Moses’ farewell speech is a whole book, a book that is thirty-four chapters long. It is one of the most oft-quoted books in the Bible: 83 times in the New Testament. Only 6 New Testament books do not allude to it directly. Why is this? What makes this book so great?
We need to consider Deuteronomy in its historical and biblical context. It is the last book in the Pentateuch, the collective name for the first five books in the bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Tradition has attributed all five books’ authorship to Moses but modern scholarly work has called this into question. However the greatest Old Testament scholar who ever lived, Jesus Christ, attributed them to Moses so I’m going with Him. Together the five books cover thousands of years of human history and God’s works and interactions with people in that history, all the way from the beginning of creation to the beginning of sin and evil to the beginning of God’s redemptive plan to restore and renew mankind and bring it back to Himself.
GENESIS is not a horrible rock band with Phil Collins but the first book of the Bible named for its first word “in the beginning.” In it we are told that God created the universe and everything in it and He made it good (ch. 1 and 2). He made mankind different from the rest of creation, “in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). Instead of staying servant to God, man reached for independence apart from God by rebelling against His word, bringing evil and sin into the world. As a good, loving, just, holy God God can no longer live among mankind and He casts them out of the garden He had lovingly made for them. But even in His punishment God makes a promise (3:15) to destroy this problem of evil and sin.
So time moves on and the earth fills up with people and consequently fills up with evil; we get an extreme example of one way God could fix the sin problem (see Noah, ch. 6-10). The narrative of Genesis takes leaps and bounds through many generations and peoples and cultures to finally settle and focus on one family, the family through which Jesus Christ, the answer to the sin problem promised in Genesis 3:15, would come.
That family begins in an evil country in an evil city with an evil guy named Abram who probably worshipped the moon or other crazy things as a part of the culture of the Chaldeans. One day, thousands of years ago, in order that His promise thousands of years before might come true thousands of years later, God calls this man Abram out of his life of idolatry and sin and out of his home and country, saying:
“Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” (Gen. 12:1-2)
The whole Bible is about God’s redemptive plans to reconcile the world to Himself, and here in the book of beginnings we get the master plan: out of the evil people of the world God will take one and make him righteous and make him a father to many children (which is particularly hilarious in Abram’s old age), thus carving out a people for Himself that will not sin and will not rebel against Him.
But this is not the end – God’s plan is not just to save a certain people, a “chosen people”, no, ultimately the nation of Israel, the people descended from Abram and (more specifically) his grandson Jacob, was chosen to bring God Himself into the world through Jesus Christ so that all nations will be blessed. For that is how horrible our sin problem is, it requires God to lower Himself to our level where He was hated, tempted, and eventually murdered.
God’s plans for salvation begin right in Genesis, right from the beginning, and the Pentateuch focuses on the origin of the nation of Israel and its (long) journey to a land promised to them by God.
Genesis ends with Israel growing but not where God wants it – they are growing in the land of the Egyptians, a powerful and influential culture who could very easily turn all th Israelites to worship their many false gods. God wants to give Israel its own land where they can be a light to the nations of the one true God.
EXODUS continues the narrative of God’s people as the Egyptian opinion of its Hebrew neighbors turns from good to bad. They enslave Israel and force them to do manual labor for fear that Israel might turn against them (Ex. 1:8-10). They are enslaved for centuries and God’s promise seems lost and His power seems weak and laughable to the nations. This is when God lifts up a man named Moses to lead His people out Egypt in spectacular ways that will be talked about forever. In fact people still talk about those events to this day, even if they don’t believe it.
After God leads His people out of Egypt He wants to lead them to the land He has for them but Israel’s stubbornness and sinfulness is quickly revealed. They continually complain and gripe about the wilderness and being led out of Egypt (e.g., Ex. 16:2-3). As a result God leads them in circles in the wilderness for forty years to test them and make sure they will stay faithful to him.
Leviticus and Numbers pick up the narrative of the time in the wilderness. They are also Law books, which is the other important thing to happen before Israel enters the Promised Land.
God gives the Law to Moses for many reasons, the first one being to point out sin. In the New Testament in his letter to the Romans the apostle Paul talks about the Law and its purpose:
Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by work of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. (Rom. 3:19-20)
And:
Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. (Rom. 7:7)
Basically the law is given so that we can see our sin and evil – if there is no standard of right and wrong then people could do whatever they feel like and claim that it is “right” in their eyes. This inevitably leads to chaos and anarchy (see the book of Judges). This why the law is good, but it is bad in that it cannot stop people from doing wrong. It can only tell them they are doing wrong. As Paul says:
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Rom. 7:12)
The Law given to Moses was also given for Israel’s protection (there are many practical laws like ‘wash your hands before you eat’ which we now do naturally because we know what germs are) and to set God’s people apart from the rest of the world (this is why many laws seem obscure and not morally wrong). God wanted something to be different about Israel.
LEVITICUS is largely a Law book, a book recording the laws and commandments of God. Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy also have their fair share of laws and commandments.
NUMBERS is a Law book, but also a narrative of the time in the wilderness, and a collection of records of the number of people in Israel during its time in the wilderness.
This is where Deuteronomy sticks out and why it is loved. Many of the commandments in Deuteronomy are not mere “Don’t do this…” statements, they get to the central issue, the human heart, which is what God cares about.
For forty years God kept His people and Moses from entering the Promised Land and at the beginning of Deuteronomy those forty years are up. Moses is close to death. He meditates on all that God has done for him and his people (ch. 1-3) and what the Law means (ch. 5-11) with a few more laws (ch. 12-26). It ends with a song of praise by Moses and his death.
G. Ernest Wright says that Deuteronomy asks a lot of questions (taken from the Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary):
“What is the meaning of God’s great acts in saving and preserving a chosen people who so manifestly do not deserve or merit his gracious consideration?”
“What is the meaning of the covenant and the revelation of God’s will within it?”
“What are the peculiar temptations of the nation in its land, and wherein lies its true security that its days may be prolonged upon the good earth which God has given it?”
If we were to read the Pentateuch and skip the rest of the Old Testament we might be rather optimistic about mankind’s ability to succeed in its requirements lined out in Deuteronomy. If one wanted a testimony of God’s worth and power the first five books alone have enough to leave awe and fear in a person. Deuteronomy is a book about a beginning and a great opportunity for mankind to pursue God and not give into sin. If so, everything will go right for His people.
You don’t have to read much further in your Bible to get severely depressed. Israel does get its land but it begins to screw things up right away, intermarrying with the people of the land and turning to their gods and idols. The book of Judges is a frustrating cycle of God’s people turning from God, then getting into trouble and needing help, then turning away from Him again. The rest of the Old Testament has similar depressing events.
What does this mean? Did God just not choose the right people? Did He back the wrong horse? Were the hopes and promises in Deuteronomy written in vain? Was the Law given in vain?
This is the ultimate problem with the Law: it condemns but cannot fix. It cannot take a heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh. The heart of man is the root of the sin problem and the Law is not able to fix it. But it wasn’t mean to, because God had a master plan from the start. A master plan that feels far off, especially when we walk through bloody scenes of death and revenge in the Old Testament. These are honest accounts of what humans can do to each other, and often when evil is happening we can’t see any way that God could still win.
Deuteronomy says that the greatest commandment is this:
You shall love the LORD your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deut. 6:5)
We can easily agree that ourselves and everybody has fallen short of this. We now to our very bones we have. Paul says “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and if to not love God with all our hearts and souls and might then we have all sinned. This is the greatest commandment because it is the heart of all the others, if you follow this one perfectly you will never break any of the other laws. However even if somehow you follow all the other laws but neglect this one you have lost the heart of the Law. To follow the Law without a love for God is stupid. It’s a waste of time.
