A Somewhat Inconvenient Truth

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon teaches us that much of our striving is as useless as trying to "shepherd the wind."  Here is a favorite passage from Jeff Meyers' commentary on Ecclesiastes, A Table in the Mist:

In spite of life's vaporous nature, God can be trusted.  God and life can be enjoyed despite the fact that life cannot be mastered, leveraged, or even fully comprehended by man.  Solomon uses the word hebel as a description of the enigmatic, mysterious, intractable character of life under the sun for man - even for the Christian man!  Faith recognizes this and, in the face of it, moves forward to claim and enjoy the life and work and happiness that God apportions as gifts to man.

Realizing this can help you deal with life in a  way that honors God.  For example, do not be surprised to find yourself in a frustrating situation from which you cannot escape by means of controlling it.  Not everything can be fixed!  Not everything is a problem to be solved.  Some things must be borne, must be suffered and endured.  Wisdom does not teach us how to master the world.  It does not give us techniques for programming life such that life becomes orderly and predictable. 

In fact, trying to gain a wisdom that will give you control may make you worse off.  It is precisely the task, the work, the endeavor, the toil of mastering life that is  vapor - a chasing after dust devils!  Instead of gaining leverage, you will only add to your frustration.  Solomon carries out a direct frontal assault on the very idea that humanity is able to leverage creation for his own purposes, to wrestle order out of God's inscrutable ways.  Wisdom - real biblical wisdom - is not the art of steering or programming the world according to man's purposes.  Wisdom does not advise man to search for order or to attempt to master life.  Under the sun, one cannot know, one cannot predict, one cannot trace causal connections.  Who knows why things happen?  Often, trying to figure it out is simply chasing after the wind as if we can catch and contain it.  One can only hope and believe.  Rejoice in what God has given you to do and trust in him.  This is the perspective of faith.

What's That Stench? Part 1: Even the Righteous Man Sins

The pastors and teachers with whom the Lord has graciously gifted His people, have long recognized Noah's Ark as a symbol of The Church. By faith, we, like Noah, enter that door and are closed safely inside as we pass through the waters to deliverance. Thanks be to God.

But think about it for a moment. For Noah and company, what must it have been like to be shut up for months with a host of animals and with one another, with no escape or respite? Imagine the constant labor to meet all the needs, and then...imagine the stench that must have permeated the place!

So it is inside the ark of The Church. Here we are...shut up together and forced to endure the resulting stench! Remember all those OT references to bodily "issues" which make a man unclean? Ultimately these laws teach us that whatever comes from within a man - that is, from his heart - is unclean. Just as the sight and smell of those bodily issues are repulsive, so is the uncleanness which proceeds from our hearts.

When we consider that individual reality, then multiply it for every occupant of this ship, we have a sense of the corporate, cumulative effect inside the Ark/Church...and it can be staggeringly disgusting.

But wait! Hasn't the one who has been received into the Church been washed and made clean? Has not his heart been transformed and renewed? Indeed it has! But remember that even our righteous deeds are like filthy rags and King Solomon tells us that one of the great mysteries of life is that even the man who has been made righteous, sins!

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon speaks of this mystery as one of the great unsolvable dilemmas of life under the sun. "You cannot find it out." In our desperate struggle to understand this enigma, we will be as frustrated as if we were attempting to "corral the wind". Pastor Jeff Meyers, in his commentary on Ecclesiastes, says this, "Like Solomon, the wise person knows the depravity of man - both his own and others - and learns to live in terms of it. That is the sort of know-how that wisdom brings: the ability to live in a world of sinners, but living in such a world is not the same as being able to explain or comprehend sinful human nature. Even those known as righteous will sin. On some occasions, a righteous man will fail. We cannot afford to forget that there are limitations on all men and women. No one is perfectly wise. All sin.

"The wise man has discovered the ineradicable sinfulness of man and he has learned to deal with people in the light of this truth. Too often, we live in a dream world. We are surprised to discover that someone we love and respect is a sinner. He or she fails us. It may be our husband or wife, our elder or pastor, our good friend or neighbor. Sooner or later you will discover that he, like you, is a sinner. He will fail you. He will surprise you." (Table in the Mist, J.J. Meyers)
In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer also reminds us: "The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and from the fellowship. We dare not be sinners. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous." Upon entering the Christian community, he says, "we surely must be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. The sooner this shock of disillusionment comes to an individual and to a community, the better."
So...what IS that stench? It's you and me, living side-by-side, sinning in front of and against one another and stinkin' up the place. We might as well get used to it. But HOW do we learn to live in that reality without being continually discouraged and disappointed by the paltry Image of Christ in our brothers? How do we live with the disillusionment and pain caused by these sinners among us?
Next time...

A Table in the Mist II

"God," we are told in I Kings 4, "gave Solomon wisdom and understanding beyond measure, and breadth of mind like the sand of the seashore...he was wiser than all other men..."

I confess I have often been puzzled when reading Ecclesiastes under some of the common interpretive models. A Table in the Mist provides a great service to the people of God who want to hear, and maybe even understand, God's message as delivered through Solomon. Here is what I gleaned from the Shepherd-King, Solomon, under the tutelage of under-shepherd, Pastor Jeff Meyers.

