I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Job 22-28.

    Job’s friends continue to argue with him and accuse him of some terrible sin while Job maintains his innocence. Then Job speaks of wisdom. For all of mankind’s ability to do more than animals he is no more able to find wisdom on his own than those animals. We can dig into the earth for copper, iron, gold, and precious gems. We can smelt the ores of those metals in fire to purify them. We can build great works to obtain resources. We can examine the earth and determine where to dig to find the minerals which we desire. But we cannot find wisdom without turning to God. Understanding and wisdom come only from God. True wisdom is fear of the Lord and avoiding evil demonstrates understanding.

    All of this reminds me of my throw away line to my friends who are non-believers. I often tell them, “Stay out of trouble.” To which they often reply, “That’s no fun.” I answer that with, “If you don’t get caught, you are not in trouble.” The conversation usually ends there, but sometimes they will take it further by saying that sometimes it is fun to get caught. Which brings the next statement, “If you like the consequences, you weren’t really caught.” Left unsaid is the important corollary, if you don’t like the consequences, you were caught, even if no one else knows. On those occasions where I discuss this philosophy further, I mention to people that, as far as I am concerned if someone gets hurt, you got caught. The point of this whole discussion here is that when I was younger I realized that I strove to choose my actions to be calculated to stay out of trouble. As I got older, and I believe wiser, I realized that there were times where I did not get caught by others, but I did not like what happened and that felt as bad as getting caught by others. Which as God moved in my spirit led me to the realization that my sins led me to consequences I did not like. God does not tell us not to sin for arbitrary reasons. He tells us not to sin because He knows we will not like the consequences.