"8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity. 9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. 10 The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd. 12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:8-14).
Just as the preacher is the Shepherd of the local church, the father is the Shepherd of his home. Just as the preacher is to be the personification of biblical wisdom in the local church, the father is to be the personification of biblical wisdom in the home. Obviously, before the personification of biblical wisdom can ever be a reality, both the preacher in the church and the father in the home must be men of the Word of God. Both the preacher and the father must be men who immerse their lives in the Word of God. They must be men whose spirituality is birthed from a proper interpretation and application of the Word of God.
Spiritual superficiality in either the preacher's life or the father's life breeds superficiality in the church and in the family. Superficiality produces mediocrity at its best and hypocrisy at its worst. This is the substance of the "vanities of vanities" statement of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 12:8. Solomon was a man who knew the truth of God's Word but fail in living that truth and reproduced his own superficiality of existence in the nation of Israel and in his children and descendents for over four-hundred years. Perhaps we can go so far as to say that we can trace the ultimate fall of the nation of Israel back to the selfish licentious lifestyle of the forty years of his reign as King of Israel.
Solomon received the monarchy of Israel from his father David when Solomon was about eighteen years old (perhaps sixteen). Although Solomon was educated by the prophet Nathan (II Samuel 12:24-25), he was spiritually corrupted by what went on in the household of David, his father. A very dedicated preacher/prophet spiritually educated him and his father corrupted him through regular examples of spiritual compromise and superficiality. Although the Word of God tells us that David was a man after God's own heart (I Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22), we also know David became a man preoccupied with the prestige of wealth and power as King of Israel. His sin with Bathsheba happened because David remained in the safety and luxury of his palace at Jerusalem when he should have been leading the armies of Israel (II Samuel 11:1-5). God called David to lead the armies of Israel. David's central failure in his life is right here. This failure leads to all the other failures in his life like a row of dominoes that would destroy his family for generations. Once something is broken, it cannot be unbroken. Once we mess-up, the best we can do is confess-up. We cannot undo a wrong. There is no erasure in life - just forgiveness. The best we can do is to try to right a wrong, but we had better do everything we can so as to right that wrong
Wealth, comfort, power, prestige, pleasure, and fame were the seeds of superficiality that David sowed into the lives of his children. Obviously, David did not intend to sow these seeds into the lives of his children. I doubt that he was even aware of what he had done until his later years as he began to see the perverted spiritual fruit of his life being produced in the lives of his children. After all, we might say, David was a spiritual man. Yes, David was a man of genuine repentance. David was a man of deep spiritual convictions. David was also a sinner with deep-seated spiritual weaknesses and secret corruptions. This is what Solomon refers to regarding his own corruptions in the statement, "For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Although the prophet Nathan spiritually educated Solomon, Solomon's view of what was important in life came from what his father struggled with all of his life - wealth, comfort, power, prestige, pleasure, and fame.
Solomon's statement in Ecclesiastes 12:8-14 comes at the very end of his forty-year reign. The nation of Israel was at the pinnacle in its position of wealth, comfort, power, prestige, pleasure, and fame before the other nations of the world. At the same time, Solomon had taken the nation of Israel down a pathway of spiritual compromise. At the time of Solomon's statement in Ecclesiastes 12:8-14, the nation of Israel was worshipping Jehovah at the Temple in Israel and practicing the sexual licentiousness of idolatry on every high place imaginable. Solomon had those high places erected for his many idolatrous wives (I Kings 11:1-8, II Kings 23:13). Solomon had become addicted to wealth, comfort, power, prestige, pleasure, and fame. What the father tolerates, his children consummate.
Historically, what we learn from Solomon's appeal in Ecclesiastes 12:8-14 can be quite discouraging. Once a parent sacrifices spiritual ground to Satan by spiritual compromise and permissiveness in lives of children, do not expect to regain that ground without confessing your failure and permissiveness to your children.
ØFirst, you have already lost spiritual credibility with your children because of duplicity in your life.
ØSecond, there must be complete repentance in your life followed with a practical manifestation of consistent change.
ØThird, there must be a genuine appeal to your children to abandon the practices of what you have given permission and an appeal now to walk with you on your new pathway of obedience to God.
This is what Solomon is doing in Ecclesiastes 12:8-14. Sadly, there is little in the historical record of the history of the nation of Israel or in the family of Solomon that reveals any genuine repentance. The historical facts are that Israel continues in its spiritual declension to consummate almost total corruption. In II Kings chapter twenty-two, three-hundred and sixty-four years after the reign of Solomon, we find the Temple that Solomon had built now in ruin.
