True Values
Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply
Title:
True Values---------------------------------------- Date: 11/26/1999
Keywords:
"jewels" "understanding" "value" "wisdom"
"worth"
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand
strong in the face of sexual temptation.
Passage: Job 28:12-19*
12. "But where can wisdom be found? Where does understanding
dwell?
13. Man does not comprehend its worth; it cannot be found in the
land of the living.
14. The deep says, 'It is not in me'; the sea says, 'It is not with
me.'
15. It cannot be bought with the finest gold, nor can its price be
weighed in silver.
16. It cannot be bought with the gold of Ophir, with precious onyx
or sapphires.
17. Neither gold nor crystal can compare with it, nor can it be had
for jewels of gold.
18. Coral and jasper are not worthy of mention; the price of wisdom
is beyond rubies.
19. The topaz of Cush cannot compare with it; it cannot be bought
with pure gold.
Questions
1. What are the two virtues being sought in this passage?
2. Why is it so difficult to find them?
3. Can you buy them?
4. How then should we look for them?
Practical help
If you are like most people, you place a high value on wisdom and
understanding. Maybe you went to college, graduated, then went back for a higher degree.
Maybe you didn't go to college, but you still recognize the need to use these virtues in
your daily life. And you long for more.
Yet no matter how hard we work to gain wisdom and understanding, they are still elusive.
We can spout off many facts. We know how to do our jobs well. We can recite Bible verses
from memory. But we still trip and fall when it comes to certain areas of temptation that
we just can't seem to master. Pornography is one of those difficult areas, and there are
many others.
Maybe part of the problem is our refusal to depend on God for enlightenment. Job, the
speaker in this passage, had been quite confident and secure in his faith as long as
things were going his way. But then God let him down -- life started to really stink. And,
predictably, Job started to question God's goodness. All the memory verses in the world
couldn't take away the pain. It's only when God proved to Job his mastery over life that
Job humbled himself and worshipped, even in the midst of his calamity. Maybe that's the
answer. If you feel trapped in the web of porn, and helpless to escape, then take a break
from struggling and striving to just worship God.
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*Scriptures are from The Holy Bible: New International Version © Copyright 1973,
1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.