Wisdom Brings Restraint

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Don Merritt

“Restraint” is everyone’s favorite concept, but it is a quality of the wise. Even outside of relationship with God, a wise person learns self restraint. To be sure, a person doesn’t even need to be all that wise to understand that unrestrained speech can quickly get you into trouble, and that unrestrained action can easily land a person in the penitentiary. A person who is wise in the faith knows much more, for he or she is fully aware that our God is a model of self restraint. A wise person of faith will restrain his or her speech and actions simply out of love for God.

Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful
than ten rulers in a city.

Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
no one who does what is right and never sins.

Do not pay attention to every word people say
or you may hear your servant cursing you—
for you know in your heart
that many times you yourself have cursed others.

Ecclesiastes 7:19-22

Although the word “restraint” is not present in these verses, restrain is very much in evidence; restraint in deeds is clearly implicit in the first two verses and in word in the remaining ones.

In the first two verses, notice that one wise person is said to be more powerful than ten rulers, and that this is followed by a statement that no one is without sin. What is it that makes the wise person so strong? The Teacher speaking of sin and righteousness is the clue; the wise person avoids the sins that lead to destructive and limiting behaviors that detract from the rulers’ effectiveness, even though the wise person has their problems sometimes.

Then there is the matter of words; we are advised not to pay attention to what everybody says and that requires restraint. He gives an example: Don’t listen to everything people say, or you might hear your servant curse you; but then you have done your share of cursing. The curse uttered by the servant isn’t worth hearing, and your own cursing isn’t worth saying; a wise person uses more restraint that either reacting to every idiot utterance they hear, or saying stupid things. In the process, they avoid so much grieving of the Lord, not to mention problems of a more earthly nature.

When I think about it, this is a really simple little lesson. In fact, it’s a lesson my mother and father taught when I was a little kid; “behave yourself and watch your mouth.”

You would have thought I wouldn’t need to hear this all these years later, but there are times when I do need to hear it again; how about you?

The chapter draws to a close as the Teacher sums up the value of wisdom; see you next time!

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Moderation is Wise

Posted on October 28, 2016 by Don Merritt

In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these:

the righteous perishing in their righteousness,
and the wicked living long in their wickedness.
Do not be overrighteous,
neither be overwise—
why destroy yourself?
Do not be overwicked,
and do not be a fool—
why die before your time?
It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
Whoever fears God will avoid all extremes

Ecclesiastes 7:15-18

Solomon has noticed two things that might come as a surprise: First, he has seen righteous men die young in their righteousness, and he has seen really wicked men live long lives. From our point of view, this isn’t all that surprising; it happens all the time, and is something that we sometimes wonder about… Why O Lord is this so?

Back in the time of Solomon, this was more shocking, for the righteous were supposed to live long, have many children and prosper in the land, while the wicked were supposed to suffer the calamities they so richly deserved and come to an early termination if they didn’t change their ways. As we now understand, there is a season for everything, and a time for every season under heaven.

Then he goes on to tell his readers that they should neither be overly righteous, nor overly wicked; what does he mean by that? This dear reader is simpler than it might seem at first.

The best Biblical example of being overly righteous that I can think of as I write this is the example of the Pharisees. Those guys were really very righteous; they did everything just exactly right. No, really they did. Think about it, they were so righteous that they not only followed the letter of the Law, they actually made up more laws so that they wouldn’t even come close to breaking a Law. Yet in the end, they became so outwardly righteous that they put form over substance, and lost track of the inward realities of their relationship with God, and they perished in their outward form of righteousness.

As for being overly wicked, you might think that we aren’t supposed to be wicked at all, and in this you would be correct. OK, maybe I should just speak for myself here: As much as I might want to be perfectly righteous in everything I do, say or think, I fall short and can comprehend completely Paul’s observation that the things he would do, he didn’t, and the things he wouldn’t do, he did. Oh wretched man that I am! Yet while all of this is going on, I manage not to go too far, for I have no wish to damage my relationship with our Lord, so I restrain myself, and with His grace I do much better than I used to, by the power of His life in me.

In this, we avoid both extremes, as the Teacher says in the last verse. Notice that he says “whoever fears God.” This is the guy who also said that “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” Thus a wise person avoids extremes, and another word for this is “moderation.”

See how simple this text is? Now just because the text is simple, putting it into practice may not be easy, but if we are completely honest with ourselves, it isn’t all that hard either.

