Submission to Unjust (or perhaps Foolish) Authority and the Lockdown Order

16 Saturday May 2020

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, Apologetics, Culture, Politics, Uncategorized

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1 Peter, authority, Government, Justin Martyr, Lockdown, Sin, Submission, Thomas Brooks

How seriously should I take the lockdown orders from my county? How seriously should I consider the consequence of disregarding the orders? Is it a trivial matter? It is there any real sin at stake?

[First caveat: I am considering a mere disregard for the law — not appropriate challenges to the law. There are a number of appropriate challenges to a law. For instance, a lawsuit against the local authority on the grounds that the law in question is unconstitutional on equal protection for first amendment grounds would not be disregard of the law. Petitioning the local authority to revise the law would not be disregard.

[Second Caveat: There is a moral case to be made against the law on the economic cost. There could even be a case to be made that in some circumstances, disregard of the law is necessary to preserve life. The moral case would require a different analysis and presents different consideration.]

The easiest way out would be merely to say this is no big deal. And perhaps as an ultimate matter, the stakes are inconsequential and no one will be immediately hurt by disobedience. But that decision was not given to me to make. First, I am not tasked with the civil authority to make such a decision. Second, there is plain direction from Scripture on my duty to obey the law. So, I cannot merely say this is at most a “little sin” (I will come back to this point, below.)

Let us assume for the sake of argument that the lockdown orders are unfair, poorly conceived and poorly executed. What is my responsibility as a Christian?

As an American, ignoring leaders and laws I dislike seems like a fundamental right. “Don’t Tread on Me” is in the history of the country. To be submissive to authority sounds like weakness or foolishness.

There is also the innate human desire for autonomy. When we first come into this world, we come as tyrants demanding submission from all whom come near.

And so adhering to rules which I think are foolish or wrong makes me feel like a sucker. Why would I willingly surrender any authority to the petty tyrants who see fit to control my life?

And so, the wisest response seems to be to just disregard the rule when it seems overwhelming ridiculous.

In addition, when the rule sees ridiculous or unwarranted, the easiest understanding of the rule is that is simply too silly to be obeyed.

In the instance of the lockdown, the stakes are ostensibly life-and-death. Whether the rules instituted actually will help in that regard; and whether the threat is actually life and death (or at least sufficiently dangerous that extraordinary measures are needed). Thus, the concern is extreme; even if the means to protect against that concern are absurd.

Perhaps it will be learned that the lockdown regime was as effective as smoke was in protecting against the Black Plague.

So for argument’s sake let us stipulate that the rules are somewhere between non-effective to excessively restrictive. Perhaps the rules are brilliant, but the argument will be clearer if the rules are simply wrong.

And so, may I disregard laws which I think are foolish, ineffective, or annoying? My political instincts and education and the default positions of Americans (as is readily apparent from both sides of the aisle, depending upon the ruler and the law) is that I may and perhaps should disregard the dumb laws – or at least laws I dislike.

That is one side of the argument, but I don’t believe it can be supported from the Scripture.

In First Peter, the apostle begins a long discussion of submission in verse 13 of chapter two. The general rule is given in verse 13,

1 Peter 2:13–14 (ESV)

13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

The command is exceedingly clear: submit, put yourself in subjection to the authorities.

As Paul writes in Romans 13, all governmental authority has been instituted by God. Rom. 13:1. It is sufficient to observe that Peter and Paul both set down this rule with respect to a government which condemned both Peter and Paul to death:

Nero was emperor when St. Peter wrote. Christians were to obey even him, wicked tyrant as he was; for his power was given him from above, as the Lord himself had said of Pilate

H. D. M. Spence-Jones, ed., 1 Peter, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 73. Unless some other rule specifically makes for an exception, this rule stands absolute.

And yes there is an exception to the law: the government has no right to make us sin. The example of Daniel continuing to pray even when the law forbade his prayers is the right example. Daniel prayed despite the law; and Daniel accepted the consequence of his disobedience.

The command is quite clear, and so is the rationale, “For the Lord’s sake.” There are two aspects of this rationale. First, our obedience to a governmental authority “for the Lord’s sake” is ultimately obedience to the Lord. This aspect is made plain in verse 16:

1 Peter 2:16 (ESV)

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Our obedience to the authority is not because we consider our primary allegiance to that authority: we are free people. But our freedom also makes us servants of God. Or as the NASB has it “bondslaves of God.” The Christian is absolutely bound to the direction of Christ. And thus, if the Lord has given a command, we have no discretion in the matter. [An issue in the lockdown order is whether the stay home orders conflict with a duty to corporate worship.]

This leads to the rationale for obedience found in Paul. As he explains in Roman, obedience to the authority is grounded on the proposition that God has instituted the authority.

Peter, however, adds an additional rationale: as a witness to the authorities and to the world.

In verse 15, Peter writes:

1 Peter 2:15 (ESV)

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Peter’s concern is for the public witness of the Christian. This is a thought that goes back to verse 12:

1 Peter 2:12 (ESV)

Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

The “Lord’s sake” of verse 13 is the public demonstration that we willing lay down even our freedom for the sake of something more important, our testimony that our concern is God’s glory “on the day of visitation.”

The concept here is that by our obedience to human authority, we remove any ground that anyone could speak ill of our behavior.

Peter’s point is that Christians are called upon to be as obedient to the government as possible so as to remove any argument against Christ:

By submitting to government, Christians demonstrate that they are good citizens, not anarchists. Hence, they extinguish the criticisms of those who are ignorant and revile them. Such ignorance is not innocent but culpable, rooted in the foolishness of unbelievers.

