Engaging Scripture

How to identify a fool – Ecclesiastes 9:11-10:20, Part 3

How do you identify a fool? It sure would be nice if fools and foolishness had their own costume, like the court jester in the picture above. Unfortunately fools and foolishness most often look normal. Worse yet, people can have sharply divided views on what is foolish.

Thankfully, the Teacher (the writer of Ecclesiastes) writes more proverbs that illustrate folly and wisdom in day to day life. In this week’s series of blog posts on Ecclesiastes 9:11-10:20, we’re discovering that the Teacher has many such proverbs to help us live with wisdom in our complex world. You can read the previous two posts here and here. Now on to today’s post. My Old Testament seminary professor Dave Dorsey translates the next few verses, Ecclesiastes 10:8-11, as follows:

“8 But whoever digs a pit may fall into it; whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake. 9 Whoever quarries stone may be injured by them; whoever splits logs may be hurt by them. 10 If the axe is dull and its edge unsharpened, the one who wields it must use more strength; but wisdom can help a person succeed. 11 If a snake bites its trainer because it has not been properly trained, the trainer will have done all his work in vain.”

It seems like the Teacher is really into digging, wood chopping, and snakes! When I read this, I thought about what life must have been like when the Teacher lived. His society and culture was quite different from ours, as evidenced by these three topics he focuses on. Then I realized, I actually experienced all these things this year. Digging in my yard to plant flowers and uproot old bushes. Lots of splitting wood, as we use wood as our primary heat source. And while I didn’t interact with a snake, when we went on vacation this summer to a state park, there were lots of warnings about rattlesnakes. Of the three, the one I most identify with is splitting wood. I have been hurt by split logs many times, just as the Teacher describes, when the force of the axe causes the split log to go flying back into my shins. As I search for the proverb in this section, I see a repetition of what he said in the first post this of this week’s blog series: “Misfortune surprises us all, but wisdom can help us succeed. So get wisdom.” If your axe is dull sharpen it. Or get a pneumatic log-splitter to do the work for you! The Teacher would agree with the phrase, “work smarter, not harder!”

The Teacher has even more descriptions of wisdom and foolishness. Hear how Dorsey translates the next few verses, Ecclesiastes 10:12-15:

“12 The words of a wise man bring him approval, but a fool destroys himself by what he says. 13 What a fools says, from beginning to end, is foolish and full of nonsense, 14 yet he talks on and on. 15 A fool tires of his work, but he does not know the way back to town.”

This passage is mostly about how to identify a fool. But the Teacher does give a proverb about how to identify a wise man, “You’ll know a wise man by the approval his words bring.” Of course, that is a proverb that is not always true, because a foolish person can also receive approval, usually from other fools. What can be so difficult about identifying foolishness and wisdom is that generally the foolish ones view themselves as wise, and they declare that the wise ones are fools. They can do so very boldly, to the point where the wise, because the wise tend to be self-reflective, can start to second-guess whether or not they are actually wise. The wise can think, Maybe the foolish are the wise ones, and the wise have got it wrong all along? Why else would so many people look to the foolish person with approval? In the end though, the tell-tale signs of foolishness are there, and the truth comes out.

What tell-tale signs? The Teacher lays them out: the foolish person destroys himself. The foolish person talks nonsense. When the foolish person talks, they drone on and on and on. The fool gets tired of working. The fool doesn’t know his way home. In the end, the Teacher tells us, a fool will make himself known. So wait, watch, and it will almost always happen. The fool will implode. From the vantage point of history, which almost always reveals the truth, it will become obvious that the fool was foolish.

Pursuing wisdom and avoiding foolishness in leadership – Ecclesiastes 9:11-10:20, Part 2

What is wisdom? In the previous post, we started a five-part series on Ecclesiastes 9:11-10:20, in which the Teacher (the writer of Ecclesiastes) gives us a series of proverbs about how to live wisely. In that post, the Teacher described a bit of what wisdom does not do, or what it does not look like. But what is wisdom? What does wisdom do, especially when the world is falling apart around us?

Let’s keep following the Teacher’s logic, seeing if we can discern more proverbs about wisdom. Here’s how my Old Testament seminary professor Dave Dorsey translates Ecclesiastes 9:18b through 10:3.

“9:18b One wrong person can destroy much good. 10:1 Just as one dead fly can spoil a whole container of expensive perfume, so a little folly can spoil much wisdom. 2 The mind of the wise person prefers what is right, and the mind of the foolish person prefers what is wrong. 3 A fool reveals that he lacks wisdom wherever he goes; he declares to everyone that he is a fool.”

Did you uncover any proverbs about wisdom in this group of verses? I think there are at least three: First, “Folly can spoil much wisdom.” Second, “The mind of the wise prefers what is right, while the mind of the foolish prefers what is wrong.” Finally, “Fools make it abundantly clear how foolish they are.” In other words, “Want to know what foolishness looks like?” the Teacher asks, “You’ll know it when you see it.”

