Tag Archives: sorrow

Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices: Introduction

20 Thursday Dec 2018

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Theology of Biblical Counseling, Thomas Brooks, Uncategorized

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Brooks takes as his starting text, 2 Corinthians 2:11, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”

He then makes a series of observations about the text. The overall context is the restoration of a man who had been under church discipline. Although there is some debate as to the person of whom Paul writes, it is commonly taken (as is here by Brooks), that the man put out of the congregation had been the man in the mentioned in 1 Corinthians who been an illicit relationship with his father’s wife.

Sorrowing for the Sin of Others

Brooks begins with a reference to the effect of the sin of others upon a believer:

Gracious souls use to mourn for other men’s sins as well as their own, and for their souls and sins who make a mock of sin, and a jest of damning their own souls. Guilt or grief is all that gracious souls get by communion with vain souls, Ps. 119:136, 158.

This leads to a question: if this is true, and if I am not experiencing sorrow over sin of others, then I must be experiencing some guilt, some contagion. Brooks will use the image of sin as an infectious plague in reference to the first device, below. If sin is indeed an infectious disease, one transmitted from person to person with great ease; then the only defense to the infection is sorrow for the presence of sin in others.

There are four points to consider:

First, how should I sorrow for another’s sin:

Psalm 119:136 (ESV)

136        My eyes shed streams of tears,

because people do not keep your law.

The Psalmist has the honor of God as his primary reference: This person in unrepentant sin dishonors the Lord. This one who dishonors the Lord is a danger to me and an enemy to God.

Second, sorrow for the sins of others (particularly when they are seen as in rebellion against God) disarms the temptation which is inherent in being near sin.

Third, sorrow for the sin of others protects me from a haughty attitude toward others: we cannot feel sorrow and pride at once. Sorrow creates pity.

Fourth, how little I sorrow for the sin of others. This then implies that I am being infected with their sin. If sorrow is the antitode, then a lack of sorrow is a grave danger.

And fifth – Brooks will make another observation about the importance of sorrowing for another’s sin, below.

The Sorrow of Repentance

Having made general observations on the text, Brooks moves to the nature of sorrow for repentance:

It was a sweet saying of one, ‘Let a man grieve for his sin, and then joy for his grief.’ That sorrow for sin that keeps the soul from looking towards the mercy-seat, and that keeps Christ and the soul asunder, or that shall render the soul unfit for the communion of saints, is a sinful sorrow.

Sorrow should drive us to Christ.

Before I go along, we must note Brooks’ facility with language:

That sorrow for sin

that keeps the soul from looking towards the mercy-seat,

and that keeps Christ and the soul asunder,

or that shall render the soul unfit for the communion of saints,

is a sinful sorrow.

First, he makes good use of alliteration: there is a conflict between the hard “c/k” and the soft “s”.

Second, there is the repetition of the sorrow & sin at the beginning and end of the sentence: “sorrow for sin” becomes “sinful sorrow”, thus inverting both the words and the concept.

Third, there are three criteria given to define sinful sorrow. The clauses themselves are easily spoken and have the feel of a line of poetry.

Sorrowing for the Sin of Others

Brooks notes an interesting movement in Paul’s thought: We must be show sorrow and pity upon the repentant sinner. Why so? I would think the rationale would be the need for kindness to the broken man. But Paul draws a different relationship: our failure to show pity is a danger to us:

In the 11th verse, he lays down another reason to work them to shew pity and mercy to the penitent sinner, that was mourning and groaning under his sin and misery; i. e.lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

The necessary sorrow for sin is to protect the others from a scheme of the Devil.

Satan’s Schemes

This leads to Brooks’ general theme: Satan has many devices to destroy Christians.

He begins with a general observation on the words. First, advantage:

Lest Satan should get an advantageof us; lest Satan over-reach us. The Greek word πλεονεχτηθῶμεν, signifieth to have more than belongs to one. The comparison is taken from the greedy merchant, that seeketh and taketh all opportunities to beguile and deceive others. Satan is that wily merchant, that devoureth, not widows houses, but most men’s souls.

We will not care about Satan’s efforts, if we are not convinced of Satan’s danger.

Next the concept of a scheme or device:

‘We are not ignorant of Satan’s devices,’ or plots, or machinations, or stratagems, Νοήματα. He is but a titular Christian that hath not personal experience of Satan’s stratagems, his set and composed machinations, his artificially moulded methods, his plots, darts, depths, whereby he outwitted our first parents, and fits us a pennyworth still, as he sees reason.

This leads to the basic doctrine for the rest of the book:

Doct. That Satan hath his several devices to deceive, entangle, and undo the souls of men.

These devices are more dangerous than persecution.  “So doth Satan more hurt in his sheep’s skin than by roaring like a lion.”

He gives two examples to prove this point: 2 Timothy 2:26 & Revelation 2:24.

This again leads to some questions:

First, is it true that temptation is more dangerous than persecution?

What examples from Scripture can see?

What are examples from history?

 

Second, do we really see Satan as an active danger?

Do we think of Satan as an actual person, or as a figure of speech?

Do we think of Satan and his minions actually doing things?

Do we see this as a real danger to us?

 

Third, before we begin to read Brooks’ list: what devices do we see used to ensnare souls?

Brooks list is not exhaustive.

 

Fourth, why are we so unaware of Satan’s devices? Paul says “we are not unaware”, but is that true?

 

Fifth, to the extent we are unaware of Satan and his devices, why is this so?

 

What we lose in our bodies we gain in our souls.

