Wake Me Up When The Danger Ends (Psalm 17)

If you were arrested, who would you dial for your one phone call? Actually, it’s a myth that you only get one call. But try to imagine being in that situation. You’re locked up and the only way out is for you to make a call and for the other person to answer and spring into action. But what if the person you called didn’t pick up? Or what if they did pick up, but had no money to bail you out? The call is wasted if the person on the other end isn’t ready to answer, if they don’t care about you, and if they don’t have the resources necessary to help you.

Can God be counted on when we call out to Him? Every time we pray we do so out of a belief that God can be counted on to hear us, to care about our prayer, to answer, to respond in power and grace. But does He care? Can we count on Him?

Psalm 17 is a prayer of David where he calls out to the Lord for deliverance. In fact, it’s the very first psalm to be labeled a “prayer.”[1] It seems that David prayed this psalm one night before bed.

His prayer is a series of three pleas. David was in life-threatening danger. Each plea escalates in intensity.[2] But even though his situation was urgent, throughout this song David assumes God will keep up His end of the covenant. By the end of his prayer, David has reminded himself and us that God can be counted on to hear, to answer, to respond out of the depths of His tender love for us.

Psalm 17:1 –  A prayer of David. Lord, hear a just cause; pay attention to my cry; listen to my prayer—from lips free of deceit.

We’re pretty well trained to acknowledge our sinfulness before God, so hearing David say, “My lips are free of deceit,” it’s hard for us to accept, right? But David never claims to be sinless. Far from it. He’s using legal terms here.[3] This is a just cause. Sometimes David spoke as a man presenting a case to God the Judge. David is saying, “I’m the victim here, and I need judicial intervention.”

He is very bold in his opening statement. He calls for an answer three times. “Hear, pay attention, listen to my prayer.” How could he be so bold before such a powerful Judge? How could he – a mere mortal – have the audacity to speak to the King of kings with this kind of insistence?

The secret is found in the very first word of his prayer: Yahweh. The God Who has revealed Himself. The God Who we know by name. The God Who shows us His heart, His character, His nature. The God Who has made and kept a covenant with us by His faithfulness, not ours. He is the God Who willfully, purposefully, unfailingly attaches Himself to His people. David’s call was to Yahweh.

Psalm 17:2 – Let my vindication come from you, for you see what is right.

Our God is a God Who sees. It can be frustrating to us that we don’t see Him. But, if we’re willing to look, we can see His power, His goodness, His truth, His activity. But we don’t yet get to see Him yet. And, when we’re suffering or confused in life, it’s easy for us to feel like He doesn’t see us – that He is off on some other case, forgetting about our struggles. But it isn’t true.

There’s a beautiful set of verses at the end of Exodus 2. Moses sets the scene at the start of the book – how God’s chosen people were brutally enslaved for hundreds of years. How their sons were being murdered, wholesale. How things kept getting worse. And then, after painting this dark picture of suffering and hardship, we read these verses:

Exodus 2:24-25 – 24 God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 and God saw the Israelites, and God knew.

And what follows is one of the greatest historic epics of all time. A record of God’s faithfulness, God’s intervention, His vindication of His people.

David knew that God was a God Who sees. But in verse 3, he acknowledges that God doesn’t only look at our enemies, He looks at us, too.

Psalm 17:3 – You have tested my heart; you have examined me at night. You have tried me and found nothing evil; I have determined that my mouth will not sin.

These terms for testing and trying refer to the melting of metals like gold or silver so that the waste, the dross separates from the ore.[4] It’s called proving. David didn’t resist this examination process.

In his moment of deadly distress, David says, “Lord, I recognize that the first important thing is that I be in right standing before You.” Before the rescue, before the defeat of his enemies, he says, “God, I want to be right in your eyes.” In verse 1 he asked God to hear him three times. Here, David speaks of God proving him three times. Tested, examined, tried me.

No matter what situation we’re facing, our heart’s relationship to the Lord is the most important element. Our spiritual health is not dependent on outward circumstances.

There’s an amazing moment in the Gospels where the disciples are rowing in a storm on the Sea of Galilee. They row all night but are stuck in the middle of the lake, battered by the waves. Then here comes Jesus walking on the water. But before the storm is calmed, before the guys are saved from the danger, the Lord and Peter have a personal interaction. Jesus takes the opportunity to teach Peter about weakness in his faith. The storm is still raging. The waves are still beating. But it was more important to the Lord that He teach the disciples about faith than it was to stop the storm.

So here’s David, at the end of his day, evaluating whether he was in good spiritual health. It’s not a bad idea for us to apply to our own lives. As we come to the end of another day, to invite God to examine us. To say, “Lord, did I honor You today? Did I serve You faithfully today? Did I surrender to the Spirit today or did I give in to my sin nature?” Remember: God’s purpose in our lives is to refine us like gold. And we should invite His refining, sanctifying work in our hearts just as David did.

Psalm 17:4-5 – Concerning what people do: by the words from your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps are on your paths; my feet have not slipped.

As this stanza comes to a close, David finishes making the case that he is innocent. He says that despite what other people do, he has dedicated his life not only to belief in God, but to obedience to the word of God. He says, “I’m walking on Your paths. By Your words my feet have not slipped.”

We live in a crumbling world – a world full of pitfalls, perils, and traps. The only way to stay stable is by the word of God. David says, “Because I obey the words from God’s lips, my feet have not slipped.” This is a common theme in the Psalms.[5] Jude agrees: The Lord keeps us from stumbling.

On the night before His crucifixion, Jesus gave an extended teaching to His disciples. During that teaching, in John 16, He said, “I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling.”

The Bible is not a collection of mythologies. It’s not just another religious book. It is the very Word of God, Himself. And when a Christian or a church or a nation moves away from the authority of Scripture, they invariably put themselves on a slippery slope of destruction.

Sometimes people mock Christians when we talk about a slippery slope, but you know what? Life ungoverned by the authoritative Word of God is a slippery slope. Like David, we can’t help what other people do. He says, “Here’s what I’ve determined to do.” Christians are called to be in the world, not of the world. And meanwhile, we’re to live lives planted firmly on the Rock, walking on the high road of heaven, with our steps illuminated by God’s Word, standing on solid truth.

Psalm 17:6 – I call on you, God, because you will answer me; listen closely to me; hear what I say.

David is fully confident that the Lord will hear and He will answer. This isn’t naïveté – he speaks from a place of real faith and real understanding. He knows Who God is. He knows God will answer. Why? Because God promises to answer us!

Jeremiah 33:2-3 –  “The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who forms it to establish it, the Lord is his name, says this: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know.

David needed an answer. But in his distress, he knew that what was true before the danger is still true during the danger. If you want to know what is promised to you as a person who is loved by God, read Psalm 91. There we learn what it means to belong to God. What it means that He will be our Refuge. One of the things God says in that Psalm is: “When he calls out to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble.”[6]

David is no longer speaking to God as if He’s a Judge. In this stanza he speaks to the Lord as a Friend – a Friend Who has pledged to protect him.[7]

Psalm 17:7 – Display the wonders of your faithful love, Savior of all who seek refuge from those who rebel against your right hand.

David’s relationship with Yahweh was not based on what David earned, not based on David’s performance or importance. It was based on love. Hesed love. This is an active, loyal, tender love. A love that flows from compassion. It is a love that is freely given by a stronger person to a weaker person who is in need.[8] Hesed is the truest love, the truest kindness. Nothing can eclipse it.

David invites God to use his life circumstances to demonstrate to the world what is true about the God of the Bible.

This word wonders can mean something distinct or marked out.[9] “A mighty act of God that is inexplicable according to human standards.”[10] He’s not necessarily asking God to work a miracle, but he’s asking God to visibly accomplish what He has promised to do.[11]

What has God promised to do? Well, in the context of this psalm, David says, “Lord, You’ve promised to be my Protector and Provider and Refuge and Shield.” If God is to demonstrate to the watching world that He is a Protector and He wants to use your life to show it, doesn’t it follow that – at some point – you will need to be in a situation where you need protection?

What else has God promised to you? That He will sustain you. That He will call you to some unique purpose in His will. That He will build testimonies of His power and grace in your life. These promises require certain circumstances. God wants to use our lives to display that He is a Savior. That He is a Provider. That He is faithful and able.

Psalm 17:8-9 – Protect me as the pupil of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who treat me violently, my deadly enemies who surround me.

These are two wonderful images. First, the pupil or apple of the eye. It speaks of nearness and attention, but also sensitivity. Once, in high school, I went to put on my sunglasses and as I pulled the arms open, the frame cracked in half and swung into my eye. I ended up with a little scratch on the cornea for a couple weeks. If you’ve ever had an eye injury or even just a little grain of sand in your eye, you know just how sensitive that body part is.

God has great sensitivity toward you. He’s not unfeeling. He’s not callous. He’s not checked out.

The second image is of the mother bird covering over her young with her wing. There’s the little chick, nestled in close – warm against his mother’s side. Jesus, of course, said this is how He loves. David wants us to look on the profound depth and personal nature of God’s love for us. For you.

After looking on God’s love, he pivots to looking at what he’s up against.

Psalm 17:10-12 – 10 They are uncaring; their mouths speak arrogantly. 11 They advance against me; now they surround me. They are determined to throw me to the ground. 12 They are like a lion eager to tear, like a young lion lurking in ambush.

David description of his enemies’ is masked in my translation. He said something like, “Their fat has covered their hearts, and with their dewlaps they speak haughty words.”[12] The dewlap, refers to the folds of fat some people develop underneath their chins. Quite colorful imagery from David, here!

This isn’t just a description, it’s a diagnosis. Their problem was not physical fat but spiritual. You see, David uses a term that refers to the fat of animal sacrifices[13] – fat that belonged to the Lord. Instead, they kept their fat. They kept what belonged to God. And it led to heart dysfunction. The same thing happens to the physical heart when there’s too much fat around or in it – you get a stiffening of the heart and pump dysfunction.[14] And we see that their spiritual hearts had grown hard.

We see an escalation in their behavior toward David. First they’re generally uncaring. Then they start to speak words against him. Then they advance against him. Then finally they’ve surrounded him like a pack of lions, licking their fat chops and moving in for the kill.

And so David calls out for rescue once more.

Psalm 17:13-14 – 13 Rise up, Lord! Confront him; bring him down. With your sword, save me from the wicked. 14 With your hand, Lord, save me from men, from men of the world whose portion is in this life: You fill their bellies with what you have in store; their sons are satisfied, and they leave their surplus to their children.

David wanted help now. That’s the point of his prayer. Did he get it? We don’t know the specific setting of this psalm, but we do know this: David was a fugitive from Saul for somewhere between 7 and 15 years. He was anointed to be God’s chosen king when he was a teenager but he didn’t start reigning until he was 30 years old. And then there were six and a half years of brutal civil war.

God is a Rescuer, but sometimes His timing is much less urgent than our feelings. Think of the Christians in Damascus in the book of Acts. They had been driven out of Jerusalem by violent persecution. No one was safe from this guy, Saul of Tarsus. And then they hear that Saul was coming to their town. Coming to imprison. Coming to kill. Coming to destroy. How long did God wait before intervening? He waited till Saul was just outside the city.

Or consider Lazarus. Or the woman with the flow of blood. Or the man born lame and waited for more than 40 years to be healed. Rescue is coming. But it might not come today.