Jump on YouTube and you can easily find videos of people doing foolish things. Just search on “epic fails”. There are whole series of videos of stupid criminals, or lots of videos of people driving or riding motorcycles doing foolishness. It is just so easy to find. And frankly, we love it. Did you ever notice how much it gives us pleasure to delight in others’ foolishness? Those videos are hilarious.

But at some point, the laughing should stop and we need to remind ourselves, “That is foolish. That is serious. Foolishness at its core is not funny.” Especially when we consider how the Teacher contrasts wisdom with foolishness in verse 2. In the Hebrew the Teacher literally says “the wise prefer the right, and the fools prefer the left.” You can imagine how political conservatives, which are called The Right, have used this verse to caricature political liberals or progressives, which are called The Left. That’s not what the Teacher is saying, though. There was no conservative or religious Right in his day, and there was no liberal or progressive Left.

The Teacher is simply using the two sides of the body, the right side and the left side, to illustrate that the wise prefer right, and fools prefer wrong. He is saying they are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Foolishness and Wisdom are obviously quite different. The kind of foolishness that the Teacher is describing, though, is not just taking dangerous physical risks. The kind of foolishness that has the Teacher concerned is “that which is wrong.” What he is talking about is the opposite of wisdom. Wisdom prefers “that which is right.” This really helps us understand wisdom. To pursue wisdom is to pursue the right option. The right tone. The right choice. The right attitude.

This is why the writer of Proverbs says that, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” By using the word “fear,” he is referring to a posture of awe and respect before God, such that a person wants to follow the way of the Lord, to live their lives like Jesus lived, to choose to be his disciple and do what he did. That is wisdom. Of course, then, the ramification of this proverb is that in order to be wise you need to know the ways of the Lord, you need to know his heart and actively be his disciple. Wisdom, therefore, is not head knowledge, or intellectual capability, but the application of God’s way to our lives, so that what we believe is clearly demonstrated by the actions and choices of our lives.

So now that we have a clearer sense of wisdom, the Teacher is going to help us understand and identify foolishness. Look at 10:4, and again, this is Dorsey’s translation:

“4 If a ruler’s temper is aroused against you, do not leave your post; for calmness can allay great offenses. 5 I have observed something foolish that rulers in this world often do. 6 They place fools in high positions, and put men of substance in low positions. 7 I have seen slaves riding along on horseback, while princes walk on foot like slaves.”

The Teacher has foolish rulers in the cross-hairs, doesn’t he? It would be very tempting to read these passages and think, “I wish this or that politician would read this passage.” And by the way, as I write this in 2020, considering the bonkers things that each of the major party candidates said from time to time during their campaigns, or over the years, they could each do well by following the Teacher’s wisdom. The reality is that we ALL could do well to follow the Teacher’s wisdom here, because all of us have been guilty of doing foolish things, such as what the Teacher describes: letting our temper get the best of us or making backwards decisions.

It is important to note that the Teacher is not promoting slavery in verse 7. He is simply describing what was in keeping with societal mores of his day: evidence of a backwards decision from a foolish leader would be to have slaves ride horses and princes walk on foot. Why? Because slaves did not have the education or experience to lead like princes did. The Teacher is describing a situation where a foolish king is essentially running his kingdom into the ground through bad decision-making, bad governance.

We can do the same in the various responsibilities we have. From parenting, to our jobs, to our marriage, to how we care for ourselves, to our use of time and money.

What leadership responsibilities do you have in your life? I’m thinking about any kind of leadership responsibility. Even those of you who are teenagers. You might have a younger sibling who looks up to you. You might have responsibilities at school, at work, on a sports team, or among your friends.

The Teacher is not suggesting that to be leaders we must have people following us, or doing what we say. Nothing like that. The Teacher is, however, saying that we should pursue wisdom and rightness in any relationship or situation in which we have influence. To do that, the fear and awe of the Lord, and who he is, and who he says we are, need to be in the forefront of our hearts and our minds. Why? Because as I mentioned above, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; the fear of the Lord is the source of wisdom. May wisdom be your passion as you lead.

How are you using your influence? – Ecclesiastes 9:11-10:20, Part 1

Influence. How are you using your influence? I’m writing this in 2020 amid a global pandemic, political turmoil, racial tension, and many natural disasters. It doesn’t seem like most of have enough influence to affect change. Rather it seems the events of this year have surrounded and battered us like a tidal wave. It seems our influence is non-existent, and we’re struggling to keep from drowning in the flood caused by the crashing waves. I feel it too. But as we tread water, fighting to keep our heads above water in 2020, rather than allowing ourselves to focus on the struggle, I’d like to suggest that we all do have influence. Even when misfortune strikes, and we seem incapacitate? Yes, we have influence even then. Keep reading, and I think you’ll see what I mean.

In this week’s series of blog posts, we are looking for proverbs, but not from the book of Proverbs! We are still in the book of Ecclesiastes, and just as we discovered earlier in our study of Ecclesiastes, the Teacher (the writer of Ecclesiastes, who also might have been the writer of most or part of the book of Proverbs) gives us a bunch of proverbs to help us find wisdom in our sometimes confusing world.

