Exodus 12:24-28: Remember.

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 30 June 2019; Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 06 July 2014. Based on an earlier version presented 01 July 2012 by Michael Ramsay

This is the 2019 version, click here to read the 2012 version of this homily: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/06/exodus-1224-28-remember.html

I am a Rotarian and this week I am speaking at one of the Rotary clubs in town. While thinking about this I was reminded of  a harrowing story I heard at the Swift Current club about a family vacation that Dave, one of the members, took in Acapulco in 1968:

Dave and his wife are on holiday down in Mexico. They check into their hotel. They are near the ground floor and there are these little lizards - Geckos or something else – climbing all up the walls; so they speak to the hotel and ask to be moved as far away from the lizards as they can, up to the top floor. They do move up to the top floor. This turns out to be a mistake. In the middle of the night, they are woken up as people are running through the halls screaming. Some girls from Quebec tell them what is happening: the hotel is on fire. The stairs, they are concrete for the top few floors and then wood beneath and the wooden stairs are ablaze. The girls from Quebec jump over the railing from the 10^th storey or more up and plunge all the way down. Dave and his wife and his two sons, aged six and nine, are trapped. Without thinking they run to the elevator but the door closes with people inside it just before they get there. Actually I think Dave may have even gotten his hand in the closing door but they don’t catch the elevator, which is good because we know what happens to people in elevators in a fire. Dave and his family are trapped. They try to tie sheets together to scale down the outside of the building but as Dave is heading over a balcony, it is good that he has an arm linked through the railing because someone unties the sheets. He then climbs down the side of the balcony and swings onto the balcony below. His wife then drops one of his children for him to catch and then the other and then she scales down as far as she can, then falls and Dave catches her legs and pulls her in. They do this until the third story or so of the building when they run out of balconies. Dave then throws one child down onto a straw thatched roof, hoping that will break his fall. He sees the boy fall through the roof and run away; so he throws the other son down who makes a new hole as he crashes through the thatched roof. He runs to safety. His wife jumps next and Dave is able to scale a palm tree to the bottom. They are injured but they survive. It was quite a tale to hear recalled. They survived by the grace of God but others on their floor who leapt over the railing or who took the elevator did not.

What had happened was, apparently there was a dispute between two ownership groups – one local and one foreign – the foreign group was residing in the hotel on that day and some local people had attacked the hotel with Molotov cocktails – hoping to collect insurance, I believe.

It was quite something to hear this story. There is more to his story here too. One of  Dave’s sons had a piece of the thatched roof he fell through stuck into his foot. The other had a twig protruding from his neck with blood spurting out. They were okay though. There was another miracle in this story. (Dave and his wife recognize this as a miraculous salvation.) When Dave and his wife were climbing down the balconies to escape the flames, they left somewhere her straw purse with their passports, money, plane tickets, and the like. The next day Dave went back and began looking in this burned out hotel building for this straw purse. God saved it for them. It was on a balcony on a burned out floor but this straw purse with its contents was still there. It was fine. God protected it and God protected them. God was there for them in the midst of this ordeal.

It is the same with the Hebrews in our text today. A few months ago Sarah-Grace preached a sermon for us here on the stories of the plagues in Exodus. They are quite something with each one becoming more awe-inspiring than the previous one.[1]

1. The Nile turning to blood (7:14–25)
2. Plague of frogs (7:25–8:11)
3. Plague of lice or gnats (8:12–15)[2]
4. Plague of flies or wild animals (8:20–32)
5. Plague of pestilence (9:1–7)
6. Plague of boils (9:8–12)
7. Plague of hail (9:13-35)
8. Plague of locusts (10:1–20)
9. Plague of darkness (10:21–29)

