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Dig Dug (Ezekiel 8:1-18)

October 13, 2024

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

October 13, 2024

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)

October 9, 2024

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 – 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 – 3 Grief is better than laughter, for when a face is sad, a heart may be glad. 4 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 – 5 It is better to listen to rebuke from a wise person than to listen to the song of fools, 6 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 – 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 – 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 – 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

I Hear The Chain A-comin, It’s Comin’ Means The End (Ezekiel 7:1-27)

October 6, 2024

“I wear the chain I forged in life. I made it link by link and yard by yard.”

Recognize the quote? Sure you do. It’s Jacob Marley’s ghost answering his former partner, Ebenezer Scrooge, who asked it, “You are fettered. Tell me why?”

Charles Dickens based A Christmas Carol on the passage in the Gospel of Luke concerning the rich man & Lazarus. He was deeply influenced by Christian teachings, and biblical themes permeate much of his work.

I wonder if he came up with the idea of Marley’s chain from reading Ezekiel?

Look at verse twenty-three: “Make a chain, For the land is filled with crimes of blood, And the city is full of violence.”

Ezekiel went around dragging a chain to signify the inevitable Babylonian invasion of Judea & the captivity of the Jews.

Marley’s chain is described as being “made of cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, and deeds.” These items are attached to the chain, rattling as it is dragged along.

The items symbolized Marley’s true love – mammon, the wealth of this world.

I suggest that Ezekiel’s chain was similarly “made” from things that were symbols of the nation’s sins. I think that because Ezekiel provides a list:

  1. He mentions their “abominations” (v3, 4, 8, 9 & 20).
  2. He mentions “a rod” that blossoms (v10).
  3. He mentions their property (v12 & 13).
  4. There’s a “trumpet” (v14).
  5. “Sackcloth” (v18).
  6. “Silver & gold” (v19). And,
  7. “Ornaments” (v20).

As Ezekiel walked around dragging this chain with stuff attached to it, the Jews had a visual of the things marking their rebellion.

NT believers are once-for-all unchained by virtue of being in Christ. We may, however, still return to things that once held us captive:

  • The apostle John wrote, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (First John 5:21).
  • The apostle Paul wrote, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality” (First Thessalonians 4:3).

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1The Way You Live Can Show What It Is Like To Be Working For The Lord, and #2 The Way You Live Can Show What It Is Like To Be Waiting For The Lord.

#1 The Way That You Live Can Show What It Is Like To Be Working For The Lord (v1-23)

Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.

Working for the Lord isn’t work. It will be physically demanding, emotionally draining, spiritually oppressive. But even if I am chained in a Philippian dungeon, suffering from a thorn in my flesh, I can praise my Lord.

Ezekiel is God’s prophet to 6th century Jews who were relocated and resettled in Babylon. He was taken there in the second of three sieges. He was tasked with announcing to the exiles that in the final invasion, Jerusalem and the Temple would be looted & leveled.

Two prominent declarations are made in this chapter:

  1. God tells them it is “the end” six times, most forcefully in verse six, “An end has come, The end has come; It has dawned for you; Behold, it has come!” He furthermore says “it has come,” “doom has come,” “the time has come,” “a day of trouble is near,” “the day draws near,” and “destruction comes.”
  2. Simultaneously God said 3x, “then you shall know that I am the LORD.” (We also heard this 4x in chapter six).

Ezk 7:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Ezk 7:2  “And you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: ‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

Ezk 7:3  Now the end has come upon you, And I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations.

Ezk 7:4  My eye will not spare you, Nor will I have pity; But I will repay your ways, And your abominations will be in your midst; Then you shall know that I am the LORD!’

God’s longsuffering with their sins was over. Their punishment was determined. Personal repentance was possible, but it was too late for the nation.

“I will repay.” That’s an unusual word choice. A debtor repays the lender. God is no debtor, so it can’t mean that. The word is also used, to square accounts. We say, “Are we square now?”

In the case of the Judean Jews, it meant that they were receiving precisely what they deserved at the hand of God – no more & no less. For example, their captivity would last 70yrs. That was the exact amount of years the Jews owed the LORD for their sin of not letting their land lie unplanted every 7th year.

Twice God calls them out for their “abominations.” This was their worship of idols in which they participated in the Gentile rites involving perversions of all manner and child sacrifice.

One of our working definitions for idolatry is any person, place, or thing I substitute for the sufficiency of God in my life.

Their fall & their fettering was the discipline of a loving Father. It was severe, but loving. No discipline seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11).

They would know that He was the LORD on account of His faithfulness to discipline them. It was proof of His love. It would testify to them, and to the Gentile nations, a love so true.

God is either discipling you…or disciplining you.

Ezk 7:5  “Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘A disaster, a singular disaster; Behold, it has come!

Ezk 7:6  An end has come, The end has come; It has dawned for you; Behold, it has come!

Ezk 7:7  Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land; The time has come, A day of trouble is near, And not of rejoicing in the mountains.

Ezk 7:8  Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury, And spend My anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, And I will repay you for all your abominations.

Ezk 7:9  ‘My eye will not spare, Nor will I have pity; I will repay you according to your ways, And your abominations will be in your midst. Then you shall know that I am the LORD who strikes.

In the “mountains” you’d find them at shrines, worshipping the idols. Twice more the LORD mentions their “abominations.”

Ezk 7:10  ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it has come! Doom has gone out; The rod has blossomed, Pride has budded.

Ezk 7:11  Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness; None of them shall remain, None of their multitude, None of them; Nor shall there be wailing for them.

The “rod” represented “pride.” In Jerusalem, Jeremiah urged them to submit to Babylon. Had they submitted, they would have been spared. Instead, their pride incited the “violence” of the third invasion.

If you search the Internet for ‘how does pride manifest itself,’ you’ll see that there are seven ways, or 15 ways, or 30 ways. Do your own digging! Ask the Lord to show you how you manifest pride.

Ezk 7:12  The time has come, The day draws near. ‘Let not the buyer rejoice, Nor the seller mourn, For wrath is on their whole multitude.

Ezk 7:13  For the seller shall not return to what has been sold, Though he may still be alive; For the vision concerns the whole multitude, And it shall not turn back; No one will strengthen himself Who lives in iniquity.

“Sellers returning to what has been sold” is one of the things that occurred during the Jewish Year of Jubilee. Observed every 50th year, was a time when debts were forgiven, enslaved individuals were freed, and ancestral land was returned to its original owners. The captivity in Babylon would last 70yrs. They would miss at least one and possibly two Jubilee years.

Ezk 7:14  ‘They have blown the trumpet and made everyone ready, But no one goes to battle; For My wrath is on all their multitude.

Ezk 7:15  The sword is outside, And the pestilence and famine within. Whoever is in the field Will die by the sword; And whoever is in the city, Famine and pestilence will devour him.

The “trumpet” signified the LORD fighting for them. When Assyria came against them, the Angel of the LORD killed 185,000 Assyrian troops. Not this time.

Ezk 7:16  ‘Those who survive will escape and be on the mountains Like doves of the valleys, All of them mourning, Each for his iniquity.

Ezk 7:17  Every hand will be feeble, And every knee will be as weak as water.

Ezk 7:18  They will also be girded with sackcloth; Horror will cover them; Shame will be on every face, Baldness on all their heads.

“Sackcloth” and “baldness” communicated inner shame. These tenderhearted Jews were the remnant, the believing Jews. They could rejoice in their preservation. Nevertheless they were without homes and the prescribed place to worship.

Ezk 7:19  ‘They will throw their silver into the streets, And their gold will be like refuse; Their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them In the day of the wrath of the LORD; They will not satisfy their souls, Nor fill their stomachs, Because it became their stumbling block of iniquity.

Ezk 7:20  ‘As for the beauty of his ornaments, He set it in majesty; But they made from it The images of their abominations – Their detestable things; Therefore I have made it Like refuse to them.

Ezk 7:21  I will give it as plunder Into the hands of strangers, And to the wicked of the earth as spoil; And they shall defile it.

Ever since I was a kid, television commercials have hammered me to buy gold. But if a bag of gold is necessary to buy a loaf of Ezekiel bread, am I really rich?