I’ll bet you can’t wait for restraint, and that is coming up next!

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Patience is Better Than Pride

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Don Merritt

Ecclesiastes 7:8-14

Our most excellent adventure now moves into the second of the sections in chapter seven: Patience. Yes dear reader, I am going over this one carefully myself, since patience is really not my strongest suit! The topic is set clearly enough in verse 8:

The end of a matter is better than its beginning,
and patience is better than pride.

This verse hearkens back to the discussion in the previous section about houses of mourning and the day of death being better than the day of birth; a matter is best concluded in life, rather than begun, for in its conclusion we know if we have concluded it properly and in a way pleasing in the eyes of God. Likewise, it is better to be patient than proud. If you stop and think about pride, it might not seem to line up well with patience, for all too often it leads a person to impatience, as a proud person seeks to have their way over someone else, while the patient person must deal with others in ways that respect their opinions, views and personhood.

Verse nine reinforces this thought:

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,
for anger resides in the lap of fools.

Allowing ourselves to be provoked would seem to trigger (in this context) rash actions of anger and impatience which reside in the “laps of fools.” This is set out further in verse 10:

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?”
For it is not wise to ask such questions.

How common this is; ah yes, the good old days were so much better than the here and now. Were they really? My father used to speak of those good old days, when people weren’t as crazy as they are “now”. Well, his “good old days” were the 1930’s and ‘40’s. The “now” was the 1960’s. If you stop and think about it, as crazy as the ‘60’s were in some ways, I doubt they were worse than the Great Depression and the Second World War! But from my father’s point of view, the ‘30’s and ‘40’s had been concluded; he knew how they ended, and things eventually worked out. The ‘60’s and how all of the issues of the day seemed to have no end in sight; would we tear civilization apart?

How do I know why he thought what he thought? Because for me, the ‘60’s and ‘70’s are the good old days! Today? What is going on in this world, will we tear civilization apart? You see, I don’t know how this is all going to come out in the end, and I want to know right now.

Funny how that works, isn’t it?

In verse 10, the Teacher tells us that it isn’t wise to ask the question about the good old days, and in 11-12 he goes on to tell us essentially that impatience isn’t compatible with wisdom; wisdom is better than impatience. Solomon wraps up this discussion in 13-14:

Consider what God has done:

Who can straighten
what he has made crooked?
When times are good, be happy;
but when times are bad, consider this:
God has made the one
as well as the other.
Therefore, no one can discover
anything about their future.

We can be just as impatient as we please. We can work ourselves into a tizzy if we want, we can become perfectly obnoxious in our impatience if we choose. Yet none of that will make the slightest difference… or if it does make any difference, it will end up being a difference that does us no good at all, for impatience is not compatible with wisdom. It is better to be wise and patient, than impatient and a fool… and you may quote me on that.

Tomorrow, we’ll journey through the next two sections of this chapter on moderation and restraint.

Oh hurry up! I want to cover those right now; I’m not going to wait for tomorrow, come on, let’s do them right now!!!

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Maybe We Should be Serious

Posted on October 27, 2016 by Don Merritt

Ecclesiastes 7:1-7

Chapter 7 is a chapter of wisdom, and reads much like the Proverbs. It covers three subjects, the first of which is being serious here in vv. 1-7. This section, in turn, is divided into three subsections.

The first of these is found in verses 1-2, and deals with maintaining a good name. This expression would mean the same thing to Solomon that it would have meant to out fathers’ generation; a good reputation in the community. With a good name, many doors will open, with a less than good name, many will be closed. The Teacher brings some other ideas into this, but we aren’t to be confused, because on this most excellent adventure of ours, we pay closer attention to context that many others do!

A good name is better than fine perfume,
and the day of death better than the day of birth. (v. 1)

The good name set the subject for this verse, and in that context, of course the day of death is better for you went through life with your good reputation intact. Verse 2 works the same way:

It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of everyone;
the living should take this to heart.

For a person to bear in mind that death is the destiny of everyone is a sober thought indeed, and when it comes to maintaining a good name, sober thoughts are the ones that will keep a person on track. Certainly living a frivolous life is no way to maintain respect in the community.

This idea of there being value in mourning continues in verses 3-4:

Frustration is better than laughter,
because a sad face is good for the heart.
The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

Notice the way the Teacher moves into his point at the end of verse 4. His whole thought is that mourning is good for the heart because it keeps our minds off of the mere pursuit of mindless pleasure, which is what?  Right you are: Meaningless!

