Broken Wheel: Recent Episodes
Hunter Carl
The audio version of Broken Wheel, a in depth Bible study of the book of Ecclesiastes written by author, Hunter Carl.
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- Even in your thoughts, do not curse the king,nor in your bedroom curse the rich,for a bird of the air will carry your voice,or some winged creature tell the matter. -
If you understood the interpretation of verse 19, you should be able to see a similar pattern already emerging in verse 20.
The first thing we should notice is the contrast between verse 16 and today’s passage. What did it say?
It said woe to the land when your child is a king! What does that mean? Is it only appropriate to curse the curse the king when he is a child?
Well, not quite. To better understand the meaning, let’s continue with the verse. We see quickly that we are not to curse the king or the rich.
Why would wisdom dictate to us not to curse the king or the rich man? We could say that perhaps the most moral thing is to not curse anyone.
That gets a bit difficult when we think about someone doing something truly heinous. Should we not curse someone who butchers children? Are not kings capable of those atrocities?
Let‘s slow down for a moment. The text is very careful. It says not to curse the king or the rich. What does this mean?
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This is an imposition not to curse our king or the rich people in our orbit. It is wisdom provided in the guise of self-preservation, not an unbreakable law.
We are being told something practical here, not necessarily moral. We are being told to save our own skin by teaching our minds not to curse our betters.
How do we know this? The verse go on to say that some winged bird will go on to spread what it is that we are pondering.
In short, if we make a habit of cursing the king in our mind, those thoughts will make it to them eventually in a way that seems to us untraceable.
A rumor gets away from you. Don’t tell so-and-so because I’m only telling you can spread to everyone you know. Be vigilant not to spread gossip.
How can you do so? By not even speaking ill of others in your own mind. You will extinguish the fires before they even have a chance to be lit.
Now, this is a strange verse in our day. We can curse the “king” (rather president) all day long without fear. We can call him old, weak, or stupid and no one does anything except argue back.
How are we then as modern Americans supposed to treat this verse?
First, we need to see this verse is good advice more than it is a moral teaching. In fact, we can find excellent parallels in our own life.
Perhaps the most obvious aphorism is the customer is always right. The customer is your company’s profit. You want to curse them? It’s like preparing and drinking your own poison.
Second, we can see that there are more productive ways in our life to deal with people we dislike than talking bad about them.
Instead of complaining about politicians, why not get involved? Why not go door to door campaigning for local reps instead of watching tv and yelling at talking heads?
It’s important to remember that some of that “news” is merely entertainment. If you only engage with it as a show, are you truly taking it seriously?
Work before you complain. Meet before you judge.
Converse before you condemn prematurely.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brokenwheel.substack.com/subscribe
- Bread is made for laughter,and wine gladdens life,and money answers everything. -
This is a strange verse to find in your Bible. Typically, we look for moral teachings, especially in the wisdom literature.
Why are we getting these lessons about wine and money? Are we not supposed to lean on God rather than our own resources?
First, let’s just examine the veracity of these claims.
Is bread made for laughter? Undoubtedly, it brings joy to any feast. I’ve never looked at a piece of bread though and laughed.
Bread though isn’t made just for giggles. It’s made for sustenance. It keeps you going and growing and alive. If we baked bread and just laughed at it, we would be considered deranged.
It is worthless unless you eat it.
Wine can indeed gladden life. But, it does more. It leads to an ungoverned mind, the result of which leads to scandals that can ruin reputations and livelihoods.
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Even recently we have discovered how the lie a little bit of wine is good for you was nothing but a bad study paid for by the wine industry itself!
Does alcohol make life better? No. It dulls our senses to pain and consequence. That makes life seem better without changing any of its circumstances.
There is nothing more frightening than to experience an emergency. There is nothing more demoralizing to wonder how you will pay for the operation while waiting for the family member to recover.
It is good to have money. It makes many of life’s problems that could arise for your family simply disappear.
But, it doesn’t answer everything. You cannot bring a family member back to life. You cannot pay enough to get back the words you have already spoken in anger.
Even while you’re terrified in the waiting room, counting up the bills, you’re still grateful that your family gets to go home together still complete.
You wouldn’t trade that for the world, nor could you.
So then, we have three statements here that are not precisely untrue, but are definitely not the whole picture. They show an aspect that is undoubtedly true and good to know, yet they are incomplete.
What then are we supposed to take away?
Who says money fixes all your problems? It’s the man who believes it to be true. Same for the man who says alcohol makes him happy and how much he loves to eat.
We know or have been around people like this. If you ask, they won’t agree with their own words. They will point out the nuances we have already discussed.
But, they won’t offer them up freely. They need to feel judged before they can speak to them. In fact, they say these partial truths knowing them to be partial truths to have others say them to them.
By doing so, they create a culture of casting a blind eye to the parts of our pleasures or pursuits we do not wish to acknowledge so we can enjoy their benefits.
If we say there are no negative consequences, are there?
Wisdom can see the world with both. It knows money is useful, but not entirely. That bread is not to be wasted, and that wine makes you feel good with consequences.
Beware of those who see only a truth and not the whole truth.
Let wisdom be your guide.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brokenwheel.substack.com/subscribe
- Through sloth the roof sinks in,and through indolence the house leaks. -
I have a problem. I am a compulsive cleaner.
That doesn’t mean everything I own is spotless. Rather I cannot feel at rest while something in my house is dirty.
If the dishes are filling up the kitchen sink, I feel every single one of them, including the time and effort it will take to clean them.
Can I sit on the couch and be lazy? Sure, but it doesn’t mean that I’m not thinking about what needs to be done.
It makes my rest restless. Now, I think in some ways this emotion is common to most people, but I do believe, especially in my conversations with others, I feel it more acutely.
It is one of the reasons I feel disconnected from a common comment from those within my generation regarding home ownership.
I hate home ownership. Something is always breaking!
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My initial thought is of course it is. Even with my predilections, I find a part of the emotion they are communicating within my own chest as well.
I want to spend most of my time relaxing and enjoying the conveniences of modern life. If I’m really honest, one of the reasons I work so hard is so I can sit around.
So, what can I do? Well, if I decide to rest more than I want to work and maintain my home, what is the consequence too that?
The roof caves in. The house leaks. The floors creak. The HVAC system gets ivy in the motor. That mold keeps growing.
Houses tend to fall apart on their own. They need no encouragement from us to start being run down and ragged.
The real truth? This is everything in our lives. Even marriages and the like will begin to crumble if we do not take the time to make them special or provide the routine maintenance they need.
The question then becomes why ever own a home? It’s a chore you have to work through your whole life! Why would you give that to yourself.
Perhaps you might even ask the question, why get married. Who wants the extra burden in their life of taking care of someone else.
Isn’t life complicated enough with all the other problems that it has thrown your way? Why put more work on your back and make things more difficult?
The answer is simple. Have you been in a home? It is a house that has been cared for. It provides more to your life than the good itself.
Have you ever been in love with your spouse for years after you have been married? It is better than being married for one year even with all the newness of the relationship.
The maintenance creates safety, security, and acceptance. The work, even if its mundane provides a real security that makes your life more at rest.
There is that word again. Work leads to a deeper rest. It is a removal of all the snakes from underneath the floorboards. It is not accepting a stone that hasn’t been flipped over.
Once you know that there are no unknowns throughout your house, your rest can become deeper because you and your family have made it a home.
How much more than our Savior and His work that has made our eternal house a True home.
May we trust in His great work.
Housekeeping – Hey everyone, Katie and I have made the decision to proceed with a surrogate for at least one of our three “snow babies.”
With that all being said, I’m picking up a second job and she will be working overtime as well to help pay for this and potentially future transfers.
For the foreseeable future, Broken Wheel is going to a once-a-week post on Wednesday. If this changes how you want to contribute, no hard feelings.
Thanks for going on this journey with me! I am determined to finish this project and have loved every time I’ve had the opportunity to write here.
Have a great rest of your week, and God bless.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brokenwheel.substack.com/subscribe
- Happy are you, O land, when your king is the son of the nobility,and your princes feast at the proper time,for strength, and not for drunkenness! -
The first part of this verse may rub you the wrong way if you are an American. We are known quite famously for our distaste for nobility.
Not to mention this insane discussion about a king.
This verse builds off the prior. As we read it, we need to compare it with the previous in order to understand it better.
Previously, we were told woe was coming to the nation who had a child as a king. Now we are being told to be thankful that our king is the son of nobility?
How do these two relate?
Perhaps the bad king is not from the line of nobility. This may be because he is a usurper or the favorite son of a conqueror.
In a sense, he has no history with the nation, no ancestry to lean on or someone to guide him in how to rule a specific country.
The woe referred to in sixteen may have already occurred in his or his nation’s conquest of the land. The parties and feasting may be at the nation’s expense that has already lost their men in a war.
Why would you want your king to be a member of the nobility? Well, like it or not, they are the only family in town with any experience in running the country.
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Smith. Baker. Weaver. We gave these names so people would have an instant connection between the family and their trade.
The same is true for kings in the past. We understand that information and skill sets today don’t necessarily come from one’s birth, but it is definitely a head start.
The second part of this verse informs us that the king mentioned here is not a youth. How do we know? Because the princes are feasting at the proper time.
As we said last week, it is good to have a king with experience. It is not a guarantee of wisdom, but it is the most common way by which men obtain it.
Finally, and this is a beautiful part of the verse, they feast not for drunkenness but for strength. What does this mean?
To be honest, most times after I have a big meal, I’m not good for much else than sitting on the couch. How can you feast for strength?
If you have a celebration for a victory, does it not strengthen the crown? If you feast in response to a bountiful crop, doesn’t it grow the bonds of friendship between one another?
It is as if you could feast at the proper time!
Excess at some points in our life is a celebration of bounty. It is an echo of the paradise awaiting us. But, we are to never forget that this place is not our home. To do so will lead to drunkenness.
What’s the lesson for a nation without a king? Perhaps it’s that a land is happy when its leaders and its supporters are all in the proper place, both ability and stage of life.
We should strive in our own lives to make this true. We should trust in God where the brokenness of this world has caused this to not be true.
Lean on God to see this world with His eyes.
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- Woe to you, O land, when your king is a child,and your princes feast in the morning! -
Woe is a stark phrase. It means that great sorrow or distress is coming upon whom the word is directed at.
It’s dire language for a king to use. They are precisely aware of what kind of woe can befall a land more so than others.
There might even be times in their reign when they themselves are called upon to be the architect of woe upon another nation.
Solomon here could possibly be speaking from experience. Not from his own kingdom, but perhaps from a nearby kingdom.
What is the danger when children rule? Don’t they understand technology better than their parents? Can they not come up with intuitive solutions to old problems?
Despite these advantages to youth, there is one thing the young can never have over the aged.
Experience.
This is important to hear; experience is not correlated with wisdom although it is one of the primary ways by which it is gained.
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You can go through many events in your life and not learn anything from them. You can also be young and hold tight to God’s word and gain wisdom beyond your years.
This is rare and most people gain it through experience.
Even though the young-in may have some great ideas, the chance of him being wise is low. In addition, he is a youth and filled with the passions that accompany it.
What could this result in? Untimely wars or not being prepared for them, pursuing one’s own lusts and desires, or perhaps ignoring the plights of others due to limited vision.
Perhaps even the king will have feasting in the morning instead of the evening. What is the problem with this?
He is beginning the day without any attempt to work. He is getting the reward for being a king without providing his end of the bargain.
Perhaps you have already begun to see it. In our day and age, are we ruled by the desires of the aged or the youth?
We have this belief that revolution will come with the young. That the structures that have oppressed people for so long will topple to the ground.
What do these individuals wish to achieve? They want the benefits of society while working as little as possible for themselves and others.
Now, may they see actual corruption? Potentially, there is always the possibility that those in authority are blind or are willfully hurting others for their own gain.
Corruption must be dealt with in the proper manner. This is something that the young fail to see and they create changes like that of the French Revolution – destruction to all that was dear.
You don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. You don’t try to remove the splinter until the log is out of your own. You must use minimal necessary force.
We see the opposite in our day and age. We see certainty with no facts, we see brashness disguised as empathy, and destruction of all definitions as liberation.
A kingdom governed by unwise rulers, either old or young, cannot stand. They will flail around in the dark until their stronger and truly evil enemies come to remove them.
Or perhaps nature will get a fair shot in. Or God.
But we know this world is headed for judgement. Our Lord has lovingly liberated us from it. Even while we are headed for destruction, we can have hope in Jesus.
What’s the lesson?
Do not give authority to unwise leaders.
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- The toil of a fool wearies him,for he does not know the way to the city. -
There is a strange dichotomy in regard to being a fool. You may have already noticed this in my previous posts.
You do not want to be a fool. You are already a fool.
Why do I know you are a fool? Because all men are fools in some area of their life. You simply cannot know everything.
Imagine an electrician scoffing at a brain surgeon. It has happened before, and it will happen again.
It is good to know you are a fool. Why? Who has something to learn? Only someone who knows they do not know can gain knowledge.
We’ve identified the conundrum. Everyone wishes to be wise and to not act like a fool, yet everyman is forever and perpetually a fool.
Then how do we ever come to recognize some men and women as wise?
I’ve said this before, but part of being wise is that you know this truth. By acknowledging your foolishness, you already begin to move yourself towards wisdom, an unreachable goal.
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The fool in this story, and like many of the fools mentioned by Solomon, is one who does not realize he is a fool.
It’s strange to say his toil wearies him. Doesn’t any labor weary the body? How could it be any other way for the wise?
Have you ever engaged in nonproductive labor? Perhaps you were asked to do a task at work that had no utility, simply filling out forms.
Probably performing that task bothered you. Why? Because it was a waste of the work itself. Not only did you lose time, but you spent effort for no gain.
The fool does this to himself in his own labor because he does not know its purpose. He works and not only tires his body but doesn’t achieve anything with it.
How could this happen? Perhaps he is engaged in a trade that he is bad at yet refuses to admit so to himself.
Maybe he lacks knowledge and creates a product that cannot be sold because it is not high enough quality. Perhaps he is too lazy.
His labor doesn’t matter. It is just as useful as if he didn’t do it at all. The second half of the verse helps us see this idea more clearly.
How is that the fool cannot find his way to the city? It doesn’t make any sense. Does he have a house but simply winds up sleeping in the street?
He has to be able to find the city. Our verse means something a little more abstract.
The metaphor means something akin to this, he cannot navigate his way through the city’s governmental, economical, or legal intricacies.
What do I mean? It’s not a matter of finding a place, it’s a matter of knowing what price to sell at, what licenses he needs, and what taxes he has to pay.
Even while being in the city, it’s like he isn’t even there, and his inability to make sense of it leaves him with no benefit from his work.
It’s sad when we see people like this; people who blame laws and competitors for their lack of success when we all struggle underneath the same rules.
What is the lesson for us? We could say it is don’t act like a fool. We could even say it is to know you are a fool.
The best lesson?
Don’t be so foolish you cannot learn.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit brokenwheel.substack.com/subscribe
- A fool multiplies words,though no man knows what is to be,and who can tell him what will be after him? -
Isn’t it amazing how everyone seems to know everything about everything? Perhaps you think I’m guilty of this as well.
At times I definitely struggle with it. Why? Well, the information age makes us feel like experts. The right answers are only a google away.
Yet, many of us have terrible memories. Rarely, unlike our very recent ancestors, do we commit anything to memory.
We take notes, jot things on sticky pads, take pictures, send emails, or just reread the Wikipedia article for the 18th time.
Why? Does it seem impossible that those who came before us memorized entire epic poems? What changed?
Perhaps the ubiquity of paper and information systems simply reduced the need. Why memorize the story when the blue ray is sitting in the drawer?
This over-confidence that comes from an abundance of information leads us to think we know many topics completely.
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We’ve all known (or been) the individual who has an opinion on everything. Yes, from politics, religion, and how to fix your cracking foundation.
What does Ecclesiastes tell us? A fool multiplies his words. What does this mean? For starters, he speaks of everything.
But it is more than that. He speaks of everything and says more than is necessary to explain it. They say nothing yet they don’t stop talking.
Ironically, if given the chance to speak long enough, they may even conclude the opposite of what they initially touted as correct!
Why? Because they are not speaking with any wisdom or intelligence; they simply speak whatever is at the top of their mind, filling in the absence with their most current thought.
What should we do? First, we should learn to be silent. In listening, we may learn and become wiser and more capable.
Second, we should learn something well. What do I mean? Is it not good to help your fellow man? To improve their life and take suffering from it?
How might you do this without some knowledge? Can you be a plumber and not understand vent, water and sanitary lines?
You must learn and in learning you must become a student at the expense of what else you can learn. By limiting yourself, you become more than what you are.
With that focus, you gain the respect the fool wishes to obtain by seeming to know everything. You become someone worth listening to.
You will notice when you speak that others listen. Why? Because they want to hear. They communicate this with their bodies, with their attention.
But what else does Ecclesiastes say? Who can know what is to be? What will come after him?
The first part is instruction in knowledge while the latter is instruction in wisdom. The future is a mystery to every man, hidden behind the veil.
What man can see it? Perhaps one may answer the prophet. Is he not able to speak to us of the future promises of God? Do they not speak of the future of Christ’s reign?
Perhaps, but it is not something they come to by their own. It is rather something shown to them. This presenter is the one who knows what is to be and comes after man, even in finality.
He has seen the end of this heaven and earth, of these forms, and of this pain.
Praise God for the His redeeming vision.
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- The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness,and the end of his talk is evil madness. -
Thou shalt not judge.
It’s one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Many people outside of the church love it. They do so because they see people within the church judging them harshly.
You cannot follow this simple command by your God? Then how dare you call yourself Christian. I am obviously more Christlike than you who purports to be His follower.
Many people within the church hate the banter surrounding this verse because of this tactic (perhaps you could go so far in certain situations to call it bullying).
You will see Christians tie themselves in knots trying to show that this verse doesn’t mean what it plainly means.
Of course, we are to judge. How else will be able to call sin - sin? We have to call out things that grieve God no matter where they can be found.
Why then do I call this one of my favorite verses despite the confusion it causes within the church and society? It is because the verse has nothing to do with the argument surrounding it.
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In many ways, we all act like Pharisees, trying to determine with our worldly understanding the meaning of a verse that has nothing to do with us.
Why are we not to judge? Because there is only one Judge.
There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?
It will surprise you possibly to know that this verse comes directly from James, chapter 4 verse 12.
Does this mean we do not live lives according to God’s will? Does it mean we do not witness to the unsaved? How can we know if we cannot discern what pleases God?
And here we see the truth. Christians are not supposed to judge but warn of judgement. All know in their hearts that the secret actions they take are stored against them.
Whether they believe it or not, all feel the corruption of living against the force of Being itself. Their own lives become a judgment, forcing them to see their own foolishness.
What foolishness is it they have succumbed to? By saying you cannot judge me they mean more than what they say. They mean no one can judge me.
Not even the King of Heaven. They don’t believe in Him and use His own words to belittle His followers, exposing their own foolishness.
Reminds me of a showdown in the wilderness.
What happens when you believe there is no judge or that His will cannot be known?
You might begin to believe that your sexual relationships don’t matter. Afterall, nobody is hurt. There is no crime!
You may think the consequences of those sexual actions should be erased. A night of pleasure willing entered shouldn’t result in a lifelong financial burden.
No one has been hurt, save for the embryos.
What then will stop you or others from leaving the natural use of each other’s bodies? You will feel it a moral obligation to give homosexual couples the same cultural standing as heterosexual ones.
If men’s and women’s bodies have lost their purpose (rearing children), then why not allow them to be interchanged?
Why not remove their ability to serve the Lord in one of His earliest commands?
Why not butcher your body like the pagans?
Why be judged?
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- The words of a wise man’s mouth win him favor, but the lips of a fool consume him. -
A mark of a good teacher is knowing when to ask your audience a question.
This is most clearly seen in the poor discussion questions that accompany study books. The questions definitely can generate discussion, but not perhaps in the way the author’s intended.
There is always the opportunity for the class to run away with the lecture when a question is asked. Give them an inch and some take a mile.
Perhaps a more unsure instructor will only use rhetorical questions as a way to indicate thought without inviting others to participate.
A step up from this is the “are you actually listening?” question. It drives engagement with the talk, but limits it to a memorization game.
What did I just read? What did we just discuss? How does this relate to what we just covered?
These questions are useful as they keep people on track, help them remember key parts of your talk that you intend to reference, and to guilt listeners who are not paying attention.
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Some teachers might be tempted to think that the best question is the one that invites their listeners to think for themselves.
A nicely phrased open-ended question has the flair of the academic all around it, but this requires a buy-in from the students that is usually not given.
For an open question to work, the audience must’ve read enough to engage with it properly. This is a luxury for a teacher and not a possibility for a lecturer.
Now, asking on open ended question to students who cannot answer it shows them, if they are paying attention, that they are not ready for the exam!
But, a lecturer has the hour. No required reading is distributed beforehand. They are the only person to engage with their texts.
So, what kind of question can they ask? They ask questions that show their audience how to think.
They are questions that show how the lecturer moves from point to point throughout their studies and meditations on the subject itself, revealing how to learn the material.
A good lecturer reveals what they have learned and instructs those listening how to discover similar insights for themselves.
How can we know this? We might have been lucky enough to have experienced this type of teacher before, or we could thank Socrates himself.
The Socratic method is essentially this process of asking questions to get to the bottom of things. Read Socrates though and you will see he acts plenty of times like a guide rather than an explorer.
Perhaps it is with the proper questions that we can recognize wise men and women among us.
Now, one thing that we can find in any lecture is the student who wishes to not only answer every question but fill every silence.
They may even have some genuinely good insights, but these are drowned out by the rest of their speech.
Why? No one came to hear them. They’ve taken over a public forum. They came to an event where someone else was to speak and made it about their ego.
They’ve proven themselves a fool and destroyed any good message they had with an abundance of speech.
What is the lesson for us? Sit when it is our time to sit. Even bad lectures prove to our benefit if we listen to what they lack.
As a teacher, know you must guide your listeners and direct away from distractions. You must be an expert both in speech and your material in order to do so.
In all things, act as unto God.
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- If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge,he must use more strength,but wisdom helps one to succeed. If the serpent bites before it is charmed,there is no advantage to the charmer. -
Once again, we have some useful proverbs to discuss that can guide us in our own life. By adopting them, perhaps we can utilize them prior to experiencing their veracity.
Ever tried to cut something with a dull edge? It’s miserable work. I keep a razor blade on me and for some reason I’m terrible at replacing the blade.
In an effort to conserve my blades, I’ll use the same dull one again and again until my fingers are better tools. Only then will I reach for a new blade.
This same scenario used to happen in our kitchen until I bought a knife sharpener. Best decision of my culinary career.
No longer do we struggle in the kitchen to make cuts. Three quick runs over the modern whetstone and prepping a meal has never been easier.
Now, this isn’t just true when it comes to knives. You of course have heard the axiom of the southern man regarding this same truth?
Work smarter not harder.
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What does it mean? It’s not an injunction against working hard, it’s simply that increasing your effort at times isn’t the best path forward.
Perhaps, if you step back and assess the situation, you can finish the task faster, with less effort, and potentially future tasks faster as well.
In fact, the decision to do the hard work is found in the decision to work wisely. What do I mean?
The best thing for you to do is not to man up. That is actually an escape to do what is expedient and not what is most efficient.
We think of hard work as only being that which is physically difficult. Sure, that’s part of it, but it’s important to remember to do the hard work of problem solving as well.
Now, what is this part about a serpent biting? If you have a King James version, you probably read this verse and didn’t think a second thought about it.
Those versions appear to talk about two people, a charmer and a babbler, i.e. someone skilled and someone filled with nonsense.
Pretty easy to see the meaning in that verse. Unfortunately, that’s not really what the verse means in the original Hebrew.
The ESV is a better match. In this version, we can see that the charmer is bitten because he has failed to do his job properly.
The serpent isn’t charmed and strikes. What is the point in hiring someone who cannot do their job?
Why is the charmer bitten? Well, it could be simply due to incompetence. The text here also implies another reason.
He is impatient or in hurry. Sometimes, when we are experts in dangerous work, we can assume we are fine because we’ve done this before.
It’s when you assume that you are above safety, that you get bit. How does this look in our own day and age?
We still do dangerous work. Construction for starters. Don’t tie off? That’s a dangerous risk a few stories up.
But it also comes in a host of office regulations and laws in general. The one time you don’t cross your t’s is the one time somebody checks.
What do our proverbs teach us today?
Work with wisdom and diligence.
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- He who quarries stones is hurt by them,and he who splits logs is endangered by them. -
Probably should have mentioned this in the last post, but the rest of chapter ten is going to consist of these pithy proverbs.
They’ll wrap up in chapter eleven bringing us back to the problem that Ecclesiastes has been addressing, though these sayings are addressing it as well.
Solomon can’t help but write a few Proverbs whenever he picks up his pen.
Our verse today is relatively straight forward. Hard manual labor is fraught with injuries that can occur only when the work is taken on.
If you wish to split stone, be prepared to be hurt by the process. If you fell trees or split wood, be prepared for the tree to fall your way.
Does this happen in our modern office work? Yes, typically the consequences look a little different.
A blown schedule leads to losing the firm’s best client. A poorly managed budget puts the company under extreme financial stress.
The copier jamming causes you to lose your mind as you follow the prompts on the screen without ever seeing the miniscule piece the contraption is stumbling over.
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Just me? Fine. People don’t print that much anyway.
What’s the idea here? To engage in work is to engage in risk. If you want to make money or deliver something of value, then you risk failure.
It definitely looks different in our day and age then in Solomon’s time and thank God for that. The removal of all that hard labor has undoubtedly contributed to our longer lives.
When I was a child, I had a very simple but reasonable lie I believed. I thought that it was in everyone’s best interest that they avoid pain whenever possible.
I was extremely scared of being hurt when I was young. I don’t mean breaking a bone or needing stitches. I mean getting scrapes and the like.
Yes, six-year-old me was no fun.
But, I realized as I grew up how untenable that was, primarily to good parenting. I learned, like everyone does, that by doing I could accomplish my desires and a part of doing at times included pain.
A scraped knee or finger here was nothing compared to the fun day of riding with my friends or helping dad where I could as he built our tree fort.
Now, there is a reason we struggle to understand this verse, at first. This largely depends on the industry you work in as well.
It’s almost impossible for most of us to suffer physical injuries at our work. Sure, it can happen, but something seriously has to go wrong for that to happen.
That isn’t true for steel workers, or electricians, or plumbers, or masons or truck drivers or farmers etc. etc.
We’ve removed a lot of the physical cost of work from our lives. We are able to be more efficient, store value in dollars, and create services our agrarian forefathers would claim as acts of the devil.
That doesn’t mean that we aren’t physical beings that need physical work done. Plumbing is a matter of survival, and it’s difficult body breaking work, that most of us know nothing about.
Why are we talking about this? Isn’t this supposed to be a Bible study?
Why did you not understand this verse the first time you read it? Perhaps it’s because unlike when it was written, not every job today is blue collar work.
What does the Bible teach us here?
Gratitude; for others, history, and vanishing striving.
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- He who digs a pit will fall into it,and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall. -
Where in the world have I been?
First, if you pay for this blog, I added some time to your subscription. You’re not paying for me not to post, and I apologize for neglecting my obligation.
Second, this pause has been infertility related. My wife and I had a failed IVF transfer near the end of July. That’s not the best, but I’ve obviously been able to write through them before.
What made this time different?
April – July was difficult. Sure, emotionally, but also in what we went through. A surgery in April, a stim in May, unable to transfer until June, wait four weeks, and lose another child.
That, well that is just a lot. In addition to that, Katie started to have anxiety associated with the medication she was on resulting in physical reactions.
I’m happy to say that being off the medication for a month has had a profound effect on these symptoms as well as counseling.
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Dealing with all of this really disrupted our schedules. We needed some time to grieve, heal, and plan our next steps.
That meant our routines took a major hit. To state the obvious, this blog got placed at the bottom of the pile.
I tried to write this post several times in the past and found the words wouldn’t come. Every time I felt a thought coming together, a barrier of weariness would just keep me from completing it.
I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m apologizing. If you don’t want to hear it, trust me when I say I’m apologizing to myself and God too.
Now, as God would have it, we have a pretty easy verse to deal with today, and I should be able to wrap it up with what remains left in this post.
Thanks for letting me share my heart.
He who digs a pit falls into it. What’s the idea here? If you make a trap, prepare to be the one who suffers from it.
There’s another verse that seems relevant. He who lives by the sword, dies by the sword. Not as poetic to say the man who lives by the pit, dies by the pit.
What’s the lesson? There are punishments in store for the wicked.
Now, what in the world does the second half mean? Who has broken a wall and found a serpent inside it?
Typically, those guys are outside or in crawl spaces. Rats or bugs hang out inside walls, if anything.
Well, for that reality we have only to thank modern building standards and materials. What am I saying? In earlier types of construction, it was possible to find snakes in your wall!
Now, it wasn’t like serpents crawled through the walls and bit people, although I’m sure that happened occasionally.
No, Solomon is essentially referring to someone tearing a wall down and suffering a bite from a snake napping in safety within the structure.
What is the warning? It is one against careless action. You could of course tear down walls with tools that would prevent this type of injury.
Someone who was moving quickly or not being safe? Well, they shouldn’t be too surprised if they get bitten.
We have a warning in this verse regarding violent and careless actions. The former is the evil that we prepare and the other is the evil we don’t prevent.
Does it matter if all is vanity?
Let’s keep reading.
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There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, as it were an error proceeding from the ruler: folly is set in many high places, and the rich sit in a low place. I have seen slaves on horses, and princes walking on the ground like slaves.
Okay, you may not like these verses. For a lot of reasons, I think they can rub the reader in the wrong way.
Let’s walk through it and see if there is any wisdom for us within them. Many times, the Bible is telling us something we need but do not want to know.
First off, this is an evil, a perversion of how things should work, that emanates from the ruler.
So, what does the king do? He sets folly in high places. You don’t promote the people that can do the work but your friends.
This type of promotion in government and business should be familiar to you. Perhaps you have even had a front row seat to it.
Now Solomon takes this common form of corruption and then moves it to a place we are no longer as comfortable with.
The rich have been forced by the king to sit in a low place. Why would that be a problem? Shouldn’t those oppressors be put low?
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Listen, being corrupt is not correlated with being rich, especially in economies that are free. Can you be corrupt and rich? Absolutely, but there is another word that correlates here.
Competence. If your wealth wasn’t obtained by inheritance or corruption, then you got your money like most people do.
You did something better than anyone else, whether that was an advantage in timing, quality, or efficiency.
So, if you have to pick, who do you want in the high places of government? The rich man or the fool? Obviously, you want someone with a proven track record who makes decisions at that scale.
Solomon in verse six has been talking about the high places of society. He then moves to metaphorical positions and uses some hair-raising language.
Slaves on horses and princes like slaves. Yikes. What are we to make of that?
To understand it, we need to understand the metaphor a bit better. If you knew a country had princes and slaves, who would you expect to be working the fields?
Right. This verse has it backwards. What does that mean? That expectations and the way things are “supposed” to work have been flipped.
Regardless of how we feel about the language, we have noticed a pattern, where the world as it “should” be is reversed. This is a pattern of chaos.
Look at the previous verse, and we clearly see the same pattern. What then are we to make of this?
That the person with character, know-how, and track record, i.e. the prince, has been placed in the position of a slave. The slave, who lacks these attributes, now sits as a king.
It is also important to remember that slavery in Solomon’s time was entered into at times willingly because someone could not pay their debt.
Who wants a bad businessman to act as a prince?
What is our verse saying then? That those that can act and behave like princes can be removed from those positions by corrupt rulers to give the rewards of those titles to their friends.
What can we do? Speak about this corruption. Remove it when we can. Do not allow shortsightedness or favoritism guide our hand.
Reward competence, not familiarity or unsubstantiated victimhood.
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If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place,for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.
A ruler. Now that is an unfamiliar word to an American. Even the President must leave his post when his term ends.
First, let’s identify what this verse means in the context of Solomon’s time. It’s not terribly complicated.
Who is the ruler? It is the sovereign of the state. In the nation of Israel, this would have meant the king or his appointed representative.
If the king or a noble believes you have done something against the crown, whether correctly or incorrectly, what should you do?
Stay at home. Wait for them to come and take you away and explain your case when appropriate. Even if it is for a crime you have committed, Solomon says this will put the matter to bed.
Does that mean you won’t suffer? Honestly, that depends on what you did. There will be some consequences if you broke the law.
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Remember though, the intensity of punishments during this time was much more extreme than the kind we experience today, potentially resulting in the loss of life and limb.
But, if the king is wrong about you, perhaps your best bet is to meet his anger calmly and present your case, at least that seems correct in a good monarchy.
Okay, now let’s take this to our modern times. First off, we have to answer a critical question. Who is sovereign in the United States of America?
You may be tempted to say POTUS, and you would be correct to some extent. The president fills the role of both executive and figurehead.
But, he doesn’t get his power by birth or by divine decree as kings did in the past. That power resides with another body.
It is in fact the people of this country. Power and authority do not come through succession or right, but in the election of the people.
What method then do the people express their will through? There are many answers, but one expression is the law.
When done properly, the police officer is an embodiment of the will of the people. They are powered by the laws of the land in order to protect the populace from criminals.
