Job 28:1 - Meaning and Application

Here Job shows two things. First, he shows how far human skill can go in exploring nature and gathering its riches. By careful and clever searching, people can gain much knowledge and wealth. But that does not mean they can understand why some wicked people prosper and why others are punished, or why some good people prosper and others suffer. The caverns of the earth can be found out, but the counsels of heaven cannot.

Second, he shows how much effort worldly people will spend to get riches. He had just said about the wicked man that he piled up silver like dust (Job 27:16). Now he explains where that silver comes from and how it is obtained, to show how little reason proud rich people have to boast. The wealth of this world is hidden in the earth. Silver and gold are taken from there and later refined (Job 28:1). There they lie mixed with dirt and waste, as if they were nothing more than common earth. Much of it will stay buried and unused until the earth and everything in it are burned up.

Iron and brass, which are less costly but more useful, are also taken from the earth (Job 28:2). In fact, bread itself, meaning grain for food, comes from the earth too (Job 28:5). So from the earth we get both our food and our fuel. Precious stones and gold dust are there as well (Job 28:6). God has placed these things out of our sight to teach us not to set our eyes on them (Proverbs 23:5). He has placed them under our feet to teach us not to cling to them in our hearts, but to treat them with holy disregard. The earth is full of God’s riches (Psalm 104:24). That shows how great God is, since the earth belongs to him and everything in it (Psalm 24:1). It also reminds us that heaven must be far richer still, since it is the city of the great King.

Yet the wealth hidden in the earth is not easy to get. It is hard to find, for there is only here and there a vein of silver. Precious stones, though bright in themselves, are buried in darkness and so are called stones of darkness and the shadow of death. Men may search a long time before they discover them. Even after they are found, they are hard to bring out. People must use their skill to invent ways of getting this hidden treasure into their hands. They must set lamps to the darkness, and if one plan fails, they must try another until they have searched out every possible way (Job 28:3).

They must fight against underground waters (Job 28:4, Job 28:10, Job 28:11) and force their way through rocks that are like the roots of the mountains (Job 28:9). God has made gold, silver, and precious stones hard to get for two reasons. One is to stir up human industry. If valuable things were too easy to obtain, people would never learn to work hard. The other is to restrain pride and luxury. What people need for life is found with a little labor from the surface of the earth. What they want for show and ornament must be dug out with much more effort from deep inside it. Food is cheap, but looking fine is costly.

Even though these treasures are hard to obtain, people still want them. Anyone who loves silver is never satisfied with silver, and still wants more. The text shows the many inventions people use to get wealth. They search out every possible means (Job 28:3). They have tools and devices to dry up waters and carry them away when floods break into the mines (Job 28:4). They use pumps, pipes, and channels to clear their way. Once obstacles are removed, they travel paths no bird knows, paths not seen by the vulture’s sharp eye and not walked by the lion’s cubs, which roam everywhere in the wilderness (Job 28:7, Job 28:8).

People also spend great labor and large sums of money to get this wealth. They cut through rocks and dig under mountains (Job 28:10). They take great risks too. Miners hold their lives in their hands, because they must keep back the floods (Job 28:11) and are always in danger of suffocation, collapse, or being buried alive. In this way, foolish man adds to his own burden. He is already condemned to eat bread by the sweat of his face, but he still adds the danger of mining gold and silver, even though the more he gets, the less valuable it becomes. In Solomon’s time, silver was as common as stones.

What keeps men going through all this labor and danger? Their eye sees every precious thing (Job 28:10). They keep gold and silver in view, and they imagine them shining before them. The hope of getting them makes them ignore the hardship. At last they bring what was hidden into the light (Job 28:11). What lay underground is brought to the surface, and the metal hidden in the ore is refined from its waste and brought out pure from the furnace. Then they think their trouble was worth it.

So let the miner shame the lazy person who is lazy in religion. Let us consider their ways and become wise. Their courage, diligence, and steady effort in seeking perishable wealth should put us to shame if we are careless and faint-hearted in seeking true riches.

How much better it is to gain wisdom than gold. It is far easier and far safer too. Yet people search hard for gold and often neglect grace, God’s favor and help. Will the hope of finding precious things from the earth, as people call them, though they are really small and passing away, drive people to work so hard, and should not the sure hope of truly precious things in heaven move us even more?