So we are all condemned, and judging by Israel’s history there’s not much hope. There’s no hope in our generation because we can see that we are unable to completely follow the Law and there’s no hope for the next because, as the wise King Solomon points out, “there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9).
Does this leave the law unfulfilled? Is the law only for our judgment? As a matter of fact the law was fulfilled when God answered His promise to crush sin by coming to earth to dwell among us. The law was fulfilled by the second member of the trinity, Jesus Christ, by the power of the third member, the Holy Spirit, to the glory of the first, the Father.
After Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit led Him into the wilderness, just like the people Israel. There He was tempted like them in similar ways for food, water, comfort, even power. Jesus is directly confronted by the serpent who tempted man to fall and rebel thousands of years before, but instead of failing like every man and woman before Him, Jesus says “No” to the serpent’s words.
Jesus rebukes Satan with three quotes, all from Deuteronomy (8:3, 6:13, 6:16). Jesus did what we – and Israel – could not, that is, He loved the Lord with all His heart and will all His soul and with all His might. He fulfilled the Law, never sinning once against God.
Not only did He satisfy the Law’s requirements for holiness, He also satisfied the requirements for justice and God’s righteous judgment on all of us who have failed and sinned and rebelled. Jesus did this by taking my sins and your sins to the cross to be crushed and destroyed in His perfect body:
For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21)
If Jesus is the fulfillment of the Law let us turn our hearts and minds to Him as we begin Deuteronomy, let us see Christ more clearly and exalted, while ourselves more humble and penitent, because through Christ we are free from the law, and, as Paul writes:
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. (Romans 7:6)
Praise God! Amen.
10/19/09
Saturday 24 October 2009
Tuesday 20 October 2009
Introduction to Deuteronomy, Part 1
Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible and the last book of the “Pentateuch”. It has some of the most profound statements in scripture and, unlike Leviticus or the other law books, Deuteronomy meditates on what the law means and God’s relationship to us. I think for most people it is one of the books “somewhere in the Bible” that they know little about. For that reason, and to learn much myself, I’ve attempted to compile an introduction for this great book, providing some background information and historical context.
Deuteronomy, in essence, is a big farewell address by Moses to God’s people, the nation of Israel. Somebody else must have written the book down because the book ends with Moses’ death (34:5-6), but the majority of the book is Moses speaking; exhorting and encouraging his people to follow the Lord and to keep His commands. Moses is saying these things before Israel is to enter the Promised Land, so in many ways Deuteronomy is a beginning.
Often when great men in the Bible die – men who have known God and experienced His grace – they get a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones and to give them parting wisdom. That is exactly what Moses does in Deuteronomy. It is his parting words to his people and he emphatically exhorts them to pursue God and “love the LORD your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). Other great “farewell addresses” in the Bible include:
Jacob, who calls his children together and prays over them (Genesis 49). (He also prays over his grand children, Genesis 48).
Joseph “made the sons of Israel swear, saying ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here’” (Gen. 50:25).
Joshua, the great leader of Israel after Moses, gathers all the tribes of Israel together and says:
“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:14-15)
The great prophet Samuel gives a farewell address in 1 Samuel 12 (which is a little bit funny, right? He has two books named after him and he bows it in chapter 12 of the first one – but anyways):
“The LORD is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the LORD concerning all the righteous deeds of the LORD that he performed for you and your fathers…
If you will fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well.” (1 Samuel 12:6-7, 14)
When the great King David was about to die he “commanded” his son Solomon:
“Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statues, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn…” (1 Kings 2:2b-3)
Do you see a pattern here? The advice all of these men give from their death bed is the same: Fear the Lord, live by His commandments, walk with Him, that it may go well with you. Many of their speeches begin with a summary of what God has done – things their children weren’t alive to witness, but their parents are alive testify to them about Him. As Moses writes in Deuteronomy:
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deut. 6:6-7)
Death bed advice is so important because it’s coming from people who have lived and been exactly where you or I sit now. Moses was once twenty, like me, only when he speaks in Deuteronomy he’s lived his whole life and is nearing death. His advice at the end of life is “Fear God and love Him and walk with Him. Do not forget God.”
Nothing really changes from generation to generation, as King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes. People make the same mistakes as the people before them. When Moses or Joshua or Samuel gives me advice, I’d better listen! Sure, they lived at a different time in a different culture but the human condition and human heart has not changed in the millennia between us. Any wisdom they have at the end of their life will be extremely beneficial to me as I start mine. As the wise King Solomon writes,
Whoever ignores instruction despises
himself,
but he who listens to reproof gains
intelligence. (Prov. 15:32)
All I’m trying to say is don’t ignore these guys. My generation typically tends to scorn advice or correction from the older generation. “That’s the way you did things, but we’ll do them differently.” We have to avoid that mistake. “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9). Listen to these men of great faith.
My prayer – if God blesses me so – is to have a similar opportunity as Moses, David, Joshua, Jacob, Joseph, and Samuel. If I could know that I was nearing my day of death (say I’m in the hospital) I would love to be able to call my family and friends together around me. I would lay my hands on my kids, my grandkids, pray for them, bless them, and then emphatically and passionately command them and plead with them to live for Jesus, to love Him, and to serve Him with all their hearts. Do not pursue anything or anyone else, there is destruction in all but Him. Pursue Jesus. I pray and hope for such an opportunity before I die.
The apostle Paul in the New Testament has a similar moment when he writes to his dear student Timothy, whom he calls his “beloved child” –
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching…
For I am being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:1-2, 6-8)
I love that section.
All of these men I have been talking about each testify to the grace of God and that a life lived without Him is void of hope, joy, love, and truth. Do not forget God.
Deuteronomy, in essence, is a big farewell address by Moses to God’s people, the nation of Israel. Somebody else must have written the book down because the book ends with Moses’ death (34:5-6), but the majority of the book is Moses speaking; exhorting and encouraging his people to follow the Lord and to keep His commands. Moses is saying these things before Israel is to enter the Promised Land, so in many ways Deuteronomy is a beginning.
Often when great men in the Bible die – men who have known God and experienced His grace – they get a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones and to give them parting wisdom. That is exactly what Moses does in Deuteronomy. It is his parting words to his people and he emphatically exhorts them to pursue God and “love the LORD your God will all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5). Other great “farewell addresses” in the Bible include:
Jacob, who calls his children together and prays over them (Genesis 49). (He also prays over his grand children, Genesis 48).
Joseph “made the sons of Israel swear, saying ‘God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here’” (Gen. 50:25).
Joshua, the great leader of Israel after Moses, gathers all the tribes of Israel together and says:
“Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:14-15)
The great prophet Samuel gives a farewell address in 1 Samuel 12 (which is a little bit funny, right? He has two books named after him and he bows it in chapter 12 of the first one – but anyways):
“The LORD is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the LORD concerning all the righteous deeds of the LORD that he performed for you and your fathers…
If you will fear the LORD and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the LORD your God, it will be well.” (1 Samuel 12:6-7, 14)
When the great King David was about to die he “commanded” his son Solomon:
“Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statues, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn…” (1 Kings 2:2b-3)
Do you see a pattern here? The advice all of these men give from their death bed is the same: Fear the Lord, live by His commandments, walk with Him, that it may go well with you. Many of their speeches begin with a summary of what God has done – things their children weren’t alive to witness, but their parents are alive testify to them about Him. As Moses writes in Deuteronomy:
And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deut. 6:6-7)
Death bed advice is so important because it’s coming from people who have lived and been exactly where you or I sit now. Moses was once twenty, like me, only when he speaks in Deuteronomy he’s lived his whole life and is nearing death. His advice at the end of life is “Fear God and love Him and walk with Him. Do not forget God.”