Now, you might say that you don’t agree with those laws, but that is what is great about America is you have the power to change them! That’s how you know sovereignty lies with us.
So, what do you do if a policeman is after you? According to this passage, wisdom teaches us to react to the situation with calmness, whether in the right or wrong.
If you are like me, you’ve noticed the tension building in the background of this conversation. Does this feel anywhere in line with how our culture sees and thinks about the police?
No. Cops seem not only under the gun for every action they take, but they also appear to not receive proper training as well.
They are portrayed as oppressor rather than protectors. In regards to the FBI, as actors of the government rather than defenders of the people.
Does this verse speak to that? Yes and no. It expects corruption in our peacekeepers. Remember? Earlier we read that even the offices of justice are corrupt.
What can you do in the face of noble institutions that act poorly?
Respond with temperance.
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- Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense,and he says to everyone that he is a fool. -
People do not like the meaning of the word sin.
Perhaps Christians are happy to admit they are sinners in need of a loving savior, but if you define the term, you may find yourself surprised at the cold reception.
Why? To understand that, we must begin by knowing the cultural definition of sin and the Biblical definition of sin.
The cultural definition of sin is the false one most people carry with them. Perhaps, fire and brimstone preaching has pushed this idea on adherents of the Protestant faith.
It reads something akin to sin is all the bad things I have done. The Biblical definition agrees with this notion, yet makes the stakes higher.
Sin is all the bad things you have done and all the good things you have not done or prepared yourself for.
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Now we bristle. This changes the map on how I spend my free time. No longer am I called to follow a list of rules, but instead I must live my life in the pursuit of doing good?
Yes. Every time you fail to hit that mark, it’s sin. Life isn’t about getting your fire insurance, never doing drugs, and not watching bad movies.
It is about being a man or woman that follows after Christ’s mission: to make disciples of all nations.
This isn’t about checking boxes and doing whatever you want. It is about a radical shift in the way you approach every situation.
Now, what does that have to do with a fool walking down the street. Let propose this, in what way does a fool act like a fool?
Right, he acts like a fool in every way he can. It is in his demeanor, in the words he chooses to speak, and how he is surprised and overcome by things others find obvious.
He doesn’t care about the performance of his actions, merely (in the worst possible sense) lives in the moment, experiencing the world like a child with none of the innocence.
Now, we can ask ourselves the opposite. How does the wise man act wise?
The answer is the same but with one word changed. He possesses wisdom at all times, walking with her and conversing with her as he speaks to you.
He treats her as a constant companion, a marvelous feat, and like our fool, is most likely to be found in books, imaginations, and ideals we wish to live up too.
Now, despite these characters being fanciful, you know them. In fact, you could go down the list of people you know and split them into fools and wise men and women.
What’s more, you could generate levels in between these people and end up with people who are truly fools and people you could call wiser than most.
In fact, you may be able to pull out a few that are so foolish, it goes beyond your description and possibly a few wise sages who spoke the right word to you at the right time.
Now, how did they get to be there? What lead them to that position? How can you avoid the fool and become like the wise person who spoke into your moment of need?
That is a mystery, but perhaps part of the answer is this, to understand at every moment, you can sin or not sin.
Pray for strength to hit the mark.
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- A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right,but a fool’s heart to the left. -
This is a verse that upon first reading makes perfect sense; however, that revelation seems to fade away as our modern minds begin to explore the verse.
Our initial thoughts may go something akin to this: wise =’s good and right =’s good. Fool =’s bad and left =’s bad.
Got it. Be like the wise man and always go to the right.
Then, our modern mind begins to tangle with the meaning we have just effortlessly divined.
Well, why is it good to go towards the right? Is there something about that direction that matters? If it’s good to go to the left, wouldn’t the wise man go to the left and not the right?
Does this have to do with a cultural preference for right-handed people? Which way do people turn if given the option between right and left? Has any of this been peer reviewed?
The mind begins to spiral with all of these questions, and it felt like seconds ago we just had the answer! How can we begin to rationalize this verse in a way that makes sense?
Well, we can start by looking at how the human brain works. Perhaps modern problems require modern answers.
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At a high level, the part of our brain responsible for controlling the right side of our bodies is associated with articulated or formal knowledge.
What do I mean? This is the portion of the brain that “knows” things. It’s the portion that looks at your yard and knows the grass needs to be cut and how to do it.
Well, wouldn’t we call a man who knew things wise? In a sense, our body associates this knowledge typically with its right side.
Now for our left. The portion of our brain operating this side of our body is associated with things we do not know or understand.
We use it to respond to danger or to learn a new skill. It is the hyper aware teenager sitting in the driver’s seat for the first time.
Well, wouldn’t we call someone who doesn’t know anything a fool? Our body positions this with our left side.
Now we see that implicitly we understand the direction of the wise man makes sense philosophically and bodily.
This is even reflected in Matthew when Jesus talks about the sheep and goats. The sheep (those who know Him) are at His right hand and the goats (those who do not) are at His left.
Who would you rather be? A wise man or a fool? The answer is easy, but the follow up is not so simple, though most of us already know the answer.
Would you rather be a fool or disinterested? Perhaps another way to describe the individual is lukewarm.
Right, we would rather be the fool. Being a fool and knowing you are a fool probably means you are on a search. For what? Well, whatever a fool needs!
The man who is content with what he knows? He stays where he is. Isn’t it funny that the people Jesus calls lukewarm are “Christians?”
Here is a great truth. The fool and the wise man agree on one thing despite being at seemingly opposite ends of the moral divide.
They both know that they know nothing.
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- Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench;so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. -
We are called to imitate Jesus. We are made in God’s image. We are to be holy because God is holy. Stating the obvious here, but that is a lot of pressure.
Many times, when we read the gospels or the Old Testament stories, we look at the Jews and wonder how they could be so blind.
Rarely do we ever slow down to think that the people the Bible is talking about are people just like us, prideful, arrogant, and shortsighted.
Jesus might tell us we are living in the flesh, not the Spirit.
If we compare the actions of those groups of people to our verse today, we might say that describing their actions as foolish is perhaps too generous.
They had the only Son of God in their midst speaking in a way that they were told to expect, and they didn’t recognize Him.
Doesn’t seem like a minor mistake.
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Now, we are at the same risk as the Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles whom Jesus and the early church interacted with, but we have one distinct advantage. The in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit.
We don’t understand this mystery fully, except to say that God speaks to us all directly if we are willing to listen.
What does this look like?
It’s found in a prompting to act that feels contrary to your nature. It’s the explanation of a Bible verse that has been alluding you. It’s a brother calling and speaking God’s truth into your life.
In a sense, it is the whole world coming together. A feeling as if heaven and earth are properly meeting in your heart and that God is being worshipped and exalted all within the same moment.
It is as if there are no flies in the ointment. It is as if there is no foolishness in some wisdom from a friend. Apples of gold in settings of silver.
Well, those are wonderful moments, but are they not rare? We don’t live in that state for long, and when we do experience it, a single self-thought makes it disappear immediately.
What does this mean? Perhaps we are the fly in this current state. Undoubtedly, we are fools because the event we experience in God’s presence escapes our articulation.
But, God appears to keep inviting us back to those moments! If we are faithful in the small, does He not say we will be faithful in the large?
We are not to be children. The storms of life come whether or not we are men or babies, but only men can pull babies out of floods.
What is the lesson God is attempting to show us? That our goal is to be there, not in a space, not just a time, but in a space, time, and belief.
We are to be there more often. We are to stay there longer. But how can we enjoy the pleasing aroma of His presence? How can we not be fools anymore?
By picking out the flies. By listening to His word. By craving the work of our Father more than our physical bread. A task we can never hope to complete in this body.
Yet a victory He has already won.
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- Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good. -
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. How can a kingdom divided against itself stand? Jesus’s words aren’t a perfect parallel, but there is a lot of common ground between the two phrases.
One of the main thrusts of the New Testament is that the church is supposed to be united and actively living out its mission: the great commission and the greatest commandments.
I’ve always found this idea compelling even when I was young reading Ephesians. If this is how the world will know we are saved, then it has to be a priority!
Well, to make a long story short, I haven’t seen many churches, let alone myself, live this out. When I was younger, I even offended people with this critique in my exuberant zeal.
Some may see this hypocrisy and say, “Well, that proves it! God clearly isn’t real because His own follower’s don’t live out the command that shows they are His disciples!”
It is a common motif, but frankly it shouldn’t surprise anyone who has been saved or read Exodus. We are constantly sinning and not following God’s commands.
As quite an annoying individual, I took my misgivings at the apparent contradiction in a new direction.
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Why are we not living this out? Why are we not showing love to our brothers? Why does church feel like an event and not a way of life?
The answer to that question is extremely complex, one that I don’t think I’ve come remotely close to answering.
The answer is an amalgamation of history, denominations, and culture. To give each of those three their due would require a book each.
And it’s more than that, as that doesn’t touch on the spiritual aspects of why we have struggled to live out the basics.
Perhaps a way to conceive of the problem is a shifting mountain of tasks before us. Once we solved them, we will easily begin to start living the Christian life!
It would be depressing if it wasn’t absolutely foreseen by God Himself.
Well, we are left with an extremely uncomfortable question in light of our verse. If one sinner destroys much good, how about a whole church of them?
Now, I’ve opened a massive can of worms. I’m fully aware that anything I attempt to say is going to fall into two traps.
One, I’ll commit the sin of omission (not pointing out important context) and the sin of confusion (not expounding on the idea properly). That’s not even beginning to touch the sin of hypocrisy!
From one very sad sinner to another, I would like to offer up this path forward then out of this malaise. It doesn’t solve everything or define everything, but maybe it takes a stone off the pile.
Whatever your spiritual gift is, express it.
The body is to work together, and God has given you a unique way to heal and piece the body of His bride back together.
My radical belief? You are not a member of the church if you are not expressing your gift. It doesn’t matter what the role is. Nobody is a seat warmer.
But Hunter, I don’t know what my gift is. Fine. Take a test. Ask a friend. I don’t care what you do, as long as you truly seek it out.
Perhaps, instead of navel gazing, you may find it in performing. Worse comes to worse, you served someone.
Seek and you will find.
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Our lives are noise, noise, and more noise. Noise from our phones, noise from our roads, noise from the words spoken at the house too close to ours.
You have to see this meme. You have to see this movie. You have to see this tv series. Have you seen what is happening in Portland? Did you see what Trump said?
We need you on this meeting at 8 am. We need you to have this done today. We need you to have this done before tomorrow. Can you be online at 3 am? Can you get this done over the weekend?
Shouts, shouts, shouts and everyone has nothing to say except for what they’ve heard from someone else. No one is original. It’s all been done. It’s all going down the drain.
Breath.
How can we hope to hear what is good and true if we only listen to men?
How can we repair our home if we do not speak to our family?
How can we know God’s heart if we no longer listen?
The world is built by the prince of the air not to make you a murderer, ne’er-do-well, or criminal.
It’s built to make you forget,
To no longer see the sky and know its maker,
To lose your soul,
To take your heart.
Pray and ask for wisdom.
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- There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. -
Many times, we like to pretend that life in the past must have been idyllic, a closer relationship with nature, family, and perhaps even God.
While undoubtedly there are benefits to living in an earlier age, there are many drawbacks as well, like dying when you turn thirty.
I’m an old man depending on the country and the century.
The pros and cons of living in an earlier time are more mixed than we give them credit for. Though there is definitely one major tragedy of previous centuries we no longer have to endure.
The siege.
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The only sieges we know about come from movies and historical documents. They were triumphs in both engineering and cruelty.
How do you keep your people fed surrounding an enemy city? How can it be done without trains? How do you not feel sympathy for the people within the walls fighting for scraps.
There are four horsemen of the apocalypse. One way to think of them is the spirits that men turn to when the end has come, and hope has abandoned them.
One of them is famine. We have no idea what this even means, in our nice cars and beautiful supply chains. If anything, we struggle with the opposite.
When the worst of mankind has come to your doorstep, where can you turn? The argument of this book is that wisdom may lead to your salvation, and it may come from unlikely places.
Now, what do we know about this city that has been invaded? Can we learn anything from these few lines?
No one remembered the man who saved the city. Why is that? Perhaps it is because the city is filled with corrupt leaders and politicians, unwilling to share power or renown.
Also, why doesn’t wisdom reside with any of them? Why is it cast to the side and ignored? Why isn’t it put in a place of prominence or at least rewarded?
Man, this place sounds kind of familiar, huh? Starts with a W and ends with a C?
Right. This sounds a lot like the people running our own politics. There is no emphasis on the good and true things of life. Just the convenient and self-serving, even after a catastrophe!
You know, this sounds familiar, again! I think somebody mentioned this is the way the world works. Starts with a J ends with an S?
Jesus said a prophet is hated in his hometown. Why? His wisdom gnaws and destroys the corruption and backroom deals that bad leaders use to grow their influence.
Look back to all the prophets in the Old Testament. How many of them were loved during their age? A lot of the respect we have for them was their willingness to stand up to corruption.
What’s the idea here? This pattern of putting wisdom to the side, pulling on it in a crisis, and setting it aside has been happening for centuries.
Man, that sounds like something again. Starts with an H or M and ends with an R or E.
This isn’t just a pattern of towns. It’s a pattern in us, one we still struggle to see the truth of.
Keep wisdom exalted.
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- I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. -
I know. Why in the world are we talking about this verse.
Have you ever watched a movie and been captivated by something within it? Maybe when you were a kid you experienced something similar when an uncle told you a story.
That’s a strange phenomenon. Why are stories interesting? What makes them immersive? Why do little kids beg and whine to hear a story or for batman pajamas?
Is the answer because they are interesting? Seems like a boring answer.
Let’s try answering the question by focusing on a different desire. When you are hungry? What do you want?
Right, you and everyone else wants and desires a long chain of amino acids, preferably held together by covalent peptide bonds.
What? That doesn’t sound satisfying? Well of course we are going to put them in butter and salt and cook them! We’re not barbarians!
Okay, enough with the joke. I’m describing protein. My point? Your hunger points to food. Obviously, it is the most interesting and compelling thing when you are hungry.
Why do you need the food? Because you need the energy and material to rebuild your own body and give it life.
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I know this is a bit pedantic but stick with me. Can you control your interest in food? No, it is all compelling.
Can you eat tree bark? You can, but you will starve eventually. You must eat something that your body puts into the category of food.
Okay, how does this at all relate to stories? Perhaps they are compelling because there is something we need from them.
But Hunter, can’t our desires be for evil things?
Yes, we can desire evil, but typically this is born from a good desire being corrupted. Gluttony is an overindulgence of hunger, fornication of sexual desire, and murder of justice or pride.
If there is something we need from stories or movies, what might it be? Might it be safe to assume that we need different things?
Does not a baby need its mother’s milk? Do not adults need meat? Doesn’t a growing boy eat more than an adult at times?
Can that desire be perverted? May we want stories that tell us what we want to hear? May we not want our children to be indoctrinated with ideas and beliefs in a compelling format?
What then is present that we need? What are we after?
The answer I’ll provide is both more and less than what it needs to be. We are after wisdom, the way we are meant to live our lives, and we cannot simply know that by living.
We have to see it in others. We have to imitate it in ourselves. We must know what is wisdom by practice and understanding.
When Solomon says he has seen great wisdom, it is not an arbitrary decision. It is not merely his preference.
It is a compelled desire finding an inexplicable fulfillment in his own life. It is something missing that has been made whole - a pattern filled, the other half of the circle, or the pillar of fire in the night.
What we desire and interest us is not a decision we make. It exists before us and is compelling our being, humankind itself.
Your spirit is a gift to tune you into this world. If speak and search for the truth, then you will learn from truth itself what is right and holy.
Desire what truth compels.
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- For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them. -
Men tend to ignore their mortality. That’s not to say men don’t think they aren’t going to die, they just expect everything to “go back to normal.”
What do I mean? They don’t go to the doctor. That pain in their neck? It’s not a problem and should surely go away in a day or two or a month.
Most of the time, that is a good strategy. That crick was just a crick. Staying on your feet was uncomfortable, sure, but you got the job done.
But, that attitude ignores the warning in this verse. Death comes at times we do not expect, disguised and unfamiliar.
What do you do when someone in your family is diagnosed with a fatal disease? How are you supposed to react and help?
Sometimes we answer that with I can’t be upset, anxious, or pray for anything but God’s will to happen. When someone asks me how I’m doing I turn and say, “God has a purpose!”
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Why does that feel trite? Why does it feel thin and unreal? It’s all true, right? Isn’t that the way we would act if we had perfect faith?
Perhaps that is because it’s not the whole truth.
If I were to tell you that I spent the night drugged out of my mind, you would rightfully be concerned and maybe try to convince me to go to rehab.
But if I explained the reason for my drugged state was due to the pain pills prescribed to me by my doctor post-surgery, you would be happy for my evening in opiate bliss.
You must not speak the truth to be believed. You must know and speak the whole truth. A portion left out leads to a confusion and an incompleteness, and we all “know” it.
When Christian’s say that we must be focused on God’s goodness during tragedy, it feels wrong to say they are wrong, but it sure does feel wrong!
Now, why does it feel wrong? We have said we need the whole truth, but can we prove it? If not, might we just be feeling a death throe of the old man?
Is our uncomfortableness not with the lack of truth but with the truth itself?
We need to remember; this world is fallen. That is the message of Genesis. What does that mean?
It means the goodness started at creation has been marred. Who is good? No one. What was good in Genesis? Every created thing.
Death, sweat for bread, and pain in new life are not a part of God’s perfect, fulfilled plan. They are a consequence for not listening.
That means there is tragedy in this world that we need to work to eradicate. Is that not why Jesus came? To be a perfect sacrifice for our misdeeds?
While He was here, did He not weep for His dead friend, Lazarus?
But Hunter, did He not cry for their lack of belief?
That doesn’t seem to be how Jesus reacts to unbelief in the Gospels. He usually responds to unbelief with instruction or rebuke.
In fact, He only cries one other time. When He asks the cup of His own death to be removed.
Here is the whole truth: tragedy is part of God’s plan, for love’s existence requires sorrow.
Eyes showing joy and grief show truth.
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- Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. -
Stories are meant to show how humans overcome adversity, tragedy, or simply change their lives for the better.
At times we lie to ourselves and believe it is plot that drives them forward, but this is irrelevant if what I mentioned above doesn’t occur.
Why? A description of events is not entertaining, yet it could still be considered “plot.” No one wants to hear the description of a mountain succumbing to erosion.
The only way they would want to hear that story is if human emotion was personified into the mountain or the events somehow related to the pain we fill in our own lives.
The actual description of the events themselves? Not entertaining or interesting, and I’ll pay money to not listen to them.
Have you ever listened to a story that left you angry or frustrated?
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Sometimes for me, it’s a technical problem. A hole in the plot hole is present, such as a new piece of technology that solves all of the movie’s problems conveniently ignored by the protagonists.
Perhaps it’s the insertion of politics or moralizing, changing art into a form of propaganda.
Or perhaps it’s that the story doesn’t know why it exists. Many of us have forgotten as well.
The quintessential version of this for me is the movie No Country for Old Men. I won’t spoil it, but the tension of the story is never resolved.
Why? What’s the purpose of never “finishing” the story or providing a pay off? Well, it’s done because the artist believes it’s a statement on how life actually is.
This verse in many ways strikes me like the movie. It doesn’t matter if you train, study, or have talent. Time and chance deal the cards.
Some day you are going to pull a bad hand.
As frustrating as that is, that arbitrariness found within life is true. You can be the fittest athlete on the football team, but that means nothing if a drunk driver careens into your lane.
This makes life seem unfair. It also makes it impossible for some to believe in a god because how could any decent god put together a world this brutal.
How can a noble and righteous god not reward sacrifice? How can he give to the man who does evil and take from the one who behaves justly?
This may seem like a tangent, but it always bothers me when Christians only put a happy face on to the tragedies of life.
It’s not that I’m jealous or believe they are lying, but have they never read Genesis?
This is a bad place to live. It’s broken and falling apart. Every room you’ve been in your entire life is filled with more tragedy than you can repair in a lifetime.
And yet, you can have hope. You can enter into the Kingdom life today and see what God is doing. You can offer Christ’s love to others and help repair or usher in that new age.
Can life be arbitrary? Yes, but God gives a clear and distinct way out of it, a choice to live for Him or our own twisted desires that lead nowhere and lie.
Everyday choose meaning.
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- Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going. -
Remember, we are not supposed to trust the speaker of this group of verses. This truth I believe is apparent, yet again, in this verse.
Why should you work hard? Well, because this is the only time you can. All those thoughts, feelings, efforts that are currently apart of your life?
Their disappearing, fading, evaporating to a state where they are no longer present, your now is a breath, a vapor on the wind.
Am I writing emo poetry or am I quoting the Bible? The answer is both, but I’m not doing justice to the Bible.
Maybe I’ve told you this story before. I almost lost my faith one day. Why? I had been doing something dangerous.
I had been reading ideas from modern day philosophers and scientists purposely trying to discredit religion, Jesus, and the Bible.
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What many people do not understand is that evolution makes a lot of sense, at least it makes a lot more sense than people give it credit for.
Have you ever heard someone say, “How could random chance make all of this? It just doesn’t make any sense!”
Why I understand the impulse, it’s a misunderstanding of what evolution claims.
In Creationism, God has designed the world and everything in it. Why does it all fit? Because God as the master architect made it that way.
In Evolution, the environment is “god.” Different animals, species, and traits all compete within it and only those that work in the environment survive.
The living things are randomly generated, not the environment. It is stable and unwavering, pushing everything to conform to it.
When you begin to see evolution working in this way, which I hope to present to you as the honest way, your arguments must become more sophisticated.
I have a few of those, such as the formation of RNA, the beginning of the Universe, and the soul, but that’s not what today’s post is about.
One day, I realized that our preconceptions of right and wrong could spring out of this evolutionary design. Random personalities would adapt to the environment and produce an ethic.
It startled me. I wasn’t prepared to deal with this new information. I stared at the floor in my office for two hours and couldn’t get through the puzzle.
In walked my wife, catching me in my terror and she asked me what I was doing. I explained and she sat down with me.
It was then that I had my answer. Either morality is based in something true, or it isn’t. Either the universe has a foundation, or it does not.
If it doesn’t, then as a man who can see it, it is my job to live outside it. If it does, then I can rejoice in knowing that what I do means something.
That means something is an interesting phrase. Means something means it last, and it must last beyond me. In fact, it must be eternal.
If it ever ends, then it doesn’t mean anything. It means the foundation is cracked and going to break. It means the castles are actually on sand.
If there is an eternity, than it means in some way we are connected to it. Our thoughts, knowledge, and our work are somehow tied into that future.
And perhaps, our hands will build there.
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- Enjoy life with the wife whom you love, all the days of your vain life that he has given you under the sun, because that is your portion in life and in your toil at which you toil under the sun. -
My wife and I have been married for almost eight years. When do most marriages end? Not all the studies agree, but they do all point to two distinct time periods.
Marriages are most at risk during the first two years or in years seven to eight. That puts me and Katie right in the middle of the most dangerous time in our relationship.
I can’t explain to you how much Katie and I still love each other. It almost feels wrong to write it that way.
It’s not like we preserved that love we shared when we were in our twenties. It’s as if we had no idea what it meant to love each other until yesterday, and that keeps happening.
Do we fight? Of course, we do. And boy howdy they can get loud. But they are rare, and we always end them with apologies and a plan.
We are not perfect, but we are always taking seriously how we can better love each other like the Bible calls us too.
Why the preamble about how great my marriage is? Well, my marriage is young, so why should you take my advice?
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I guess maybe if I can honestly say the worst time statistically in my marriage is the best year in my marriage so far, maybe I’ve stumbled upon something worth doing.
It feels so trite to say it, but it’s true. Our culture is 1,000% geared towards making you regret getting married.
So how can you enjoy life with your wife?
A lot of people think this has something to do with finding the perfect person. I want to marry an attractive blonde, blue eyes, and knows how to cook.
This becomes a religious impulse. I have to find the perfect woman or man Jesus wants me to marry, else I will have ruined this most important relationship I only get one shot at!
Can I ask you something? Where did we get this idea? Was it from the Bible or Hallmark and Disney?
What I see time and time again in the Bible is rejoicing in who you marry and becoming a good wife or husband. Never does God say, “Wait until the model comes.”
What am I trying to say? Having a good marriage starts with you, not the other person. The sooner you learn that, dating or married, the sooner you will enjoy your marriage.
Sounds like a lie, right? We’ve been told a heap of lies about what marriage and happiness is. He completes me. She makes my life so vibrant. I never have to compromise who I am.
Marriage is losing yourself. It is two become one. It is the fading away of the individual and the creation of new life from the union of provision and potential.
Are you dating? Stop looking for the one, though that’s not permission to be a fool. Fall in love, and when in love, act the way God has commanded you to towards a spouse.
Are you married? Love your spouse and do so without expecting anything in return.
God will bless the couple that gives instead of takes.
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- Let your garments be always white. Let not oil be lacking on your head. -
This verse does not seem that important at all does it? In fact, why in the world are we spending a post on just these fourteen words?
Listen, I almost split this into two posts, so no complaining. Sometimes you, yes you mythical reader, sound a whole lot like the Israelites demanding quail in the desert.
Here is the deal, because we do not spend a lot of time reading the Torah besides Genesis and Exodus, we miss a lot of the cultural context that would have been obvious to the Jews.
Let’s start with clothes. I think we actually see some of this in the New Testament when we are told about the new white robes we receive in Heaven.
But, there are ripples of this in Genesis as well. When Adam and Eve realize they are naked, God takes it upon Himself to clothe His children.
What’s the idea? There is a pattern in the bible of receiving garments from the Lord as a symbol of receiving righteousness.
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Remember what the priest wears? Sure it’s a bit more complicated than white robes, but that is definitely the core of his dress.
Not only that, this idea is especially tied to the garments being explicitly white. There is no stain or blemish.
Let’s hold onto that thought and move on to the second half of the verse. The speaker here mentions that we are to continually have oil on our head.
When are people anointed in the Bible? It is pretty rare. Typically, we see priests and kings anointed by prophets to signify their office.
What is the purpose of the anointment? It is to separate them, to show them as something holy, or as a chosen vessel for the Lord.
Twice in this same verse we are told to act as we are separate and Holy. Well, that is a good deal! Let’s get to it. Post over.
Except, that’s not the message we are supposed to take, and it is another example in this group of verses that the speaker is not to be trusted.
Think about it. In both the garments and the anointment, they are gifts bestowed on yourself by another, usually by the express order of God.
Can you decide to put upon the white robes of the priest just because you desire them? Can you take the anointment of God’s chosen because you assume it to be your destiny?
Well, then perhaps the speaker is wrong. How can we eat and drink and assume God just simply approves of our actions?
How can we take God’s righteousness just by human ambition?
Did you know that the word Messiah essentially means the anointed one? Jesus was essentially a fulfillment of several Old Testament prophecies combined together.
He came as priest, prophet, and king to show God’s will to us all and to free us from the overwhelming crushing defeat of sin.
In this way, he started a new order of priests, destroying the veil in the Temple and allowing His Spirit to fill the lives of all His believers.
He has given righteousness; none are good.
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- Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do. -
I have seen many people who read Ecclesiastes and take the eat and drink verses out of context. Ecclesiastes 9:7 should become your go to passage to understand them.
In what way do they misinterpret them? Its hard to apply motive, but I think there is a subconscious desire within everyone to make God’s demands less strenuous.
Did you know that for the first time in human history, we are about to have more overweight people than malnourished? It’s a stunning achievement.
Well, in more decadent societies, people are undoubtedly looking for excuses to enjoy their extravagant lifestyles and hobbies.
How do you justify eating a 1,500-calorie combo while there are still kids in Africa without food? How do you justify playing video games for eight hours a day while others live in poverty?
How do you justify your trip to the beach knowing the money and time you’re spending could be used by God to do something wonderful for His kingdom?
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What am I saying? Am I trying to condemn and judge others for not living lives 100% devoted to God all of the time? Of course not.
What I am describing is an internal dialogue and struggle I think we all face, primarily because we do not know how to rest properly.
We are moral creatures and that is why we so must assiduously assuage ourselves that our moral failings, especially those that are convenient, are banal.
That is how these passages become misinterpreted. Ah, here is a verse that says the mysteries and struggles of life are too complex for me to figure out.
What is right and good is to enjoy life. I’ll make sure to spend my money on life’s gentle pleasures as certainly I cannot be expected to right all the world’s wrongs.
Well, I get that, and I think to some extent it may be true, but that isn’t what these verses are arguing.
Remember what the past six verses have been discussing? They’ve been a lament that the consequences in our life are not proof of God’s favor or disapproval.
What does the end of our verse say? That God has already approved of what we do.
How in the world does that make sense? How can we be talking about the righteous and the wicked a few sentences ago to now saying that God approves of our actions?
These verses are jarring when placed this close to one another, and that is by design. They are supposed to feel incongruous.
This verse is like us. It is an attempt to give up on greater meaning when life gets too hard. It is an attempt to excuse our actions in spite of knowing what we should do.
Perhaps if we were more familiar with the literary techniques of Solomon’s time, this would be more apparent to us.
Verses like this drive my love for this book. It doesn’t hide our attempts to rationalize away God’s will for our life. It makes us wrestle with that desire as we read the text.
What will you choose? Comfort or meaning?
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- Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. -
Our verse today talks about what happens after we die. Solomon makes the argument like he has made many times throughout the book that this state removes us from the hope of this life.
Today, I want to look to something different. Legacy and Heaven, the two things that remain after we are gone.
When we die, what remains behind? Is it the things we’ve done?
Maybe, if we are genuinely lucky. But think about how many people have been forgotten. Even if you are one the best people in your career today, that’s barely going to matter in 100 years.
In fact, most high performers would probably be shocked at how well the company runs after they leave it. Sure, there are some ups and downs, but it’s very rarely that the doors close for good.
So, what does remain? This is very abstract but is in fact your life. What in the world do I mean by that?
Think about all the people you interact with, peers, kids, and seniors. Are you not constantly engaged in an evaluation game with them all?
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I sure hope my life turns out better than that. I wouldn’t have done it that way. How did he get to be so successful. I wish I had done that when I was a kid.
What’s the idea? We are constantly, in big ways and small, massaging each other’s life, morality, and choices in ways we do not fully comprehend.
In a sense, this emerging process is our legacy. The more conscious and noble we make our actions within it, the more we can improve the lives of others around us, in both big and small ways.
So that is our legacy, but what awaits us in heaven?
The Bible is actually short on details here, and I haven’t been put on the email list. I do want to highlight something about God’s nature and Eden that may give us insight.
First, what does God lack? Limitation. God perhaps created us because without creatures like us there was nothing to do, nothing to accomplish.
Yes, we are a total pain in the neck, but with us, we bring purpose and meaning to the universe. We however do not bring a key piece to that puzzle.
Being. That is an action of God. In a strange sense, our meaning and purpose is rudderless without this being.
In this way, we can see the idealized state of being involves both limited and unlimited creatures existing in harmony.
Now let’s turn to Eden. That garden was one of Paradise. It contained everything we needed to survive and none of the bad stuff of this world.
Strangely enough, that included work.
Remember Adam had a job. It was to name all the animals within the garden. God even made him a help mate to assist him in this labor.
What is the idea here? Paradise is a place where our limitation is still on display! We are needy on God for the environment to exist and we still have something to do within it!
So what might heaven be like?
Perhaps, it is the place we work within where all our needs are met.
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- For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. -
Hey folks, sorry for dropping off the face of the earth this past week. I know that can be a bit unnerving considering me and Katie’s current experience with infertility.
In short, Katie had a surgery this Monday that I thought I would be able to write through. I was a bit ambitious.
We had some wonderful people stop by and take care of her, but it still ended up being a busy week (I’m sure she is rolling her eyes as she reads this too).
Anyway, we should be back to normal this week granted she recovers from COVID soon, and I don’t get it.
Did I mention it was a busy week?
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You know, till I was twenty-five, I thought I was going to live forever. Okay not exactly like that. I always knew I was going to die, but not in a real sense.
I hadn’t made any provisions for the end of my life, like life insurance, or started taking care of my body as if it was going to wear down.
Realizing what mortality is comes in stages. I will die sometime. I could die anytime. That pain in my shoulder is going to be with me when I’m eighty.
What’s life going to be like when I can’t walk this fast? Will I start getting angry with people because I can’t realize my own limitations?
It’s not comforting. When you are young you have this fire burning in your belly, as if no matter what you put your mind to you can get it done.
But it’s stranger than that. You think that fire is going to last forever, or that you can always have time to do something meaningful with it.
And then, you surprise yourself with being older. Maybe it’s time to finally get serious.
Here’s the deal. It’s courageous to look at your life and realize it’s going to end. Why? Because it’s the only perspective that can allow you to do something meaningful with it.
Think you are going to last forever or have time for that goal later? That’s what kids tell themselves. You have now.
Well, how can you start living like this? Maybe the easiest way is just to see how many years you have left to live, on average.
Look up the average life expectancy in your country. Are you happy with the time you have left? Who in their right mind could ever be happy with that answer?
Well now think about something you want to get done. Not something like a bucket list. Think about something you think God is calling you to do before you die.
How many years do you think that is going to take? Are you ready to do it now? What do you need to accomplish to be ready for it?
Be a good steward of what God has given you. Sure, you can’t know everything, but you could start being faithful with the time you may have left.