Ezk 7:22  I will turn My face from them, And they will defile My secret place; For robbers shall enter it and defile it.

We will watch in upcoming chapters as God’s glory, the Shekinah, exits the Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple. Babylonians will enter, defiling it by their mere presence.

We’ve mentioned previously that the church in Ephesus was warned that they would lose their testimony unless they repented of leaving their first love.

Ezk 7:23  ‘Make a chain, For the land is filled with crimes of blood, And the city is full of violence.

Ezekiel lists items from which he ‘makes’ the chain. Maybe he added them each day to be dramatic. An idol… A budding rod… Maybe a deed to property that was unable to be redeemed… A military trumpet… Sackcloth… and Ornaments. Go through the chapter again & you can discover other items, e.g., a “sword” (v15), “doves” (v16), and “silver” & “gold” (v19).

  1. If God told believers to make such a chain to represent what is going on in our country, what objects or items would be attached to it?
  2. If God asked you (or I) to make a chain for ourselves, what would we be dragging along?

#2 – The Way You Live Can Show What It Is Like To Be Waiting For The Lord (v24-27)

In disaster movies there is usually a nod to someone holding a sign, Repent for the end is near!

This chapter reads as if God’s message was more urgent. You come away thinking, “The End is here!”

Imminence is living as if the thing the LORD has revealed could occur right now.

Scoffers mock us, and thereby God, saying, “Where is the promise of His coming?” It is being held back by a crazy little thing called love. Specifically the aspect of the Lord’s love He describes as longsuffering – His unwillingness that any should perish, but that they receive eternal life.

Ezk 7:24  Therefore I will bring the worst of the Gentiles, And they will possess their houses; I will cause the pomp of the strong to cease, And their holy places shall be defiled.

Ezk 7:25  Destruction comes; They will seek peace, but there shall be none.

Ezk 7:26  Disaster will come upon disaster, And rumor will be upon rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet; But the law will perish from the priest, And counsel from the elders.

Ezk 7:27  ‘The king will mourn, The prince will be clothed with desolation, And the hands of the common people will tremble. I will do to them according to their way, And according to what they deserve I will judge them; Then they shall know that I am the LORD!’ ”

“I will do to them according to their way” is an OT version of something we hear in the first chapter of Romans. There the apostle Paul says, 3x, “Therefore God also gave them up…” The LORD reacts to our choices and will give us what we want, to our detriment.

Some scholars see references to the End Times & the 7yr Great Tribulation. Ezekiel has plenty of future stuff… but not here. This is all about the Babylonian captivity.

I’ve mentioned over this past year a move among believers away from the pre-Tribulation resurrection & rapture of the church. Part of their argument is that imminence doesn’t mean any-moment. They argue from various texts that imminent means near, not right now.

It would seem Ezekiel agrees:

➽ He writes, “Behold, it has come! An end has come, The end has come; It has dawned for you; Behold, it has come! Doom has come to you, you who dwell in the land; The time has come.”

➽ But he also writes, “A day of trouble is near, And not of rejoicing in the mountains. Now upon you I will soon pour out My fury.”

How is the End both now & near?

The Lord is suggesting a new way of thinking.

The Lord could come right now… He didn’t, so His coming is what? Nearer than it was a moment ago.

This has a practical application. The apostle Paul taught the imminent resurrection & rapture of the church to the believers in Thessalonica. A problem arose. There were believers who figured, since the rapture could occur any moment, they should quit working and wait for the Lord. Over time, they became a burden on the church. Paul responded by saying, “No work, no eat!”

I believe it is the teaching of Scripture that the Lord could come any moment to snatch His church to Heaven. As we wait, we are to make plans, pressing forward with the Gospel, because His coming is nearer than before.

Now & nearer…Learn to wait in that dynamic.

Prophecy Update #801 – Get America Godly Again

October 6, 2024

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

Today I want to suggest a way of answering the question, “Where is America in Bible prophecy?”

The OT book Jeremiah presents a universal principle regarding how God deals with all nations. “The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it, if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.”[1]

Is our great nation doing “evil?” If so, is it enough to bring “disaster” upon us?

There is a scale for gauging a nation’s evil. It is found in the first chapter of the NT letter to the Romans. God explains that there are three milestones a nation will pass on its descent into evil. Three times we read, “Therefore God also gave them up…”[2]

God gradually abandons a nation who willfully rejects Him because that is what they choose.

The first milestone is rejecting biblical morality. “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves…” Historians cite the 1940s and 50s as the beginning of the trend toward immorality in America. It began the drift to “the sexual liberation of the 1960s and 70s, which included increased acceptance of sex outside of traditional heterosexual, monogamous relationships. Attitudes towards contraception relaxed. Around 1960 the birth control pill played a significant role in normalizing sex outside of marriage.

Milestone #2 – “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.”[3]

Homosexuality, especially its acceptance, has been spreading for several decades. It may not be PC or WOKE to say this, but when God says homosexuals receive in themselves the penalty, the AIDS epidemic immediately comes to mind. The first recorded cases in the US were on June 5th, 1981.

We are decades past the second milestone.

The next milestone, the final, is a potent, pervasive immorality that is “approved” by the majority of people. Sexual deviancy is taken to whole new levels. Examples to support it in our culture would be the sick revelations coming from Epstein Island & Sean Combs’ so-called Freak-offs.

At milestone three the majority of unbelievers are characterized by “a debased mind.” It means that they have no conscience, and that they are increasingly unable to apply reason.

The “debased mind” reveals itself when otherwise intelligent people pursue

outrageous beliefs & behaviors.

When you cannot define what a woman is… Or you encourage men who say they are women to compete against women in sporting events… Or you want to mutilate children without parental consent… Milestone #3 is fast-fading in your rear-view mirror.

John Adams’ comment upon the Constitution of our United States is appropriate here. He said, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

It’s not hopeless! If we “turn from evil,” God will “relent” from our being torn down. And while it is true that God must bring disaster on a wayward nation, we know that He desires all to be saved.

Judgment always begins in the house of the Lord.[4] We ought therefore to be pursuing holiness. The Church on Earth, indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, restrains evil. We will be better at it if we pursue holiness.

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.[5]

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 Jeremiah 18:7-10
↑2 Romans 1:24, 26, 28
↑3 Romans 1:26-27
↑4 First Peter 4:17
↑5 The Revelation of Jesus Christ 3:10

Low On Life (Ecclesiastes 6:1-12)

October 2, 2024

“I suppose it’ve been better if I’d never been born at all.” That was George Bailey’s conclusion at the pivotal moment in It’s A Wonderful Life. He was so despondent he was ready to jump off a bridge. But, after being distracted from his suicide, he goes on to see why his life was worth living.

If the Teacher of Ecclesiastes had been there instead of George Bailey, the movie might have had a very different ending. At least if we were dealing with the Teacher of chapter 6 – one of the darkest in all the Bible.[1]

Clarence the angel might have said, “What about your family? What about all the great achievements of your life?” In this chapter, the Teacher would respond, “Yeah, what about them? I’m still unhappy and I have no guarantee for happiness or peace of mind in the future. From my vantage point, life isn’t worth living.”

What makes life worth living? How can we find happiness in life? That’s what America was all about from the beginning, right? “Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?” The Wall Street Journal once said, “We may have life and liberty. But the pursuit of happiness isn’t going so well.”[2]

This passage brings us to the end of the first half of the book. For a few weeks, the Teacher seemed like he was finally figuring things out. Tonight it’s going to feel like he has regressed into that depressed obsessive he was a few chapters ago. And that’s because he has. Remember: this whole book is the travel journal of a man on a quest for satisfaction – a quest for meaning – a quest for ultimate happiness and well-being. In the last few sections, he took a quick detour to share with us a discovery or two he had made. But now he’s got to get back out into the field. Back on the hunt. These questions gnaw at him and each day they remain unanswered, he feels like his life is wasted.

As we read his travel journal, we will discover (as one commentator says), “[The Teacher] is left with no absolute values to live for; not even any practical certainties to plan for.”[3]

Ecclesiastes 6:1 – Here is a tragedy I have observed under the sun, and it weighs heavily on humanity:

When reading Ecclesiastes, always remember what “under the sun” is the scope of the Teacher’s research. He means life on earth, disconnected from a personal relationship with God. He’s speaking from a secular humanist perspective.[4] And that’s why he can’t find what he’s looking for.