Despite the pressure, David still believed that God could be counted on. And in his description of the men of this world, he highlighted the fact that their time was coming to an end. What an amazing difference there is between the people of God and those who reject God. Time is counting down. For them, it’s a countdown to an end. For us, it’s a countdown to a beginning.

Psalm 17:15 – 15 But I will see your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied with your presence.

What would you do if you found a cougar in your house? Recently a family in Boulder, Colorado came home to that reality. There’s video of them outside their house and, upstairs, there’s a live cougar looking out the window!

You know what you wouldn’t do? Go to sleep! But apparently that’s what David did. “When I awake, I’ll be satisfied with Your presence.” What an amazing testimony to the power of faith.

Peter demonstrated this kind of faith in the book of Acts. He’s taken in by Herod. The order goes out to chop Peter’s head off in the morning. But there’s Peter, asleep in his cell. He didn’t know that God was going to save him that night, but he knew God was going to save him in the end.

“Satisfied with Your presence” can also be translated, “when I awake in Your likeness.” God is not only saving us, He’s also transforming us. He’s changing us into His image – refining us like gold. He does so for our good and His glory, but also because it has to be done. We cannot be in the presence of righteousness unless we are righteous. But as we walk with God, we are made like Him and one day we will see Him face to face, dwelling with Him forever.

How is this possible? It’s only possible because God comes to the rescue. To understand how that happens, we have to go back to verses 11 and 12. There the lions are surrounding David. He had killed lions and bears before, but this was too much. How would he be rescued from that scene?

The real rescue happens in Psalm 22. Where we see again the enemy dogs and bulls and lions surrounding David. And in that terrible scene, Jesus Christ comes and says, “I’ll stay and be devoured so you can escape.” I will die so you can live. The scene ends at Calvary.[15] And there we see not only the depth of God’s love for us, but even for these enemies. These stiff-hearted killers. What did Jesus say as He hung on the cross? “Father forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”[16] The hesed love of God holding nothing back in His quest to save and redeem and show compassion.

This is the God we pray to. This is the God of the Bible. This is the King Who rules forever and ever. Can He be counted on? You better believe it!

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Thomas Constable   Notes On Psalms
2 Bruce Waltke   Psalms 1-41
3 CSB Study Bible Notes
4 J.J. Stewart Perowne   Commentary On The Psalms
5 See Psalm 15, 16, 17, 56
6 Psalm 91:15
7 Derek Kidner   Psalms 1-72
8 Theological Wordbook Of The Old Testament
9, 13 TWOT
10 Lexham Theological Wordbook
11 Frank Gaebelein, Willem VanGemern, Allen Ross, J. Stafford Wright, and Dennis Kinlaw. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 5: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
12 Robert Alter   The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary
14 https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/01/health/fatty-heart-health-risk-wellness/index.html
15 Kidner
16 Luke 23:34

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Leaving Of The Lord (Ezekiel 10:1-22)

Where were you when the world stopped turnin’?

Most of us recognize that as the title & the opening lyric of the Alan Jackson song. He wrote it in reaction to the terror attacks on 9/11/2001. Have you noticed that when we talk about it, we always preface our comments by giving a short account of where we were when we heard the news?

September 17th, 592BC is a date all Israelites ought to remember.

It is the probable date on which the glory of God exited His Temple in Jerusalem. To say it was a monumental day in Jewish history should top the list of the greatest understatements of all time.

The LORD dwelt among His people in the Holy of Holies, using the Ark of the Covenant with its Mercy Seat as a throne. The glory of God departs the Holy of Holies to the threshold of the Temple (10:4). It then moves from the Temple to the east gate of the Temple (10:18-19). Finally, it departs entirely from the city, pausing on the Mount of Olives (11:23).

Then glory was gone…and has not returned.

I’ve used a quote from A.W. Tozer too many times, but it’s so good. He challenges us, “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the Church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference.”

Would we know the difference? The way I asked the question assumes that God the Holy Spirit has not already withdrawn.

God’s Temple departure gives us opportunity to examine the State of the Church. I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 Can You See God’s Withdrawing?, and #2 Can You Stop God’s Withdrawing?

#1 – Can You See God’s Withdrawing? (v1-17)

When Solomon dedicated the Temple we read, “And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the holy place, that the cloud [Shekinah] filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD” (First Kings 8:10-11).

Fast forward 400yrs. His people spiritually & physically have turned their backs to Him. They placed abominable idols in the Temple. Like Snagglepuss, God would “exit stage north.”

It’s hard for us to understand the scope of the LORD’s departure. This was easily one of the ‘darkest’ (pun intended) days in the history of Israel.

Not just Israel. Her task was to reveal the glory of God to all nations. What happens to Israel affects all human history profoundly.

Ezk 10:1  And I looked, and there in the firmament that was above the head of the Cherubim, there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne.

We saw this conveyance in the first chapter. We call it God’s Throne Chariot. It involves four supernatural beings, identified as Cherubim, supporting a platform upon which is a Throne for God.

Ufologists excitedly see the Throne Chariot as a spaceship piloted by alien astronauts. Among their arguments is that a 6th century observer would have a difficult time describing spaceships.

They’re listening to way too much Coast to Coast AM Radio in the middle of the night.

Look at verse eighteen: “As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, “Wheel.” When God uses symbols & signs, He usually defines them within a few verses. In this case, there is no symbolism. “Wheels” are defined as “wheels.” It counters any suggestion that he was describing chariots of the gods. This was the chariot of God – the God of the Bible.

Are UFO’s (and USO’s) ‘real’? Of course! But what are they? Everything about the UFO phenomena, including abductions, can be explained by fallen angels prepping humans for a great deception.

Ezk 10:2  Then He spoke to the man clothed with linen, and said, “Go in among the wheels, under the cherub, fill your hands with coals of fire from among the Cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” And he went in as I watched.

Scattering the hot coals represents God’s judgment falling upon the city. It was a necessary, holy judgement. It couldn’t happen while the glory of the LORD was in the Cherubim.

Ezk 10:3  Now the Cherubim were standing on the south side of the Temple when the man went in, and the cloud filled the inner court.

Ezk 10:4  Then the glory of the LORD went up from the Cherub, and paused over the threshold of the Temple; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’s glory.

Ezk 10:5  And the sound of the wings of the Cherubim was heard even in the outer court, like the voice of Almighty God when He speaks.

Scholars are split over whether or not Jews in the Temple and the surrounding area could see these phenomena. In verse five we’re told it was “heard even in the outer court.” If it was “heard” it implies there were people who heard it.

Jerusalem is situated on a hill. The people in areas surrounding the city could have seen the radiance coming from the hilltop.

It would have been beautiful, but terrifying. Shekinah stayed put in the Holy of Holies.

Ezk 10:6  Then it happened, when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from among the wheels, from among the Cherubim,” that he went in and stood beside the wheels.

Ezk 10:7  And the Cherub stretched out his hand from among the Cherubim to the fire that was among the Cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed with linen, who took it and went out.

Ezk 10:8  The Cherubim appeared to have the form of a man’s hand under their wings.

This is an incredibly detailed description. True, it is hard to depict, and if you search for images they are mostly too weird. Ezekiel was not confused. He knew what he was seeing.

Ezk 10:9  And when I looked, there were four wheels by the Cherubim, one wheel by one cherub and another wheel by each other cherub; the wheels appeared to have the color of a beryl stone.

Ezk 10:10  As for their appearance, all four looked alike – as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

Ezk 10:11  When they went, they went toward any of their four directions; they did not turn aside when they went, but followed in the direction the head was facing. They did not turn aside when they went.

Ezk 10:12  And their whole body, with their back, their hands, their wings, and the wheels that the four had, were full of eyes all around.

Ezk 10:13  As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing, “Wheel.”

I can almost hear someone asking Ezekiel what the wheels represent, and him answering, “They were wheels.”

Ezk 10:14  Each one had four faces: the first face was the face of a cherub, the second face the face of a man, the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle.

In chapter one the Cherubim had faces of lion, eagle, man & ox. Here the ox is replaced by “the face of a Cherub.”  The simple answer is that the face of a Cherub looks like the face of a bull or an ox. Cherubs are not little baby angels with wings.

Ezk 10:15  And the Cherubim were lifted up. This was the living creature I saw by the River Chebar.

Ezk 10:16  When the Cherubim went, the wheels went beside them; and when the Cherubim lifted their wings to mount up from the earth, the same wheels also did not turn from beside them.

Ezk 10:17  When the Cherubim stood still, the wheels stood still, and when one was lifted up, the other lifted itself up, for the spirit of the living creature was in them.

It sounds like they had on the new  $400,000.00 helmets our courageous F35 pilots have.

Remembering back to 9-11, can you imagine a scenario where you saw the planes crashing into the World Trade Center and then went about your business as if nothing monumental had occurred?   

The Jerusalem Jews kept committing their abominations as if nothing of any real significance had occurred.

Unlike OT Israel, every NT believer receives the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t come & go.

What can happen is this:

  • A believer who begins in the Spirit can try to live the Christian life in his or her own energy. The apostle Paul put it this way, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3).
  • A Church that begins in the Spirit can, according to Jesus, leave their first love for Him. If it persists, the Lord says He will withdraw that Church’s “lampstand.” Intellect will begin to overwhelm intimacy. Thus it becomes works-oriented rather than grace-sufficient. D.L. Moody said, “The Bible was not given for our information, but for our transformation.”

You can see this shift. The Tozer quote has a second part: “If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95% of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference.”

  • Paul saw it in Galatia.
  • Jesus saw it in Ephesus.

One of the great questions we hear every presidential election is, “Are you better off today than you were 4yrs ago?”

We can ask, “Am I farther along spiritually today than when I first was saved?” Or, “Is my life characterized by my plans for it or God’s?”

#2 – Can You Stop God’s Withdrawing? (v18-22)

There is something quite important to notice in God’s withdrawal. The Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary says,

Successive steps are marked in His departure; so slowly and reluctantly does the merciful God leave His house. First, He goes up from the Cherub, whereupon He was, to the Threshold of the Temple (9:3); then He elevates His throne above the Threshold of the house (10:1); leaving the Cherubim ‘on the right side of the house’ (10:3). Then He mounts up and sits on the throne (10:4); He and the Cherubim, after standing for a time at the door of the east gate (10:18-19), where was the exit to the lower court of the people – leave the house altogether (11:2-3), not to return until Ezekiel 43:2.

Reluctant to leave, the LORD made significant pauses during His departure. He loved (and loves) Israel with an everlasting love. He desired their repentance. He made a spectacular exit, pausing. They paid it no mind. The pauses could have, as we say, “given them pause,” to repent.

We need to establish that this idea of our human disobedience causing pauses along the redemption timeline is Scriptural.

  • God hit ‘pause’ for Abram. He was told to go to Bethel. He went, but on account of a famine, he headed to Egypt. It was a thirteen year pause until he got back to where he once belonged.
  • God hit ‘pause’ for the Exodus generation. The Hebrews who Exodus-ed balked at the border of the Promised Land. Their refusal to go in stalled the Jews for a period of 40yrs.

In the NT, the apostle Peter has a rather unusual approach to the passage of divine time and it involves at least one very long pause.

  • He first reminds us that what we consider to be a long time is a mere day with the Lord (Second Peter 3:8).
  • Next he tells us that, although the Lord could come at any time, His longsuffering with sinners waits giving them opportunities to repent and be saved.
  • While He is waiting, we are told we can “hasten,” meaning speed-up, His return.