This is the fourth week of blog posts studying the section of Ecclesiastes that covers most of chapters 7 through 10, and all of it is advice for wise living. The first of these four weeks, starting here, was also a collections of proverbs, and if you want, you can open your Bible to 7:15-8:8 and review them. After looking back at that section, turn to 9:11-10:20, our passage for this week, and just like that earlier section, we are once again going to be searching for proverbs.

Remember that proverbs are not promises. Proverbs don’t come with guarantees from God. What are proverbs, then? Proverbs are wise sayings that are usually true. Generally speaking, if we follow the wisdom of proverbs, if we apply them to our lives, we will find them to be true and our lives will be better for it. For most of the proverbs, though, if we think hard enough, we can also find exceptions that conflict with the wisdom in the proverb. Those exceptions, however, do not void the reality that the wisdom in the proverb will most often be true. So let’s begin, knowing that despite the possibility for exceptions to the wisdom, this week we’ll find how beneficial it is for us to learn and apply the wisdom of these proverbs to help us understand how to live wisely in this complex world.

As I’ve done often in this series, I’d like us to hear the translation of Ecclesiastes by my seminary Old Testament professor, David Dorsey, starting at 9:11: “11 I have observed another thing in this world: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong; nor does food come to the wise, or wealth to the intelligent, or favor to the knowledgeable; but events and misfortunes happen randomly to everyone. 12 A person does not know when tragedy will strike. As fish are caught in a deadly net, or birds are captured in a snare, so people are taken by surprise when disasters befall them.”

Did you see the proverb here in 9:11-12? “Misfortune surprises everyone.” Most people have experienced this proverb’s truth time and time again. From the small nuisances of life, like getting a flat tire, to the major shocks, like a house fire. Of course, often, after the crisis is over, when we begin to investigate what happened, we find the tell-tale signs of why the tragedy occurred, and then the tragedy might not seem so surprising. We knew our car tires were running thin, and we neglected replacing them for months. Or we knew we had plugged too many Christmas lights in one outlet, risking a fire hazard. But then there are the complete surprises that seem to have no cause whatsoever. Getting hit by lightning. A serious illness. A global pandemic, maybe. How do we respond when great misfortune makes its way into our lives?

The Teacher goes on to illustrate this proverb with a story of a small town that faced a terrible misfortune. Let’s see if we can find the proverb about how to respond to misfortune, as we read the Teacher’s story. Here’s how Dorsey translates 9:13-18:

“13 I saw an example of wisdom that was very sad: 14 There was once a small town with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it, and built huge siege works against it. 15 There lived in that town a man who was poor but wise, and he saved the town by his wisdom. But in the end no one appreciated what he had done. 16 But I said to myself, despite this, wisdom is still more powerful than military strength—even if that poor man’s wisdom was not honored and his words were not celebrated. 17 The quiet words of a wise person are more valuable than the shouts of a ruler who is a fool. 18 Wisdom is more powerful than weapons of war.”

Does anyone else feel bothered by this story because you want to know how the poor wise man saved the town, but the Teacher doesn’t tells? Sorry. The point of the story is not how the poor wise saved the town from invasion. The Teacher has another point. Did you see his point, which is the proverb in this verses? He repeats a version of it three times, once each in verses 16, 17 and 18. “Wisdom is more powerful than military strength.” In verses 16 and 18, he repeats it almost verbatim. HIs rendition in 17 is a touch different, focusing not on military might, but on a foolish ruler who shouts.

The Teacher’s point is that wisdom is far superior. More superior than great military might, more than an obnoxious leader. In international affairs, a loud-mouthed leader with a large army can make a big conflagration and get what they want. If we look back over the course of global history, we don’t have to search to find examples of their devastation. But do any of the Hitlers or Bin Ladens compare to the impact made by the quiet wisdom demonstrated in the three short years of the ministry of Jesus? The Teacher is right, wisdom is better. Get wisdom. Seek it out. Desire it.

Interestingly, this proverb is applicable to far more than the military, kings and would-be world leaders. “Get wisdom” applies to all of us. We all, old and young, have influence. Some of you have influence in your employment. Some in a volunteer capacity. Some in your families. Some with money. Some with time.

How are you using your influence? Are you using your influence like the loud foolish leader who tries to shout and intimidate, who tries to coerce and manipulate, for their own advancement? Are you using your influence like the weapons of war, causing damage and destruction to get what you want? Or are you like the poor wise man who uses wisdom for good?

What, then, is wisdom? So far the teacher has told us what it is not. It is not automatically found in the methods of might. It is not found in the use of manipulative words, in bullying, or in intimidation. So the Teacher has described a bit of what wisdom does not do, or what it does not look like. Wisdom avoids these negative actions.

Check back in to tomorrow’s post, as we’ll continue following the Teacher’s logic, seeing if we can discern more proverbs about wisdom.

God wants you to experience joy (and gives you a method to be more joyful) – Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:10, Part 5

How do we become more joyful in this life? We begin answering that question by noting that the human experience and expression of joy is deeply rooted in God’s desires for us. How do we know this?

Look at the middle of Ecclesiastes 9, verse 9. I love how Dorsey translates the final section of our passage this week, verses 9b-10: “For this is what God wants you to do as live and work in this life. 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, because in the grave, where you are going, there will be no more working or planning or knowledge or wisdom.”