Is it hard? Of course. But we are not called to have easy lives.
To not spend our years feasting is a required sacrifice for meaning.
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- But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. -
I’m writing this post on Easter Morning, and I can promise you nothing puts you more in the Easter mood than contemplating mortality.
Also, there’s an owl just hooting up a storm (has been doing so for the past few hours), and I’m listening to the Moonlight Sonata on my iPhone speaker.
You may feel like this is all a joke, but I promise, I think it’s one too.
First thing we need to discuss before we get too far into this verse is how it relates to something Solomon has already said way back in chapter 6.
He writes at the beginning of this relatively short chapter that it is better to have been a stillborn. That seems to contrast with chapter 9 which places a preference on life.
One reason for that is the circumstances of the people being discussed in both chapters.
In chapter 6, we encounter a man who has riches yet can’t enjoy them. He acts in such a manner that no one is there to bury him when he does finally pass.
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In chapter 9, Solomon shows that good or bad events do not necessarily show God’s favor. One thing is for certain; you cannot experience good or bad if you are dead.
Why is it better for the rich man in 6 to have never been born? Because he squandered the life he was given.
The man in chapter 9 is more universal. We do not know the events of his life, but we can see that being alive allows for hope of better times to come.
Verse four even seems to speak to class and death as acting as an equalizer between them. The dog is better than the lion as he has hope where the lion has none.
Now, hold the phone. This probably sounds crazy to you if you are a Christian. Why is our Bible telling us to hope in this life rather than in the one to come?
I’ve been told we will have suffering in this life, that the new place has a mansion with my name on it. That lion seems to have a way better deal than the dog!
To understand this clearly, we need to first begin by remembering the book we are reading. Remember when Solomon discussed beasts and where their souls went after they died?
Right, he said how do you know if your spirit goes to a different place? What did he mean?
He meant that no one knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what happens. We know God lives in heaven, but no one knows if we join him.
To be clear, Solomon is referring to an experiential knowing, one that shows something existing in reality, not one accepted by faith.
So, at some level, Solomon is saying that here as well. Because we do not know where we are going and what happens in our lives does not indicate God’s favor, it’s better to be alive than dead.
This is a hard truth, it doesn’t mean it’s right, but it is in a sense what we know. Faith is the piece (which is not this type of knowing) that allows us to step beyond.
So, as you’re thinking about Easter, thank God for the faith to trust in Him.
A peace that goes beyond all understanding.
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- It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. -
Verse two adds to where we left off, focusing again on how events do not necessarily indicate God’s approval of our actions.
How can we know who are the good and the wicked? Solomon seems to indicate, similar to James, we can know this by their deeds.
He goes on to point out key laws from Jewish culture in which his contemporaries could see the good and evil path.
I always like to point out sacrificing when I see it mentioned in the Bible. First and foremost, because it is an archaic yet modern practice.
What do I mean? Sacrifice is the letting go of a portion of your work for a greater purpose. We don’t think about this, but raising livestock is a massive investment, especially in ancient cultures.
It takes time, food, and medical care (not to mention protection from wild beasts) to turn a young animal into a meal.
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It’s not like going to Publix and picking your favorite cut. To take that long term investment and offer it up to God was no minor obligation.
Now, it doesn’t match perfectly, but our system of commerce rests on a similar philosophy.
We have all agreed that sacrificed time and labor is valuable and reward that activity with money. In short, money has value because of the time it took to obtain it.
Sure, it’s not exactly sacrifice, but the same concept supports both.
Now, just because we sacrifice, whether to God or man, does not mean that we will receive a great reward, as Solomon has made clear to us.
Although this point has been made throughout the book, there hasn’t been a reason given on why this is necessarily the case.
In verse three, Solomon provides a good one. No matter who you are, good, decent, or downright out-in-out sinful, the heart of man is full of evil.
The heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? Solomon agrees and goes so far as to call it madness.
What is he saying? That our hearts, including our children’s, are focused and desire evil. I believe that this comes from a fallen nature.
The dichotomy of whose image we were made from and the inherited nature from the fall leads to a madness, a state where we can trick ourselves that our actions are indeed good or justified.
We can believe it is right to mistreat others because of what they have done to us, or that it’s okay to steal based on what has been taken from us.
Here, we can see a new truth emerging: when you feel most righteous is when you should be most cautious.
Perhaps we can agree with some ancient wisdom and say that it is impossible to become strong unless one knows they are weak, to act wise unless one knows they are a fool.
How can one know righteousness if they do not know they are a sinner?
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- But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. -
Hey, congrats everyone! We are officially two thirds through the whole book! That is right, we only have four more chapters.
I know, like you I am worried about what we will do next, but seeing as I should be able to stretch these final four out for another year, I’m not that worried about it.
I promise that’s a joke.
But enough about that, we came here to learn more about Ecclesiastes.
Let’s dive in.
Remember how last week we talked about how we cannot know the ways of God? That no matter how much we search, even if we are Solomon, a portion of His will always remain unexplained?
To put it mildly, that idea opens up a can filled with theological worms (wyrms?). Of course, Solomon doesn’t keep us waiting.
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Have you ever had something good happen in your life and made a statement like, “God sure does love me!”
Or perhaps a friend gets a promotion or gets their child into an exclusive school or is sharing photographs from a beautiful vacation.
You may think in that moment to be encouraging yet still religious and say something like, “Wow, that is great news! God must surely love you!”
Is that the right thing to say? Sometimes, we can say obvious Christian truths because we wish to appear pious rather than wanting to encourage.
To do so, is to speak and act like the Pharisees, to be more concerned with the appearance of righteousness rather living an obedient life from our hearts.
So yes, it can be the right thing to say, if our hearts are doing it for God and not for ourselves.
That isn’t what Solomon is warning us about. He asks us a much harder question. How can we know what is happening is because God approves of our actions?
Think about it. If good things happen to the wicked and misfortune falls upon the righteous, then how can we take any earthly event and determine the mind of God from it?
Probably the classic example of this is Job and his friends. They see all the misfortune that has fallen on their friend, and what do they assume?
That Job has sinned. That every calamity he is experiencing, including the death of his family, is a righteous punishment from God.
The story makes it clear that this is not the case. Job is being tested by Satan, a test which God allows.
In some strange sense, his punishment is a reward for his years of excellent service. Kind of reminds me of another part of the Bible, somewhere in the New Testament.
Jesus said it. That if they hated Him, how much more would they hate us? That we should expect trouble in this life.
In a sense, suffering in this world is an indication we are truly living the Christian life and our walk through those trials is a testament to the change He has made in our lives.
So how can we know if the events in our life indicate God’s favor? First and foremost, we can walk with God and everyday make that our goal and aim.
Secondly, we can count it all joy.
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- then I saw all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, he cannot find it out. -
Wait a minute! We’ve been lied to!
Solomon said all the way at the beginning of the book that he had seen everything under the sun and now he is just telling us it is impossible?!?
QUICK! If we all look together, maybe we can find where meaning is! Sure, it might have been too much for one man, but if enough of us work together, surely, we can discover it!
Hyperbole aside, who do I sound like? You might make an accurate remark and say something akin to a Wilsonian idealist.
You may even go so far as to make a sarcastic remark and claim I’m a politician or a huckster, but alas I repeat myself.
But I’m not asking that, nor am I really even thinking at that level. I’m looking to the Bible. Who do I sound like from there?
You may have your own answer to this question, a particular story or character that aligns with this I can do all things attitude, but there is definitely one story that I think stands out among the rest.
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The Tower of Babel.
It is here at the Tower that the people determine that they will perform a feat worthy of God and reach the heavens. Strangely, God decides to confuse the people so that they cannot accomplish their task.
Okay, but what does that have to do with meaning or purpose in this life? That pursuit is not as hubristic an endeavor as trying to physically reach God’s home, right?
Well, think about it. What does it mean to give life meaning? It means to give it significance, something that lasts beyond our death and makes an actual difference.
How can a finite human ever hope to find that purpose let alone identify it? Our lives are too short, and we lack the eternal perspective to see the culminated consequences of our actions.
You can’t do it, and it doesn’t matter if you are the wisest man alive or spend all your time examining the lives of others.
The true answer to meaning will always allude you. It will always be a hair’s breadth away. A vapor on the wind and never something substantiated.
But, not answering that question will always leave something missing in your life, like a melody unresolved.
It is as if meaning exists regardless of whether you can fully articulate or explain it. It appears to exist despite us having no tangible way in which to observe it.
Yet, we can experience it! We can feel the world piece itself together where everything appears to fit, as if there is no place in our life that is out of sync with each other.
How can we hit a non-existent mark? How can we with practice get closer and closer to it and find it more regularly? What are we moving to?
Our verse makes the astute observation that we have been reinforcing throughout today’s post. Man cannot find meaning.
One may call that God’s work being done under the sun. Of course, there are higher levels of this meaning, but none that are visible or intelligible to us.
How can we know meaning then? How can we know the work of God?
By knowing Him.
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- When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, -
The meaning of the second half of verse 16 is a tad tricky to understand primarily because of the grammar.
We may read this verse and think that those whose eye’s do not see sleep is referring to those that perform their business upon the earth.
Now, in our rat race world, that may make sense! Many people spend an awful lot of time at their job, but far more are distracted by various screens and social media.
However, Solomon doesn’t have that context. Okay, sure there were definitely people staying up in his day and age too, but it wasn’t the same.
What do I mean? Light was harder to come by! It’s more difficult to read in bed by candlelight than by a lamp.
What’s my point? Some of that is us reading our modern experience of technology and always being on-line into the text.
If it’s not that, then what is Solomon referring to in 16?
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Like I said, the grammar makes it hard to understand, but one might read this as the person who has been applying their heart to know wisdom is not sleeping.
What would this mean? It would mean in his pursuit to find meaning, Solomon gave up his sleep to continue his search.
The passion was so strong in him to discover this mystery, that the physical need for sleep itself became less desirable than pursuing his goal.
Now, that’s some commitment. It’s also true that some of the greatest thinkers of the past, e.g. Leonardo da Vinci, had quite bizarre sleep patterns.
We find some inspiration in that, wishing we had the same passion in our own lives to deny our body what it needs in pursuit of a more meaningful goal.
But, there is a caution here in Ecclesiastes, two if we listen carefully.
What was the result of Solomon’s time spent pursuing this truth? Right, he found that life was vain and pointless. In 17, we will even see his failure to observe everything he wanted to.
We can ask ourselves this as well. Who is the Sabbath made for? God or man? Jesus provided us the answer letting us know it is us who need rest from our work, not God.
What is the idea here? Pursuing your desires with no rest, even those from God, is not His will.
Why? When we rest we can approach the world in a truly meek manner, one that has a reserved strength to it, rather than frantically moving to the next objective.
Blessed our the meek for they will inherit the earth. A better translation is blessed our those who use gentle strength, i.e. those who use the appropriate force.
In addition, it is to remember that nothing can be done that God hasn’t allowed. No amount of effort will move the stone He wants stationary.
To stop pursuing is to turn to God and say, “You are enough. Your strength is enough. Your will is enough.”
And now, what do we do when we rest? Do we retreat and hide? Do we watch hours of TV and social media?
We love one another, as Christ loved.
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- When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on earth, how neither day nor night do one’s eyes see sleep, -
What does it mean to apply your heart to know wisdom? It’s not a phrase we typically use or parts of the body we think about being used together.
We may at times refer to them to say, “My heart and my mind are at peace with this decision.” What exactly are we intimating?
We are showing that not only can we rationally accept the decision, but that it is one our feelings are aligned with as well.
What is interesting about language is it grows more specific over time, e.g. the Hebrew word for wind is the same word for spirit.
Something similar is happening with this word heart. It doesn’t mean just heart. It also means our mind, our center.
What is Solomon saying? He pursued wisdom with every part of his being. His will, intellect, and desires were all pulled together in this pursuit.
Now, given our rational age, I’ve seen a lot of people denigrate their feelings or intuitions. Undoubtedly, our emotions can be misleading!
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Now, given our spiritual emptiness, I’ve seen a lot of new age types denigrate their reason. Undoubtedly, our thoughts are not capable of understanding everything!
Is anyone getting a sense of déjà vu?
What am saying? There are two ways people try to live their life without God. In one way, they try to make themselves like God.
They build technological marvels like the Tower of Babel and think by this mastery that they have removed the need for God by becoming Him.
Then there are those who see the restrictions of morality as a cage and wish to live in a communal manner with nature, their spirit, or some other force.
They lose themselves without God’s order and do not know which “spirits” they serve. This is the Hippy movement and seems to be becoming a Gen Z phenomenon as well.
Well, what is a Christian supposed to do? We are to pursue the work God has given us with both our mind and heart in accordance with God’s will.
Why did God give us both? Because there is indeed a purpose for both. It is the heart that binds, yet it can bind to polluted desires.
It is the mind which can hold one’s desires back by rules it knows to be beneficial, yet it can create a false idol of its own self.
The mind can keep the heart on the straight and narrow and the heart can keep one’s affections directed properly.
This is why the greatest commandment is given to us. It commands that the whole person be brought into the proper worship of God.
All of us must be given to the one purpose of serving God. To not love God with one of these pieces of ourselves is to hold that piece of ourselves back from the Bridegroom.
How can you have a successful marriage if you do not give yourself fully to the other person? Will they not sense this? Will not that part of your marriage fail in some way eventually?
Desire to serve with all of you.
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- There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity. And I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. -
I know we’ve discussed this, but it is good to remember. The themes in Ecclesiastes are repeated throughout the book.
Now, in one sense that is not surprising at all as that repetition is indeed what makes them themes. What I am actually saying is a bit different that.
Ecclesiastes repeats almost word for word the themes it wishes to discuss. In our verses today, we see two of them.
The first is the idea that the wicked live in luxury while the righteous live in squalor. The second states that nothing is better for mankind than to feast and be merry.
We’ve talked about these ideas a lot through our study. In fact, we were even in the past couple of weeks discussing how the good have a better life than the wicked.
If you are feeling confused, I think this an understandable time to be a bit muddled.
This tension when Ecclesiastes appears to be saying the opposite, even changing its point from paragraph to paragraph, is by design.
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Think about it. How could a culture claim to have the wisest king to ever live and have a book of his writings filled with obvious contradictions?
Solomon repeats his themes to make us reconsider them. He does this next to his counterarguments to make the dichotomies easier to see.
In addition to that there is another voice, the one saying there is nothing better than to eat and be merry. If you remember, this is an old literary technique used to introduce another view.
This person is essentially stepping into Solomon’s work and saying, “All God requires of us is to eat and labor. This is the best we can hope for.”
Remember how this book started. Right, it shows how we have no guarantee of anything good or meaningful in our life.
All is vanity.
Sometimes when we realize this thought, we think through elaborate tricky arguments to prove that our lives do have a purpose.
Although we can do pretty good job of arguing, Ecclesiastes is written to show how impossible that problem is to resolve logically.
One thing we fail to see is how dismal the life is for the person who agrees to live with no meaning. The wicked man may be praised in the temple, but it’s a farce.
Worse, he never gets the opportunity in this life or the next to worship before God.
This is what we saw in the verses from last week. Why then does Solomon follow this with the previous theme that the wicked get the rewards of the righteous?
To show us that even if that is true, even if it’s wrong and goes against our logic, it is not the full story.
This is one of the reasons I love this book. It shows the limits of human reason and is honest about them. It teaches us we need something more than just rationality to live a meaningful life.
The answer? Meaning requires faith.
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- Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. -
Okay, we’ve gone over the first part of these two verses and now we are onto the second half.
I feel like that is a tongue twister? Hopefully the bolding is making it easier to follow than my descriptions.
Before God is an interesting concept based on which testament you are reading. Sometimes, we have a lot of biases regarding this phrasing.
What do I mean? Well, where do you think you are before God? Is that within the church’s walls? Can you only be before God when you kneel at the altar?
Hopefully that rings a little hollow to a Protestant. You probably think that to be before God is something akin to prayer.
It’s more of the attitude you have when praying. Are you treating prayer with the respect it deserves? Are you being selfish in the way you converse with God?
Do you actually want to hear from Him?
But, is that what Solomon meant? Perhaps, it is what God meant when He spoke through Solomon, or perhaps we are to read it within Solomon’s cultural context rather than our own.
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With that being said, this could be a literal place where God’s presence dwelled, a place that Solomon helped construct in his lifetime.
Right, the Temple itself.
We have a little context for this idea. In verse 10, it talks about how the wicked man would go to the holy place and receive praise.
What is different between the righteous and wicked man when they go to the Temple? Solomon may be making the case here that the outward action does not reflect the interior of the heart.
What am I saying? That the traditions of a culture can be hacked by narcists to achieve their own ends. Why yes, I do have a fish bumper sticker, and I would love to give you a discount.
The wicked man arrives at church to simply cut a deal. He is a member of his society and pays his social dues as required to get what he wants.
The righteous man comes to the Temple and worships God for who He is rather than being concerned with other men. He has come to honor God, not himself or others.
Okay, but there is another way in which we might interpret this phrase, one that seems to be true for us modern day Christians and the Old Testament Jews.
Go back and re-read our verses again. Why is it well for those who fear God? Because they get to fear before God.
Why is this good? Do you remember what God said to Moses? No man may look upon me and live.
Perhaps this before God means after our death if we feared God we will be granted the opportunity to fear before Him, quite an intimidating concept.
The phrasing regarding the wicked man also takes on a new light. Perhaps he to fears God but not in His presence.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
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- Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, neither will he prolong his days like a shadow, because he does not fear before God. -
Okay, I apologize for the way I’ve broken up these verses, but I think this is the easiest way to see the two points being made across both of them.
Essentially, the first and second half of each verse correlate with the other. Today we will look at both first halves.
Okay! Let’s get started. We’ve discussed this earlier, but at times the wicked man does evil, and he does so to perversely extend or benefit his own life.
This is probably best captured in that classic movie trope of a bad guy chasing down someone who knows too much.
Any examples from real life? How about a corrupt businessman who frauds the needy and lines his own pockets or the politician who ignores certain warnings for a big pay out.
That leaves the less fortunate to suffer. Sometimes that suffering leads to a tangibly shorter life.
How is that fair? Remember the parable of the rich man and Lazarus? It is actually a good answer to this problem.
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The rich man lives longer than Lazarus, but in eternity he suffers whereas Lazarus gets to rest in Abraham’s bosom.
But, there is more to this. There is justice in this life as well. Despite himself, the sinner does not prolong his life, especially in a meaningful sense.
Let’s take the first example, who are you after performing 100 acts of evil?
I think this passage is telling us to think of something more soul wrenching than little white lies. These are undeniable wrong acts.
Does your family not see who you have become? Does anyone want to deal with you? What community will have you?
Listen, those who do evil do not like each other. They know better than anyone else that those like them are the last people they want to partner with.
You have abandoned everything. You are no longer connected to the kingdom, the already here portion of it, and that leads to major tragedies throughout your life.
This metaphor about the shadow is interesting. What happens as the sun goes down? That’s right, shadows “stretch.”
What’s the idea? The wicked man has tried to stretch out his life. He is trying to get every last morsel out of it.
What happens as a shadow gets stretched? Well for starters it gets “thin” along the edges, tired out and frayed compared to where it was in the heat of the day.
What does that sound like? Right, it sounds like old age, when our thoughts and personalities appear to dim.
What is the wicked man getting? He isn’t living longer. He is living in his old age longer.
In addition to these ideas, we can clearly see that the undertones to all that has been discussed is that God ultimately determines the length and quality of the lives of men.
It may appear to us on this earth that God has allowed the wicked to lengthen their days, but we must remember that seemingly additional time was granted by God for a purpose.
Why? Is He storing up wrath against them? Perhaps, He is refusing to allow them to see the afterlife, maybe even out of mercy.
Remember – Jesus is the Life and Judge of man.
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- Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. -
Did you know that children with higher IQ’s lie when younger?
I’m always amazed at the idea that children are inherently good. I’ve met plenty of infants, and none of them to me were remotely innocent.
If anything, they were present. They didn’t have a concept of the future, an idea of someone else, or even an expression of gratitude for those taking care of them.
Better than innocent, though I prefer present, is selfish. Sure, that may be a bit unfair given their helpless state, but I think it is a lot more accurate than innocent.
Simply take their behaviors and have an adult act them out. Right, we even have a word for this – infantile.
Children come out of the womb with a singular focus; what is my most important need right now? They have limited ways in which to meet and communicate their needs.
They have no consideration for the time of day, how tired you are, or how much their form of communication may distress you.
They simply need and they make that known by crying. By analyzing their facial expressions, doctors have discovered they are angry more often than sad.
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Next time you hear an infant crying, imagine a grown man in the next room saying, “Mom! Where is my dinner! Why is it taking so long! Do you even love me!”
It’s by far a more accurate representation about what that baby is truly feeling.
Okay, why am I stressing this point? Regardless if the nuance I’m pointing out is true, it doesn’t change how parents must treat their children.
The baby’s needs are more important than our own. It is right to meet their every whim. They have no way to feed, wash, or care for themselves.
But! One of the most crucial needs children have is to become independent, and the standard emphasis on innocence hides or at least fogs this truth.
Here’s a good question: when is the proper time to allow your child to begin to develop its independence?
The answer is as soon as they are capable. Every child is different and will be able to take on different tasks at different times in their development.
You need to watch your children like a hawk, seeing when they are ready for a bit more responsibility. It may take a few years, but you don’t want to miss it.
What does this have to do with our original point? Why do the smarter kids lie?
Because being an infant means technically only seeing yourself. It means not recognizing others and thinking they’ve been placed on earth to satisfy your desires.
That may be forgivable, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have a lot to learn. Before you can start to make a difference in other people’s lives, you must learn to care of yourself.
That begins with small tasks like cleaning your room, feeding yourself, and becoming potty trained.
If your parents love you, they teach you these tasks early, showing you the freedom that comes with a little responsibility.
Lying is an attempt to reenter this childhood state. It is to change reality into something that benefits your immediate need at the sake of others accurate perceptions.
Smart kids see this. They want to be the infant because it’s easier, both in action and emotions. It’s always easier to blame than it is to act.
Keep your child’s nature from infantilizing them.
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- Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. -
Katie and I are working through reading the Bible together this year. We’ve both read it cover to cover, but not together.
It’s a fun experience, as we get the chance to discuss the stories together, finding insights into God’s character and our own lives.
The morning that I’m writing this, I read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, which I think is probably the most famous story of God’s wrath.
In a few short paragraphs, Old Testament God obliterates a whole town with literal sulfur and fire from the heavens.
Why the extreme punishment? Well, a few angels went to have a meal with Lot and every man in the city decided it would be a good idea to force themselves upon them.
Not exactly a hospitable welcome. That makes God mad, so He nukes them.
Sometimes, in our darker or more judgmental moments (especially when someone does us wrong), we might wonder why God doesn’t start exercising this style of wrath again.
Hey, if God threw down lightning bolts at cars making minor traffic violations, there would be a lot less road rage.
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If someone cheats you at work, why do they get away with it if there is a just God? Why does it actually seem to work out for them, at least in the short term?
Why does God not do something about Putin? Why did He let Mao starve the people of China? Why did He let Hitler kill the Jews?
What’s keeping Him from doing another Sodom and Gomorrah? Is He scared? Losing His touch? Did Jesus coming make His trigger finger relax?
I’m obviously being a little sarcastic, mainly because God’s ways are not my own. How in the world are we supposed to understand them?
Here’s something I think we miss in our memory of the Sodom and Gomorrah story. The reason the angels are going there is because the outcry against the city is great.
That’s what the Lord tells Abraham. God says that He is going to see if the rumors are true, and sure enough they are.
What’s the point? The people of Sodom and Gomorrah hurt a lot of people before the angels showed up. That is easily seen in how evil their behavior is.
Lot seems to even know this. He actively tries to keep the angels visit from being discovered, and when it is known, offers up his daughters to the crowd.
Lot isn’t exactly winning father of the year any time soon.
It is after all this that God acts. Yes, His punishment is extreme, but there were ample opportunities for these people to turn from their wicked ways.
In other sections of the Bible, we hear God say that the iniquity of this people is not complete. It seems to imply that God is punishing them by allowing them to continue in their sin.
What’s the point? God’s delay in meeting out justice is normal, but it always comes. He may be waiting for someone to repent or building a case against them.
For this reason, evil doers at times can be confused. They may think the delay means they got away with it or perhaps there is no God.
They do not see that their actions themselves have cut them off from meaning, that they have gotten the desire of their heart and will receive it.
They get a world with only themselves.
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- Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praisedin the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity. -
Why do the wicked prosper? If God is in charge, shouldn’t they be punished and receive justice?
Why would a good God allow good people to suffer by their hand?
Starting in verse 10, Solomon begins to answer these questions. He may not justify it fully, but he shows in some unique ways the oppressed righteous man receives a better reward than the wicked man.
The wicked, despite their gains in this life, will find themselves buried with the rest of us. Yes, no doubt that is some cold comfort.
While a good family starves and a wicked one feasts, it doesn’t seem healthy to consider that at least death comes for us all.
But, it would be truly tragic if it did not. If there was a way that the wicked were cheating death at the expense of the poor, it would truly be unjustified.
Perhaps in the future, depending on the type of technology that is invented, we may have to confront a version of this evil.
A thought experiment for another day.
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There is more. At some point while the wicked man was alive, he would go into the holy places and receive the praise of men.
We’ve all known a member of the church, in leadership or a volunteer position, who has received accolades from the church all the while hiding a dark sin.
From student pastors having affairs with the teenagers in their ministry to a beloved leader checking themselves into rehab, seemingly good people can pull the wool over our eyes.
But, their sin has a way of being found out. Someone decides not to be quiet anymore or the sinner makes a mistake.
Then, the praises they received in the city and church evaporate, even the ones given in the past as they are built upon false pretenses.
They are vanity, hot air evaporating in the wind.
So, good news. The wicked may win for a time, but not forever. This next group of verses will give us more ways in which the wicked are troubled despite their gains.
But, what does this mean for us?
For starters, if you are lying about sin in your life, you need to confess it today to the right person.
Who is the right person? It’s the one most directly hurt by the actions you have taken.
You do not need to confess to your whole church that you forgot to take out the garbage last night, but you may need to let them know about an addiction in your life.
If that doesn’t describe you, here is the other great lesson to learn – the praises of men are vanity.
Do not place your opinion of yourself in what others say of you. Remember the nature of your heart, desperately wicked, and strive every day to surrender it to Jesus.
When someone praises you, praise God. When someone thanks you, thank God. When someone compliments your outfit, worship God.
Why? Why do we constantly have to take our eyes off our accomplishments? Why this necessity of turning to Him after every victory in our life?
Because the wise man knows that the praises have nothing to do with him. He knows that to hold onto that praise destroys the purpose of his service.
It’s all vanity, save for Jesus Christ.
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- For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? -
So - where have I been.
The more astute readers may have put two and two together. Katie and I had another failed IVF transfer. We got the results on February the 5th.
It has been a difficult couple of weeks. I didn’t have any posts in waiting, and I certainly didn’t feel like writing.
Many times throughout this process, I’ve been able to bounce back. A failed this a failed that doesn’t upset me. Surely, God is still good!
I guess all the blows pile up after a while. First punch? Barely felt it. Punch 5? I’m not seeing straight.
Let me explain. Katie and I have been on this journey for over three years. First year was just trying. Year two was working through a process called IUI and some minor surgeries.
The last year was going through IVF. We got four embryos from that process. We’ve transferred them all and each one did not result in a pregnancy.
This is very rare. An 1/8th women struggle with infertility (this can be as mild as having a chemical pregnancy once). Out of those, a certain percentage will need IVF to conceive.
By the third transfer, 95% of those women have conceived. We are the 5% of the percent who need IVF of the 1/8th of the population.
Exclusive, but not a club we ever wanted to join.
We don’t have good options. All we can do is keep trying, which is all consuming.
I think I personally gave Katie over a hundred shots last year. Everyone packed with hormones that alter her mood and bruise her body.
By the time we are ready for a transfer, Katie’s body is covered in a patchwork of bruises, blues, yellows, and greens.
The hardest part in this whole trial is getting the embryos. The shots must be given in Katie’s belly.
One of the shots burns. These shots severely affect her emotions. I have to give her 4+ a day at the same time for weeks.
This also means we are months from trying again. Maybe a year or more before we have a child? I’m already 31.
On the day we drove for our transfer, I published the post on Eccl. 8:7. I wrote that day that tragedy may come in our lives, and God, who knows it is coming, doesn’t say a word, and He is still good.
That is a hard thing to believe. I can assure you, it was harder that day than most.
Now, I’m sitting on the other side, knowing my fifth child has passed from this world without me ever getting to hold him.
Do I believe what I wrote?
Perhaps God should be corrected for not warning us about the tragedies in our lives. How about a heads-up big guy when the next person we love is going to die.
We have two options. We can either accept God’s failure or we can deny ourselves (our nature) and explore with our minds why He may act in this manner which appears cruel on the surface.
What is the answer to our conundrum? God has something to teach us through the raw experience He knows (because He indeed knows the future) we cannot learn by being told.
My week was full of God moments like having the chance to write about this verse. It’s wrong to take everything as an omen, but it’s good to see God working.
Listen, I’m hurting. I don’t know if I’ll ever be who I was again, and quite frankly, I think I was a happier more productive guy.
I think God could get more from that guy. I think he served God better. I think he woke up most days with that at the forefront of his mind.
Why am I getting picked on? Why am I the 5% of the percent of the 1/8th? I don’t have a clue. I cry a lot for the memories I’ll never have with my children.
I am so thankful that I will see them again. I am thankful that there is a purpose here, even if it is not for my own life.
I’m thankful to know the brokenness of this world that I may love it better, that I can love its people better.
Even in my grief, not only is God good - He is the only good.
I live in His kingdom, not mine.
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- All this I observed while applying my heart to all that is done under the sun, when man had power over man to his hurt. -
Remember how this chapter began? Right, it was in regards of how to act before a king or ruler.
Who is the man who has power over another man to his hurt? It’s the king. If the king doesn’t like how you walked into his throne room, no one will stop him from punishing you.
We call unnecessarily cruel rulers tyrants. They exercise at minimum the most extreme punishments over the citizenry, possibly the strictest restrictions as well.
Today, we primarily call these individuals dictators. They destroy countries with their shortsightedness and pride.
There is another type of tyranny though. It is one in which there is no central force. You may call it a self-inflicted tyranny or one brought on by the nature of man.
Alexis de Tocqueville would give it a formal name in his book concerning America along with the founding fathers - The Tyranny of the Majority.
Believe it or not, but the Bible speaks about both of these tyrannies in the book of Exodus. The Pharaoh is a dictator, and the Wilderness is a tyranny of the majority.
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Pharaoh exercises all kinds of horrible punishments on the weak Israelites, even killing infants which baffles the modern mind.
At least the modern mind that isn’t aware of the atrocities occurring in China, of which the Communist party is acutely feeling the consequences of those cruel actions.
The only way the Israelites are able to free themselves from the tyranny of Pharaoh is to turn to God. Through the plagues and their obedience and belief in Him, they are finally freed.
Freed to what? They are free to wander the wilderness, to walk in circles and serve any wrong God they desire.
What do they learn? They learn to live for God. They are given His commandments and instructions explaining how to both honor Him and run their society.
Until they learn this wisdom, they find themselves pulled along by whatever bad idea they cook up. The latest trend pulls them into some regrettable decision.
God brought us into this desert to starve. Sure, the manna is nice, but why doesn’t God send some meat. Moses sure has been up on that mountain for a while; why don’t we make a new golden god?
One of the brilliant things Chesterton said was that when men cease to believe in God, they gain the surprising defect of believing in anything.
How can this be? When you remove that which sets all value, you do not have a way to say something is more “right” than something else.
Lewis would call this being separated from the Way: the nature common to man in which appears everywhere despite man having no “proof” for its existence.
The Jews might call it what they discovered while in the wilderness.
What is left is our ideas and we are great at making moralizations in bewildering directions. Perhaps this is because we were given a moral nature?
The man who tyrannizes is the man who has power over another. This can be the dictator or the petty fool of social media.
What can we do to be free of these oppressors?
Worship God in both spirit and truth.
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- No man has power to retain the spirit, or power over the day of death. There is no discharge from war, nor will wickedness deliver those who are given to it. -
One of the earliest video games I played when I was a kid essentially had its plot inspired from this verse.
It’s not to original. There was a really bad wizard who had magical powers over life and death. He wanted to (shock of shocks) live forever.
It isn’t that surprising that we would want to live forever, dying is scary business. What I do find surprising is the fact we typically attribute this as an unholy desire.
We do not even have to look any farther than the popular dark wizard himself, Lord Voldemort. The source of his power is the separation of his soul, allowing him to sustain mortal blows.
His magic is evil. Why? Not because of what it achieves, but because of its cost. Herein we find the answer to why unnaturally preserving our mortal lives is associated with an evil desire.
At what cost are you willing to hold onto to your life?
Who will you be willing to kill? What will you be willing to take? For most of these “dark wizards” the answer is anyone and anything.
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Yet, all these bad guys, even that one dude in Indiana Jones, can’t obtain it. Why? They are just men trying to master their matter with the delusion of the alchemists.
The power is beyond us, at least for now. Perhaps we will find the “immortal pill” at some point, but then we will cease to be men.
Even then, with that final victory won over natural death, we will still find it possible to die, either due to injury or death.