Thomas R. Schreiner, 1, 2 Peter, Jude, vol. 37, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003), 130. As Christians we are called upon to willingly set aside ground for disobedience to governing authorities because have a duty to remove any possible ground for anyone to speak ill of us.

Do I really want to violate an inconvenient law if the effect would be give anyone a reason to slander Christ?

If we Christians are hated, then we must not be hated because we have disobeyed the authorities. If we suffer, then let us suffer as a Christian for being a Christian:

1 Peter 4:14–15 (ESV)

14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler.

To underscore and explain his point concerning obedience to authorities Peter sets out a series of examples. First, he speaks of slaves who are mistreated, even physically beaten for unjust cause:

1 Peter 2:18–20 (ESV)

18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. 19 For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.

Notice how Peter describes the master: “unjust” (NASB, “unreasonable”). The suffering is “unjust”. The result is a “beating.” The cause of the beating is having done “good.” The slave did what was “good” and was beaten by an unjust master.

The slave is called upon to endure the beating in patience, “because this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.”

The second example given is Christ suffering unjustly. Christ did not revile when he was reviled (1 Peter 2:23). Rather, Christ turned the response over to God:

1 Peter 2:23 (ESV)

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

In verse 21, Peter specifically says that Christ has given us an “example” which we are required to follow.

Peter then gives a third example, a wife being “submissive” to an unbelieving husband. The position of a woman in the ancient world was very difficult. Peter specifically mentions that she is to be submissive to her husband (the same command given to all and to slaves with their own masters) and do so without fear of “anything that is frightening.” (1 Peter 2:6). These are very hard words.

Why is the wife called upon to engage in such extraordinary conduct? To “win” her husband:

1 Peter 3:1 (ESV)

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives,

The demand being made upon Christians is extraordinary. It by nature unreasonable and at times even dangerous. Why would Christians lay aside their defense? For the Lord’s sake. We are called upon to suffer injustice so that none may have a cause to speak against our Lord.

Before going further, someone could say that bearing up under unjust or difficult orders is one thing, but dealing with silly or foolish orders is quite another. There are three responses to this. First, if we must maintain our submission even when being beaten for doing good. If we must do the greater thing, then we must do the lesser.

Second, this makes the bad testimony even worse: you are willing to disobey on the slightest cause. You have must have a very low regard for those in authority.

Thomas Brooks in his Precious Remedies for Satan’s Devices list as device number three of Satan, “extenuating and lessening the sin.” To bring us to sin, the Devil tells us the sin is a very small thing. He makes a number of points about small sins, such as the fruit in the garden may seem a very small sin; small sins lead to greater sins; a small hole can sink a great ship; many saints have suffered death rather than commit the smallest sin, such as just offering up a pinch of incense upon a pagan altar.

Speaking of refusing to follow because the law is so silly, “That it is sad to stand with God for a trifle.” If this thing is so small and insignificant, then it is especially foolish to refuse to obey. For instance, the lockdown does not require heroic acts; it is merely very inconvenient. And yes there are very serious economic issues for many people, but that is a different argument than the law is silly.

Two more that bear consideration: Your soul cannot stand the weight of guilt which is inherent in even the smallest sin. Nothing less the death of Christ was necessary to preserve you from the guilt of this “small sin”. If God were to set the full weight of this guilt upon your soul and you were to understand it aright, it would put you into a horror of madness.

Also, “there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.” If it is a sin, then it is inherently worse than death itself.

And lest you think that perhaps I am seeing something new, the Venerable Bede in 7th Century England wrote:

This there is the praise which good men receive, when they act properly and obey the king’s servants, even when it means putting up with ignorance of unwise governors.

As he notes, there is no, but my governor is a fool exception to the rule.

In the Second Century, Justin writing to the Roman Emperor sought clemency for Christians. In his argument, Justin explained – based upon these propositions in Peter and Paul – that Christians were the best of citizens:

And more than all other men are we your helpers and allies in promoting peace, seeing that we hold this view, that it is alike impossible for the wicked, the covetous, the conspirator, and for the virtuous, to escape the notice of God, and that each man goes to everlasting punishment or salvation according to the value of his actions. For if all men knew this, no one would choose wickedness even for a little, knowing that he goes to the everlasting punishment of fire; but would by all means restrain himself, and adorn himself with virtue, that he might obtain the good gifts of God, and escape the punishments. For those who, on account of the laws and punishments you impose, endeavour to escape detection when they offend (and they offend, too, under the impression that it is quite possible to escape your detection, since you are but men), those persons, if they learned and were convinced that nothing, whether actually done or only intended, can escape the knowledge of God, would by all means live decently on account of the penalties threatened, as even you yourselves will admit. But you seem to fear lest all men become righteous, and you no longer have any to punish. Such would be the concern of public executioners, but not of good princes.

Justin Martyr, “The First Apology of Justin,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 166.

We Christians obey the laws because we are concerned the judgment of God – not the judgment of the king. You have nothing to fear from Christians, we are your best of servants.

The importance of obedience to the civil authorities – even bad civil authorities – as a means of testimony, and the willingness to accept the consequences for disobedience when to obey would be sin, was eloquently stated by Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Church in China in a statement released after his imprisonment:

As a pastor, my firm belief in the gospel, my teaching, and my rebuking of all evil proceeds from Christ’s command in the gospel and from the unfathomable love of that glorious King. Every man’s life is extremely short, and God fervently commands the church to lead and call any man to repentance who is willing to repent. Christ is eager and willing to forgive all who turn from their sins. This is the goal of all the efforts of the church in China—to testify to the world about our Christ, to testify to the Middle Kingdom about the Kingdom of Heaven, to testify to earthly, momentary lives about heavenly, eternal life. This is also the pastoral calling that I have received.

