Postscript

I started my study of Ecclesiastes with little knowledge of the riches that lie within this short book, and ended it with so many things to think about that I really could have written at least twice as many posts as I actually did. Once I got to know him, the awkward cousin actually turned out to be a really great guy! Of course, that should be no surprise, because God does not put superfluous words in his book (Isaiah 55:10,11)

If any of the posts in this series have spurred you to thought, or have resonated with you, or for that matter, if you haven't read any of them and think the Bible is a book that has nothing to say to you, I'd encourage you to read this little book of Ecclesiastes and meditate on the truths in it. I personally started off with the idea that it is an incredibly pessimistic look at life, and came away with more reasons for joy and a greater love for God's Holy Word than I've had in quite a while.

In fact, it strikes me as somewhat sad that it's taken me more than 30 years to really listen to this piece of the Bible. As I said in my intro, there are many things in this book that are a little tricky to understand at first glance, so I suppose it's kind of understandable that it's not the first book preachers choose to preach through, not the book chosen for a small group Bible study, not the natural option for some easy, uplifting personal study. But, like the rest of Scripture, it IS a book with infinite value, and over the course of the month or so that I spent in it (along with an extra several weeks of thinking and writing), it has quickly become one of my favourite books. So why not consider it for a sermon series or a Bible study? Why not read it through in one sitting, a few days in a row (it's pretty short)?

And then, once you've marinated in Ecclesiastes for a little while, consider reading Death By Livingby N.D. Wilson, a book that seems to be largely inspired by Ecclesiastes. I highly, highly recommend this book on living in light of death. You'll laugh; you'll cry; you'll be encouraged to savour the moments of your toil, and die having given your all.

Dealing With the Awkward Cousin (Meditations on Ecclesiastes)

Solomon must have been an interesting guy. Of the 3 Old Testament books attributed to him, there's exactly 1 we're all pretty comfortable with... Proverbs, brilliant book of timeless wisdom and insight into human life and nature. But then there are those other two, the ones about which we may be tempted to wonder how they ever made it into the Bible. We've got Song of Solomon on the one hand, a very personal poem about love, sex and physical beauty. And then on the other hand, there's Ecclesiastes, a book about the apparent meaninglessness of life. At face value, it's an pretty pessimistic look at reality, and one that for most of my life, I have to admit, I've always been a little puzzled by. In fact, while it's certainly not universal (my husband and brother-in-law both count Ecclesiastes as very instrumental in their coming to follow Jesus), my guess is that many of us struggle with the existence of this little book. Maybe it's because there are parts of it that seem to contradict other parts of the Bible. Maybe it's because of the continual refrain that everything under the sun is futile, which seems just a little negative for a book inspired by God. For me, I think the most troubling thing about the thoughts in Ecclesiastes is that there are so many questions in it that really resonate with me when life is difficult, and this makes me exceedingly uncomfortable because these are very questions I feel guilty about asking, the ones I would never dare to approach God with.

But whatever I may feel about it, Ecclesiastes IS part of God's holy word, so I can't just ignore it. If this book belongs to God's revelation of himself to us, than I cannot just shut it up in the closet, like that awkward cousin at the family reunion that everyone just pretends doesn't exist. If it is God's word to me, than it has important things to say, and I shut my ears at my own peril.

So, all that being said, I recently decided it was time to really dig into this book, even if it makes me squirm. And what I'm finding as I read and study it is that, just as in all Scripture, there is much wealth to be mined here, things I wish I had had a better grasp of long before now. So over the next few weeks, I plan to post a few meditations on this troubling, puzzling, abundantly rich Old Testament book. If you want to study further, there are some good commentaries out there. The main ones I'm using are both accessible to lay people:

The Message of Ecclesiastes by Derek Kidner (not technical at all)
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon by Duane A. Garrett (more detailed, technicalities mostly limited to footnotes)

These commentaries come to the book from slightly different points of view, so they are helpful together.

Stay tuned to help me deal with that awkward cousin!