1. We are not in control.

Who among us doesn't already know this...philosophically? One of the great tenants of the Reformed faith, to which we proudly cling, is the Sovereignty of God. Although I acknowledge his control in daily life as well as in death or great calamity, my expectations and disappointments in matters of smaller import reveal that I really believe some things are in MY hand.

But the truth is, no matter how hard I work, or to what noble ends, this work is eventually left to another and I have no control over what happens to it. It may be discarded, squandered, misused, misunderstood, dismantled, ignored or even used against me.

I cannot always "fix" that which is broken and continual efforts to do so, with the expectation that my efforts must be fruitful, is as frustrating as trying to corral the wind.

Solomon's conclusion: DO IT ANYWAY, leaving the outcome in God's hand.

2. Life doesn't always make sense.

The young die. The wicked prosper and are happy. Justice is withheld. Rulers oppress the lowly. Children are abused. The righteous man sins.

Bottom line: we live under a curse and frequently experience life as judgment, injustice and death. Life is beyond our ability to comprehend. We cannot make sense of circumstances, events, people, even our own selves! Mankind is mysterious and depraved..."bent hnau" (as Lewis brilliantly tags us) and that which is crooked cannot be made straight. Solomon tells us repeatedly that "you do not know" and "you cannot find it out." No matter how diligently we seek to bring about change or to understand life, it will elude us.

Solomon's conclusion: DO IT ANYWAY, looking to God for final and faithful judgments.

3. The wisdom we do acquire along the way is limited and vulnerable.

Any measure of success - money, notoriety, influence, faithful children, etc. - can dissipate in a moment. Even wisdom itself is easily overcome by folly. No matter how healthy, wealthy or wise you are; no matter how hard you work; no matter how heartily you seek for and gain wisdom; it is all easily destroyed by another man's sin or even your own sin or death.

Solomon's conclusion: DO IT ANYWAY, giving generously of your time, love, money and wisdom while you have it.

In his long and diligent search to know what is good for man, Solomon's ultimate conclusion is this:

1. Fear, trust and rest in God.

2. Work vigorously.

3. Enjoy and share His good gifts (food, wine, love & laughter).

This great oversimplification of Ecclesiastes (mine, not JJM's), represents the truths and conclusions which I hope will transform my own heart.

'Course He Isn't Safe

The following excerpt from A Table in the Mist, reminded me of a favorite passage from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which follows it.

"God cannot be manipulated by our behavior. He is not to be coddled or possessed or used. He is to be feared....God is not safe. He is not manageable. His ways are not your ways, his thoughts not your thoughts. He does not follow your rationalizations.

"...It is important to realize that fear means fear. Even though it is reverential fear and even though you also love and trust God, you may not evacuate the word 'fear' of the element of terror, trepidation, alarm, or dread. You cannot collapse fear into faith or love. Fear is a crucial element of the believer's personal response to the living God.

"...Subtract fear from a Christian's response to God and what remains is a faithless Christian."

"Who is Aslan?" asked Susan.

"Aslan?" said Mr Beaver. "Why, don't you know? He's the King. He's the Lord of the whole wood, but not often here, you understand...He is in Narnia at this moment. He'll settle the White Queen all right..."

"She won't turn him into stone too?" said Edmund.

"Lord love you, Son of Adam, what a simple thing to say!" answered Mr Beaver with a great laugh. "Turn him into stone? If she can stand on her two feet and look him in the face it'll be the most she can do and more than I can expect of her. No, no. He'll put all to rights as it says in an old rhyme in these parts:

Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight,

At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more,

When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,

And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.

"You'll understand when you see him...I'm to lead you where you shall meet him."

"Is - is he a man?" asked Lucy.

"Aslan a man!" said Mr Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emporer-beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of the Beasts? Aslan is a lion - the Lion, the great Lion."

"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

"...they shall seek me diligently, but they shall not find me, because they did not choose the fear of Yahweh...their waywardness shall kill them and their complacency shall destroy them. But he who listens to me shall live securely, and shall be at ease from the dread of evil." Proverbs 1: 28-33

A Table in the Mist I

Control, leverage, insight into acts of Providence...none of these are gained by the acquisition of wisdom.

As Pastor Meyers lays out early in his commentary on Ecclesiastes, "The godly wise man will humbly concede that God has hidden from us almost everything we should like to know about his providential purposes...The wise man learns to walk by faith and not by sight. Ecclesiastes is the book about faith in the Old Testament. It tells us how a man of faith looks at the world."

Pastor Meyers demonstrates the significance of these opening words; "The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem." Hereby the words of Ecclesiastes are commended to us as pastoral words from Solomon in fulfillment of his office as shepherd king of Israel. Solomon lays out for us the Christian's proper perspective on life: "Enjoy God's gifts of life while fearing him and keeping his commandments. God is in control. He will bring everything to a fitting and just conclusion. Faith will be satisfied with that."

"A wise man will resonate to Solomon's frustration with the ephemeral character of life under the sun. The superficially pious man calls for positive attitudes and cheery one-dimensional slogans about life and the world, but the wise man knows better. He has experienced Solomon's theme: 'Everything is vapor.' And armed with this, therefore, the wise man is ready by faith to rule the world."