I still remember vividly the closest thing to a plague of darkness that I have ever experienced and that was in Swift Current in 2017. I can still recall the dread that came over us all as at noon, in the middle of the day, this darkness just swept over a corner of the city: it was really quite something. I have not seen anything like that before. It was an ominous, fear-provoking experience as that blackness approached: you could see blue skies fleeing from its presence. There was a tornado warning. When it came, we were driving to pick up Rebecca, who was in her elementary school, for lunch. The school had announced that the children were not to go outside. Some students, of course, were pressed up against the windows to see what was happening, others were in tears hiding safely under their desks. These feelings of fear and awe, of terror and wonder, that we were experiencing on that day are probably a reflection of the intensity of the emotions that would have been swirling around the Israelites through the first nine plagues of Exodus, as they are experiencing the power of God in a metaphorical funnel cloud of awe and terror preparing for the final plague, the tenth plague: The Angel of Death (11:1–12:36).

It is in the context of the children of Israel huddled in their houses preparing for Death’s arrival that our pericope today is found. In the opening 13 verses of this chapter, God tells Moses and Aaron exactly what is about to happen. Just like Tsunami alert, like we still hear tested here: ‘Get ready’, God warns them, ‘the Angel of Death is coming’.

Now there has already been a lot of flooding and states of emergency declared across this country and here we have been very thankful for the rain as we prepare for fire season. And just like we have emergency disaster plans that we are to follow in the city and in The Salvation Army when disaster strikes, God here is giving Moses and Aaron their instructions as to how to save themselves and their families when the Angel of Death strikes at Goshen, in Egypt. I don’t know if anyone here remembers the Tsunami of 1964 or if you have ever huddled in a storm cellar or was forced to take shelter or head beneath deck on a boat being tossed about in a storm but I imagine that it is the same feeling. The people take all the right steps and now they are just waiting and hoping, and praying for Death to pass.

I have binders and binders full of the Army’s and others’ plans of what we need to do in the event of a major disaster:  flood, fire, tsunami. God in Exodus here gives Moses and Aaron a disaster preparedness plan to share with the Hebrews in Egypt for the impending strike by the Angel of Death. It looks like this. Picture with me - you and your family – you have received your disaster preparedness plan from your leaders. Disaster is going to strike, you are fearful (like the school children hiding under their desks awaiting a tornado) and you are in awe as you await the Angel of Death who is coming to claim many from your country on this very night. On this very evening as Death is approaching; this is the plan:

1. You are to take a lamb or a kid to share as a meal with everyone in your household. If there aren’t enough of you in a household to eat a whole lamb, you must share it with your closest neighbour (12:3-4);
2. The animal must be 1 year-old and without defect (v.5);
3. You have already been taking care of the animals for 14 days in preparation for this day – now everyone in town is to go and slaughter the lamb at twilight (v.6);
4. You will then – this is important – take some of the blood and put it on the sides and the tops of the doorframes of the houses where you will eat the lambs (v.7);
5. Then you will eat the meat roasted over a fire with bitter herbs and bread without yeast and you must eat it all. You may not leave any of it until morning! If there are leftovers, you must burn them (vv. 8-10);
6. When you are eating this meal, you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on, and your staff in your hand (v. 11). In our language today: you are to have your coats, hats and shoes on and your car keys in your hand. You are to be ready to go. You are to eat it in haste because it is the LORD’s Passover.

God tells Moses and Aaron that as the people follow this plan they will survive the impending strike by the Angel of Death. Then God tells them, ‘You must never forget this night. You must remember how I saved you.’ I imagine this evening must be as clear to those who experienced it as the images were to Dave and his wife of that night climbing down the side of the building – and Dave’s wife, she is afraid of heights. I imagine that every time they think about this night, they remember every feeling that was racing through their heart and mind and I imagine that they’ll never forget it.

I remember when I was in Nipawin and the building exploded right behind The Salvation Army Ministry Centre downtown. My office shook. It felt like a truck had struck it. With others, I headed outside to see what had happened, I saw injured or dead or dying people lying on the ground as the flames began to engulf part of the downtown. My children and everyone else around on that day have stories surrounding those moments. I imagine each of us have had times like these that will never leave our minds.