See that at the end of verse 9? “This is what God wants“! A joyful life is how God wants us to live.

That means we should evaluate ourselves, and we should invite others to evaluate us, to discover our level of joy. Ask people who spend the most time with you, “When you think of me, do you consider me a joyful person?” If the result of an evaluation of our lives is that we have to admit that we are dealing with discontent, complaining, bitterness, anger, then we are not living life as joyfully as we could be.

Therefore, as we attempt to answer the question, How do we actually become more joyful?, we remember the Teacher has already told us in the larger passage we’ve been studying this week, Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:10 (read the first post in the five-part series here.) What is extremely interesting is to notice how all the illustrations in the previous post depict people practicing joy.

Last month, my small group had an interesting discussion about how we often don’t feel like reading and studying the Bible. Maybe you’ve experienced that yourself. I have. Why is that? There are likely many reasons. What is so striking is that excitement seems to flow out of us many other times, in abundance, without even trying. At the sports game. At the party. Watching Netflix. We wonder why we can’t be like that about the Bible, about God, or maybe about a great many other things in life. How can I become joyful if I’m not feeling joy?

I encourage you to listen to this podcast. Scroll down to the Podcast section of the website, and look for “Welcome to Cognitive Studies 101”. The speaker, Leonard Sweet, says that cognitive studies has, in recent years, done some amazing work understanding the brain and emotion, such that, “It is easier to act yourself into a new way of feeling, than it is to feel yourself into a new way of acting.” Sweet goes on to day, “To get your brain to change, to get yourself to change, you don’t change by waiting until you get new feelings. Actions actually precede the emotions. Actions determine emotions! If you want to be joyful, then even when you are depressed, the way in which you become joyful, is not to wait until you are no longer despairing, it is to act as if you are joyful! Choose joy. Ask yourself what a person who is joyful would be doing or saying, then do likewise!”

But the fact of the matter is that we get stuck and we sometimes don’t know how to break out of a negative feedback loop or a depression. In those cases, I strongly urge you to seek professional help, to avail yourself of medication, to get exercise, to eat healthy, to force yourself to limit screen time, to serve others, get involved in volunteering, in a discipleship relationship with someone, in a ministry in your church. Be aware of your thoughts patterns and work hard to create new thought patterns. Remember we choose how we think. Choose to end your night by thinking about ways you saw God’s presence in your life. Choose to end your night with by listing what you are thankful for from the past day. I urge you to practice the habits of Jesus: prayer, solitude and silence, fasting, ministry, disciple-making, giving.

What the Teacher is suggesting is the raw material for choosing a joyful life. It doesn’t matter if you are young or if you are old, choose to live life with joy.

I love seeing the ladies of Faith Church’s quilting group gather on the first Tuesday of the month, sewing quilts for people in need. They even take the work home and quilt for hours at home. Over the years they have made thousands of quilts of many kinds. There is so much joy in our quilters because they are serving and giving.

Recently the kids in our children’s ministry made amazing chalk art outside under our portico. There pictures were filled with joy! I would love for Faith Church’s hallways to be an art museum of joy, filled with photography and drawings and paintings that express our joy in the Lord.

Again, sometimes there are hard things that need to be talked about, that need to be dealt with. Jesus and his disciples certainly had conflicted conversations. But because of God’s active involvement in our lives, we do not need to face difficulty with hopeless despair. There is a deep, foundational joy God wants us to experience, a joy that carries us through even the difficulties of this life. I have met quite a few people, who going through some of the very difficult things of this life, still carry themselves with joy.

What ways can you express joy in your life? Maybe after reading this post, make a list of ways you’ve seen joy in others, a list of things you are grateful for, a list of ways that you’ve seen God in the past week. We have a God who deeply loves us, who is a good God, who is FOR us in this life and who is available to us all day and all night. He finds joy in us! “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” My pray is that I and all of you who read this can grow in our understanding of God’s joy for us, so that may impact our hearts, minds and actions to follow him.

An antidote to despair – Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:10, Part 4

If we aren’t supposed to succumb to worry about the future, is there an antidote to despair? Again, the Teacher, the writer of Ecclesiastes, is ready with more wisdom for us. Look at chapter 9, verses 7-9a.

Dorsey’s Translation: “7 Therefore go, eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for this is what God wants you to do now. 8 Always be clothed in white, and always anoint your head with fragrant oil. 9 Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this fleeting life that God has given you in this world—all your fleeting days.”

Live life to the fullest!

Every meal, take it with joy.

The clothes you wear and how you get ready, do so with joy.

Your spouse, your family, your friendships; enjoy them.

Living with joy can be easier said than done, if we’re honest, right? When the stuff of life wears us down, we can get caught in a negative feedback loop. Over and over we replay the negative in our minds. We can actually get stuck in a habit of negativity, of complaining, of looking for and waiting for the next problem to come at us. I hear people use the phrase, “I’m just waiting for the next shoe to drop.” Yes, we live in a world where it is inevitable that bad things will happen, but is there a way to live with hope? What the Teacher wisely advises is an antidote to despair.