For this reason, I accept and respect the fact that this Communist regime has been allowed by God to rule temporarily. As the Lord’s servant John Calvin said, wicked rulers are the judgment of God on a wicked people, the goal being to urge God’s people to repent and turn again toward Him. For this reason, I am joyfully willing to submit myself to their enforcement of the law as though submitting to the discipline and training of the Lord.

At the same time, I believe that this Communist regime’s persecution against the church is a greatly wicked, unlawful action. As a pastor of a Christian church, I must denounce this wickedness openly and severely. The calling that I have received requires me to use non-violent methods to disobey those human laws that disobey the Bible and God. My Savior Christ also requires me to joyfully bear all costs for disobeying wicked laws.

But this does not mean that my personal disobedience and the disobedience of the church is in any sense “fighting for rights” or political activism in the form of civil disobedience, because I do not have the intention of changing any institutions or laws of China. As a pastor, the only thing I care about is the disruption of man’s sinful nature by this faithful disobedience and the testimony it bears for the cross of Christ.

As a pastor, my disobedience is one part of the gospel commission. Christ’s great commission requires of us great disobedience. The goal of disobedience is not to change the world but to testify about another world.

When placed in the matrix of life of the apostles and martyrs, when measured against the life of men like Wang Yi, our rebellion against inconvenient orders seems terribly misplaced.

The Unsearchable Riches of Christ.20

12 Friday Feb 2016

Posted by memoirandremains in Humility, Uncategorized

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Affliction, humility, Submission, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, Thomas Brooks

The previous post in this may be found here.

Humility is not hard thoughts about oneself. It is not constant self-deprecation. Even though such talk is negative, such talk is still self-centered. The “I” is the center of the universe.

Christian humility is to have God in the center, it is submission to the will of another. While one may claim to have such humility, the humility can only be truly tested in the midst of different circumstances:

The seventeenth property of an humble soul is this: an humble soul will bless God, and be thankful to God, as well under misery as under mercy; as well when God frowns as when he smiles; as well when God takes as when he gives; as well under crosses and losses, as under blessings and mercies: Job 1:21, ‘The Lord gives and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.’ He doth not cry out upon the Sabeans and the Chaldeans, but he looks through all secondary causes, and sees the hand of God; and then he lays his hand upon his own heart, and sweetly sings it out, ‘The Lord gives, and the Lord takes, blessed be the name of the Lord.’ An humble soul, in every condition, blesses God, as the apostle commands, in the 1 Thes. 5:18, ‘In every thing give thanks to God.’

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, “The Unsearchable Riches of Christ”, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 24.

This is more foreign to us than we may realize. Consider the song, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord”:

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all as it should be
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

It looks right, but note the words, “When the world’s all as it should be”. We sing these words and know exactly what he means: when the world is easy and comfortable for my present state. The only “as it should be” is what God gives to me. Adversity and prosperity are alike “as it should be”. The world is as God has fit it to me:

An humble soul is quick-sighted;
he sees the rod in a Father’s hand;
he sees honey upon the top of every twig,
and so can bless God;
he sees sugar at the bottom of the bitterest cup that God doth put into his hand;
he knows that God’s house of correction is a school of instruction;
and so he can sit down and bless when the rod is upon his back.
An humble soul knows that the design of God in all is
his instruction,
his reformation,
and his salvation.

This being true, we have a test to distinguish the ones who only pretend and profess and the ones who have taken this to heart:

You have many professors that are seemingly humble, while the sun shines, while God gives, and smiles, and strokes; but when his smiles are turned into frowns, when he strikes and lays on, oh the murmurings! the disputings! the frettings! and wranglings of proud souls! they always kick when God strikes

This does not mean that trials do not feel like trials — they do. Suffering is suffering; affliction is affliction; loss is loss. It is not laugh at death. This is not perversion or rebellion. This is simply submission to the will of God. God has brought it, God is wise. I will live with this.

The following section from the prayer “Spiritual Helps” is an appropriate ending here:

If my waywardness is visited with a scourge,

enable me to receive correction meekly,

to bless the reproving hand,

to discern the motive of rebuke,

to respond promptly,

and do the first work.

Let all thy fatherly dealings make me a partaker of thy holiness.

Grant that in every fall I may sink lower on my knees,

and that when I rise it may be to loftier heights of devotion.

May my every cross be sanctified,

every loss be gain,

every denial a spiritual advantage, every dark day a light of the Holy Spirit,

every night of trial a song.

The most applauded position

23 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by memoirandremains in Christology, G. Campbell Morgan, John Milton, Matthew, Self-Denial, Submission

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Devil, G. Campbell Morgan, John Milton, Matthew 4, Paradise Lost, Reign, Satan, Submission, Temptation of Christ, The Crises of Christ, The Temptation of Christ

And yet consider still more closely. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.“‘Weak from the hunger following upon forty days of fasting, the devil suggested that He should strengthen Himself with bread. His reply, “It is written,” is a revelation of the true sources of strength. The strength of manhood does not lie in the assertion of rights, but in submission to the will of God. Mark well how that answer of the perfect One drags into light the false philosophy of evil, which the fallen race has universally accepted. The most applauded position that man takes is that in which he declares, I drove my manhood by the assertion of my rights; but this perfect Man declares that the strength of manhood lies in the absolute abandonment of His will to the will of God, that being the only right He possesses.