The thing with events like these is that as real as they are to us, they are not as real to people who don’t actually experience them and as time passes people tend to forget the important lessons that come from them. We recently marked the 75^th anniversary of D-Day. I had the honour of speaking at the 70^th D-Day memorial on the prairies five years ago. For those hundreds and thousands of soldiers present on June 6, 1944, as long as they live, D-Day is a day they will never forget; but if I were to guess I would say that less people across this country officially attend ceremonies to remember the anniversary than lost their lives on the beaches on that day in 1944. Remembrance Day and the Legion remind us of the horrors of war, lest we forget. It is no coincidence that as the Cold War ended and more and more of our veterans pass away, that there are more wars in our world than ever before. Did you know that from end of the cold war -1989 or 1991, until the end of the twentieth century there were more wars in that one decade than there were in the whole rest of the century prior. People forget and then another generation experiences the same horrors. 

As the Israelite families of our pericope today are sitting in their houses awaiting the impending calamity, God tells Moses that they are never to forget this day.[3] They are to remember it forever. They are to tell their children and their children’s children. This should a permanent feature in the school curriculum, so to speak. It is to be like our annual Remembrance Day ceremonies in that there are some elements that must be observed. As far as the Passover remembrance ceremonies for the Israelites, they are to incorporate some of their Emergency Disaster Preparedness Plan into a ceremonial dinner and they are not have any yeast in the house at all for seven days prior and they are to eat only unleavened flat breads. Then God tells them, Exodus 12:24-27:

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

One reason that the people were to remember this was so that they would not forget what the Lord had done for them in the past. This is so important: a people that forget their past forfeits their future.

We were in Ottawa for Canada's 150th Celebrations. We met friends there which made it quite fun but the official events were a really big disappointment. They made Canada seem like a country with no culture, no history, no past. A recent Canadian survey shows that we Canadians know little and care less about our accomplishments, history and traditions. These seem to be increasingly removed from the things that we direct the greatest value at… Canadians between the ages of 18 and 24 are more likely to take pride in the Toronto Raptors, who recently won the [US based] NBA Championship, than [Canadian] Confederation… [The Raptors] They've given us something to celebrate," The survey conclusion stated about the team. "They're champions, so they're more current.” The monarchy, Confederation, and noted Canadians are neglected and forgotten.[4]

One reason Canadians need to remember our past is so that we will continue to exist in the future. One reason that the people of God were to remember the Passover was so that they would not forget what the Lord had done for them in the past and another reason is to wait for a future deliverance. As this Passover ceremony developed over the generations, it came to incorporate an act of ceremonially ‘looking for Elijah’. This is because tradition later stated that Elijah must return before the Messiah is to come.

Now Elijah does return and Jesus the Messiah does come and when he does and as Jesus is celebrating this very important Passover remembrance with his disciples, Jesus the Messiah utters the very important words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This is, I think, a big reason why God wanted the Passover ceremony etched so deeply in the minds of humanity for so long because just as when the Egyptians gave up their firstborn sons, God saved His people through the blood of the Passover lamb; so when God gives up His firstborn son –Jesus Christ – He also saves us; His people, all His people, He saves through the Blood of the Lamb.[5]

This is the most important event in the whole history of the world: The death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God, through the giving of His only begotten son has made it – just like with Exodus and the Angel of Death – so that none of us need to perish but all of us can have salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is important to remember.

This is why we come to church, this is why we go to Bible studies, this is why we pray and this is why we read our Bibles; this is why we have our Mercy Seat and this is why we commemorate Good Friday and Easter Sunday/Monday every year. That is why we are here today: because just as God offered salvation to all His children from the passing over of the Angel of Death and the preceding plagues; so too He offers salvation to all of us, this very day, from Sin and Death and from everything that is plaguing us. As that is the case, it is my hope and my prayer that if any of us have not yet implemented our eternal disaster preparedness plan, that you would delay no longer and that we would all experience that salvation both today and forever more.