Nothing really changes from generation to generation, as King Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes. People make the same mistakes as the people before them. When Moses or Joshua or Samuel gives me advice, I’d better listen! Sure, they lived at a different time in a different culture but the human condition and human heart has not changed in the millennia between us. Any wisdom they have at the end of their life will be extremely beneficial to me as I start mine. As the wise King Solomon writes,
Whoever ignores instruction despises
himself,
but he who listens to reproof gains
intelligence. (Prov. 15:32)
All I’m trying to say is don’t ignore these guys. My generation typically tends to scorn advice or correction from the older generation. “That’s the way you did things, but we’ll do them differently.” We have to avoid that mistake. “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9). Listen to these men of great faith.
My prayer – if God blesses me so – is to have a similar opportunity as Moses, David, Joshua, Jacob, Joseph, and Samuel. If I could know that I was nearing my day of death (say I’m in the hospital) I would love to be able to call my family and friends together around me. I would lay my hands on my kids, my grandkids, pray for them, bless them, and then emphatically and passionately command them and plead with them to live for Jesus, to love Him, and to serve Him with all their hearts. Do not pursue anything or anyone else, there is destruction in all but Him. Pursue Jesus. I pray and hope for such an opportunity before I die.
The apostle Paul in the New Testament has a similar moment when he writes to his dear student Timothy, whom he calls his “beloved child” –
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching…
For I am being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:1-2, 6-8)
I love that section.
All of these men I have been talking about each testify to the grace of God and that a life lived without Him is void of hope, joy, love, and truth. Do not forget God.
Wednesday 14 October 2009
Love Love Love!
Today we had our first bible study meeting, it was on love. I didn’t really think about how much this study would impact me! In preparing, it got me thinking about my family and my friends. I went on facebook and looked at some pictures of the my family reunion and went to my brother’s page and couldn’t stop laughing at some of the stuff he had put up. It felt good to look at people and say “I love them,” and revel in it.
The study was amazing, the Holy Spirit stirred our hearts a lot today. I feel like I’m on the edge of an epiphany or breakthrough. I’ve been overlooking something and not valuing it as much as I should. Looking at 1 Corinthians 13 I’ve taken it for granted, as “basic” Christianity, or “Obvious 101”. I’ve been overlooking one of the best passages in all of scripture, a passage that reveals how important love is and how foundational to everything it is because God is love.
This is so profound! Jesus talked about love so much yet I often times take it for granted and focus on the “Repent, believe” side of things. His great commandment to us is to “love our neighbor as ourselves”, along with the greatest commandment, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might” (Deut. 6:5).
I’ve been overlooking something so simple yet so essential! Day to day in my relationships my #1 concern is How do I make myself look good? How do I make this person like me? How do I maintain my image?
How selfish! How inwardly bent! Just reading these passages today transformed the rest of my day. With every person I met I tried my best to love them, to care for them, to listen to their needs, to laugh with them, to enjoy being with them. What a great experience! I need to do this everyday.
One of the things I thought about in our study was how do we actively love the ones we love? Too many people grow up taking everything for granted, never saying “I love you” to their parents, never taking the time to do something loving for a friend, never doing something submissive and serving for someone else. How differently would I live if I actively pursued the ones I love with acts of love and service? My parents won’t always be around – when they die will I regret everything I didn’t say or do for them? Not if I think about that today.
God is burning the idea of community into my mind. What if everyone tried to out-serve everybody? A guy held the door open for me today and I thought, “Awesome!” It’s simple, but it’s great. If we removed sin from the world (which Jesus will do completely one day) and filled everyone’s hearts with love for everyone, what would that look like? It’d look like the church at its best, when its caring, loving, and praying for people.
Love! The greatest of these is love. I’ve been a crappy lover of people. God’s fixing that, and the more I love Him and delight in Him the more I love people and care about them.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-9)
God turn me from myself to You and others. You are love and You define love. Please bless me with the ability to love and Holy Spirit may I love more and more and more, may I give more and more and more, and may I serve more and more and more, all because of You. In Jesus name, AMEN.
The study was amazing, the Holy Spirit stirred our hearts a lot today. I feel like I’m on the edge of an epiphany or breakthrough. I’ve been overlooking something and not valuing it as much as I should. Looking at 1 Corinthians 13 I’ve taken it for granted, as “basic” Christianity, or “Obvious 101”. I’ve been overlooking one of the best passages in all of scripture, a passage that reveals how important love is and how foundational to everything it is because God is love.
This is so profound! Jesus talked about love so much yet I often times take it for granted and focus on the “Repent, believe” side of things. His great commandment to us is to “love our neighbor as ourselves”, along with the greatest commandment, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might” (Deut. 6:5).
I’ve been overlooking something so simple yet so essential! Day to day in my relationships my #1 concern is How do I make myself look good? How do I make this person like me? How do I maintain my image?
How selfish! How inwardly bent! Just reading these passages today transformed the rest of my day. With every person I met I tried my best to love them, to care for them, to listen to their needs, to laugh with them, to enjoy being with them. What a great experience! I need to do this everyday.
One of the things I thought about in our study was how do we actively love the ones we love? Too many people grow up taking everything for granted, never saying “I love you” to their parents, never taking the time to do something loving for a friend, never doing something submissive and serving for someone else. How differently would I live if I actively pursued the ones I love with acts of love and service? My parents won’t always be around – when they die will I regret everything I didn’t say or do for them? Not if I think about that today.
God is burning the idea of community into my mind. What if everyone tried to out-serve everybody? A guy held the door open for me today and I thought, “Awesome!” It’s simple, but it’s great. If we removed sin from the world (which Jesus will do completely one day) and filled everyone’s hearts with love for everyone, what would that look like? It’d look like the church at its best, when its caring, loving, and praying for people.
Love! The greatest of these is love. I’ve been a crappy lover of people. God’s fixing that, and the more I love Him and delight in Him the more I love people and care about them.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:37-9)
God turn me from myself to You and others. You are love and You define love. Please bless me with the ability to love and Holy Spirit may I love more and more and more, may I give more and more and more, and may I serve more and more and more, all because of You. In Jesus name, AMEN.
Monday 5 October 2009
Solomon's Conclusion (Ecclesiastes 12)
In this book Solomon has honestly assessed the world as it is and its need for purpose and a Savior and the need for people to have wisdom. In addition to Ecclesiastes Solomon wrote many proverbs “with great care” (12:9). Solomon, the Preacher of Ecclesiastes “sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth” (12:10).
Chapter 12 opens:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” (12:1)
By “evil days” Solomon doesn’t mean a time full of wickedness and evil but rather the time that our body physically deteriorates. Isn’t it interesting that he calls getting old evil? Once again, Solomon is being honest when most of us try not to be. In order for us to accept the inevitability of age and wrinkles we try to embrace it and glorify it. We say ‘It’s all a part of the circle of life.’ Once you were young, now you are old, try not to get bent out of shape about it. But is this a comfort?
‘No!’ says Solomon. ‘My joints hurt and my teeth are falling out (12:4) and my sight is failing and I jump whenever a bird starts singing (12:4) and I’m afraid of what is high and I’m paranoid (12:5). This isn’t fun and all I have to look forward to is death. It’s not going to get better! It’s going to get worse and worse until I die.’ If we were honest I think we would talk more like Solomon, but usually if the truth is bitter we don’t want to deal with it.
Thank God that this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Thank God that we’re not just part of a “circle of life” where death is natural and we must accept it. No! God hates death! We do too if we’re honest! If we throw away our bull crap about “accepting our fates” we will declare the same thing with our whole heart. Think about it!