In the last analysis the argument of the devil had been a presupposition that all man needed for his sustenance was food for his physical life. That unwarrantable assumption Christ answered by declaring that no man’s whole life can be fed by bread that perishes. He needs more, that his spirit shall be fed, and its strength sustained by feeding upon the word proceeding from the mouth of God, and its safety ensured by abiding within the will of God.

G. Campbell Morgan, The Crises of Christ (170-171). The applauded philosophy was set forth well by Milton in Satan’s speech found in Book I of Paradise Lost:

Here at least
We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence: [ 260 ]
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.

Is Far More Than Affirming an Orthodox Statement

03 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Ministry, Scripture, Submission

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Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, High View of Scripture, Inerrancy, Scripture, Stephen J. Nichols, Submission, Submission to Scripture

What theological conservatives need to guard against, though, is thinking that because we affirm the Bible to be God’s inerrant and authoritative word, we have therefore submitted to the Bible. We can be conservatively confessional and functionally liberal. In other words, submitting to the Bible is far more than affirming an orthodox statement of Scripture. Affirming such a statement is crucial and essential. We should never minimize that. But affirming a high view of Scripture is only teh first step of submission. We fully submit to God’s Word when we accept its authority over our lives as we read it.

-Stephen J. Nicol, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life, 96

The Crook in the Lot — Revised (Entire) — Part One

04 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Biblical Counseling, Confession, Ecclesiastes, Hope, Repentance, Submission, Thomas Boston

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1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Corinthians 15:50–58, 1 Samuel 2:6-7, 1 Samuel 6:7–9, Biblical Counseling, Confession, Contrition, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 3:14, Ecclesiastes 7:18, Exodus 5:20–23, Fearing the Lord, Genesis 30:1–2, Genesis 50:19–21, Hebrews 12:3–11, Hebrews 4:14–16, Hope, Hosea 6:1–3, Humility, Isaiah 10:5-6, Isaiah 40:1–5, Isaiah 45:1-4, Isaiah 45:5-7, Malachi 3:16–18, Matthew 12:18–21, Micah 6:9, Proverbs 3:11, Proverbs 3:11–12, Psalm 105:16–22, Psalm 105:1–6, Psalm 113:4–9, Psalm 14:1, Psalm 25:10, Psalm 28:5, Psalm 84:10–12, Psalm 89:30–37, Repentance, Revelation 6:12-17, Richard Sibbes, Romans 1:18–20, Romans 5:3-5, Romans 8:28–29, Submission, The Crook in the Lot, Thomas Boston, Thomas Brooks, Thomas Watson

The Crook in the Lot — Revised[1]

Ecclesiastes 7:13 comes after a series of proverbs and observations which seem inexplicable in light of normal experience. However, when viewed in light of God’s working in the world, the conclusions make sense. For example, the day of one’s death is a great evil (Eccl. 7:1b), unless God, by his power and grace, transforms death into a blessing.

Thus, the paradoxes and contradiction of Ecclesiasts 7:1-12 resolve when one considers the propositions from the point of view that God is sovereign and good. In short, we cannot think rightly about the world unless we think rightly about God. Or, to put the matter differently, we must walk by faith and not by sight.

We come to the text:

Consider the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked? Ecclesiastes 7:13 (ESV)

This proposition calls for wisdom; indeed, the verse tells us to think. First, God himself bent the straight that it may be crooked. Second, no one can undo the work of God.

Having made some initial observations, let us consider the matter further.

Doctrine One: Whatever crooked runs through your life, God did it.

We must first consider the nature of crooks

Crooks Are Everywhere

Let us call the crooked line, the crooked circumstance, the crooked life the “crook”. What can know generally about crooks?

First, God makes crooks. Christians must begin with the sovereignty of God. God exercises a providence over the entire universe from the smallest to the greatest events[2]. God knows the future, and the past perfectly. Everything which happens from first to last happens because he determined that it would be true.[3] Consider the words of Joseph to his brothers, when Joseph revealed himself to them:

5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Genesis 45:5–8 (ESV)

The brothers certainly laid a crook through Joseph’s life – and yet Joseph laid the crook to God’s overarching providence.

Second, there will be difficulties and there will be comforts in this life; we will see them all (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

Third, there will be crooks for everyone; there is no perfection this world:

12 I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. Ecclesiastes 1:12–14 (ESV)

Fourth, no one has a life which is only pain and misery and crook after crook. Even in the most miserable of lives there can be moments of comfort or even joy. This, of course, depends an explanation rather than the sorrow of this life. Crooked places are the norm. Why then do we ever experience joy? Where could joy in this life find its source?

All the trouble in this life came in through sin. Death is the great crook of our existence (Romans 5:12), and since it makes all things here temporary, it makes all things vain (Ecclesiastes 1:2). But the trouble is actually worse than that. The results of sin – from rebellion against God, to shame, damage to all our relationships (including to our own bodies), exile from the Garden –all these followed hard after sin (Genesis 3).

And so, as long as we will be in this world, we will be within gunshot of sorrow, pain, misery – there will be a crook which runs through our lot.

Crooks Cause Trouble

By crook we mean every adversity which runs through life. We also do not mean momentarily troubles, like the sun in one’s eyes. Rather the crook refers to a matter of distress and continuance.

Think of it: some crooks may only take a few moments to experience, but the damage continues for months, days, years: it takes less than a second for a car to strike a child, but lifetime of sorrows remain.

Other crooks come, one right after the other: like the messengers who brought Job story after story of his losses (Job. 1:16-18). Such an overwhelming rain of sorrows feels like waves continually crashing over one:

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. Psalm 42:7 (ESV)

Sometimes crooks come in more slowly, stay longer – but then a second comes along behind. This world is a wilderness – not a pleasant pretty picnic, but a distant, cold brutal wilderness where one’s life is in constant danger and sorrows wait at every hand.