I am going to invite everyone up to the Mercy Seat or Holiness Table on this Canada Day Eve to take a card with a verse on it, in remembrance of Christ and what He has done for this nation and what He has done for us. There are three cards (you can take 1, 2, or 3 of them):

·        One with John 3:16 –the ultimate Passover verse- on it,  “For God so loved the world, that He gave his Only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

·        One with Hebrews 11:16, the verse from the Order of Canada, “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.”

·        And one card with the verse from Canada’s Motto, Psalm 72:8, “He [The LORD] shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.”

These are God's promises for us as Canadians that we are not to forget. Of the Passover, Jesus says, “do this in remembrance of me.” God asks us to remember what He has done for us: how God has saved us all from Death, just like He saved the Hebrews so many years ago. Our Lord tells us not to forget, so I encourage each of us to come forward to the Mercy Seat, take a card back to your seat, mediate and pray about it and today when you leave put it in your wallet or somewhere else and every time you see it this week, I encourage you to remember what the Lord has done.

 thank the Lord for His mercy and for the price He paid on our behalf.

In Jesus’ Name, Come.

---

[1] Cf. Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/E. The Passover (12:1-28)/1. Preparations for the Passover (12:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2. for more detailed list.

[2] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 113: In the evening: literally ‘between the two evenings’. Jewish scholars are not agreed as to the exact meaning. The phrase is also used of the time for the regular evening sacrifice (Exod. 29:39) and of the time for lighting the lamps in the meeting-tent (Exod. 30:8). The orthodox piety of Pharisaic Judaism understood the meaning as being between the time in the afternoon when the heat of the sun lessens (say 3 or 4 p.m.) and sunset. Other groups preferred the time between sunset and dark, or other similar explanations.

[3] Thomas W. Mann, “Passover: The Time of Our Lives.” Interpretation 50, no. 3 (July 1, 1996): 240-250. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 241-242: The Passover narrative is arguably the most important section of the entire book because it is primarily here that the experience of exodus is communicated not simply as a moment in historical time (in the past) but as a perennially recurring moment in the present life of those for whom the story is sacred.

[4] Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press. Published Friday, June 28, 2019 4:27AM EDT. Cited from CTV News: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canadians-more-likely-to-take-pride-in-the-present-than-history-poll-1.4486436

[5] Norman Theiss, "The Passover Feast of the New Covenant." Interpretation 48, no. 1 (January 1, 1994): 17-35. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 17: In the eyes of the first three evangelists and Paul, Jesus construed his last supper with the twelve disciples as the fulfillment of God's plan to inaugurate a new Passover meal. In this new meal, Jesus interpreted his death as a new Exodus in which the new people of God were liberated from all that enslaves them and freed to serve God in holy living.

www.sheepspeak.com

https://www.facebook.com/Salvogesis

Matthew 6:25-34: WHU's Blowing Bubbles

Presented to The Alberni Valley Men's Breakfast, 16 June 2019 
by Captain Michael Ramsay

A few years ago we were in London England to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of The Salvation Army. We enjoyed the Boundless conference and then stayed to tour England and Scotland a little bit afterwards. It was a good time. It didn't start out that way though.

When we arrived in the UK, our hotel reservations had evaporated: we had no place to stay. Our credit cards and bank cards didn't work: we couldn't access our money. We were calling my mom half way across the world to try to help us access our money and help us find a place to stay - but our phones didn't work properly either. We tracked down other Salvation Army Officers. It all worked out in the end but it was a stressful beginning.

One day, early in the Boundless conference, I had to leave early with my teenage daughter. She was old enough to stay alone but she wasn't confident enough to take the Metro on her own. She wasn't feeling well. I went to help her get to the hotel room. God knew how stressed I was as I was tempted to worry about everything that was happening.