04 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by in affliction, Biblical Counseling, Uncategorized

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There is in every state of life a snare and a privilege. It is the folly and misery of man, that if left to himself, he willingly runs into the snare and misses the privilege. He is only able to add to his own misery and to make his condition worse than he finds it.

Those whom God loves, he teaches. He takes away creature comforts and by secret impressions of love upon the heart he teaches the soul to look out for restoration to a good condition (Mark 10: 29-30). In a word, whatever the affliction is, it shall be the soul’s gain.

In Romans 8: 28 and Hebrews 12: 12, God teaches his people that

God’s rod and God’s love both go together.

This is a sweet lesson indeed, it quiets the heart and supports the soul under its burden (2 Cor. 4: 16).

What we lose in our bodies we gain in our souls.

What we lose in our estates we get in grace.

Thus we can comfort ourselves in our deepest sorrows.

Those attending only to their afflictions

aggravate their circumstances,

sink their own spirits,

vex their souls,

and dishonour God by slandering God’s dispensations and bringing up an evil report upon the cross of Jesus Christ. God’s suffering people taste peace and comfort for their soul and so rejoice only in God, becoming more than conquerors through him that loves us (Rom. 8: 37).

Thomas Case. When Christians Suffer (Kindle Locations 267-274). The Banner of Truth Trust.

Schopenhauer on Happiness

27 Sunday Dec 2015

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Happiness is but a dream and sorrow is real, would be as false as it is, in fact, true. A man who desires to make up the book of his life and determine where the balance of happiness lies, must put down in his accounts, not the pleasures which he has enjoyed, but the evils which he has escaped. That is the true method of eudaemonology; for all eudaemonology must begin by recognizing that its very name is a euphemism, and that to live happily only means to live less unhappily–to live a tolerable life. There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome–to be got over. There are numerous expressions illustrating this–such as degere vitam, vita defungi; or in Italian, si scampa cosi; or in German, man muss suchen durchzukommen; er wird schon durch die Welt kommen, and so on. In old age it is indeed a consolation to think that the work of life is over and done with. The happiest lot is not to have experienced the keenest delights or the greatest pleasures, but to have brought life to a close without any very great pain, bodily or mental. To measure the happiness of a life by its delights or pleasures, is to apply a false standard. For pleasures are and remain something negative; that they produce happiness is a delusion, cherished by envy to its own punishment. Pain is felt to be something positive, and hence its absence is the true standard of happiness. And if, over and above freedom from pain, there is also an absence of boredom, the essential conditions of earthly happiness are attained; for all else is chimerical.

The Essays of Schopenhauer 

General Rules

The Disciple in Sorrow

15 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by in Discipleship, G. Campbell Morgan

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The previous post in this series may be found here

Morgan next explains how discipleship must include a new understanding of sorrow.

First, the disciple must come to understand the nature and source of sin:

“And when, following that desire, instead of returning then and there to allegiance man passed through the door, seeking liberty, he found himself in a great darkling void, without God, and yet possessed of a nature making demands perpetually that neither he himself nor any other could satisfy.

Sorrow, then, is the result of sin, but it is the benevolent, tender, purposeful messenger of the Eternal Love, who cannot see His offspring lose all, without causing within them this sense of loss, and so ever by that means attracting them homeward. Carry out that view of sorrow, and see how wondrously the person and work of Jesus agree thereto”

The disciple must learn that in Christ’s Cross, sorrow has been transformed:

“Surely a stillness in heaven, on earth, in hell,—and then “it is finished ” from His lips, and He, the conqueror, died by “laying down” His life. Sin is put away, and sorrow is recalled. Righteousness commences her new reign and joy follows in her wake, the glorious possibilities of humanity are opened up, for Christ has lived and died, and lives forever now, and is a priest “after the power of an endless life” (Heb. vii. 16).”

Morgan then gives five particulars of understanding sorrow rightly. First, the disciple must learn that much sorrow is self-centered:

“To the disciple the realm of sorrow has become circumscribed, and that in a large measure. The great sorrows of humanity are personal and self-centred. Some loss experienced, some injury inflicted, some disappointment realized, these are the common causes of sorrow.”

The solution to this is to ground one’s hope in Christ alone:

“Very slow we may be, even in the school of Jesus, but this is the growing experience of those who are learning of Him and are submissive to His teaching; and witnesses, to the fact that God fills all the gaps, and brings the heart into perfect rest, are not wanting, neither are they few.”

Second, the man of sorrows draws the disciple near to God:

“From this is seen the Mission of Sorrow. It is ever a disciplinary force, drawing the heart more and more toward God, as it creates a sense of the hollowness and uncertainty of all that has been held most dear.”

Third, sorrow brings us to the “companionship of Jesus.”

Fourth, Jesus transforms our sorrows to joy:

“Looking back over our sorrows since we entered the school of Jesus, there is yet another truth to be recognized, and that is the fact of their transmutation. When the Master was about to leave His earliest disciples, He said to them of the keenest pain of the time —the thought of His departure—”Your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John xvi. 20). And was it not so? They learned in the coming of the Paraclete how expedient it was for them that He should go away, and so His going their greatest grief—became to them, in His ascension, and the consequent coming of Himself, into nearer, dearer relation by the indwelling Spirit, their greatest joy. In that promise was there not a statement of the whole philosophy of pain to a believing, trusting heart? How perpetually sorrow is turned into joy. Mark—not the sorrow removed, and so joy coming, but the sorrow itself becoming the joy. Have we not all had such experiences?”