Even the little things in life, accomplish them with joy. One of the last things I do before heading to bed each evening is grind coffee beans in preparation for the next morning. I tend to be the first one up in our house, so I don’t want to wake up the rest of the house in the morning with that loud coffee grinder. I’ve tried taking the grinder into the laundry room, putting a pillow around the grinder, and that does muffle the sound. But it is just as easy to grind the beans the night before. (Coffee purists, are you thinking right now, “Yeah, but think about all the oxygen that will affect the grind through the night…the coffee will taste best if you wait till morning!”??? I feel you. But I don’t pour the grinds in the filter at night where they would have more exposure to air…I leave the in the grind, while not air-tight, is better. So please forgive me…) As I grind the coffee at night, you know what I think? “That ground coffee smells so good!!! I can’t wait to wake up in the morning, because I’m going to get to enjoy it.”

Each night I have a joyous expectancy about the coffee! Maybe you’ve experienced that too. You’re joyously expectant about a big day like a wedding, a birth, a promotion, a vacation, a sports season. That joy is wonderful! Dwell on that joy, thanking God for the gift of the joy we can have, even in the mundane of drinking coffee. While we do not always get to choose what things in life will happen to us, we do get to choose what we allow our minds to settle on when life happens to us. Often we do get to choose at least some of how our life will work out, but sometimes the junk of life forces its way uninvited in our lives, and we have to deal with it. But even then, we still have a choice about how we will we think about and respond the hard times. We can choose what thoughts we allow to have time and influence in our hearts and minds. We always have the choice of how to think, yet this can be admittedly difficult, replacing unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones. We choose how we frame the stuff of life with our thoughts. But how do we change our thoughts? We’ll come back to that in tomorrow’s post.

For now, let’s dwell on the wisdom the Teacher gives us through illustrations of how to have a joyous attitude about life. Dress up or dress nicely. Wear perfume. Smell good. Express your joy! This reminds me of the people during quarantine who dressed up to take their garbage out to the road on trash pick-up day! We can have joy even in the mundane.

Likewise, enjoy your spouse. The Teacher encourages a joyful pursuit of healthy marriage. Let’s admit it, the fact that you love your spouse can get lost in the minutia of life, of work, of the house, of bills, of laundry, dishes, kids, and on and on it goes. But the Teacher jumps right into the middle of our family lives reminding us to love one another in our family, and to love in a way that it shows.

Why the Teacher in Ecclesiastes wasn’t concerned about heaven or hell – Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:10, Part 3

If you’ve been following this blog series in Ecclesiastes, you have probably noticed that the topic of death has come up…a lot. So what does the Teacher (the writer of Ecclesiastes) believe about the afterlife?

Notice what the Teacher says at the end of verse 4:

Dorsey’s Translation: “But even a live dog is better off than a dead lion! 5 For the living know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They can derive no more benefit from this life; even the memory of them fades away. 6 Their love, their hate, and their zeal have already come to an end. They will never again take part in anything that happens in this life.”

The Teacher’s message here is simple: “To be alive is better than death.” The Teacher points out what might at first seem obvious: when you’re gone, you are no longer an active participant in life. Worse, you will likely be forgotten.

At this point, if you’re like me, you might be thinking, “This sounds very dark, as if there is nothing after death. Why doesn’t he talk about heaven? You’d think he would say that after you die, you have the hope and joy of heaven where there will be no sorrow, no tears and no pain.” Frankly, we don’t know what the Teacher believed about our typical Christian view of afterlife, heaven, hell. He simply doesn’t refer to anything like that. It seems, instead, he seems to be trying to make a different point altogether.

What the Teacher suggests is that we would be wise to focus on living life in the here and now. Why? When we’re dead and gone, we are no longer able to have any benefit from or impact on the here and now.

That is a critical point: The Teacher wants his readers not to despair about the uncertain future, but to remember that when they are dead they no longer have any way to impact the here and now. As a result, the Teacher is saying to his readers, to people like you and I who are alive now, “Rather than speculate about the unknowable future, because you are in the now, focus on how you live now.” And that begs the question, “How are we supposed to live now?” If we aren’t supposed to succumb to worry about the future, what should our outlook on life be? Again, the Teacher is ready with more wisdom for us, and we’ll see what he has to say in the next post.

God has you in his hands? (Is that just Christian mumbo-jumbo?) – Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:10, Part 2

What do you think about the title of this post? God has you in his hands. Christians have been saying that kind of thing for centuries. Is it true? Or is just Christian mumbo-jumbo, feel-good nonsense? As we continue our study in Ecclesiastes, the Teacher (the writer of Ecclesiastes) has some ancient wisdom for us, and it involves that phrase. Will he agree with the phrase? Will he disagree? He tends to have some unconventional viewpoints. What will he say about God?

First, we need to remember the context of the Teacher’s larger argument. We cannot know when we will die, the Teacher reminded us in the previous post. So why is the Teacher bringing this up? Look at what he says in chapter 9:1-4a.

