Better Off or Better?

“Seeing there be many things that increase vanity, what [is] man the better?” (Ec 6:11 AV)

How true is that?  We build to ourselves what we consider our perfect life.  Not that these things are wrong in and of themselves.  There is nothing wrong with enjoying the fruits of one’s labors.  Solomon makes that point time and again.  If we work hard, and we support the work of the LORD, and our family is well taken care of, then what harm does indulging in a few things really have?  Solomon does not advocate for poor stewardship.  Yet we don’t have to eat bread and water just to prove we are financially responsible.  The point Solomon is trying to make above is even if we were ethically and morally right in our financial decisions, and at the same time, enjoying the fruits of our labor, how are we the better for it?  We will all die and we cannot take anything with us.  If there is no God, then what point would it all make?  Are we really better people because of ethical pleasures in life?  Does mankind truly advance himself if a is successful?  He still dies.  He still dwells somewhere in eternity.  Even if there was no afterlife (and that is Solomon’s argument throughout this book) then are we really better off if we succeed?  What difference does it make?

I love that verse above.  It really sets things in perspective.  I have found a new, but brief, hobby.  I had an old computer.  It used to run on Windows Vista.  Through the years, it eventually settled on Windows 10.  That is where it topped out.  Because of battery issues, I replaced that computer with a 2-in-1.  Eight years later, I upgraded to a newer one, which will probably be my last.  But I have been sitting on this old laptop for about fifteen years.  Then a friend of mine suggested I try to install Linux.  What fun!  There were a few hiccups along the way, but it is up and running.  Now, I am installing open source software to see if it would meet my basic needs.  There isn’t sufficient Bible study software that compares to Windows and Apple, but it can be worked with.  My goal was to have a forever machine that will last until the LORD calls me home.  I won’t need much.  Bible study, word processing, and internet is about all I’ll need.  So, I figured I would learn the world of open source so when it came time to pare down, I could work with the bare minimum.

Conversely, as older people tend to muse, I chuckle at the headache my children will have when we pass away and they have to deal with the vast amount of stuff we have accumulated.  Actually, it isn’t very much.  My wife and I live pretty simple.  We do not have a home of our own.  We don’t have all the maintenance equipment required for a house.  We have only one car.  Aside from too many shoes and shirts, I think we are pretty lean.  We could fit all we have in a two-bedroom apartment with a storage area in the basement.  Not much stuff at all.  But I have seen some families that take six months to a year to divest an entire estate once their parents pass.  This is not wrong or sinful.  Praise the LORD He has prospered them through hard work and righteous living.  But the question remains.  What kind of person do we become or what eternal value does it all have?  There are righteous people among the poor as well as among the wealthy.  There are God-fearing people among the needy as well as the rich.  Solomon is trying to say that the pursuit of wealth or things that define us is a vanity.  In the end, if there is not God, it really doesn’t make a difference.  The only thing that makes a difference is the person we become by the hand of God.  God does exist.  His blessing is meant to be used for His glory.  We can certainly enjoy them.  But the eternal purpose for them is what matters.

Anticipation is Maturity

“And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,” (Pr 7:7-8 AV)

That term, ‘void of understanding’ means unable to anticipate consequences of choices.  The context is young men who are in the wrong place at the wrong time.  They fall to the whiles of a whorish woman.  They cannot project ahead to see that being on a certain corner at a certain time of day will result in a poor choice.  This type of sin is not one of rebellion.  It is one of simplicity.  The simple do not, or cannot, understand that each choice is followed by another one.  They cannot see that choices result in consequences.  This is the vast majority of the sins of younger people.  I read an article regarding a group of Senior highschool students who went to a beach for Senior Cut Day.  That is a day when the Seniors decide to cut school and hand out.  The day is not set in stone.  It is fluid.  Apparently, it got around social media that there was a gathering at a local beach.  What could go wrong?  The police had shown up because violence began to break out.  No doubt, the young and naïve went to this even with little thought of what might transpire.

