Longing (Wednesday) – Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

by | Jan 15, 2014 | 03. Longing

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: a right time for birth and another for death, a right time to plant and another to reap, a right time to kill and another to heal, a right time to destroy and another to construct, a right time to cry and another to laugh, a right time to lament and another to cheer, a right time to make love and another to abstain, a right time to embrace and another to part, a right time to search and another to count your losses, a right time to hold on and another to let go, a right time to rip out and another to mend, a right time to shut up and another to speak up, a right time to love and another to hate, a right time to wage war and another to make peace. (Ecc 3:1-8)
 
 
I imagine the word “right” is a joke to the atheist and an annoyance to the agnostic since rightness implies that divine intention is embedded in all things. After all right and wrong only make sense in a moral universe and a moral universe implies a just creator. As Pilot asked, ‘What is truth?’, the unbelieving and doubter must ask, ‘What is justice?’
 
 
Most Christians claim to believe that the bible is inspired. Many even say that it is inerrant. Even though I can’t find that in the bible, I too believe scripture is inspired. (which means many things to many people) But, does inspired imply that Solomon’s words, as the wisest man who ever lived, are all the gospel truth? After Solomon has declared the rightness of things happening at appropriate times, listen to his conclusions…..

 

In the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does? I’ve had a good look at what God has given us to do—busywork, mostly. True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time—but he’s left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he’s coming or going. (Eccl 3:9-11)

Solomon’s conclusion causes me to believe that old testament wisdom has severe limitations. If this council in Ecclesiastes is dependable, I must conclude that God, in all His sovereignty and goodness, has crowned us with blindness and busyness as our glory.  if Solomon is on point, the only application I can come up with, since what we do has no bearing on anything, is to eat, drink and be merry for we are all going to die.  Solomon has acknowledged God’s sovereignty, yet it has led him to promote a wisdom that will lead to indifference. Can you reconcile the lyrics of this dirge with the song and spirit of the new testament? 

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: a right time for birth..

In the fulness of time, at just the right moment, it was time for God to come to earth and make some things clear that the old testament in itself could not bring into focus. Birthed in obscurity to a virgin, God made His understated entrance into our time and space at just the right time.

There’s an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: a right time for birth and another for death…

In the fulness of time: at just the right moment, it came time for Jesus to sacrifice His life for us – those condemned to die for our sin in the context of divine justice. Christ willingly laid down His own life as an unblemished sacrifice, an offering that satisfied the debt we owed but could never repay. With this He took us far beyond Solomon’s wisdom. He revealed Himself, as the mystery of the ages, a surprise that had been withheld until the appropriate moment.
 
 
I do believe that the revelation that Solomon had was the ultimate wisdom of his day. With this partial light in his heart, crying and lamenting over life’s futility was in order. But with Christ, who had come as the light of the world, who had come to inhabit the tabernacle of the believing human heart, is it appropriate to agree with Solomon that we do not know whether He’s coming or going or that we can never know what God is up to? Has God left us in the dark?  If you think it is, then I propose it is the right time for you to read the new testament afresh.  Here are just a few verses that represent the spirit of the new testament and contradict Solomon’s incomplete understandings and outlook. These reverse any notions about the wisdom of simply eating, drinking and being merry.
 
 
He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. (Ephesians 2:10)  I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (John 10:10) For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30) You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. (Matt 5:14)
 
 
So what are we to do with the wisdom of Solomon? Discard it?  I think that would be unwise. I believe the new testament saint is one being led by the Spirit. He has the Word to inspire him and the two (the Word and the Spirit) working in concert, warn the saint against the folly of  brushing the futility of sin under the rug; teaching him to avoid the demonic doctrines that can disconnect the saint from any suffering and cause him to forget we live on a battlefield not a playground designed for his amusement while awaiting heaven.
 
