True Riches

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   Back in 2019, not long after being called to be the pastor at Canyon Bible Fellowship, I received orders to deploy to Qatar with a battalion from the Oregon Army National Guard. In addition to taking me away from our church, this deployment meant that my wife, Karen, and I would be spending our tenth anniversary apart from one another. When I arrived in country, the chaplain I would be replacing took me on a tour of the markets in the capital city of Doha. One place we visited was the Gold Souk*, where I saw more jewelry for sale than anywhere I'd ever been. If there was a place to use the term "embarrassment of riches," it would have been there.

   In Job 28, Job describes how even in his day men would dig vast shafts into the ground searching for all kinds of treasure: gold, silver, iron, copper, and precious stones. Man goes to great lengths to find all the things that he believes will make him rich. Yet in Job 28:12-13, he asks, "But where can wisdom be found? And were is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living." Nowhere that man can go by his own efforts will he find wisdom.

   Job 28:23, 28 says, "God understands its way, and He knows its place. [...] And to man He says, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.'" True wisdom is not found in books or bank accounts. We cannot acquire wisdom by getting more information or items. True wisdom is found in a holy fear of the Lord, in understanding His ways. Christ came to remove the barrier to our true knowledge of God. The Son paid the price so that we might come to the Father in humble repentance, seeing our relationship restored. The Spirit works in us, granting us knowledge of the truth, so that we might learn to fear God more.

   All the gold in all the souks in all the world can never purchase the thing that is most valuable, a wise heart that has learned to fear the Lord. Many a rich man is spiritually impoverished, and many a poor man is spiritually wealthy. Regardless of how the world assesses our net worth, let us be known most for being wise people who have learned to fear the Lord.

*Souk is simply the Arabic word for market.