This is because God “has put eternity into man’s heart” (3:11). God is eternal and He made us in His image. He made us to live with Him. We don’t see death in the Bible until after Adam and Eve sin: it is the end result of sin, an unnatural destruction. A cessation of what was supposed to be unceasing. Thank God that through Jesus death is conquered and overthrown, that now as we age we have hope and joy that when we die we will be with Jesus! And ultimately we will be resurrected and our bodies will be restored. Jesus truly does make all things new.
Let’s return to the text. Solomon is finishing his book, lamenting about death and age, and he leaves the young with advice on how to live: remember God, remember your Creator (12:1). Remember Him and fear Him when You are young and strong (the time when you feel like you are God and in control) because one day you will be weak and tired. It is wise to know your fate so that you will be prepared for it. We must remember our Creator:
before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. (12:6-7)
The ESV Study bible notes help make some sense of these examples by pointing out that a common link in these images is that they are vessels for water. “Water is a symbol of life (2 Sam. 14:14; John 4:14; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17), the destruction of these various items indicates the moment when mortal life ceases and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (ESV Study bible notes).
One day you will die, one day I will die. Everyone in your family, your town, your state, your country, everyone on the planet will die. When we are young we feel the farthest from death, but with age and weakness we feel it coming closer and closer. Many great writers have written of death and the idea of it pressing in on us (read “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway). It slowly consumes us until we are like a candle snuffed out.
When you are on your deathbed, do you think you will look back at your life wishing you had lived differently? I’m not just talking about remorse over certain sins you committed, I’m talking about wishing there was something more to your life, like a person or relationship you wished you had had. How many people look to their youth as a waste of time? And on top of that, why does it feel like it went by so quickly?
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. (12:8)
If we are young or if we are old Solomon wants to wake us up to wisdom while we still have time. The way to escape meaninglessness and joylessness is living a life with God. Remembering Him in your youth and as you age – this comfort, His presence, will not age and disappear with you. As your eyesight fails the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever (Psalm 136). The joy of knowing Him will satisfy and in your age you can look back at your life as one spent with God – and that’s all you’ll be able to take with you, good times and good experiences.
For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. (5:20)
I think what Solomon is getting at is that our lives are a shadow, a vapor. The bible uses this language on a number of occasions. James writes in the New Testament:
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. (James 4:14)
Billions of people have gone before us and lived and then died, many still will come and then die. Whenever I look at a cemetery it’s hard to believe that it’s filled with people who actually lived just like me with similar pressures, fears, and experiences. I wonder how many of them thought of death, and now there they are in a cemetery and all that they are is a testimony of death and its effects. That’s all they represent to you or I. To us we do not see the eighty years that one of them lived but for the dates on the tombstone. We do not see their weddings, their greatest moments, their worst, we do not see their lives. To us their lives are an instant, a moment long past, a vapor that was but has now dissipated into the air.
Surely our life is different because it feels so long and its full of pain and work – I’m twenty and to live another sixty years sounds like forever. But not until I reach it. As we move through time or time moves around us or whatever you would say I think we strongly desire (at least I know I do) to stop time, to somehow grab it and keep it from moving on. There are moments in life that are so joyful that I wish I could grab it and stop and experience that moment forever – but I can’t! It slips away from me and all I have is a memory. We strive to catch the wind but time moves on – people come and go, babies are born, and sometime later they die. Ultimately our time runs out and we face death – and no one escapes death. Yet we strive and strive to fight time and death because God
has put eternity into man’s heart. (3:11)
Outside of eternity the moment – or the “present” continues to elude us and slip away, turning into the past, untouchable, unattainable. Pleasures once had can be re-experienced but not the same exact one in the same exact way at the same exact time. We long for eternity where this will not happen. Think about it – if we spend eternity with God, won’t that be living in the present forever? No past, no future, but present? Time won’t slip away, we won’t age, and we will be with who we were made to be with – Jesus.
Until then our joy can still be found in Him on earth. Because although our days pass us we can hold fast to Him and look forward to what is to come rather than what lies behind:
For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. (5:20)
Do not chase after women, drugs, money, and fleeting pleasures. Do not strive after the wind, strive after God and your heart will be full. Jesus said,
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)
Jesus is that treasure in heaven that will not rust, will not decay. If you are serious about finding joy in life then don’t seek it on earth, where things pass like shadows and outlive their usefulness, seek it from above.
Jesus is full of wisdom like this. Take Solomon’s advice:
The words of the wise are like goads*, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepard. (12:11)
I love that “nails” is placed right next to “one Shepard” because ultimately wisdom comes from Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
Through Jesus we have hope and joy today and in what will come. Death is defeated and we are called to be in God’s presence. In Christ we have hope.
At the close of Ecclesiastes (in a way similar to the close of the book of Revelation) Solomon quickly advises against seeking any other kind of “wisdom” apart from his writings and, ultimately, God's wisdom and the bible:
My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. (12:12)
There’s a lot of ideas and philosophies that place hope in this life outside of our Shepard, and they are rubbish. Books upon books are always being written about how to find joy and happiness, but that doesn’t mean they have true wisdom. Seek that in Christ.
Solomon’s great conclusion and admonition for our lives:
The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (12:13-14)
If we honestly assess life, it sucks. The good parts mix in with the bad and go by too fast. There is evil and injustice in and around us. We want joy but can’t find it. Whatever you do, walk with Christ – there is joy. If you don’t, you will find nothing. Remember your Creator, pursue Him! Do not think you have found joy elsewhere because it is fleeting and all things go but God. Turn to Him and put your faith in Him and you will be satisfied. I know I am.
10/5/09
* "A “goad” is a long, pointed stick used for prodding and guiding oxen while plowing.” Thank you, ESV Study Bible notes!
Chapter 12 opens:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, “I have no pleasure in them” (12:1)
By “evil days” Solomon doesn’t mean a time full of wickedness and evil but rather the time that our body physically deteriorates. Isn’t it interesting that he calls getting old evil? Once again, Solomon is being honest when most of us try not to be. In order for us to accept the inevitability of age and wrinkles we try to embrace it and glorify it. We say ‘It’s all a part of the circle of life.’ Once you were young, now you are old, try not to get bent out of shape about it. But is this a comfort?
‘No!’ says Solomon. ‘My joints hurt and my teeth are falling out (12:4) and my sight is failing and I jump whenever a bird starts singing (12:4) and I’m afraid of what is high and I’m paranoid (12:5). This isn’t fun and all I have to look forward to is death. It’s not going to get better! It’s going to get worse and worse until I die.’ If we were honest I think we would talk more like Solomon, but usually if the truth is bitter we don’t want to deal with it.
Thank God that this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. Thank God that we’re not just part of a “circle of life” where death is natural and we must accept it. No! God hates death! We do too if we’re honest! If we throw away our bull crap about “accepting our fates” we will declare the same thing with our whole heart. Think about it!
This is because God “has put eternity into man’s heart” (3:11). God is eternal and He made us in His image. He made us to live with Him. We don’t see death in the Bible until after Adam and Eve sin: it is the end result of sin, an unnatural destruction. A cessation of what was supposed to be unceasing. Thank God that through Jesus death is conquered and overthrown, that now as we age we have hope and joy that when we die we will be with Jesus! And ultimately we will be resurrected and our bodies will be restored. Jesus truly does make all things new.