Dorsey’s Translation: “9:1 I pondered and considered all of this. I concluded that even in the case of the righteous and the wise, what happens to them is in God’s hands. No one, including the wise, can know whether easy times or hard times await him. 2 All that can be known for certain is that the same fate awaits everyone—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. The same destiny awaits good people and sinners, those who take oaths and those who refuse to take them. 3 Whatever happens to people in this life, the same fate awaits them all. Whether a person’s heart is full of evil or praise while he lives, in the end he will join the dead. 4 Anyone who is still among the living can be sure of this one thing.”

We’ve heard this from the Teacher before, haven’t we? Look at verse 3: We will all die. Just saying that makes me think, “Geesh, this is depressing stuff, Teacher. Why do you have to harp on death over and over again?” But remember that this entire section from the middle of chapter seven through the end of chapter ten is advice for living wisely. So what is the wise advice is these dark words? It just seems like a cold, depressing view of harsh reality. Is there any wisdom here? The Teacher’s advice here is that we need to face the hard truth of our mortality. We cannot know when we will die, but we need to come to grips with the fact that one day we will die.

Yet ours is a world that wants to avoid death. I don’t blame anyone who thinks that you would like to avoid death, or that you don’t want to talk about death. I am not a fan of death. I often lament the fact that my hair is getting grayer, that my body has more aches and pains than it did ten years ago. I wish I didn’t have those constant reminders of the aging process, of the fact that I will die.

Still the Teacher is right. It doesn’t matter who you are, you will die. But that’s not all he said. Did you notice verse 9:1, the phrase in bold above: “What happens to them is in God’s hands.”?

We are not alone! God is living and active, and very involved in our lives. Read that again: God is living and active and very involved in our lives.

Do you hear that and think, “Yeah, that’s the standard Christian view. I’ve heard it a million times. But it doesn’t seem like God is involved in my life.” We don’t have to look hard in 2020 and the unsettling question rises to the surface of our hearts and minds, “Where are you, God?”

Oftentimes at the heart of some of our fears is the thought that we might be alone, not cared for, unheard, or misunderstood. But when we have knowledge of and experience of God’s involvement in our lives, the uncertainties of this life might not grip us quite so much. Here’s the thing: we can know God’s involvement in our lives. That’s why the Teacher’s reminder here is so important: God is with us. He is FOR us. He adores us. He is not surprised by anything in this life. He didn’t make all the bad things happen. He is a good God and will only do good; he has no part of evil. He is not surprised by the difficulty and evil in the world, and he has not left any of us alone.

If the fact of your death freaks you out, as it does me, know that God is able to handle it. He has you in his hands. Clearly God doesn’t have physical hands that he is actually holding you in. When the Teacher says that God has you in his hands, the Teacher is using figurative language to say that “God is all knowing, all powerful, all present, and all loving. He is infinitely able to take care you, and he wants to take care of you.” We need not become hopeless about death or about anything that might lead to death because of the way God showed his love for us in Jesus. Through his life, death and resurrection, Jesus made it possible for us to have forgiveness of our sins, for us to be in right relationship to God, and thus to have assurance of abundant life now and eternal life after death. If you don’t know that assurance, I would love to talk further with you.

That assurance of abundant life and eternal life doesn’t mean you won’t feel hopeless or defeated from time to time because of the difficulties of life that. It is natural to feel down when life is hard, but you don’t need to get stuck there. Refocus on who our God is and the very active role he wants to play in your heart, your thoughts, your attitudes, your choices, your life–all for your good!

The Uberman Sleep Cycle, Time Travel, and figuring out God’s Plan – Ecclesiastes 8:16-9:10, Part 1

A couple weeks ago I sent a church-wide email with resources for tending to our mental health. I had received it from Messiah University, and I adapted it for our church. I sent it along because God cares about our mental health. I heard back from a number of people expressing their thanks because 2020 has taken its toll on many of us. We hear Jesus say to us, as he does in John 10:10, “I have come that you might have life abundantly,” and many of us are thinking, “Jesus, I hear you, but this madness of 2020 has thrown me for a loop.” We might not feel like life is abundant or joyful. Or that it is not as joyful as it could be.

Thankfully, there is hope! In our study through Ecclesiastes, for the last few weeks we’ve been in a long section of advice for wise living. It runs from Ecclesiastes 7:15 through the end of chapter 10. This week we are studying 8:16-9:10, where the Teacher, the writer of Ecclesiastes, has advice for wise living that has some great teaching about joy when life is difficult.

My seminary OT professor Dave Dorsey translates it this way: “16 When I sought to become wise and to understand what goes on in this world, I realized that even if a person were to stay awake day and night, 17 he would never be able to know God’s plan. No human being can comprehend it. Despite all his best efforts, a person cannot discover it. A wise man may claim to know it, but he doesn’t.”

The Teacher’s comment in verse 16, about staying awake all the time, reminds me of an episode of Seinfeld in which Kramer had been reading a book about Leonardo da Vinci. The book claimed that da Vinci practiced something called Polyphasic sleeping. It’s real thing, and my guess is that a lot of you are Polyphasic sleepers. I basically am, though not on purpose, as Michelle will tell you. What is Polyphasic sleeping? It is contrasted to monophasic sleeping which is getting all your sleep in one period of sleeping per day. Then there is Biphasic sleeping, which is when you have two sleep periods per day. Polyphasic sleeping is when you spread out your sleep over more than two periods per day. Anyone do that? Lots of naps! Or maybe like me, with the ability to fall asleep on the sofa pretty much whatever time of day it is?