Fifth, we leave our own sorrows and become fellows of the suffering of Christ:

“. The disciple enters a new realm of sorrow. Union with Christ means a measure of “the fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. iii. 10). “A heart at leisure from itself” is a heart to “soothe and sympathize.” Free from the blight of sorrow, seeing my sorrows as His choicest gifts and leaving them ever with Him, I come to understand the awful needs of humanity, and I go to His cross to be in some measure a sharer of His suffering for others”

The Soul’s Conflict With Itself.1

13 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in affliction, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Psalms, Richard Sibbes

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The Soul’s Conflict With Itself is Richard Sibbes meditation on Psalm 42 and the nature of grief and sorrow. It is 34 chapters long.

Sibbes begins with the observation that this Psalm shows “the passionate passages of a broken and troubled spirit.”

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.
From this he Sibbes observes:

He lays open his desire springing from his love; love being the prime and leading affection of the soul, from whence grief springs, from being crossed in that we love….Places and conditions are happy or miserable as God vouchsafeth his gracious presence more or less; and, therefore, ‘When, O when shall it be that I appear before God?’ ver. 2.

His desire thus gives way to his grief. The grief in the Psalm both comes from the loss of God and taunts of his enemies. The memory of his loss and present distress lead him to sorrow.

Chapter 1.

In this first section, Sibbes begins by making observations about the text. He first observes the nature of the human heart. Indeed, throughout the work, Sibbes uses the text to make detailed observations about the human heart which then inform his application. This is a point at which many preachers and teachers fail (largely because they have not been taught to do so, nor have they seen it much modeled).

He first explains that we must not be too quick to seek to change one with a sorrowful heart; the change may not occur quickly. Thus, we should not be discouraged that change occurs slowly; nor should we expect instant change from others:

Hence in general we may observe that grief gathered to a head will not be quieted at the first. We see here passions intermingled with comforts, and comforts with passions; and what bustling there is before David can get the victory over his own heart. You have some short-spirited Christians that, if they be not comforted at the first, they think all labour with their hearts is in vain, and thereupon give way to their grief. But we see in David, as distemper ariseth upon distemper, so he gives check upon check and charge upon charge to his soul, until at length he brought it to a quiet temper. In physic, if one purge will not carry away the vicious humour, then we add a second; if that will not do it, we take a third. So should we deal with our souls. Perhaps one check, one charge will not do it, then fall upon the soul again; send it to God again, and never give over until our souls be possessed of our souls again.

Continue reading →

Anne Bradstreet, Meditations.3

29 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Anne Bradstreet, Discipleship, Spiritual Disciplines, Uncategorized

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Youth is the time of getting,

middle age of improving,

 and old age of spending;

a negligent youth is usually attended by

an ignorant middle

and both by an empty old age.

He that hath nothing to feed on but vanity and lies

must needs lie down in a bed of sorrow.

I am afflicted, sore sorrowful

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by in affliction, Confession, Desire, Faith, Hebrew, Humility, Joy, Praise, Prayer, Psalms, Singing, Submission, Thankfulness

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(This is a translation of Psalm 69 from the Hebrew text. The translation notes are over 20 pages long, so I decided not to post them also. )

Save me, God!

The water has come to my throat.

Down I sink, down in the miry deep.

–There is nowhere to stand.

I slip into the deep

The waters rush over me.

I grow weak from shouting

Hoarse with screams

My eyes fail

–Waiting, hoping for you my God.

I have more enemies than hairs on my head.

Without cause, mighty ones crush me;

Enemies of a lie:

What I did not steal, that I must return.

You God know my foolishness

My guilt hides not from you.

May those who wait on my Lord YHWH of Hosts

Be not disgraced for me;

May those who seek you suffer no shame

Because of me, God of Israel.

Reproach falls on me, because of you;

Shame covers my face.

A stranger I have become to my brothers,

I am unknown to my mother’s sons.

Yet zeal for your house consumes me,

The reproach of your reproach falls upon me.

Even my soul wept and fasted

Still it was reproach to me.

When I dress in sackcloth

I will be their song.

They speak of me, sitting in the gate

And sing of me sitting with their beer.

But me, my prayer is to you

            YHWH at an acceptable time

            God in the fullness of your mercy

                        Answer me in the truth of your salvation.

Rescue me from the mire

Do not let me sink;

Save me from enemies

Even from the depths of waters.

Do not let me sink beneath the flood of waters

Do not let me drown in the deep

Do not let the pit close its mouth over me.

Answer me YHWH, for your steadfast love is good

For the sake of your great mercy, turn to me.

Do not hide your face from your servant

Oh I am in distress

–Make haste to answer me.

Come near to my life, redeem;

Because of my enemies, ransom me.

You, you know my reproach

My shame, my humiliation is before you

–Even all my enemies.

Reproach has broken my heart

I am sick

I waited for pity, but there was none;

And for comforters I did not find.

They gave me poison for food;

For my thirst they gave me sour wine.

Turn their table to a trap

Let their safety be a snare.

Let darkness be their sight when seeing,

Cause their legs to always shudder

Pour your curse over them

Send to them your furious wrath

Let their camp be devastated

In their tents let no one dwell.

For him you struck

            They chased

And the sorrow of him you wound

            They wrote it down.

Lay guilt on their guilt

Keep them from your righteousness.

Erase them from the rolls of living

With the righteous, do not write them down.

But me, I am afflicted, sore sorrowful

–Yet your salvation, O God, will raise me to a save place.

I will praise the name of God in song

Making great my God in thankful song.

For it will please YHWH more than an ox

Or bull with horns and hoofs.