It was at this time that God gave me a gift. I noticed that there were a lot of people on the metro wearing claret and blue. When I was still in elementary school, my cousin bought me a vlaret and blue West Ham United jersey. I had watched them win the FA Cup and, with my cousin;s encouragement, I became a fan. This was what the people were wearing - the uniform of my favourite EPL team.

I took my daughter to the apartment, got her settled and then I decided to follow all of the people in the West Ham kits. I got off the metro where they did and followed them to Upton Park. My credit card wasn't working but I had 10 pounds in my pocket and that is exactly what a ticket cost. That was exactly what the last ticket cost. I bought the last ticket left. It was a seat right on the centre line. It was the first day their new coach arrived at the stadium and West Ham won and kept a clean sheet as well.

That was when the trip turned around for me, God gave me this gift. He let me know that I could stop worrying about hotel rooms, credit cards, cell phones, where we would sleep, how wee would eat and other struggles. God was with us and He encouraged me with this gift.

Today, I encourage you not to worry about whatever your struggles are. God loves you and He knows what you need and He will provide.

Does a time come to mind when has the Lord offered you the comfort and encouragement that He offered me in London that day?

More daily blogs at

https://www.facebook.com/Salvogesis/

More articles, sermons, and papers at

www.sheepspeak.com

Ecclesiastes 1: Boney Fingers and Other Problems

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 09 June 2019 by Captain Michael Ramsay

Nothing makes sense anymore. Do you ever get to the point where you think that nothing makes sense anymore? Do you ever get to the point where you don’t really know what the point of anything is anymore? Ecclesiastes 1:2:

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”

says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”
  

This sounds a little familiar doesn’t it? Do we ever wonder why we invested all of this time and energy into things that seem entirely irrelevant to today?
  

Let me show you something: this hat, do we recognize it? This flag, do we recognize it? When I was a student I was able to go to the USSR. Young people met from each country. We exchanged greetings and shared cultural dances, etc. Canada’s cultural dance: I don’t know who made the selection. My guess is that we were surprised by the concept of a Canadian national dance because we chose the Hokey Pokey as our national dance. Hopefully people in Russia don’t still think that is our dance. Shortly after this the whole USSR dissolved and all of the efforts that were made to establish peace and understanding between the Soviet East and the Capitalist West, were meaningless, as were all of the domestic advances of the USSR for the Soviet Union disappeared from the face of the earth. We in the West were told that this collapse would usher in an era of peace but, of course, the opposite was true and even today you just need to turn on the TV to see how much positive affect student exchanges, perestroika and glasnost had on peace and understanding. It seems it was…

“Meaningless! Meaningless!”

says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”

But there is much more to this meaninglessness of Ecclesiastes than an old flag and a hat that I happen to have from a city that no longer exists in a country that no longer exists.[1]

Verse 3: What do people gain from all their labours

at which they toil under the sun?

We've heard the expression and maybe the Hoyt Axton song: work your fingers to the bone and what do you get? Boney fingers. Or maybe we've heard Tennessee Ernie Ford's version from an older song? You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. The city of Detroit went bankrupt a couple of years ago. The Detroit Free press last year ran articles on the effect of the city's bankruptcy on pensioners. Some people had to all of a sudden find private health insurance of almost $1000 a month where it was covered before.[2] In Canada pensions that people are working for are not necessarily much more secure. Our country has talked about raising the retirement age to 67 instead of 65 and many people my age and younger have lamented that they may never be able to retire. Hoyt Axton: You work your fingers to the bone what do you get? Boney fingers. Tennessee Ernie Ford's: You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Ecclesiastes: What do you gain from all your labour and toil under the sun?

The clips here are HOYT AXTON and JOHNNY CASH (not Tennessee Ernie Ford)

We've heard the idea that if we work longer and harder we will earn enough to survive or even prosper. We have all heard of the prosperity heresy… that God won't let good hard-working Christians starve; they will all be rich: It is not true. Just like the parable Jesus tells about the man who builds storehouses to invest for his retirement. Luke 12:20: “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’  Another music reference for us today. You know the song by Harry F. Chapin, 'Cat's in the Cradle?'