Older people are not immune.  In fact, the elderly are the prime targets of electronic scams.  A commercial came on the TV and the idea was an innocent email or text message requested information and before the person knew it, everything they owned was scammed.  Another showed a criminal passing by someone at an ATM with a scanner in hand.  They could scan enough information to steal everything from the victim’s accounts.  Several years back, my wife and I were standing in line at a stadium waiting for the gates to open.  A random person walked in and out of this line and then continued in the opposite direction from which he came.  He never did get in line to enter the game.  He had a cell phone in hand with the screen on.  He was reading information.  We have all heard of the famous ‘funds from a foreign land’ email that asks for your account number so they can deposit funds to which the receiver is entitled.  Or now, we get phantom texts from different agencies stating we have overdue fines or charges that need to be paid.

Wickedness is everywhere.  We cannot be so naïve as to think there are totally safe places or situations.  There is always risk or temptation involved.  Wisdom sees risk and/or temptation in everything.  Maturity stops before it leaps.  Wisdom counts the cost.  It extrapolates.  It does not commit until everything that can be known is known.  Wisdom does its research.  It trusts nothing but God.  Maturity knows the world is full of evil and there is no place where evil is absent.  Wisdom does not hold to a high standard what can not be met.  It does not require perfection in every and all situations.  That is impossible.  What maturity does is to anticipate what could happen and put in place guards against it.  The young man above could have anticipated a whorish woman dwells in that part of town.  Or, if he must go that way, know it as a possibility and determine in his heart that he was not going to yield.  Being critical is not the same as being cynical.  Being critical will keep us from falling.  Being cynical will keep us from trying.  A bit of maturity is all we need here.  There are dangers all around.  Being ready for them is the answer.

His Right To Rule

“Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said…Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” (Job 38:1, 4 AV)

Chapter 38 begins God’s answers to Job’s musing.  Our God spends the vast majority of time proving He has the right to do as He wishes because He has created all things, by Him all things consist, and mankind cannot comprehend the scope of God’s actions.  For several chapters, the LORD commands Job to consider certain beasts, how they consist, and how they live.  He points out the celestial bodies placed by design to perform a designed purpose.  God points out the obvious in that mankind cannot fully understand how God did and does all of it, and even if mankind could affect God’s creation, it would be very minimal.  What has struck me more than once is God’s use of creation as the bases for His sovereignty.  I guess what makes it odd is His use of common things like birds, clouds, and creatures of the land as His proof.  He doesn’t argue from a metaphysical point of view or use deep theological truths.  All he asks Job is to consider what his senses observe and then give an explanation as to how it all came to be, then reproduce it, and govern it to the perfect which God did and does.  In short, God uses the manifestation of His creative and governing hand as proof that He is God and can do as He has determined to do.  He owes no one or nothing an explanation.  When mankind can duplicate the work of God to the perfection God has, then perhaps God must give an answer.

Mankind had been trying to become God for a very long time.  This is nothing new.  From the time of Egypt thousands of years before Christ’s incarnation, to our present-day scientists, somehow mankind thinks they can become gods.  It took thousands of years and a computer to match the mathematical prowess of the ancients.  The ancient Romans built structures thousands of years ago that still stand today.  Through earthquakes and volcano eruptions, these structures stand strong than modern buildings.  The pyramids, built four thousand years ago, are the oldest standing man-made structures on the planet.  The Chaldeans had an understanding of the stars that went unmatched until the modern era.  About the only area of science which modern mankind has exceeded the ancients is in the area of molecular science.  It took the invention of magnification beyond the human eye that created a field of science that had been untouched.  With each new discovery, mankind thinks he is getting closer to declaring there is no such thing as God.  Thus becoming gods themselves.  We have tried to reverse all curses placed on mankind since the Garden of Eden.  We have come close.  The last one is death.  We think that if we can master and duplicate creation, there is no longer a need for God.  If there is no longer a need for God, then we are no longer accountable to Him.  How silly!