While it is not certain, there is some evidence that Da Vinci might have practiced an extreme version of polyphasic sleeping called the Uberman Sleep Cycle, which is taking six 20 minute naps equally spread out over your day, giving you a lot more time to be productive, especially in the quiet hours of the middle of the night when everyone else is sleeping. In the Seinfeld episode, Kramer begins to follow this sleeping plan. Kramer excitedly tells Jerry, “That works out to two and a half extra days that I’m awake per week, every week. Which means if I live to be 80, I will have lived the equivalent of 105 years.” While this isn’t being awake all the time, like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes describes, the Uberman Sleep Cycle certainly would give a person a lot more time to try to figure out God’s plan!

It doesn’t go so well for Kramer, who ends up falling asleep all the time, everywhere, and hilarity ensues. It also doesn’t go so well for the Teacher in Ecclesiastes. The Teacher says that even if we could stay up day and night all the time, never sleeping, wracking our brains to figure out the world, even then we would not be able to discover God’s plan. No one, not even the wisest people can claim to know God’s plan.

What plan is the Teacher talking about? You and I might think, “Wait… Don’t we kinda know God’s plan?” Yes, we know the larger story that we read about in the Bible: the Creation of Humanity, the Fall of Humanity, the Redemption of Humanity, and what will happen one day in the future, the Consummation of all things. The big piece of that story is the Redemption piece. First God brought redemption primarily through the family of Abraham and the nation of Israel, through whom he promised to bring blessing to the whole world. With the exception of a few great leaders like Moses, Joshua and David, that plan didn’t work out. Israel did not live out their God-given mission to be a blessing to the whole world. So God brought global redemption through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, followed by his Spirit living with and empowering his church. This is the part of the story that we still live, the Redemption story, and we play a part in it. We know all this plan.

So there is a sense in which we can say to the Teacher, “Teacher, things have developed quite a bit since you wrote your book,” and I believe the Teacher would be genuinely surprised and amazed, especially hearing about Jesus, the promised Messiah, the Savior, and the Holy Spirit. But then after hearing us talk about Jesus and the Spirit, I think the conversation would go quiet for a moment, as we waited for the Teacher to respond. Would he say, “Ok, you’re right, a lot has developed in the last few thousand years, and now I need to go back and write the Revised Edition of Ecclesiastes.”?

I don’t think he would say that. I don’t think the Teacher needs to update his book. In fact, I think the Teacher, though he would be extremely excited to hear about Jesus, the Teacher would say, “What I’ve written here in chapter 8, verses 16-17, still holds true. The plan we don’t know about and will never know about, is the timing of our future. We do not know when we will die.”

That’s true. Also, there are other parts of God’s plan that we do not know. For example, Christians through the years have tried to figure out when Jesus will return. They have claimed to be able to read the signs of the times, or to have a unique interpretation of the Bible, or some will go so far as to say that God himself told them when Jesus will return. They’ve all been wrong. Jesus agreed with the Teacher of Ecclesiastes, when Jesus taught, “No one knows the day, time or hour” of his return.

We have to admit that we simply don’t know some parts of God’s plan. And that lack of knowing can make us uneasy. We want to know!

I am fascinated by the concept of time travel. Think about how many books, movies and TV shows feature time travel. What about you? Would you go forward or backwards in time? Which time would you travel to? To the time of Jesus? There’s no doubt it would be astounding to be there as Jesus walked and taught and did miracles. It also might be frustrating, though, because most of us don’t know the language Jesus spoke, Aramaic! Before I get too far off topic, think with me about this question: why is time travel such an intriguing concept? I think time travel taps into our uneasiness with not knowing the future, our struggle with not being able to control that part of life. We want control! We want to feel the certainty of knowledge. Or at least we think we’ll feel better if we know how things turn out. But would we feel better?

As far back as Shakespeare’s MacBeth, people were speculating that if we knew the future it would ruin us. This fascination we have with wanting to know the future just might reveal a deep discontent inside us. We think that if we could go back in time, we could fix mistakes, or avoid pain. And we think that if we could travel to the future, or maybe know the future, such as the day of our death, we could avoid it. But this is not possible, the Teacher reminds us. So what we can do? The Teacher is a step ahead of us. Check back in for tomorrow’s post as the Teacher guides to ancient wisdom.

How to have and express joy in the difficulties of 2020 – Ecclesiastes 8:9-15, Part 3

It can seem almost wrong to say that we should have joy in 2020. This year has been a nonstop slog of hardship. And yet, in the previous post we learned that God is and always will be actively involved in the world. As a result, it makes perfect sense how the Teacher concludes this section of Ecclesiastes 8. Look at verse 15.

Dorsey translates it this way: “So I recommend the enjoyment of life. The best thing a person can do in this life is to eat and drink and be joyful. Let joy accompany him in his work all the days of life that God has given him to live in this world.”