The third subsection is the value of a rebuke.

It is better to heed the rebuke of a wise person
than to listen to the song of fools.
Like the crackling of thorns under the pot,
so is the laughter of fools.
This too is meaningless.

Extortion turns a wise person into a fool,
and a bribe corrupts the heart. (5-7)

 

Once again, notice the matter of context; verse 5 changed the subject, so we are now talking about the value of a rebuke. Better we should heed the rebuke of the wise than listen to the chattering of fools. It sounds almost like something parents tell their children; of course the rebuke of a wise person is more valuable than the chattering of fools! I really like the next verse; the cracking of thorns under a pot; thorns, like fools, can cut you and cause injury, but the pot smashes them when placed upon them. Thos smashed thorns are worthless, just like the laughter of a fool; priceless imagery.

So what do extortion and bribery have to do with this? Think of the contrast between the rebuke of the wise with the laughter of the fool. Which one is likely to become involved with extortion and bribery?

Ah, good, I see you’ve got it!

The next section, vv. 8-14 is all about patience, so I know that if you are anything like me, you’ll be paying extra close attention when we continue our adventure…

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Photo of the Week: October 26, 2016

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Don Merritt

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Wealth, an Insatiable Desire… and Alfred Hitchcock

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Don Merritt

Ecclesiastes 6

Some time back I watched an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents from 1955; oh what a great show!

This episode was a story about a man who owned and operated a shop that sold antiquities, and opens with the shop owner speaking with a female customer who asks for a price on an object on the counter. The shop owner tells the lady that the item is not for sale. Then, the lady asks about another item, but it too isn’t for sale, and the shop owner seems irritated by the woman’s presence. Then a man enters and introduces himself as the son of one of the shop owner’s suppliers, and asks for a private word.

The men step into the office and the visitor tells the shop owner that he is behind with his bill and must pay $12,000.00 within two weeks or face foreclosure. Suddenly there is the sound of something braking and the shop owner rushes out of the office to discover that the woman has accidently broken an item in the shop. In the end, she writes a check for $1,000.00 to pay for the item she has broken. She leaves and the other man snaps the check out of the shop keeper’s hand and says, “Now you only owe $11,000.00. “Perhaps you should invite that lady back so she can break some more, since you can never bring yourself to actually sell any of your merchandise.” You see, the reason for his financial problems is that nothing was for sale in that shop; the man was hoarding antiquities, not selling them, for he is obsessed with owning them.

He goes home and demands that his wife give him 11K from her trust fund, and when she refuses, he kills her so he can inherit, which is how he pays his debt. But he must have more stuff, so he seeks out the lady from the first scene since she is obviously very wealthy, and in time marries her. Eventually, he is in the same mess again, and guess what the solution to the problem is?

Yes, exactly, she also must die!

Here, I have Ecclesiastes 6 to comment on, which describes the same kind of thing: wealth and our insatiable appetite for more: Meaningless, futile, empty, pointless… Vanity, chasing after the wind.

When the shop keeper wanted to kill his second wife, he tried to bring about the same “accident” that had killed his first wife, but the second wife and her lawyer had figured things out, and she avoided the trap. Right then, her lawyer calls and the man answers the phone. The lawyer demands to speak to his wife, and when she walks to the phone, she trips, falls, hits her head and is killed, the exact accident the man wanted to befall her, the same one he had arranged for his first wife, the same accident that the second wife and her lawyer were expecting, only this time it really was an accident, and our shop keeper will hang for a murder he failed to commit.

Meaningless, chasing after the wind! Amassing wealth cannot bring happiness under the sun.

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Wealth: Bad News, Good News

Posted on October 26, 2016 by Don Merritt

Ecclesiastes 5:10-20

This is an interesting section; the Teacher gets into some reasons why wealth is meaningless, and then there’s a little twist at the end. Verses 10-11 speak of the meaningless nature of the love of money; what’s the point in loving money, which is to say being overly desirous for money, giving it too much priority in life. Yes, loving money is a pointless waste.

Verses 12-14 make this point further, when he notes that such a person has no sleep, how many lovers of money hoard so much of it that they do themselves harm, or even lose their fortunes due to some external crisis. Imagine living your life to amass a fortune, being eaten up with the desire for more and more, and then… the market crashes and you lose it all in a day.