In his travels, the Teacher discovered a tragedy – a terrible sickness. Something evil. Something that is happening all the time.[5] What is it?

Ecclesiastes 6:2 – 2 God gives a person riches, wealth, and honor so that he lacks nothing of all he desires for himself, but God does not allow him to enjoy them. Instead, a stranger will enjoy them. This is futile and a sickening tragedy.

That’s the tragedy? That rich people are unhappy? It’s more than that. It’s what that reveals about our world. You see, this person with riches and wealth and honor possesses all the things the world has to offer. But having them is not the same as enjoying them.

Remember what we learned back in chapter 2: We can’t enjoy life apart from God. And that’s exactly what the Teacher and the people he’s describing in our text tonight are trying to do.

If you list the overall wealth of all nations of the world, the United States sits at the top. Per capita we’re still 3rd place out of 195.[6] Meanwhile we have the highest suicide rate of all wealthy nations.[7]

Now, is the Teacher saying that every rich person is depressed and suicidal? No. He’s speaking generally. But, we all know the feeling of finally getting some thing we wanted so bad – something we pined for and stared at and obsessed over. And then we finally get it on Christmas morning or when we’ve finally saved up enough. And, maybe a year later, maybe a few hours later, we find our heart is no longer thumping for that thing anymore. The thing doesn’t bring satisfaction.

When a man in the crowd wanted Jesus to decide an inheritance dispute, Jesus said, “Friend…one’s life is not in the abundance of his possessions.”[8] It’s the wrong focus. It’s the wrong answer.

Notice the wording: this fellow in verse 2 lacks nothing he could possibly want…for himself. He is looking for personal pleasure. It’s all about him and his feelings and his wants. They want to always feel the feelings of happiness, never bothered or inconvenienced by life, never encumbered by your needs because, after all, theirs are the ones that matter. But he’s left totally unsatisfied.

The Teacher blames this problem on God. “God does not allow him to enjoy these things.” But why should God allow it? God owes us absolutely nothing but wrath and judgment. Why should God participate with this person’s selfish enslavement to a temporal way of life? When Adam sinned, God said, “We can’t let him eat of the tree of life and stay in this position. We can’t allow that.”

Ecclesiastes 6:3-4 – 3 A man may father a hundred children and live many years. No matter how long he lives, if he is not satisfied by good things and does not even have a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. 4 For he comes in futility and he goes in darkness, and his name is shrouded in darkness.

In the culture of the time, a successful life was measured by if you were wealthy, had a large family, and lived to an old age.[9] The Teacher uses extremes: Fabulous wealth. 100 kids. Fantastically long life. His point is: Money can’t buy you love. And having 100 kids doesn’t guarantee that this person won’t be hated and left unclaimed at the morgue one day. Life is about more than numbers.

“But I did the thing. I had the kids. I attained what the world said was the goal. So where’s the promise of relational fulfillment and family honor and a monument to my greatness after I die?”

Well, one problem is that he was still worried about himself more than others. “If he is not satisfied by good things…” His pursuit is self-satisfaction based on worldly acquisitions.

It’s at this point that the Teacher has his George Bailey moment: It would’ve been better if I’d never been born.

Ecclesiastes 6:5 – 5 Though a stillborn child does not see the sun and is not conscious, it has more rest than he.

He wants rest. To be at peace. To have a heart that is untroubled. But we live in a difficult, troubled world, and the Teacher can’t escape it. So he envies the child who dies before birth.

Is the Bible saying that it’s better to be stillborn? Well, again, consider the scope of this study. The Teacher is not speaking as a Believer. He’s not considering eternity. As far as he’s concerned, life ends in the grave. He is not talking about what happens to human souls after death.[10]

From this vantage point, he’s saying, “Well if you can do all the ‘right’ things and work yourself to the bone only to have all your riches taken and your family relationships broken, and you end up with some debilitating disease that kills you with terrible suffering, what’s the point?” In that case – if that’s all there is to life – it would be much easier to be the stillborn baby.

With that said, note that Solomon considered this stillborn baby to be a person as much as the rich man with 100 children. Their experience was different but their essence was the same.

Ecclesiastes 6:6 – 6 And if a person lives a thousand years twice, but does not experience happiness, do not both go to the same place?

Let’s say someone lives twice as long as the oldest person ever, death is still going to get them in the end. And living a long time doesn’t guarantee a happy life. In fact, more often the longer you live the more opportunity you have to suffer under the sun.

The Teacher doesn’t want to die, but he also doesn’t see what the point of living is. It’s very sad. So, after failing at finding satisfaction in the big three pursuits – wealth, large family, long life – he turns to smaller pursuits. How about day-to-day things like really killing it at work and getting run-of-the-mill satisfactions that make the body feel good, or becoming the smartest guy in the room?

Ecclesiastes 6:7 – 7 All of a person’s labor is for his stomach, yet the appetite is never satisfied.

Focusing on day-to-day pleasure didn’t fare any better than his whole-life plans. The poor Teacher is going the wrong way. Your stomach will always become hungry again. Your eyes will never finish seeing. The urge you satisfy for today will return tomorrow, demanding more. This is what ethicists call the hedonistic paradox. “The more people pursue pleasure, the more elusive the goal becomes.”[11]

Ecclesiastes 6:8 – 8 What advantage then does the wise person have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others?

Whether it’s wealth, fame, intellect, or experiences, satisfaction is sold separately. The wisdom of this world cannot bring peace to your heart because there is eternity in your heart. You can’t scratch that itch with anything the world has to offer.

And so, the Teacher turns from one pursuit to another, each time left more frustrated than before. Michael Eaton writes, “The Teacher is slamming every door except the door of faith.”[12]

Ecclesiastes 6:9 –  9 Better what the eyes see than wandering desire. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

The New Living Translation helps clear up this verse:

Ecclesiastes 6:9 (NLT) – 9 Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind.

Some dreams need to be left behind. We’ve got to give up chasing the wind. Instead of cultivating desire for what we don’t have, we should cultivate thankfulness for what we do have. Remember: Godliness with contentment is great gain.[13] That’s what the Teacher is after, right? Profit. Advantage. Lasting abundance in the heart? God says, “Here’s how to have it.” When we walk with God, He gives us life more abundantly in the now and the not yet. He gives joy for the temporal and regenerates us with the eternal.

Verse 9 is the close of the first half of the book. Verses 10 through 12 help us bridge to the second half. As we toward part 2, we see the Teacher is still pretty pessimistic.

Ecclesiastes 6:10 – 10 Whatever exists was given its name long ago, and it is known what mankind is. But he is not able to contend with the one stronger than he.

The Teacher spent this chapter complaining. He’s offended that he can’t find happiness for himself. But he’s wise enough to realize that it will do no good arguing these complaints with God. Job had complaints for God and, for a while said, “I’d like to talk to God about this stuff and prove that my complaint is just!” If he and the Teacher were talking, the Teacher would say, “Yeah, that’s not an argument you can win.”

But scholars also point out that, in this verse, the Teacher is making specific references to Adam in the opening chapters of Genesis.[14] The problems of life, of fulfillment, of peace and rest in the heart, are nothing new. They have existed since the fall of man. It is a result of sin and the broken relationship between God and man.

Duane Garrett writes, “No sage, however brilliant or daring, has substantially added to Adam’s discovery…Adam has already shown us what we are.”[15]

If we want to know why things are the way they are – why people have such struggles and difficulty in life, look to the word of God that lays it all out and lays out the path of escape. The Bible shows what mankind is. That we are mistake-makers. That we are easily distracted and deceived. That when the chips are down, we’d rather help ourselves than others. That we need to be rescued from ourselves and from this fallen world under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 6:11 – 11 For when there are many words, they increase futility. What is the advantage for mankind?

The Teacher wants out. The more he finds, the less he likes what he finds.

Ecclesiastes 6:12 – 12 For who knows what is good for anyone in life, in the few days of his futile life that he spends like a shadow? Who can tell anyone what will happen after him under the sun?