Let’s return to the text. Solomon is finishing his book, lamenting about death and age, and he leaves the young with advice on how to live: remember God, remember your Creator (12:1). Remember Him and fear Him when You are young and strong (the time when you feel like you are God and in control) because one day you will be weak and tired. It is wise to know your fate so that you will be prepared for it. We must remember our Creator:
before the silver cord is snapped, or the golden bowl is broken, or the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. (12:6-7)
The ESV Study bible notes help make some sense of these examples by pointing out that a common link in these images is that they are vessels for water. “Water is a symbol of life (2 Sam. 14:14; John 4:14; Rev. 21:6; 22:1, 17), the destruction of these various items indicates the moment when mortal life ceases and the spirit returns to God who gave it” (ESV Study bible notes).
One day you will die, one day I will die. Everyone in your family, your town, your state, your country, everyone on the planet will die. When we are young we feel the farthest from death, but with age and weakness we feel it coming closer and closer. Many great writers have written of death and the idea of it pressing in on us (read “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” by Ernest Hemingway). It slowly consumes us until we are like a candle snuffed out.
When you are on your deathbed, do you think you will look back at your life wishing you had lived differently? I’m not just talking about remorse over certain sins you committed, I’m talking about wishing there was something more to your life, like a person or relationship you wished you had had. How many people look to their youth as a waste of time? And on top of that, why does it feel like it went by so quickly?
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity. (12:8)
If we are young or if we are old Solomon wants to wake us up to wisdom while we still have time. The way to escape meaninglessness and joylessness is living a life with God. Remembering Him in your youth and as you age – this comfort, His presence, will not age and disappear with you. As your eyesight fails the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever (Psalm 136). The joy of knowing Him will satisfy and in your age you can look back at your life as one spent with God – and that’s all you’ll be able to take with you, good times and good experiences.
For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. (5:20)
I think what Solomon is getting at is that our lives are a shadow, a vapor. The bible uses this language on a number of occasions. James writes in the New Testament:
What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. (James 4:14)
Billions of people have gone before us and lived and then died, many still will come and then die. Whenever I look at a cemetery it’s hard to believe that it’s filled with people who actually lived just like me with similar pressures, fears, and experiences. I wonder how many of them thought of death, and now there they are in a cemetery and all that they are is a testimony of death and its effects. That’s all they represent to you or I. To us we do not see the eighty years that one of them lived but for the dates on the tombstone. We do not see their weddings, their greatest moments, their worst, we do not see their lives. To us their lives are an instant, a moment long past, a vapor that was but has now dissipated into the air.
Surely our life is different because it feels so long and its full of pain and work – I’m twenty and to live another sixty years sounds like forever. But not until I reach it. As we move through time or time moves around us or whatever you would say I think we strongly desire (at least I know I do) to stop time, to somehow grab it and keep it from moving on. There are moments in life that are so joyful that I wish I could grab it and stop and experience that moment forever – but I can’t! It slips away from me and all I have is a memory. We strive to catch the wind but time moves on – people come and go, babies are born, and sometime later they die. Ultimately our time runs out and we face death – and no one escapes death. Yet we strive and strive to fight time and death because God
has put eternity into man’s heart. (3:11)
Outside of eternity the moment – or the “present” continues to elude us and slip away, turning into the past, untouchable, unattainable. Pleasures once had can be re-experienced but not the same exact one in the same exact way at the same exact time. We long for eternity where this will not happen. Think about it – if we spend eternity with God, won’t that be living in the present forever? No past, no future, but present? Time won’t slip away, we won’t age, and we will be with who we were made to be with – Jesus.
Until then our joy can still be found in Him on earth. Because although our days pass us we can hold fast to Him and look forward to what is to come rather than what lies behind:
For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. (5:20)
Do not chase after women, drugs, money, and fleeting pleasures. Do not strive after the wind, strive after God and your heart will be full. Jesus said,
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)
Jesus is that treasure in heaven that will not rust, will not decay. If you are serious about finding joy in life then don’t seek it on earth, where things pass like shadows and outlive their usefulness, seek it from above.
Jesus is full of wisdom like this. Take Solomon’s advice:
The words of the wise are like goads*, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepard. (12:11)
I love that “nails” is placed right next to “one Shepard” because ultimately wisdom comes from Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection. Jesus said:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)
Through Jesus we have hope and joy today and in what will come. Death is defeated and we are called to be in God’s presence. In Christ we have hope.
At the close of Ecclesiastes (in a way similar to the close of the book of Revelation) Solomon quickly advises against seeking any other kind of “wisdom” apart from his writings and, ultimately, God's wisdom and the bible:
My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. (12:12)
There’s a lot of ideas and philosophies that place hope in this life outside of our Shepard, and they are rubbish. Books upon books are always being written about how to find joy and happiness, but that doesn’t mean they have true wisdom. Seek that in Christ.
Solomon’s great conclusion and admonition for our lives:
The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil. (12:13-14)
If we honestly assess life, it sucks. The good parts mix in with the bad and go by too fast. There is evil and injustice in and around us. We want joy but can’t find it. Whatever you do, walk with Christ – there is joy. If you don’t, you will find nothing. Remember your Creator, pursue Him! Do not think you have found joy elsewhere because it is fleeting and all things go but God. Turn to Him and put your faith in Him and you will be satisfied. I know I am.
10/5/09
* "A “goad” is a long, pointed stick used for prodding and guiding oxen while plowing.” Thank you, ESV Study Bible notes!
Sunday 4 October 2009
Just Live (Ecclesiastes 11)
Solomon’s great book of repentance and of reflection (on a life lived in sin) draws near to a close with his great conclusion in chapter 12. Up until now Solomon has lamented that life is pointless, every day just like the day before, every year the same as the last, there is “nothing new under the sun” (1:9b).
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be
done. (1:9a)
There is also great evil on the earth, and even this seems pointless because justice seems far away and even those who work for justice on earth are evil doers (3:16). Happiness is impossible to attain, “all is vanity and a striving after wind” (1:14). Solomon has tried everything to find joy in his time under the sun, and:
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing. (1:8)
He tries women (he had 700 wives!), he tries laughter (2:2), he tries wine (1:3), he tries building monuments and creating works of art (2:4-6), he tries entertainment (2:7), and he tries wealth and power (2:8-9).
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. (2:10)
Most everybody lives with their own idea of “I’d be happing if…” Solomon conducts a great human experiment and tries everything we dream of, and his conclusion is bleak:
Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (2:11)
So what is the point? Mark Driscoll says that Ecclesiastes asks the questions the rest of the bible answers, specifically Jesus Christ. Roughly 1,000 years after King Solomon (962 – 922 B.C.) writes this book Jesus is born in Israel. Everything about Christ satisfies Solomon’s frustrations and leads us to this chapter (11), in many ways an encouragement to keep on living and, in light of chapter 12, too look forward to God and His judgment. In this chapter we see hope. It’s almost as if right here the clouds part and we see the sun for the first time. (In fact, this is the first time in the whole book Solomon speaks positively about the sun: “Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun” – 11:7).
One of the big ways Christ satisfies Solomon’s frustrations (and ours) is that through Him God deals with evil. We’ve tried to deal with evil, but our own justice is perverted by our own evil and it is not enough. How can a dirty hand clean a dirty hand? We need a clean one. Jesus deals with evil in complete goodness and authority without evil in Him. he does this in two ways.
The first has already happened, and that was His crucifixion. The second hasn’t happened yet, and that will be when Jesus returns and destroys evil once and for all. But let’s focus on the first one and clarify what happened that day two thousand years ago.
On that day “for our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because here’s the problems with true justice, that is, if God took to task every evil ever committed and punished the guilty persons there would be nobody left. We’ve all sinned “and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God, like the faithful husband married to a prostitute in the book of Hosea, has two divine qualities that must be satisfied. The first is justice – God hates sin! And would He be good if He didn’t? If He looked at a child molester and said, “You’ve done nothing wrong,” would that be justice? No, justice must be satisfied.