Glorious Work

"So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
     male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them,“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth...” When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground—then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature... The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it... Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field." (Genesis 1:27-28, 2:5-7,15,19-20a)

I spend a lot of time reading the New Testament, but whenever I go back and read the Old Testament, I consistently find amazing ideas that I've never caught before. This morning was no exception. I've read the account of the creation of man dozens of times, but today, I was particularly struck by all the details here in relation to man's* work. It's a common misconception that work is a result of the Fall, that man is cursed to work because he sinned. But work is actually something humans are given to do when they are first created. The curse turned work into drudgery and toil, slavish labour for the mere necessities of life. But before sin was ever in the world, humans were created to work. 

And what is the nature of the work they are given? They are given the work of ruling creation, of kingship ("dominion") over all that God has made. It is a kingship under the authority and empire of the Creator, but it is kingship nonetheless. And as if that weren't enough, humans are not only given this role as some sort of afterthought--"Oh, these creatures I've made should be put to use." This ruling role is so essential to the proper running of creation that God doesn't allow the plants in the garden to spring up until there is a man to care for them. I'm pretty sure God could have cared for those plants Himself, but in His love for the man He has created in His own image, and in His incredible humility, He plans to bestow this kingly work on man instead. And to show the extent of man's rule, He does something that to me is shocking and glorious all at the same time. Adam gets to name all the animals! Do you get that? God creates a series of masterpieces, each one carefully fashioned by His creative and powerful word, and then He gives them to Adam and says, "Here! You tell me what my artwork should be called!" What indescribable honour!

Yes, it now involves weeds, drought, blood, sweat and tears, but we are still given the glorious and weighty task of ruling the earth, until the day when Christ returns and we rule with him over all the nations. What joy that brings to my labour today as I seek to rule under God as queen of my little sphere and hope in the promise of a new heavens and new earth where we will reign with Him and our honourable, hearty work will no longer involve resistance or drudgery.  


*I use "man" here, and throughout the post in the generic. This applies to both men and women.

When He Appears

How do people change? If you're at all like me, your default "biblical" answer probably sounds something like, "They need to recognize their sin, see that it's not what God wants for them, throw in a few earthly consequences or rewards for good measure, and then try really hard, with lots of prayer, and of course, reliance on the Spirit." Now you might not actually say it quite like that. But that's how we often practise it in real life. A typical lecture for the kid who just yelled nasty insults at her brother because he didn't want to play the game exactly how she wanted it: "Dear daughter, you are being very rude and angry with your brother. But don't you know that God wants you to be kind? And if you keep yelling at him like that, he'll never want to play with you again. You don't want that, do you? Now stop trying to take control, and remember, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!" Of course, maybe that only happens at my house. But I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm not the only one! And don't we lecture ourselves that way about our sin, as well? "I'm really envious of her nice house, and I know the Bible tells me that envy is sinful. And I don't want it to get in the way of my friendship with her. I really need to work on being content with what I have. Lord, make me content!" Have you ever noticed that this usually doesn't get you very far in your struggles with sin (or your kids' struggles with sin)?

Of all the messages at The Gospel Coalition conference, the one that impacted me the most was Elyse Fitzpatrick's workshop on "Counsel From the Cross". She was speaking about counseling ourselves and others primarily with the gospel--the life, death and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf--as the focal point, rather than counseling based primarily on a series of practical steps or pop psychology. If you're not sure what that looks like, I highly recommend you listen to the message when it's posted on the Gospel Coalition website--I'm not going to try to recap her entire one-hour talk in one blog post (thank me later!). Now I was already familiar with a more gospel-centred counseling approach, though the workshop was helpful in clarifying for me a little more of what that looks like. But the thing that stuck out to me the most from her talk was one little word: "because".

I've always been encouraged by the hope of 1 John 3:2,3:  "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure."

What I'd always loved about it was the idea that we will be like Jesus when He appears. But until that conference session, I had never noticed the word "because" in that verse. WHY will we be like Jesus when he appears? BECAUSE we shall see Him as He is! I think I've always assumed that when we get to heaven, we won't sin because God will just miraculously wipe our sin away. And in a sense, that is true. But as Elyse Fitzpatrick explained, the means of our leaving sin forever behind will be seeing Jesus in all of His glory. When the veil is fully and finally removed and we see Him face to face in all of His splendour, His glory will so eclipse the paltry attractions of temporal things, and will make sin, by contrast, to appear as it really is--disgusting, vile, offensive, an afront to holiness--that we will never want those things again. We will be unable to sin, because we will see Him as He is, in all of His glory. And anyone who has that future hope, purifies himself as he beholds Christ's purity now in the pages of Scripture. The greatest means of true change is not making lists of our sins, observing what others are doing to walk in godliness, studying the law, or going into tempting situations with good intentions of avoiding sin (though these things can be helpful to a degree). The greatest means of true change is looking at the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as it is revealed to us in the Bible. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says the same thing as 1 John 3:2, only in the present tense: "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." How are we transformed little by little, degree by degree, into His likeness? By beholding His glory!