What Makes it a Crook?

First, it disagrees with our expectations: there is a fairly common gap between one’s desire and one’s possession; between one’s expectation and one’s reality. It really does not matter how badly we desire a thing – we cannot have it merely because we want it. Incidentally, it is this distance between expectation and reality which typically makes space for sin to enter.

We should know something here:

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1:11 (ESV)

While the crook may cross our will – it meets God’s will. This should be a means of comfort to us: No matter how great the crook in our life and from our perspective; from God’s perspective, the line is straight and nothing has “gone wrong”.

We need to understand this so that we may respond rightly: The distress of a crook comes in part from the belief that the crook is “wrong”. This may be true and not true: The crook, when it is a matter of sin is “wrong” in that is contrary to God’s law. But, it still may be “right” from a another perspective, because God uses even sin for his ends (Psalm 2).

That is the paradox of the Bible telling us that we should rejoice in trials and tribulations. Now trials and tribulations are of themselves evil – they are certainly crooks. But we can rejoice in a trial (or rather despite the trial), knowing that God will produce good:

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3–5 (ESV)

Second, since it disagrees with our expectations, a crook will look “wrong”. Viewed with our natural sight, crooks necessarily look “wrong”. The good in a crook can never be seen with the eye of sight – it will always and only be seen to possess a good end when viewed with the eye of faith.

Third, a crook in our path makes it very difficult to walk – if you will. It gets in our way; it trips us up. This is another way in which temptation finds an inlet to our soul. All our stumbling about due to the crook leaves us open and suggestible to sin. Satan waited for Jesus in the wilderness before he plied his trade. When Jesus had been crossed with hunger, weariness, thirst – then the Devil made his advance. It is the wounded deer which attracts the lions and wolves.

Fourth, you could also think of the crook like a net – not only do we stumble, we can easily get caught and dragged down by a crook – and that net may come from anywhere. In Psalm 73, Asaph found his path twisted by his frustration with God and the ease of the wicked. He wrote, “My feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped” (Ps. 73:2).

The distress caused by the crook is one its principle powers: is the means by which the tempter can draw out and expose what lies hidden in our heart.

You Will Find Crooks Anywhere

The crook may show up anywhere in your life. It may show up in your body: sickness and pain. It may be your surroundings: weather, earthquakes.

Crooks came in with sin. Indeed, we first see crooks with the Fall. Thus, Adam and Eve knew they were naked: shame came in with sin (Genesis 3:7). With sin there was the loss of sweet fellowship with God which is the most sore crook of all (Genesis 3:8-11). With sin came blame-shifting and loss of ease in marriage and all human relationships (Genesis 3:12 & 16). Now crooks may lay across our relationships.

With sin came pain of childbirth (Genesis 3:16) and physical death (Genesis 3:19); thus, crooks will run through our body. All nature has been cursed because of sin (Genesis 3:17-18; Romans 8:19-22); thus, crooks will criss-cross all the physical world. Our labor has become toil, and thus, crooks will be abundant in our work (Genesis 3:19; Ecclesiastes 1:2-3).

Crooks may come from supernatural causes, in that Satan has now become “ruler of this world” (John 14:30).

The crook may damage your reputation. The crook may ruin your work and savings. Think of it: Sometimes even the most careful and diligent business owner or work finds themselves ruined:

Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. Ecclesiastes 9:11 (ESV)

The crook may fall in between your relationships. Crooks have lain across marriage, between parents and children, on the backs of friends. The Bible is filled with such examples – perhaps the most bizarre being the betrayal of Jesus by Judas.

Crooks are From the Hand of God

We cannot deny that crooks are from the hand of God even though the crook itself is painful or disastrous. This is a hard thing to say – and we often try to get God “off the hook” at this point. But God does not want off the hook:

Is a trumpet blown in a city, and the people are not afraid? Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it? Amos 3:6 (ESV)

We must understand that all crooks come from the hand of God.

In fact the Bible everywhere teaches that God sovereignly controls the good and evil. Consider these passages:

Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. Psalm 135:6 (ESV)

The operations and homes of people across the world are in the hands of God:

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, Acts 17:26 (ESV)

His care also extends to the smallest things:

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Matthew 10:29–30 (ESV)

God controls the heart of the king – thus politics are in his control:

The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will. Proverbs 21:1 (ESV)

The doctrine is spread out across the Scripture: Jeremiah 10:23, Deuteronomy 19:5, Genesis 45:7, Exodus 21:13.

Thus, we must live in light of that truth. We see it in Job’s response to his wife. Job had suffered greatly through robbers, storms, disease. Yet, when he speaks with his wife, Job ignores all the obvious causes and points to the ultimate cause:

10 But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. Job 2:10 (ESV)

We must realize that all our straight and crooked paths come from the same God and that God

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, Ephesians 1:11 (ESV)

He works all things.

The sovereignty of God is the great key to any good coming from a trial. If crooks comes without the will of God, then the thing means nothing (except perhaps that God cannot stop it or will not stop it). We have low thoughts of God and lose our good in the trial.

But, when we know the trial comes from the hand of God, that the crooked line is straight in heaven, then we can seek for the good the Father has planned. And let us realize that “good” is not ease or comfort – but conformity to Christ:

The Two Types of Crooks

There are two basic types of crooks. We need to understand the difference between the crooks if we are to understand their use. A crook which comes without sin comes for a different reason than a crook which flows out sin.