The afflicted will see; they will rejoice

You seeking God – let your hearts live.

For God hears the destitute

And his captives he does not despise.

Praise him heaven and earth

Waters and all that swarm in them.

For God saves Zion

And will build the cities of Judah

And they will settle there and possess it

The children of his servants will inherit

 

And those who love his name will dwell there.

Ecclesiastes 7:3-7, Translation and Commentary

24 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Ecclesiastes

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Ecclesiastes 7:3–6 (BHS/WHM 4.2)

3ט֥וֹב כַּ֖עַס מִשְּׂחֹ֑ק כִּֽי־בְרֹ֥עַ פָּנִ֖ים יִ֥יטַב לֵֽב׃4לֵ֤ב חֲכָמִים֙ בְּבֵ֣ית אֵ֔בֶל וְלֵ֥ב כְּסִילִ֖ים בְּבֵ֥ית שִׂמְחָֽה׃5ט֕וֹב לִשְׁמֹ֖עַ גַּעֲרַ֣ת חָכָ֑ם מֵאִ֕ישׁ שֹׁמֵ֖עַ שִׁ֥יר כְּסִילִֽים׃6כִּ֣י כְק֤וֹל הַסִּירִים֙ תַּ֣חַת הַסִּ֔יר כֵּ֖ן שְׂחֹ֣ק הַכְּסִ֑יל וְגַם־זֶ֖ה הָֽבֶל׃

 

ט֥וֹב כַּ֖עַס מִשְּׂחֹ֑ק

Better (good) is sorrow than laughter.

כַּ֖עַס

Interesting word: Deuteronomy 32:19 Moses uses it to refer to the effects/nature of the Israelites sin in the wilderness, “because of the provocations of his son and his daughters”.  Likewise in  1 Kings 15:30, 2 Kings 23:26, Ezekiel 20:28 & Psalm 85:5 it refers to the response of God to sin.

1 Samuel 1:16 uses it to refer to Hannah’s description of her grief (ESV “vexation”).  Psalms 6:8, 10:14, 31:10, and Provebs 12:16, 17:25, 21:19 & 27:3, it refers to the response of one injured by another due to their foolishness or sin. Where God is the actor, the human the one responding (Ps. 85:5), the cause for God’s “provocation” (if you will) is human sin.

The word is used in Ecclesiastes 1:18, 2:23, 7:3, 7:9, & 11:10.

We could understand the word to mean a personal response to the sin of others.  This does transform the understanding of this verse – particularly in light of the discussion of fools laughing 7:6.

Grief, pain, sorrow is the right response to sin and foolishness. The troubles listed in the passage, death and mourning, directly result from the trouble of sin – only a fool would laugh at such things.

23 Doing wrong is like a joke to a fool, but wisdom is pleasure to a man of understanding. Proverbs 10:23 (ESV)

 

18 Like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death 19 is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I am only joking!” Proverbs 26:18–19 (ESV)

Laughter is not uniformly bad in the Bible, however, it is right only in the right context.

13 Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief. Proverbs 14:13 (ESV)

We cannot know for certain another’s heart. Contrast God:

Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD; how much more the hearts of the children of man! Proverbs 15:11 (ESV)

 

 

כִּֽי־בְרֹ֥עַ פָּנִ֖ים יִ֥יטַב לֵֽב

For in bad/sorrow of face(s) it makes good the heart.

Fredricks (rightly) links this statement to 7:2b, “the living will lay it to heart”, that is, we all die. Certainly sorrow comes from the provocation of death – indeed, there is no greater insult than death. The living take this matter to heart.

This particular section will end with 7:14 (it begins in 6:10) making the point that God has boxed man in before and after. No one can undo God’s work (7:13  & 1:15). Verse 14 explains that God has done so that human beings will fear him – the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Prov. 1:7 & 9:10).

If that is so, then such sorrow will indeed make the heart good.

3.a. MT has, literally, “in evil of face, the heart is (may be) good.” Translations, and hence interpretations (see the Comment), vary. רע with פנים means sadness or discomfort in Gen 40:7 and see Neh 2:2–3. ייטבלב connotes joy and contentment in Ruth 3:7; Judg 19:6, 9; 1 Kgs 21:7.

Roland Murphy, vol. 23A, Ecclesiates, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 61.

In itself, indeed, sorrow is an evil. It is one of the fruits of sin; and no sane mind would seek it for its own sake. But, like the bitter medicine of the physician, it is needful and salutary. Though “it seemeth not for the present joyous but grievous, nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. 12:11). “Before I was afflicted,” says the Psalmist, recording his own experience of its efficacy, “I went astray; but now have I kept Thy word.” And, accordingly, his unhesitating testimony upon the subject is this—“It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:67, 71). Sorrow sobers and subdues the mind—it rebukes ambition—it humbles pride—it exposes the vanity of this world—it robs wealth and pleasure of their dazzling and deceitful glare—it suggests solemn thoughts as to the shortness and insecurity of time, and flashes often, into even the most careless mind, vivid and impressive views of those dread realities that belong to the world to come. Well, therefore, might Solomon say, that “sorrow is better than laughter.” He had himself tried, as he tells us in an earlier chapter of this book, what laughter could do. He had said in his heart, “Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure.” And what was the result? A brief experience constrained him to say “of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?” (2:1, 2.) Here, again, let it be distinctly understood, that no condemnation is intended, in the words before us, of that occasional and innocent hilarity which seems almost indispensable to a healthful state of the mind. What Solomon means to affirm is simply this, that the moral tendency and influence of sorrow upon the human heart and mind are such as to make it better for us than the most exuberant mirth. It may be true that “he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast” (Prov. 15:15); but it is not less true that such a feast will do little for the wellbeing of the soul.