When that death comes, who can stop it? Perhaps we will build metal men, men that cannot be crushed or pierced, that can walk-through flames and never rust.
We can’t possibly solve all those challenges. These obvious complex systems we dream of will still have failure points, like every human technology.
Even in paradise, the snakes found a way in.
If we were able to get our act together to make an immortal race, is it not obvious that human failures would still cling to us?
Are we wiser now that we have the internet? Are we more holy since the introduction of cable? Do we have less wars thanks to TikTok?
No doubt the evil of man has only been enhanced by our technology. Yes, the good has as well. Technology has only enhanced man’s tendencies, not directed.
Battles will still come, and we will see them in our living rooms, treating them as entertainment rather than events.
This last part of the verse should be read as a warning. If you choose to live by the sword, don’t ask for mercy when it comes to claim your life.
You cheat others? How can you expect protection from the good of society? You have actively acted in the corruption of it.
You have become a victim of the very thing with which you used to victimize others. Don’t wish to live in a dog-eat-dog world? Then why have you contributed to its formation?
When we conquer nature, we seem to reduce it to only nature. Is it wise to not fear lighting as the power of Gods Is it not explicitly that, even if not used as punishment?
Why has understanding made us so blind?
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- For he does not know what is to be, for who can tell him how it will be? -
I know what you’re thinking. Seriously, Hunter, haven’t we discussed this like a hundred times already? How are you going to write another post on this topic again?
Hey! Calm down! There is something different this time!
Stop stalling and get on with it!
Right, Solomon has addressed this before. We cannot know what is to come in our lives, only that whatever it is will be something that has already been.
That seems like an obvious contradiction. Let’s imagine we were having a conversation about politics and foreign affairs.
We would both have opinions about many events to come. Would Christians be more persecuted in the following century? Would this country go to war with this country?
One thing would be true: none of our suggestions would be impossibilities.
You would not suggest that we would lose our mass, that we would learn to colonize black holes, or look like Snoopy characters.
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What is the point? Your “predictions” would be widely inaccurate yet common to what man has experienced up to this point.
In short, all that is to come has happened before, yet nothing can be predicted.
Why? Because man will not change. His nature passes from age to age, leading to the same mistakes over and over again.
Yet, he is helpless to see it clearly. He can only know himself dimly, never witnessing the full, detailed picture.
Now, this brings us to the final part of the verse. It is a question, one that is meant to be rhetorical, but appears to have much value in our contemplation over it.
Who can tell us the future? Right, head to the Sunday School answer. God knows the future and can tell us how it will be!
Take this one step further: if God can tell us the future, why doesn’t He?
Think about all the times in your life where an insight into the future would have been extremely helpful. Why did God hide that from you?
God surely doesn’t have to tell you everything that is to come, but maybe we could get a pass or a coupon! Will so-and-so marry me if I ask?
Perhaps God should be corrected for not warning us about the tragedies in our lives. How about a heads-up big guy when the next person we love is going to die.
We have a problem. We have found God appearing to do something so immoral even our immoral selves appear capable to do what is right.
We have two options. We can either accept God’s failure or we can deny ourselves (our nature) and explore with our minds why He may act in this manner which appears cruel on the surface.
What is the answer to our conundrum? God has something to teach us through the raw experience He knows (because He indeed knows the future) we cannot learn by being told.
We must realize apparent missteps in God’s character are excellent opportunities for seeing more of His character.
We are so obsessed with being safe and protected that we would stunt our own growth and knowledge to preserve them.
We may live, but in which kingdom?
His or ours?
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- For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. -
You know, I get really frustrated with people who say we don’t have free will. My reaction is so immediate, I find it hard to even call it rational.
Way to destroy my own argument there.
I have listened to a lot of arguments regarding free will or our lack thereof. Many people are determined to convince all of us that we are simply beyond our own control.
Allow me to summarize the best arguments I have heard into a single point. There are so many things that predated you, that to say you have free will, is simply absurd.
What does this mean? Did you pick who your parents are? See! you had no free will over that. Did you pick the country you were born in? See!
If you want to get into the evolutionary arguments here, which many of those arguing against our free will do, you might hear things pertaining to the limitations of our species.
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Did you choose to breathe air? Did you choose to not have the ability to fly? Why did you choose to have a heart that pumps your blood.
What’s the point? So many things are beyond your control, how can you even begin to pretend you have any control over them?
There is a simple rebuttal to a question like that. When I speak of free will, I mean the freedom of will creatures like ourselves possess.
A proponent of no free will may counter with, “Fair enough, but do you not know the electrical synapses fire before you voice a decision? You are just responding to a decision made by the brain!”
And then I respond with, “Yes, you have it now. It is my brain that decides. It seems the muscles in my tongue and the part of my brain (if any) that holds my decision consciously act after my decision.”
Perhaps, I have some control over what I do. Not infinite control, but that which is common to creatures such as us.
This means I can be held responsible for what I do. If so, then it makes sense to punish me for wrongdoing.
If I strike your wife, do you not hold me responsible? Why? Is it because of the pain caused? Would you hold me or a dog more responsible for hurting her?
Is it not me because you at times wish to strike others yet find it possible to control the desire?
If there is no free will, it doesn’t mean that we would be unable to act. We could respond to stimulus just like the animals.
If there is no free will, then it would mean there is no need for justice.
Our verse is truly beautiful today as it shows the meaning that can be present in our lives if we act rightly, while combining it with the trouble of man.
What is that trouble? Why it is that which makes him “man.” The negative aspect of the two that separate us from the beasts.
It is the fall; it is the knowledge of good and evil. With that knowledge came the expulsion from paradise and the full realization of our ultimate demise.
It was an act of free will in opposition to the will of God to take of the fruit.
Despite this consciousness of our pain, suffering, and eventual death, we can choose to act rightly.
How can we know what is right?
By walking in the light.
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- Whoever keeps a command will know no evil thing, and the wise heart will know the proper time and the just way. -
We will deal with the first part of this verse quickly. Those who always do what they are told are naïve.
Cannot a government go bad? Not to those who always listen and follows its commands. They learn to truly love big brother, despite all the conflicting demands.
The wise heart will know timing and the way. Now that is an incredible statement. How do you know it is time to rebel and throw out the old king?
By wisdom. There are no better people to turn to see the validity of this claim then the Russians.
What happened in the Soviet Union is nothing short of atrocious. The lying, murdering, and fraud performed and promoted by its leaders is truly staggering.
The bread famines that happened in Ukraine were done purposely to starve the weak peasants the nation could no longer feed.
Why could they no longer provide them with bread? Ukraine after all is considered to be a breadbasket of Europe.
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It would take someone with an absolute eye for vengeance and incompetence to truly ruin this great of a resource, and that is exactly what the Russians got with Stalin.
Stalin removed the successful farmers from Ukraine by convincing the Russians that they had become rich based on their exploitation of others.
This Marxian view led to the removal of all the competent farmers from Ukraine. What happens when you lose all the people that know how to make food?
You are free to google the images at your leisure but do so knowing the worst of humanity will be put on display.
And what about the gulags? Miserable prisons where one was forced to perform meaningless tasks while lazy and incompetent guards lied, filling their pockets with money.
Dostoyevsky would be taken to a gulag. He was brought before a firing squad only to have them fire blanks, laugh, and send him to freeze in Siberia.
Solzhenitsyn was put in the gulag as well. It was within that prison where he began writing of the horrors producing his masterpiece, The Gulag Archipelago.
Because he had no real way to write within the police state, Solzhenitsyn would write at fellow conspirator’s houses, hiding portions of the manuscript at each one.
He believed a very simple truth, that the only way corrupt, authoritarian governments could survive was for the citizenry to lie.
Therefore, the inverse was true. The only way to topple an authoritarian state was to perform the opposite action – speak the truth.
Was he right? It’s no secret that until his work was published the Soviet Union was able to hide from its civilians the atrocities they were committing.
No one could look at the eggs being cracked and think the Soviet omelet justified. This is shown by the Gulag Archipelago being required reading in Russia today for school children.
It seems there is a right time to rebel, Solzhenitsyn was a devout Christian, but when is the right time?
Should we rebel in our country today? Should we demand every past iniquity be set right? Should we storm the capital and threaten to hang members of the U.S. Government?
Here is the how and time to stand: with as little force as necessary to speak the truth in the current climate.
With Logos as our north star and love as our mediator, we can walk through any corruption in the proper spirit to set it right.
And prayer; lots of prayer.
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- Be not hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand in an evil cause, for he does whatever he pleases. For the word of the king is supreme, and who may say to him, “What are you doing?” -
One piece of this puzzle we did not answer in the last post is a pretty important one. What do Americans pledge themselves to?
Well, it is the country itself which is a democratic republic. What does this mean? We pledge allegiance to the legislation produced by representatives of the people’s will.
Now of course that doesn’t mean these individuals rule with an iron fist, but on matters of the law, the law defeats our desires if we mean our pledge.
The king has much more rights than those encapsulated in the will of the people. Why? Because the people desire to be protected from the people as well.
One of the representatives of the people’s will that we can easily see and come to face with is, of course, police officers.
Their job is to protect the people from the individual’s will. There only method for this enforcement is of course the agreed to laws.
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To be desirous to leave a king’s presence is to communicate you are hiding something. To act the same way to a police officer can arouse suspicion.
Why would you desire to flee? To do so is to say that you do not wish to be subjected by the will of the people, the very thing you have pledged to.
As with the king, take your time to be assessed. Try your best to answer their questions as honestly as you can, knowing it is this structure that provides you rights and protections as well.
The next phrase is a warning, not an admonition. This is not the part of the Bible where we learn that it is wrong to pursue evil.
When you disobey a king or move against him or his people, what and how can he respond? In whatever way he desires.
He can take your head, condemn you into exile, and additionally make your family participate in the punishment.
A police officer is bound by the powers given to him by the people, but there is still some liberty within there with how he can treat you.
What does this mean? Has it ever bothered you how God allows Israel to be destroyed by other nations? If not, you need to go back and reread those stories.
God uses the instruments of this world to carry out his wrath, including kings and the police. Who knows whether that is a mercy or not.
Most of the time, I think it is a mercy.
God also uses the Israelites to exact punishment on certain nations whose wickedness God abhors. Does it not say that the hearts of kings are in His hands?
What am I saying? The tools and punishments within a government are God’s tools, not their own.
Should we then cower before kings like the medieval serfs did? No. This to recognize our place in time, and to that which we bind ourselves, allow us to be bound by it.
Now, I know this whole post raises a host of questions. The most obvious and pertinent ones can be summed up in the following:
When do we not do this?
That’s quite an American question, and one not made less important by my observation.
The answer is this: when they go wrong.
I hope in the next verse to expound upon that answer.
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- I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. -
Hey now, what’s this bit about a king? I thought Jesus was an American and republican! Doesn’t anyone read the King James anymore?!?
Alright, bad jokes out of the way, we still need to answer a question raised by these jests. What does this verse have to do with us (Americans) seeing as we don’t have one of those kings anymore?
Maybe even more importantly, why are we even raising the question? Well, the next few verses are going to directly speak to this topic.
If we don’t address it, discussing the next group of verses will be a waste of time.
We will endeavor to argue that this bit in our Bible is indeed the Word of God, despite its references in regard to our own government being a bit out of date.
Like many instances in the Bible, there are lessons for us to learn from stories that do not specifically reference us.
The parables are indeed the most obvious form of this. They do not even refer to real people, yet Jesus intends for those listening to learn something important from these fantasies.
I believe this is true even of stories not told for our moral benefit, such as when Nicodemus visits Jesus in the night.
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What is the lesson? Come to God, even poorly, and He will converse with you if you ask genuine and honest questions.
It’s one of the reasons why we read stories in the Bible beyond knowing the story of God. He wants us to engage with the Bible so that we might better know and serve Him.
All that may seem painfully obvious, but I want you to understand something important about the Bible: it contains truth of multiple types, including narrative.
That is not to diminish the truth in anyway, rather it is to show the multiple ways in which the Bible proves its point.
It can be right in a whole set of arenas, as one would expect from the Word.
Now that that is out of the way, what can we learn from these passages on kings? Perhaps we need a better understanding of the Hebrew here.
This verse reads as if God has made an oath to the king. That’s not exactly wrong or right. This verse might be better understood as an oath we make before God.
What does that mean? We are to honor the king not necessarily because he is king, but because we have pledged to do so before God.
This is a verse more about keeping one’s word then it is about government, which means we can safely now ignore it.
Except for this pesky little thing called the pledge of allegiance.
Now, I know this is a somewhat fraught topic as the pledge has been accepted and changed many times, but I’m not here to discuss any of that.
Let’s agree on this: the pledge of allegiance, like the national anthem, is a declaration of loyalty to the American government before some higher power, possibly God or society.
I don’t think that is asking too much.
We have a duty to the governments we pledge ourselves to, undoubtedly. What are the limits of that promise?
Thankfully, the remaining verses provide helpful answers.
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- Who is like the wise?And who knows the interpretation of a thing?A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,and the hardness of his face is changed. -
Wisdom is a peculiar thing. At times, we like to pretend that wisdom is like knowledge, but in our modern day, it is something quite different.
Perhaps at one point there was no dividing line; now it is useful to use both words to delineate between two types of knowing.
What do I mean? Knowledge appears to be associated with information gained via the scientific method and wisdom appears to be understanding that is a-priori or intuitive.
Knowledge is knowing what gravity is. No matter how many times you drop the apple, it still hits Newton’s noggin.
Wisdom explains our values. It is the understanding that it is useful to know the apple falls.
Have you captured the nuance here? Based on these definitions, we can see that knowledge has little insight into values.
To know something does not imply knowing it is useful. Why else would they call them useless facts?
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To put it another way, could you count and record the blades of grass in your front yard? Sure can, but wisdom would inform you of the uselessness of the action.
The emphasis we place on knowledge and wisdom show in many ways the heart of our culture. We are staggeringly, technologically powerful, yet we can’t define what a woman is.
Wisdom has a way for us all to tap into the underlying means and purposes of things without necessarily needing to articulate them.
We do this most obviously when we partake in communion, but we also enter into these patterns at marriages and funerals.
This is great news! Because wisdom is difficult to search out. I mean, look at Solomon’s life; the wisest man searching out wisdom was disappointed.
In these rituals, we get the opportunity to act out some of the most fundamental truths of the universe, such as love, sacrifice, meaning, etc.
Those that can speak of these intuitions speak of wisdom. They know not only the form of the thing but its purpose as well.
To put it simply: they know the how and, more importantly, the why.
To have the why answered is to indeed find the answer to the unanswerable question of the child. Why are we going to grandmas? Why do I have to? Why does Daddy love Mommy?
These are not foolish questions. Children, especially in infancy, are only students. Yes, they have needs, but that does not distinguish them from us.
They desire to know, and they desire to know even the most difficult questions. That is why we must give them the worst answer.
Because I said so.
It is an answer from authority, one that every child knows is bad. They can even see the adults not buying it while they offer it.
Love the Lord your God with all of your mind. What does this mean? A part of the answer is to answer the why questions.
Why? When those who interpret the world correctly speak, it creates peace. It is the action of organization – of putting it all in the proper place.
That is why a child asks why.
With that truth, one can have a faith no longer naïve. They can move beyond the tender time of childhood and begin to see the world as it truly is.
All our suffering resolved in perfect being.
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- See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes. -
This verse reminds us of Genesis during the fall and those verses in Romans we don’t like to think about, no not one.
We lived in a perfect paradisal state. Did we preserve it? Did we wake up every day praising God for the opportunity He had given us to live in such a beautiful world?
Nope. We listened to the talking snake. Of all the creatures Eve could’ve chatted with, why in the world was she cool with a snake?
That’s one of those, “I’m going to ask them when I get to heaven,” questions.
God made us with a love for the good and a desire to exist in harmony with Him, but He also gave us free will, the ability to make decisions common to ourselves.
That is what the tree of knowledge of good and evil represents. It is a path to shortcut God’s plan; to get ahead by saying we know best.
In this story, we learn something about ourselves. We do not desire paradise. We don’t want things perfect. We want something far more interesting than perfection.
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Now, that’s sounds strange. Are we not surrounded by a host of utopians attempting to control us into making the perfect society?
Don’t watch that movie. Don’t drive that car. Don’t put out that yard sign. Don’t hold that belief. Don’t tell me who to love.
Language like this is an excellent prompt to examine the speaker’s intentions.
If man is not seeking utopia, what is he seeking? The author Dostoyevsky in his novella Notes from Underground informs us of what man truly desires.
As it shows us man’s true intentions, I wish to leave you with it. Know that this dark heart is why we need a savior.
You see, gentlemen, reason is an excellent thing, there's no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of man's nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses…. Now I ask you: what can be expected of man since he is a being endowed with strange qualities? Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick…. And that is not all: even if man really were nothing but a piano-key, even if this were proved to him by natural science and mathematics, even then he would not become reasonable, but would purposely do something perverse out of simple ingratitude, simply to gain his point. And if he does not find means he will contrive destruction and chaos, will contrive sufferings of all sorts, only to gain his point!… If you say that all this, too, can be calculated and tabulated--chaos and darkness and curses, so that the mere possibility of calculating it all beforehand would stop it all, and reason would reassert itself, then man would purposely go mad in order to be rid of reason and gain his point! I believe in it, I answer for it….
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- Behold, this is what I found, says the Preacher, while adding one thing to another to find the scheme of things—which my soul has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. -
Look – I don’t pick what Solomon writes, okay? You can choose to stop reading this crazy guy at any time!
I think there are two ways to read this verse and I want to look at both. The first is a personal meaning for Solomon; the latter is more universal.
How many wives did Solomon have? 700 wives plus 300 concubines for a nice round 1,000 women in total.
That number is familiar. Okay, I’ll stop being cute. It’s the exact number Solomon refers to in this verse. Coincidence?
So, what is Solomon telling us? That it’s impossible to find a good woman because he had a thousand ladies and none of them worked out.
Doesn’t seem like the lesson Jesus wants us to take, does it?
Perhaps he means something like this. “I” could not find a good woman even though I had a thousand chances.
What does that mean? Perhaps its not the number but the method that hindered Solomon. Maybe marriage is more about loyalty than picking the perfect mate.
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Right, that’s one option. I don’t think it’s impossible for that to be the meaning, but it’s not the most compelling read to me.
When I read this verse plainly, I see two meanings: 1) a misogynistic view of women and 2) it is simply harder to be an ideal woman than an ideal man.
It’s not that Solomon is bitter, rather he is an admirer.
Can we find further evidence of this idea? First, look to our culture. What does it tell us about women?
That they are better off as men. They need to get careers and be like all those sarcastic and rude guys from all those movies we like.
Is this true? Why would God make us BOTH in His own image if He didn’t have a purpose for our difference?
This is part of a longer sermon I gave on Ephesians 5:22-24, those pesky verses on wives submitting to their husbands.
It’s a massive topic, but I’d appreciate your grace in allowing me to lay forth a portion of that argument here.
Here’s the deal. Men have only one way to be in the world, and that is as men. Women get a much rougher deal.
Women have three stories they can live out.
First, and definitely the least, they can be men. I can even give you a Bible verse! Go read about Jael, the woman who killed the enemies of God with a tent peg (Judges 4).
Second, women can turn “monsters” into men. You guessed it; there is a Bible verse for this one as well. Okay, a whole book. Give Esther a read.
Finally, women can be mothers. Who better to show us this truth than Mary. She was the path for Jesus into this world.
Our culture loves to denigrate motherhood, but that’s only because it doesn’t understand what motherhood is.
It is the ability to bring in a saving force into the world, love and nurture its potential, and allow it to die.
It is hard to find a more noble, loving, and tragic story that a human can live than being a good mother.
Who could ever live up to it?
Housekeeping: This is going to be our last verse for the year. I’ll pick back up on January 3rd.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
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- I turned my heart to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know the wickedness of folly and the foolishness that is madness. And I find something more bitter than death: the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God escapes her, but the sinner is taken by her. -
The structure present at the beginning of these verses should be familiar to us. Solomon has spent much of his book explaining his quest concerning meaning and wisdom.
What follows is something new. It sounds like the man who wrote Proverbs rather than the one who wrote Ecclesiastes.
Solomon writes of the adulteress, seductress, the w***e. He finds her (fittingly given his proclivities) associated with a fate worse than death.
Why do I say fittingly? Well at this point in Solomon’s life, he has realized the demise of his kingdom will come through his foreign wives.
God had warned the people of Israel of foreign women not because of xenophobia, but rather due to their inclination to turn them towards other gods.
Worshipping other gods was such a big deal, it made it into the top ten rules twice.
This is exactly what had happened to Solomon. He had married countless of women who turned his and his people’s heart away from God.
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So, was he biased or did God speak true? The wars and enslavement to come would undoubtedly produce a fate worse than death.
One avenue into the answer may be how poorly this mistake makes Solomon look. He is the wisest man and even he cannot follow the obvious, non-esoteric laws?
The Bible is not kind to its heroes.
The law appears to not only be our instructor, but also a window into our own corruption. If the wisest fall prey to it, how much more will we?
Now, we must examine the law and see if it proves true not only in for Solomon, but in our own age as well.
Our culture is obsessed with erotic pleasure. Why do I not use the term love or sex? Because both terms have been degraded by our age.
Love is to care for someone else to your own detriment. Sex is to join two souls into spiritual union. Erotic pleasure is strictly genital, and this we have prioritized above all other “loves.”
We have chosen to become Freudians rather than Jungians, some of us without ever being told there was a choice.
Feminism instructs women that liberation is to be found in destroying moderation. In agreeing to this view, they find themselves joining forces with the women Solomon describes.
You may ask, “Where are their gods?” The argument is semantical, and we know this. They serve the gods of Secularism and Pleasure – Bacchus and Aphrodite they are named.
Truly, we find ourselves not only with the temptation of willing bodies, but we face the images and icons of this false love, ensnaring men and women alike.
What can we do to avoid and flee this temptation? It’s always a click away. How are we to overcome these impossible odds?
First, you must stay away from temptation. Do not watch lewd movies regardless of your age or maturity.
Second, learn your limits. I do not mean experiment. I mean to take note of when you fall and learn how to avoid the scenario in the future.
Third, get married and do so when you are young. There is no better teacher to show the superiority of love to erotica then a Christian marriage.
Finally, love God.
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- That which has been is far off, and deep, very deep; who can find it out? -
We’ve seen language to this affect back in Chapter 1. Solomon is letting us know that there is nothing new under the sun.
Right before he gets to that phrase, he says what has been is what will be. What has been done, will be done.
Solomon is letting us know that history repeats itself. We are doomed to repeat the mistakes from the past as they are indicative of our nature.
Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly, Proverbs 26:11. Yep, Solomon is always just full of cheerful images and metaphors.
So, what does this language about the past being deep mean? Does it build from what we have already learned in chapter 1?
To begin, let’s examine the metaphor. What does it mean for something to be deep?
In our own day, we use this metaphor to describe a meaningful, philosophical point. They are a very deep thinker or what you just said is very deep.
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What do we mean when we speak this way? What you have said is near the foundation, or the core, of what the thing is.
It is to no longer speak of the events, but to speak of the human heart. Kyle has stolen from the company because the pride that hides in every man refuses to ask for help.
But now let us consider the idea still further. What lurks in the deep? True there is a treasure there, a treasure of mirrors reflecting man’s soul, but are there not dangers as well?
The formidable Leviathan and other serpents of old all belong in the deep far-off waters, waiting for careless and prepared travelers alike.
There then appear to be monsters in the depths. Do we not find all manner of strange creatures near the bottom of the ocean? How can one consider the angler fish earthly?
On the surface, man is a creature that appears simple. He wants to eat, reproduce, and not be bothered with too much labor.
But do we not know there is more to him? That there are depths unseen? Sides of his character he intends to disguise with smiles and mute with laughter?
There within the depths of his soul are both the real man and the monsters of himself. The heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? It is an enigma to even its possessor.
But there is another secret, one more puzzle to these depths that must be explained. Why are they depths?
Why are you a mystery to yourself? Why does your body not simply explain itself to you? Why can you be possessed by rage? Why do you do what you hate? Why are you not the master in your own house?
It would seem that the depths also explain to us that indeed there are functions, both physiological and psychological, your body has deemed you to irresponsible to control, a Petersonian idea.
Breathing is autonomous. Cell division is hidden. There is no lever to disperse adrenaline.
These parts are all deep and created far off. They are even possibly the results of fallen man, curses freely chosen.
The past and yourself are full of terrors. They are full of mysteries. The very way your perception operates is a secret to us all.
Like old maps, here there be monsters.
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- All this I have tested by wisdom. I said, “I will be wise,” but it was far from me. -
What does Solomon mean when he says tested by wisdom? Did he start performing scientific experiments to see which of his adages proved true?
Probably not exactly like that. After discovering a lesson of wisdom, he probably acted it out and then noticed the results.
Was his life better? Did he have access to new information previously withheld from him? Was he able to protect himself and others from uncertain futures?
The answer to some of that has to be yes, at least to the sayings he has relayed to us in chapter 7. He went to a party and a funeral and guess what? The funeral was more edifying.
Imagine you had started to gather these insights. What would you do? Perhaps you would make a demand of yourself like this.
“I’m going to do these no matter what. I am determined to live a wise life despite the cost!”
While having a goal towards that ideal is noble, is it realistic? I mean, how many new year resolutions have you not completed?
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What am I saying? You can’t bully yourself! You cannot act as a tyrant to your body and expect it to do what you want.
Why? Why can’t we be the best versions of ourselves?
The answer is an obvious yet frustrating one to the new creature sitting within the breast of the Christian.
You are a fallen man. You have an inclination and desire to sin. The old man is hanging on by fingertips, but that’s enough of a stronghold to make you (the redeemed half) do what you hate.
If it’s true for Paul and Solomon, it’s true for you.
That voice that speaks, demanding that you be wise, is not doing so in a negotiated manner with your other desires.
I’m not saying that you should listen to your desire for sin. What I am saying is the redeemed voice forgets its fallen half.
It demands to be a saint now. It doesn’t want to do the hard work of removing minor imperfections. It wishes to be an apostle upon this instant, never to falter again.
If you struggle waking up on time, how can you ever learn the greater lessons of wisdom? Can you keep your house clean? Can you balance your check book?
Solomon gets this, because he begins to understand the infinity of wisdom, that it is a part of God’s character, present with Him before the foundation of the world.
The wisest man could never hope to fully obtain it. It was to far from him. The mountain he wished to ascend, was beyond the end of the ocean.
So, what can we do. If we wish to be wise, where must we begin?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What does that mean?
Perhaps the humiliation of ourselves, the first step to salvation, is where we can begin. It is to say we are not good, and if not good how much further are we then from wisdom?
Once confessed, then we may be able to start the impossible journey to being wise. We may begin carving away at our imperfections, reasonably as God reveals them to us.
Finally, we can live these ideas out. They must not be a moment, but an experience.
To admit is salvation; to walk – sanctification.
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- Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. -
Gossiping is a human universal. I do not mean that all cultures have some form of gossiping within them. I mean all of humanity gossips.
Why? It’s not right to say it is sin and we love sinning. Not all human beings (even those we would consider immoral) commit murder, adultery, or fraud.
In fact, you can be a particularly abusive and cruel individual, hated by your family, and never even dabble in one of the sins noted above.
So why is gossiping a human universal, as I’ve defined it? Because there is utility in gossiping without much cost.
Say a manager treats you poorly, you can share that story with your peers to learn if that is normal or abnormal behavior.
If its normal, now you have a different way to interact with your boss. You are now more defensive and know which topics to avoid.
The cost for doing so? Primarily the costs are made up front in the relationships you made, and your reputation stays relatively intact.
The true cost is hidden. The environment has not improved i.e. your boss’s character and flaws stay the same.
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What am I saying? Your ability to navigate a difficult environment has improved but not the underlying problems, such as a short temper, their brusque demeanor, etc.
This is the “sin” of gossiping. Not that it isn’t useful or that sometimes it may be your best solution, but obviously the best outcome is one where the poor behavior is corrected.
As a Christian, try to not gossip. Go to people who you think will hear you and explain to them your concerns humbly, assuming you might be mistaken.
By doing so, you give the other person the opportunity to make things right through explanation or by acknowledging their own flaw.
If they actually make the correction, then that’s great! You’ve solved your problem, theirs, and future employees who work with them.
Difficult, but hard to get frustrated by those results.
So, should you take what someone says to heart? As far as it hurts your feelings, no. You should realize that’s a human universal.
Should you listen to their corrections? Mostly, yes. Sometimes people are just trying to ruin your reputation with false or heavily biased views.
Depending on the extent of what’s being discussed and who it reaches will greatly influence the decision to defend yourself or not.
Most of the time? When people are discussing a character flaw behind your back though, they’re right.
You don’t want to believe that. It goes against your pride and your perception of yourself. You’re a relatively decent person. Why would anyone have something bad to say about you?
That’s because most decent people are blind to their flaws. How do you know?
What do you think about more, your own flaws or the flaws of others? Want to find out? Start making a journal entry every time you have a negative thought.
If you find yourself struggling to see your own faults, then why would you take the discussion of them to heart? Yes, it would be better for those individuals to speak to you, but they are providing you a service.
The wise man loves rebuke. He loves it in all forms, even those that are not presented perfectly or conventionally.
When others speak ill, don’t hate, learn.
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- Wisdom gives strength to the wise man more than ten rulers who are in a city. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. -
Recognize the last verse? I’ll give you a hint. One of the apostle’s says something similar to this in one of his letters.
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Romans 3:23.
Right, Paul’s famous passage on everyone being a sinner can be found in Ecclesiastes! I always love seeing Old Testament and New Testament patterns match.
Let’s start with the last part. We know we all sin. Why? Because it’s as easy as breathing.
We want all the stuff we want, and we want it now. We know we think that thought, even if it only sits barely above our subconscious and appears only for a few seconds at a time.
We know even to think this thought is to disgrace our God, whom we owe everything to, even our trials and tribulations.
Remember when we discussed the word sin? It’s an archery term which means to miss the mark, meaning not doing it perfectly.
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What does that mean? It’s not only thinking the selfish thoughts; it’s not thinking the best thoughts all the time no matter how difficult your life is!
That’s all sin. When the Bible says that everyone sins, it means it. Failure is simply unavoidable.
Tied up in this idea is the emphasis on doing good. Now, they are clearly linked; sin, in some sense, is not doing good.
Why the need for both statements?
Well, for one, saying it both ways makes it explicit the standard God holds us to. “You don’t do things right and you do things wrong.”
Focusing on the good allows us to consider the good. Perhaps, we pose a question like this, “What is good? What does it mean to hit the mark?”
If sin is missing the bullseye, how can we strike it?
We could say it’s to live a life like the Scriptures inspire. It’s to imitate Jesus in the best way you possibly can. It’s to be guided by the Spirit.
All of that is pretty abstract, meaning there is an active element of living our lives that is required for the good to reveal itself to us.
What does that mean? It is unknown to us. In fact, if God’s full goodness were made manifest to us, it would cause us to die.
“For man shall not see me and live.” Exodus 33:20.
What does this mean? The good is abstract and we can only witness a part of it here in our lives today.
This all goes to make Solomon and Paul’s point more explicit. None are righteous. None are good. All fall short of God’s glory.
What hope then is there for us? If we are filled with the inclination and desire for sin and goodness will literally kill us if we observe it, how might we ever live a kingdom life?
The answer?
Be reborn. Become a new creature. Die to yourself. Carry your cross. Be transformed.
It’s when you decide to have faith in God, Jesus, Spirit, Logos, The Good, that you can finally die.
But oh death, where is your sting?
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- Be not overly righteous, and do not make yourself too wise. Why should you destroy yourself? Be not overly wicked, neither be a fool. Why should you die before your time? It is good that you should take hold of this, and from that withhold not your hand, for the one who fears God shall come out from both of them. -
One way is pretty easy. Don’t be a martyr. Like you, I’m pretty sure that is not what Solomon is referring to.
He’s referring to the idea that those who are wise can meet their destruction by doing what is good, possibly even naively.
The cynic might see that goodness or wisdom may not lead to a long life, so perhaps its better to be good enough to prolong one’s life and no more.
No reason to look for undue attention.
The same goes true for being wicked and acting like a fool, although once again the word overly is used. Are we to be somewhat wicked?
If we are too wicked, we will surely die before out time. That’s a little bit harsher than the punishment for being too good.
Now, what’s this part about taking hold of both? Well in some sense Solomon is telling us to hold onto wickedness and to hold onto righteousness.
If we have a bit of both, the argument goes that it will prolong our life. More than that, he says the man who fears God shall come out from both of them.
We will come out both from righteousness and wickedness? Why would we ever want to shake off righteousness?
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Got to say, this sounds pretty weird coming from a religious book.
Okay, but what did we learn in our last post? That was some good context, right? What did verse 15 tell us?
It talks about the righteous man who perishes. That seems pertinent. Why did we say he perishes? Because he persists in righteousness for his own glory’s sake.
That makes sense. In a way, we may see righteousness and wickedness in these verses as insights into man’s view on righteousness and wickedness.
Take kindness. Many think it’s a virtue to be kind, and in some regards there right. It’s even one of the fruits of the spirit.
Is it right to be so kind that you never tell a lost soul that they are headed for Hell? Is that kindness?
Kindness without teeth is worthless. Why teeth? Aren’t teeth used for biting? Is not biting something we would associate with wickedness?
