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Job 28:1-3 [Job:] “There is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined.  Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore.  Man puts an end to the darkness; he searches the farthest recesses for ore in the blackest darkness.”

As I read through this chapter today (my 18th time since I began using the M’Cheyne Bible Reading program), I was filled with awe again at the amazing wonder and sovereign grace and wisdom of our God!  Today’s verses, written in the ‘Iron Age’ (or perhaps even a bit earlier), challenge much of what our current culture would have us believe about both the past and the future.  Our good and powerful God reveals to us, through Job, a worldview that is much more encouraging and optimistic than the one that drives current media reporting.

Our Sovereign Creator has been very careful and deliberate in two ways: Firstly, he has ‘hidden’ in the depths of the planet he has designed and established for the benefit of mankind wonderful and varied mineral resources that are of great benefit for the sustaining of satisfying life on earth in general; and secondly, our Creator, who has made us in his own ‘creative’ likeness and image, has built into us the ability to mine and develop these mineral resources for the common good.

The thing that I find most encouraging about Job chapter 28 is that it shows me that God loves me and cares about my needs, and, because he is in control of all he has made, I can trust him, who is the Lord of history, to have ‘hidden’ the right quantity of of all the necessary resources in the Earth to last us until Jesus comes back to wind up history as we know it, and to bring in the new heaven and the new earth which will last for all eternity!

So I don’t have to be frightened by all the scare-mongering the media find so convenient from their money-making perspective, but rather, as I see the sins of greed and selfishness infecting mankind, I am encouraged to pray more earnestly, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

If, perchance  (and a very slim one at that) there may be thousands more years before Jesus Returns, I can also safely assume that the ‘Hider of (mineral) Resources’ and the ‘Giver of Creative Skills’ has all this under control for whatever time we might have left.  In the meantime – who knows, there may be another source of energy we have yet to discover or ‘invent’!  Thankfully, Job presents me with a worldview that enables me to process the current situation without fear or anxiety.  Thanks for reminding me, Job, that my loving God has everything in hand – and you were able to take hold of, and find rest in, this eternal truth so long ago.
– Bruce Christian