In II Kings 22:5, we are given the state of this ruin in the words "to repair the breaches of the house." We can literally translate this as the "dilapidation of the house." In other words, the priesthood and people of Israel had become so engulfed by idolatry that they just let the Temple of God fall into disrepair and ruin. Secondly, idolatry had so consumed Israel that they had lost the "book of the law" (II Kings 22:8). It is not that the "book of the law" had been merely misplaced. The implication of the text is that the very nature of its existence had been lost from the knowledge of both the priesthood of Israel, the King of Israel, and the people of Israel.
Where did this spiritual declension begin? It began with David's toleration of sin and compromise of values. Solomon consummated David's spiritual compromise and the next twenty generations from Solomon to Josiah magnified that consummation. In his statement in Ecclesiastes 12:8-14, Solomon tries to take back the seed he had sown, but it had already found fruition in his descendants and was now procreating its own seeds of corruption.
Solomon states in Ecclesiastes 12:9, "And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs." The fact is that for the most part of Solomon's life, he merely impersonated wisdom. At the same time he was writing proverbs of righteous instruction to the generations to follow, Solomon was living in hypocrisy. Solomon's journey to the personification of wisdom was a destructive journey from mere ideology to practicality. How sad! We are glad he finally got there, but it is sad because it takes most of us a lifetime to make the transition from ideology to practicality. We are such delusional people. We are so easily self-deceived. We live in pretension and proclaim proficiency in practice. Whom do we think we are fooling? Superficiality in the proclamation of ideology is never a substitute for genuine spiritual substance in living.
I can only imagine how the children of Solomon responded to Solomon's end-of-life instruction, "13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. 14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil" (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14). Historically, there is no evidence of repentance and revival in the nation of Israel at Solomon's end-of-life enlightenment. I think they probably responded in the same way another patterned hypocrite's children responded to his last minute appeal.
"12 And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: 13 For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it. 14 And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons in law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked {they thought he was joking around} unto his sons in law" (Genesis 19:12-14).
In Solomon's concluding statement, just before he gives his summation for living, he says, "The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd" (Ecclesiastes 12:11). Words of wisdom are like "goads." A "goad" was a stick with a sharp end or an iron spike sharpened with a piercing point. A "goad" was used to poke an ox to keep him moving or to keep him from turning aside. The metaphor is that words of wisdom are sometimes painful, but there purpose is to keep us on the right pathway and to keep us moving forward for the Lord.
The second metaphor is that words of wisdom are like the nails of the master carpenter. They hold the assembly together in its structure and purpose. The metaphor compares the master carpenter to the preacher/teacher of God's truths. Words of wisdom refer to the application of truths "given from one shepherd." That "one shepherd" is God. The preacher does not provide the materials of truth. God does. The preacher merely tries to bring the pieces together to make the structure functional. The structure is the spiritual life of the student. Just like the "goad," there is some pain involved when the words of wisdom, the "nails," genuinely touch a life and begin to transform a person. These two metaphors define the difference between the impersonators of biblical wisdom and those who personify biblical wisdom. Sadly, most children will seldom see anyone who is a real personification of Christ. Most of us are just impersonators. Because we are just impersonators, we will reproduce this impersonation in our children.
What then is the solution to this age-old problem of spiritual delusion? God's words of wisdom must be nailed to our hearts. We might say God's provides the words of wisdom - the nails. The preacher presents each nail of wisdom and defines its purpose. The preacher then holds the nail of wisdom to the heart and the believer drives the nail of wisdom into his own heart making it part of the very essence of the person he is.
God's words of wisdom must become the very essence of our character and nature. Impersonating Christ is not what God wants. Literally, God wants us to live Christ. God does not merely want us to impersonate righteousness. God wants to produce His righteousness supernaturally through our lives.
"19 For I {the 'Old Man'} through the law am dead to the law {to achieving righteousness}, that I might live unto God. 20 I {the 'Old Man,' Rom. 6:6} am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21 I do not frustrate {annul or disenfranchise} the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law {by mere law keeping rather than by the supernatural operations of the indwelling Spirit of God}, then Christ is dead in vain" (Galatians 2:19-21).
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave us comment or question and we will endeavour to reply as soon as possible. Thank You.