Robert Buchanan, The Book of Ecclesiastes: Its Meaning and Its Lessons (London; Edinburgh; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, 1859), 229-30.

Consider though:

A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed. Proverbs 15:13 (ESV)

 

 

לֵ֤ב חֲכָמִים֙ בְּבֵ֣ית אֵ֔בֶל

The heart of the wise (construct relationship) is in the house of mourning.

The word mourning specifically refers to funeral ceremonies.

וְלֵ֥ב כְּסִילִ֖ים בְּבֵ֥ית שִׂמְחָֽה׃

But the heart of fools in the house of gladness (ESV’s “mirth” is a good contrast with mourning).

129. אֵבֶל used specially of mourning for the dead, conf. Gen. 27:41; 50:10, מִשְׁתֶּה, lit., a drinking, or banquet (συμπόσιον), rt. שָׁתָה, but in a wider sense denoting feasting, as in Is. 25:6.

J. Lloyd, An Analysis of the Book of Ecclesiastes: With Reference to the Hebrew Grammar of Gesenius, and With Notes Critical and Explanatory (London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, 1874), 87.

 

5ט֕וֹב לִשְׁמֹ֖עַ גַּעֲרַ֣ת חָכָ֑ם

Better to hear the rebuke of the wise

Hebrews 3:13.

לִשְׁמֹ֖עַ

Rem. 1. The original meaning of the לְ is most plainly seen in those infinitives with לְ which expressly state a purpose (hence as the equivalent of a final clause), e.g. Gn 11:5 and the Lord came down, לִרְאֹתאֶת־הָעִיר to see the city; also with a change of subject, e.g. 2 S 12:10 and thou hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite לִֽהְיוֹתלְךָלְאִשָּׁה to be (i.e. that she may be) thy wife; cf. Gn 28:4, Jer 38:26 (לָמוּת).—If there is a special emphasis on the infinitive with לְ, it is placed, with its complement, before the governing verb, e.g. Gn 42:9, 47:4, Nu 22:20, Jos 2:3, 1 S 16:2 with בּוֹא; Ju 15:10, 1 S 17:25 with עָלָה.

Friedrich Wilhelm Gesenius, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch and Sir Arthur Ernest Cowley, 2d English ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1910), 348.

גַּעֲרַ֣ת

Construct state: the word can mean threat or rebuke. Rebuke makes better sense with “wise”.

7 Whoever corrects a scoffer gets himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. 8 Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you. Proverbs 9:7–8 (ESV)

Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid. Proverbs 12:1 (ESV)

He who is often reproved, yet stiffens his neck, will suddenly be broken beyond healing. Proverbs 29:1 (ESV)

The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin. Proverbs 10:8 (ESV)

Whoever ignores instruction despises himself, but he who listens to reproof gains intelligence. Proverbs 15:32 (ESV)

It is more agreeable, no doubt, to the self-complacency of human nature, “to hear the song of fools”—to go where there will be nothing to wound our pride or to suggest unpleasant thoughts. The song of fools may evidently here be taken for the amusements and blandishments of the world; and what Solomon would have us to believe and be assured of is, that the rebuke of the wise is better than these. Pre-eminently better than these is the rebuke of the only-wise God, and yet how often is even His rebuke wholly disregarded! He is rebuking sinners every day by his Word, and very often by his providence too. By his Word he is continually condemning their folly and their sin, because they are careful and troubled about many things, and are wilfully and obstinately neglecting the one thing needful—because they are far more concerned at the thought of losing the world than of losing their souls.

Robert Buchanan, The Book of Ecclesiastes: Its Meaning and Its Lessons (London; Edinburgh; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, 1859), 232.

It is an evidence of a wise and teachable disposition, to receive with meekness the words of reproof, as David did, not only from Nathan, a prophet, 2 Sam. 12:7–13. but from Abigail, a woman, 1 Sam. 25:32, 33; Heb. 13:22; Prov. 9:9. and 17:10. By “the song of fools” are to be understood any flattering speeches, or jocular and pleasant discourses; it being a synecdoche, significant of all kinds of jests and bewitching pleasures, Isai. 24:8, 9; Gen. 31:27.

Edward Reynolds, A Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, ed. Daniel Washbourn (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1811), 210.

 

 

מֵאִ֕ישׁ שֹׁמֵ֖עַ שִׁ֥יר כְּסִילִֽים׃

Than one hearing a song of fools.

This colon emphasizes the wrongness of the fool’s response to a circumstance. The fool leads one away from the truth of a matter – in contrast to the wiseman.

The wise lay up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool brings ruin near. Proverbs 10:14 (ESV)

כִּ֣י כְק֤וֹל הַסִּירִים֙ תַּ֣חַת הַסִּ֔יר

For as the voice (song) of thorns under a pot.

The entire verse is a wonderful repetition of s’s & k’s. The pun cannot be reproduced in English the words for thorns and pot sound identical (and spelled in a similar manner).

 

כֵּ֖ן שְׂחֹ֣ק הַכְּסִ֑יל

So/thus is (the) laughter of the fools.

6 A scoffer seeks wisdom in vain, but knowledge is easy for a man of understanding. 7 Leave the presence of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge. 8 The wisdom of the prudent is to discern his way, but the folly of fools is deceiving. 9 Fools mock at the guilt offering, but the upright enjoy acceptance. Proverbs 14:6–9 (ESV)

The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of fools. Proverbs 15:7 (ESV)

 

וְגַם־זֶ֖ה הָֽבֶל׃

Also, this is vanity (hebel).