God was trying to teach Job a lesson in intellectual humility.  Job wanted to understand why misfortune came his way.  Why did he have to bury all his children?  Why did he lose everything he had to robbers?  Why was he sitting in ashes trying to recover from boils that covered his body?  He did everything right.  When he failed God, he quickly offered sacrifices.  He even offered them for his young adult children who were living a bit loose.  Job was a man who feared God and ran from wickedness.  They why all this?  God’s answer was simple.  God did not owe Job an explanation.  God is God and Job is not.  This final, and greatest lesson Job would ever learn, is the last lesson needed for the old man.  We talk of total surrender.  We are not surrendered unless we welcome all that God causes or allows without doubting or questioning God.  If we are willing to live with tragedy and not inquire of God as to the ‘why’, we are totally surrendered.  God uses creation and His governing of it to prove He is qualified and entitled to be God.  Man has no right to expect an answer from his creator.  Period.  This is life.  This is what the Creator has determined.  He will give us answers if it pleases Him to do so.  Period!

Just A Reminder

“I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou [art] my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give [thee] the heathen [for] thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth [for] thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Ps 2:7-9 AV)

It is easy to forget the eminent return of Jesus Christ.  And it is especially easy to forget the manner in which He will rule.  Before we get to the phrase that is our meditation, let us consider first that Jesus will return to fulfill the promises made to Abraham and David.  These covenants, although temporarily suspended for the church age, will be realized at the conclusion of the tribulation.  Jesus will return and set up His kingdom.  Second, the manner in which He will set up His kingdom.  The breaking with a rod of iron is not to be confused with ruling with a rod of iron.  Often, most equate the two as one and the same.  The rod of iron is the same.  But what He does with it is different.  There are only three times the idea of ruling with a rod of iron is used.  All three occur in Revelation.  In that context, ruling with a rod of iron is ruling by a standard that does not break.  Above, it is not ruling for which our LORD wields the rod of iron.  Above, He will break them and dash them in pieces.  When Christ returns, all those who have not trusted in Him, repenting of their sins, and refusing the mark of the beast, will be destroyed from off the face of the earth.

It astounds me how people lack the ability to reason beyond the immediate future.  There is no concern for eternity.  Mankind does not stop and think what the future might hold if God is real.  Which He is.  Anyone who refused to confess the reality of a Creator does so as a matter of deliberate choice.  Evidence abounds of His existence.  To say there is no intelligent Creator is to deny our own existence.  Because there is an intelligent Creator, all which He creates must conform to His design.  If He designed a fish to swim or a bird to fly, this is what they will do.  A beaver who damns a stream to flood a field for a farmer does so because he that is his nature and he chooses to do so.  Just the other day, I saw something remarkable.  A black sterling was giving flying lessons to her two chicks.  Mama and one baby hit my picture window.  I went outside to check on them and the baby was not doing well.  Mama was picking it up in her beak and gently dropping it to revive it.  When she saw me, she picked up her chick and flew to the neighbor’s yard to continue resuscitating her baby.  She could have left her chick to itself and went on with life.  Yet she chose to help her baby live.  The Creator design for a purpose.  That purpose will be realized regardless of the wishes of that which He has Created.

God created mankind that we might know Him and love Him.  We are to do this by obedience and faith.  If we fail to meet the purpose for which He has designed, like any creator, He will dispense with us.  The first and most important of these purposes is to repent of our sin and call out in humility and dependency to Jesus, seeking for salvation, believing that we receive it because His word has said so.  I don’t want to get lost in all the doctrine involved here.  We might miss the simply application.  Jesus will return.  Sooner than later.  Every day will live we get one more day closer to His return.  When He returns, all those who have risen up in rebellion will be destroyed.  They will be cast into the hell to be reserved unto the day of judgment.  At the Great White Throne judgment, all those who have rejected the grace of God in Christ while living on earth will be cast into the lake of fire forever.  This torment will be an eternal one.  Why do the heathen rage and imagine a great thing?  It is the very definition of insanity.  Jesus is coming back.  He will reserve judgment for that day.  May the heathen repent and trust Christ before the divine rod of iron dashes them to pieces.