Ezk 10:18  Then the glory of the LORD departed from the threshold of the Temple and stood over the Cherubim.

Ezk 10:19  And the Cherubim lifted their wings and mounted up from the earth in my sight. When they went out, the wheels were beside them; and they stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

After 400 years of being among His people, Shekinah was gone.

Ezk 10:20  This is the living creature I saw under the God of Israel by the River Chebar, and I knew they were Cherubim.

Ezk 10:21  Each one had four faces and each one four wings, and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings.

Ezk 10:22  And the likeness of their faces was the same as the faces which I had seen by the River Chebar, their appearance and their persons. They each went straight forward.

Here is a quote from Chariots of the Gods by Erich von Däniken: The time has come for us to admit our insignificance by making discoveries in the infinite unexplored cosmos. Only then shall we realize that we are nothing but ants in the vast state of the universe.”

I prefer what David said: “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet…” (Psalm 8:3-6).

The glory of God returned briefly when Jesus came. The apostle John said, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14).

Jesus came preaching that the Kingdom of God on earth was at hand. It was; unfortunately the Jews hard-passed on Jesus being their King.

Their rejection marked the beginning of God’s longest pause.

Paul describes the pause in the last chapter of the Book of Acts, “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!” (28:28).[1]

Paul goes on to explain that God is using the salvation of Gentiles in the Church Age to make the nation of Israel jealous. In the end, with clarity and all Heaven’s authority, Paul said, “For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-26).

He means ethnic Jews, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.

We are living in the longest historic pause – The Church Age.

Let’s live continuing in the Spirit and rekindling our first love.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Make a mental note that Paul mentioned three distinct groups – Ethnic Jews… Gentiles… the Church

Prophecy Update #804 – Ark My Words

We set aside a few minutes most Sunday mornings to identify connections between unfulfilled Bible prophecies and current news & events.

Turmoil in the Middle East on account of the nation of Israel is the most obvious sign that we are in the Last Days. Israel’s existence again as a nation is both a miracle and a fulfillment of many OT prophecies.

Other biblical signs include the push towards both global government & global commerce; the technology to utilize biometrics to buy & sell all goods & services; instantaneous global communication; an effort to alter our genetics in order to reproduce a hybrid, nonhuman race; a great falling away from faith in Jesus Christ; and the exponential growth in knowledge.

Daniel, Ezekiel and other OT prophets predicted that there will be a Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the future 7yr Great Tribulation. Animal sacrifice will be reinstated.

Jesus confirmed that this was true in His prophecy talk with His disciples in Matthew 24.

Jews have been planning for their next Temple for decades. This week I read an article titled, Historic Ark Replica Makes Its Jerusalem Debut During Sukkot Festival.

Excerpts:

In a remarkable fusion of ancient tradition and modern craftsmanship, a meticulously constructed replica of the biblical Ark of the Covenant was showcased in Jerusalem during the Sukkot holiday. The display featured the golden vessel housing a Holocaust-surviving Torah scroll from Thessaloniki, Greece.

The ambitious project, spanning three and a half years, involved 17 volunteers across multiple countries who adhered strictly to Torah specifications. The replica’s construction required approximately three tons of Egyptian Acacia wood and was adorned with high-purity gold measuring 23.75 carats – the same grade used in ancient Egyptian royal artifacts.

The replica has already traveled to several significant locations, including Shiloh, the ancient site of the Tabernacle, and has even made an appearance at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.[1]

The Bible predicts a Tribulation Temple. The Temple Institute and others are preparing for it – just as we expect.

Jesus promised to resurrect & rapture His Church prior to His Second Coming, and before the time of Great Tribulation would come upon the whole Earth.

The resurrection and rapture of the church is presented as an imminent event. It could happen anytime. Right now, for example.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, get ready, stay ready, and keep looking up

Ready or not Jesus is coming! 

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 https://israel365news.com/397284/historic-ark-replica-makes-its-jerusalem-debut-during-sukkot-festival/

Death & Despots (Ecclesiastes 8:1-15)

In 1976, Mao Zedong stepped into eternity. This man responsible for about 80 million deaths was honored with an immense state funeral.[1] The Politburo demanded that his body be permanently preserved. While he lay in state, a million people came to see him and pay him respects.[2]

Above his crystal casket was a banner that read, “Carry on the cause left by Chairman Mao and carry on the cause of proletarian revolution to the end.” Sadly, his cause has been carried on. His legacy of oppression continues almost 50 years later, where he’s still called China’s “eternal father.”[3]

Realities like that bother us. Why should a man like that get honor while countless thousands starve to death just outside the door? That sort of injustice bothered the Teacher, too.

He has talked about our daily lives, our goals, our family relationships, our religious behavior. But what about our relationship to the government? That’s one of his focuses tonight. The Teacher recognizes that sometimes government acts in a good way, but sometimes it acts in very bad ways. As we’ve seen before when he talked about judges and courts: Sometimes the people who are supposed to uphold justice are the very ones who multiply injustice in the world.

So, how should we relate to human government? What should we do when governments are unrighteous? What does wisdom dictate? The Teacher has thoughts.

Ecclesiastes 8:1 – Who is like the wise person, and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A person’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed.

The Teacher has just said that only one in a thousand people have real wisdom he’s searching for. But we know any of us can be that person if we will believe God and fear Him and go His way. When we do, heaven’s wisdom is a gift given to us to help us navigate life and please the Lord.

Whose face is the Teacher talking about here? Depending on how you read these verses, it could be our face or God’s face or a human king’s face.

The truth is, it can apply to all three. When we believe God and follow Him, we please Him. His face shines upon us as His grace flows into our lives. Wise speech and action will also help us in our relationships with earthly authorities. If you’re the kind of person who speaks knowledgeably and can solve problems, generally you will find yourself in the good graces of your boss, your supervisor, your commander, or other authorities.

But God’s wisdom doesn’t only change how other people perceive you. It actually transforms a person from the inside out. We heard about this in our study of Ezekiel this past Sunday. God’s people, going God’s way are – by definition – a transformed people. Visibly identifiable.

There are many people out there who are savvy, or smart, or successful. Are they transformed? Are we? Is the power of God at work in us as we walk with the Lord?[4]

Ecclesiastes 8:2 – Keep the king’s command because of your oath made before God.

The Teacher is finally coming out of the depression he’s been in for a few passages.[5] He sees that there is an advantage to wisdom. Whether he means human wisdom or God’s wisdom, either way, it’s better to live with them than without them.

He starts to talk about a person serving in the court of the king. We can apply it at the level of government or military or in other areas where there is authority over us.

The Teacher says, “Keep the king’s command.” Obey the government. Naturally and culturally we think, “Well, sure, if the command is good.” But the Teacher doesn’t add any qualifiers. In fact, by the end of this section, the Teacher is thinking more of an oppressive dictator than a King David.

Some commentators suggest that he really means God, not the earthly kings we’re under. But that really doesn’t line up with the rest of his description.

The primary question at this point is not whether the king deserves to be obeyed. The primary question is: Do we believe that government is ordained by God? Do we believe Romans 13? Do we believe Titus 3:1, which tells us to submit to rulers and authorities? Do we believe 1 Peter 2:16-17, which says, “Submit as free people…honor the emperor?” Do we believe God is right?

The truth is, we are a rebel people. Rebels by nature, rebels by culture. We come to the table in the default mode of revolution and resistance and self-governance. Now, let me say that I love our country. I think the American system has led to a great decrease in autocratic oppression on a global scale for hundreds of years. Liberty and democracy are very good things.

And let me also say that the Bible does not command blind or absolute obedience to earthly authorities. The book of Daniel is a treatise on Godly civic disobedience. The apostles, too, famously stood before the supreme court of Israel and said, “We’re going to obey God, not you.”[6]

But the Bible is clear that the default position of a believer is to be peaceable, civic obedience even to ungodly governments. In God’s Word, the carve outs for disobedience are never for comfort or for prosperity or for our opinions. The only time civic disobedience is sanctioned by the Bible is when human authorities demand that God’s people disobey God’s specific commands.

Daniel served joyfully and faithfully in the court of Babylon for decades. He followed their rules, he enforced their laws, he supported their kings except when they demanded that he break specific commands of God. Even then, he did not resort to violence or revolution. He did not stage a coup. He simply said, “I won’t do that.” And then he waited around for the consequences.

Ecclesiastes 8:3-4 – Do not be in a hurry; leave his presence, and don’t persist in a bad cause, since he will do whatever he wants. For the king’s word is authoritative, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

We shouldn’t be a people who huff and puff. “Unending vexation is pointless.”[7] The New Living Translation shows another layer. It says, “Don’t try to avoid doing your duty.”

At this point I find myself thinking, “Well, a republic is different. The system exists for me to get what I want.” Ok. That’s not always wrong. But remember what Peter said: “Submit as free people.” They weren’t free in the Roman Empire. Peter says, “Act like you’re free and submit to the state as a testimony of God’s grace and peace.” Show the world that you’re just passing through.

But the king is corrupt! Or, my boss is an idiot! Or, I know more than the board of directors! Ok. That may be true, too. But here’s a question for us: If I’m unwilling to submit to an earthly king, what makes me think my heart will be willing to submit to my heavenly King? Again, that doesn’t mean we do things that are evil. But a lot of things we don’t want to obey aren’t actually about good and evil, they’re about my wants and comforts. They’re about my will, not God’s will.

When faced with a ruler that is doing something we don’t like, don’t be hasty to turn your back in rebellion. As one commentator writes, “When suffering oppression at home or at work or in society, do not let the desire for revenge turn your heart to ungodliness.”[8]

Ecclesiastes 8:5-7 – The one who keeps a command will not experience anything harmful, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though a person’s troubles are heavy on him. Yet no one knows what will happen because who can tell him what will happen?

Wisdom recognizes that human beings actually need governance. It would be nice if we didn’t, but we do. What child doesn’t need a parent? Soldiers need commanders. Authority is good for us.

Now, human authorities are not perfect. In fact, they’re often oppressive. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need authority. It doesn’t mean we don’t need to learn how to obey for our good and for the good of society. Let’s remember what Hebrews 5 says about Jesus: That “although He was the Son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.”[9] Obviously, you and I also need to learn to obey.

Ecclesiastes 8:8 – No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; no one is discharged during battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape.

This verse reminds us that even though we’re so sure we know what every president and boss and quarterback should do, the reality is that there is a ton we don’t know and more we cannot control. “I think the government should do this and not that.” You might be right. Or there might be more going on that you haven’t considered. But let’s say you’re right. Even still, you and I have obligations to our nation and government.

What are they? Well, obeying the laws. Paying taxes. Praying for our leaders. Living at peace with our neighbors. Being a shining example of Godliness. Working righteousness, which will exalt our nation. These are our Biblical obligations to whatever society we live in. Whether we’re under Mao or Reagan, Stalin or Solomon. Specifics within our personal activity will change depending on which of those rulers we find ourselves, but the broad callings remain the same.

Ecclesiastes 8:9 – All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one person has authority over another to his harm.

The Teacher is thinking of a dictator who oppresses his people. But what a comfort that we can live with faithfulness and wisdom even under bad rulers because most of history’s rulers have been very bad! But Christianity works in every time and in every place because God’s truth and power remain the same yesterday, today, and forever!

But, if the rulers are oppressive, why not overthrow them? Why not destroy them? “Since God is slack in His promise, why not do God’s job for Him?” We want justice as we see it. We want revenge for ourselves. And often we don’t want to wait for the Lord to be our Avenger.