He asks a few rhetorical questions here, but they are questions that need answering. Where does good come from? What can make a life full of struggle, chance, futility, and ultimately death worth living? Can the world answer these questions and offer what I need? It claims it can.

But the Gospel tells us the truth. The world can’t offer you a meaningful life. It can’t offer you lasting peace. It can offer you wealth, but as we saw in an earlier passage and see through living examples all around us, wealth often destroys life. It can offer you temporal pleasures, but they will not satisfy.

But, God can give you what you really need. He alone can make life enjoyable, and can make life worth living. He can make your life more than worthwhile. He makes it eternal.

The Teacher was desperate for peace and rest. Here’s what Jesus said:

John 14:27 – 27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.”

Christ came that we might have what the Teacher is looking for. Purpose and meaning and enjoyment and contentment and joy. An abundant life worth living.

John put it very plainly:

1 John 5:12 – 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

The Teacher leaves the first half of his book broken-hearted. In this terribly tragic moment, he looks on the stillborn child and realizes, “My whole life has been a miscarriage.” But how could that happen? He was so rich. He was so smart. He was so successful. He was so important. He was so famous. He was so everything. But satisfaction is sold separately.[16]

He forgot what he himself said back in chapter 2. You can’t have lasting purpose and you can’t enjoy life unless you have a personal relationship with God, Who is the Giver of life and purpose and satisfaction and every good gift. You can’t have joy unless you please Him.[17] How do we please God? Very simple: We please God by having faith in Him. By believing Him. Not just believing in Him, that He exists and maybe did some things in the past. The Teacher even had that level of belief. But by believing Him now, actively.  Believing His prescriptions. Believing His directions. Believing He has a plan for our lives, and following Him to discover it.

A life of purpose, joy, satisfaction, and rest is ours to receive from the Lord, whether that includes material prosperity or not. Because material prosperity does not give us those things. The Lord does. And He is ready to give you temporal fulfillment and eternal purpose if you will believe Him, walk with Him, and be born again into this new life He’s offering.

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 Philip Ryken   Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters
↑2 Jonathan Clements   No Satisfaction: Why What You Have Is Never Enough
↑3 Derek Kidner   A Time To Mourn & A Time To Dance
↑4 Kidner
↑5, ↑16 Ryken
↑6 https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2024/03/14/which-countries-are-really-the-richest-infographic/
↑7 https://www.commonwealthfund.org/press-release/2020/new-international-report-health-care-us-suicide-rate-highest-among-wealthy
↑8 Luke 12:15
↑9 Duane A. Garrett   The New American Commentary: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs
↑10 CSB Study Bible Notes
↑11 James Smith   The Wisdom Literature And Psalms
↑12 Michael Eaton   Ecclesiastes: An Introduction And Commentary
↑13 1 Timothy 6:6
↑14 NAC
↑15 Garrett
↑17 Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

Judaean Rhapsody (Psalm 7)

September 29, 2024

Bohemian Rhapsody was a joke. Freddie Mercury called it a “mock opera.”[1] Queen couldn’t stop laughing while recording. But, the joke went diamond and is now considered their signature song.

Psalm 7 is a Shiggaion. It’s a rhapsody – a song of stirred emotions.[2] But what’s interesting is that the emotions at the beginning of the song are very different than those at the end of the song. In fact, by the end, it’s as if David has completely changed his tune. Scholars have a hard time even categorizing the genre of this particular Psalm because at first it’s a lament, then it becomes an oath Psalm, then hits other themes before culminating in a hymn of thanks.[3]

Musicians still do this today. Bohemian Rhapsody was three songs put into one. Paul McCartney’s Band On The Run also famously has three distinct parts that flow one after the other.

As Psalm 7 opens, we find David as a man on the run. Like so many of his psalms, this one was born during a time of great danger, suffering, and oppression against the man after God’s own heart.

Psalm 7:Superscript – A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.

We don’t know exactly who this Cush is or what he said. He was an enemy of David who accused him of some sort of wrongdoing but was also threatening David’s life.

Facing that kind of crisis, what does David do? He sings a song! He’s like a character in a musical. To David, now was always a good time to sing to the Lord. Martin Luther once wrote, “David made psalms: we also will make psalms, and sing as well as we can, to the honor of our Lord God.”[4] It might seem unrealistic to us, but it really is a needful part of the Christian life.

Psalm 7:1-2 – 1 Lord my God, I seek refuge in you; save me from all my pursuers and rescue me, 2 or they will tear me like a lion, ripping me apart with no one to rescue me.

David had many enemies. Whether it was Goliath or the hordes of Philistines, rivals within the tribes of Israel or even traitors in his own family, David was always in someone’s crosshairs.

You also have a lion-like enemy who is looking to destroy you: your adversary, the Devil, who prowls like a roaring lion, looking for someone he can devour.[5] And you have that back-stabbing turncoat, the flesh, living in your heart trying to undermine your walk with the Lord.

In this crisis, David knew that his only hope was the Lord. The Lord was His shelter.

We hear about the ultra-wealthy using different shelters: Tax shelters. Bomb shelters. Billionaires have been building bunkers in Hawaii recently. And why shouldn’t they? Everywhere we turn we’re being told to be afraid. That disaster in unavoidable. That you are surrounded by enemies.

Psalm 46:1-3 – 1 God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble. 2 Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas, 3 though its water roars and foams and the mountains quake with its turmoil.

The Lord is our refuge. The term here literally refers to being sheltered from a rainstorm or when soldiers on the run would hide in the hills.[6] To be protected in a shadow. I was at a graveside this week and a number of us kept gravitating to the shade of this tall tree so we could get out of the sun. We got into the shade by moving closer to the tree. The sun was still out, those UV rays still coming down, but as I moved close to the tree I was sheltered by its shade.

David was the greatest warrior of his generation but he knew that real strength is found in nearness to the Lord. Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.

Psalm 7:3-5 – 3 Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is injustice on my hands, 4 if I have done harm to one at peace with me or have plundered my adversary without cause, 5 may an enemy pursue and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah

David welcomed spiritual audits. Psalm 139 is one of his most famous where we read, “Search me and know me. Test my thoughts and concerns. See what You find.”

Here he stands before the Lord to say, “Cush has made these accusations, so here I am, ready to be put on trial for it.” He’s not claiming to be perfect – obviously he wasn’t and he knew it. But, in this case, he knew the accusations were not true. He really was innocent of the charges.

But there’s a significant theological lesson for us here: Even though David was the man after God’s heart, even though he was the great psalmist, even though he was anointed by God, he knew the rules still applied to him. He expected that sin in his life would bring consequences.

He says, “Lord, if I’m guilty, then I deserve what’s coming.” He didn’t assume he had some sort of spiritual diplomatic immunity.

A while back a famous prosperity teacher was accused of being a part of a bunch of debauched immorality. Speaking to his church, he denied it, but he also said it wouldn’t matter – that even if it was all true, he wouldn’t be in trouble because all he would have to do is “repent.” He said don’t worry about him because he’s “the man for the job.”

That’s not the way David looked at things. He recognized that sin brings consequences, even in the life of a believer. He knew it by experience.

Psalm 7:6-8 – 6 Rise up, Lord, in your anger; lift yourself up against the fury of my adversaries; awake for me; you have ordained a judgment. 7 Let the assembly of peoples gather around you; take your seat on high over it. 8 The Lord judges the peoples; vindicate me, Lord, according to my righteousness and my integrity.

David brings us into the courtroom of heaven where God sits as Judge over all. David asks the Lord to judge between him and his enemies.

Our world is full of injustice, full of human authorities making wrong decisions. But this song reminds us that God is the highest Judge and He will settle the score one day.

In December 1944, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld FDR’s executive order to arrest and intern US citizens simply because they were Japanese. That decision wasn’t officially overturned until 2018. 74 years! Our courts get it wrong sometimes. But the Lord never does. The whole of the universe can gather around Him to bring every case and He will judge them all fairly and rightly. He has a 0% reversal rate.

If you’re a Christian, you will be unfairly accused at some point. You may be defrauded, mistreated, attacked, or cheated in some way, but justice will ultimately be done in the court of heaven. The Advocate will take up your case and defend you.

