28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
Job was, according to God’s testimony, “one that feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1, 8; 2:3). However, Satan challenged the genuineness of Job’s fear of God, saying, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” Satan was suggesting that the reason for Job’s fear of God was the divine protection and blessings he enjoyed; but if God would remove His protection, Job would deny God. Similarly, Job’s friends also accused him of not having the fear of God. One of them said to Job, “Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God” (Job 15:4). But the truth of the matter was Job feared God and hated evil, and his accusers did not! Therefore he, not they, had wisdom and understanding.
According to the verse for today, Job held firm in his conviction that the essence of God’s message to man is that the fear of the LORD secures wisdom and holiness for oneself. One’s wisdom and holiness are not based on one’s cleverness or power of reasoning. In fact, Scripture warns us, “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” (Proverbs 3:7). This is a strong prohibition against intellectual pride which promotes self-sufficiency, self-conceit and self-reliance. To be self-contented with one’s own wisdom will cause a person to forsake and forget the LORD, who is the source of true wisdom. To trust in oneself and one’s own wisdom is a terrible folly. God denounces this attitude in Isaiah 5:21, saying, “Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!” Proverbs 26:12 also vehemently condemns self-conceit: “Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? there is more hope of a fool than of him.” Likewise, Proverbs 28:26 cautions: “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool”. No man is wise enough to conduct all the affairs of his life by his own knowledge and discretion.
Far from being confident about our own thoughts and ideas, we must examine their genuineness, motive, accuracy, etc. We must not accept them without first evaluating them under the light of God’s perfect wisdom as revealed in His Word. We must always be predisposed to referring all our thoughts to God first. We must fear the LORD as such fear is the best corrective to our own wisdom, which engenders arrogance, presumptuousness of mind, self-deception and proneness to sin. The wisdom coming from the fear of the LORD always teaches us to resist sin.