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Job 28:1
1 Surely [yesh] there is a vein [mowtsa'] for the silver [keceph],
and a place [maqowm] for gold [zahab] where they fine [zaqaq] it. KJV-Interlinear
1 'Surely there is a mine for
silver, And a place where they refine gold.
NASB
Throughout ones life, a person searches for value and
meaning and purpose. Man will go to
great lengths to search out the hidden secrets of the earth around him. Man will go to great lengths to innovate, to
design, to invent, to manufacture, to build a world of value around
himself.
People will work long and hard hours. People will dedicate their entire lives
pursuing goals they extract from out of this world. And of course there are those who work all of
their lives trying to get out of work, and still expecting everything that
everyone else has.
Look to Adam as an example. God created an entire
garden, in which there was everything given and nothing expected in
return. Yet Adam through his desire for
Eve, and Eve through her indifference toward doctrine, were both fooled into
losing everything thay had.
Man continues to pursue the things of this world, the elusive
fountain of youth, the elusive tree of knowledge, the elusive search for
happiness, meaning, purpose, wealth, fulfillment and so forth.
And so Job will now explain how man, even back in his
early days of history, will go to great efforts to dig in the ground, search
the land all over, bleed and sweat, steal and even die in pursuit of worldly wealth.
There is gold in the ground. There's silver in them thar' hills. But the gold and the silver though sometimes
obvious, is mostly hidden in the ground and has to be found, dug for, and even
when found is mixed up with dirt and dross and has to be refined before a pure
form is possessed.
And even then, nuggets and chunks, though they might
be pretty, aren't enough. Man hammers
out jewelry and other objects in order to enhance its value.
And then again, mans goes to great lengths to create
combinations of gold and silver objects in order to create even more value.
But one nugget is never enough. Man has to gather mountains of silver, as the
dust, as Job said earlier, and vaults of gold, in order to satisfy his desires
for wealth, security, and happiness. But
it still, is never enough.
With great care and pain, men search out the caverns
of the earth in order to discover its riches.
Riches that are temporary, riches that are totally lost when one dies,
and riches that will dissolve into nothing when God destroys this universe. They have done this since day one in human
history following Adam's fall.
But when it comes to things of true value, such as the
wisdom of God, something which comes from God as a gift, requiring no work
whatsoever, only a positive attitude toward its learning, then man looks the
other way, preferring the sweat or indifference, rather than the gift.
Now is the time to post a prayer.
End Of Lesson
Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.
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