Why? David knew he would be vindicated because of his righteousness. But what made David righteous? We know he made a lot of serious mistakes. Righteousness is not something we create. It comes through faith in Christ.[7] Abraham believed God and righteousness was credited to him.

As we believe God, as we trust Him and walk in relationship with Him, we are made righteous. It’s easy for people to think of righteousness as doing or not doing certain things to prove to God we’re worth saving or helping. But Biblical righteousness is not about doing something or knowing everything. It comes through faith.

That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have righteous standards for us. If we love Him and trust Him, then we’re going to follow Him in the paths and boundaries He gives. We walk in the ways of righteousness. But the Lord is our righteousness and as we live by faith, righteousness has its effect in our hearts and the way we live our lives.[8]

Psalm 7:9 – 9 Let the evil of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous. The one who examines the thoughts and emotions is a righteous God.

Now that David has come into the presence of God, we notice that his focus starts to change. The frantic emotion in the first five verses has dissipated. And now that he’s started thinking about righteousness we’ll find he becomes preoccupied with God’s righteousness.

David realizes that he’s not a good or virtuous person in and of himself. His integrity exists because God is righteous and God makes His people like Himself. He establishes them. He plants them. He bears the fruit of righteousness in their lives. He shapes and prepares us.

As He does so, the Lord examines our thoughts and emotions. Again, being in proper relationship with God is not only about certain behaviors. Righteousness is about more than just regulations.  God wants more than that. He wants deeper than that. He wants to have our hearts and minds.

God is concerned with our thoughts and emotions as much as our tongues or our fists. Jesus spoke a lot about what’s going on in the heart. He exposed the failure of the Pharisees. On the outside they did everything right. Their behavior was spot on. But inside they were hard-hearted, dead, full of jealousy, resentment, pride, greed. Jesus told them, “That’s the problem.” He knew their hearts.

Psalm 7:10-11 – 10 My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart. 11 God is a righteous judge and a God who shows his wrath every day.

The song started in a minor key, now we’re in a much brighter melody. Before it was, “God will You rescue me? If you don’t I’m dead meat!” Now it’s very different. God is my shield. God does save. Instead of panic and confusion, David makes statements of fact. He is calm and sure and confident.

Now, there at the end we read something a little shocking: “God shows His wrath every day.” Your version may say, “God is angry with the wicked every day,” or, He ”feels indignation every day.”

That’s not how we usually picture God. We think of His mercies new every morning – of His daily love and grace. But wrath every day? That’s not the warm fuzzy we’re used to.

But remember: God’s righteous judgment is David’s only hope in this situation. If God doesn’t judge, then who will defend David? Who will deliver the oppressed? Who will right the wrongs?

Verse 11 is a good promise to us. Another way of reading that phrase is: God “passes sentence” every day.[9] There’s a legal context here. God isn’t one of these courts that only hears certain cases if they decide they want to or only cases they decide are really important.

Another way of understanding verse 11 is to say that God’s holy anger does not cool down.[10] We’ve all been offended by something but then weeks or years later it really doesn’t bother us anymore. That doesn’t happen with God – and that’s a very good thing! He upholds His standards. He keeps His promises. He is not slack. He doesn’t lower the bar.

Psalm 7:12-13 – 12 If anyone does not repent, he will sharpen his sword; he has strung his bow and made it ready. 13 He has prepared his deadly weapons; he tips his arrows with fire.

We go from the courtroom to the armory. This is like one of those scenes where the hero is gearing up with all his weapons for the big fight at the end of the movie. The hero here is God Himself.

He’s got His short-range weapons and His long-range weapons. He whets the blade for optimal lethality. He tips His arrows with fire. It’s really a frightening image if you linger on it.

Once again we have a song change here. We went from desperate fear to confident hope, now David has changed focus once again to tell his enemies, “Actually, you guys are the ones in trouble, not me. God has a fire-tipped arrow with your name on it!” Or they could just repent!

Did you notice that caveat? “If anyone does not repent, here’s what’s coming.” But if they do repent, the can be saved from their guilt and the coming judgment. If they will turn to God from their sin, then God will no longer be their Adversary, He will be their Advocate and Savior and Friend.

If you’re not a Christian this morning, the good news of the Gospel is that the melody of your life can change. You are currently at war with God, on the run from judgment, but you can be saved.

Psalm 7:14-16 – 14 See, the wicked one is pregnant with evil, conceives trouble, and gives birth to deceit. 15 He dug a pit and hollowed it out but fell into the hole he had made. 16 His trouble comes back on his own head; his own violence comes down on top of his head.

At this point, in a sense, David is more worried about his enemies than himself. They’re trying to get David, but they forgot to factor in God’s providence. And these murderous enemies don’t realize that sin is self-destructive. It’s telling them, “Lie about David, go after David, hurt David and you’ll be better off,” but in the end, they’ll be the ones caught in the trap. That’s what sin does. It delivers us to the devourer. It promises to benefit us while robbing us blind. It brings us down.

Now, for Christians, this reminder of the providential working of God helps us understand why we don’t have to be afraid in life. Scary things happen. Suffering happens. But here is the reminder: God loves us. And because of that love we can be confident, even in the day of judgment because His perfect love will drive out fear. Because He is our Refuge and ever-present help.

Psalm 7:17 – 17 I will thank the Lord for his righteousness; I will sing about the name of the Lord Most High.

Suddenly we’re in a hymn of thanks and praise. David has totally changed his tune from where he started. Of course, Cush was still out there. He was still working his plan. The danger was still real. But David was reminded of God’s love and power and righteousness and His personal care.

And here, David praises the Lord not for a mighty deed, but simply for His righteousness.

It is a very good thing that God is righteous. That He is always right. That He is always just. That He is not only the absolute pinnacle of ethics and morality, but that He is the ultimate, unchanging standard of what is good and true.

“Forty feet underground in Gaithersburg, Maryland, in a bright white laboratory that requires three separate keys to enter, the United States stores a precious collection of small, shiny metal cylinders that literally define the mass of everything in [our] country.” This lab is at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology. And there they held a hunk of platinum-iridium alloy whose mass defines what a kilogram is. Or, at least it did until 2019 when they changed the definition. You see, after 129 years, that hunk of platinum has lost about 50 micrograms of mass. And so scientists from all over the world had to get together to figure out how to have a constant standard for what a kilogram is. Without a constant standard, the world’s system of measurements would be thrown into chaos.[11]

A scientist involved in changing the definition said something interesting: “Objects always change…[with the new definition] we go from an object [on Earth] to the stuff that’s in the heavens.”

God never loses any micrograms of righteousness or power or love for you. He is altogether perfect and right and glorious. And so why wouldn’t we conform to His standards? Why wouldn’t we allow Him to shape us into His image? Why would we try to save ourselves when He stands ready to help us?

Because God is righteous He can be trusted. Trusted to do what is right. Trusted to do what is best. Trusted to save. Trusted with our lives. Trusted to go before us and prepare the way for our steps.

The song ends with this name, “the Lord Most High.” This name was first used all the way back when Abraham met with Melchizedek in Genesis.[12] And then there He was in David’s time. And He is still God Most High with us today. Thank God He doesn’t change – that His righteousness endures and is exalted forever and ever. That our tune changes, but His never does. He is still our shelter, our refuge, our ever-present help in time of trouble.

For that let’s praise the Lord and thank the Lord and trust the Lord as we walk with Him, allowing Him to play a melody of faith and righteousness in and through our lives.

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody
↑2 Robert Alter   The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary
↑3 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
↑4 Martin Luther   Of Temptation And Tribulation: DCXXXVI
↑5 1 Peter 5:8
↑6 Theological Wordbook Of The Old Testament
↑7 Philippians 3:9
↑8 Jeremiah 23:6, Romans 1:17
↑9 Gerald Wilson   Psalms Volume 1
↑10 Derek Kidner   Psalms 1-72
↑11 https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/11/14/18072368/kilogram-kibble-redefine-weight-science
↑12 EBC

Stamp! In The Name Of Love. Before They Break My Heart. (Ezekiel 6:1-14)

September 22, 2024

What are your thoughts on impassibility?