The Teacher says, “Violent disobedience to authority is not the answer.” And then, to help us deal with the disappointment of injustice, he now pivots to say, “Chin up – Stalin will eventually die!”

Ecclesiastes 8:10 – 10 In such circumstances, I saw the wicked buried. They came and went from the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they did those things. This too is futile.

There are six different ways this verse can be translated.[10] Your version may say the wicked are forgotten, not praised. Others say the righteous are forgotten. The point is that this world often doesn’t get it right. It’s hevel.

But, the evil king eventually answers to the King of kings. Chairman Mao – that evil oppressor – died and stood before the Lord to face judgment. He was no longer a king or commander and he is going to be repaid for his wickedness for all eternity.

But what happened back on earth? This world is so spoiled by sin, so defined by hevel that people here were crying for Mao. Honoring him. Praising him. Burying him with great pomp.

He doesn’t deserve that burial! He doesn’t deserve that praise! You’re right. He doesn’t. But this is the world we live in. A hevel world. And our job is not to execute our wrath on the people around us. Grace is the way forward. In an absurd world, we can cling to our faith in the fact that God will make things right. Mao is getting what he deserves right now.

Ecclesiastes 8:11 – 11 Because the sentence against an evil act is not carried out quickly, the heart of people is filled with the desire to commit evil.

This is a principle that we wish our government would take to heart. But, in the moment, it seems the Teacher is actually criticizing God, not human rulers.[11] As if he’s saying, “God, why don’t You wipe out these evil people so that people will stop being evil???”

Why doesn’t He? Because of His kindness. Because He loves people like us and wants to save us from the punishment we deserve. That’s the heart of God. When a person refuses God’s offer, then He will be a Judge to them. But His heart is to be their Savior and Father and Friend.

But, knowing what kind of Person He is, we should never take advantage of God’s mercy. We don’t sin that grace may abound and we don’t assume that mercy never expires. It does. For individuals, for nations, and ultimately for all mankind as God brings the history of this world to a conclusion.

Ecclesiastes 8:12 – 12 Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, I also know that it will go well with God-fearing people, for they are reverent before him.

I had a great teacher in college named Richard Unruh. I took as many of his classes as I could. He taught political science classes. He was very careful to never reveal his own political opinions in class. Some people were convinced he was a red-blooded conservative, others said a flaming liberal. He was acting like the Teacher. But every once in a while his core beliefs would sneak out.

Out of nowhere, the Teacher talks with the afterlife in mind. It’s uncharacteristic. Speaking of this sudden spiritual declaration Derek Kidner writes, “the Teacher drops the veil of his secularism and shows a window into his true faith.”[12]

For the first time, the Teacher hints that death is not the end. For those who fear the Lord, there is something absolutely good and just and right waiting for us. And, as one commentary points out, the Teacher presents this idea to us without any supporting evidence! It’s all by faith.[13] But his faith is comforting him in the midst of this unfair world. It’s carrying him through the futility.

Ecclesiastes 8:13 – 13 However, it will not go well with the wicked, and they will not lengthen their days like a shadow, for they are not reverent before God.

Well, when will it go poorly for them? We’ve had a bunch of references to how they seem to get away with everything in this life. But, once this life ends, they don’t get away with anything. God brings the bill due. He settles every score. Justice is done.

Ecclesiastes 8:14 – 14 There is a futility that is done on the earth: there are righteous people who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked people who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile.

If all my affections are tied to this world, I’m going to be disappointed. Because hevel defines this world. And God is working to save us from it. But even here, the word hevel gives us hope. Remember: hevel means vapor – a wisp of smoke. Something temporary and fading away. The unfairness of this world is a passing vapor that will soon be gone, replaced with the Kingdom of Perfect Righteousness that will never, ever end.

So, after this discussion about government and unfairness and death and despots, what’s the bottom line? Are we just to grit our teeth and bear with the unrighteous unfairness of life?

Ecclesiastes 8:15 – 15 So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

Six times the Teacher comes to this conclusion: Enjoy life. Not in the sense of “eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die.” The whole point of the book is that you can’t find ultimate enjoyment in life unless you understand that your life is made by God, sustained by God, and given to you by God along with other gifts like day-to-day enjoyment.

The only way to truly enjoy life is by fearing God and recognizing that we don’t know everything. But we know the ultimate truths. We know what is coming. We know that Christ is the real King. We know what God offers us. We know what really matters. Because we fear God and receive His wisdom, we are able to enjoy life, even when it’s difficult or uncomfortable or unfair.

When Chairman Mao was getting prepped for burial, the embalmers were told his remains needed to last forever. They were promised any facilities, personnel, or equipment they might possibly need.[14] But the task was impossible. The result of their efforts was comedic and grotesque.

Our Lord supplies what we need for joy and peace and meaning in life and it works. He preserves us. He enlivens us. He fills us with joy. Even when city hall or Sacramento or Washington are against us. Even when we’re not getting what we think we should. Remember what God has provided. David Hubbard writes, “The simple graces from God’s hand are the daily staff of life. We should lean on them particularly hard.”[15] By doing so, we can carry on in His cause, enjoying life along the way.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_state_funeral_of_Mao_Zedong
3 https://www.cnn.com/2012/11/06/world/asia/china-mao-legacy-grant/index.html
4 Ephesians 3:20
5 Frank Gaebelein, Willem VanGemern, Allen Ross, J. Stafford Wright, and Dennis Kinlaw. The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 5: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
6 Acts 5:29
7 Duane A. Garrett   The New American Commentary, Volume 14: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
8 Philip Ryken   Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters
9 Hebrews 5:8
10 Douglas Miller   Ecclesiastes
11 James Smith   The Wisdom Literature And Psalms
12 Derek Kidner   Ecclesiastes: A Time To Mourn And A Time To Dance
13 Garrett
14 Christine Quigley   Modern Mummies: The Preservation Of The Human Body In The Twentieth Century
15 David Hubbard   The Communicator’s Commentary: Ecclesiastes, Song Of Solomon

Inka Dinka Do You Have His Mark On You? (Ezekiel 9:1-11)

The Nazi’s tattooed the Jews held captive in Auschwitz for purposes of administration.

Combinations of numbers & letters communicated information about their time of arrival to the camp or transfers from another camp.

Holocaust survivors often speak of how the tattoo symbolized their loss of humanity and individuality during their time in the camps.

It wasn’t the first time in their history that Jews were ‘marked.’

In the sixth century BC a man with an inkhorn was sent throughout Jerusalem assigned to ‘mark’ Jews. But unlike the Holocaust, it was an exceedingly good thing to be marked. You wanted to be marked.

Those with the mark on their foreheads were the remnant of righteous Jews. They would be spared from being slain when the Babylonians came the third & final time to loot & level Jerusalem and the Temple.

The remnant to be supernaturally marked was marked by their “sigh[ing] and  cry[ing]” over the abominations that were done within” the Temple.

There doesn’t seem to be any direct corollary to make between the Jews being marked and Church Age believers being marked. We can, however, always contemplate versions of the question, “What is the mark of a believer?”

Let’s do that! I’ll organize my comments around two questions: #1 What Marks You In Public?, and #2 What Marks You In Private?

#1 – What Marks You In Public? (v1-8)

What is the mark of a Christian?

It’s not one thing, but there is one thing that Jesus said was fundamental. He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

The love Jesus spoke of would be observable.

Francis Schaeffer, in a small book appropriately titled, The Mark of a Christian, concludes, “The world has a right to look upon us as true Christians, and it should be able to observe that we do love each other. Our love must have a form that the world may observe; it must be seeable.”

You may not get around to reading Schaeffer, so let me tell you how he says you exercise observable love. “It means a very simple thing: It means that when I have made a mistake and when I have failed to love my Christian brother, I go to him and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ That is first. It may seem a letdown – that the first thing we speak of should be so simple! But if you think it is easy, you have never tried to practice it.”

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace; it cost God the Cross of Jesus Christ before He could forgive sin and remain a holy God… When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vice, constrained by the love of God.”

Among the things that are noteworthy about the marking in our Ezekiel passage is that it is based on observable public behavior. God knows the hearts of all men. You’d think He would have given the man with the inkhorn a list of names. No, he was tasked with observing their outward behavior.

Ezk 9:1  Then He called out in my hearing with a loud voice, saying, “Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand.”

Ezk 9:2  And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle-ax in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn at his side. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar.

He called for “six men,” who by their description and duties we understand to be supernatural, likely angels. They were the original Seal Team Six.

They are said to “have charge over the city.” Every now and then we get a glimpse of the supernatural:

  • In the Book of Daniel we see that the angel Gabriel was detained by a mighty supernatural, called the Prince of Persia, until Michael the archangel came along to relieve him.
  • Elijah asks God to open the eyes of his servant to see the heavenly armies surrounding and protecting them.
  • Here in Ezekiel we see that six mighty angels had charge over Jerusalem.

Reading about these things some believers have concluded that there are territorial spirits and that we must identify them and go to spiritual battle against them.

That’s a huge unscriptural leap into weirdness.

Angels fight angels but we do not. If you want to do battle, you’re told how in the Revelation. We read of God’s saints, “they overcame [the devil] by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, they loved not their lives unto death.”

The angels who had charge over Jerusalem were reassigned to carry out judgment against the Jews. They chose from their armory “battle-axes.” They go through the Temple and the city slaughtering Jews.

About 200yrs before Ezekiel Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrian army. One night as they slept, the Angel of the Lord went through their camp killing. In the morning, 185,000 Assyrian soldiers were dead.

In our passage, they donʼt personally slaughter Jews. The Babylonian army will slaughter the Jews when the siege ends and they breech the walls. Ezekiel’s vision is a representation in Heaven of the LORD’s providential actions on Earth. This is what the overthrow of Jerusalem looks like in heavenly terms.

Ezk 9:3  Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the Temple…

The Temple was Solomon’s Temple – and it was magnificent. Its most amazing feature was Shekinah. That is what we call the radiant cloud that resided in the Holy of Holies of the Temple, on the Mercy Seat flanked by carved images of Cherubim. God was thereby among them.

Soon they would say, “God has left the building.”

Ezk 9:3  … And He called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn at his side;

Ezk 9:4  and the LORD said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”

If you’ve had something notarized, the notary has a ledger and a pen and an ink pad for fingerprinting.

The full title of a Notary is Notary Public. This supernatural was one of, or maybe the only, Notary in Heaven. His work on this occasion was to notarize the public behavior of the Jews who sighed & cried.

Ezk 9:5  To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill; do not let your eye spare, nor have any pity.

Ezk 9:6  Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children and women; but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark; and begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the Temple.

We don’t need to act as if the wholesale slaughter of people, including women and kids, doesn’t trouble us. It should greatly trouble us.

Two things to consider:

  1. Jeremiah distinctly said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes over to the Chaldeans shall live; his life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live. This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.’ ” No one need die. No women or children. They chose to allow their children to die.
  2. These episodes serve as reminders that the God of the Bible is infinitely holy while we, by our own choice, are sinful. We chose sin and death.  Apart from Jesus, all of mankind is conceived in sin and death. God acted immediately to save us, enacting an ambitious plan that involves Him suffering on our behalf.

It isn’t remarkable that sinners would be slaughtered, but rather that God has made a way for us to be reconciled to Him, and the majority reject it, choosing death.

  • My first thought about tragedy shouldn’t be, “How could God allow this?”
  • My first thought ought to be, “Thank you, Lord, that you’ve made a way out of this and into bliss!”