David says, (Ps. 141:5,) “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness: and let him reprove me; it shall be an excellent oil, which shall not break my head: for yet my prayer also shall be in their calamities.” Yet many resent a rebuke, as though it necessarily came from an enemy. And few have the wisdom to rebuke or admonish with a right spirit. It requires caution, meekness, and love. But “open rebuke is better than secret love.”

“The song of fools” may refer to a song in commendation of a person; and if so, it is in contrast with “the rebuke of the wise.” It was better for David to be made “the song of the drunkards”—their song in disrespect—than to have their song of commendation.

Loyal Young, A Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1865), 154-55.

LUTHER:—The joy of fools seems as if it would last forever, and does indeed blaze up, but it is nothing. They have their consolation for a moment, then comes misfortune, that casts them down: then all their joy lies in the ashes….. Pleasure, and vain consolation of the flesh, do not last long, and all such pleasures turn into sorrow, and have an evil end.—STARKE:—(Ver. 7), Even a wise and God-fearing man is in danger of being turned from the good way (1 Cor. 10:12); therefore watchfulness and prayer are necessary that we may not be carried back again to our evil nature (1 Pet. 5:8).

John Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, Otto Zöckler et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Ecclesiastes (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 111.

 

NONE question this most wholesome truth; but few there are who take it home. “Let others be reproved; but, as for me, I cannot bear it.” Thus speaks the human heart. My soul, many are thine infirmities, and none more humbling than thy dislike to take reproof. Did I believe myself so vile as I profess to be, could I take fire at hearing of my faults? “The least of saints! The chief of sinners!” Such do I call myself? A vain confession, if I’m not prepared to welcome kind reproof! Oh, for more knowledge of myself; more of that chastened mind; more of that genuine humility, that says, “Amen!” when self is justly censured.—Oh, what a hypocrite thou art, my soul! Ready to feed upon the praise of others, and shine in fancied excellence—how mean, how passing mean, art thou in thy reality! If those, who think of thee most highly, saw how thou bear’st reproof, what would they think of thee?—Oh, there’s a majesty of soul; a greatness more than human, in welcoming reproof. Music is sweet. Its cadences fall gently on the ear, and tune the heart to favour those who make it, and thank them for their melody. Thus shouldst thou feel, when kindness prompts a friend to tell thee of thy faults. What can a friend do more? What could a friend require more of thee? How grateful shouldst thou be to him, who wounds himself, in healing thee; willing to bear thy wrath, rather than suffer sin upon thee.—“The rebuke of the wise!” Who is “the wise” here spoken of? He that is wise enough to be faithful. Don’t say, “He’s not entitled to reprove me. His youth, his station, or his character, unfit him for the office.” Hadst thou a thorn hurting some tender part, would any be too young, too low in rank, to draw it forth? Or wert thou locked in prison, would any be too vile to turn the key, and give thee liberty? The only question to be asked is this, “Has he, then, told the truth? Is the failing really mine? Has he hit the nail upon the head?” If so, thy thanks are due to him. E’en though he be mistaken, and charge thee wrongfully, yet should’st thou thank him for his good intentions.—Reader, is this saying hard to thee? Well, so it is to me. Of myself, I cannot hear it, and I say, “Alas! who is sufficient for these things?” Say, wouldst thou have this grace? I fain would have it too. Then, what remains for thee and me? To learn of Jesus—of Him, who did no wrong, yet meekly suffered (1 Pet. 1:21–23)—to study Jesus—to hide ourselves in Jesus—that we, in some poor measure, may follow Jesus too.

 

G. W. Mylne, Ecclesiastes; or, Lessons for the Christian’s Daily Walk (London: Wertheim and Macintosh, 1856), 60-61.

 

It is interesting in reading the older commentators that they are willing to say something is better than entertainment and immediate ease and comfort.[1] We so believe a right to comfort that we seek to do anything rather than be crossed, even though it seems obvious to most previously that something was more important than instant ease:

‘How earnestly’—as an excellent commentator observes1—‘does Solomon persevere in drawing our hearts from the vain and perilous joys of the world!’ Still he continues his paradoxes—Sorrow is better than laughter. So valuable, so needful is it, that we doubt whether it be safe to be without sorrow, till we are without sin. Christiana was well reminded on the outset of her pilgrimage—‘The bitter is before the sweet, and that also’—she added—‘will make the sweet the sweeter.’ This is not therefore the sentiment of a sour misanthrope. It is that of one, who looks beyond the momentary ebullition of the sorrow to the after abounding and largely-compensating results. What if there be a “need be” for the present “heaviness?” How bright the end—“Found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ!”2 (1 Pet. 1:6, 7.) Meanwhile—waiting for this glorious end—the house of mourning is the wise man’s school. Here we are disciplined to lessons of inestimable value. We obtain the knowledge of that dark mystery—our own hearts. We learn the Christian alphabet, and spell out in the Lord’s dealings the letters of wisdom, forbearance, faithfulness, and love. We study the Christian dictionary, and often find such views of the character of God and his ways presented to us, as a whole life of ordinary study and contemplation could not have set forth. We find the Bible to be a book of realities. We cannot but bear our witness to it. We have felt its power. “I believed, and therefore have I spoken.” (Ps. 116:10; 2 Cor. 4:13.)