Impassibility is the teaching that God does not experience pain, suffering, or emotional changes as humans do. It asserts that God is not subject to external influences or feelings, maintaining His perfect, unchanging nature while still being loving and involved with His creation.

Can God experience pain and suffering due to our sin? Is He affected by our actions? Does He react to us?

We come across passages in the Bible that assume we do emotionally affect God… Like today.

The LORD illustrates His experience with the nation of Israel as that of a faithful Husband married to an unfaithful wife, playing the harlot, being whorish, committing spiritual adultery.

He says of Himself, “I was crushed.” 

Other Bible versions translate it, “I have been broken” (ESV), “I have been hurt” (NASB), “I have been grieved” (NIV), and “How broken I have been” (Complete Jewish Bible).

If the LORD cannot be affected by our behavior, this illustration has zero impact.

Israel is front & center. Nevertheless we can’t help thinking about ourselves because the Lord thinks of the Church as His bride. In his letter, James warns about spiritual adultery in the Church (James 4:4-5).

I’ll organize my comments around two points: #1God Reacts To Your Unfaithfulness With Pressure, and #2 God Responds To Your Faithfulness With Protection.

#1 – God Reacts To Your Unfaithfulness With Pressure (v1-7&11-14)

On January 1st 1970 California became the first state to recognize No-Fault Divorce.

When a couple divorces, they cite Irreconcilable Differences. God cannot check that box. He sees His people as reconcilable. He has made the way for reconciliation.

Ezk 6:1  Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

Ezk 6:2  “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them,

Ezk 6:3  and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord GOD to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

Ezk 6:4  Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken…

The “mountains,” “hills,” “ravines,” and “valleys” were the locations of the “high places,” “altars,” “incense altars,” and “idols.” Think of the high places as shrines where idols were housed having altars for both sacrifice and for incense.

The term “high places” isn’t about altitude. It refers to any places where foreign gods were worshipped. The Hebrew word gillulim, translated “idols,” literally means “dung-gods,” or “stink-gods.”

These structures were in the land when Israel crossed the Jordan to conquer it. They were the places the pagan Gentiles worshipped. The Jews never did fully eliminate them, or when they did, as in the days of King Josiah and King Hezekiah, they were swiftly rebuilt by their successors.

Bad, bad stuff happened at these sites:

  • The fertility gods & goddesses required their patrons to commit all manner of perverted sex acts.
  • Molech was worshipped with human sacrifice. Substitute “infant” for human.

The Israelites worshipped God in His Temple, and they messed around on the side with the gods & goddesses of the world.

If they wouldn’t eliminate the shrines, God said He would do it. His methods were extreme. He wouldn’t simply tear down the shrines. All their dwelling places in all their cities would be torn down along with the shrines.

When God deemed it the right time, He went scorched earth.

GOOGLE “high places” and you can find hundreds of sermons about removing the high places in your life. One way is for you to make it harder to sin by quite literally removing things, or removing yourself from things. Build in safeguards so you do not find yourself at a place, or with a person, where you can sin.

The Bible then encourages you to replace anything you eliminate or are trying to eliminate with that which is good. Putting away lying, ‘LET EACH ONE OF YOU SPEAK TRUTH WITH HIS NEIGHBOR,’ for we are members of one another. ‘BE ANGRY, AND DO NOT SIN:’ do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers (Ephesians 4:25-29).

Ezk 6:4  Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

Ezk 6:5  And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars.

Ezk 6:6  In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

Ezk 6:7  The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

The nation of Israel was tasked by God to explain the righteousness of God. They miserably failed, instead becoming more like the unsaved, spiritually ignorant Gentiles.

Destroying the shrines was one thing. Laying the corpses of children before their idols… How could God do that?

First, this hadn’t yet happened. The LORD warned them it was the inevitable end of the rebel road they were choosing. When this destruction happened, it was their fault, not God’s.

Second, we think in terms of individuals whereas God was thinking nations. If you want to discipline a nation, you sometimes use another nation to overthrow it.

Third, there is something that we tend to forget. Jeremiah was prophet-ing in Jerusalem. “Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live’ ” (38:17).

Wow! They could surrender and the calamity would be lessened. God goes to incredible lengths to save.

Skip to verse eleven.

Ezk 6:11  ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Pound your fists and stamp your feet…

Ezekiel is getting the hang of physical prophecy. Pounding & stamping were symbolic of them not listening.

Ezk 6:11  … and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.

Ezk 6:12  He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. Thus will I spend My fury upon them.

Ezk 6:13  Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols.

Ezk 6:14  So I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.” ’ ” ’

The punishments listed here… They blow our minds. They are, however, better than the alternative. It is appointed unto men once to die, and afterwards comes eternity. If you die in unbelief, there can be no mercy or second chance. There is only the Lake of Fire where you will suffer eternal conscious torment.

“They shall know that I am the LORD.” This occurs four times in this short message. How would they know? They would know because of the pressure being applied.

Seeing the “slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols” is a final, radical, effort on God’s part to save them. On the surface His wrath seems cruel. It was the only means available for God to reach them before it became too late.

One of the commentators writes, “God’s chief desire is to bring people to Himself – or back to Himself. When mankind willfully refuses to turn to Him, God mercifully uses discipline and judgment to cause the people to recognize that He is the only true God, always faithful to what He has said in His word!”

If anything in this life is certain, if history has taught us anything, it’s that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all would come to eternal life.

You would likely study this passage in a Bible doctrines class. The Lord, however, isn’t explaining His impassibility.

Put yourself in Babylon, among the exiles to whom Ezekiel was addressing. You hear that God is “crushed,” “hurt,” “grieved, and “broken.” You are the one hurting Him. You are, in fact, an adulterer (and all the other things).

Ideally, you prostrate yourself before God, horrified that you have treated Him with such disdain.

#2  – God Responds To Your Faithfulness With Protection (v8-10)

Albert Barnes suggests that “sin leads to judgment, judgment to repentance, repentance to forgiveness, forgiveness to reconciliation, reconciliation to a knowledge of communion with God.”

That is always true of a small group of believing Jews throughout Israel’s history, called a “remnant.”

Ezk 6:8  “Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries.

A remnant is what is left of a community after it undergoes a catastrophe.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee commented,

Never throughout the long history of Israel did 100% of the nation worship God. Always only a remnant was faithful to Him. It was a remnant of those which came out of Egypt that entered the land. Practically the entire generation that came out of Egypt died in the wilderness. It was their children who entered the land. In Elijah’s day God had a faithful remnant. Elijah cried, “Lord, I only am left.” But God told him, “You aren’t the only one; I have seven thousand in these mountains who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” At the coming of Jesus, although the leaders of the nation rejected Him and had Him crucified, there was a remnant that received Him.

Ezk 6:9  Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulteress heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.

The remnant are those whose own hearts are broken realizing how they’ve hurt the Lord. It is described as “loath[ing] themselves.”

Ezk 6:10  And they shall know that I am the LORD; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

The aim of God’s judgment is described four times: “Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

John L. MacKay says remnant “is a two-sided word. In the first instance it speaks of disaster and loss ahead. But there is promise in it too. It will not be a total catastrophe, for there will be a divinely preserved remnant.”

The LORD appointed Ezekiel to share His Word with the exiles. Some heard it with spiritual ears to hear. They were suddenly gripped with the fear of the LORD, His holiness, and their own sinfulness. They believed Him and He counted it s righteousness. They were saved.

Did they go on loathing themselves? Better yet, are we supposed to loathe ourselves?

Yes & No:

⤷ Yes, I loathe what is called the flesh. “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.”[1]

The flesh, my propensity to sin, I loathe, and I will until I receive my eternal body at the resurrection or rapture.

⤷ No, I do not loathe myself, wallowing in self-pity and false humility. I am saved, and have the permanent indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. He enables me to obey God. I can do the things the Lord tells me to.

One commentator put it this way: “Don’t dwell on your corruption to the degree that it keeps you from joy, freedom, and love.”

Passibility is to be capable of feeling, especially suffering or to be susceptible to emotion. When theologians speak of God’s passibility versus His impassibility, they are referring to His freedom to respond emotionally versus a perceived lack of empathy for His creatures.