Ezk 9:7  Then He said to them, “Defile the Temple, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” And they went out and killed in the city.

Nothing defiled a Jew more than contact with a dead body. This vision of the Holy of Holies, the Holy Place, and the courts of the Temple would horrify even the most backslidden Jew.

The Jerusalem Jews thought it inconceivable the the LORD would allow His beloved city and its Temple to be destroyed. They were wrong.

Do you have any inconceivables? It’s not a fair question because often you don’t  know that you have an inconceivable until the inconceivable happens.

The question we must each ask of ourself is some variation of, “Are the things that ‘mark’ my public life consistent with how a Christian ought to be living in the Church Age?”

Should we be sighing and crying? Not necessarily. That was the mark of a believer in the sixth century BC. We live in a very different dispensation.

The apostle Peter encouraged us to behave according to our times. He said, “What manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God… according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new Earth in which righteousness dwells… looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (Second Peter 3:11-14).

Schaeffer wrote, “The world is going to judge whether Jesus has been sent by the Father on the basis of something that is open to observation.”

A major observable mark is “holiness,” separation from the world. Not a withdrawal from the world, but keeping ourselves from being overwhelmed by it.

#2 – What Marks You In Private? (v8-11)

With the supernaturals off on their marking ministry, Ezekiel finds himself alone with the LORD. What was the prophet like in private? What ‘marked’ him?

Ezk 9:8  So it was, that while they were killing them, I was left alone; and I fell on my face and cried out, and said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will You destroy all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your fury on Jerusalem?”

Ezekiel only prays for the remnant. He understood that the time for the majority of Jews to repent was passed.

If a remnant did not survive, all of God’s plans would fall like a house of cards. The promised Messiah of Israel and Savior of the world would be God come in human flesh. The human flesh that He would come into was Jewish. Israel would produce the Messiah, the Savior. Ezekiel knew this, at least in part, and was worried that things were getting awfully precarious.

Where have we heard something similar to his prayer before? When God came with two angels who would go on to destroy wicked Sodom & Gomorrah, Abraham pleaded with God to not destroy the cities if ten righteous could be found there. He negotiated with the LORD, somewhat successfully in that Abraham’s nephew, Lot, and his family were removed from the cities before they were burned.

Ezekiel was conducting a negotiation, or trying to. He would be altogether unsuccessful. We would put this in the bin marked, Prayers God said “No” to.

All of us have uttered prayers that we are glad God did not answer. Nevertheless, we still find it difficult that He is saying “No” to what we are asking for today.

Ezk 9:9  Then He said to me, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of bloodshed, and the city full of perversity; for they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!’

Following King Solomon’s death, Israel split into two countries: Israel & ten tribes to the north, Judah & two tribes to the south. The LORD sees both “houses” back as one nation.

Ezk 9:10  And as for Me also, My eye will neither spare, nor will I have pity, but I will recompense their deeds on their own head.”

The LORD must punish sin. He would not be God if He were not holy, holy, holy. There could be no Heaven. No salvation.

He took upon Himself human flesh so He could die as the final sacrifice for sin, in our place. He substituted Himself for us. The result of Him being lifted up on the Cross at Calvary is that He has the power to draw all men to Himself. He is the Savior of the whole world – especially of those who believe.

Ezk 9:11  Just then, the man clothed with linen, who had the inkhorn at his side, reported back and said, “I have done as You commanded me.”

Mission accomplished – Remnant safe & sound.

Jews will be marked again. In the Revelation we are introduced to 144,000 Jews, 12,000 from each from the 12 tribes. They are “sealed” on their “foreheads.” As a result, they cannot be harmed during the Great Tribulation.

I want to mention one other thing that marks a believer in the Church Age. The apostle Paul writes, “I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus” (Galatians 6:17).

Jesus had specific marks in His body, e.g., the wound in His side where the Roman soldier pierced Him on the Cross. Paul was beaten numerous times. He mentions receiving “forty lashes minus one” from the Jews on five occasions and being beaten with rods three times (Second Corinthians 11:24-25).

Francis Schaeffer said to start with forgiveness. Is there someone who’s forgiveness you need to ask? Are you unforgiving of anyone? As long as unforgiveness persists, believers and unbelievers will not observe the Lord in your life.

Who are you in private? Let the Lord show you what He observes in you. Repent as necessary.

Always bear this in mind: After grief for sin there should be joy for forgiveness.

Prophecy Update #803 – Is There An Avatar In Your Future?

We set aside a few minutes most Sunday mornings to identify connections between unfulfilled Bible prophecies and current news & events.

Turmoil in the Middle East on account of the nation of Israel is the most obvious sign that we live in the Last Days. Israel’s existence again as a nation is both a miracle and a fulfillment of many OT prophecies.

Other biblical signs include the push towards both global government & global commerce; the technology to utilize biometrics to buy & sell all goods & services; instantaneous global communication; a great falling away from faith in Jesus Christ; and the exponential growth in knowledge.

One of the most universally well known prophecy is the Mark of the Beast. Every one in the Great Tribulation will “receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

In the middle of that prophecy we are introduced to “an image to the beast [antichrist]. He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed.”

A sentient statue?

It sounds like some type of interactive Artificial Intelligence. Which leads us to something FaceBook is going to roll-out called PhotoReal Avatars. As I understand it, you take pics of yourself and AI animates it. It looks & sounds like you.[1]

Here’s the kicker: People interact with your avatar.

I’m not saying that the image is the antichrist’s avatar… But it sure sounds like it could be.

Jesus promised to resurrect & rapture His Church prior to His Second Coming, and before the time of Great Tribulation would come upon the whole Earth.[2]

The resurrection and rapture of the church is presented as an imminent event. It could happen anytime. Right now, for example.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, get ready, stay ready, and keep looking up

Ready or not Jesus is coming! 

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mnonWbzOiQ
2 The Revelation of Jesus Christ 3:10.

One In A Thousand (Ecclesiastes 7:15-29)

One in a thousand. That is the odds of you flipping a coin 10 times and getting heads on every flip. It’s also the odds of you catching a foul ball at a professional baseball game[1] and the odds of the egg you crack tomorrow morning having a double-yolk.[2]

The Teacher spent his life hunting for something much more significant than coin flips or foul balls. He was looking for someone who actually found meaning in life – someone who beat the system and was not only a good person, but also was able to enjoy their lives in a meaningful way, despite the difficulties, adversity, unfairness, and chance that all of us are subject to.

The odds of being that person? The Teacher says in his experience it’s one in a thousand. Maybe. And he admits that he is not one of those people. His experiments have failed.

Tonight’s passage is one of those eyebrow-raising sections of the book. We’ll find ourselves thinking, “Excuse me?” after some of these verses.

One commentator notes: “There is perhaps no book int he Bible that is the subject of more controversies than Ecclesiastes.”[3] Chapter 7 is a major contributor to those controversies. Scholars tell us that some of the grammar is difficult to parse, as is the Teacher’s intent. But, on top of that, some of these verses seem to fly in the face of what the Bible teaches elsewhere.

So, let’s buckle up and take a look.

Ecclesiastes 7:15 – 15 In my futile life I have seen everything: someone righteous perishes in spite of his righteousness, and someone wicked lives long in spite of his evil.

In verse 14 the Teacher tried to reassure us. He said, “God is in charge. The best thing you can do is trust Him and go along with His plan.” But then he immediately acknowledges the reality that God-fearing people still suffer, sometimes unfairly. And some people who are doing life all wrong seem to escape any consequences.

Pastor Chuck Smith never smoked a cigarette in his life and then he died of lung cancer.[4] We don’t live in an ideal world, we live in a fallen world. And even though the Lord provides for us, cares for us, and walks with us, we still are impacted by the effects of the fall every single day of our lives.

The Teacher says “in my futile life.” He acknowledges that much of his life has been a waste  – a hevel life. In the days of his apostasy.[5] It will help if we remember this assessment as we get to the final verses of the chapter.

Ecclesiastes 7:16 – 16 Don’t be excessively righteous, and don’t be overly wise. Why should you destroy yourself?

Come again? Did he just say what I think he said? No. Remember: The Teacher is not speaking for a position of real faith in God, but from a secular position of trying to solve the problems of life with his own intellect, his own strength, his own will.

The righteousness here is self-righteousness. Derek Kidner writes, “[The Teacher] shuts out for a while any gleam of genuine faith, and introduces religion…only in the form of superstition.”[6] And we know he’s not talking about real, heavenly righteousness because in a moment he’s going to say “No one is actually righteous.”

Self-righteousness cannot help you. It blinds you of your true condition and then robs you of joy in life. It breeds hypocrisy, a false sense of superiority. It is an inert medication for a deadly disease.

The Teacher is looking at someone who is trying to live a fanatically religious life, in the sense that they do all sorts of things that they think will put God in their debt so that He has to bless them or elevate them or exempt them from suffering. But that path, which looks so pious, really ends in ruin. Asceticism doesn’t work. Phariseeism doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because it’s just play-acting.[7]

Ecclesiastes 7:17 – 17 Don’t be excessively wicked, and don’t be foolish. Why should you die before your time?

The Teacher now swings to the other extreme. If being a goody-two-shoes, religious fanatic doesn’t guarantee me a better life, might as well go all the way over to the other side and indulge myself. The Teacher says, “No, that’s stupid. If you do that there’s a good chance you’ll kill yourself.”

He’s not saying you’ll definitely die early – verse 15 made that point – but excessive vice, excessive worldliness does very often lead to an early death.

In these two verses, the Teacher has covered the philosophies of the vast majority of human beings. You have those who try to earn their life through self-imposed rules that they think will obligate God to do things for them. Then you have those who ignore their duty toward God. They dive into self-indulgence, feeding every urge whether it’s good or not.

And then in the middle you have people who think like the Teacher – people who want it both ways. One commentator writes, “They know better than to live a life of total wickedness because deep down they believe that God will judge [them]. Yet secretly they suspect that trying to be holy will take the fun out of life. Generally speaking they try to be good, and they hope they are good enough to get by on the Day of Judgment. But their consciences are troubled too little by their sins. As long as they are not overly righteous or overly wicked, they are happy the way they are.”[8]

Ecclesiastes 7:18 – 18 It is good that you grasp the one and do not let the other slip from your hand. For the one who fears God will end up with both of them.

So is Solomon saying “be a little good, but be a little bad?” That is the conclusion that conventional wisdom leads to. But when we fear the Lord, something new happens. Because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of true wisdom[9] – wisdom that leads to abundant life and eternal satisfaction.

When a person fears the Lord, they are able to escape the traps of self-righteousness and self-indulgence and they are able to get what the others failed to achieve. The self-righteous reaches for religion and casts off enjoyment. The self-indulgent person does the opposite. When a person fears God, they are able to to live a life of true religion and true enjoyment.[10] They are gifts God gives us freely as we walk with Him. Sanctification and satisfaction. Devoted and delighted.[11]

Ecclesiastes 7:19 – 19 Wisdom makes the wise person stronger than ten rulers of a city.

Remember, the Teacher speaks from the level of human wisdom. That doesn’t mean these proverbs are wrong, just that they will not ultimately lead to the eternal guarantees we all long for.

Verse 19 encourages us to value wisdom over other traits in our leaders. More than success. More than strength. More than wealth. More than will. Wisdom, meaning thoughtful understanding, will benefit a city or a society most. That’s a good reminder for a country like ours where we have the privilege of choosing our leaders. Do you want a truly strong leader? Then pick a wise one.