The second quality is love. “God is love” John writes in 1 John 4:8. God loves us, and He is faithful to us as we resist Him. Look again at Hosea: God is like our faithful husband and we are nothing but whores. God refuses to leave because He loves us, but how can He tolerate our unfaithfulness? If God abandoned us, or just simply destroyed us how would that satisfy His love?
So God had an ingenious plan developed since the second Adam and Eve walked away from Him (even before if He is all-knowing – He inevitably knew what they would do!). He makes a promise after the first sin that He would take care of all sin. He says to Satan, the serpent, the one who led Adam and Eve to sin (and is a good representation of sin):
“I will put enmity between you and the
woman,
and between your offspring and her
offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his head.” (Gen. 3:15)
The word “offspring” in Hebrew means “seed”. Paul writes in Galatians (Gal. 3:16) that the “seed” written of to Abraham (the same words spoken in Genesis 3:15) is not plural, but singular. Look at the next line here, “offspring” is not “they” but a “he”. This man will stomp on sin, but he will be wounded. Right away, God promises to deal with the sin problem by sending His Son. Jesus put it this way:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
That is probably the most well-known verse in all of Scripture, which is fitting because in one sentence Jesus explains what all of Scripture is about. In this verse we see:
1) Our condition. We are “perishing” and need saving.
2) God loves us. He sends His Son to die for us in our place, so that:
3) we will live with Him and have eternal life. “Eternal life” means more than living forever. Jesus defines it as:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
Eternal life is living forever knowing Jesus (the Bible is pretty clear that all will live forever, past death, but the question is will you live with Jesus). Here we see life! Joy in living! Isn’t that what Solomon was after? Joy is now ours in Christ.
So on the cross God provided a substitute for us so that both His love and His judgment could be satisfied. Because of Jesus’ death, if we humble ourselves before God and ask for His forgiveness, we will be made new, our sins washed away.
That is the hope in the clouds of Ecclesiastes. In chapter 11 get pieces of this hope and some wonderful advice on how we should live now that we have been forgiven and made right with God, but while we still live in this broken, fallen world described by Solomon. Really, what should we do? Should we build a bomb shelter and wait for Jesus to return? Should we, as so many Christians do, completely cut ourselves off from culture and society, and fun? Not sinful fun, but fun. Didn’t God make us to enjoy things?
One of the best sermons I ever heard was a few months after becoming a Christian. It was sermon about grace – how, through the free gift of Jesus Christ, we are made right with God. The pastor ended by saying, “So now what do you do?” He waved his hand and said, “Just live.” Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t God good? Can you see how we are given everything through Him? Not only forgiveness but life. We’re allowed to enjoy this world He has given us.
Cast your bread upon the waters,
for you will find it after many days.
Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. (11:1-2)
Just live! Solomon then writes to remind us, Caution!, remember our helplessness and God’s sovereignty:
If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth,
and if a tree falls to the south or to the
north,
in the place where the tree falls, there
it will lie. (Ecc. 11:3)
What man can control nature? Do not worry about it. Our place is under God, not over Him. Your Father is in control. There are certainly many, many things of God we cannot understand:
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. (11:5)
You’re not a in control: Let go of the illusion. Live by God’s grace and fear Him. And, once again, please live:
He who observes the wind will not sow,
and he who regards the clouds will
not reap. (11:4)
Don’t be idle: Your Father has given you purpose and strength and direction in Jesus Christ. Rejoice in this life (11:9), because you are headed to a different and better place. You are going to be with Jesus.
10/1/09
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be
done. (1:9a)
There is also great evil on the earth, and even this seems pointless because justice seems far away and even those who work for justice on earth are evil doers (3:16). Happiness is impossible to attain, “all is vanity and a striving after wind” (1:14). Solomon has tried everything to find joy in his time under the sun, and:
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing. (1:8)
He tries women (he had 700 wives!), he tries laughter (2:2), he tries wine (1:3), he tries building monuments and creating works of art (2:4-6), he tries entertainment (2:7), and he tries wealth and power (2:8-9).
And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. (2:10)
Most everybody lives with their own idea of “I’d be happing if…” Solomon conducts a great human experiment and tries everything we dream of, and his conclusion is bleak:
Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (2:11)
So what is the point? Mark Driscoll says that Ecclesiastes asks the questions the rest of the bible answers, specifically Jesus Christ. Roughly 1,000 years after King Solomon (962 – 922 B.C.) writes this book Jesus is born in Israel. Everything about Christ satisfies Solomon’s frustrations and leads us to this chapter (11), in many ways an encouragement to keep on living and, in light of chapter 12, too look forward to God and His judgment. In this chapter we see hope. It’s almost as if right here the clouds part and we see the sun for the first time. (In fact, this is the first time in the whole book Solomon speaks positively about the sun: “Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun” – 11:7).
One of the big ways Christ satisfies Solomon’s frustrations (and ours) is that through Him God deals with evil. We’ve tried to deal with evil, but our own justice is perverted by our own evil and it is not enough. How can a dirty hand clean a dirty hand? We need a clean one. Jesus deals with evil in complete goodness and authority without evil in Him. he does this in two ways.
The first has already happened, and that was His crucifixion. The second hasn’t happened yet, and that will be when Jesus returns and destroys evil once and for all. But let’s focus on the first one and clarify what happened that day two thousand years ago.
On that day “for our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because here’s the problems with true justice, that is, if God took to task every evil ever committed and punished the guilty persons there would be nobody left. We’ve all sinned “and fallen short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). God, like the faithful husband married to a prostitute in the book of Hosea, has two divine qualities that must be satisfied. The first is justice – God hates sin! And would He be good if He didn’t? If He looked at a child molester and said, “You’ve done nothing wrong,” would that be justice? No, justice must be satisfied.
The second quality is love. “God is love” John writes in 1 John 4:8. God loves us, and He is faithful to us as we resist Him. Look again at Hosea: God is like our faithful husband and we are nothing but whores. God refuses to leave because He loves us, but how can He tolerate our unfaithfulness? If God abandoned us, or just simply destroyed us how would that satisfy His love?
So God had an ingenious plan developed since the second Adam and Eve walked away from Him (even before if He is all-knowing – He inevitably knew what they would do!). He makes a promise after the first sin that He would take care of all sin. He says to Satan, the serpent, the one who led Adam and Eve to sin (and is a good representation of sin):
“I will put enmity between you and the
woman,
and between your offspring and her
offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his head.” (Gen. 3:15)
The word “offspring” in Hebrew means “seed”. Paul writes in Galatians (Gal. 3:16) that the “seed” written of to Abraham (the same words spoken in Genesis 3:15) is not plural, but singular. Look at the next line here, “offspring” is not “they” but a “he”. This man will stomp on sin, but he will be wounded. Right away, God promises to deal with the sin problem by sending His Son. Jesus put it this way:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
That is probably the most well-known verse in all of Scripture, which is fitting because in one sentence Jesus explains what all of Scripture is about. In this verse we see:
1) Our condition. We are “perishing” and need saving.
2) God loves us. He sends His Son to die for us in our place, so that:
3) we will live with Him and have eternal life. “Eternal life” means more than living forever. Jesus defines it as:
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)
Eternal life is living forever knowing Jesus (the Bible is pretty clear that all will live forever, past death, but the question is will you live with Jesus). Here we see life! Joy in living! Isn’t that what Solomon was after? Joy is now ours in Christ.
So on the cross God provided a substitute for us so that both His love and His judgment could be satisfied. Because of Jesus’ death, if we humble ourselves before God and ask for His forgiveness, we will be made new, our sins washed away.