  • The doctrine of the passibility of God does not teach that God is fickle, has mood swings, or cannot control His responses. God is never the victim of circumstance.
  • The doctrine of passibility does teach that God is emotionally invested in His creation; He is involved because He cares.

Have you ever told a believer you were backslidden? Have you ever been told by a believer that you were backslidden?

How about telling or being told you were a prodigal?

As awful as those characterizations may be, they are mild when compared to being told you are an unfaithful spiritual adulterer or adulteress, a whoring harlot.

Warren Wiersbe likes to retell the story of man who came up to him after a sermon in which he had spoken about sin. He said, “Sin is different for Christians.” I said, “Yes, it is – it’s worse!”

Wiersbe was emphasizing that, for Christians who know the truth and have experienced God’s grace, sin is even more grievous because they are sinning against a greater light and understanding.

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 See Romans 7

Prophecy Update #800 – Our Common Future

September 22, 2024

We reserve a few minutes Sunday morning to update you on what is happening in the world with regard to unfulfilled Bible prophecy.

There is a lot of stage-setting going on as the world is plummeting towards the 7yr Great Tribulation. Things like global government, global commerce, a personal ‘mark,’ social credit, apostasy in the church, the exponential growth of human knowledge, and the elimination of cash, are all predicted as facets of the End Times.

Most significantly, the Bible predicted that the nation of Israel would be born in a day, that Jews would return there from their dispersion all over the Earth, and that Jerusalem would be at the very heart of global tension until every nation stands against her & God intervenes to save her.

Global government is a good topic today because the UN just began its 2024 Summit of the Future. One thing that the UN wants to implement isa new ‘apex body’ in charge of the world’s entire financial system that will “enhance its coherence and align its priorities with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

A vital part of the agenda is also “digital connectivity and the establishment of a Global Digital Compact. This can be described as a cybernetic organ, consisting of a digitally connected network of people, entities, devices, and things.” That’s tech-speak for some type of biometric ID system that will be mandatory for everyone on the planet.

One critic wrote, “[Digital ID] can be used to undermine human rights – for example, by enabling civil society to be targeted, or selected groups to be excluded from social benefits. To receive your daily bread you have to obey and accept the instructions from the Masters that run the show. If the UN declares a ‘Planetary Emergency’ this will have severe consequences for our freedoms (as we experienced during the pandemic).”[1]

This is all right out of the Bible. It is exactly what was predicted centuries ago.

Jesus promised to resurrect & rapture His Church. He said, in fact He promised, that He would do it before 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.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?popular_news_slot=2L#google_vignette
↑2 Revelation 3:10

Money For Nothing, Bliss For Free (Ecclesiastes 5:8-20)

September 18, 2024

For 11 of the last 15 years, Michael Jackson has been the highest paid dead celebrity.[1] Only seven people have held that title since Forbes started tracking the numbers: Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor, Yves Saint Laurent, Roald Dahl, and J.R.R. Tolkein.

Of course, these earnings are no longer paid to the celebrities themselves. They have left this world and its trappings behind. Their earthly riches have no impact on their eternal destinies.

We use that term “trappings.” The “trappings” of fame or power. The “trappings” of wealth. In Ecclesiastes 5, the Teacher points out that wealth can often be a literal trap for us – a dangerous obsession that leaves its victims tired, worried, and cheated – robbed of what’s truly good in life.

He means to horrify us with this discovery. When he shows it to us, he calls it a “sickening tragedy” – a serious, severe, grievously evil problem we’re faced with in this world. He brings us into the bathroom floor of Graceland. Into the greenhouse above the garage in Seattle, Washington. To look at the hot tub overlooking the coast in Pacific Palisades.

But it’s not just a problem we observe effecting others. It’s one that almost all of us are susceptible to. Philip Ryken writes, “Most Americans have at least a mild case of [a] deadly disease…[called] affluenza, which is an unhealthy relationship with money or the pursuit of wealth.”[2] It’s a serious problem the Teacher warns us about. So does Proverbs. So did Jesus, Who warned that a focus on material success will destroy our devotion to God Himself.

Ecclesiastes 5:8 – 8 If you see oppression of the poor and perversion of justice and righteousness in the province, don’t be astonished at the situation, because one official protects another official, and higher officials protect them.

Human governments, no matter what form they take, will inevitably be corrupted. While some forms tend to be less corrupt than others, there is no magic formula that protects a populace from the sin nature of their rulers. It’s foolish to think that we will solve the problem of a corrupted heart through laws or regulations or checks and balances. Those things can help, but the Teacher reveals the sad truth here: In any form – democracy, republic, dictatorship, commonwealth, monarchy – there will be injustice and oppression in one form or another.

Now, we shouldn’t be numb to it and we should do what we can to assist the oppressed, to fight for those who have been denied justice, to rescue those in need.[3] But don’t think for one minute that we are going to be able to solve every problem, or that one candidate will rid our society of all the bad actors. Human society is constantly fighting a losing battle against human nature.

The Teacher says, “Don’t be astonished.” It means don’t be dumbfounded or afraid,[4] and don’t become bitter about it.[5] Well, then what should we do?

We should recognize that this is the state of the world. And we should remind ourselves that the only way corrupt human government can really be dealt with in the long term is by Christ Jesus coming and establishing His righteous Kingdom on the earth. In the short term, what we need are Godly individuals who are willing to use their authority for good, rather than for evil.

When we have a chance to elect a individual into power, it is not the promises that matter, but the person. Is this individual a person of integrity? Are they arrogant? That’s another way the term “high official” can be translated.[6] Arrogance breeds corruption. So, if we want a better society, we need more Christlike leaders.

Ecclesiastes 5:9 – 9 The profit from the land is taken by all; the king is served by the field.

Realistically, there’s very little you and I can do about who is king – who wields the power of decision-making in our nation. We vote, but it doesn’t really come down to us, right? What we can do is look to the heavenly King and His coming Kingdom. When the perfect King returns to earth, all will be made right. The government will be on His shoulders. There will be no need for checks and balances, for ethics violation inquiries, for impeachment provisions. He is our true hope and we should hold to that hope while doing our best to promote righteousness right where we are.

Turning from the horrors of bureaucracy, the Teacher speaks about the personal pursuit of wealth.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 – 10 The one who loves silver is never satisfied with silver, and whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with income. This too is futile.

In the 1920’s, a reporter asked John Rockefeller how much money is enough. His famous reply is one of the most revealing quotes of all time: “Just a little bit more.” At the time, John’s net worth was equal to 1% of the entire US economy.[7] In five words he perfectly encapsulated the folly of pursuing wealth, but also how powerfully addictive wealth becomes.

In these verses, the Teacher warns us about some dangerous consequences of wealth. But wealth itself isn’t the problem. In fact, he’ll tell us that God gives wealth to some people as a gift.

It’s the love of wealth that is the trouble. He says so twice in verse 10. Paul agrees in 1 Timothy 6. When we pursue material success as an end goal of our lives, the consequences are terrible.

Wealth is hevel. Here today, gone tomorrow. Sometimes toxic, sometimes just transient. You can’t reliably hold onto it – the world is too wracked by time, death, and chance.

But this isn’t only a problem that unbelievers deal with. The Pharisees were lovers of money. That led to many of their heinous sins, despite their pious beginnings. Or consider Ananias and Sapphira. They were true believers in the Jerusalem church, but were poisoned by a love of money.

Like the Teacher, we long for satisfaction. The problem is the flesh within us and the culture around us tell us the way to satisfaction is through wealth. It’s a lie, but it’s a very effective lie. We really want to believe it. But the Teacher shows where that way really ends (and remember: he knew first hand).

Ecclesiastes 5:11 – 11 When good things increase, the ones who consume them multiply; what, then, is the profit to the owner, except to gaze at them with his eyes?

Christopher Wallace, the late 20th century philosopher poet famously declared, “Mo’ money, mo’ problems.” The Teacher was not a Notorious B.I.G. fan, but on this he would agree.

Wealth promises to solve our problems, but it ends up bringing an infestation of new troubles with it. Here in verse 11, a plague of leeches tags along to take what they can from the pile.