Ecclesiastes 7:20 – 20 There is certainly no one righteous on the earth who does good and never sins.

Even the Teacher in his secularism cannot help but preach this obvious truth. As we listen to his lecture, we can’t help but feel bad for the him. He’s the smartest person in the world. He’s the most accomplished, the most impressive, all the things. He’s right there, so close to the truths he really needs to grant him the hope and peace that he’s longing for. But, thus far, he won’t surrender himself to God. The Teacher recognizes that God is Judge over all the earth and is sovereign and that He has laws that we sin against. But the Teacher won’t give himself to the Lord. Not yet, anyway. And the result is that he is trapped in futility. He can’t shake the plague of unrighteousness.

Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 – 21 Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you, 22 for in your heart you know that many times you yourself have cursed others.

It’s so easy for us to get upset about things people say or post or suggest. Social media really brings the worst out of us on that level. It thrives on aggravation. But listen: I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. Sometimes criticisms we hear are legitimate. And sometimes we misunderstand what was meant. Sometimes we hear things that were said in confidence. We can let it go.

In your version, this verse may say, “don’t take it to heart.” That was a good image for me. Our heart is a garden. What we plant there grows. If we plant these seeds of anger or resentment or bitterness, what kind of fruit do we think is going to come out? Be careful what you take to heart. Certain crops crowd out a lot of space and they produce nothing but rotten fruit.

Ecclesiastes 7:23 – 23 I have tested all this by wisdom. I resolved, “I will be wise,” but it was beyond me.

How could the wisest man on earth be so disappointed? We know why. It’s because, in his old age, Solomon did not love the Lord.[12] That is why peace and satisfaction and rest and fulfillment and meaning was always just beyond his reach. And that’s why the more he looked for good, the more he found bad not only in himself but also in others.

Ecclesiastes 7:24 – 24 What exists is beyond reach and very deep. Who can discover it?

At the close of his life, Isaac Newton said, “I have been paddling in the shallows of a great ocean of knowledge.”[13] A truly wise person is quick to recognize how much they don’t know.

The Teacher had the practical but not the eternal – the rational but not the essential. After all this time, he had no answer to what life is about. The further he went, the further he felt from the goal.

Ecclesiastes 7:25 – 25 I turned my thoughts to know, explore, and examine wisdom and an explanation for things, and to know that wickedness is stupidity and folly is madness.

He wants us to understand how meticulous he was in this pursuit. It wasn’t just a hobby. He wasn’t a weekend warrior. He dedicated himself to finding out the meaning of life, how to live a life that matters, how to have peace in his heart. What is the bottom line – what is the sum of all things?[14]

Ecclesiastes 7:26 – 26 And I find more bitter than death the woman who is a trap: her heart a net and her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.

Some use the next three verses as evidence that the Teacher was a deplorable sexist, or that the Bible is a chauvinistic book. The words taken without context or consideration are controversial. But let’s pause and remember what we know.

First, we know the Teacher isn’t anti-woman. He will say in chapter 9 that one of the best things a man can do is enjoy the wife that he loves. We also know that, as a person, Solomon had a great love for women. And we know how he venerated women in his other writings. The book of Proverbs ends not with the portrait of a great man, but of an excellent woman.

We also know that the Teacher is detailing the results of his personal study. These are his findings from his own experience. And we know that Solomon’s life was brought down to ruin because he surrounded himself and deeply attached his heart to pagan women who turned him away from the Lord.[15] His relationships with them did become a net and chains, spiritually speaking.

Some scholars make a case that the Teacher is personifying folly as a woman in these verses the same way Solomon personified Wisdom and Folly as women in Proverbs. They also point out that there is a lot of reference to Genesis 1 through 3 in these verses.[16]

So, before modern ears are offended, we should consider the whole context. Philip Ryken writes, “Taken as a whole, the Bible has as much (if not more) to say about sinful men than sinful women. Iniquity is an equal opportunity employer.”[17]

As an application there are a couple of good warnings here. First, to the fellows: There are women out there who are a trap. Perhaps some of you are going to the computer and have what you think is a victimless relationship with an enticing woman or harem of women as you watch pornography, but you are actually being snared and chained. That’s something you need to escape from.

But then, the second warning is the fact that any of us could be a trap to another person. God has an opinion about who you should marry or stay married to. When we don’t follow Him, obey Him, and honor Him, we potentially become a dangerous trap to other people. And when we get into a marriage or extra-martial relationship that God wants to rescue us from or keep us from, the only result is misery. The Teacher is the expert on this and he is giving us firsthand testimony.

It’s so easy for us to put ourselves in the victim’s position, but we also need to acknowledge that we could also be the problem. Instead of causing problems because we’re trying to please our own flesh or go our own way, we’re called to please God. How does a person please God? Through faith. By believing God’s Word, by going God’s way, by trusting that God has an opinion, discerning it and following in it. In this example, by coupling in faith.

Ecclesiastes 7:27-28 – 27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “I have discovered this by adding one thing to another to find out the explanation, 28 which my soul continually searches for but does not find: I found one person in a thousand, but none of those was a woman.

Again, this isn’t sexism. A paraphrase of these verses is, “I have found very few people who please God—no one at all really.”[18] There’s a poetic parallelism happening here.

Isn’t it interesting that his sample size is 1,000? How many wives and concubines did Solomon have? So, the Teacher says, “I looked all around at these people, trying to find someone who was upright, who had life figured out, and I found maybe one in a thousand.” Well, that ratio might improve if you didn’t fill your court with pagans who hated the God of Israel!

Meanwhile, the world is generally full of people who are not going God’s way – people captive in sin and stuck under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 7:29 – 29 Only see this: I have discovered that God made people upright, but they pursued many schemes.”

Schemes here can mean inventions or devices or downward path. It can mean people have gone after their own explanation of things.[19] And this looks back to the fall of man in the Garden. God showed His way, man decided to go his own way. And Ecclesiastes is the result.

In ancient Babylonia there was a poem written that we call the Babylonian Theodicy. It was a piece of their wisdom literature. It’s very possible that it was known to Solomon – the dates work out.

In that poem, we’re told that the gods made humans the way they are today. It’s not our fault that we lie and slander and steal and kill. Those things were endowed to us by our creators.

But here is the truth: God made us upright. Perfect. We broke the world. We invented the ruin around us because we are determined to take a downward path to ruin and death.

But God, out of His love and grace, didn’t stop at being our Creator. He then went on to be our Savior and Redeemer and Advocate and Helper and Great Physician. And now, He invites us to join Him on the high road of heaven. The road that leads to life more abundantly. To joy and peace and purpose and satisfaction.

Today, we’re invited to walk with Him. We talked about those one in a thousand odds. The truth is you can be the one in a thousand the Teacher talked about in these verses, not by chance but by choice. You know the winning numbers. You can decide to be that person by believing God and walking with Him.

Have you seen the commercials where they have the old smokers who have to speak through that voice box hole in their throat? The point of those ads is simple: Don’t be like these people!

Here’s the Teacher saying, “My life is hevel. I’m totally dissatisfied and despondent. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Don’t be like me!” Instead, be one in a thousand. It’s not odds, it’s an opportunity God extends to every one of us. Have you taken Him up on it?

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 https://blogs.fangraphs.com/odds-of-catching-a-foul-ball/
2 https://www.peteandgerrys.com/blogs/field-notes/egg-yolks-two-for-the-price-of-one
3 Choon-Leong Seow   Ecclesiastes: A New Translation With Introduction And Commentary
4 https://www.godreports.com/2012/01/chuck-smith-interview-about-his-lung-cancer-he-will-keep-preaching-and-says-i-have-no-fears/
5 Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown   Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
6 Derek Kidner   A Time To Mourn And A Time To Dance: The Message Of Ecclesiastes
7 Michael Eaton   Ecclesiastes: An Introduction And Commentary
8 Philip Ryken   Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters
9 Proverbs 9:10
10 Duane Garrett   The New American Commentary, Volume 14: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song Of Songs
11 See 1 Timothy 6:6, Psalm 37:4, Matthew 5:6
12 1 Kings 11:4
13 Ray Stedman   Ecclesiastes 1:1-18: The Search For Meaning
14 David Hubbard   The Communicator’s Commentary: Ecclesiastes, Song Of Solomon
15 1 Kings 11:1-3
16 Garrett, Kidner
17 Ryken
18 Thomas Constable   Notes On Ecclesiastes
19 Constable

Dig Dug (Ezekiel 8:1-18)

I don’t feel any less masculine in telling you that I once binge-watched all six hours of the 1995 BBC version of Pride & Prejudice.

Jane Austin masterfully portrayed a noble, almost pure, form of jealousy. Mr. Darcy exhibits it towards Elizabeth Bennet, not in a possessive sense, but in a way that motivates him to protect her from unworthy suitors.

Do you ever think of God as being jealous?

In the Book of Exodus God told His people, “Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where you are going, lest it be a snare in your midst. But you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God)” (34:12-14).

God is so jealous for believers. He says it is His name.

His jealousy for His people is prominent in our text:

  • In verse three He describes “the seat of the image of jealousy… which provokes [Him] to jealousy.”
  • In verse five, “north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.”

We were created to worship Him, with eternity in our hearts. Nothing & no one else can ever satisfy us. Everything else we gravitate towards is a form of idolatry and will only, ultimately, destroy us.

Among the many names for God, don’t overlook “Jealous.” I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1 Jealous Is Determined In His Jealousy For You, and #2 Jealous Is Devoted In His Jealously For You.

#1 – Jealous Is Determined In His Jealousy For You (v1-16)

One of the commentators I read used this illustration:

God is jealous like a powerful and merciful king who takes a peasant girl from a life of shame, forgives her, marries her, and gives her not the chores of a slave, but the privileges of a wife. His jealousy does not rise from fear or weakness but from a holy indignation at having His honor and power and mercy scorned by the faithlessness of a fickle spouse.

Ezk 8:1  And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.

Where were you on 9/11?

You remember precisely where you were on account of its national significance. The vision that spans the next several chapters had 9-11 national significance to Ezekiel. In it he would witness one of the most lamentable events in Jewish history. He was shown the departure of the glory of the LORD from the Temple.

The exiled Jews were not put to slave labor. Ezekiel had his own house. Don’t get me wrong: They were captives. But they were comfortable captives, so much so that when Persia liberated them to return home, most stayed put in Babylon.

The “elders of Judah” were the layman appointed to serve as the leaders among the exiles. It goes back to Moses being told to choose 70 elders to help govern the Jews in their Exodus.

I would like to think that they met often to discuss their situation.

Tomorrow when you go to work and someone asks, “How was your weekend?” I dare you to say, “I went to church and the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there.”

We struggle to express exactly how God ‘speaks’ to us because, after all, it is supernatural. It’s OK.

Ezk 8:2  Then I looked, and there was a likeness, like the appearance of fire – from the appearance of His waist and downward, fire; and from His waist and upward, like the appearance of brightness, like the color of amber.

We call this Person a Theophany. It is an OT appearance of the Second Person of the tri-une God. It is Jesus.

Why “fire” & “amber?” Don’t know. We can say that the Lord is always dressed for the part.

Ezk 8:3  He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem…

I want you to picture John the Baptist. As a life-long member of the Nazarite Vow club, his hair had never been cut.

Picture him again. Is it far-fetched to suggest that he braided his hair? Did he have dreadlocks?