Then what?  We’ve all heard the stories of the Wall Street people jumping out of their windows in 1929…

In verses 15-17, the Teacher really sums up his point about wealth: Naked you come into this world, and naked you pass from this world. Fill up a bank vault with gold and in the dusty dark vault your gold will remain. Why even bother? Now comes the twist…

In the remaining verses of the chapter, we see a different approach to money. Here, a man realizes that his labor doesn’t need to be pointless, in fact, to the discerning person, it is a gift from God. Approaching work in the right way will also lead to wealth of a sort, but maybe not the shameless accumulation of it simply to hoard.

Hey buddy! It’s OK to enjoy the fruits of your labors!

What if the man who realizes that his work is a gift from God also comes to understand that the money he earns from it is also a gift; a gift to be enjoyed? That is quite a different matter than just driving oneself to amass a fortune to hoard, for it is God’s gift. A person who views God’s presence in their daily life has little time to worry about the shortness of his days; or other philosophical matters, he is quite busy enjoying his life and his work in God’s light.

While this sounds pretty good, maybe we shouldn’t get too giddy just yet, for as the next chapter begins, the Teacher has some more to say about the failure of wealth.

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An Honest Wash

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Don Merritt

This post comes from a pretty new blog written by a young lady who is a good friend of our family. I hope you’ll check it out and maybe give it a “follow”, for when you do you will discover an amazingly talented young writer!

Willow Grace's avatarWillow Grace August

The laundromat has an honesty about it that is seldom found outside of our own hearts. All of us here are dragging with us the dirty byproduct from the last weeks wear. We come here with all of the stains acquired from sweating, spilling, playing, living, and trying.

For some, the load is heavy. A tired woman, shoulders bent over by an unseen weight is taking her son by the hand and showing him how to put quarters into the soap slots. These are tender, teachable moments.

There is a businesswoman joining in loudly on the chorus as Madonna rings out over the drone of machines. For her, here, she is free to express the joy that she carries. It bubbles over into the wash.

A young couple is having an argument over who will sort the socks, but the tone of their voices is laced with an anger that…

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Worship, Vanity and the Fool’s Sacrifice

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Don Merritt

Ecclesiastes 5:1-9

Up to this point in our adventure, the Teacher hasn’t spoken about worship, at least not directly, but that changes in this passage; oh what an excellent adventure we are on; old Solomon doesn’t seem to miss anything!

Watch your step when you enter the house of God, go there to listen and don’t offer the sacrifice of fools; a colorful way to put it, don’t you agree? The house of God (Temple) was said to be the dwelling place of God on the earth, so entering into His presence is a time for a little respect, a time to listen more and speak less, and time to avoid letting your hypocrisy show too obviously; comforting, yes?

This is a common refrain in the Old Testament, for example:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as much as in obeying the Lord?
To obey is better than sacrifice,
and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

1 Samuel 15:22

We should enter God’s house eager to listen, to learn and to put into practice His Word, as we can clearly see in Samuel’s comment, yet often this is not the attitude of worshippers, either in Solomon’s time, or for that matter, our own. Putting the Word into practice tends to fly in the face of ritualistic worship in which ritual and ceremony may run the risk of replacing life application altogether; there is a serious warning here for us to consider.

Verses 2-3 speak of prayer, as we can see:

Do not be quick with your mouth,
do not be hasty in your heart
to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
and you are on earth,
so let your words be few.
A dream comes when there are many cares,
and many words mark the speech of a fool.

OK, dear reader, I will admit that when thinking about prayer, these aren’t the first two verses that come to mind, but here they are and they must be dealt with. Solomon is trying to warn us about praying without considering what we pray for or about. Are our prayers empty and selfish? Are we merely filling the airwaves with the sound of our voices? Are we just repeating the same old requests over and over as though we can talk God into something, the way a child might try to outlast a parent in their ceaseless requests? Are we just repeating something from a book by rote, with no thought to the meaning? Could we, in our haste and selfish concerns be saying something to God that He would take offense to?

Prayer is a powerful thing when it is within God’s purpose, but to be honest, I don’t hear many of those uttered in “God’s house” I’m sorry to say.

In 4-7, the Teacher speaks of making vows (oaths) before God. Of course, as we know, Jesus spoke even more clearly centuries later when He summed up the subject by simply saying, “let your “yes” be yes, and your “no” be no.

