Can the Creation Understand the Creator? Job 27-28

Job 28:7-8 (ESV)

“That path no bird of prey knows,

and the falcon’s eye has not seen it.

The proud beasts have not trodden it;

the lion has not passed over it.

Job has had an enough of his friends in these last chapters. Before his young friend Elihu and God speak, Job goes off on a long dissertation on his view of life.   But the view has a focus. Job is laying the ground work for a very big question he will ask in just a couple of more verses:

Job 28:12 (ESV)

“But where shall wisdom be found?

And where is the place of understanding?

Job has just talked about how man digs in the earth for silver and gold and iron.  He has talked about how man can plow the earth and produce grain for bread.   He is simply stating that what man seems to want he can find.  Yet, where is wisdom? That is his concern.  He has not heard it from his friends.  He does not claim to have it himself.  

In the above verses he turns to a very deep and hidden place under the earth we cannot see.  He knows that there is a place where even the falcon’s sharp eyes can’t see.  He knows there is a place where birds can’t even find food.  Job’s point to his friends and us and to himself is that God is not contained in a box that we can understand Him and all that He has done.  The hidden parts of the earth are not even known to us, how can we know God.  Job is about to write:

Job 28:20-22 (ESV)

“From where, then, does wisdom come?

And where is the place of understanding?

It is hidden from the eyes of all living

and concealed from the birds of the air.

Abaddon and Death say,

‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

Before we can find wisdom we must realize that God is beyond us and the only things we can know about Him and His creation come from HIs grace and mercy to allow us to know.  Those who don’t understand God want to put the God of the universe into a box so they can dissect Him and, with a small human mind, understand Him.  What we know of God is amazing.   He gives us much to know about Him.  But there are some things hidden.  A creature can’t ever fully understand their Creator.  

Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV)

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Proverbs 9:10 (ESV)

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,

and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.