ¹¹The sources of the rivers they probe; hidden things they bring to light.

¹²“But where shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? ¹³Mortals do not know the way to it, and it is not found in the land of the living. ¹⁴The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’ and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ ¹⁵It cannot be gotten for gold, and silver cannot be weighed out as its price. ¹⁶It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. ¹⁷Gold and glass cannot equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold. ¹⁸No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal; the price of wisdom is above pearls. ¹⁹The chrysolite of Ethiopia cannot compare with it, nor can it be valued in pure gold.

²⁰“Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding? ²¹It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air. ²²Abaddon and Death say, ‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

²³“God understands the way to it, and he knows its place. ²⁴For he looks to the ends of the earth, and sees everything under the heavens. ²⁵When he gave to the wind its weight, and apportioned out the waters by measure; ²⁶when he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the thunderbolt; ²⁷then he saw it and declared it; he established it, and searched it out. ²⁸And he said to humankind, ‘Truly, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.’

Now the way to wisdom is hard.

Firstly we need to consider the term fear of the LORD. We need to be aware that God is not like us. We cannot understand why we have this trouble at this time… and when we think we do understand, we probably have it wrong. We cannot look into each other’s hearts, and our motivations are at times obscure. (The evil man and the damaged person may be more simple, but that is a consequence of the damage they have done to themselves and others). We are conflicted.

And in our worship of self esteem, we have forgotten that God is not only great, but that he is sovereign, and will not let man tame him. Our models of the world, our ideologies, comfort us by hiding the awesomeness of God. The reaction to the presence of God — from Abraham, throught Moses and the Prophets to Peter and the apostles — is abject terror. We become aware of the standards of God and how much we are fallen from them.

The second hard thing is departing from evil. This world is tainted with evil, and to do good we need to be in the world. We often are not faced with good choices, but a choice between ungood choices. Much of the time, we are trying to find the least bad solution. The saints of God may seem to be able to consistently keep from sin, but they themselves have a deeper understanding of themselves and state that they are indeed sinners.

Wisdom is not something that allows you to be happy or like God. Instead it is around knowing your limitations and avoiding evil.  Habitually. And, as we all know, changing our habits, continually reforming our lives, is never easy.