Samson was a life-long Nazarite. He told Delilah, “weave the seven locks of my head into the web of the loom…” He came to her already with seven locks of braided hair that she wove together into one.

Ezekiel wasn’t grabbed by the hair & dragged up & off. This Person, for some reason, simply took hold of Ezekiel’s hair. Then the Holy Spirit “lifted him.” (Can we say he was hair-lifted to the Temple?).

It is unclear if Ezekiel was removed bodily, or if he saw all this in his mind. It was not uncommon for OT prophets to be removed bodily from one location to another.

Ezk 8:3  He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven, and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which provokes to jealousy.

There is no information about this “image.” It was an idol or statue or object of some kind that represented a pagan god or goddess. It was so-called because it’s presence in God’s house provoked Him.

Ezk 8:4  And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.

At its dedication, the LORD put His presence in the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s Temple. He was there as Shekinah – a shining cloud of glory.

How can a person see Shekinah, recall all the history & miracles related to it, but turn from it to worship a lifeless object made by his/her hands?

Here is a more pressing question: How can you and I, who have God the Holy Spirit indwelling us, sin as if He isn’t present?

Ezk 8:5  Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

The “altar gate” most likely refers to the aforementioned North Gate. It provided access to the area near the altar of burnt offering, where priests performed sacrifices.

Ezk 8:6  Furthermore He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel commits here, to make Me go far away from My sanctuary? Now turn again, you will see greater abominations.”

Did you catch what He said? “To make Me go far away from My sanctuary?” This is a build-up to the LORD leaving the Holy of Holies for good. From the destruction of the Temple in 586BC until the arrival of Jesus on Earth in the 1st century, the glory of the LORD departed from Earth. When the Lord Jesus departed, ascending to Heaven, His Church on Earth became the Temple. We have in us, indwelling us, God the Holy Spirit. We reveal the glory of God until He comes for us, to snatch us home to Heaven.

We are shown expressions of idolatry among three groups of Jews: Elders, women, and priests.

Ezk 8:7  So He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.

Ezk 8:8  Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig into the wall”; and when I dug into the wall, there was a door.

Ezk 8:9  And He said to me, “Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they are doing there.”

Ezekiel was shown a hidden entrance to a secret room. You might say he “did a little digging” to discover it.

Ezk 8:10  So I went in and saw, and there – every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed all around on the walls.

Most commentators see this as Egyptian art. That makes sense because the political leaders in Jerusalem were making an alliance with Egypt to overthrow Babylon. It would fail, and was a reason why Nebuchadnezzar made a third siege on Jerusalem, destroying it.

Ezk 8:11  And there stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.

There was no Sanhedrin at that time in Israel’s history. These 70 were lay-leaders, just like the guys at Ezekiel’s house in Babylon. In their case they were leading in abominations.

Shaphan was the scribe who read God’s Law to King Josiah when it was rediscovered in the Temple. It incited one of the greatest revivals in Israel’s history. Yet here Shaphan was, just a few years after, incensing-up with a secret room full of idolaters.

They were a secret society. Archaeologists have recently discovered their title – The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang.

Ezk 8:12  Then He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’ ”

Instead of understanding their plight as their own choosing, they Jerusalem Jews blamed God. For such destruction to occur must mean God had withdrawn from them.

What about you & I? Since we have received the promise of the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit, we cannot ever be forsaken, and the Spirit is in us wherever we go, whatever we do.

One thing we do is reduce the Spirit to an influence or an ability. We know the doctrine – that He is a Person. But when we sin, we are not behaving according to our beliefs.

Think of it this way:

  • If God the Holy Spirit is an influence and an ability, then I can draw from it anytime I want. When I want to sin, I simply ignore my ability to not sin.
  • If God the Holy Spirit is a Person – which He is – I cannot sin without defying Him and grieving Him.

We really must have a more robust understanding of the Personhood of the Spirit;

  • Pentecostals tend to treat the Spirit as a force.
  • Cessationists tend to equate Him with the Bible. Their critics say they worship God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Bible.

One reformed theologian said this: “Do you know who the Holy Spirit is? Do you understand the Holy Spirit in terms of a personal relationship? Or does the Spirit remain for you a vague, misty, abstract concept or an illusive, amorphous force? Forces in and of themselves are impersonal. But the Holy Spirit is not simply an abstract force. He is a person.”

Ezk 8:13  And He said to me, “Turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.”

Ezk 8:14  So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the LORD’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

Tammuz spent part of the year in the underworld and part on earth. It ‘explained’ the seasonal cycle, with winter representing his death and spring his return to life.

In addition to idol worship, the Jewish women were in a part of the Temple God had made ‘off limits’ for them. Pagan gods afforded opportunity for women to ignore their biblical roles & responsibilities. It all seemed so modern, so progressive.

The roles & responsibilities of men & women in the home, in the church, in public, are set by God. The roles of women are subordinate to men. It doesn’t make women inferior. It establishes an order that best communicates the Gospel.

Ezk 8:15  Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.”

Ezk 8:16  So He brought me into the inner court of the LORD’s house; and there, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east, and they were worshiping the sun toward the east.

These are the priests. They literally turned their backs on the LORD to worship the sun itself, or a sun god.

The Jews didn’t start with abominations everywhere. It crept in. The old illustration is this: If an airplane is off course by just 1° after an hour of flying it will be about 1 mile off course. The further it flies, the more that small error compounds. Over the span of a 60-mile journey, it would be a mile off course, but over thousands of miles, that minor deviation would lead the plane hundreds of miles away from its intended destination.

Stay on course…Or make the necessary course corrections.

#2 – Jealous Is Devoted In His Jealously For You (v17-18)

Sorry, but the word “devoted” in a romantic context takes me to the musical, Grease, and Sandy singing, Hopelessly Devoted to You.

OK; I’m over it!

Ezk 8:17  And He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence; then they have returned to provoke Me to anger. Indeed they put the branch to their nose.

Ezk 8:18  Therefore I also will act in fury. My eye will not spare nor will I have pity; and though they cry in My ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

They “returned” from the short-lived reforms under King Josiah. Revival is great; but often it proves fleeting. It must take root in a pursuit of holiness and, especially, the prominence of the Bible.

Are you wondering about the phrase, “they put the branch to their nose?” It is believed to be a derogatory gesture. They gave God the bird!

These last two verses make God out to be more of a destroyer than devoted. Take into mind the whole context of Ezekiel. Yes Jerusalem and the Temple were to be looted and leveled. Many Jews would die violent deaths. Their captivity would last for 70 years in Babylon. But all of this is in the context of bringing His people to repent, rebuilding their Temple, and returning to his steadfast love for them. Israel is the apple of God’s eye.

Despite their almost constant failure through history, Paul the apostle can declare, “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not! God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew… All Israel will be saved… They are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

God is every bit as jealous for you. He loves the church and gave Himself for us, that He might sanctify and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word, that He might present us to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that we should be holy and without blemish. He is able to keep us from stumbling, And to present us faultless Before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

Prophecy Update #802 – Dehumanized

We set aside a few minutes most Sunday mornings to identify connections between unfulfilled Bible prophecies and current news & events.

Turmoil in the Middle East on account of the nation of Israel is the most obvious sign that we live in the Last Days. Israel’s existence again as a nation is both a miracle and a fulfillment of many OT prophecies.

Other biblical signs include the push towards both global government & global commerce; the technology to utilize biometrics to buy & sell all goods & services; instantaneous global communication; a great falling away from faith in Jesus Christ; and the exponential growth in knowledge, e.g., with AI.

The Lord gave a prophecy update to us in Matthew 24&25. One thing He said that would characterize the Last Days is often overlooked or misunderstood. He said, “But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark.”[1]

Jesus was referring us to the strange sixth chapter of Genesis. When we go there, we see that Jesus wasn’t talking about weddings taking place just as they always have. No, He was talking about a certain kind of ‘marriage.’

We read, “The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.”[2]

These “sons of God” were fallen angels; the “daughters of men” were human females. Their mating produced the giants, called Nephilim.

If you doubt that interpretation, you should know it is corroborated by writings found in the Dead Sea Scrolls that testify to these facts. The writings also speak of a type of genetic engineering. You can find it in First Enoch and the Book of the Giants.

We are not saying that there must be a return of the Nephilim, or that angels will once again mate with human females. The gist of what was happening was an attempt by the devil to corrupt the human race.

What we expect to be happening in the last days is an attempt to corrupt human genetics.

Is that happening? Yes, it is. For example you may have seen an article titled, They Were Made Without Eggs or Sperm. Are They Human?

“They” are called Embryo Models. These are lab generated structures that mimic certain features of early human embryos but are created without using sperm or egg cells. Instead scientists use stem cells.

Technologies like AI and brain-machine interfaces bring questions about what it means to be human. Some fear that significant enhancements to cognitive abilities or transferring consciousness to machines could lead to a loss of personal identity or blur the line between humans and machines. There is also concern about whether a person whose consciousness is uploaded into a machine can still be considered human, or even a person at all, which introduces philosophical and moral dilemmas.

There is no way of predicting the path of transhumanism. Our point is simple: Centuries ago sinister malevolent forces tried to erase what it means to be human by genetic manipulation. Jesus said it would happen again, as a sign of the Last Days.

Jesus promised to resurrect & rapture His Church prior to His Second Coming, and before the time of Great Tribulation would come upon the whole Earth.[3]

The resurrection and rapture of the church is presented as an imminent event. It could happen anytime. Right now, for example.

Are you ready for the rapture? If not, get ready, stay ready, and keep looking up

Ready or not Jesus is coming! 

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Matthew 24:37-38
2 Genesis 6:2&4
3 The Revelation of Jesus Christ 3:10

Dead Serious (Ecclesiastes 7:1-14)

What’s your idea of an ideal weekend? Maybe some relaxing, have a nice meal, go to a concert or movie, look through some old photos to reminisce on the good times you had back when you were first dating your spouse?

The Teacher has a different idea. He says, “You know what would be a really good use of our time? If we crashed a funeral or two. Maybe we could find a wise man to point out a bunch of things we’ve done wrong.”

Ecclesiastes wants you to think about life but especially through the lens of your certain, unstoppable, impending death.[1] The Teacher’s words are often unpleasant, but remember: That’s the point. We talked about this in our first study but haven’t reminded ourselves recently: The Teacher’s message to us is supposed to be like a sharp goad – a cattle prod – to shepherd us toward God and the ultimate meaning and purpose He wants for our lives.

Tonight’s goads are: Consider adversity. Consider the fact that you’re going to die. Consider that your life is a part of the amazing, sovereign work of God. And through that consideration, we can put death and suffering and the wrinkles of life into proper perspective.

As chapter 6 closed, he asked a rhetorical question: Who knows what’s good? What is the advantage for human beings? Tonight, he’ll use the word “better” eight times in these verses. He’s answering his question with a series of proverbs.

In many ways, these verses are similar to many we would read one book to the left, also written by Solomon. But we’ll find that these proverbs feel very different. There is a gloom to them. The Teacher doesn’t talk about wisdom they way he does in Proverbs. That’s because in this book, he’s talking to us from the earthly perspective. He doesn’t weigh eternal life as he measures these things out. So when he speaks about ‘wisdom,’ he means earthly knowledge and ingenuity, not the heavenly wisdom of righteousness.

But even from the Teacher’s limited perspective, we are able to glean many helpful principles as we seek to live a life that matters and that makes a lasting difference.