 
The new testament saint would also acknoweldge that he is the beneficiary of those right times that all old testament saints anticipated. With an awareness of sin and empathy for the damage it creates, the new testament saint lays hold of the wisdom that is in Christ. While we often sing dirges, highlighting the potency of our sinful natures, bemoaning our plight in a corrupt generation, we should also be composing and singing new songs of triumph, highlighting our rebirth into a new kingdom, celebrating our new identities as sons and friends of God, counting our circumstances all joy as we co-labor with Christ with our specific gifts and callings, all which are intended to have now-impact in our world. I believe if Solomon were here and privy to the mystery of Christ, he would say something to this effect….
 
 
“I have had a second and better look at what God has given us to do and I have revised my position. In the end, it really does make a difference what we all do. Indeed God has made everything beautiful in itself and He has by no means left us in the dark in this regard. God has come in Christ so that we would know Him as well as what He is up to. Solomon might just continue to preach…
 
 
“In Christ, today is the right time for salvation. Today is the right time to wage war by way of our love. This is the opportune time to re-present the gospel. Speak up. Cheer and laugh as this fuller gospel mends broken hearts and ushers healing and peace into the earth. Yes, its true that earth is fallen and a temporary prince is reigning for a time in the darkness of deceit but just ahead the right time for his fall.  In this coming hour Christ’s light and life will ultimately radiate from the Bride who is preparing herself and being prepared for Her Groom. Darkness will ultimately be displaced by the Light of Christ in us. Darkness will be vanquished.
 
 
Father, none of us are exempt from being old wineskins. We are all in the process of being revitalized, redeemed and restored to Your image. The seed has been planted in us. May our eyes look to anticipate Your harvest. Equip us to keep searching and to keep building with our hearts steeped in the hope of our glorious calling in Christ. Amen.
 
 

Longing (Tuesday) – Romans 8:18-27

by | Jan 14, 2014 | 03. Longing

That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens. (Romans 8:18-19 MSG)

This passage describes an inner tension that we creatures share with the creation. As far as the creation goes, it seems it can barely contain its longings. Paul also reveals that this is all by design. God is in this with a purpose. Do we know what that purpose is?  If creation could speak, what would it say? As we live and speak, what is it we are saying?  Are you conscious of any longing within you?

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy. (Romans 8:20-25)

As a younger man, I took issue with Paul; “A sterile and barren body?! Speak for yourself!”  I was young and strong and what I longed for then was the fulfillment of my visions.  Today, in my sixties, I am more sympathetic to Paul’s words; “A sterile and barren body? Yes, I can better see what you mean now!”  

    The glory of young men is their strength, and the honor (wisdom) of old men is their gray hair.
 
 
I understand better today than in my yesterdays, what longing is about. The NAS says that God Himself subjected us to this sense of inner futility,” in hope”. While I would like to return to the garden, I find the angel still stands at the gate. But that is ok because there is something growing inside me that is greater than my desire to have it all in this life. It is a hope of what lies ahead.
 
 
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans 8:26-28)
 

The sixties appear that they will be times of transition with unique temptations. Even when I am tempted to look back with longing for the glory of my youthful strength, the Spirit understands and patiently redirects my longing to things ahead. This waiting is not hurting me at all. In fact, it seems that the object of my longings are being transferred more and more from glorious earthly objectives to the eternal glorious person of Jesus Christ.

All things are good; even the demise of the tent I currently reside within. I am so grateful for this tent. It has served me so well and still has much life in it. I intend to continue to wholeheartedly care for it. But, as the canvas strains and grommets rust, the ocupant can rejoice because new tents will be issued that are not prone to decay. And, if wisdom has her say, the occupant may even learn, through the crucible of aging, that Christ within has never been limited by human strength and that He can be better expressed in the absence of my youthful strength than in its presence.

Father, I pray that in this final trimester, that hope will give birth to more of You than ever before. In the presence of increasing physical weakness, may Your abundant Life find even more expression and may Your presence be known in even greater measure. By your grace, may our hearts be content as we decrease and You increase.   May hope convert our errant longings into an ever deepening joyful anticipation.  May our longing be tempered in rest, saying, in concert with creation, “Come quickly Lord Jesus and reconcile all things unto Yourself and. thank you that, until that day, our cup is running over with Your abundant Life.” Amen.

Truly Lord, just in Yourself, You are far more than sufficient compensation for any loss we perceive we have suffered.