First, there are crooks which are painful but are not the result of any particular sin. Some men are born into poverty – which is one of the most common and painful crooks of this world. However, poverty is not a sin – nor is it necessarily the result of sin. Some men and women are simply born into lives of poverty (Luke 19:19). God is called the “maker” of the poor (Prov. 17:5). It is God who makes poor and rich (1 Sam. 2:7).

Jesus specifically rejects the idea that all sorrow, all crooks are the direct result of sin:

1 As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” John 9:1–2 (ESV)

And God is the one who makes deaf (Exodus 4:11). Thus, when we see a crook, we must not immediately be certain that a sin was the cause. Now it may be, and it is wise to seek a basis for repentance. But, we need not determine that sin has caused the trouble.

Second, there are crooks which do result from sin. David’s sins lead to generations of sorrow for his family and the death of his baby (2 Sam. 12:10-14). David’s sin in the matter of the census lead to all of Israel suffering (2 Sam. 24).

But we must realize that even when God permits sin to give rise to crooks, to pain for the sinner and others, God has not given over his sovereignty. When one sins and brings on a crook, God has merely permitted the sinner to have his desire. God does not force the sin even when God permits the sin. Read Romans 1:18-32 and note that God “gave them over” (v. 24); “God gave them over” ( v. 26); “God gave them over” (v. 28). These sins they willing chase and encourage others to follow suit (v. 32).

Yet, when God gives them over to their desire, he still maintains the reigns. In Job 1-2, Satan is permitted to afflict Job – but only to the extent which God permits. Not even Satan can sin without any restraint.

Finally, even in the greatest sin and the most wicked crooks, God maintains control. Consider the example of Psalm 2. First comes the decision to rebel against God and murder the Lord’s anointed:

¹ Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? ² The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ³ “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”

Such evil determinations, however, do not last. God actually mocks and laughs at the rebellion. The act of murder becomes an enthronement; and the one whom they desired to destroy has become their king:

⁴ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. ⁵ Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, ⁶ “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” ⁷ I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. ⁸ Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. ⁹ You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” ¹⁰ Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. ¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. ¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Why Does God Make Crooks?

First, to test our state to see whether we are in the faith or not?

⁵ Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! ⁶ I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. ⁷ But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. ⁸ For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹ For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. 2 Corinthians 13:5–9 (ESV)

An example of such a trial of faith may be seen in Job’s life. Satan denies that Job is what he seems. Job’s friends then accuse Job of hypocrisy. Or in the matter of the Israelites in the wilderness: God left in need and want to try their faith – at which they grumbled. But Joshua and Caleb persevered in trial.

The rich young ruler came to Jesus and sought the key to eternal life, at which point Jesus uncovered the hypocrisy of his life:

17 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’ ” 20 And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” 21 And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 22 Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Mark 10:17–22 (ESV)

The young man would not submit to the crook of God at that point. He was his own master in the end. Would not agree to God’s determination but rather sought his desires.

Second, to wean us from this world and seek the happiness of the age to come.

When Hamlet realizes that he must revenge his father’s death and thus bring his own life into jeopardy, Hamlet turns on his love Ophelia to send her away. He brings pain into her life to drive her to a better life.

In the same way, God will lay crooks across our lot to drive us off from a sinful love of this world. Our hearts are so prone to make idols of comforts and seek an endless life in a land of death, that God will lay crooks upon that we may see the foolishness of our grasping. Pain in this life can wake us to the reality of this age and force us to seek a true and lasting happiness.

This is the great theme of the first six chapters of Ecclesiastes: there is nothing truly satisfying to be had here. Even when Solomon had gained the whole world he had realized he had nothing:

11 Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. 12 So I turned to consider wisdom and madness and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done. Ecclesiastes 2:11–12 (ESV)

Thus, the pain of the crook contains its blessing.

The Prodigal Son, when he could drink deeply of the pleasures he could buy had no thoughts of home. Only when pain began to invade his life did he “come to himself” (Luke 15:17).

We are built to seek rest and happiness, yet in foolishness and sloth we easily seek permanent rest in temporary things. God lays a crook across rest and the straight path of comfort we sought becomes twisted and painful. Like a thorn in our pillow, it pricks us to consciousness and we seek a better rest. Thus, God uses the crook to set us off on the errand of seeking him.

The pain of the crook is one of the great mercies God shows those who are his.

Third, the crook brings us to see our sin: the sting awakes us to conviction. This is a great theme of the prophet:

12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “ ‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the LORD. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the LORD; I will not be angry forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD. Jeremiah 3:12–13 (ESV)

It is the realization of the Psalmist:

Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word. Psalm 119:67 (ESV)

Sin contains its own poison, and often as we continue in unrepentant sin we feel the sting and corruption of sin:

3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah Psalm 32:3–5 (ESV)

There is a point here which must be made clear: Sin is of such great evil that any suffering is better than any sin. Our Lord in love remained obedient to the Father’s will and suffered death – but the Lord would not in the least instance sin. This is not to say that sorrow, suffering, trial and tribulation are small things – rather the comparison magnifies the evil of sin.

Fourth, God may bring the crook as the punishment for sin.