No Explanation Needed

“Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.” (Job 33:13 AV)

Many wonder why Elihu was never rebuked by God.  It could be the statement above.  Elihu, although just as insinuating as his three companions, and perhaps with an unclear or sullied motive, did utter the wisdom of the matter.  Job spent much time trying to wrestle with the reason the LORD allowed what He allowed.  It wasn’t so much that Job was demanding an answer from God, which he was not, but rather, trying to come to peace with it.  The latter part of the statement above was exactly what Job needed to hear.  God and Satan have a thing going.  Job was he which would prove God right.  Job was not a pawn in some grand game between two egotistical forces.  He was the evidence that man could love God and worship him separate and apart from his circumstances.  Job was God’s trophy of grace and He wasn’t about to let the Devil question God’s effectiveness on mankind.  But as far as God and Job were concerned, the point being made was God’s sovereignty and man’s patient faith.  God rebuked Job with the same truth, which Elihu expressed.  God is God, and He does as He pleases.  He owes no one an explanation, nor does He have to justify Himself.  Coming to terms with that is the beginning of accepting God as and who He is.

It is in our human nature to require accountability from those who lead.  This is not a bad thing.  Our elected officials are supposed to be accountable to the people who put them there.  The constitution of the United States is meant to keep our leaders honest.  The law is the supreme ruler and not those who lead.   Therefore, there are checks and balances in place to hold accountable those who would serve in the law.  At least that is how it is supposed to work.  Parents are the authority to which the educational system is accountable.  Or, at least, that is how it is supposed to work.  The educational institutions paid for by parents work in the parents' best interest.  Or at leas that is how it is meant to work.  The teacher, no matter how much training or intellect he or she has, does not replace the authority of the parent.  They are to be held accountable for what they teach and how they teach it.  There needs to be checks and balances because they we human and humans are fallible.  Even a pastor must account for his testimony and leadership to the people whom he is leading.  We are told not to lord over the flock and if we have done anything worthy of church discipline, we are to be brought before the church.  Accountability and answering for one’s actions to another is needful for human relationships to work.  This is not so with God.

God is perfect and makes no mistakes.  He is accountable to no one.  Whatever He chooses to do is perfect and holy.  There is no fault found in Him.  If He chooses to enlighten His creation as to why things are the way they are, He does so from grace and not from moral obligation.  When we demand that God give cause for His actions, we fail to see God is not a temporal being who owed us that answer.  He is eternal, almighty, and the power that sustains all.  He has the physical and moral right to do as He pleases without giving justification.  Elihu didn’t get everything right.  He did get the premise right.  What follows this opening statement supports the accusations of his friends.  Rather than telling Job he was a sinner, he simply states that if he was, God does not owe him an explanation.  We would do well to let God be God.  Who are we to demand anything from Him?  He is the Creator and sustainer of all things.  If He so wishes, He could eradicate us from existence.  He could do anything His holiness would permit and not utter a sentence as to why.  That was the lesson Job had to learn.  This is a lesson we all need to learn.

The Light Is Always On

“Oh that I were as [in] months past, as [in] the days [when] God preserved me; When his candle shined upon my head, [and when] by his light I walked [through] darkness;” (Job 29:2-3 AV)

Job wishes for the day when life was good.  He wishes for the past when he did not suffer as he is in the present.  Yet, he utters a profound truth that misses his own mark.  Upon wishing for the better days of the past, the last phrase is exactly what he needs to remember in the present.  The light of God led in times of darkness.  Now that he is in a time of darkness, he assumes the light of God is not present.  Perhaps by the light he means immediate understanding that enabled him to navigate past tragedies.  That might certainly be the case.  But immediacy of perspective is relative.  If he had to put down a favorite animal, he would immediately know what that had to be done.  He could rationalize it and do that which was necessary out of respect for the animal.  However brief, there was a time of darkness that needed understanding.  It was there.  In the depth of his loss, the time of understanding and God’s divine plan was lengthened.  What Job uttered and should have remembered was as the LORD had previously sent light in times of darkness, He will do so in the present.  It will simply take a bit longer.

There is something about light amid a darkness that changes a person’s disposition.  The older I get, the more of a struggle it is to drive at night.  As long as I am in the city with street lights and lights from buildings, I am fine.  But put me on a country road in the middle of a rainstorm with dim headlights, and it is not pleasant.  Especially if I am driving in an area where the stripping has not been well maintained.  It almost becomes frightening.  If I am on a major highway and all I have to go on is the line on the shoulder and those little green mile markers, it can be a bit dicey.  There is a stretch on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that comes to mind.  Having to travel that stretch during snowstorms, it will get one’s adrenaline going.  When the snow limits visibility from your own headlights, the snow is just deep enough to cover the lines, and there are no tracks to follow, it can get to be quiet and adventure.  Been there, done that.  Along the way, there are markers that indicate you will be fine.  There are exit signs and way mark signs.  Every ten miles or so, there would be a position sign announcing where you were and how far the next exit or rest stop might be.  As the lights above the sign come into view, we have a sense of safety and progress.  Lights mean all the world in times of deep darkness.

