Review of: Where is Wisdom?

When I first saw ‘Where is Wisdom?: A Treasure Hunt Through God’s Wonderous World, Inspired by Job 28′ by Scott James pop up in a list of books to review from LifeWay, I was intrigued. A children’s book based off of Job? Job isn’t necessary the first story I think of when hunting for a Bible story. Furthermore, Job is filled with beautiful imagery. However, it’s been one too many times where I’ve seen the book of Job quoted, and then when I look up the scripture it’s a quote from one of Job’s foolish friends. Needless to say, when I first saw this book, I was skeptical. And after reading it, to be honest, I’m torn. I really can’t decide how I feel about it. So since I recieved this book in return for my honest review I’ll tell you what I liked, what I didn’t like, and then I’ll let you decide what you think.

What I Liked

First off, I love the illustrations. They really are just gorgeous! I also like the overall message that this book is trying to convey. All wisdom comes from God. We can search all over the World, but only God has true wisdom. It also draws our focus to the cross, and that we find wisdom in the death and resurrection of Christ.

What I Struggled With

So though I do think the message of this book holds a lot of truth, I feel like the scripture represented is a bit taken out of context. The book of Job is a theology of suffering. It shows a righteous man that has gone through the worst imaginable catastrophe (she why I questioned it being a children’s book?). In this story, his friends challenge him, convinced that he has sinned. Convinced that Job must have done something to bring this on himself. Job holdsfast that he is indeed righteous. He has done nothing to deserve this. In the end God comes through and rebukes Job’s friends for assuming they know God. But he also rebukes Job for insisting on his own righteousness. In the end Job repents! And then God restores Job’s life. In reading this story, we often forget that God also rebuked Job. Because in the end God is God and we are not. He has his reasons for what he does, and noone is righteous compared to him.

“Where Is Wisdom?” doesn’t necessarily sway from this theme. The theme of this verse is that God is God, we are not, and all wisdom is found in him. This is also a theme in many parts of Proverbs. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”(Proverbs 9:10, also Psalm 111:10). However, I struggle whether we should take this scripture out of context to make a point. I’m really quite a big fan of leaving a scripture in an original text and learning the history around it, and then providing application. Especially when this theme is also found in other places in scripture that could have served this book as well.

Should You Buy This Book?

Again, I’m going to leave this up to you. I think this book has a lot of great points. It does bring out a great theme that wisdom can only be found in God, and we have access to wisdom through Christ. My only question is if it’s ok to pull this scripture out of the story of Job and use as a stand alone. I don’t know. I can’t decide. If you read this book, let me know what you think.

Have you read this book? What are your thoughts?