That is the hope in the clouds of Ecclesiastes. In chapter 11 get pieces of this hope and some wonderful advice on how we should live now that we have been forgiven and made right with God, but while we still live in this broken, fallen world described by Solomon. Really, what should we do? Should we build a bomb shelter and wait for Jesus to return? Should we, as so many Christians do, completely cut ourselves off from culture and society, and fun? Not sinful fun, but fun. Didn’t God make us to enjoy things?
One of the best sermons I ever heard was a few months after becoming a Christian. It was sermon about grace – how, through the free gift of Jesus Christ, we are made right with God. The pastor ended by saying, “So now what do you do?” He waved his hand and said, “Just live.” Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t God good? Can you see how we are given everything through Him? Not only forgiveness but life. We’re allowed to enjoy this world He has given us.
Cast your bread upon the waters,
for you will find it after many days.
Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. (11:1-2)
Just live! Solomon then writes to remind us, Caution!, remember our helplessness and God’s sovereignty:
If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth,
and if a tree falls to the south or to the
north,
in the place where the tree falls, there
it will lie. (Ecc. 11:3)
What man can control nature? Do not worry about it. Our place is under God, not over Him. Your Father is in control. There are certainly many, many things of God we cannot understand:
As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. (11:5)
You’re not a in control: Let go of the illusion. Live by God’s grace and fear Him. And, once again, please live:
He who observes the wind will not sow,
and he who regards the clouds will
not reap. (11:4)
Don’t be idle: Your Father has given you purpose and strength and direction in Jesus Christ. Rejoice in this life (11:9), because you are headed to a different and better place. You are going to be with Jesus.
10/1/09
Thursday 1 October 2009
Fools & True Wisdom (Ecclesiastes 10)
In this chapter Solomon the wise King of Israel writes of the differences between a wise man and a fool. This is a theme in much of scripture, often times the psalms describe a fool and how his path leads to destruction. Solomon wrote several proverbs about fools. The difference between folly and wisdom is a major theme of Proverbs:
A fool takes no pleasure in
understanding,
but only expresses his opinion. (Prov. 18:2)
A fool’s mouth is his ruin,
and his lips are a snare to his soul. (Prov. 18:7)
Fine speech is not becoming to a fool;
still less is false speech to a prince. (Prov. 17:7)
The last proverb also hits on the tension of wisdom and folly in royalty. The king should be wise, and a kingdom under a slothful, drunken fool falls apart (Ecc. 10:16-18).
Why is a fool such an evil thing? Isn’t it just somebody who’s not very intelligent? If so, does that mean only smart people are righteous? No and no. There is a major difference between intelligence and wisdom. No matter what your IQ is you can still be blessed with wisdom.
This is the Bible’s definition of wisdom (penned by Solomon):
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Prov. 1:7)
There is a difference between intelligence and wisdom. True wisdom leads to worship of God. Isn’t that profound? Nobody has ever been truly wise and known God and not been made into a worshipper of Him. Nobody can impartially engage their mental faculties in comprehension and meditation on God’s character – the character of the true God – and not be overwhelmed with adoration and praise. That is, no one can fully and honestly know God if they are not overcome by Him! To know God – the true God and His true qualities (not just speculations or theories or philosophies) leads to worship! Nobody can behold God and say ‘I’m not impressed.’ If they did, that would be foolishness.
King Solomon writes about wisdom as the authority on wisdom. When he became king of Israel God approached him in a dream and promised to give him whatever he asked. Solomon asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:3-15). God gave him more wisdom than any man ever and Solomon was known throughout the world for his wisdom:
And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 4:34)
So Solomon knows what he’s talking about, and he – more than most people – sees the difference between wisdom and smarts. For although he may have always been smart, incredibly intelligent, he did not always act with wisdom. In fact, much of his life was lived as a fool. He turns from God (1 Kings 11:1-13) and even builds high places (of worship) for other, false gods (1 Kings 11:5-8).
Ecclesiastes is a book that in many ways is King Solomon looking back on his life and lamenting, returning to God and repenting. This chapter opens with an indictment of foolishness:
Dead flies make the perfume’s
ointment give off stench;
so a little folly outweighs wisdom and
honor. (10:1)
Solomon has suffered the life of a fool, and he laments at how easily it destroys wisdom – even with someone as wise as him. “A little folly” perverts wisdom.
In verse 8-11 I believe he is outlining practical and metaphorical examples of folly. At the same time, I also think he is lamenting of the curse we are under in a fallen world.
He who quarries stones is hurt by them,
and he who splits logs is endangered
by them. (10:9)
Remember because of our initial rebellion against God and His rightful dominion God saw it fit to put us in the same situation.
“Because you have listened to the voice of
your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it al the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shll bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” (Gen. 3:17-19)
Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes generations and generations after God spoke this, and we read Solomon hundreds of generations after him, and this curse is still true. Although we have more technology these days and think we have conquered nature we find increasingly that we are helpless. Even with our technology it continually breaks down and needs fixing. God has made our world like this as to give us an idea of the frustration He has in our rebellion. And God’s words here end with the mood that pervades Ecclesiastes: to dust you shall return. As Solomon writes over and over again, “it is a striving after wind.” Basically, what’s the point?
But back to wisdom. Solomon compares wisdom and folly:
The words of a wise man’s mouth win
him favor,
but the lips of a fool consume him.
The beginning of the words of his
mouth is foolishness,
and the end of his talk is evil madness.
A fool multiplies words,
though no man knows what is to be,
and who can tell him what will be
after him?
The toil of a fool wearies him,
for he does not know the way to the
city. (Ecc. 10:12-15)
So here’s my argument: if all scripture is about Jesus and anticipating His arrival on earth, His being, His essence, His person, even His death and resurrection, if this is true (Luke 24:25-27) then we can see here in this chapter an invitation – no, a prescription to come to Christ. Because ultimately any argument between wisdom and folly is really an argument between Christ and everybody else.
Who is wholly wise and without folly? No man like that has ever existed except Jesus. Even a little folly “outweighs wisdom and honor”. Even Solomon – to whom God said “I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.” (1 Kings 3:12). Solomon, you’re the wisest guy who’s ever lived and much of your life was folly. Only Christ stands above.
If true wisdom is to fear the LORD and to keep His commandments then only Jesus did that. Who but Jesus never failed in unwavering commitment to the greatest commandment:
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
Only Jesus did this. Even the greatest of the rest have screwed this up in some way, they have sinned, they have turned their backs on the Lord and loving Him constantly. Most of us have left this command in the dust and erected our own commandment to love ourselves and serve ourselves with all our heart and all our mind.
So we can’t look at this chapter and pick out the “fool” and shake our heads at him. “What a stupid fool. There are some many people like him! Thank God I’m wise, the fool is definitely not a description of me.”
Oh, but it is! We are all fools in sin and folly, and like Solomon says, “who can tell him what will be after him?” We are ignorant to the things of God and His kingdom. We do not seek Him as we ought. We are the fools.
As a quick aside, what does this mean of those who claim to be wise? I’m talking about the therapists on TV, the talk radio hosts, the political pundits, the spiritual gurus who all claim knowledge and truth. Many people claim knowledge of who God is or what this world is about. Jesus made claims too, and unlike everybody else, what He says is fully true all the time. Jesus has never lied. Only He is a true and worthy teacher.
Because that’s what we need, a teacher. It’s funny that Solomon refers to himself as the Preacher in this book when most of his preaching is crying out for a true preacher to preach to him. What we need is someone to deliver us from foolishness and give us wisdom and insight, to give us knowledge. And all of those things, when they are true, bring us to God in worship and admiration.