 

Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860), 176-77.[2]

 

Reason 1. From the benefit of a sad countenance. As it springeth from a heart seriously affected, so it stirreth up serious affections, meditations, and conferences in the hearts of others. A merry countenance is apt to stir up to loose and dissolute, vain and frothy meditations, affections, conferences.

Reason 2. From the condition of the house of mourning; it is a suitable object to the heart of a wise man: his heart is there. Sad objects to the heart are as ballast to the ship, making it to go steady; whereas the house of mirth is a suitable object to the heart of fools, ver. 4.

Reason 3. From the pre-eminence or betterment of hearing the rebuke of the wise, which causeth sorrow, than the song of fools, which causeth light mirth, ver. 5; which may appear, 1. From the great benefit of wise reproofs. They are as, first, Pricks to let out corruption, Acts 2:37; secondly, Goads to stir up to duty, Eccles. 12:11; thirdly, Nails to drive in and fasten good counsel, Eccles. 12:11; fourthly, Balm to heal sores, Ps. 141:5. 2. From the vanity of fools’ laughter and light mirth. It is as the crackling of thorns under a pot, ver. 6; not like the fire of thorns under a pot, which is soon kindled and fair blazed, but like the noise, which first is no good melody. Secondly, Spends much fuel, as fools’ mirth much time. Thirdly, Soon decayeth and dampeth, and leaveth both meat in the pot raw, and bystanders not thoroughly warmed, Ps. 118:12, and 58:9. So doth the mirth of fools, Prov. 15:13.

John Cotton, A Brief Exposition With Practical Observations Upon the Whole Book of Ecclesiastes, Nichol’s Series of Commentaries (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet & Co.; G. Herbert, 1868), 62.

 

           Bless my trials, thus to sever

             Me for ever

           From the love of self and sin.

           Let me through them see thee clearer,

             Find thee nearer,

           Grow more like to thee within.

Tersteegen, Lyra Germanica, 2nd Series.

 

This sorrow is no sudden flash—vanishing, and leaving no impression behind. It is a solemn tender spirit—meek humiliation of soul. Nothing but Almighty grace can produce it. ‘Philosophy’—as our great moralist1 lays it down—‘may infuse stubbornness. But religion only can give patience.’ The one may force the confession—“Thy will be done.” But it is the other only that puts stillness and submission into the words, and makes them real. The Divine Sovereignty—reverently acknowledged and applied—at once silences and satisfies.

Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860), 178.

However, there is a point here which cannot be overlooked – our sorrow does not ever make deserving of Christ’s kindness. Our sorrows merely make us to know the absolute dependence we in fact have. At our best, we can merely be in need. The fool’s problem is that he does not even know he is in need of mercy.

Dallas Willard makes this helpful point in The Divine Conspiracy where he comments on “poor in spirit” in the Beatitudes:

If all we need to be blessed in the kingdom of heaven is to be humble-minded through recognizing our spiritual poverty, then let’s just do that and we’ve got bliss cornered. We escape the humiliation of spiritual incompetence because, strange to say, we have managed to turn it into spiritual attainment just by acknowledging it. And we escape the embarrassment of receiving pure mercy, for our humble recognition makes blessedness somehow appropriate (103)

It is our limitedness, our need, our poverty of spirit, or sheer incompetence which Qoheleth demonstrates in this passage. Sorrow is the only conceivable response.

Ecclesiastes 7:7 (BHS/WHM 4.2)

7כִּ֥י הָעֹ֖שֶׁק יְהוֹלֵ֣ל חָכָ֑ם וִֽיאַבֵּ֥ד אֶת־לֵ֖ב מַתָּנָֽה׃

For oppression/brutality/extortion makes foolish a wise man,

And it destroys his heart, a gift/bribe.

This is an interesting but confusing proverb – how does abusing a wiseman make him foolish? Fredricks writes:

I surmise that the wise is not the victim here but instead is the one guilty of extortion. Even the wise can sin (7:20) and stoop to intimidating another person physically, emotionally, legally or even ecclesiastically. This could include requesting or implying that a bribe be made by another to receive a favorable action, as well as offering a bribe oneself to derail someone else from justice. But the result is the shattered heart of the wise person whose conscience is still not calloused enough to remain unaffected by the abuse of any leverage.

Fredricks, Ecclesiastes, 169. The mere act of sin has a destructive effect upon the one who engages in it – this makes much more sense both theologically and psychologically. Similarly:

The reason is here assigned why the happiness of fools is so short. They work their own ruin. Sin deprives them of their understanding, and when that has vanished destruction cannot be far off. First the mens sana is lost, and then follows ruin. First the soul dies out, and afterwards the body is cast on the flaying ground. Parallel is Proverbs 15:27, “he that is greedy of gain destroyeth his own house, and he that hateth gifts shall live.” For oppression maketh the wise man mad. עשק, “oppression,” as exercised by the Persian tyrants (Psalm 62:10). Oppression befools, makes mad: every tyranny has a demoralizing influence on him who wields it; it deadens all higher intelligence, and takes away consequently the preservative against destruction. “The wise man” here is not one who is still such, but who ought to be, and might be, and has in part been such. “The wise man”—so might the Persian still be designated at the time of Cyrus. And a gift destroyeth the heart. Under oriental tyrannies everything was to be had for presents. According to the parallel, “befools, makes mad,” the heart is brought under consideration as the seat of the understanding: compare Jeremiah 4:9, “and it shall come to pass at that day that the heart of the king shall perish and the heart of the princes,” that is, they shall lose their prudence, their power of reflection.