The thing with Job was that he had light.  He just didn’t know it.  Job was looking for more light that he had at the moment.  He knew that God rewards His saints.  He knew God took care of His saints.  He knew tragedy was part of life.  He knew there was a devil.  He knew all that God gives is by grace.  Job knew a lot.  That is why he refused to curse God and die.  He knew enough to navigate through his present situation while waiting for more light to come out.  Experience taught him that God sends light in times of darkness.  Why would this be any different?  If God gave Job light as he started his family, built a business, and became a notable citizen of his country, why wouldn’t God continue to give light as He determined?  In his despondence, Job forgot this truth.  He wished for something he already had.  He had light.  He didn’t have as much light as he wanted.  He had all the light he needed.  How do we know?  Because when God spoke to him, He told him so.  We should be thankful for the light that guides us in darkness rather than rue the light we don’t have.  Like traveling the Pennsylvania Turnpike in the middle of a lake effect snow storm, I may not appreciate the lack of light that I could use, but at least I have working headlights and large trucks that are leading the way.  The light He has given can become darkness if we don’t acknowledge it and use it.  Welcome what light He gives and wait for more.

Winning the Battle but Losing the War

“For what [is] the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?” (Job 27:8 AV)

In reading this, I was reminded of an argument I have heard more frequently as of late.  It goes something like this.  “If God is love, why did He create me and then threaten me with hell for not trusting in Him?  Add to that the suffering I will have to endure and it seems the loving God Christians portray is unjust and cruel.  I would rather he not have created me at all.”  This sounds a bit like Job’s reasoning.  He could not figure out why the LORD would create him, bless him for his obedience, and then destroy him.  Numerous times in his musing, he wished he had never been born.  Or, at the very least, questioned God’s purpose and wisdom in it all.  I was further reminded of a response given.  We do the same when we have children.  We do the same when we build relationships with children.  Knowing that life is full of trouble, why be a parent?  Why be an uncle or aunt?  Isn’t that just as cruel?

Job reasons the hypocrite does have gain.  In the short term, his reasoning does seem to have merit.  The hypocrite can often realize a gain by his actions.  He can be consistent enough to experience profit, but at the same time do just the opposite to not lose profit.  The hypocrite may win in the short term.  He may go to church and pretend to be someone he is not.  He receives accolades from those who see him.  Yet when he leaves and lives his life throughout the week, he is just the opposite.  Thus, receiving affirmation from the ungodly during the week and from the godly on Sundays, he has the best of both worlds.  He had gained.  When it comes to his relationship with the LORD, he may be moral in his business dealings and blessed by God’s universal law of realized blessing from biblical principles, but his relationship with the LORD is at enmity, thus losing it all in eternity.  This is where most of the religious are.  They are moral and upstanding people.  They have blessed lives because of it.  Yet, they refuse to repent of their sin and trust Christ.  They may receive a sound family, a secure financial future, and a reputation in society.  Yet, they use the LORD’s name in vain, lust after others, or refuse to honor the Sabbath.

I think Job is referring to his friends here.  They are moral people who think they are helping Job.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In accusing Job of evil of which he is not guilty, they ignore their own sin.  They may have gained the upper hand in arguments, but only in as much as they are all in ignorance.  These men may have gained what was left of Job’s spirit, but when God restores Job, they are in need of sacrifice at the hand of the one the so wrongly judged.  A hypocrite may do well in our temporal world.  He may even successfully accuse God in the eyes of other hypocrites.  He may fill his calendar on the speaking circuit with millions following his YouTube channel.  He may sell books and trinkets espousing the successful arguments of atheism.  But his end will be as all others.  He will die like the rest of us.  Then he will stand before a God whom he refused to worship and answer for his lifetime of hypocrisy.  He may gain the whole world.  But he will lose his soul.