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon

Little boy blue and the man in the moon

"When you coming home, dad?" "I don't know when"

But we'll get together then

You know we'll have a good time then

    

It is a song about a dad who works so hard, presumably for his family, that he has no time for his child because he is working so much. His child grows up and then his dad retires and has time for his son but his son is now too busy for him. Like father like son. The story of the song's writer is equally as tragic. Harry Chapin realized that he was a workaholic who desired to spend time with his family as the song says but Harry Chapin also did not get the chance; he died suddenly at 38 years old before he could retire, leaving behind his daughter who grew up to be a performer - just like him.

Hoyt Axton: You work your fingers to the bone what do you get? Boney fingers. Tennessee Ernie Ford's: You load 16 tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Ecclesiastes: What do you gain from all your labour and toil under the sun?

All of this work, all of this toil and nothing ever changes. Ecclesiastes 1, some more, verses 4-7:

4 Generations come and generations go,

but the earth remains forever.

5 The sun rises and the sun sets,

and hurries back to where it rises.

6 The wind blows to the south

and turns to the north;

round and round it goes,

ever returning on its course.

7 All streams flow into the sea,

yet the sea is never full.

To the place the streams come from,

there they return again.

All our hard work and other efforts and nothing seems to change. I can remember feeling duped by politicians more than once, voting for a new person or party believing that when they get in everything will be better only to have them elected and see everything just continues on the same trajectory as always. I still vote in every election that I can and I take the time to research the people, the parties and the issues but there is a reason why less and less people - especially young people - are voting these days.

Meaningless! Meaningless!”

says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”

Hard work, politics, even big societal changes - we've heard the expression, 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'?

Now Ecclesiastes really is a book that you have to read in its entirety to grasp its full meaning but we just don't have time to do that here today. Maybe you could do that at home though. I read it once or twice in its entirety recently. I think it took about half an hour. The context is very important because if we just continued to bring out quotes about everything that is meaningless searching for meaning we may even find apparent contradictions in this letter. Suffice it to say that a major theme is

Meaningless! Meaningless!”

says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”

But I do want to bring our attention to something that I find very interesting and maybe even significant. Who wrote this book? In all probability it was King Solomon or someone at his behest or pretending to be him.[3] But, who is the teacher that is referred to by the author?

Meaningless! Meaningless!”

says the Teacher.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”

I had always just assumed that this teacher (or preacher depending on your translation) was the author of the book or another person - but I no longer think this to be the case necessarily. I looked at the Hebrew for this text a little bit: Qohelet. This word that we translate as 'teacher' is quite interesting. The Hebrew word Qohelet is in its feminine form. A small number of scholars then can argue that the teacher of Ecclesiastes is a woman. One problem for this is simply that masculine pronouns and language are used consistently throughout. I think it is likely that the author was indeed male (which matters not) but I think that when the text refers to the teacher that the text is not referring to a specific person. I think the text is referring to Wisdom herself. We know the name ‘Sophia’ is Latin for Wisdom. The Hebrew word for ‘Wisdom’ in its feminine form is found here as in other Wisdom literature, even in our Bible; in the book of Proverbs for example Wisdom is personified as a woman.[4] All of this I tell you simply because I found it interesting while I was doing my research. It really doesn’t matter whether the teacher is Solomon himself, a man or a woman or whether, consistent with other Wisdom literature, the teacher is Wisdom herself but I found it interesting and I thought that you might as well. If the teacher is Wisdom it doesn’t change the meaning of the text but I think it does make it a little more clear that indeed this passage still speaks to us today. However, in the end the whole discussion about who the teacher really is…

Meaningless! Meaningless!”

says Wisdom.

“Utterly meaningless!