Is mercy worth having in the face of no judgement? What good is it being forgiven if you are not worthy of a punishment.
You are released from a prison with no walls. We end your banishment to wherever you want to go. The death penalty by living to old age has been revoked.
What puzzle have we stepped into?
There are things which man calls wicked and righteous from his perspective that from god’s perspective prove not to be so.
His righteousness may appear to us as wickedness. If it does so, might it be our perspective? Might it be our selfishness?
Then, if one wants to be a true imitator of Christ, one must learn how to forgive and flip tables, to feast and fast, to live and lay down one’s life.
Gaining the eternal view grants correct perceptions.
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- In my vain life I have seen everything. There is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who prolongs his life in his evildoing. -
I think I’m having a midlife crisis now.
Working hard is something to admire. If given the choice, we prefer to work with others who put in similar or more effort than we do.
We never want to work with people who are willing to coast or perform the minimum required.
Perhaps one can tolerate incompetence from an apprentice for a couple of months, but a year is pushing it.
Its more than that. It’s who we admire. We don’t want to be middle-level managers; we want to be Alexander the Great.
Perhaps that same attitude permeates into our religious lives as well. You don’t want to be just some worshiper of God.
Maybe you want to be the most impassioned on a Sunday morning, raising both hands towards the heavens, or the pastor on stage with spit flying as you lay into the fire and brimstone.
You might wish to be the most righteous in your congregation. Well, is that what God wants from your life?
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Does God want you to be righteous? Does God want your life to be in service to Him? Does God want your undivided love and to set Him first above all others?
The answer to all these questions is an obvious yes, but there not the original question. They are distractions from the true question our heart has posed.
Does God want you to be the most righteous?
That question comes from pride. What happens when the finite decides to become infinite?
Death. Perish. Whither.
How about the wicked? They’re the other half to our disturbing verse. How can you prolong your life with evil?
An excellent movie you may have not seen but need to watch is the Count of Monte Christo (the one with Guy Pearce).
The movie has it all. Drama, romance, action, revenge, and yes, believe it or not, an appeal to the need for every soul to be redeemed by God.
But, we see early in the film that a few corrupt members of society maintain their power by casually performing acts of evil where it benefits them.
Hiding corruption here, betraying a friend there, getting so and so killed. It all backfires on them, but it allows them to keep living truly decadent lives.
What’s more? If they had acted decently, there posh lifestyles would’ve never been realized.
It’s very easy to steal when you are hungry. It’s quite another to believe in truth and goodness to the point you would allow yourself to starve for them.
What are you to do? Examine your heart. Well, why do you do evil things for gain? The gain – obviously. Fine, but why not do something difficult? Why not good for gain?
Perhaps it’s because doing good would require you to become uncomfortable. Do not most of these acts include deception? And why deceive?
Because the truth and acting justly may mean we have to pay some cost for these virtues. It may mean we don’t deserve what we have and being honest about that.
Do you love truth, or lying comfort?
Housekeeping: No post this Thursday. Enjoy your Turkey!
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- In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him. -
It is good and right to enjoy our blessings. We should not take these for granted when they come our way and use them as touchstones to praise and worship God.
Not only this, but we should use them to remind others around us about the glory and riches of following Christ.
Joy is a connection to the resurrection, and we fail ourselves and the body of Christ when we do not make this acknowledgment.
But, our lives are not always full of good things. On some days, it is harder to see the blessings due to pressing woes.
These days of adversities may register as difficult events in our lives. A particularly difficult assignment, a child struggling with homework, or a tricky home repair.
Not exactly suffering and some of those may not even be considered adversities! Some we may even have the strength to see as blessings.
But I want to separate the two at a different level. Yes, fixing your house may be a blessing or an adversity given how you perceive it.
May I propose that those things accepted in rest our blessings while those accepted in motion are better understood as adversities?
This allows us to see the difference between the two without platitudes getting in the way. It is quite one thing to enjoy one’s labors and another to not rest.
So, when we act rather than engage in rest, we are to consider. What does this mean? We are not to let our thoughts take their own course.
We are to arrest our mind and our thoughts. Why? Because if we do not, they are likely to be detrimental to ourselves, others, or God.
The thought we are to consider? That God has made the moments for our joy just as he has made those for us to toil in.
Now why are we to have this consideration? The obvious answer is the one we have already alluded to. We can see adversities as blessings.
They can improve our character or perhaps by accomplishing something difficult we can achieve a sense of meaning in our lives beyond that which we currently enjoy.
Close the book; We’re done today.
But the verse tells us why we are to have this thought. It’s not that adversity is for our benefit therefore acknowledge God for both.
These trials are given to us so that we will not find out what is to come after us. What comes after us?
The lives of those we lead, mentor, and parent. Why are we not to discover what goes on in their lives?
Because we are given our lives to live. We are meant to be good stewards of the future by acting as the future’s (read children’s) parents.
What am I saying? God is asking you to be focused on living your life and not thinking about everything that is to come.
One of the ways he ensures that is He gives you things to do in your life. You might find that so annoying that you will call them adversity.
Why? Why would God give us tasks?
Because through them, we can see the meaning that is to come. Why do we not arrest our thoughts in joy?
Because we know joy to be an echo of heaven. It is harder for us to remember that worship is an action, and we are to sing loudly in the kingdom to come.
In both joy and action, heaven comes.
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- Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? -
Remember, we are supposed to be considering the lessons and benefits of wisdom. What does that have to do with verse 13?
You may have heard of this guy called Socrates. He used to ask people a lot of questions. Then all the rulers of Athens got really mad about all the questions and killed him.
Don’t believe me? Go read his Apology.
This raises an important question. Why did this guy think it was his business to go around and ask everybody questions to the point they wanted him dead?
Well, his friend went to an oracle and was told who the wisest person in Greece was.
It was Socrates.
Now that’s convenient if you wanted a feather in your cap, but Socrates wasn’t like that. He didn’t believe the oracle at all.
So, what did he do? He started asking people questions. Important people at first to see if they knew the answers to questions he didn’t.
Their response? Stop asking questions! Socrates then learned the secret to why the oracle called him wise.
He was wise because he knew he knew nothing.
That’s an unbelievably useful idea. It’s one that eschews pride and hubris, always allowing someone to process information in real time and remove one’s biases.
What does this have to do with our verse? At first, possibly nothing. The phrase at face value makes a lot of sense, though the wording may give us pause.
If God decides to turn the sky green every Thursday, who can stop him? Better, who could change it back to blue?
Say God bends something. Who in their right mind would attempt to straighten it?
To do so may prove both beyond our ability and incredibly dangerous as it may invite the wrath of God upon the sinner.
But, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard this phrasing. Back in chapter 1 we read, “What is crooked cannot be made straight.”
That language seems to be in line with our earlier translation. The context of this verse shows it to mean something quite different.
Solomon is searching for meaning in chapter 1. He is trying to uncover this mystery and find what is worth performing under the sun.
God has made the path crooked. The path to meaning, the reason it remains a mystery, is because God Himself has made it hidden.
That seems unfair! Why would God keep us from seeing what could make our lives worth living! Why is He hiding that from us?
The Prophet Isaiah gives us insight. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
Meaning is transcendent to us. What does that mean? Meaning is beyond us. Jesus says if I’ve told you earthly things and you do not understand, how will you hear heavenly things?
Here’s the real question. Why has this curse Solomon spoke of in the beginning of the book become a lesson of wisdom?
Because wisdom accepts that some things are hidden from humanity both by their ability and because God deems it so.
We are finite. Our vision is limited. We ate from the tree. There are consequences for our impatience.
We find both men agreed. It is proper and righteous to admit we know that we know nothing.
What does this mean? Should we wander aimlessly. Are we abandoned by our father to suffer?
Pass through the narrow gate and walk the hard path.
It is both meaning and our mentor.
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-Wisdom is good with an inheritance,
an advantage to those who see the sun.
For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money,
and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. -
Vanity of Vanities. All is Vanity. But wisdom is good if you get the chance to see the sun.
Why? Well, it’s obvious but wisdom protects you. It keeps you from making foolish mistakes leading to your ruin in different arenas.
When I was young, I made a simple decision, and it has proved to work well for me. I decided that the adults in my life who I respected knew more than I did.
What were the consequences of this decision? I didn’t stay out late. I studied. I saved my money.
Was I boring? Sure, to some degree. Being an adult can have its dry moments, but I got married young, graduated with no debt, and helped my wife get out of her student loans.
Responsibility is boring but liberating.
Was I wise? Absolutely not. I listened to people I believed to be wise and took their advice and guidance seriously, even when I couldn’t fully make sense of it.
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Everything mentioned in our verses today I can attest to being true in my life. I’m sure most of you will say that wisdom has been to your benefit as well.
Here’s a strange question. Why?
Perhaps you might say the strategies that worked well for those before should work well for us too. Following the trail blazes is a good way to see if your headed in the right direction.
Hard to disagree with that logic, but why? Why doesn’t it differ? Don’t we live in a world of unprecedented change?
Would I have ever been able to communicate with you if not for the internet? How could I distribute anything like this blog via parchment and quills?
Maybe this makes my point a little clearer. Just what is wisdom? Is it an amalgam of behaviors and sayings people have cobbled together? Is there any reason why it works better for some than others?
In the beginning was the Word. John tells us in his gospel that Jesus is the logos, the divine reasoning, present with God in the creation of the world.
Perhaps one way to refer to that is divine wisdom. It’s at least close enough to the idea that you would be splitting hairs at that point.
In Proverbs 8:22-24, Solomon writes this of wisdom:
“The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.Ages ago I was set up,at the first, before the beginning of the earth.When there were no depths I was brought forth,when there were no springs abounding with water.
What is Solomon speaking of? If we take what John says seriously, is he not speaking of the Logos that was with God at the beginning?
If we believe this radical idea, then it means the Son of God who walked among us is wisdom. It is His life itself from which wisdom comes.
Why be wise?
Well, why not imitate Jesus?
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- Say not, “Why were the former days better than these?” For it is not from wisdom that you ask this. -
We like to pretend that the past events we have lived are better than our current circumstances. It’s a trick we play on ourselves.
Have you ever heard the parable that if every man placed their troubles in a large pile everyone would take back their own?
Why would we do that? Because the familiarity of our woes would be more attractive than dealing with someone else’s potentially easier predicament.
This same pattern exists when we think about the challenges in our past. When a truly difficult moment comes our way, we wish to have the trial we have already overcome!
We forget in our nostalgia that to truly face it again we must be the previous version of ourselves, the one who doesn’t have the wisdom yet to manage the dilemma.
That absolutely changes the calculus. I’d much rather deal with my taxes as a grown man than a child.
A child is given child size problems. They seem like the world to us in the moment and supposing our younger selves had it easy is only bought by passing through them.
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That is not the only way we can perceive the past. We may gaze back at the past with rose-tinted glasses, imaging an era in our lives or before in a romantic sense.
We do this at times with the medieval age. Nothing is more gallant than a knight riding off to kill a dragon and save a princess.
Except for the dying when you are forty, the bubonic plague, and most people living in abject poverty. Did I mention the dental plan sucks?
It’s our imagination. Further, the period may contain the same difficulties we find in our own lives.
What’s my evidence for this? Stories. Stories are about protagonists overcoming problems. Guess what? Romeo and Juliet’s plot is still relatable.
If it meant something to them and it means something to us, then it would appear our joint sense of meaning is in common.
Did not ancient people fear wars, disease, political upheaval? What’s the lesson? Do not glorify the past.
If you haven’t considered it yet, allow me to uncover the political elephant in the room. There is a certain slogan that does not consider this wisdom.
The MAGA rallying cry is no doubt a bit of political genius by President Donald Trump and his campaign, though Solomon would have found issues with it.
Making America Great Again has an idea in it I think many of us can respect and desire. We look back into America’s past and dream. Wasn’t it better when Washington was in charge?
Maybe there were some particular events happening during the founding that make it truly remarkable, but are we not all handed our moment? Do we not all have the choice to strive and be great?
The real question? What period does MAGA refer to? Does it mean yesterday? The 20’s? The civil war? World War I? The 1700’s?
The answer? It doesn’t refer to any of those times; it references our wistfulness, a vision of the past that doesn’t see it for what it is, despite the great things America has done!
It’s why the phrase is both a rallying cry and divisive.
What can we do?
When any politician reminds us of the “good ole days,” remember there is nothing new under the sun.
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- Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools. -
I struggle with anger.
That’s not exactly true. In fact, I’m not an angry person. If anything, I let people take advantage of me more than I sin in my anger.
That’s not exactly true. I’m not an angry person in regard to the people I work with, my friends, and other acquaintances.
My struggle with anger affects the people I love most – my family.
Why the difference? That’s easy, nobody affects my happiness, nobody else lives in my house, nobody else means more to me than my family.
I can ignore people at work I don’t like or who pester me. If I do that to my wife, my peace and serenity at home are in serious jeopardy!
Yes, it’s sad that we allow the worst parts of our personalities to affect that what we cherish, but it also makes sense – the stakes are higher.
Dr. Peter Kreeft says that the opposite to love is not hate, rather it is indifference. A strange statement that does not fit our priors.
Does it make sense? On further reflection, we find ourselves able to love and hate the same person even in the same moment.
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I can’t believe they would do this to me! Don’t they know I love them more than anything in the whole world? Why would they be so stupid!
Love and hate are powerful emotions. It is only when something we truly love is at stake that we can find the capacity to hate.
It is that which we are indifferent to that we pay no attention. We do not see it, and in our blindness, we assign its worth.
Anger is a energetic spirit. It does not sit still and reside. It moves like a fire, leading us into acts of passion, perhaps even destruction.
Our anger can also lead us to act in indifferent ways. Fine, if that’s the way that you want to be, then I’m leaving.
What are we saying? We are saying the other person’s actions have led us to no longer believe their existence is worth our attention.
We have learned to practice indifference towards them.
Anger is moving. When it lodges in your heart, it spreads that movement throughout you, willing you to enact its desires.
Have you ever been in an argument, said something you regret, and instantly say, “I don’t know what just came over me. That wasn’t me.”
What are you saying? That the angry spirit inside you won control over your tongue long enough to say its true desire.
Is it you speaking? Why yes of course it is. We all lie to some extent when we say that wasn’t me, but you are also making it clear that your worst inventions took over.
There’s some utility in that. There’s also some reason to be afraid in that moment. How did the worst voice take over?
If you let that anger stay, it will fester and tear your heart to pieces. It will take that which you love and treat it with scorn and derision.
Why? Because it knows you love it and wants it to perish to prove to you that indifference was better, that getting out of bed wasn’t actually worth it.
What might we do in defense of this great destroyer playing tag along?
Love – love everyone as yourself.
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- Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. -
Reading this verse, I have trouble buying into it. I’ve definitely had several experiences that were way better in the beginning than the end!
Okay, obviously that’s true for all of us, but the verse is driving at something different. What is the context of chapter 7?
Right, we are supposed to be learning the benefits of wisdom. What does that have to do with the end of events?
Have you ever had a great friend, only for them to betray you? Wasn’t the beginning of that relationship better than the end?
What about the reverse? Have you ever met someone who irritated you only to become close with them or find about some extenuating circumstances in their life?
Which one of the relationships above would you consider better?
Obviously, the latter. Why? Because “the end” of that relationship clarified the kindof relationship it was.
In fact, the past in both will now have new context. Perhaps, in time, we will even look at these events with nostalgia.
What’s the lesson here? Wisdom teaches us not to have our hopes set on the beginnings. It is only in the endings where we can find true meaning for the seasons in our lives.
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Our example with good and bad relationships is useful, but not the only or the most meaningful place this truth plays out.
Perhaps the most profound arena we can learn this truth is in our least favorite place to learn.
Suffering.
This is a hard lesson. Many things we struggle through are actually blessings in disguise. We love those lessons.
But sometimes, our sufferings are just harbingers of more intense pain to follow. A little twinge when we breathe turns out to be cancer.
Now, one way to respond when sorrow comes our way is to puff out our chests, to strive with that difficulty, and attempt our mastery over it.
That’s effective, till it isn’t. In fact, it’s hard to even say it’s wrong. Why should you roll over when you get diagnosed with a fatal disease?
When your wife serves you with divorce papers, should you just let her and the kids leave? Should you not fight to keep your family together in peace?
There is a limit to this, because there is a limit to you. Fate is both cruel and stronger than you and will conform you to her will.
What good is a raised chin then? What good are fiery eyes demanding she learn her place?
But see, I’ve made a mistake. The world is not governed by fates, but by our loving savior. To raise a proud crown in our weakness is to say, “salvation is with me.”
Can a Christian act in this manner? Can a man move against the workings of the universe and expect to be made whole?
Why not trust. What not practice patience. Why not move in the direction that God’s lamp has revealed, despite the suffering that comes?
Is it not better to stand with another? Why be in the gap alone?
Eternity will illuminate all; that infinite end will justify all beginnings.
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- Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
Well, what is so hard to get about this verse? Of course, oppression drives people mad. History is a good enough teacher here.
The current war with Russia and Ukraine isn’t their first conflict. The famines that ravaged Ukraine during the USSR’s rule were brutal.
If you have the stomach, you can find pictures of people selling human body parts in the streets. Fair enough to call that madness?
Think about the loving families forced to make decisions they never dreamed of when their neighbors lost all of their senses.
Rather take your lessons from the Bible? Read what the Prophets said the people of Israel would do while they were under siege.
It’s not light reading.
Money for one’s loyalty or a blind eye always leads to corruption. It’s easier to sleep with a guilty conscience when your pillow is stuffed with hundreds.
But something has happened in the last half that is different from the first. A bribe is accepted whereas oppression is received.
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Allow yourself to take another step back. What is the context of Chapter 7? What have we read in the other verses of this chapter?
It has shown us the benefits of wisdom, of not being one overcome by the foolishness of this world or it’s frivolous joys.
We use conjunctions to bring sentences together with similar structures or ideas. Rarely do we say, “My 401K is seeing great returns, and can you bring the sofa in through the back door?”
The conjunction brings conjoining ideas together. What have we not seen?
Looking carefully at the Greek, we read something like this. Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool.
That honestly reads more in line with what we have already seen in the passage, though madness is a good stand-in for fool.
Do wise men perform acts of oppression? Do wise men extort others? No. They stand in the gap when oppression arises.
They try to bring people together by helping them remember who they are, not what their circumstances pressure them to be.
If a wise man hurts others for his gain, if he takes bribes, if he grinds those less fortunate than himself, is he wise? Is he not a fool and corrupt?
Now the verses join together. Both the accepting of bribes and the carrying out of oppression show the assumed wise man as the fool he is.
What is the lesson for us? Obviously, do not commit acts of oppression and do not accept bribes. Done. See you next time.
Perhaps, there is another truth we can find here. One in keeping in line with the chapter. Another purpose for this text.
When the temptation of iron rule or corrupt money comes your way, how will you resist?
Perhaps you hope to stand in the day, with your will to do good. But don’t you know no man is good?
Ah, you are a new creature, but does not the old man linger? How will you convince him to stay quiet when it seems so convenient to let him run the show?
You must learn to be wise. You must ask for wisdom. Learn sorrow is better than laughter, that the house of mourning is preferred to mirth, that rebuke is better than foolish singing.
Be no longer a child, tossed about.
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- For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity. -
Seriously, what in the blue blazes does this mean?
Do you ever read a verse in the Bible and have that kind of reaction? This verse is a perfect example of that phenomenon.
Song of Solomon has instances of this as well. Walk up to your significant other and tell them that their teeth look like sheep.
Everybody post your results in the comments below.
Why is the Bible filled with strange sayings? Well, one reason is simply that the metaphors are out of date, like in today’s verse.
This one isn’t so hard to understand. In fact, we’ve already alluded to it in previous posts on this chapter.
Thorns crackling under a pot? It’s referring to using thorns as kindling for cooking. I’ve never used thorns for starting a fire myself, but apparently, they crackle when you do.
That crackling sounds like laughter. Once the thorns burn up, the noise is gone, like a fool’s mirth.
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Yes, this goes right along with what we’ve been discussing the last couple of posts. I don’t have to much more to say on it, but I want to direct your attention to a similar problem.
Much of our modern novels are absolutely invested in the interior thought lives of their characters. We eat it up.
People didn’t always write like this. It may surprise you to find out that we actually know very little of how ancient people conducted warfare.
Why? Because it was so obvious what occurred that no one ever took the opportunity to write it down! Historians would kill for a description, and they have nothing.
Today people do write detailed accounts of events, hopefully in a fashion that future generations will be able to make sense of.
What am I saying? That writing developed through time. People’s expectations on what to expect from history, poetry, and stories all expanded.
This is kind of like perspective in painting. If you look at old art throughout the ages, you will be amazed by how flat some earlier paintings were until they began to gain perspective.
What does this have to do with the Bible? Many times as we read its stories, we are not given insight into the interior lives of the people.
Imagine the story of the woman at the well. Do you remember how the woman is embarrassed by how Jesus calls her out? How He calmly tells her the truth about her “husbands?”
Right. None of that’s there. Maybe you thought it was there, because that’s the kind of information you expect to read or perhaps a pastor told the story like that to drive home his point.
Don’t believe me? Fine. Go read it slowly. Let me know how much information you get about how Jesus speaks, the expression on His face, His tone.
Now, why care about this? Well, one its interesting, to me at least, and a good chance to check our priors when reading the Bible.
Second, I think of it as a strange blessing.
To prove my point, remember when the adulteress is brought before Jesus, and He just draws in the dirt?
What on earth was He drawing? What so preoccupied Him in that moment?
In many ways, the hidden emotions of Jesus act in the same way.
What was He thinking?
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- It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools. -
Music is a wonderful gift. It was thanks to my brother that I gained an amateur’s proficiency with a few instruments.
Like many of you, singing and listening to music when I was younger was a way to cope. It allowed me to express emotions I didn’t understand at the time.
The music industry feeds off this desire in both children and adults (though possibly through nostalgia for the latter).
Pop music is essentially a hack for this, an attempt to create a song that becomes the zeitgeist.
Is that bad? Not inherently. Sometimes, in a weird culmination of talent, will, and capitalism, we all get the chance to listen to a great song that connects us with humanity.
Other times, its just a song filled with perverse language about perverse topics. Seems we try to use music to convince other people to make bad decisions.
Music isn’t bad, and Solomon isn’t saying so. Frankly, he is not even saying that perverse songs are bad, though I know he would agree.
He’s saying that hearing the song of fools is worthless. Listening to them sing, anything, is a sincere waste of time.
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Why? Well, even if it’s a good song, they may not treat it with the respect or dignity it deserves.
Music speaks of something deep in us, a rhythm. To have that tainted by the foolishness of others is a danger to its meaning and our own souls.
Don’t believe me? Just sing a “bad” song for a week. I’ll even let you pick the song you find morally abhorrent.
What is good to listen to?
Answering that question centers on a common goal, an ideal, for our lives. A center point that we know is worth aiming at.
What do we want to seek? What do we want to accomplish? The answer is simple and radically complex.
More than we are.
Now, the highest ideal that we can conceptualize is Christ. Want to be perfect? Good luck buttercup.
That doesn’t mean it’s not worth striving for. Every inch you remove of yourself and look more like Jesus is a victory for the kingdom.
But how do you get closer to the thing you cannot know? God is beyond you, so how could you hope to get closer to Him?
Imagine you’re in a dark room, looking for a door. How would you find it seeing as you can only see dimly?
Perhaps you stretch out your hands into the darkness, hoping to feel a piece of trim, the wooden face of a door, or a brass doorknob to guide you.
Talk about an arduous process. Perhaps though someone who has already walked the path guides you to the door with their words?
Even if they speak harshly to you, the correction will reduce the time you spend stumbling. It may even protect you from an injury.
Therefore, a wise man loves rebuke, because he knows he is going on an unknown journey, one that only others can guide him by their corrections.
Why rebuke? Why not a simple list of do’s? Why not a list to enlightenment? Why do you have to figure everything out on your own? Where’s the map?
Wise men know that to lay the path out before you is to steal the work. The journey is your own, and to truly complete it, you must labor for it.
Love Jesus? Then, love rebuke.
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- The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. -
The photo from today is from my backyard. My wife had a crazy idea that she could build a firepit in two days by herself.
It turned into a two-week project. Every day I would come home and spend about 1-2 hours working in the backyard.
It took some of my weekends away. Katie could barely make eye contact with me for the first two days, knowing how much she had piled onto my plate.
I should’ve been more involved with the planning. She did a great job purchasing the material, performing the layout, and even coordinating it with her work schedule.
She just lacked a little know-how and the muscle to go along with it. A little coordination would’ve helped.
And to be fair, it was her go get it attitude that made it happen. Had I been helping plan, maybe it never would’ve happened.
So yes, we had a few stressful days, but they changed into joy. It was an investment in each other, and after such a hard year, it was nice to have a happy distraction.
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It’s starting to get cold, and that means fires. Yesterday, we spent our evening outside making jack-o-lanterns and sitting by the fire.
Soon, we had a blaze going. We would spend an hour just sitting in happy silence, saying a few words here and there, in our happy little oasis.
Before she sat down, I noticed that look in her eyes. The one that said she is thinking about the children we’ve lost, about the next steps in our attempt to get pregnant.
“What?” I already knew, but I knew if there was something she needed to say, I needed to give her the chance to speak.
A short conversation, nothing more than just accounting of what was wrong. I followed it with, “Well, I’m happy I’m here with you.”
“Me too.”
I had a thought by the fire, and later when we were getting into bed, about my eventual death, her death, and my parents dying.
This thinking comes to me involuntarily, and I want to state, despite the negative nature of this talk, I was genuinely happy.
What would I leave behind when I died? What about Katie? Would she leave me? What would life be like without my Mom and Dad?
I realized that I had the answer to those questions, but not explicit answers; I had the answer in the way I know love matters, that words matter.
I felt genuine sorrow. True regret for the fact all of this would end. My little bonfire and thrown away weekends were just a distraction to get me through the waiting.
Vanity yaddie-yaddy-yah wind.
And worse, even in the moment where I could forget that fact most, my wife brought in full clear focus the demise of any future we might have carried out through our children.
If there was a time to drink and forget my future, it was then. Bring on the feasting.
But I didn’t just feel sorrow. I had the answers. I knew that in this mourning was a strange peace, one with caring eyes.
It was worth the sorrow to see. I knew that. I felt my heart, my soul, my lungs, and my mind all center in my chest, at home and satisfied.
I knew Meaning.
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- Sorrow is better than laughter,for by sadness of face the heart is made glad. -
Okay, if you aren’t considering chapter 2 verse 2 when we read today’s passage, that is on you. Our verses literally contain the word laughter!
Eccl. 2:2 calls laughter madness. It does not make a comparison between laughter and sorrow.
We could say that laughter is to be preferred to sorrow despite its madness. Why? Well, if it’s all bad news, why not have tea with the Hatter?
We see people make this argument all the time. It Is the thesis of Hedonists, Carpe Diem, and even the new line of Atheists.
In Richard Dawkins’s book, The God Delusion, he tells a story about getting a lunch with a group of friends.
The story is told for several reasons. It lightly touches on the concept of free-will, the meaning of life, and what happens at the end of death.
What matters? None of that really to Dawkins. He simply had a nice lunch today; isn’t that enough for the cows and sheep? Why would he ask for more?
How are we to respond? Shock at the lack of purpose? Others may think there is a humility in Dawkins’s view on life that while for the wrong reasons should be imitated.
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There is a reason why Christian apologists have focused on grief. Lewis does in In the Problem of Pain as well as Dr. Kreeft in Love is Stronger than Death.
Pain is inseparable from life. Every time you just enjoy your lunch, you’re separated from the future you that will ultimately suffer and die.
The Fall, at least an aspect of it, is the entrance of pain into the world; more than that, it is the realization and “prophecy” of pain to come in our own lives.
The curse given to man is he must now struggle for every minute given to him. Every mouthful is produced by sweat.
Think about it another way. Why do human beings love alcohol? The common motivation I hear is it allows people to loosen up.
I’ve had many friends tell me they are too anxious and not fun until they’ve had a few drinks.
Why do we like it? It blurs the future. It hides the fall. It’s a small respite, like sleep, from the end. The consequences of our actions are no longer seen, depending on the level we consume.
Isn’t that a laugh as well? It’s all consuming. You can get into a fit of laughter, unable to control yourself, even to the point of it hurting.
A very simple proof. Is it better to know a train is coming or not? Is it better to know your end or ignore it?
Laughter cannot see the train; sorrow has seen and knows the end of what it holds dear. It allows one to cherish, and, this is a great mystery, to love.
The best joy is that mixed with sorrow. The truest laughs have gratitude for one’s finitude. Why the exclamation “I’m crying” to emphasize the heartiest ones?
Is it still better to know and weep even if you cannot change the end? Why not ignorant bliss, as the saying goes?
Again, we see the majesty of Christ. His ways are indeed not our own. Knowledge is given not for our victory but to teach unclean lips to praise.
We cannot alter mortality, but oh, what a Savior!
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- It is better to go to the house of mourningthan to go to the house of feasting,for this is the end of all mankind,and the living will lay it to heart. -
If you aren’t thinking back to chapter 2 verse 2 when you read today’s passage, then I encourage you to consider it.
“I said of laughter, ‘It is mad,’ and of pleasure, ‘What use is it?’” As I argued in the post, there is a distraction in laughter.
Laughter can cause us to be disconnected from the painful experiences of others. It’s good to laugh at parties, but life isn’t a constant celebration.
If you spend your time being with people who just want to have fun, don’t be surprised if no one is around when you are suffering.
What does laughing have to do with our verses? Well, imagine a feast (or party) without laughter in the background.
Do you want to be there? Probably a pretty lame party if no one is telling a good joke or laughing at some ridiculous hijinks.
And what’s wrong with a good time? Life is hard enough! We need the opportunity to joke and unwind with people who love us.
Didn’t Solomon say there was nothing better under the sun than this?
In this verse, we can explicitly see Solomon working to undermine that argument. There is something better to do with your time than to go to the next feast.
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You can go to the house of mourning.
Why on earth would you ever want to do that? Hey man, if you want to come over later, I’m going to head out to Frank’s funeral. It’s going to be lit.
Right, that’s a bit ridiculous. You’re not going to a funeral to enjoy yourself. It’s not a good time. To weep is your expectation, not laughter.
So why would you want to go?
Because maybe you want to take your life seriously. Maybe you want something more than the next dopamine hit with slick serotonin to wash it down.
Maybe your sick of waking up every day and being disappointed in the fact you never found the way to truly live for God.
Maybe you’re not scared enough to get out of your comfort and excess and pursue the parts of your life that truly can awaken and develop your soul.
Perhaps you need to see a corpse, a casket hovering over a 6’ drop, and to hear someone speak of the poor soul no longer with us.
The Hebrew word here translated to “living” means just that in addition to raw and fresh. What’s the idea? Those awake and new will take what they see at a funeral to heart.
It’s only those who are hardened that can ignore its lessons. They have decided, as Dr. Peter Kreeft notes, to treat death like a stranger.
Is this wise? No. It’s never right to ignore the inevitable.
Does that make it less frightening? No. Solomon expresses this when he describes that no one knows what comes after.
Yes, we have our faith, but none of us know exactly what may await us in heaven.
Yet, we have a promise and a great Love the buoys us up, allowing us as it were to live our best lives now and in manner where even our deaths can be seen as a noble adventure.
Is that bliss meaningless? Does God mean to trick us?
Perhaps one way to know is to go to the burials of the redeemed.
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- A good name is better than precious ointment,and the day of death than the day of birth. -
Ladies and Gentlemen, we did it! We are halfway through Ecclesiastes.
In fact, I didn’t mention this, but our last post on Chapter 6 was #100.
Thank you all for joining me on this adventure, and I hope it has encouraged and grown your relationship with God.
Onto chapter 7!
I particularly like this chapter for the way it highlights lessons of wisdom. These were things I experienced in my life (like my grandfather’s funeral) that I was happy to see in Scripture.
They are surprising lessons, good for the modern American to know in our age of immediate gratification.
The first part of this verse talks about our reputations. To have a name that is respectable is better than to have a sweet-smelling perfume.
What’s the lesson here? Not too difficult. You would rather have a good reputation rather than expensive possessions.
Would you rather be poor? To some extent, yes.
Would you rather be a rich Nazi or a man of integrity starving in a prison in WW2 Germany? There is only one morally correct answer.
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The second part of the verse makes us reconsider the former. How could it be that our death is to be more celebrated than the day of our birth?
You may be tempted to say, “Because, silly, that’s when we go to heaven!” Remember, Solomon isn’t privy to that revelation yet.
Perhaps, he had a vision from God, but I don’t think he would know that explicitly. He still believes the good go to the nice part of Sheol, not exactly a heavenly experience.
When do you receive your name? On the day of your birth. A good name is better than ointment because it is what you will be referred to all of your days.
Interesting twist and makes you consider what you name your children.
Why then this focus on our birth being less than the day of our death? Why does our end hold more significance than our beginning?
Think about the way humans enter the world. They show up screaming, in pain at their first breaths, covered in blood.
It’s not exactly a peaceful entrance. They come out of a place of comfort where every need is cared into a world of scarcity and pain.
Think about it this way. What are you guaranteed out of life? A fancy car? All the food you can eat? Diamonds growing on trees?
Right. None of that. All that your promised is suffering. Do nothing, and that’s exactly what you get.