Isn’t that wonderful? Despite the fact that the Teacher has seen injustice, he recommends joy. Why? Because God is still and always will be God, victorious in the end, and deeply involved in the here and now. So let us rejoice!

Election didn’t turn out how you hoped? Rejoice that the one true King Jesus has been, is, and always will be on the throne that one throne that always matters most.

Pandemic have you angry? Rejoice that God is our God, and he is faithful, even in the midst of a global health crisis.

Injustice have you upset? Work to right the injustice, and rejoice in the victory we have in Jesus.

Natural disasters have you scratching your head about what this world is coming to? Work joyfully to help those suffering through loss, giving cheerfully and generously to causes supporting recovery.

Let joy accompany you all the days of your life. This is not saying that you need to be happy about the negative and painful things in the world. It does not mean that you don’t feel hurt, upset or disappointed, but joy in the Lord is your deep and strong foundation. Joy means that your trust in God, in the middle of the pain, moves you to have hope, to have a positive outlook.

Remember the student I told you about in the first post? When I graded her paper, you know how I responded: “Awesome paper.” Here’s why. She finished by saying something that was very meaningful:

“It’s easy to think about how much better our situation would be if this pandemic had never happened, making our lives feel unimportant and mundane. According to Christ, the little things that we’re doing are the most important of all. The sacrifices that we are making during this time are serving others to make their lives better, just like He did for us. Reading this passage in Mark really helped me look at the current events going on with this pandemic in a different perspective, and I really think reading the Gospel of Mark and its message of serving others could be helpful for other believers during these difficult times.”

Do you hear the joy in that? A Christ-focused life can experience joy in the midst of pain. Pain in relationships, pain from injustices, pain at the workplace, pain in dealing with personal struggles, etc. There is a deep foundation of joy that is available in the midst of great difficulty, when we have a God-focused mindset that wants to serve sacrificially like Jesus did.

Therefore I would recommend that you start like the Teacher in Ecclesiastes starts, by expressing your pain to God. Use the psalms of lament. Those are the psalms that are basically bitter complaints to God, sometimes even accusing God of not doing the job that God is supposed to do. They are bold! But God wants you to come to him with your pain and your frustration, even if it is about him, questioning, “How long, O Lord, will you hide your face from me?” Yes, you can say that to him, and I think you should. Here’s a guided lament you can use.

Then move on to the remembrance of who God is, just as the Teacher does. His faithfulness in the past, he promises kept, his provision. His amazing love and forgiveness in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. His Spirit who lives in us and wants to fill us with his love. Let that truth fill you with joy!

Finally, serve the Lord joyfully. How are you serving? Work to right injustice, with joy. Work to help others, with joy. Lift up the hurting. Joyfully tell the good news of hope in Jesus, the one who brings new life, who makes all things new. Joyfully make disciples.

What to remember when life seems unfair or hopeless – Ecclesiastes 8:9-15, Part 2

Sometimes life DOES seem hopeless. How do we live wisely then?

This week on the blog, we’re studying Ecclesiastes 8:9-15, and yesterday we saw how the Teacher (the writer of Ecclesiastes) suggests that life can be so unfair.

Let’s follow the Teacher’s logic:

Here are verses 12-14 in Dorsey’s translation: “12 Nevertheless, although a wicked man commits a hundred crimes and still lives a long time, I know that in the end it will go better for those who respect and obey God, who live obediently before him. 13 And the wicked person who does not live obediently before God, in the end it will not go well for him, and his days will not lengthen like a shadow. 14 The travesties of justice in this world are only temporary and ultimately inconsequential—for example, when righteous people get what the wicked deserve, and when wicked people get what the righteous deserve. But I saw that such travesties are only temporary and ultimately inconsequential.”

The Teacher is saying in verses 12-14 that, though we can see injustice and unfairness in the world, let us not dissolve into hopelessness. Instead, let us remember, “that God will right all wrongs.” In other words, the pursuit of righteousness is still right. The way of Jesus is still the best way.

Yes, there are injustices in the world. That is obvious. And we should work with God, seeking to right those injustices as much as possible in the here and now. But the Teacher reminds that the ultimate and final righting of all injustice will not occur until the day of God’s choosing.

So while we work to bring the Kingdom of God now, sharing the Gospel in word and deed, even as we see persistent injustice, we press on in hope because we know that one day God will reign victorious. That means we need not fear. With God’s love and grace pouring from our hearts, we strive to usher in the Kingdom now.

No, our work to usher in the Kingdom will not bring the Kingdom in its fullness. Instead we are like an advance, a precursor of the Kingdom.

Furthermore, our proclamation of the good news and our work for justice is not futile. Instead it is amazing to think, and maybe even more amazing to experience, that God, in his wisdom, has chosen to use people like us to make a real difference now. When we faithfully live as disciples of Jesus who die to ourselves and follow Jesus, God can use us to impact people and society. This is the new life that the Teacher envisions in this passage, and it is the new life embodied in Jesus. There is a clear connection between Ecclesiastes and the Gospels. What the Teacher depicts we will eventually see in living color in Jesus.