Everything is meaningless.”

This book does go through many things that one considers meaningless: study, work, moral perfectionism/over-righteousness, wickedness/foolishness, life, death, envy, fame, freedom, happiness, hopelessness, talk, fellowship, and even wisdom itself.

When I was a teenager or even a young adult I read this book as if it was written by a high school or university student. Looking for the poignancy in apparent contradictions, my favourite verses at that time came from Chapter 7:16-18:

Do not be over-righteous,

neither be over-wise—

why destroy yourself?

Do not be over-wicked,

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 follow each extreme (or avoid them both).

I have spent some time in the past few weeks reading and studying this again and now I read it as a middle aged person who is not tempted to be caught up in the novelty of paradox as much as I am to be swept away by the apathy of experience. Many people try to sum up this book with the cliché that life is meaningless without God but I think that this book says much more than that. I think the book points out quite clearly that even with God in our lives these meaningless events occur. Even if you are a Christian you can lead your life as a health nut, only eating the appropriate amount of organic health food and still die of cancer. You can be an athlete who works out and exercises appropriately and still have a heart attack. You can study 15 years in University and spend all your money doing so and still not get a degree or you might get that degree but then not be able to find any work so that all that time and money you spent was indeed meaningless. You might be like that fellow in Luke’s parable that we mentioned earlier who is really good with his money and saves up for his retirement only to die before he is able to retire. You might work harder than anyone else in your job and never get a promotion. You may volunteer for a million years and never get a paid position. Life is like this. Life is not roses and puppies. You will have good times and you will have bad times. Whether you have money and health, or study hard and work hard or whether you don’t won’t affect that (cf. also James 4:13-17). You cannot inoculate yourself from trouble; you can not vaccinate yourself against hard times. I think this is the message of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 9:11:

The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong,

nor does food come to the wise

or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned;

but time and chance happen to them all.

This is important. You cannot be vaccinated against bad times; you cannot be inoculated against life. Trying to do so, trying to solve all of life's problems on our own won't work.  It doesn't matter how rich or poor, smart or dumb, pretty or pretty ugly you might be, time and circumstance happens to us all. What we can do is seek to learn and have the joy of the Lord in all of our circumstances (Phil 4:4-8). We cannot ever fully prevent the tragedies of life from happening. Life happens. But when the tragedies do occur we can turn to the Lord who promises He will never leave us nor forsake us (Dt 31:6, Heb 13:5). As the Teacher tells us to conclude this book:

Now all has been heard;

here is the conclusion of the matter:

Fear (Respect) God and keep his commandments,

for this is the duty of all mankind.

And as we do that, as we seek the Lord and trust in Him, everything will be okay - even when it isn't.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

www.facebook.com/Salvogesis

---

[1] Cf. Tewoldernedhin Habtu, Africa Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 814, ‘What’s the Point? 1:1-2:6’ about the still prevelant  Afican perpective of a transient people on a on a not as temporary earth.

[2] Cf. Susan Tompor, 'Even 5 years later, retirees feel the effects of Detroit's bankruptcy' (Detroit Free Press Published 6:00 a.m. ET July 18, 2018 | Updated 3:34 p.m. ET July 18, 2018): https://www.freep.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2018/07/18/detroit-bankruptcy-retirees-pension/759446002/

[3] Cf. also J. Stafford Wright, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Ecclesiastes/Introduction to Ecclesiastes/Authorship of Ecclesiastes, Book Version: 4.0.2

[4] Cf. W. Sibley Towner, The Book of Ecclesiastes, (NIB V: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1997) 268, 280. If the teacher/preacher here is not ‘Wisdom’ then it puts the book of Ecclesiasts in an unique situation as Wisdom, though a major theme would never make a cameo as one personified.

Room For Creation

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 02 June 2019 
by Captain Michael Ramsay

Click the link to read the picture book: http://sheepspeak.com/Room_for_Creation_Web_Ramsay.pdf