Ecclesiastes 7:1 – A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth.

At the time, perfume was more than a nicety, it was a royal treasure – a decadent luxury that few had access to.[2] But the Teacher tells us character is of much more lasting value than cologne.

But, it takes a lot more time to distill a good name than it does a bottle of perfume. It takes a life of consistent, careful choices both small and large. These ingredients aren’t always easy to acquire.

Next, the Teacher says that your deathday is better than birthday. We know he’s in a very depressed frame of mind, but the truth is he’s right – at least when it comes to us Christians. The day we die is going to be much better than the day we were born. Paul said it outright: “To die is gain!”[3] He said he longed to go and be with Christ. But, even though we look forward to that arrival, we know  that God has given us this life on earth on purpose, with purpose. We are to follow Him until it’s done.

Ecclesiastes 7:2 – It is better to go to a house of mourning than to go to a house of feasting, since that is the end of all mankind, and the living should take it to heart.

Did you know that less than 47% of people want a funeral when they die.[4] That’s not a good thing. It’s a bad trend for society. We need funerals. At funerals, we are confronted with the one reality that most people refuse to face – and that’s the fact that one day they will be buried.

If you’re a Christian, have a funeral service. Your family doesn’t need to go bankrupt putting one on. But that hour may be the most spiritually impactful event of your life. It is at that funeral that your faith, your testimony, your love for Christ is put on display for your family and friends and coworkers and community to see. None of them will try to shut you up or jeer you down. Instead, the Gospel can be directly preached to them as they stare their own deaths in the face.

And it’s good to attend funerals. They provide us an opportunity to calibrate and put what matters into perspective. To consider the work of God in a person’s life and His faithfulness to them.

Feasts are the opposite. Feasting isn’t bad in and of itself – the Teacher tells us to enjoy life, to enjoy meals, that these things are a gift from God – but feasting is meant to distract. It’s meant to keep us from serious thought. But life requires serious thought so that it doesn’t just happen to us. So that we are making the most of this incredible gift God has given to us for specific reasons.

Ecclesiastes 7:3-4 – Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad. The heart of the wise is in a house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in a house of pleasure.

Busy with laughter and pleasure, the fool forgets to ask the question: What’s going to happen when time runs out? What’s going to happen when the good times stop rolling? When the money is gone? When the beauty fades? When my health breaks down? What is my life adding up to?

The party life is all about “You only live once,” right? That mindset ignores the hard stop at the end. All sense, no substance. The Teacher never lets us get far without reminding us, “Death is coming.”

Moses, in his Psalm (90), wrote this important line:

Psalm 90:12 – 12 Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts.

The average American will live a little more than 27,700 days. How many have you lived so far? Almost everyone in here has lived at least 5,000 days. I’ve lived 15,219. The Bible doesn’t present this to us to scare us – although some people need to have a little shock treatment. But your life matters. Your days matter. And the reality of this fallen world is that the outer man is perishing. We have an appointment with death. That is a very important appointment to prepare for.

Ecclesiastes 7:5-6 – It is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person than to listen to the song of fools, for like the crackling of burning thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.

To the young party animal, the wise man is just a stuffed-shirt – a wet blanket. But the Teacher really is trying to help people not make the same mistakes he did. He speaks from a place of expert disappointment. His whole goal is that we avoid the dead ends he ran into again and again.

Think of all the pop songs about how tonight is the night! Oh, the things we’re going to experience! We’re going to feel so alive! The number one song on Billboard’s Top 100 right now is a song I’ve never heard of from a band I’ve never heard of. It’s called “A Bar Song,” and it’s all about how the singer should just drink till they pass out then wake up and drink some more. There’s no point in working. There’s no point in worrying about the problems of life. There’s a party downtown, let’s go and drink all night and that’s it. Number one song filling the airwaves.

The problem is, it’s just (as some translate it), “Nettles under the kettle.”[5] The song doesn’t last. There’s no heat, just noise. It’s hevel.

It’s better to listen to a rebuke from a wise person. Rebuke means when someone points out to you that you’ve messed up.[6] None of us like being rebuked, but it can be a very helpful thing. One commentary writes that a rebuke “heals and strengthens even while it wounds.”[7]

Ecclesiastes 7:7 – Surely, the practice of extortion turns a wise person into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the mind.

So far we’ve seen, “Ok, this is better than that. Funeral better than party. Rebuke better than Top 40.” And we could think of it almost as shoppers looking at different products. But here there’s a new significance. Because this is not just about what we might choose, but who we are becoming.

In verse 7 we see a wise person turn into a fool. How? Well, because they went down the road of loving money and valuing a life of pleasure and ease, they become people who extort and bribe to get what they want. Their minds become corrupted by the hevel of the world, and now they are the fools singing and laughing and dragging down the world around them.

But is this person in verse 7 going to have a good name on the day of their death? They’ve got shelves full of perfume and party favors and other treasures, but in the end their life will be a miscarriage like the Teacher talked about last time. There’s a corruption of what should have been.

Ecclesiastes 7:8 – The end of a matter is better than its beginning; a patient spirit is better than a proud spirit.

We’ll hang in there with a book or movie with a lackluster beginning. But when an author messes up the final chapter? That’s unforgivable.

Christians are supposed to care about finishing well. Paul talked a lot about this. Acts 20. 1 Corinthians 9. Philippians 3. 2 Timothy 4. So many believers don’t finish the race in the way they wanted to when they first started.

Now, of course, it is God Who completes the work He began in us. It is God accomplishing His purposes through His power. But we are able to slow to a crawl, or get lost in the woods, or disqualify ourselves from certain prizes in our walk with the Lord.

According to this proverb in verse 8, one way for us to aim toward finishing well is valuing patience over pride. As David Hubbard puts it, we should care about length rather than height.[8] It’s not about whether my Christianity leads to big numbers or great fame or fantastic feats of faith. Did I run the race the Lord gave me and did I finish well? Did I arrive at the destination He plotted?

Ecclesiastes 7:9 – Don’t let your spirit rush to be angry, for anger abides in the heart of fools.

I like to think that my anger is justified – that it’s always righteous indignation just like Jesus had! But that’s almost never actually true. Instead, I should endeavor to be more conformed into the image of the Lord, Who is slow to anger and abounding in love. There’s a time to be angry, but it’s way less often than we like to think.

Hubbard again writes, “Anger, which we all feel at times…will rarely improve our circumstances. It can, however, ruin our chance at any joy a can rain on the parades of everyone around us.”[9]

What about injustice? What about wickedness? What about all the wrongs going on around us? Yes, that’s real. We’re not supposed to just ignore it. But “the wise man is neither naive nor cynical and embittered.”[10]

Ecclesiastes 7:10 – 10 Don’t say, “Why were the former days better than these?” since it is not wise of you to ask this.

This is a very interesting proverb. There’s always an idea that we could return to a better time in our past or our society’s past and regain the good life. That’s what nostalgia is.

Were the golden days better? Sure. Maybe. Sometimes in some ways. In other ways, not so much. We usually dismiss those parts from memory. But even if they were better, it doesn’t matter. Because you’re here and now. And sometimes nostalgia lies to us in very dangerous ways.

There were the Israelites wandering in the wilderness. “If only we could go back to the good old days in Egypt!” …You mean where you were slaves?

Or the Jews with Ezra and Nehemiah. “If only this temple were as nice as the last temple.” You mean when the kings of Israel and Judah were destroying the land with idolatry and immorality?

As Christians, we should know the past, learn from the past, even value much of the past, but we can’t live in the past. Instead, we should always remind ourselves the best is yet to come![11] Not in this life, but in the next. Heaven is coming. Eternity is coming. Freedom from sickness and sin and difficulty and death and sorrow and disappointments, it’s all coming. It’s wise for us to think on that.

Instead of living in the past, “How then should we live?” 1 Thessalonians 4 gives us principles for living as we hopefully await our coming future: To live in sanctification and holiness as the Lord shapes our lives. To love the brothers and sisters around you. To live a quiet life, working hard. And looking forward, not back.

Ecclesiastes 7:11-12 – 11 Wisdom is as good as an inheritance and an advantage to those who see the sun, 12 because wisdom is protection as silver is protection; but the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

Remember, when the Teacher talks about wisdom, he doesn’t mean heaven’s eternal wisdom. He means human wisdom.[12] We see the hint there: “Those who see the sun.” So, he’s talking about human know-how.

And human wisdom isn’t always bad. In fact, it can really help out sometimes. Don’t touch a downed power line. That human wisdom might preserve your life!

Human wisdom can be an advantage on a limited level, just like money can help out. But they cannot guarantee you anything. In fact, as we’ve seen, wealth might actually cost you your life. But, as you live, it’s good to be thoughtful and rational and knowledgable. It’s generally going to help. But it can’t guarantee you satisfaction or eternal life. We need over-the-sun wisdom for that.

Proverbs 12:28 – 28 There is life in the path of righteousness, and in its path there is no death.

Ecclesiastes 7:13 – 13 Consider the work of God, for who can straighten out what he has made crooked?

“Crooked” here is not referring to moral crookedness.[13] Rather, the Teacher means when we look at  life and it seems tangled – awkward – rough sailing. We get so wrapped up in ironing out our lives and trying to fix things that aren’t to our liking. The Teacher invites us to stop and consider whether what is going on is actually the work of God in our lives.

What is God doing in your life right now? If we think, “I don’t think He’s really doing anything in my life right now.” The Teacher would say, “Oh yes He is!” Maybe we’re distracted from seeing His work because we’re trying to cut a path when He wants us to turn along His road.

James Smith writes, “Man should concentrate on reflecting on God’s will and how he may bring his life into conformity with that divine will.”[14] The Teacher would agree with that.

Ecclesiastes 7:14 – 14 In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that no one can discover anything that will come after him.

An overall theme of the last two passages has been: Prosperity isn’t always good and adversity isn’t always bad.[15] They are both aspects of life that serve God’s purposes as He accomplishes His plan in and through our lives. As we walk with God, we’re going to encounter the full spectrum of experience in life. Rather than resist it, we should react as Christians who understand what’s really going on in the world, what’s really going on in history, and what God really wants for our lives.

We would be wise to consider, rather than constantly try to distract ourselves from things we’d rather not do or think about or confront ourselves with. That doesn’t mean we’re not allowed to have fun or embrace the lighter side of life. The Teacher is in a deep gloom in these chapters, but remember he commands us six times to enjoy life as a gift from God. But tonight the message is: Life is going to end. When it’s over, what will our lives have been? We should give it serious thought because life is too precious and too important to waste.

Footnotes

Footnotes
1 Roland Murphy   Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 23a: Ecclesiastes
2 Choon-Leong Seow   Ecclesiastes: A New Translation With Introduction And Commentary
3 Philippians 1:21
4 https://www.premierchristianity.com/opinion/half-of-people-no-longer-want-a-funeral-its-a-worrying-trend/16832.article
5 James Smith   The Wisdom Literature And Psalms
6 Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament)
7, 14 Smith
8 David Hubbard   The Communicator’s Commentary: Ecclesiastes, Song Of Solomon
9 Hubbard
10 Duane Garrett   The New American Commentary, Volume 14: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song Of Songs
11 Philip Ryken   Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters
12 Iain Provan   Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs. The NIV Application Commentary
13 Derek Kidner   A Time To Mourn And A Time To Dance: The Message Of Ecclesiastes
15 Walter Kaiser, Jr.   Ecclesiastes: Total Life