This is of two sorts. God may simply bring a judgment upon a sin. For example, David sinned in the matter of Uriah and Uriah’s wife. Although God forgave David’s sin – that is, David was not damned for his fault – correction came:

9 Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 2 Samuel 12:9–10 (ESV)

God sent punishment upon nations:

3 Thus says the LORD: “For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have threshed Gilead with threshing sledges of iron. 4 So I will send a fire upon the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad. 5 I will break the gate-bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitants from the Valley of Aven, and him who holds the scepter from Beth-eden; and the people of Syria shall go into exile to Kir,” says the LORD.Amos 1:3–5 (ESV)

A second way in which sin brings punishment is that consequence is often inherent in sin:

17 For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, 18 but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. 19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors. Proverbs 1:17–19 (ESV)

This principle of sowing and reaping, sowing sin and reaping the consequneces of sin run throughout Proverbs:

1 The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother. 2 Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death. 3 The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked. 4 A slack hand causes poverty, but the hand of the diligent makes rich. 5 He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame. 6 Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence. 7 The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. Proverbs 10:1–7 (ESV)

As the Lord warns through the prophet Jeremiah:

Your evil will chastise you, and your apostasy will reprove you. Know and see that it is evil and bitter for you to forsake the LORD your God; the fear of me is not in you, declares the Lord GOD of hosts. Jeremiah 2:19 (ESV)

Fifth, God lays crooks across our lot to bar us from sin. It is the sorry fact that people have been ruined by wealth. Access to money leaves us free to our own devices; while a tighter budget may keep us from indulging in some sin. There are many people who can thank the crook in their lot for keeping them from sin. Sin always seeks opportunity. It was the devil who left Jesus until an opportune time (Luke 4:13). The Lord may act to keep a man from evil, “that he may turn aside from his deed” (Job 33:17). Such preventing grace is a great good to the Christian – though crossing flesh may be painful for the moment.

Hazael could not kill until he was king (2 Kings 10:12). David did not lust after Uriah’s wife until he gained ease and was at rest as king (2 Samuel 11:1-2). Ease and comfort make way for sin. We make think our crook of labor all of trouble – but it may very well protect us from sin:

It was the speech of Mr Greenham, sometimes a famous and painful preacher of this nation, that when the devil tempted a poor soul, she came to him for advice how she might resist the temptation, and he gave her this answer: ‘Never be idle, but be always well employed, for in my own experience I have found it. When the devil came to tempt me, I told him that I was not at leisure to hearken to his temptations, and by this means I resisted all his assaults.’ Idleness is the hour of temptation, and an idle person is the devil’s tennis-ball, tossed by him at his pleasure.

‘He that labours,’ said the old hermit, ‘is tempted but by one devil, but he that is idle is assaulted by all.’

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, Volume 2, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 278.

Sixth, a crook may expose the sin which lay hidden in our heart. A temptation does not put sin into the heart; rather a temptation or trial merely draws sin out of the heart. A temptation punctures the heart and lets the corruption within pour out. Thus, a crook may expose the sin we harbor:

1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. Deuteronomy 8:1–2 (ESV)

We do not know impatience, until our desire is delayed. We do not know our anger until our will is denied.

Consider Moses: the meekest man on earth (Numbers 12:3), also harbored a strike of pride and anger which was only exposed when the people again demanded water from him (Numbers 20:13; Psalm 106:32-33).

Now such crossing is a positive good to the believer, for sin being exposed can be repented of. David complains, “Who can know his errors? Declare me innocent of hidden faults”(Psalm 19:12). Often pride covers a mass of sin which cowers unexposed until a suitable season. Such a mass of sin poisons our heart, though we do not see it distinctly. Therefore, exposure of such sin does us much good – if only in the humility which it brings to us.

Seventh, the crook in our lot gives us grounds to exercise the grace of God. There are many graces which we cannot exercise until faced with trials. We cannot exercise our faith until we must wait upon the Lord. We cannot exercise patience, until we do not receive that for which we hope. We cannot bear with one another until live with those who fail.

This was a thing true of our Lord:

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. Hebrews 2:10 (ESV)

Now if this is true of our Lord, it must be true of us:

16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8:16–17 (ESV)

The crook in our lot, the suffering we face does us good. Not for the suffering itself, but for the end it obtains:

In fact, such trials will not merely do us good for the present, but eternal good:

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., 1 Peter 1:6–7 (ESV)

Eighth, to show that only God has power over the crook. In Ecclesiastes 1:15, we read,

What is crooked cannot be made straight,

And what is lacking cannot be counted.

In Ecclesiastes 7:13 we learn what the crooked cannot be made straight:

Consider the work of God:

Who can make straight what he has made crooked?

The crook in the lot displays the power of God – and that is for our good:

I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. Ecclesiastes 3:14 (ESV)

Now it is a good for us to fear God. First, it is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). Second, it is the beginning of wisdom (9:10). Third, the fear of the Lord prolongs life (Proverbs 10:27; 19:23; Ecclesiastes 8:12-13). Fourth, the fear of the Lord gives confidence (Proverbs 14:26). Fifth, the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life (Proverbs 14:27). Sixth, by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil (Proverbs 16:6). Seventh, the fear of the Lord brings honor (Proverbs 22:4). Eighth, the one who fears the Lord is blessed (Proverbs 28:14). Ninth, the fear of the Lord delivers one from the fear of man (Proverbs 29:25). Tenth, a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised (Proverbs 31:30). Eleventh, one must fear God (Ecclesiastes 5:7, 12:13; Isaiah 8:13). Twelfth, one who fears the Lord will rightly balance his life (Ecclesiastes 7:18).

It is the one who trembles at the word of the Lord is one who will receive the Lord:

1 Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. Isaiah 66:1–2 (ESV)

Indeed, those who fear the Lord will be remembered by the Lord:

16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name. 17 “They shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him. 18 Then once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him. Malachi 3:16–18 (ESV)

Thus, when we are faced by the crook in the lot it should bring us to the blessing of fearing the Lord.