Verses 8-9 seem to be on a different subject and obviously the NIV translators seem to agree, but I see them as transition into the next section; not quite about worship, and not quite about wealth. Maybe you’ll think I’m mistaken, but to me, these verses speak of faith in general.

If we look around us and see the poor being oppressed, taken advantage of, ripped off and defrauded, those who can least afford to defend themselves, who have so little with which to survive and feed their families… with the unofficial approval of the powers that be, it would be rather easy for a person to question not only God, but the whole basis of faith itself. Yet things like this go on under the sun. Here, the Teacher tells us that such is the way of this world apart from God. We should not be surprised by such things, although they are outrageous, for why would we be surprised when the lost behave as though they are lost? Make no mistake: a world that lives apart from God is lost indeed, and isn’t that the message we have seen here in Ecclesiastes through 4 chapters already?

Everything under the sun is meaningless, chasing after the wind, vanity, empty, futility itself. So many who should know better get sucked in, so many have their faith put to the supreme test in this life under the sun. We must be on our guard.

From this point, our Teacher turns once again to wealth; next time, let’s talk dollars and cents…

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Problems Under the Sun

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Don Merritt

Ecclesiastes 4

Our vantage point has returned to the life of people apart from God where it will remain from 4:1 – 6:9. Our adventure in chapter 4 is a most excellent one, for we will see earthly life as it really is, which is to say that we will see things on display that most of us never consider. Happiness in this world we live in depends largely on external circumstances. For instance, we assume that more money means more happiness, but is that really true? We look forward to achievement, fame and amassing possessions as a means to happiness. Some have a strong desire to assert power and influence as a means to happiness; who wouldn’t like to be the one that the president or prime minister calls upon to save the day?

The Teacher sees things a little differently.

So there you are, puttering right along in life, paying the bills, buying nice things; everything is hunky dory and then change comes along. A new administration, a new regime and overnight you are an outcast for who you are. Oppression begins in the land, discrimination, inequality, and all the rest, and you are on the wrong side of it. Happy now?

This is the theme developed in verses 1-3. Everything under the sun is vanity, is meaningless, and is futile because at any moment outside forces can clean you out of everything. Think it can’t happen? Come now, it happens all the time…

Verses 4-6 speak of a different situation under the sun, a situation in which you might have put together a substantial portfolio; what now? Can you sit back and relax? No way! Now you need to worry about protecting what you have. Now you must keep on top of the tax laws, new regulations, market fluctuations, scheming competitors, identity theft and frivolous lawsuits, to name just a few perils; you might even need to worry about your physical safety! This substantial portfolio can become a millstone around your neck, and the source of many sleepless nights; is it worth the cost?

The Teacher says it’s just chasing the wind…

In verses 7-12 we see another side of wealth, a lonely side. When people come into quick fortunes, they usually find that they have many new relatives and friends; what do these new associates seem to have in common? You know the answer to that; they want some money. Most people don’t realize just how isolating great wealth can be, and if it involves fame, the isolation is even greater. What does the Teacher say about it? Vanity, a miserable business, and don’t you suppose that Solomon, the richest man ever, might be in a position to know what he’s talking about?

The Teacher moves on to speak of the powerful in the remaining verses of chapter 4. In these verses is a little twist, that political scientists call “fatigue”. As time goes on, a leader’s popularity tends to fade as the public becomes fatigued with the administration. Often, this results from the fact that the leader in question is more and more isolated from everyday life in the country. They may also become quite impressed with their own greatness, no longer listening to advisors who better understand life on the street than the leader does, with the result that the performance of their government seems to fall short of people’s expectations. The result is that someone else rises to power either by death and inheritance as with a royal succession, or if perhaps there is a coup. In our day, there might be a new election… and then the cycle begins anew, always with the same result.

With this in mind, would you like to be president or prime minister?

Be careful what you wish for; unless you enjoy sleepless nights, high stress, and looking over your shoulder while you chase the wind!

As I look at this passage one more time before moving on to chapter five, I’m struck with a thought…

We’ve just run through several scenarios relating to our lives under the sun; in this world of ours. Can you see a pattern beyond the obvious “all is vanity”? Well there is one, for it would seem that nothing under the sun is really what it appeared to be at first.

Now, our most excellent adventure will move into an area that we haven’t ventured into before, an area that may cut a little closer to home for some of us. As always, I’ll look forward to seeing you next time!

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