Why then is the day of death better? Is it because it is a release from this world? That you no longer have to struggle?
If that’s the answer, then haven’t we made the case to end our own life? Why continue on.
Ask yourself this: do you want a life free of suffering, or one where you experience victory over suffering?
Which proves to you there is goodness, hope, and peace? Which makes that truth unassailable? Which would you accept as true?
The day of death is your freedom from this present life. It is also the day when your adventure ends, where what you staked your life on comes out for all to see.
It’s not thrust upon you, like life. It’s your response to life that is seen in your death.
Did you live a life worthy of the chance you were given? Did you serve God?
Did you cause more suffering or love?
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- For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun? -
Perhaps you would expect me to touch on the short time we are given on this earth with a verse like this. Are we not vapor in the wind?
Perhaps you would have thought it sensible to discuss how the future will forget or move beyond us in a way that makes our lives meaningless. Carpe Diem anyone?
Instead, I’m going to focus on a different part of this verse, one that I think many Christians struggle with and attempt to explain away.
What’s that now? What would Christians do back flips to try and not follow? Why it’s nothing more than the very words of Jesus Himself.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.
The King James really adds some authority, huh?
Who knows what is good for a man. It’s a rhetorical question, but it strangely has an answer despite the way its presented.
God knows what is good. He declared that creation was a good, and explicitly tied man as being a part of that goodness.
Now, think about how we could answer the “good for man” question. We could say something like, “To know God, praise Him, and bring Him glory.”
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It sounds nice. It sounds attainable. It sounds impersonal.
When those combine, we have discovered a platitude, something easily agreed to and requires little action to uphold.
Yet, it’s useful, because its generic enough to point us in the right direction. It is indeed the answer to the question!
It’s a platitude only if we don’t move it beyond the generic answer. It has to become true and actionable in our own lives throughout time.
Imagine two people. One has been in church his whole life, has a loving supporting family, and higher than average intelligence to boot.
The other man is the opposite. Never went to church (even on Easter and Christmas), raised in foster care, and struggles in reading comprehension.
Life continues, both find themselves saved and attending the same church.
What is good for the first man? What is good for the second? Can we conceive of victories the second man would have that would appear as failures for the first?
It’s easy with a stark contrast like this. In our fiction, the characters can match our black and white moralities easily enough.
The grey lines make everything harder to perceive. It is in the unknowns of our true world that it becomes beyond human reasoning to find the dividing lines.
Only with careful patience, time, and thoroughness can we begin to see what is right in our own lives, let alone that of another.
When Jesus said to judge not, he meant it. Why? Because that vision into every man’s soul that can weigh it perfectly is a right, privilege, and power of God.
Think your so righteous as to start throwing stones? To say you have no sin is to invite God’s judgement onto you, and rightfully so.
What can we do then? If we cannot distinguish, how can we encourage? How can we rebuke? How can we go anywhere?
It is better to ask then accuse. To ask is to come along side; it is to struggle underneath the burden of another’s sin.
In asking, we can find strength to love. That love does not abandon, does not lie.
It strives onward up the hill beside another, their crosses shouldered.
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- The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man? -
We’ve already discussed this idea at the beginning of Chapter 5. Too many words spoken is a problem. Fools hide in many words.
That’s how you know I’m an idiot.
Right, I made the argument then, and now, that there are certain ideas which take many words to explain.
The true mark of “more words” in my mind is to speak more words than necessary.
But who knows; I may think that because of my own foolishness.
Today, I don’t want to talk about any of that. I want to discuss with you a tangential idea regarding our perceptions, truth, and reality.
Do this. Stare at something, preferably a small object or one that at least appears small.
Got it? Memorized it? Okay. Close your eyes (safely) and imagine it.
Why are we doing this exercise? Well, you just saw the same object in two different ways. One through your physical sight and one through your memory or imagination.
In which instance did you see it? Many of us would say it was our sight that perceived the object, but isn’t our site a physical processing of light that occurs in our minds?
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What’s the difference between that and the image conjured in our minds? Are they both magic tricks?
Your grasp on reality is through a medium. That medium is your body. That body is a “gift”, and it didn’t come with an owner’s manual.
You don’t know how you see. You don’t know how you digest food. You don’t know how DNA unzips itself and then uses its weird feet to pull itself along to duplicate itself.
The idea is this: your perceptions are limited.
Well, that’s annoying and why in the world does it matter? When I look at an apple, everyone agrees it’s an apple and everyone agrees its red!
Our sight works good enough for survival.
To be honest, that was my thoughts on this line of questioning for a while. I think that’s a good reaction to have if someone uses this reasoning to imply we can’t affirm reality.
But consider the Truth. I capitalized it for a reason.
Is my mother the material she is? The lungs in her body? The blood in her veins?
Yes, but also no. She is more than that. She is my memory. She is my imagination of motherhood. She is my connection to the ideal of motherhood.
Which part of that I just described is the Truth?
Sometimes, our culture makes us feel that it’s just the animal we interact with, the material we get to know for a brief time.
Isn’t everything more than that? Are not moralities based on more than just good and bad? Are they not stories and experiences of being?
What does this have to do with our verses today? In Paradise Lost, Satan makes a claim, that his mind can make a hell into heaven, and a heaven of hell.
Later on, he explains to the reader that hell is wherever he is.
What’s the lesson? The mind cannot create whatever it desires. Intelligence has its limits.
You may have plenty of words about Jesus, science, or anything else in the world.
All meaningless unless you know the Word.
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- Whatever has come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is not able to dispute with one stronger than he. -
One of the ways humans communicate their mastery over an idea is to give it a name. It allows a single word to communicate the entirety of a thought.
Take the word construction. Think about all the separate trades required to build a home: plumbers, electricians, drywallers, etc., yet the one word allows us to gather them all.
We even do this with historical epochs. We take ~1,000 years of history and call it the Medieval Age, and suddenly we’re talking about European knights.
Does knowing these names make us masters? No, but they allow us to interact with an idea that mankind has mastered.
Now, here is a truly interesting idea. It is known what man is.
Is it?
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I mean I know what it is to be a human, but in a way, I know it like I know history, from afar off and with many of the details not filled in.
I know the knights wore armor, but I don’t when chain mail was invented. I’m not particularly sure when King Arthur was king and if he had a round table.
Here’s something I don’t know about man; how is he conscious? Perhaps the answer is, God gave him a soul, but is a soul that which is in me that is conscious?
I don’t have an answer to that question, so don’t expect one.
Crazier than that, I live with that soul-consciousness everyday! And most days, I take it for granted, as if it’s just how life is.
But, I do know somethings about man, if you wanted to talk about the creature and its limitations, which I think Solomon does.
Weak and fragile, especially depending on when you witness him. The infant and old man can do little to protect themselves from wolves.
A small man can easily be overcome by a large man. A weak man is dominated by the strong. The spineless cannot stand before the tyrant.
The bear in the woods makes a mockery of strong tyrants. Only by cunning and a host of men can she be brought down.
Now, despite man’s weaknesses, we have one story in particular that seems to contradict this verse, one that Solomon would undoubtfully be familiar with.
The man who wrestled with God and “prevailed.” The man born as a supplanter who became the leader of the nation whom God would strive with.
Jacob wrestling with God.
It’s a strange story. We don’t even exactly know why Jacob and the “man” he encounters begin their struggle.
The other “man” can win easily, even giving Jacob a lifetime, supernatural injury by merely touching his hip.
Yet at the end, the “man” blesses him and says his name will become Israel, because he has wrestled with God and man and prevailed.
What in the world is the lesson for us?
That God expects us to wrestle with him, to examine him, to try and understand the world he made and our place within it.
Be careful, there are rules to wrestling, and at any time, He can wipe you out.
But, there is a victory there. It’s not one of utter defeat, because how could you conquer God?
The victory is in knowing Him and His purposes, of seeing the truth and beauty of His creation.
That sight cannot be bought with mere acquiescence.
That sight requires triumph.
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- Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind. -
I’ve struggled with my weight for most of my life. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally started to get it under control.
Then, I had to deal with the whole infertility thing and ice cream makes me feel WAY better.
I’ve got to get my diet back under control again and trust me, that’s no fun.
Now, this verse doesn’t explicitly refer to struggles with gluttony or diet, but that experience provides a good lens for which to interpret these verses.
Let’s get started.
Losing weight is easy. You have to follow a diet and exercise. We have hundreds of apps, videos, and plans you can access for free.
The main challenge most people are going to experience with dieting has nothing to do with it, and it is extremely difficult and close to a word we don’t like AKA: discipline.
Consistency.
If you want to lose weight, you have to find a plan that leads to weight loss and stick with it for a length of time (probably around six months).
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For me, that answer came in the form of Keto. I don’t think Keto is the answer to everything, but it really worked for me.
Why? Because what I got to eat was enjoyable. I weighed less than my senior year of high school while only walking 30 minutes a day and eating all the bacon and butter I wanted.
Okay, I also had a salad every day and a sandwich with no bread on it.
Here’s the thing about consistency, it teaches you to focus your gaze. It shows you to turn your gaze from temptations and to focus on the goal in front of you.
Before I gained that, I ate whatever I wanted. Driving past a steak and shake late at night? Well, I worked hard. I deserve the milkshake.
What am I saying? That like the verse above, I allowed my appetite to lead me to whatever it deemed best.
I had no control, but that’s not quite right. I had all the control; I’d just given it over to a part of myself that didn’t want what was best for me.
What would’ve been better? Obviously, had I’d given my perception discipline or been happy with the good things I had, I wouldn’t have let my desires carry me aimlessly.
Now, what does it matter to have control rather than to be possessed? Nothing. It’s all vanity my friend.
The man with the washboard abs? Worm food. The man morbidly obese at 37 dying in a hospital bed? Worm food.
What is the greatest commandment? To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
I think sometimes that last part is misconstrued as the impetus to treat our exercise as a holy practice.
Although training and strengthening our bodies is good, it shouldn’t be considered a good unto itself, considering the vanity that goes along with it.
Rather, it is good stewardship of God’s temple. For what purpose? To use that strength in acts of love.
If I have a good body that only serves me, how am I different from the sinner?
What if I use it to serve? What if I use it to raise a family? What if I break it when the time comes for love’s sake?
This is the love to those who would lift their cross and follow Christ.
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- For what advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who knows how to conduct himself before the living? -
The first part of this verse may be familiar to you. This isn’t the first time Solomon has made this claim, but you may have forgotten since we discussed it about a year ago.
I never claimed to be doing this fast.
It’s a strange question, as daily we witness wisdom conquer foolishness. Those that don’t know are in trouble and those that do are guides and leaders.
Well, why does the wise man not beat the fool in Solomon’s eyes? Because they both get the same reward. Vanity and striving after the wind.
Now, if that’s the case, why does Ecclesiastes make this point again?
As I’ve mentioned before, Solomon does this for us to consider old ideas in light of new information. Specifically in this passage, I think he wants us to consider the previous verse.
It doesn’t matter if your job requires experience or knowledge. Both a janitor and a CEO labor for their food.
The CEO has all the pressure of his world while the janitor just has to clean countertops. Yes, one definitely has a nicer veneer, but don’t they both put food on the table?
So that’s the first part of the verse; what’s the second half’s message?
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A major part of success in any career is showing up and accomplishing the work. It’s getting things done, even when you don’t want to.
Sure, being smart and knowing how to do the work is important, but people are fine to deal with incompetence for a time if you’re working hard.
Why? Because eventually that extra effort will lead to skill and efficiency. The lesson? Conduct yourself properly if you are ignorant.
Now the man we are talking about here knows how to act properly with others. He is reciprocal, attentive, and desires to bring some value to his relationships.
You can see that all transferring to his career. With a bit of effort and guidance, a man like this may not climb to the top of any corporate ladders, but he definitely won’t starve.
What happens? He is poor. He lacks the ability to have a good life, possibly jumping from job to job unable to make anything work for a long time.
Why? There are several answers. Perhaps he is abused by others or incompetent to the point he cannot learn.
We’re not supposed to understand the exact reason, just to know that nothing works out.
So why the dichotomy between the wise and sociable poor man? Neither is a guarantee your life will be meaningful or easy.
Neither has the advantage. Both are undesirable. All go to the one place.
Well, on that uplifting note, what are we to do?
It’s not a complete answer, which is to live for the kingdom, but a good answer as it relates to our earthly lives is to be both.
Grow in both intelligence and duty. Do not lean too hard on one to carry you through all of the trials of life.
You will need the ability to act in wisdom and do so when you are tired and weary.
Look to our Lord. Given to His own earthly frailty, did He surrender to his discomforts?
Given His wisdom, did He berate those beneath Him?
He meets His children as they are; how can we?
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- All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied. -
Guys, I’m not going to lie. I’m so happy were not talking about stillborn children anymore.
Let’s dive in =)
Why do you work so hard? I know when I first started working and made my first $100, I was thrilled.
It was more money than I knew what to do with, mainly because video games sold for $60 a pop.
Do we work for things? At some level, of course. We might call that labor for disposable income, i.e. labor we exert to buy things we don’t need.
I like to think about “disposable” purchases. For starters, does the entertainment I purchase have to do with escapism or am I trying to improve my life?
What about staples we take for granted but don’t need? Is my cell phone a disposable purchase?
Okay, perhaps I do need it for my work, obviously I couldn’t get most modern jobs without one. But do I need my job to survive?
The theorizing is fun, if not a little silly at times. If nothing else, performing the exercise keeps me focused on purchasing what I need and spending less on areas I’m unsure of.
The main benefit of recognizing disposable income is it shows you a part of your labor is disposable, and a part is necessary.
A simple explanation for why we work is this: the purchases that are necessary are why we labor. Everything beyond that is an added benefit.
Suppose your job decided to start paying you with a movie for everyday you worked. That’s a pretty terrible deal, even if you’re a movie buff.
Why? You starve. Right, I know. Very profound stuff today on Broken Wheel.
When Ecclesiastes says that a man’s toil is for his mouth, we might respond with a whole host of objections, and most of them are flat out lies.
Sure, we work hard for our families to give them better lives, but that really boils down to nourishment, for them and ourselves.
If all you could get for a full day’s worth of work was the meals your family could eat the next day, would you keep on working?
The answer is yes, and desperately so. In fact, for most of human history, this is what we did through subsistence farming.
Solomon follows this up with his typical exhortation. Despite laboring for your mouth, your appetite is never satisfied.
In fact, the only true thing that stops its craving is death.
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Well, that and a carpenter from Nazareth.
Jesus explains this concept over and over to others, even to His own earthly body while he is being tempted in the wilderness.
One of the more explicit references to this truth is in John 4. After the Samaritan woman has left Jesus and His disciples at the well, the disciples beg for him to eat.
Jesus, who is tired from traveling all day and has had little food or water responds that he has food that they do not know about.
What is His food? To do the will of the Father.
You want to know something incredible? That’s the same claim in Ecclesiastes!
Why do I love this book? Because it does not ignore the dire circumstances we find ourselves in on Earth while simultaneously showing us the way to transcend this life through the promises of God.
Hold on tight; we’ll read chapter 12 soon enough.
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- Even though he should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good—do not all go to the one place? -
This is our last verse comparing the stillborn to the rich man.
Did you know that men’s brains don’t finish developing until around age 25? Can’t find a good guy? Perhaps you should date older men.
While there is no doubt a myriad of things that change in our bodies throughout our lives, this lack of development leads to one particular problem for guys.
They struggle to accurately think about the future, i.e. they struggle to actually and fully comprehend their own deaths.
Ever notice a teenager acting invincible? Ever wonder why it takes longer for dudes to figure out that they are mortal?
It’s primarily related to the development of your prefrontal cortex. It’s the part of the brain that allows us to think about our actions before they occur.
Imagine having a body full of testosterone with a blurry image of the future.
Whenever this process completes, we get a good glimpse into what “cessation” looks like. A quarter life crisis is exactly this.
A midlife crisis was someone who ignored or paid too much attention to their eventual demise.
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So, who wouldn’t want to live for 2,000 years? Imagine watching Jesus die on the cross and still being alive today.
Think of the inventions you would have seen unfold, the wars and history you had a front row seat to, the change in the quality of life.
It’s staggering.
Yet consider the possibility with immortality you never practiced any morality. Is this not the story at the heart to the Picture of Dorian Grey?
Oscar Wilde is nothing less than an expert hedonist, but even he was honest enough to admit that long life without virtue marred your soul.
The stillborn goes to the same place the corrupt man does. The child arrives in bliss while the man carries hatred and fear.
Who has it better? Given enough time, who would we pick to be? Hateful and vengeful to our fellow brothers, or whisked away before we knew pain?
I hear the question already, probably because I have more a right to it than most.
“What about the parents left behind? Do they suffer in their normal lives with no good? What’s the point of being righteous if the only reward is suffering.”
What good can come from that.
Hear is a stark truth. It is good to suffer for the right things. In fact, it’s better to suffer for the right things than it is to have goods if gained with lies, hatred, and theft.
That is a simple truth, yet at times it feels bare and hopeless to utter. It’s excruciating to speak it when you’re in agony.
I learned a few simple lessons before I went through infertility. One: that I was the worst sinner, and Two: that God was faithful.
When I first learned Katie and I would struggle, I knew immediately that God’s plan, no matter what it was, would be far better than anything I could hope for.
Because of that faith, I could see the hatred welling up in me. By trusting God, I could see my depravity.
I hated happy families. I hated the laughter of children. I hated fathers and mothers.
God gave me this vision. Why?
So I could see my future if I gave myself over to the desires of my heart.
Nothing ever made me love children more, despite their absence and the cost for my sight.
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- Moreover, it has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he. -
Rest is a funny idea, hard to tie down.
It’s a common problem we experience in language: the inability to accurately explain the emotion we are experiencing when our most used words fail to do so completely.
They require additional modifiers, such as an accompanying definition, tone, or look.
One of my ESL (English as a Second Language) friends explained this to me one day. He told me a story about a girlfriend who had asked him to say he loved her in French.
He flat out refused.
Why? According to him, the English word “love” doesn’t really mean anything. We’ve over-saturated it with a host of meanings.
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We love our cats, the color of the sky today, when people receive due justice, attractive members of the opposite sex, and some people enough to die for them.
That word is doing a lot of work. Needless to say, by his opinion the French equivalent isn’t that diluted.
Well, so is rest. It means rest in the sense of not doing anything, but it also has a spiritual sense to it as well.
You can see this in the following questions. How do you rest? Where did they lay him to rest?
What’s the difference? One is of this world and one is of the next. One is a break from our labor, and one is a permanent separation.
The man who cannot enjoy his riches? Right, he has no earthly rest. He is constantly feeling his oppression in various forms, never truly able to be at peace.
That is the goal of the Sabbath. It’s the idea that we should lay down our work for a period. Why?
You’re to have faith in God that your constant labor doesn’t solve everything. That in order to live for your created purpose, you need to focus on the divine.
It’s that perspective that truly matters. Rest is a rightful attention on God and His purposes. That requires discipline. What kind?
The kind that can accept letting go. The kind that agrees to humility, that the world is too big for two human hands to conquer everything.
The stillborn never experiences this rest, because they do not enter the world. They do not know work like we do, even the work of breathing their own air.
So what rest do they find? Unending, idyllic peace. They find the rest of Eden, far beyond our wildest imaginations.
It is the cessation of the Fall. The experience of bliss on the other side in the Heavenly places.
Does it happen right when they leave? Does it happen at a future date? Does Jesus send you a picture and a note in the mail saying how much they miss you?
No. It’s an obscure peace to us below.
The rich man who lives an improper life does not know this final peace. He never trusted in God’s peace on earth, why would He be considered worthy for the eternal one?
That is then the answer for us. Stop striving. Pray and trust.
Do I mean to stop trying? Of course not. The Sabbath is only for a day.
It is to align our thoughts and actions in a fallen world. It is to remember all the things we stand upon that we take for granted.
The Sabbath is preparation for the Fall. The Sabbath is remembrance of Future Revivification.
Give not your rest to lesser idols.
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- For it comes in vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered. -
Jessie, Tyler, and Sam, my kids.
One of the cruelties of dealing with infertility is you precisely know when and how you lose your children.
Stillborn infants and miscarriages are tragic. A woman experiences pregnancy, the family gathers around her to rejoice, and then it’s gone.
What leaves is hope, purpose, and the future. The cards of your flimsy castle are blown down by an unwanted breeze and there is nothing left to do but start stacking them again.
How many times can you go on before you can’t? When is the right time to give up? What are you holding onto?
All those thoughts visited the women and men of ancient times, which Solomon writes about. They poured their lives into the first few months of their babies’ life or carried them to term.
And for what? The good book tells us, but its so awful to speak of it when someone hurts this deeply.
Vanity. The emptiness of emptiness. The unfulfilling meal of clouds.
Hebrews didn’t name their children until certain ceremonies could be fulfilled. The reason the children go in darkness and don’t have names is because they didn’t live to receive names.
Why this ritual? Why don’t you let your kids name a stray dog or cat that keeps hanging around?
You grow attached.
We’ve been trying to have children for close to three years now. Since we’ve been doing procedures, we know we’ve lost at least three.
It could be more, but we know these three. It’s easier to only think you’ve lost the ones you know, and so we do, right or wrong.
Perhaps a moral failing on our part that we’ll know the answer to one day.
Unlike the people in Solomon’s time, there is no darkness. We know how to monitor, manipulate, and see everything about pregnancy.
Katie’s blood is measured for the correct hormones, ultrasounds are performed to look for our hopeful children, and microscopes show them to us as a few cells.
Nothing can hide from us, yet nothing is whole.
The man we discussed in the previous verses? Is my child truly better off than him?
As painful as it is for me to say it, yes. If my children lead lives devoid of God’s love, peace, and hope, then yes, I’m happy there not here.
Now, they would’ve had ever opportunity not to live that way had they been born. I’m not God, but I can’t see them heading down that path.
They would’ve at least known what they were doing was explicitly wrong. Would’ve that had been enough to turn them back? That’s in God’s hands.
My children had lives. I know that explicitly. Were they better than this man’s?
That’s an impossible question, and it requires an impossible story.
I can’t explain why or how, but a few days after my daughter died, I came home listening to a song about a mother inviting her child into the world.
It was random, just on a podcast I like to listen too. It was catchy, and I started to dance a little.
All of a sudden, I was spinning Jessie around. I could see her smile, freckles, and hair, just like her mother’s.
Then she was gone, and I fell to the floor sobbing.
I know it was brief, but the fact I got to see her smile fills me with joy.
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- If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. -
I told you chapter 6 was bleak.
What defines a good life? I’m sure that ancient people, those from 150 years ago, and modern people have different answers.
They would pick the same overarching concepts, such as meaning, but their paths would have stark contrasts.
Having 100 children? That feels decidedly ancient. We struggle just getting some couples to donate “a” child back to society.
Fair enough. Birth control has changed the way people think about their fertility, not to mention the money required to support that many kids would be astronomical.
Ancient people battled disease, complications in giving birth, and famine in a way we can’t imagine. Having the wealth and good fortune to have 100 children would’ve been immense.
The man Solomon speaks of has the money to make this happen, not to mention the various sexual relationships to achieve it.
Not only is he gifted with this immense wealth and prestige, but he also has good health. Long life in ancient times was not guaranteed.
The man is rich for his times and has the health to go along with it, all the trappings of success.
Yet, he cannot be satisfied with life’s good things. What are those? Feasting and enjoying our work.
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Sure, he has all the kids, wealth, and long life one could ask for, he just can’t be satisfied with it. Why?
That’s hard to say. Maybe he wants more than life can give or perhaps his riches require so much maintenance he doesn’t have time for the good things.
Something is wrong, because no one buries him. Either his family is killed by invaders so no one is left to carry it out, or no one wants to.
I think we are supposed to read it as the latter. This goes back to the man who lost his riches due to his greed, except it seems this man didn’t lose them.
He had a good life, riches and health, but he never lived in joy, pushing away all his relationships with that absence.
Not a happy existence. It’s one that misses the mark by degrees, and it leaves us with an empty feeling, praying that’s not us in the end.
But, there’s a part of us two that looks at the complexities of life and says, “You know, I’d hate to end up there, but there are definitely worse ways to end up, like dying jail.”
Solomon’s response? Your better of as a stillborn child than this man.
Whoa. That’s dire. I don’t want to be this guy, don’t get me wrong, but I’d rather be him and alive than never been.
Life is finite; is it better to survive or find truth? Would you rather have a filled belly or your spiritual needs meant?
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs tells us that you need to be fed before you can seek enlightenment, that you’ll place your survival over doing what is right.
The truth? That’s not Maslow’s theory at all. The pyramid shows all the needs you experience. Why a pyramid? To show which one’s we hold in the highest regard, the most important.
Solzhenitsyn wrote about this in the Gulag Archipelago. Who could make it through the artfully cruel Soviet prisons?
Those who had faith in Jesus Christ; there, in that dark dungeon, the words of the desert were proven true.
Man does not live by bread alone.
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- There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. -
That’s five chapters down – onto the sixth! It may be slow going, but we’re chipping away =)
Appreciate everyone for reading, and hope you continue to get something valuable from this study of Ecclesiastes.
Chapter 6 is bleak. I know that’s not saying much for this book.
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Do you know that moment when you’re talking through how bad things are in your life and you start to repeat yourself?
Sometimes, that’s just the feedback loop, but others it’s because the first thing you mentioned isn’t exactly the same problem when considered in light of the others.
Say you and your wife had an argument. Not your normal scuffle either; you guys were yelling.
In addition to that pressure, you’ve had a large project due at the office causing you to work 12+ hour days, meaning this argument is sitting in the background, stewing.
That argument isn’t “just” that argument anymore. It’s an argument with three days of pent-up frustration and neglect.
As Solomon shows us the futility of life, he returns to topics already considered, but with more bad news, finding additional ways the vanity of life besets us.
The first two verses are so familiar, that we could easily skip right past them, except for the phrase a stranger enjoys them.
What’s going on here?
In the past chapter, we learned about two major problems in human existence: 1) the corruption of human organizations and 2) how greed can rob someone of their wealth.
Solomon also expresses to us that a grievous evil is a man who has the blessings of a successful life yet is unable to enjoy it, due to his own failings.
This verse reminds us of that situation. Here we clearly read that our physical blessings come from God, including that of a good reputation.
What happens? The man cannot enjoy them, just like the man in the previous chapter.
But, something is different about the chapter 6 individual versus the one in chapter 5. What is it?
He has honor. Gift of God or not, his life is not one focused on greed. He has sought the goodness of life and maintains it well enough to be respected by others.
Yet, the ability to enjoy the good things in his life is not given to him by God. A stranger takes them.
What does this mean? Perhaps it’s a corrupt government oppressing from afar. More than likely, we should read it as foreigner (in fact, some translations do).
His wealth is taken by invaders. He is living a good life for his people, enjoying God’s blessings, when suddenly they are robbed by the cruelties of war or raiding.
Is it justice to invade a people and take their possessions? Is it right to have the good life only to have it stripped away?
Is Solomon repeating himself? Yes, but he’s doing it to show us that even rich, successful people lose their footing in life by the cruelties of injustice.
How can you find meaning in life when those who don’t make, take? Who don’t sow, reap?
Perhaps only if meaning is not to be found in living for this world.
Perhaps you can sow for another kingdom.
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- Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.” -
Hunter! This is not Ecclesiastes! You tricked me!
=)
Hey, I know this is a bit of a detour. I’ve been studying John, in the same way I studied Ecclesiastes, and this verse seemed so pertinent, that I thought a post on it would be warranted.
One thing that is crucial to remember when reading Ecclesiastes is that it isn’t the whole story. That’s every verse in the Bible, but it’s especially true in the Old Testament.
It doesn’t mean those books aren’t true or they don’t speak about what is to come, but most of the authors had no idea how good the Messiah coming could be.
What is good for man? According to Solomon, it’s to eat, drink, and enjoy our work. That’s a slight because all of that is filled with vanity.
It’s because that’s the best we have to hope for in our lives that Solomon’s book ends up being such a downer (at least till the end of the book).
You know another book that people find depressing? Job. In Chapter 23:12, he says the following concerning God.
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“I have not departed from the commandment of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food.”
Spoiler, but that rings true with Ecclesiastes. It also gives us insight into the ongoing message of what is good for our lives.
When Solomon says, “find enjoyment in our toil,” it’s a completely reasonable question to ask ourselves, “What kind of toil is best to find enjoyment within?”
He instructs to accept our lot, so there’s at least that limitation. A way to read that is you may not be smart enough to be a surgeon or perhaps a sick child keeps you from pursuing your career.
Should you take on responsibility you are not ready for? Should you abandon family for a dream job?
The answer to both is an obvious no. So, then again, what is the best toil? Surely that which is the best work will bring the most enjoyment.
We know the story of Jesus at the well. He is weary, thirsty, and hungry. He sits nearby waiting for His disciples to return with food from town.
A Samaritan woman appears to draw water. They have a conversation about living water, and the woman, who seems to not like Jesus at first, leaves telling others to go meet Him.
The disciples appear near the end of this conversation, wondering why Jesus would speak to a woman, but they don’t say anything about it.
They bring Him food, and Jesus intuits their confusion. He could answer their cultural concerns, but He realizes there is a more important problem He needs to address.
I don’t need your food. I have been feasting on my Father’s work. His will is my only desire.
We see in Job, Ecclesiastes, and from Jesus’s own mouth, that the greatest toil one can engage in is the commands of God.
Can you find enjoyment in the work set in front of you? Will you gripe and complain? Will you say, “I don’t know why you won’t do it my way God!”
Perhaps there is more in you of Job’s friends then you would like to admit. Perhaps you are willing to do the work of God if it satisfies your own desired and unspoken incentives.
Jesus’s message? Nothing else satisfies.
Will you complain or feast?
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- For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. -
One of my favorite chores is washing dishes. No, I’m not a masochist or in any other way deranged.
I just like how the activity focuses me. The warm water, the simple decisions, the visual feedback of cleaning, all combines to create a sense of accomplishment and meditation.
Okay, maybe I’m not fully sane.
What’s the point here? Work can focus us in a strange way. It can remove a sense of doing despite acting.
You probably notice this with your favorite chore or perhaps on a home project that causes your concerns to fade.
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Your still you, but for a few minutes or hours that seems to matter a lot less. The goal you are performing or reaching for becomes paramount.
What are you going to eat for dinner? Are you going to be happy with your life when you turn fifty? Who cares.
Sometimes, we enter that place because we enjoy the chore or perhaps we just fall into it. Maybe you don’t particularly like mowing the grass, but today that distaste fell away.
If we are truly lucky, sometimes that activity is aligned with the work we perform at our job.
I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a general contractor. I build big buildings, remodel hospitals, and make old rooms fresh and exciting.
The major thing I’ve learned? Everything is incredibly complicated. Seriously, I have more discussions about doors with clients than you can imagine.
As a GC, we have a man on site, a superintendent, who runs the whole job. They are the hands and feet of building the project and know more than anyone in our office about how stuff gets done.
Now, there are good and bad superintendents, but some of them are more than either of those two terms.
They “are” superintendents. That title doesn’t just define them when they show up to work; it is who they are at a drive-thru, at home, or walking into Wal-Mart.
I know men who haven’t graduated high school write a diagram on a whiteboard to explain to an engineer how their design won’t work in the field.
Of course, the next thing they draw is the solution. The engineer is more than happy to agree.
What’s the point? Their life passes in a true joy, being who they are and finding enjoyment in their toil.
Now, what does that mean for us? Should we all search tirelessly for that career that makes our heart sing? That fills us with purpose?
Maybe. Not all of our callings from God are careers. Some of us find it in an activity that God gets great glory in, but no one would be willing to pay us.
Think about missionaries. Sure, people support them, but it’s not like they are overflowing in cash.
Most of us have families. Are we supposed to just deny them by constantly doing what it is “God” wants us to do?
How can letting our family suffer be what God wants?
Here’s the point, Ecclesiastes is not a self-help book. Nor is the Bible. Sometimes we want to feed those ideas into it, to make our therapy, relaxation, and self-motivation all seem a part of it.
What are you to do? Accept your lot and rejoice in your toil.
What do I mean? Perhaps this: accept what God has given you (spiritual gifts, passions, and livelihood) and rejoice in your work.
Will those line up? Probably not.
Who decided they wouldn’t? Can you trust Him?
With that trust, you can have joy.
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- Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. -
If you live a middle-class life in America, it’s hard to argue that you don’t have wealth and possessions. I mean, some kings didn’t have plumbing.
You’re doing great, practically royalty.
We need to think about this verse though in the context of verse 18. What is Solomon talking about here?
He showed us what makes a good and fitting life. One that has food, drink, and enjoyment in one’s labor.
Verse 19 is an expansion on this idea. What else is good? To have wealth, possessions, and the power to enjoy them.
Why do these matter? Beyond the obvious, they allow you to have security. You have no fear in securing future food and water if you also possess the wealth to obtain them.
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Even better if you enjoy what you do, because this means securing your future is gratifying in addition to being necessary.
Okay, but hold on. I thought the whole thing about Solomon saying the best part of life was having food, drink, and a good time working.
Doesn’t that imply wealth and possessions? Is food just supposed to magically appear? Do I work for no money?
I get it. Let’s slow down. What is difference about this scenario that Solomon is trying to teach us?
Remember the man who held onto riches to his own hurt? That occurred in this chapter, and it’s really good context for verse 19.