I encourage you to analyze who you are currently looking to for wisdom and insight. Of course God puts people in our lives to give us wisdom and insight, but I’m talking about the people who are “teaching” you about God. Are they pointing you to Jesus? Are they encouraging you to follow Him? Or are they condemning His works and His life? Are they condemning His work on the cross for the atonement of our sins and calling it folly? There’s many “teachers” today who make claims about Jesus’ words and works and they deny His words and works. They say things like ‘Jesus didn’t really believe He was dying as a substitute for everybody else,’ and some even claim that after Jesus was crucified He was thrown to the dogs and eaten. Is this wisdom? Is this the truth?
Turn from these voices, for a fool “does not know the way to the city”. People living two thousand years after Jesus with Ph.D. aren’t more qualified to tell you about Jesus than Jesus Himself. Jesus’ words are truth and He said often: “Truly, truly, I say to you,” to drive home the point, “Listen to me. There’s a lot of crap out there. I’ve got the truth.” Jesus says, “Trust me.” In who else is their wisdom and escape from folly? Only in Jesus Christ can we truly be wise.
A fool takes no pleasure in
understanding,
but only expresses his opinion. (Prov. 18:2)
A fool’s mouth is his ruin,
and his lips are a snare to his soul. (Prov. 18:7)
Fine speech is not becoming to a fool;
still less is false speech to a prince. (Prov. 17:7)
The last proverb also hits on the tension of wisdom and folly in royalty. The king should be wise, and a kingdom under a slothful, drunken fool falls apart (Ecc. 10:16-18).
Why is a fool such an evil thing? Isn’t it just somebody who’s not very intelligent? If so, does that mean only smart people are righteous? No and no. There is a major difference between intelligence and wisdom. No matter what your IQ is you can still be blessed with wisdom.
This is the Bible’s definition of wisdom (penned by Solomon):
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Prov. 1:7)
There is a difference between intelligence and wisdom. True wisdom leads to worship of God. Isn’t that profound? Nobody has ever been truly wise and known God and not been made into a worshipper of Him. Nobody can impartially engage their mental faculties in comprehension and meditation on God’s character – the character of the true God – and not be overwhelmed with adoration and praise. That is, no one can fully and honestly know God if they are not overcome by Him! To know God – the true God and His true qualities (not just speculations or theories or philosophies) leads to worship! Nobody can behold God and say ‘I’m not impressed.’ If they did, that would be foolishness.
King Solomon writes about wisdom as the authority on wisdom. When he became king of Israel God approached him in a dream and promised to give him whatever he asked. Solomon asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:3-15). God gave him more wisdom than any man ever and Solomon was known throughout the world for his wisdom:
And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom. (1 Kings 4:34)
So Solomon knows what he’s talking about, and he – more than most people – sees the difference between wisdom and smarts. For although he may have always been smart, incredibly intelligent, he did not always act with wisdom. In fact, much of his life was lived as a fool. He turns from God (1 Kings 11:1-13) and even builds high places (of worship) for other, false gods (1 Kings 11:5-8).
Ecclesiastes is a book that in many ways is King Solomon looking back on his life and lamenting, returning to God and repenting. This chapter opens with an indictment of foolishness:
Dead flies make the perfume’s
ointment give off stench;
so a little folly outweighs wisdom and
honor. (10:1)
Solomon has suffered the life of a fool, and he laments at how easily it destroys wisdom – even with someone as wise as him. “A little folly” perverts wisdom.
In verse 8-11 I believe he is outlining practical and metaphorical examples of folly. At the same time, I also think he is lamenting of the curse we are under in a fallen world.
He who quarries stones is hurt by them,
and he who splits logs is endangered
by them. (10:9)
Remember because of our initial rebellion against God and His rightful dominion God saw it fit to put us in the same situation.
“Because you have listened to the voice of
your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it al the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shll bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” (Gen. 3:17-19)
Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes generations and generations after God spoke this, and we read Solomon hundreds of generations after him, and this curse is still true. Although we have more technology these days and think we have conquered nature we find increasingly that we are helpless. Even with our technology it continually breaks down and needs fixing. God has made our world like this as to give us an idea of the frustration He has in our rebellion. And God’s words here end with the mood that pervades Ecclesiastes: to dust you shall return. As Solomon writes over and over again, “it is a striving after wind.” Basically, what’s the point?
But back to wisdom. Solomon compares wisdom and folly:
The words of a wise man’s mouth win
him favor,
but the lips of a fool consume him.
The beginning of the words of his
mouth is foolishness,
and the end of his talk is evil madness.
A fool multiplies words,
though no man knows what is to be,
and who can tell him what will be
after him?
The toil of a fool wearies him,
for he does not know the way to the
city. (Ecc. 10:12-15)
So here’s my argument: if all scripture is about Jesus and anticipating His arrival on earth, His being, His essence, His person, even His death and resurrection, if this is true (Luke 24:25-27) then we can see here in this chapter an invitation – no, a prescription to come to Christ. Because ultimately any argument between wisdom and folly is really an argument between Christ and everybody else.
Who is wholly wise and without folly? No man like that has ever existed except Jesus. Even a little folly “outweighs wisdom and honor”. Even Solomon – to whom God said “I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.” (1 Kings 3:12). Solomon, you’re the wisest guy who’s ever lived and much of your life was folly. Only Christ stands above.
If true wisdom is to fear the LORD and to keep His commandments then only Jesus did that. Who but Jesus never failed in unwavering commitment to the greatest commandment:
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:5)
Only Jesus did this. Even the greatest of the rest have screwed this up in some way, they have sinned, they have turned their backs on the Lord and loving Him constantly. Most of us have left this command in the dust and erected our own commandment to love ourselves and serve ourselves with all our heart and all our mind.
So we can’t look at this chapter and pick out the “fool” and shake our heads at him. “What a stupid fool. There are some many people like him! Thank God I’m wise, the fool is definitely not a description of me.”
Oh, but it is! We are all fools in sin and folly, and like Solomon says, “who can tell him what will be after him?” We are ignorant to the things of God and His kingdom. We do not seek Him as we ought. We are the fools.
As a quick aside, what does this mean of those who claim to be wise? I’m talking about the therapists on TV, the talk radio hosts, the political pundits, the spiritual gurus who all claim knowledge and truth. Many people claim knowledge of who God is or what this world is about. Jesus made claims too, and unlike everybody else, what He says is fully true all the time. Jesus has never lied. Only He is a true and worthy teacher.
Because that’s what we need, a teacher. It’s funny that Solomon refers to himself as the Preacher in this book when most of his preaching is crying out for a true preacher to preach to him. What we need is someone to deliver us from foolishness and give us wisdom and insight, to give us knowledge. And all of those things, when they are true, bring us to God in worship and admiration.
I encourage you to analyze who you are currently looking to for wisdom and insight. Of course God puts people in our lives to give us wisdom and insight, but I’m talking about the people who are “teaching” you about God. Are they pointing you to Jesus? Are they encouraging you to follow Him? Or are they condemning His works and His life? Are they condemning His work on the cross for the atonement of our sins and calling it folly? There’s many “teachers” today who make claims about Jesus’ words and works and they deny His words and works. They say things like ‘Jesus didn’t really believe He was dying as a substitute for everybody else,’ and some even claim that after Jesus was crucified He was thrown to the dogs and eaten. Is this wisdom? Is this the truth?
Turn from these voices, for a fool “does not know the way to the city”. People living two thousand years after Jesus with Ph.D. aren’t more qualified to tell you about Jesus than Jesus Himself. Jesus’ words are truth and He said often: “Truly, truly, I say to you,” to drive home the point, “Listen to me. There’s a lot of crap out there. I’ve got the truth.” Jesus says, “Trust me.” In who else is their wisdom and escape from folly? Only in Jesus Christ can we truly be wise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
