Science is a wonderful, fruitful profession, in its place. By it, men may discover a wealth of knowledge about the world in which we live. By exploring the depths of the riches of his surroundings, man has not only come to understand the ways of nature, but he may also use such understanding to improve his standard of living. Nevertheless, will such knowledge about his world help him to understand why some of the wicked prosper, while others are punished? Will the understanding he has acquired about his world, his physical surroundings, help him to understand why some of the righteous become wealthy, while other righteous folks do not and are forced to live out a meager living? In other words, is science able to discover the ways of God, just as it is able to explore and be enriched through its studies of the earth and its biology? Can the studies of science show us why it isn’t certain that “…the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill…” (cp. Ecclesiastes 9:11)? The hand of God, the gifts of God cannot be searched out and found through human skill.
Indeed, there is a place for gold and silver. They can be found no matter how distant the site or how deep in the earth they lay hidden. Man is able to locate and mine precious metals and refine them, as well as any other mineral for his use (Job 28:1).
For example, he is able to mine iron ore, and, through the process of heat, he is able to remove copper from the stone in which it is found (Job 28:2). He takes the light of day into places that knew only darkness, and there he searches for the precious things he desires or those things which have become necessary for life in his environment (Job 28:3). Often men’s labors take them far from where they live, indeed, far from the fertile fields from which they derive their living, and they go into places deep inside the earth, sometimes being suspended with ropes, swaying to and fro, all in an effort to discover and mine what men consider precious (Job 28:4-6)
Their journey takes them in a path unknown to the eagle and the vulture, who move in the thermal updrafts of the wind over the mountains and hills (Job 28:7). In fact, men journey into the most dangerous places to obtain what they desire, places unknown to the fierce and fearless lion (Job 28:8). No barrier is too great to overcome. Man breaks through the hardest of rocks, into the very foundations of mountains, rechanneling rivers away from his labor and bringing water to him to aid in fulfilling his precious goal. Nothing seems too difficult for him in his effort to obtain all he desires (Job 28:9-11).
Nevertheless, where will he find out wisdom, and where is the place of understanding? No precious metal or precious stone is too far, too well hidden or too difficult to obtain, but where is the place of understanding? Where can a man find wisdom? How can it be obtained? The wit/science of man has suddenly come up impotent, when it comes to the ways and the gifts of God!
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