That guy had no power to enjoy his possessions. Why? Because his greed caused him to hold onto them so tightly that they slipped through his fingers.
Who has it better than him? The man who is not greedy yet manages to be wealthy. Who doesn’t want to be that guy?
So, the difference? You don’t need extravagance to eat every day. A good life might mean a decent paycheck and whistling while you work.
The yacht isn’t necessary.
Funny thing is this actually maps onto human happiness as compared to income. Once you can pay your bills, your happiness levels off per every dollar earned.
You’ve probably heard that before. What you probably didn’t know is that while one dollar doesn’t make a huge change, large differences in income do.
What do I mean? The guy who makes $250,000 a year is significantly happier than the guy who makes $80,000.
That’s pretty intuitive. It’s hard to be upset when nobody is picking up the phone to collect on your bills. It’s even harder when you can have that thought at your second beach house.
That brings us to the part of the verse that I think is the most interesting. “To accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift from God.”
Man, I don’t know about you, but that phrase is hard! What if you aren’t the guy with the beach houses and yacht? How fair is that?
Even if you are the beach house yacht guy, what if you never have the ability to enjoy it? What if you are always running to keep it all?
The reasons why someone can be in any of these situations are myriad, and its hard to address them all one by one.
You may have been lazy in school, you may be a work alcoholic, or you could be well down the path of losing everything you own.
Perhaps, no matter where you are, you could pray and praise God for what you have.
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- Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. -
Remember how we discussed that certain themes repeat in Ecclesiastes? Vanity and striving after wind are the main ones.
This idea of what is good or the best we can hope for in our lives repeats as well. Many times, it only discusses eating, drinking, and finding joy in our labor.
One aspect of this theme is to say, in all the pain in suffering of your life, this is the best you can hope for. It’s not an uplifting message.
When someone tells you their life is meaningless, most of us would not attempt to comfort them by saying, “Well, at least you have food and water and get to work everyday.”
Falls flat in some of life’s more devastating tragedies.
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This phrase is also used to introduce a debater. We have discussed this in past, but this is an old literary technique used by Solomon to bring in another speaker into his monologue.
This ancient literary technique was a device for showing a dissenting point of view. It rounds out Solomon’s thesis and shows he has considered some counter arguments.
Why do these phrases repeat? Because God and Solomon want us to consider the idea with the new information we have learned.
Chapter 3 verse 22 was the last time we discussed this concept.
In that time, we’ve reviewed the oppression done on earth, the wise youth and the foolish king, reverence for God, and the gathering of wealth to one’s own hurt.
Looking at all of these injustices, minus the instructions on approaching God, how does this perspective of finding good in feasting and work stand up?
Not very well. Immoral judges and churches can punish you without cause if they are corrupt, making your security in this world worthless.
The foolish king rules until the wise youth can stand in his place. Can he not bind and throw you into prison, removing from you the work of your hands?
At what point does loving your work become loving your money? That’s a murky dividing line.
Not only do all these realities about life threaten your financial security, but they can also remove from you the meaningful work that you enjoy.
One of the more creative forms of suffering performed in both the Gulags and concentration camps were meaningless work.
Prisoners were asked to carry a pile of heavy stones from one end of the prison camp to the other only to be instructed to carry them right back.
This wasn’t foolishness on their captors; it was art. Not only were the prisoners malnourished, beaten, and threatened with death, all their work was replaced by meaningless activities.
How could a man or woman not break under that kind of pressure?
Despite these verses being cold comfort in most areas of our life, it doesn’t change the fact that the good times God give us are our lot.
What should we do when feasting and good work comes our way?
We should see them as gifts from God, an opportunity to truly be at peace or dig our shoulder in deep and lift our brothers and sisters up.
True, it doesn’t justify everything. Jesus’s death and resurrection did that.
It sure is nice carrying the burdens He gives us rather than sitting around and twiddling our thumbs.
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- Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. -
I’m not a very social person. Even as a young child, I would prefer getting a good night’s sleep than staying up late with my friends at sleepovers.
In many ways, I enjoyed getting up before them all the next morning. It was my time, and I used it to play a video game, talk with an adult over breakfast, or read my Bible.
All that depended on how mature I decided to be that day.
I’ve never liked crowds. I do not like parties. I do not like making small talk, though I do recognize its purpose and usefulness.
A perfect weekend for me is staying at home working on some chores and spending most of the day in an obscure book. (By the way, if you haven’t read the Kalevala, I highly recommend it.)
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Why go on about my anti-social behavior? What has this to do with our verse?
Well, despite my old-man-curmudgeon ways, I love people. Friendship takes on many forms, some more recognizable than others.
Women engage in what I like to think of as cooperative friendships. These are relationships concerned with understanding what is going on in a person’s life for the sake of empathy.
These relationships can get hacked by antisocial women, who use gossip to injure others or even share personal truths from their conversations.
Men’s relationships act in a different matter. They are almost at all times competitive friendships, even when a game is not being played.
Typically, these relationships form around a hobby, such as a video game or a sport. Constantly, they vie for position within the activity, using each other as tools to grow.
Even when men aren’t doing anything, they compete through humor. They try to find the funniest joke that will double over everyone else or come up with the cleverest insult that stumps their peers.
Why do we do it? Why the need for others?
At times, life can be so hard that we just need someone to double check us, to make sure our thoughts match reality.
That sanity check can restore us not by fixing the problem, but by letting us know that our perception and experience map onto reality.
At other times, they we’ll see something in our life, either by experience or being partially removed from the events, that allows them to speak new direction into our life.
In many ways, its these conversations and ability to have them that define friends and family.
What does the man have who did his best to hold onto riches to his own hurt?
He eats in darkness. No one brings him a candle. He likes it that way, thank you very much.
His stomach is full of ulcers and he’s furious with God for it all. He is so far gone, he cannot imagine wishing for a friend to sit down with him and talk.
If you have a friend or family who will come to you in your time of need, you are blessed. Undoubtedly, you are blessed beyond riches.
Nothing makes me feel so whole as to sit with someone else who sees truth, is infilled with God’s Spirit, and speaks in a manner of faith.
Nothing they say is new to them. Nothing they say is news to God. My favorite moments are when its nothing new to me.
In that moment, my spirit unites with their own in a harmony I await to hear in heaven.
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- As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? -
At first, we may think this verse refers to the son referenced in our previous post. He has come into the world with nothing and now the misdeeds of his father have set him up to receive nothing.
That interpretation works up to a point. At the end of 16, we can clearly see the person we are discussing is the father.
Why? Because he toils. The previous verses have been all about his failures when it came to obsessing over his work.
Yes, his son will not have an inheritance, but that is another loss for the father. He can provide no future for his children since all his profit is lost in a bad venture.
What is this verse discussing? It’s talking about a curse; one brought on by working for gain exclusively – greedy labor.
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What is the curse? You came naked and you’ll leave naked. Your headed to streets of gold with empty pockets and hands, if you believe.
Solomon says this curse is a grievous evil. We’ve heard this language before when referring to the same man who kept riches to his own hurt.
Strange. In Solomon’s far-reaching search for meaning the two grievous evils he has found are keeping riches to an owner’s hurt and leaving this world with no possessions.
First world problems, am I right?
Listen, this is the time to really think. When you believe you can casually dismiss the Bible, it’s a call to put your historical era and prejudices aside.
What is the best thing we have to hope for? That’s right: enjoying our labor, feasting, and drinking.
A man who toils for gain gets all of these. He gets his food, and it makes him sick. He gets his labor, but all the gain is lost.
What’s the thought here? He is so close to having the best parts of life, yet it’s his own actions that remove their enjoyment from him.
Now, one part of this curse should be standing out to us. Isn’t this the experience of every man who dies?
No matter how many toys you get, none of them come with you. You can’t stuff them in your coffin.
I remember learning in my anthropology class in college how many cultures would kill servants and virgins to go with their kings into the afterlife.
The desire to take it with you is an ancient one that has born much sin and cruelty, even when it doesn’t make people greedy and spiteful.
So, did Solomon forget? Should we think that he has forgotten that everyone leaves their possessions behind?
Perhaps they don’t leave with nothing.
Perhaps they leave with a heart full of praise for a King who gave them a life that managed to have purpose despite its suffering.
Perhaps they leave with the true joy and peace that come from making the world closer to the kingdom of heaven.
Perhaps their happy to have the travail of finances left behind.
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- and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. -
If you’ll remember my last post, the man in verse 13 has retained his riches to the detriment of his soul or physical harm.
What’s the idea there? The man sacrificed something, knowingly or unknowingly, for his riches. This happens constantly in our lives even over the most mundane decisions.
You want to sleep in? That’s an hour you didn’t spend making breakfast for your family. Want to get the house clean? Forget about taking a nap.
I like to call this phenomenon the sacrifice of time. I think Jesus’s comments on no greater love also speak to this sacrifice in a proper heart.
You are a continuous evaluation between your responsibilities, pleasures, and meaning.
It’s for that reason that loss hurts so much.
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The time you have is limited (worse the length is unknown), therefore losing something you put time into means that portion of your life is wasted.
Well, maybe you look at that truth, and it fills you with bitterness. Maybe the fact that getting something costs something is acceptable.
But how can you deal with the cruelty of your work just being taken from you by an arbitrary universe? How do you smile knowing it’s all going to be taken in the end?
You might decide to act for your own benefit exclusively. You may commit fraud and cheat your friends out of their labor.
What happens? You get the riches minus the justification for your existence, but maybe you can at least avoid pain before you die.
Something happens though. Chaos comes to you in the form of the law, a suit, or even a natural occurrence that destroys your wealth.
Your riches were purchased via your soul and community. You dealt treacherously to morality and God, and even the little pleasure you managed to squeak out for yourself is removed.
And rightfully so. In more sane moments of your life, you might even agree.
Your hand is empty or perhaps all you can hold onto is something empty like an addiction. You’ll buy the bottle and sit in your ripped lazy boy waiting for the end.
You have nothing, save for your son.
What can you offer him? You cannot give him wealth, yours has been taken.
You cannot give him a community, yours has rejected you.
You cannot give him a father, your barely human.
That’s a dire story, and it’s definitely true for some people. It’s probably not true for you though.
Right?
The point of knowing this truth in Scripture is not to think, “that could never be me,” or “I’d never let my life get to that point.”
It’s to realize that humans do get to that point and your one of them. It’s to realize there is a spectrum between the ideal and a father who cannot support his children.
Which side of the seesaw do you want to be on? How far do you want to avoid the other edge before you tilt in the wrong direction?
Here’s the really important thing to learn, and it requires absolute humility: no one knows where the point of no return is.
What? Be an uptight goody two-shoes?
No. Avoid undeniable sin at all costs.
Housekeeping: Hey, I missed you all last week. Obviously, the lack of a post this Tuesday was due to the holiday.
So why no posts the previous week? Well, this is hard to say, but Katie and I experienced another pregnancy lost.
I needed a break, and I needed to say goodbye. I’ve kept posting through most of our miscarriages, but this one just hit particularly hard.
I think it’s an endurance question. Sure, I can trust God when I get punched, but sometimes my head is fuzzy on the fifth one.
I’m human, and I hope you can forgive my short comings. God bless you and yours.
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- There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, -
The language used in verse 13 might shock you. Solomon equates being hurt by one’s own wealth as a grievous evil?
With all the pain and suffering, not to mention that of normal human existence, how could the injury of wealth ever compare?
Why would anyone gather wealth? There are noble and foolish reasons one would do so.
Perhaps one has the desire to raise a family or just wants to make their existence not a burden on others. Others might just want all the toys under their own roof.
Greed is interesting. Many times, we confuse it with pride. The sin of pride is what Lewis calls that which puts us in contests with other men.
Wanting the coolest car on the block? Not greed; that’s pride.
Greed is something far different. It craves more for more’s sake itself. It doesn’t care what the gold buys, just as long as the ledger grows.
What fictional character proves this point best? Yes, you’ve guessed correctly. Ebenezer Scrooge.
Scrooge doesn’t work his fingers to the bone and pay his workers nothing to prove himself better than other men. No, he simply wants more than other men.
What does it cost him? It costs the love of his life, his relationships with family, and the esteem of fellow men.
Scrooge sacrifices his pride to greed. He believes all men strange who do not likewise partake in his lifestyle, considering them fools and ingrates.
Worse, Scrooge doesn’t even use his riches for luxury. He lives in a cold, dark house with no decorations and clothes that are worn.
The man does not even cherish company, which he could buy keeping the lovely people of the city near him with his money, and the only friend willing to save him does so from pity beyond the grave.
What is the grievous evil done? It is a life wasted. It is money with a temporary value useless in the age in which it was earned.
Suffering may have been abated, even if it was just the mental strain removed from his clerks paying their bills to say nothing of Bob Cratchit’s son.
The question we must ask ourselves is does Scrooge exist? It’s nice to learn the lessons from fiction, but unless they are grounded in reality in some way there is no applicability.
Perhaps you’ve met someone who is Scroogelike. It’s a sad dreary life to live for certain.
Perhaps more familiar to you is when you act like a part of Scrooge.
That is truly the purpose of fiction. It is to take the behaviors of common people and place them in one person. All can see themselves and all can know the limits of such behavior.
How do you today hold onto riches that lead to grievous evil?
How do you not love those near you? Your family?
How do you let that love ruin your soul?
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- When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. -
There is one part to verse 10 we did not discuss. The last little phrase almost seems trite when we are discussing money.
Love of money is also vanity. Absolute shocker, I know.
Why did I leave it out? One reason is because it’s obvious. The things of this world will fade away and leave you empty.
The main reason is because the next verses explain it in an unobvious manner. They expand upon the vanity we normally associate with greed.
Does Elon Musk love his money? Who knows? He says he starts his businesses for moral reasons and that he doesn’t own any property.
That doesn’t keep him from some rather bizarre behaviors, like trying to buy Twitter, naming his child X AE A-XII, and smoking weed on the Joe Rogan show.
However, he is the richest man alive. Hard to see how that couldn’t go to his head.
How has he gained that level of wealth? He has founded some of the most successful companies in the world, even reviving the space race.
Musk employs almost 110K employees; that’s an awful lot of mouths to feed.
Why would you vainly labor for riches? To enjoy spending them!
What’s even more vain than that? Not realizing that your level of wealth requires you to make others wealthy in the process and holding that against them.
Note: that’s a good thing. It’s vain to think that greed would lead to anything other than that at a certain scale.
If Musk and other business owners see their employee’s wellbeing as something worth striving for, then it’s hard to consider it vanity.
Let’s move on to verse 12.
Why does the laborer sleep so well? Because the work he performs tires his body and mind. When he returns to his family, his weariness sits in his bones.
That ache for sleep announces he has fulfilled his purpose, providing for his family and ensuring their future.
The rich man does not engage in the physical exertion of the poor. He can rest on his couch, ordering those beneath him to perform the actual work.
It’s hard to snack throughout the day when your hands are constantly involved in their business, but the rich man can find time between orders to shove a few grapes in his mouth.
Who will tell him he can’t?
At night, he feasts on whatever cuisine his heart desires, even those foreign to him. He is able to experiment with his food and enjoys a variety not shared by his laborers.
What happens when he goes to sleep? He has none of the honest labor to tire his body and his stomach is filled with sweetmeats and the accompanying nausea.
Instead, he lies awake, thinking through all the plans he has laid up, the moments in his life he has neglected, and his own failures torment him.
What is the message for us?
Are you rich? Do you employ others? Then labor beside your workers as much as is reasonable. Know a price of your position is feeding those in your company.
Do you work for others? Have gratitude. The grass isn’t always greener, and plenty of times, riches don’t fix your problems.
Know, it’s all vanity, save for that which has eternal worth.
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- He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. -
Money gets a bad rep.
It’s easy to see why people get so confused! There’s a verse that calls the love of it the root of all evil, plus greed is one of the seven deadly sins.
What’s interesting about all those critiques, is they have nothing to do with money. They have everything to do with the humans surrounding it.
I have fifty cents in my wallet (it was $2.25 but the coke zero refused to just “fall” out of the vending machine.) If I leave it there for a century, will my wallet grow claws and teeth?
No. It will just hold the fifty cents, if entropy hasn’t gotten to it first.
If I covet my pocket change, I may not accomplish much evil, but I’ll certainly pollute my soul. And for what?
In many ways, our message typically stops at this point. We all know money isn’t that bad as long as we don’t pursue it above all other goals.
That’s all fair and good, but in what ways does the love of money show up in our lives? Is this an excuse to work less?
Here’s a good check to see if you’re living your life properly. Do you feel satisfied?
Hunter, do you mean everything in my life is operating perfectly? Don’t you know that Jesus said we would have trouble in this world?
Okay, okay slow down. I said satisfied. Not free from misery.
A man who loves money is never satisfied. There is always more to have. There are always new things to buy. The Joneses are dying to out buy each other.
The man who uses the love of money message to work less and rest beyond what is necessary will actively ignore the tension of not living out his purpose.
His dedication to less can only be worn comfortably by his constant robing of slothfulness, a mantle filled with stench and stains of neglect.
To the man who spends all his time buying toys and pursuing his self-gratifying hobbies, is he also not a lover of money?
He is at least a lover of what money has given to him, and the needs of his lifestyle always require further investment.
We have three persons that don’t hear the wisdom in this verse. The greedy, the lazy, and the gratifier. None know satisfaction.
What hope then is for us? In what manner can we live that respects this verse and be content?
Be satisfied with God’s purpose; not satisfied with life.
Do you work for gain or do you work for your family? Is all that you do with your money to fuel your own desires, or do you spend it rather on the desires of God?
You must work. That is the curse. In your excess, do not trick yourself. Do not become so comfortable that your actions love money while you tell your heart it loves God.
Depart from me for I never knew you.
Do you know someone by thinking about them, by feeling that you love them? Of course not. You know them by “Being” with them.
Don’t love money; better than this, love it not with your actions.
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- But this is gain for a land in every way: a king committed to cultivated fields. -
What should rule? That which pays attention, speaks the truth, and fears God. Hopefully old news to most of you.
Why is a ruler, someone who inhabits those traits, applauded for the single action of cultivating fields?
If you were posed our verse in the form of a question, what would be your answer? What is the most important thing a king can do for his people?
Perhaps you have a modern answer, like gun control, health care reform, or tax policies. That is a response driven by the need of now.
Solomon isn’t concerned with the current needs of the day. He has his eyes on the idea of kingship. It has nothing to do with policy, and everything to do with the Spirit.
All right, with that clarification, what would we next put forward?
Perhaps it’s the conquering of one’s enemies. David was a man after God’s own heart; did he not swim in blood?
His people lived in peace and protection from the enemies that surrounded them under his rule. Who doesn’t want to live within that kind of peace?
What about he who lives by the sword dies by the sword? It would be invaders and their brothers own blades that divided Israel to the point it could no longer stand.
What about wisdom? Cannot the prudent king keep the nation from all forms of abuse and tyranny? Can he not solve all the problems that arise and come to the state?
In all his wisdom and power, Solomon couldn’t keep his kingdom from pursuing ungodliness. His wives removed his gaze from God.
What caused him to fall? Pride? Lust? Vanity? With him went the kingdom.
The warrior and the sage couldn’t keep the country afloat. No power or all fulfilling plan saved them.
Many times in our own life, we wish to be the great king or to follow the enlightened ruler. God gave us the examples in the Bible to show us how our political leaders can fail.
Not only should we not worship them, we should not desire to become them.
What am I saying? That Christians shouldn’t be politicians and leaders? No. I am simply stating that no Christian should endeavor to be himself great.
A meager politician in the hands of God will do more by His strength than in his own.
What then should you do if God’s path places you in the seat of a ruler? Dream large plans that rework society? Invade all those that threaten your peace?
Why can you not see to the well being of the people of God and say, “That is enough for me?” Why can you not look to the future generations and ensure the ground is fertile for their use?
Do you ignore the war on your borders? Do you not build the temple when God calls?
Of course not, you do not hide your gaze or act in fear. You must do the hard things as well as the mundane.
But a country that grows its food is one that has found peace. Its people do not live under a controlling emperor, rather a visionary pursuing feasting.
In his pursuit of what is needed, he has left behind the threat of greatness, picking up the mantle only when required.
What are you called to be? How might you pursue it today?
How can you avoid hurting others in your pursuit?
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- If you see in a province the oppression of the poor and the violation of justice and righteousness, do not be amazed at the matter, for the high official is watched by a higher, and there are yet higher ones over them. -
Have you guys noticed Ecclesiastes is filled with some strange verses? Imagine, before reading today’s verse, I told you the Bible teaches us to expect oppression?
Yeah, I agree. Shouldn’t we be more concerned with rooting out and preventing it?
Well, we’re all sinners. That’s at least some reason to expect broken institutions. But shouldn’t the best be filling our governments and churches?
Here’s the deal, just because it’s not to surprise us doesn’t mean we should not try to live morally upright lives and root out oppression to the best of our abilities.
When we see it though, it shouldn’t unsettle our faith. Why?
Because we know the only separation between us and those that have fallen is a bad day, the adoption of an evil habit, or the right authority commanding we compromise.
If the great are susceptible, than we all are.
Solomon gives us a reason that once again seems strange. Why do our institutions fail? Because everyone has an overseer.
One of the reasons governments won’t act is because they can always blame their inefficiencies on someone above or lateral to them.
How many times does the President and Congress say it’s the other person’s job to fix the problem?
Course, it’s more convenient just to blame the other party.
The most recent example of this is the Uvalde shooting, where cops stood in the hallway waiting for someone to show up with the keys.
Afterward, those on the ideological left state, “Do something!” and those on the right say, “There coming for your guns!”
Both of these statements are foolish. They achieve nothing and create no compromise to fix the problem of mass shootings.
What are some common middle ground ideas they could explore? Why not raise the age you can be drafted, drink, and buy firearms?
Why not provide federal red flag laws with clear processes that protect reasonable gun owners while allowing the seizing of weapons owned by those who are a clear, present threat?
Don’t expect that. Expect cheap shots and campaigning.
We haven’t talked about churches, but what about them? What examples have happened that show it’s lack of righteousness.
We need to talk about the Southern Baptist Convention. The news outlined in the Guidepost Solutions report was horrible.
Not only did it accuse some pastors involved in sexual abuse, it showed an unwillingness to do anything about them to avoid legal liability.
Worse, it accused the previous head pastor of my church, Johnny Hunt, of sexual assault.
How do we act? How do we respond? Should we throw away our faith and curse God?
That is what Satan wants. He wants a divided, bitter, broken church that can’t help but continue to stumble on its own feet.
Now, the SBC and its churches are going to have to reform. They need new policies, procedures, and frankly repentance.
But what about you?
First and foremost, assist and grieve for the victims in whatever best way you can.
Second, realize that this is the nature of all men and that no pastor or leader is God.
Third, pray desperately that God keep all of us from such sin.
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- For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear. -
What happens when you have multiple dreams?
When we are born, we have something that immediately begins to deplete as we age.
Potential.
In that time, we are malleable. We can learn almost any language (even multiple), practice any sport without criticism, and try anything readily available to us.
Our parents check in with a simple question. “What do you want to be?”
Some of us know. We are princesses, policemen, firefighters, astronauts, and nurses. We can make all the sounds and gestures that go with that career.
No matter how absurdly we describe our future, our parents smile, confirming playfully our imaginations.
We can be anything (reasonably). This is the moment to invite God into your life; to try and get a vision of His future.
But, there is a lie we tell ourselves as we grow up. We don’t just want the career. We want the car, the house, the kids, the guitar, and the etc.
We want it all.
With our indomitable will, all the areas of life worth having will be ours. With a meticulous adherence to our schedule and everything moving perfectly according to it, nothing stands in our way.
Describing the various things we wish, want, and strive for is a simple process. It’s an obsession, and like every obsession, the addict can speak of its pleasures at length.
What are we describing? A life with all the trappings, comforts, and successes that we can manage. How could that be wrong?
What matters at a funeral? The gilded coffin, or the words spoken?
Do your vacations to over a hundred countries matter? How in the world could your memory of a place and time, both victims of entropy, be worth anything?
Yes, it’s a bit dismissive. That’s the power and crutch of the argument of vanity. It might seem trite saying a length of time makes everything meaningless, but it doesn’t make it less true.
What is better is to have faith that the actions you make have an impact. That means they can make an impression in eternity.
That’s a dangerous statement to make, because it’s either one of incredible hubris (pride) or faith. The former is sin and the latter is foolishness (by the world’s standards).
How can you battle both of these rebukes as a Christian?
Faith is an argument not from reason, though it can be assisted by it. Faith is an argument brought forth by the universe demanding a response.
To see a creator’s hand and a moral law requires something indecipherable (yet implicitly understood) to sit outside the universe and structure.
Pride? Now that’s a trick as well. You must know that to think you can change something is to claim your filthy rags can clean.
Can you deny that only God can save? That only He can redeem? That what is and what can be are both His to give or refuse?
Than to live a life that leaves dents is to give that life to His purposes. It is to know your direction and impetus best serve you, man, and God when they are given to Him freely.
Fear God and watch His visions reign.
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- It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. Let not your mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your hands? -
Why would anyone want to take a vow that they had no intention to pay? Doing so just discredits their word.
Who wants to be known as untrustworthy?
Well, some people don’t care. They want the deal today and are willing to cash in on whatever good will you have towards them.
These people go from social circle to social circle until that group turns them out, and they move onto the next “sucker.”
The truth is these people are few; they also get found out quickly.
What’s my point? There not really the person you need to be worried about. They’re dangerous, but an oddity.
The real person to be worried about is the man or woman who makes a vow not from certainty but from pride.
They promise the world on a silver platter, believing themselves able to accomplish impossible tasks, perhaps even from a place of ignorance of their own abilities.
They make too many promises, spread themselves thin, and feel the judgement of their peers come crashing down.
Their excuse in that moment? All of them. Everything they can throw, along with the kitchen sink, how what happened was beyond their control.
Why are these people so dangerous? Why are they so plentiful? Why can’t we just promise what we are capable of?
Because we all are this person. We all overestimate ourselves and make promises to one another beyond our reach.
Yes, we are all also the man who trades in on their “reputation,” but that man is simply rarer to act, typically from cowardice.
The price to be him is too great.
The man who promises from pride has fewer consequences to face, and therefore becomes our constant companion, as do all the “minor” sins.
Your excuses before the messenger don’t work. He comes for what is owed, finds it not available, and returns to his master to inform him of the misdeed.
The last part of this verse is strange. In all my failings in this area, never has God peered through the clouds above and smote me for my unfounded vow.
He comes to me in consequences of lost reputation, lost business, and lost trust. I see the work on the horizon that was my mine, fade from existence, and another man worthy of it take it.
What are we to do? How can we avoid the fate of our words filling God with wrath?
To some extent, we can’t. We are all sinners, and as such it is our fate to lead God to judge our sin.
But, as those saved and washed by the blood, we can recognize our mistake and beg for forgiveness. When the messenger comes, we can apologize, and make amends.
Atonement comes our way through the Son.
Pride, conquers only temporarily.
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- When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. -
Words are trash. That’s why everybody asks for it in writing. We know we’re being lied to, so why not get the gotcha points later?
Are the words trash because the person knows they’re lying? Most of the time, no. They’re scared, want it to be true, or are just rolling the dice, hoping they get double sixes instead of snake eyes.
We all know what that feels like. We all know it’s better to only say what we know. Nothing more; nothing less.
Back in the day, paper was a big deal. It was hard to make and therefore expensive.
That meant your word was a bond. What you spoke, that was your agreement.
Man, for better or for worse, has been making deals with God since the fall. “Lord, I promise to serve you, but I want a Corvette.”
“Jesus I’ll go on this mission trip, but I need you to send a husband my way who fears you.”
We’ve all been guilty of this thinking, either in weakness or immaturity, but I can promise you one thing, God doesn’t care about what you do.
Everything we do is like filthy rags. If you want to understand that idea more thoroughly, I encourage you to look at the Hebrew behind that verse.
Deal or not, if we vow to God we are bound by our word. He doesn’t take that lightly. Don’t believe me? Go read Judges.
So, what are we to do? We pay it. That’s a terrifying proposition. What you vow to God, He demands you pay.
Why? Because He holds you to account for the words you speak, just as He holds Himself.
Think that’s just O.T. God? Nah, Jesus says you have to pay for every careless word you speak. Even happy, nice God holds you to this standard.
He has no pleasure in those who would make a vow carelessly. If He hears you make an insane vow, He looks you directly in the face and says, “Well, pay it then.”
You have every right to think that’s too much to ask; it is, like many standards God holds us to.
You might think its unjust of God to hold us to the careless or shortsighted vows we make.
It’s justice by our own hand. Whatever condemnation we heap upon ourselves by our own mouth, that’s on us.
God holds us to our word.
You might think there’s no mercy in a God who would approach His creation in this manner.
The cross is.
In the cross is the forgiveness for your careless deeds that you cannot nor should act out.
In the cross you can say, “Lord I’ve spoken casually and made a ridiculous vow to you, one we both know I was a fool to make. Forgive me for my sin and pledging myself to a dishonorable action.”
In God, we find all the justice and freedom we need to be children of the King.
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- For a dream comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words. -
Let’s start with the last part of this verse. Does this mean that the smartest person in the world doesn’t speak?
Maybe that’s true, but it’s not what the verse is saying. It’s speaking to the phenomenon we discussed last week.
The fool runs his mouth and doesn’t say anything.
I hate it when writers are self-referential, but the similarity here is too useful. What is the number one rule for modern writers?
To say it in as few words as possible. To write in as few words as possible. To write concisely.
I hate this rule. It’s not that I like being verbose or confusing; I love the prose of Victorian novels and the long descriptions in Tolkien’s writings.
There is a musicality to that wandering prose that makes me feel at home. It’s old leather, a burning candle, and actual paper.
Right, I get it. I’m the only one. It’s fine. You can all be wrong if you want. Hopefully this blog is concise enough for your modern sensibilities.
Despite my preferences, I can’t deny the power of a tightly written sentence. In the example above, “To write concisely,” has so much more “authority” than the first draft.
The irony of this blog saying much about Ecclesiastes is also not lost on me. By the time we are done, I’ll have written more words than are in the book.
I hope you agree with me, what makes the fool’s speech useless is not necessarily his many words, but it’s his many words on the same topic or on nothing at all.
I’ll listen to a brilliant person speak for 3 hours, because everything they say is new. I can’t listen to a fool for 5 minutes. You all can be the judges of where I am on that spectrum.
Now, let’s return to the first half. Time to get controversial!
Follow your dreams.
When I was a kid, that was the motto of the Disney channel. Every ad break was one of its child stars drawing Mickey Mouse ears followed by a disembodied voice instructing me in the idiom.
Even as a child, the idea infuriated me. What’s the point of following your dreams if it just makes you selfish? Can a narcissist help his family?
Okay, maybe five-year-old me didn’t say narcissist.
I think I was wrong, but I don’t think Disney was right, either. We both had it wrong.
You shouldn’t define what is worthwhile in your life. Your one person in the billions of human souls trudging through this existence. How could you ever figure it out?
You need a NorthStar, and frankly it needs a piece of you in it. We’re not all cut out to be missionaries in foreign countries, and God knows that.
What do you need? You need the obsession God gives you. You need to seek it constantly, and you don’t need to let selfishness or weakness stop you from pursuing it.
You need to help others in the body of Christ do the same. Give them every inch you have while not neglecting what God has called you to do.
You need to do this in your family. Encourage your spouse and children and help them grow into what God is calling them to be, even if it scares you.
Know, whether from God or elsewhere, a dream is fulfilled with much labor.
Will you build kingdoms of stone or sand?
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- Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. -
You may have already put it together, but these first verses in Chapter 5 contain a similar theme. What are they looking at exactly?
They are instructions, perhaps “expressions” is a better word, on how to fear God. Verse 2 is a command about something we struggle to control.
Our mouths.
The first command is not to be rash with our speech, meaning not to speak quickly. I’m not sure about you, but I know smart and foolish people who just run their mouth too much.
When a fool does, they make everyone know they are fool. They speak about the color of the thing while the room is concerned about the shape.
When the intelligent man speaks out of turn, he performs the same sin as the fool! He understands color to a level no one else in the room can, speaking to it in the nth degree.
Yet, he cannot listen to the true need of others wishing to understand the shape. Had he cared, then his speech could’ve been useful. Now, it is just a clanging gong.
Both are arrogant and without love. The fool is clueless, and the intellect is deaf.
What is the command? It’s found in verse 1! Learn to listen, but we’ve now expanded it past the church.
The verse then turns our attention to God. We are to not utter hasty words before God.
Fair enough. If we shouldn’t before fellow men because the action itself is evil, then why would we before God?
The reason given though seems strange: God is in heaven while you are on the earth.
What does that even mean? Aren’t we headed for heaven? Should we speak to God in a hasty manner when we show up on His celestial shores?
Of course not. First, remember at the end of chapter 3 when Solomon told us we may not go to heaven? You’ve got to remember, the whole story wasn’t revealed to him yet.
That wasn’t a guarantee for Solomon. He may be speaking in the sense that you will never exist there, but in the Jewish afterlife known as Sheol.
More to our purposes and knowledge, this verse speaks to our nature. You are by nature a creature of the earth. God, by our best knowledge, is by His nature that of the Ruler of Heaven.
Even standing at the pearly gates, this will be true. Your starting point began in terrestrial suffering, not angelic bliss.
Does standing on a mountain give you a better view? Does peering down from the clouds give you the lay of the land?
