The Purpose of Man

Job 28:28 ESV

28 And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,     and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Ever since the fall of man into sin, it has ever been humanity’s obsession to figure out two things: 1. What is the purpose of our existence, and 2. How shall we live in this world.

Now, when we open the Bible to its first couple of chapters, we see that man understood both of these issues very well. The first couple created, Adam and Eve, both knew well that their purpose was to worship their Creator. And they knew that in order to do that, they needed to revere their Creator by recognizing Who He is, and who they are, and then obeying the commands that He had given to them.

We then read of those commands: God commanded the couple to be fruitful and to multiply, to have dominion over every living thing, to eat of the trees in the garden, all positive commands to do something, and lastly, God gave the couple a negative command, a command to not do something when He told them to not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

So, the purpose; worship God; and the way to worship Him is to revere Him as God and to obey Him by being fruitful and multiplying, by partaking in what God had provided them with, and by not eating of the forbidden tree.

And though Adam and Eve did not revere God by obeying His command to not eat of the forbidden tree, they certainly understood what their purpose in life was and how they ought to live in this world.

But ever since the fall into sin, man has ever been radically fallen. Fallen to such an extent that though he knows that he lives for an eternal purpose that involves worshipping the God of heaven and earth, he is so naturally opposed to worshipping God that he seeks for something else, anything else to serve as his purpose for existing. And he additionally looks for an alternative way to live than that way which God prescribes.

Such is the natural depravity of the human race that though we all naturally know that the worship of the God of heaven and earth is the reason why we exist, and though we know that there is no other legitimate reason to exist, we naturally seek after counterfeits.

And the thing about it is that we know that these are counterfeits, yet we try to make the counterfeit legitimate.

But the thing about is that a counterfeit can never be anything but a counterfeit.

I could try to produce counterfeit money, for example. It may be that my counterfeit money making skills leave a lot to be desired at first; those bills that I first make may look like I pulled them from the monopoly game box at home. But I may become more advanced as time goes on, so advanced that my counterfeit bills look the exact same as legitimate bills.

But just because it looks legitimate, is it actually legitimate? No, it’s still counterfeit, fake money, it just looks real. But even though it looks real, it’s still worth nothing.

And so it is for those who seek to make their existence about anything other than truly worshipping their Creator. It may for a time seem good, but in the end, it’s counterfeit and will prove to be worthless.

As we look to our reading for this afternoon, we are reminded of the purpose of our existence and the way in which we should live in this world and how all of man naturally knows this because God makes it plain to all.

We read first of man’s purpose, his reason for existing in the world in the first part of our reading, where we see Job saying:

Job 28:28a

28a And he said to man, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,

I’m sure that we are all aware of Job and the great struggle that he had gone through. He had essentially lost everything except his life and struggled a great deal, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically in the process.

In this portion of the book of Job, we near the end of the lengthy account which reads of the “friends” of Job turning on him in his time of greatest need. And at hearing the accusations and demeaning remarks of these who claimed to come to comfort him, he asks the question: “What is wisdom?”

Wisdom can be defined as the: “ability to judge correctly and to follow the best course of action, based on knowledge and understanding.”

But Job defines it best and most profound as “the fear of the Lord.”

Now, everyone has a certain “fear of the Lord”, but there is a healthy fear of God and an unhealthy fear of God. Those who practice this unhealthy fear of God include those who are not believers and who thus do not love God or fear Him as they ought as they have hard thoughts of Him.

They reckon that is there is a God, yet they are convinced that He is not to be loved or served with affection but instead should be dreaded. They may be convinced that there is a cosmic Ruler, but they face that realization not with reverence and love, but with hatred and disdain.

But there is also a filial fear of God, a fear which is similar to the fear which a child has for his or her father. You see, a child recognizes his or her father as, well, their father. They respect their father, they revere their father, but most of all, they do this, because they love their father. That is the healthy, revering fear that serves one’s purpose in this world.

For those who have been saved by the grace of God, for those whom He has made believers, this is the kind of fear of God that they possess. It is a fear that is not natural to anyone. The natural fear that everyone is born with is the fear that hates and disdains the fact that God exists. But the fear of God which reveres God, which respects God, which loves God, that fear is from above, that fear is graciously given to believers by God Himself.

And Job also says, at the end of this verse:

Job 28:28b ESV

28b and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Understanding is essentially the same as wisdom. Remember, we said that wisdom is: “ability to judge correctly and to follow the best course of action, based on knowledge and understanding.” It’s knowing what to do based on our understanding of God and our relation to Him and then following through on what we know to do.

If we fear God, if we love God, if we truly seek to worship God, we know what He commands us to do and what He commands us not to do, and because we love Him, we act accordingly.

And what God always commands us to not do is what He commanded Adam and Eve to not do, and that is to commit evil. For this reason, Job tells us that God tells all men to turn away from evil. To forbear from doing what He tells us not to do.

But as I said, the only ones who take that command seriously are those who have received the filial fear of God from above.

Friends, I urge you to fear the Lord.