 

E. W. Hengstenberg, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, trans. D. W. Simon (Philadelphia; New York; Boston: Smith, English, & Co.; Sheldon and Company; Gould and Lincoln, 1860), 164-65.

 

Favors and gifts blind the eyes of the wise; like a muzzle on the mouth they stop reproofs. Sirach 20:29 (NRSV)

 

Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household, but he who hates bribes will live. Prov 15:27

 

A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers. Prov 17:8

 

The wicked accepts a bribe in secret to pervert the ways of justice. Prov 17:23

 

A gift in secret averts anger, and a concealed bribe, strong wrath. Prov 21:14

 

15 He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil, 16 he will dwell on the heights; his place of defense will be the fortresses of rocks; his bread will be given him; his water will be sure. Isaiah 33:15–16 (ESV)

And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of those who are in the right. Exodus 23:8 (ESV)

 

But the evil falls back upon the oppressor himself. One selfish principle naturally begets another. The act of oppression is often traced to the gift tendered as the price of the oppression—destroying his heart—blotting out every principle of moral integrity, rendering him callous to suffering, and deaf to the claims of justice. (Prov. 17:23.) Good reason was there for the Mosaic veto, restraining the influence of gifts. (Exod. 23:8; Deut. 16:19.) There is indeed peril on both sides. Tyranny forces to irrational conduct; bribery to lack of feeling. The standard of the Bible is the only security. “He that ruleth over men must be just—ruling in the fear of God.” (2 Sam. 23:3.) When the Bible is reverenced as the Book of God—the sole rule of faith and practice, “a man’s wisdom will make his face to shine” (Chap. 8:1); and godliness will enrich the land with the precious fruit of “whatsoever things are honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.” (Philip. 4:8.)

Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes (New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1860), 182.

 

 

 

[1]

The influence of sorrow in maturing and purifying human character is, indeed, too obvious to escape the notice of any thoughtful man. Christianity teaches us to regard the troubles of life as the discipline of a Father who is seeking our highest good. “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.” “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” And, in like manner here, Ecclesiastes would console his countrymen with the thought that sorrow has its own compensations, that adversity is a school in which they might learn the very best kind of wisdom.

T. Campbell Finlayson, The Meditations and Maxims of Koheleth: A Practical Exposition of the Book of Ecclesiastes (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1887), 157.

[2] Anne Bradstreet’s poem seems appropriate:

My thankful heart with glorying tongue

Shall celebrate thy name,

Who has restored, redeemed, re-cured

From sickness, death and pain.

I cried, thou seem’st to make some some stay

I sought more earnestly,

And in due time thou succour’st me,

And sen’st me help from high.

Lord whilst my fleeting time shall last,

Thy goodness let me tell.

And new experience I have gain’d

My future doubts repell.

An humble, faithful life, O Lord,

Forever let me walk;

Let my obedience testify

My praise lies not in talk.

Accept, O Lord, my simple mite,

For more I cannot give;

What thou bestow’st I shall restore,

For of thine alms I love.

Sorrow and Joy Ecclesiastes 7:3

23 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by in 1 Peter, Ecclesiastes

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There is some question as to how to interpret Ecclesiastes 7:3, but when read with Proverbs 14:13, the strangeness of the proverb makes some sense:

Proverbs 14:13

Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief.

Ecclesiastes 7:3

Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

The depth of this relationship becomes even more profound when one considers also the paradox of joy and sorrow noted by Peter:

6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:6-9. Tim Keller in in a wonderful sermon “Born Into Hope” (http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/born-hope), notes that the joy of the Christian which is utterly independent of present circumstances, because it is based upon a living, future hope, gives us the capacity to actually experience sorrow without fear. One without hope can only seek to rescue himself from sorrow lest he become destroyed. But the Christian’s hope gives us the expansiveness to know sorrow without despair.

At the beginning of 1 Thessalonians, Paul notes that the church received the word of The Lord with affliction and joy:

6 And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.

1 Thessalonians 1:6-7. Since their joy was not dependent upon their context, it could not — and for the Christian who understands this well, cannot — be taken, even when sorrow comes and grieves the heart. Thus, even death, the greatest of all sorrows and losses becomes transformed:

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

The Doctrine and Practice of Mortification.55

10 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Puritan, Thomas Wolfall

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Mourn Until God Gives Comfort

            We must mourn till he that has wounded us shall come and heal us, Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up (Hos. 6:1).  It is an easy matter to wound, but not so easy to cure and heal again; it is the prerogative in this case that belongs chiefly to God. The flesh can vex us and Satan can tear and trouble us and wound us, but none of these can cure us again; but now God can as well heal as wound.  Here is one thing further to be observed, that the prophet does not say that sin or Satan has wounded us, and God will heal us; but he has wounded us, and he will heal us and bind us up; for a man may have these wounds by sin and Satan, and yet no true cure, the cure that these physicians can give us are of no value: is either to cast a man into a deep or rather a dead sleep of security and hardness of heart, or to suffer him to fall into despair, and hasten his own untimely death as Judas and [illegible] did; but where God once b y his spirit smites the heart with true remorse for sin, then he is moved by the same spirit to seek unto God for the cure of that wound as it was with Elisha that after Elijah had put his mantle upon him, he presently comes after him (1 Kings 19:19).  So whereas the Lord shall be pleased to work in us a true sight of our misery, he never does it without some hoep of mercy, that when we feel our burden we might likewise come unto him for ease and comfort.  These are those comfortable [comforting] speeches, that a father pitieth his own children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him (Ps. 103:13); and that promise he will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax (Matt.12:20); and taht exhortation come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you (Matt. 11:28).