Then perhaps it’s best to listen to God before we speak unfortunate, angry words. The valleys keep us from seeing that which is beyond the hills.
No height or depth can withhold His gaze. To know this is to experience awe.
Awe steals our speech; live in awe.
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- Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. -
Well folks, we did it again. That’s another chapter in the rear-view mirror, and we are cruising onwards to Chapter 5.
Let’s get started.
The chapter begins with something more akin to the book of Proverbs than what we typically see in Ecclesiastes.
This isn’t about some meaningless aspect of our lives; it’s about the posture that we are to have when approaching a sanctuary.
Guard your steps is an interesting idea. A more modern way to express this phrase might be, “Be mindful about where you are heading.”
Why do we need to consider our steps as we head to church? Isn’t our destination already determined?
The warning is to ensure that we are not stepping to the left nor the right, to keep away all distractions stopping us from the righteous path.
It’s to enter in worship with God in a purposeful manner.
What do I mean? You’re not just walking into a building. You’re walking into the building containing His presence as well as the Body of Christ.
Have you prepared yourself to love her? Have you decided to be His hands and feet?
Are you too distracted by your misery and suffering that you can no longer be grateful for the blessings in your life, including fellowship?
Approach with an examined heart.
Solomon goes on to make a striking claim. He says it is better to learn instruction than it is to participate in the sacrifice of fools. He even goes so far as to say it is an act of evil.
Engaging in animal sacrifices was one of the most critical parts of the Jewish faith. By the shedding of blood was the remission of the nation’s sin.
It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an earnest command.
Now, I’m sure someone can prove me wrong, but I don’t know anywhere in the Torah where God commands the people of Israel to listen to the sermon.
I think you can say it’s implied, but it falls far behind the explicit, multiple, and detailed instructions on sacrifice.
In addition, these sacrifices are a future picture of what Jesus performed on the cross. Why does Solomon denigrate them?
What type of sacrifice is being performed? That of fools. What do the fools not realize? That they are doing evil.
How is it possible to sacrifice to God in a foolish manner? Because it is done in hate, pride, or drudgery.
If any of those devils possess the person performing the deed, then does not the emotion pollute the aroma going up to God? Is it not evil and repugnant?
Only a fool would do something so careless.
Why then must you listen? Why must you seek Biblical wisdom?
Because in the true fear of God and His word, you may be able to engage in your worship at church that is in no way repugnant to your savior.
Have you guarded your steps when heading into His sanctuary, or have you waltzed in with a careless soul?
Listen, that you may grow. Guard, that you not sin.
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- There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind. -
Today’s post is the final one for Chapter 4, and we are going to end along with it our discussion about the wise youth.
Our last post outlined how the old king abandoned the ancient ideals of what a ruler was supposed to uphold.
What evidence do we have this youth would act differently?
Well, for starters he is wise. Wisdom is the understanding and presence to act in the world as such. It wields both knowledge and intuition.
Though that may not feel like a satisfactory definition to some, it is one that matches well onto our discussion of truth.
It’s firm and flexible. You know a wise person when you see them act in front of you, and you rank wise people and actions as well.
Not only is the boy wise, but a large group of people follow him. Why does this matter?
We intuitively know how our rulers are supposed to act. When we see them, we follow, even if we cannot fully articulate why at the time.
In addition, we can realize those characteristics of our leaders we admire are not them. We can actually choose to follow the ideals and not a king, or president, while serving them.
Humans are remarkable creatures.
Now, something interesting happens. Despite all the people gathered around the boy, those who come later don’t rejoice in him.
How can that be?
Because morality pushes itself forward. It looks back and says, “Why did we ever think that was a good idea?”
It’s not so much as pushing forward as God revealing himself to us. At a certain point, we turn on those who came before despite their achievements and despite the good they did.
You can see this explicitly happening in America, regardless of your political side. No one can deny Jefferson was well regarded in his day and is now the subject of vitriol.
What is men’s praise to a wise king? Vanity is all, and worse, it’s feeding on the wind.
That’s one way to read these verses, but I think there is another message hidden here. One that might be reaching a bit.
You can be the judge if you think I’m pushing the text too far.
What does this verse say? There is an unending (infinite) number of people following the boy, and those who come after will not rejoice in him.
From the most unlikely areas comes the man and spirit who should sit in the king’s place.
Man, that sounds familiar.
When a dirty traveler rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, when the Sanhedrin dragged that heretical prophet to the authorities, and when society itself placed the criminal on the cross, I don’t think they had a clue they were acting according to His plan.
Do you find yourself living the principles of God and hated?
Pray, and ask God a careful question. Are you failing to live them out in some important way?
If you don’t hear an answer, rejoice. You will receive instruction soon in your failures or you stand in the same place as your Savior.
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- I saw all the living who move about under the sun, along with that youth who was to stand in the king’s place. -
Hey, do you remember that post we did on what should rule? It had that picture of a really cool chess piece?
No…. That’s cool…. Your feelings are hurt….
Let me do a quick recap. A king, in ancient times, was something like a drama. He was to “act” out the divine principles that should govern a people.
What were these? The ability to pay attention and see, to heal and conquer with one’s speech, and to follow the ordinances of God.
How do we know if a leader or king is following these principles? I think half the battle is knowing them.
Once you know a king is someone who is supposed to restore with his speech, you can quickly see those who do and those who don’t.
There are absolutely a lot more of the latter.
In the past two verses, we saw the example of a king who was not living these out. How do we know? Because he was neither wise nor would he take advice.
Those who are wise allow the principles of a king, or the principles of “that which should rule,” govern their lives.
Why? Because the principles are the solution to an old puzzle. How should we live?
At any time, you can listen, speak to the issue, and follow the ideal. Your difficulty, no matter it’s triviality, will begin to heal.
This is by definition ancient wisdom. Use it or try to come up with something better.
The king also will not listen to his advisors. What does this mean?
Not listening to those that can see the world accurately and provide checks to your reasoning is akin to plucking out one of your eyes.
The king says, “All that I can see is all there is.” That might be the peak of foolishness.
To allow this type of spirit to rule is to be complicit with it. This is what Alexander Solzhenitsyn outlined about the USSR.
The reason it stood? Because everyman chose to lie rather than speak the truth.
He might know what he is talking about. Guy did write the book, along with others, that is credited with toppling the regime.
So, what should you do when others stay quiet and stand by the ruler who has clearly abdicated the principles of rule?
Search your heart first. Have you disobeyed God to the point that you are blind? Is your moral compass so destroyed that you no longer can determine right from wrong?
If not, then pray to humbly live out his law. Don’t lie. See and speak. Follow God.
If you find yourself unable due to weakness or inexperience, point to and serve those who are. Don’t let bitterness or envy keep you from doing so.
The truth is more important than your ego, and a leader needs many hands.
Serve willingly, for a true king serves you in the same manner.
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- Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice. For he went from prison to the throne, though in his own kingdom he had been born poor. -
People need the ability to see and speak in generalities about the world. Treating everything as a single, nuanced “thing” is too time consuming.
The Bible does this in many regards, telling us to not to kill, respect our parents, and honor the grey headed.
But, it then seems to argue the opposite. God tells the people of Israel to fight wars, Jesus says leave your family and follow me, and Paul tells Timothy to let no man despise his youth.
What is the lesson here? Is the Bible full of contradictions?
When we speak about the truth, we like to see it as firm and unshaking, like the foundation to a building or the bones in our body.
What people don’t know? Foundations are made to “give” and bones are composed of flexible and rigid substances.
What’s the point? The truth is firm and nuanced. “It’s always wrong to kill, except in self-defense.”
In our verse above, we see one of these nuanced truths put on display. The old king is a fool who can’t take advice.
The boy sitting in prison? He might be poor, but he is full of wisdom. That is not what we typically see or should expect.
When I was young, my grandfather used to take me out to eat just about every month. Throughout the meal, he would always be correcting me or teaching me something.
“Hunter, sit up straight. Don’t talk with your mouth full. You’re not pronouncing that word right.”
Why did he fill our dinner with these pestering rebukes? He was reinforcing the lessons my parents were teaching me. He spoke to me with a love for my future.
He couldn’t let me make childish mistakes if he loved me. He knew one day that all these “pointless” reminders would pay dividends in my career, family, and happiness.
He taught me how to listen.
Our verse points directly to Joseph. What did Joseph do? Did he cry out to God bemoaning his fate in prison? Did he say woe is me?
Maybe, but not for long. He got to work, fixing the place up and even becoming known as an interpreter of dreams.
Then Pharoah called upon him and he became the second greatest man in all of Egypt.
So, what nuanced truth are we seeing here? Age doesn’t appear to be the only ingredient in wisdom.
Those who lose the ability to hear advice have become so concerned of being taken advantage of that they can no longer trust.
Why?
Because they have lived their lives always looking for the angle, always trying to get the better deal, always wanting the upper hand.
They believe all men to be concerned with this goal and believe it is the game of power that set them upon their throne.
They forget that positions of power are given to serve others. The wisest among us know it is better to give than it is to receive.
If you wish to be wise, love your neighbor as yourself.
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- And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. -
Let’s talk about power.
It’s a strange word. It can have various meanings like physical strength, the effect of one’s speech, and even the ability to perform an action, either through bureaucracy or skill.
If given the choice, we would take more power over less. There’s nuances there for sure, but it’s usually right to have more capabilities than not.
Now, what does that have to do with our verse?
Why would anyone fight another person? Because the reward of winning is worth the cost of losing.
That’s a personal question; it’s not rational. The line for when your honor is besmirched is different for every person.
But, it could also be for personal gain. If the man walking down the street appears to have a wallet for two, why can’t he be liberated from his cumbersome burden?
What is my point? The man who is attacked in our verse is beset upon because he has something of value or his defeat is valuable to his assailants.
“Hunter, what about those who are weak? They don’t have money or power. Why are they being victimized?”
The man who beats his wife or dog doesn’t do so because he is better than them.
He does so because he knows he is worth less than them, and, having violence as his only method to correct this “injustice,” exercises it as the weak and pitiful being that he is.
Violence is for taking, and every angry soul knows it.
So, what must the powerful and the weak do, knowing there are violent people about wishing to take them down?
They must lean on society. A man with friends cannot be attacked or easily overcome. The battered woman has the police to call in a domestic abuse.
The lone attacker loses courage in the face of too many onlookers.
Our verse means this – there is strength in numbers. Not only is this true in our physical lives, but it is true in our spiritual lives as well.
As Christians, we should always be growing our bonds with one another and those outside the church so we can be a bulwark against suffering in each other’s lives.
But, there is an element to the verse we have raised that hasn’t been dealt with. Is it wrong to take from those who are powerful?
The idea here comes from our conceptions of power. It has both positive and negative connotations.
Power can be used to hide corruption. It’s why we distrust people in authority. What are they hiding in all that smoke, mirrors, and foreign bank accounts.
But power has a positive element to it as well. It rings truer, like competence.
The word used in the Bible for gentle gets close to it. It means, “the necessary force to bring about.”
Those that have this capability, use it to benefit others, and do so at large scale are indeed powerful.
Should we discourage that kind of power? Only a fool would.
Should we encourage that power to stay on the straight narrow, to set Christ as its north star, and work for the moral benefit of its own soul and that of others?
Only a fool wouldn’t.
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Housekeeping: I’ll be on vacation for the long weekend. Next post will be on Thursday May 5th.
Thanks again to everyone for reading =)
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- For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone -
Both of our verses speak to the idea of unknown future suffering.
The first verse speaks about when our own flesh fails. Something causes us to stumble or perhaps our foolishness causes us to gaffe in front of others.
You will need friends during that time, others who can pick you up from the ground and give you a shoulder to lean against.
If you fall alone, a treatable injury may spiral into something far worse, even into death.
The second verse speaks to the need to survive against nature. She doesn’t care if it’s too cold out.
So, you have to struggle for your survival against her. We don’t experience that in the starkest of realities today, but we definitely can experience her that way.
The power going out in even some 1st world countries can be deadly in the right month of the year. Not to mention the real possibility of one being stranded.
When nature comes, you don’t want to be alone. You need a friend nearby or you’ll shiver alone in the snowbank.
That’s all well and good. Completely understandable and reasonable.
Yet a tad foreign to how most of our lives will play out.
In fact, today, it’s completely possible to be absolutely alone in your own island of technology, working from home, and uber deliveries.
Why ever leave? Why ever need anyone else? You can have all your needs filled independently.
The nonsense in this is obvious. Heart attacks come for everyone. It doesn’t matter how attractive you make your lifestyle.
But I want to talk about something different. I want to discuss how this relates to Christians specifically.
I want to talk about the church.
A while back, a gave a sermon on Ephesians 4:1-3. They’re critical verses I believe when it comes to understanding the Great Commission.
Despite what you may think, the Great Commission is more than an evangelistic call. It is a call to make disciples.
What are disciples? Great question. They are those people who both know the Scriptures and how to apply it to their life.
Why do they do that? Well similar to how the trinity is one and supports itself, believers are called to do the same, i.e. to be a representation of the oneness of God.
How do they do that? They use their spiritual gifts as given to them by the grace of God.
Now, a spiritual gift is the part of you that gets the least in the way of God. You might even call it the weakest part of you that Jesus can take over.
One of the goals to discipleship is to grow this spiritual gift so that the body of Christ can grow stronger together.
That requires those in authority to disciple others. It’s difficult to learn when you can’t figure out the proper way to act by any other way than trial and error.
When the body is full of disciples united and serving one another with their spiritual gifs, then when the vicissitudes of life strike, they can support one another.
Are you living this out? Is your church?
If the answer to both is no, pray to God for the strength and guidance on how to change either yourself, the church, or both.
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- Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. -
I’ve had the pleasure of people over the years coming to me for relationship advice. It’s left me scratching my head as I met my wife when I was fifteen.
What in the world do I know about dating? I’ve been lucky more than I’ve been right.
The strange part? Apparently, what I have to say helps because people keep coming back.
In my conversations with others, I’ve come across a lie all of us believe at some point in our lives. It’s born of a sense of entitlement and misplaced destiny.
God knows the one for me.
The one? That’s the person you are supposed to marry. Your job, of course, is to go out there and find them, so stop being lazy and make it happen!
So, we pray, compose list of the qualities we want in a spouse, and refuse to compromise when potential dates ask us to dinner if we aren’t fans of their haircuts.
Does God know who you are going to marry? Absolutely. Does God intend for that marriage to be like the ending to a Disney movie?
Most people haven’t read the book of Hosea. He’s a minor prophet who God told to marry a prostitute as a metaphor for His love for Israel.
I did NOT just tell you to marry a prostitute. I told you that what God wants from your marriage is not what you want from your marriage.
The language of the lie we believe isn’t necessarily wrong. What we mean when we say it is wrong.
What we mean is if we try hard enough and look long enough, all the joys of a perfect Christian marriage will one day be ours.
Maybe. There is no guarantee for that. Quite honestly, it’s not the point.
It took me a long time to realize this, but the thing that made me and Katie’s relationship work wasn’t that we were each other’s “one.”
What were we? Two very broken people, with idiosyncrasies that drove the other person crazy, who had personally hurt each other beyond belief, and the terrors of our future.
Yet, we loved the other more than our own comfort. That love was born out of a strange, unknowable concoction of time, character, and shortcomings.
In both of us was the heart to change. A desire to become a better spouse, not by our definition, but by the one we found within Scripture.
We grew in that vision and our understanding of one another, willingly accepting each other’s pain, communicating how the other hurt us (specifically), and finding new paths forward.
When you learn this truth, you learn quickly that the focus on “the one” has nothing to do with love. No one can complete that which is broken; no sinner can save another.
If you are to marry, God demands you do it according to his measures. You must follow all the commands given and not shirk responsibility when the other fails.
If there is a right person for you to marry, it’s the person you can find within yourself to love in this manner.
Better, there is no right person; marriage is for molding you into the right person.
You could say that is a good reward for your toil.
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- Again, I saw vanity under the sun: one person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business. -
This should sound a bit familiar.
Right, we’ve already begun to hit on this theme. Solomon uses the next couple of verses to show that work and riches do not solve all our problems.
The vanity he is discussing? That people toil for no pleasure and for no person.
Since we’ve spent some time talking about this already, I’d like to use this post to talk about one of my favorite stories.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
My mother loves Christmas and has close to 47 traditions that need to be followed during the Holidays. I have one that is by far and away my favorite.
Watching The Muppet’s Christmas Carol.
That movie, in its own cute and friendly way, tells the story we all know. It’s quintessential with Christmas itself.
Scrooge comically exemplifies the man in our verses. When asked to donate early on in the story, he asks in mock concern if something has happened to the poor houses.
Not an ounce of compassion or humanity seems to remain with our protagonist. How did he get to the point where he couldn’t even accept an invitation from his only living family on Christmas Day?
Now, Dickens is not one of those writers who is “subtle.” I mean, he named the character Scrooge for goodness’s sake.
The purpose for this is to act as a shorthand. By telling us exactly who Scrooge is in just his name alone, we know what the story is about.
This may lead to some simplistic storytelling, but it also allows the story to communicate its truth and show us scenes that wouldn’t make it into more realistic dramas.
My favorite example of this is the visit of the Ghost of Christmas Past.
If you’ve just watched the Muppet’s version or haven’t read the story itself, you may have a very different idea on how Scrooge’s experience with the spirit ends.
After seeing his past and confronted by the fact he sacrifices love to money, Scrooge grows weary, and begs to see no more.
He then looks upon the spirit and within its face sees a composite of all the faces that have “haunted” him from Christmases past.
The ghost wears an extinguisher cap (used to put out candles), which Scrooge grabs to snuff out the spirit and therefore the visions.
The spirit collapses beneath the cap, losing all mass in the process. Despite the face being hidden, Scrooge cannot stop the light from emanating out from underneath the cap.
What is the idea here? You can stop looking at what haunts you in the past. You can do so for years building up walls of resentment and hate.
But, your conscience will never stop illuminating your failures that you haven’t made peace with.
What should you do? Whether career or any other action taken in your life, ask yourself genuine and honest questions about your motives.
Pray to God to reveal them to you and teach you how to overcome them.
If you do this, you will not live a perfect life, but you can know you loved others along the way.
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- Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind. -
This is a truly inspired verse.
Apologies for repeating this again, but I think you are supposed to see verses 4, 5, and 6 as all having a conversation together.
Verse 4 states that working too hard is done because we are jealous of what our neighbors have.
Verse 5 says it’s foolish to laze around because you must eat at some point.
What is verse 6 trying to say?
Remember how the fool folds his hands? That means he can do nothing with them. They rest crossed or in front of him performing no task.
Solomon carries the metaphor forward in this verse. If we are not to fold our hands, then shouldn’t we engage both of them in our toil, striving to work as hard as humanly possible?
No. It’s better to have one handful of quietness.
I find the idea strange. Working hard is so ingrained into American culture that I know I feel guilty for not responding to a client’s text practically immediately.
Taking five minutes? Well, that makes me feel completely unprofessional.
This leads to a strange world, one where we can no longer completely leave our work behind. This is more true for soft careers like service industries.
If my cell phone stops working on a Saturday, I’d better have the ability to complain to someone about it in email.
What am I saying? That at your work you should find the opportunity to rest?
If there is one thing I cannot stand, it’s ping-pong at work.
At AT&T, our management brought in all kinds of tabletop games to increase our morale. Foosball, ping-pong, pool, puzzles, and even Super Smash Brothers, though that last one was performed by some “aspiring” interns.
What actually happened? The individuals that had time for these activities weren’t getting anything done during the day, and everyone knew it.
When downsizing came, these people were the first to go. All the while, these amenities built resentment among those who were performing.
Shouldn’t they be the ones enjoying them since they were doing most of the work?
We’ve talked in circles. How can we meet the demands of career in a connected world and how can we relax while at work?
Here’s the deal. Most people don’t have careers, they have jobs. That’s something I got from Dr. Jordan Peterson.
What does that mean? A job is something you choose to do because you have to survive and provide for a family, if your blessed enough to have one.
Careers are jobs which are so rewarding to those engaged within them that they provide meaning in addition to financial rewards.
If you have a job, you have to find time for rest in your life. It is not going to fulfill everything you need, obviously, so make especially sure it doesn’t kill you.
If you have a career, you have to find time for rest in your life. Being obsessed with a single goal will lead to neglect in others. If you don’t find time to step back, meaning will consume you.
So, find quietness, and no I don’t mean find time to meditate.
You are limited, and limited beings need rest.
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- The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. -
If you remember our post from this past Tuesday, I asked you to consider these next three verses together.
I believe they are connected to show us a balance: a golden mean for all you philosophy nerds out there.
The last verse is an admonishment not to work too hard. Why? At some point you begin not working for the purpose of providing but for the hoarding of stuff.
Why do we need the latest phone? Most of the time it’s to prove we’ve got us as much money as everyone else.
Losing this approach to our work frees us and allows us to focus on other parts of our lives that matter.
This is not to focus on ourselves or perform some function of self-care, rather we can use our lives to love others in non-material ways.
That’s our last verse, so what does verse 5 have to say?
The fool folds his hands. Strange phrase right? It means he doesn’t work. Hard to use tools or carry anything if your hands are folded.
Now the consequences of this are stark. The fool is condemned to eat his own flesh. How in the world can that punishment fit the crime?
It’s not as extreme as that. It’s rather, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat. If you don’t eat, your body will eat itself.”
That also shouldn’t be read as the limit of the punishment. The Bible gives plenty of admonishments to the people of Israel when they turn away from Him.
What happens if you don’t prepare for the invasion of your enemies? Well, you might get so hungry that the unthinkable becomes necessary.
The verse is true on multiple levels, and the Israelites who had read the prophets would have known those consequences as well.
This is a command not to let your sustenance be the responsibility of others, to at a minimum ensure your own survival.
Man, that thought feels so foreign in our world today. I wish we could go back to the good ole days when people knew this. Common sense!
If I asked you to tell me which political party the last two verse fell into, I think we would all agree the 1st would be liberal and 2nd would be conservative.
Whenever I stumble upon this “good ole days” mantra I remind myself of what I’ve read in Ecclesiastes before.
There is nothing new under the sun.
What does that mean? It means this verse was as uncomfortable and upsetting to the “idealized” people of Solomon’s day as it is in my own.
Sure, there are degrees to all that, but it doesn’t mean the same emotions and responses were different.
Here’s a startling revelation: there is a percentage of people in our population that given their upbringing, intelligence, and social skills, it is a miracle they show up on time for a shift at McDonald’s.
What in the world do we do about that?
Perhaps we could honor their work, small though it may be, and not belittle any movement towards bettering oneself.
Do we need social programs? Probably. Not every form of corruption can be weeded out, and snakes sneak into even the grandest buildings.
What every generation needs to hear? Get to work. There’s enough going wrong in the world without your laziness making it worse.
Is that harsh? Of course. Nothing is easy about surviving.
Perhaps loving others by lifting our and their burdens is more than that.
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- Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. -
Everyone, I’m a huge fan of these next three verses. I even like the formatting!
In my ESV Bible, each one is broken out into its own paragraph, emphasizing the idea contained within each sentence.
What’s this mean for us? Allow the next three verses to speak to each other; they are distinct but not meant to be read alone.
With some careful forethought, you may even be able to predict Solomon’s upcoming points.
You could also just read ahead, but that’s super lame.
Let’s get started! It may strike you strange in how much Ecclesiastes talks about our work. Doesn’t that sound like every self-help book, teaching you how to handle your job and have it all?
There’s a lot to say there. One is the concept of a “career” wasn’t around at this time, at least not in the way we conceptualize it.
Work then was associated with survival. This means growing the food your family needs. Sure, some people performed other trades, but that was the exception not the norm.
Today, we find it to be the exact opposite. We’ve gotten so good at “surviving” that the problem preoccupying us is how to survive entertained.
You’ve been fooled if you don’t think that question exists in the cubicle.
Truth is, you can survive a long time without earning a dollar in most 1st world countries. It’s a remarkable feat and true testament to our excess.
Now, humans are humans. Our foibles, flaws, and defects occur in every age, and none are new to us or surprise God.
Despite that, what might surprise us is that Solomon looked out to those working the fields for their food and saw in them what we associate with Wall Street.
Coveting.
Even owning less and being closer to a more natural lifestyle doesn’t remove our need to have what the other man does.
The interesting question at this point is what did the other man have?
Perhaps it’s simple like a second animal or more boys to work the farm. Could it be jealousy over a spouse?
The important thing to remember here is it’s directly related to effort. Solomon explains to us that man works because of envy. That means working provides the solution to obtaining his desires.
This is more than likely material goods. Shiny new tools, more animals, a new painted fence, i.e. all the trappings of success.
Why does Solomon call it vanity?
Listen, its obvious. The cows die, the plants whither, and the plot of land becomes a strip mall in enough years.
What am I saying? Everything is striving after the wind.
We know it’s worse than that. To work like this is to deny the purpose of work.
Why did the farmer grow his crops? For food. Why did he toil out of envy?
He might tell us it was to provide the best for his family. The devil’s in the details. Is that what your family needed, or did they need Dad to put down the plow and talk?
It’s easy to kid ourselves that what others have is our responsibility to give to our family, denying them all their non-material needs.
Is your family sheltered, fed, and flourishing? You have done your job as a provider.
Rest and feed their souls.
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- But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. -
And you guys thought the last post was dark.
I feel like this is the Ecclesiastes version of the meme “hold my beer.”
Okay, enough of that. Why in the world is this lovely thought in our Bible?
Let’s consider this from Solomon’s perspective first. Wisest king to rule Israel, built the temple, and Son of David. That guy had it all!
And, he squandered it. In Proverbs, you know – the other book he wrote, he explicitly warns about the dangers regarding following after women that got him into this mess.
In addition to all that, the goal of Ecclesiastes is Solomon’s attempt to find meaning in life. This is done explicitly knowing he is the King of Israel, God’s chosen people, and the wisest man on earth.
What does he find? Nothing. Worse, the very judgment seat he occupies can be used to oppress the weak, perhaps even by his own hand at times.
Solomon looks at his inability to live out his purpose and says, “Why on earth was I ever born if this was my end?”
Man, I don’t know about you, but I’ve had that thought too. Sometimes its fleeting, such as my guilt at a stupid mistake, and sometimes it arrests me for days over something I’m truly mournful about.
Well, maybe that’s just me, but it is comforting to see a man as noble as Solomon had similar struggles.
Now that’s Solomon’s perspective but how should we think about the meaning in the text?
Is it better to have never been?
This is about to get really heavy and personal. My wife and I have been struggling with infertility for close to three years.
Through this post, I can’t even truly begin to give those of you who have not gone through it insight into how difficult and painful a process this is.
Let me just say it’s as awful as you can possibly imagine. Here’s three things to give you an idea.
I’ve wanted children since I was in kindergarten. I distinctly remember having that thought driving in the car with my father past a car dealership when I was five years old.
The most common type of miscarriage is anembryonic pregnancy (it was referred to as a blighted ovum in the past). This means you receive a positive pregnancy test, a fertilized egg implants itself in the uterus, and the fetus fails to develop. This has happened in one of our three miscarriages.
IVF is not what you think it is. Imagine taking 3-4 painful shots in your stomach every night for weeks, paying for that privilege, all the while the hormones make you shaky, angry, and irrational.
I haven’t gone far enough even in the above to describe the soul crushing tragedy that is infertility. I don’t think the events I’ve described get anywhere close to how traumatic they are.
Now, I’ve leaned on God a lot through out this whole process, but one thing I’ve never doubted is that suffering through this was a testament, not only to my potential children, but to the idea of raising children.
If I proved faithless, what would that say about my belief in God’s future?
Yes, the days do appear dark, and I find that all the more reason to trust in the light.
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- And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. -
This is a dark saying.
It’s hard to imagine how this verse could ever have been God-breathed.
Given the seriousness of this topic, I find it terrifying to say anything, fearing I’ll do more harm than good.
Let me start by making an affirmation, and then maybe you can give me the grace to expand on this verse.
It is an ultimately selfish and faithless act to commit suicide. It is an abandonment of all those who hold you dear, and God does not will it.
If you struggle to keep yourself from making harmful plans and actions against your own life, seek counseling immediately.
You are loved, and if you do not believe that to be true regarding others near to you, know that you are loved by me.
Now, let’s discuss this passage.
I have only ever truly doubted my faith once in my life. That’s not from asking hard questions, rather I think it comes from asking them before they surprise me.
I believe our presuppositions about morality are strong evidence for the Christian faith. Every culture agrees: do not murder, steal, or lie.
In a sense, our personality is prepackaged with this moral structure. Even if you don’t get caught, your conscience will punish you for inappropriate acts you take knowingly or not.
One morning, I was listening to a lecture. For the sake of keeping this post at a reasonable length, let me just paraphrase what I learned.
It seemed to me possible from what I heard that our moral reasoning and personalities could arise without a God in the world. All our presuppositions, they could be explained by natural causes.
I find myself, typically when faced with this kind of puzzle, able to think through it rather quickly, providing a philosophical answer to the question besetting me.
I couldn’t. And I stared at the wooden floor in my office for close to two hours just thinking before my wife came in and asked me what on earth I was doing.
She held me and I explained the problem. I was afraid I was losing my faith, and I saw a world of unimaginable cruelty from which nothing mattered.
I felt betrayed.
Then I realized something terrible. Suppose all our traits and morals did arise from natural causes. Then what?
Well how then were these so called “morals” betraying my best interests? This is the philosopher Nietzsche’s point. Might I overthrow these “gods” and rule?
And rule what? A void? Should I spend my life yelling into the dark hall of the universe?
But I was holding onto my wife, and she did matter. To be the man of my dark thoughts would deny that obvious and unmistakable truth.
And then God spoke.
It is Faith to say it Matters. It is Faith to say there is a foundation to My Hall. It is Faith to know the Cornerstone.
The man who believes morals to be “natural” claims them rightly to be “tricks” and throws himself into the “void” by his own bootstraps.
God’s answer is look to your own life. Is that true? Or do you find a home to live within?
The world where men rule in the void? Well, that’s Hell. No doubt about it.
If that was our universe, then surely the dead are better off than us.
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Recommended Reading: After God lead me through this philosophical victory, I was thrilled to see I was not the first to reach this conclusion!
A month or so later, I read Orthodoxy G. K. Chesterton. It’s a wild ride, but a fantastic read that will grow your faith.
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- Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. -
And you thought chapter 4 was going to start off on a cheery note! Commences evil laughter with appropriate lighting.
Sorry, everyone; not entirely sure what came over me.
Hey congrats! That’s three chapters down. That puts us right at a quarter of the way through.
Let me start off by saying, chapter 4 is indeed a real downer. I know that’s nothing unexpected from this book, but I feel the need to preface it anyway.
I want to remind you why this book was written; these are real states and questions you can have as a disciple of Christ.
This book ensures you that you’re not the first person to have these thoughts, and yes, shows the path through them, even though it’s hard to see.
With that, let’s dig into our first verse.
First off, it seems clear to me that this verse is referring to the wickedness seen in the acts of those who occupy the seats of judgement and righteousness we observed at the end of chapter 3.
That idea is not a limitation necessarily, but it is the impetus.
One of my favorite parts about Ecclesiastes is how it constantly returns to the part it “forgot” in its arguments.
What do I mean? Well at the end of chapter 3, we learned to expect wickedness in both the courts and church.
Of course, they are corrupt because man is corrupt. What is the solution? God is the judge who will show us how low and filthy we are.
Case closed. Bad people in power meet God’s punishment. Move on, nothing to see here.
You can feel the hand at the back of the room, meekly rising and the shaky voice accompanying it. “What about the suffering of their victims?”
Solomon could’ve waived that all aside. “I’ve told you already, that God works things out in eternity. There’s no reason to even bring that up!”
He doesn’t pass over the timid question; he decides to give it a voice! He joins in with it, mourning over the fact that the oppressors use their power against the weak.
I’ve gone through some pretty horrific tragedies in my life; moments I wouldn’t wish on Vladimir Putin himself.
One of the worst things someone can tell me in those heartbreaking events is, “Don’t worry. Have faith! God is in control!”
How worthless is that sentiment when you are hurting? How can such “thin measly words” be appropriate during truly horrific experiences?
The people who tell you this, are naïve. They’ve never lived through something dire like you are going through, and it shows by how worthless their speech is.
And me? I am worse. The reality of the world is turning me into a lion, growling at all the weak sheep who dare tell me they understand.
What speaks to me most in these times? Well, it’s hard to put into words. It’s found somewhere between the Spirit and Being, and I only know it because I’ve seen humans possessed by it.
Perhaps it’s in their eyes, ones that say grief is not unknown to me. Neither is peace or joy.
They speak and say something akin to, “You’re in Hell, and I think God has you there to learn how to sing.”
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Housekeeping: The podcast has finally caught up with the blog posts! Expect to get joint posts like this moving forward :)
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Hey Everyone!
I’m excited to bring you my first post ever made on Broken Wheel… IN AUDIO!
Some folks reached out to me and said this is how they would prefer the content, and I’m going to do my best to deliver!
Obviously, this doesn’t match where we are currently at on the site, but I hope to catch both communities up shortly.
Unfortunately, I thought I could split the sign-ups, but due to some tech stuff behind the scenes, I think it’s best to keep them together.
If you prefer audio, listen away and delete the written ones. Vice versa if you like text, and read and listen if you can’t get enough!
Thanks and God Bless,
Hunter Carl
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