We see examples of this when young athletes start getting those big paychecks. The family comes out of the woodwork for constant handouts. Suddenly a large staff is needed to handle the business and maintain the brand. Then there are ever-increasing taxes to be paid.

So there’s the owner, who actually earned the wealth, crowded out from his own table and can only look on as others devour his treasure.

Ecclesiastes 5:12 – 12 The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich permits him no sleep.

Michael Jackson was the youngest vocalist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100. He set another record: Experts say he may be the only human being to ever go 60 days without REM sleep.[8] Had he not died of a overdose, doctors think he probably would have died just a few days later anyway.

From the world’s perspective, Michael had it all. Wealth. Fame. His place in the history books. Palaces. Every comfort. He was the “king” of pop. But he couldn’t get a single night’s rest.

Whether it’s because they are worried about their wealth, or because they’ve overindulged, or because they just don’t know when to stop, the pursuers of wealth in verse 12 struggle to slumber, to their own hurt.[9] Meanwhile, the not-so-rich laborer is rolling in rest.

Ecclesiastes 5:13 – 13 There is a sickening tragedy I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.

Here we have a fellow who went on the hunt for wealth and got it! He built his fortune. But then, rather than help him, it harmed him. It warped his character. It changed him into a different person.

We see this lived out most obviously with young celebrities – child stars who become famous and wealthy. How many of them turn into better people? How do those stories end? Money promises to make everything better but so often does the opposite and works miserable mischief in a life.

Ecclesiastes 5:14 – 14 That wealth was lost in a bad venture, so when he fathered a son, he was empty-handed.

When the King of Pop died, he was $500 million in debt.[10] Luckily for his heirs his estate continues to make money. But imagine that: After making hundreds of millions of dollars, Michael Jackson died owing more money than the average American will make in 250 lifetimes.[11]

In the case of verse 14, maybe it wasn’t even the owner’s fault that he lost the money. Maybe he made all the right financial decisions but just lived during an economic downturn like 1929 or 2008. That wasn’t his fault, but it was his fault that his hope was wrapped up in his portfolio – that what he planned to leave to his son was not truth or faith or hope that lasts or eternal purpose, but simply worldly buying power that can disappear like a puff of smoke.

Ecclesiastes 5:15-16 – 15 As he came from his mother’s womb, so he will go again, naked as he came; he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands. 16 This too is a sickening tragedy: exactly as he comes, so he will go. What does the one gain who struggles for the wind?

Last week the Teacher challenged us with the question: Why are you going to church? Tonight the question is: What are you working for?

Now, don’t misunderstand – the Bible commands us to work and to provide for our families, even to save and also to give financially. But as we live life, work a job, make investments, what are we working for? We must keep in mind the truth we just read and also find in Job and First Timothy: We brought nothing with us into this world and we bring nothing with us out of it.

Of course, we can send eternal investments ahead that will not depreciate. We do that by serving the Lord and giving to the Lord and obeying the Lord as He leads us in this life. But we want to keep the proper perspective, because as Paul explains, when we give into the natural human desire to be rich and seek after that life, it plunges us into ruin and destruction, and by craving wealth, some Christians wander away from the faith and pierce themselves with many griefs.[12]

Today many of the wealthiest Americans are trying crazy schemes to live forever. But it’s not going to work. We each have a date with death and an eternity on the other side. Work for eternity.

Ecclesiastes 5:17 – 17 What is more, he eats in darkness all his days, with much frustration, sickness, and anger.

Darkness can speak here of isolation.[13] It’s said that William Randolph Hearst ended his days not in the warm embrace of a loving family, but sitting in the basement of his great castle, watching the same movies over and over.[14]

We just don’t want to believe it’s true, but how much more proof do we need? We see it happen again and again, but our flesh says, “But it might work for us.” Again, this is not about wealth itself. It’s about the inclination of our hearts and the navigation of our lives. We should believe the person who has taken the trail before us. We should see the realities, not just believe the fantasies.

Ecclesiastes 5:18 – 18 Here is what I have seen to be good: It is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.

So from hevel we turn to hope. Once again, the Teacher gives us a glimpse of the good life. He says this is what’s good, what’s better, what’s really worth it: Living with contentment in the life and purposes God has for you and to enjoy your life, even in small delights along the way.

Of course, suffering and difficulty are still part of life. Not everything we experience is enjoyable. But generally speaking, as you live out your daily life, God wants you to feel contented, to feel satisfied, to feel that your life has purpose, and to enjoy simple things like food and drink.

Have you had a cotton candy grape yet? Oh man are they good! God has created a world where you can experience basic enjoyment even if you aren’t rich! Enjoy that cup of coffee! Relish that warm and filling, buttery biscuit. We don’t have to fly to New York and spend $1,000 on the Golden Opulence Sundae. God has scattered enjoyments all around you (and not just in what we eat).

As His people, aside from being led by Him and obeying Him and drawing near to Him, we also have the opportunity to live out a continual scavenger hunt where we discover God’s many gifts in everyday life. Paul says God “richly provides us with all things to enjoy.”[15] What a good life!

The point of these three closing verses is that God does not want us to live in a perpetual state of worry or fear or bitterness or agitation. His desire is that we live in a state of joy.

Ecclesiastes 5:19 – 19 Furthermore, everyone to whom God has given riches and wealth, he has also allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward, and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of God,

It is not evil for Christians to be rich. Sometimes we need that reminder. God gives wealth to some Christians and that is a very good thing.

Recently I was talking to a representative of Gospel For Asia and he was talking about how they felt the Lord leading them to establish a new work in Africa. And how there was this place asking them to come build a hospital. But, it’s pricey to build a hospital. They didn’t have the funds for it.

Later, an American Christian was talking to this fellow and he said, “I heard you guys are going to build a hospital in Africa. That’s great!” “Well, we can’t really afford it.” “How much would it cost?” “About $3 million.” “Here’s the check.”

It’s not wrong for Believers to be wealthy. The question is how they got there and what their purpose is. The difference is Abraham and Lot. Both wealthy, but for different reasons with very different results. But we should be careful we’re not living like Lot but thinking we’re like Abraham.

Ecclesiastes 5:20 – 20 for he does not often consider the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with the joy of his heart.

Another way of saying this is that God keeps this person busy with joy.[16] As we live, God’s intention for us is that we be preoccupied by joy! Even when there’s injustice. Even when I’m beset by the futility of life. Even when the stock market crashes, God’s desire for us is joy. And when we lay hold of this generous gift from God – a life full of joy – the Teacher declares that we won’t look back with disappointment.[17] In fact, the language can indicate that God will keep us singing with joy.[18]

Two roads. Two ways of pursuing life. Both make big promises. Both say, “Come this way to experience the good life.” And we’ve seen over and over what people look like at the end of each trail. One is left isolated, empty, cheated by leeches, burdened by taxes, at the mercy of economic forces he cannot control. The other is left at a heavenly table where God has invited Him to receive all the fullness he could ever want, with a cup running over, and a happy heart along the way and an always appreciating, eternal reward that cannot be downgraded or depleted. Choose wisely.

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbes_list_of_the_world%27s_highest-paid_dead_celebrities
↑2 Philip Ryken   Ecclesiastes: Why Everything Matters
↑3 Psalm 82:3-4
↑4 Theological Wordbook Of The Old Testament
↑5 Ray Stedman   Why Does God Allow This? Ecclesiastes 4:1-5:20
↑6 Choon-Leong Seow   Ecclesiastes
↑7 https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/blogs/2017/12/10/how-much-money-enough/930449001/
↑8 https://www.cnn.com/2013/06/21/showbiz/jackson-death-trial/index.html
↑9, ↑18 Seow
↑10 https://www.businessinsider.com/rich-famous-celebrities-who-lost-all-their-money-2018-5
↑11 https://cew.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/collegepayoff-complete.pdf
↑12 1 Timothy 6:6-10
↑13 Duane Garrett   The New American Commentary, Volume 14: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song Of Songs
↑14 Stedman
↑15 1 Timothy 6:17
↑16 Robert Alter   The Hebrew Bible: A Translation With Commentary
↑17 Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown   Commentary Critical And Explanatory On The Whole Bible
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