We all struggle with sins of various kinds. But as we fight these sins, are we arming ourselves merely with a list of practical things we can do? Are we focused on ourselves, on how we're performing? Or are we poring over the Scriptures, seeking to see more of God, of His character, of His mercy to us in the cross, of His glory in all of this? Do we come to His word expecting to get some helpful hints for our lives, or do we come longing and expecting to see HIM? Are we praying, not just that we might live holier lives, but that He might reveal more of HIS holiness to us? And as we counsel our spouses, or children, or friends, are we just telling them what we would do, or are we holding up Christ and what He has done?

I realize that if you're in my small group, this is now the third time you've heard me say this in one week! And if you're not in my small group, but you are in my church, it's the second time. But it bears repeating, because I need it drilled into my head, and you probably do, too! It's not all about me; it's about Him. And so I need to daily remind myself to be beholding Christ, to be seeing more of Him, and less of me. I'm still working through all the implications of that for my parenting, for my friendships, and for my own walk with the Lord. My guess is that it will take me a lifetime. But I know that when He appears, I will be like Him, because I shall see Him as He is! So with that hope in mind, I want to spend the rest of my earthly life seeing as much of Him as I possibly can.

What Do You Expect?

I don't know about you, but I don't expect much from God. I am the master of negativity when it comes to my expectations about what God can and will do. It's not that I don't expect anything; rather, I actually expect to be disappointed, frustrated, bored, ineffective and weary. I might not say so, but my actions and reactions betray my real expectations. This is often true in my devotional time. I'll sit down with my Bible one morning after many days of not getting my devotions in before the kids wake up, and my attitude is one of "Well, it might be quiet now, but I'll just bet God only lets me have 5 minutes before Susanna comes bolting in here, so I might as well not try to read anything deep or difficult." Or lately, I've been working my way through the Old Testament, and there are many mornings when the chapter(s) for the day is(are) filled with genealogical information, or accounts of which tribe got which cities in the Promised Land. And as I notice that this is what I'll be reading for the day, the thought is that I'm about to be bored out of my mind. "Oh, yippee. Get to read a list of cities I can't pronounce. I'm gonna get a whole lot out of this one. Maybe I should just skip these chapters."

What does this say about my view of God? Well, he's little, and just about powerless, and not too interested in my daily life or thoughts. I don't like to say it, but if I really examine the beliefs that inform the way I live much of the time, that would be them.

Last week, as I was reading through Joshua, I came to the account of the crossing of the Jordan. You know, the one where the priests step in to the Jordan with the ark, and the river suddenly stops flowing and forms a wall of water all the way back at the city of Adam, and so the people cross over on dry land, and go on their merry way, and blah, blah, blah. Heard that one a hundred times. Wait, what? The river did what? Can you imagine being a citizen of Adam, and you're just going about your business, washing dishes in your kitchen and you look out the window like you might any other day, and... what in the world? There is a wall of water out there where there used to be a river. You'd probably freak out. I mean, that just doesn't happen every day. In fact, I only know of two times it did. This is a completely unnatural, extraordinary event. And who brought it about? That puny, powerless god of my own imagination? NO! The Almighty, All Powerful, All Glorious, All Sovereign All Righteous, Incredibly Creative God of the Bible! I come to a God who can stop a river in its tracks, and on top of that, made Himself into a man and died to save me, and all I expect from Him is 30 minutes of boredom and an ineffective, disappointing rest of the day? I must be crazy!

So lately, when I sit down to read the Bible, before I read anything or get any stupid ideas about certain passages being boring and worthless, I start with asking God to make me expectant, not of disappointment, but of all the wonderful things in His Word, things that the Holy Spirit can teach me even through genealogies. And reading with eyes looking out for God to work, I'm amazed at things that I learn from a passage that is primarily a description of land distribution!