Ninth, the crook in the lot gives us grounds for praise and faith. Since God alone can remove the crook, the crook displays the power of God. And, God displays his power in overcoming every obstacle. Psalm 105 recounts the crooks which fell across the lot of his people – and how God delivered his people. The Psalm begins:

1 Oh give thanks to the LORD; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples! 2 Sing to him, sing praises to him; tell of all his wondrous works! 3 Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! 4 Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually! 5 Remember the wondrous works that he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered, 6 O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones! Psalm 105:1–6 (ESV)

Then the Psalm recounts the history of the patriarchs through the exodus. Thus, we read one example of how could unbent a crook:

16 When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, 17 he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. 18 His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; 19 until what he had said came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him. 20 The king sent and released him; the ruler of the peoples set him free; 21 he made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, 22 to bind his princes at his pleasure and to teach his elders wisdom. Psalm 105:16–22 (ESV)

The greatest act of unbending the crooked way was made in the coming of the Lord:

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 40:1–5 (ESV)

And in the coming of Christ, the greatest crooks – sin and death – were undone:

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:50–58 (ESV)

It is fitting that Paul notes that our labor will not be in vain. Ecclesiastes recounts how vain, how futile, how disappointing life under the sun necessarily is due to the unbending crooks of our lot. And yet, with the resurrection of Christ, sin and death have been undone and the crooked is made straight – therefore, our labor will not be in vain.

Application of the Doctrine

First, Don’t be a Deist. This point applies to both the believer and the atheist.

Thus, the foolish are rebuked. “The fool says in his heart, ‘No God!’” (Psalm 14:1). And thus, having put God out of all his thoughts, he cannot see God – even when God lays a crook across his path. Romans 1:18-20 notes that God has displayed his power and wrath for all to know:

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. Romans 1:18–20 (ESV)

If one questions what this means, think of something as common as death. Nothing displays the wrath of God more plainly and nothing is so well known. God gives warning of the coming judgment, because God is patient and in kindness seeks repentance (Romans 2:4).

The foolishness of the rebellious is so great that even when God removes all secondary causes (the means which God uses to effect his ends), the rebellious will still seek to deny God (Revelation 6:12-17).

To refuse to acknowledge the hand of the Lord, is to court his wrath:

Because they do not regard the works of the LORD or the work of his hands, he will tear them down and build them up no more. Psalm 28:5 (ESV)

To refuse to acknowledge God in the work is to make the creature a god: it is as if some person, some object, some animal, some high or low pressure system, could act independently of God. Note that even in the case of men and nations God takes credit for their actions:

5 Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury!

6 Against a godless nation I send him, and against the people of my wrath I command him, to take spoil and seize plunder, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

Isaiah 10:5-6.

For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.

Habakkuk 1:6. God not only stands behind judgment but also behind the great blessings wrought by human beings to one – another:

1 Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed:

2 “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron,

3 I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name.

4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me.

Isaiah 45:1-4. Indeed all rises and falls of human beings lay in the hand of God

6 The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up.

7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts.

8 He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s, and on them he has set the world.

1 Samuel 2:6-7. The reason that God so works in the world – whether for ease or calamaity – is that God may be known as the only God:

5 I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me,

6 that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.

7 I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things.

Isaiah 45:5-7.

When the Philistines had taken the ark of God in battle, they found themselves struck with various plagues and troubles. They thought perhaps the God honored by the ark lay behind their troubles – but they were not sure – and thus, they devised a test:

7 Now then, take and prepare a new cart and two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke, and yoke the cows to the cart, but take their calves home, away from them. 8 And take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart and put in a box at its side the figures of gold, which you are returning to him as a guilt offering. Then send it off and let it go its way 9 and watch. If it goes up on the way to its own land, to Beth-shemesh, then it is he who has done us this great harm, but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that struck us; it happened to us by coincidence.” 1 Samuel 6:7–9 (ESV)

The story ends that the cow took the ark home to Israel – but even with the miracle, the test devised by the Philistines, they did not change. They could not see God without the miracle, and they could not see God even with the miracles, the plagues, the destruction of their idols. In the end, they remained fools unable to see God.

They were chastened by the Lord, but they despised his call to repentance (Proverbs 3:11). The fool is called to see his sin and repent.

The believer must not be the fool.

Now we have no unequivocal evidence that Jacob’s sons – except Joseph – were godly men – but they certainly knew of the true God. Yet even after Joseph had spoken to them and shown that God lay behind their deeds, they came to Joseph again with a plea – and Joseph again had to inform them of God’s sovereignty:

19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Genesis 50:19–21 (ESV).

We see the contrast plainly between Moses and the Israelites: Note that the Israelites blame Moses but Moses looks to the Lord:

20 They met Moses and Aaron, who were waiting for them, as they came out from Pharaoh; 21 and they said to them, “The LORD look on you and judge, because you have made us stink in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants, and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”

22 Then Moses turned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to this people, and you have not delivered your people at all.” Exodus 5:20–23 (ESV)

Jacob’s exasperation in the face of his wife’s demands is sad, and funny and yet demonstrates a profound understanding of God’s work of lay crooks:

1 When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” 2 Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, “Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?” Genesis 30:1–2 (ESV)

Believers can easily look upon the secondary causes, the people, the circumstances, the history – or whatnot – and miss the true point: it is God who rules over all things. This foolishness is “natural” to us, and thus we must continually remind one-another of this truth.

We must not refuse the chastening of the Lord:

11 My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights. Proverbs 3:11–12 (ESV)

When the Lord lays a crook across our lot, we must look to our own hearts and see the cause for God’s attention in this matter: Have we loved the world? Have we refused to repent? Have we forgotten the power of God to save – even from his creatures?

3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Hebrews 12:3–11 (ESV)

It is a foolish and dangerous thing to be cross by the crook of God and yet to see his good purpose. God brings a rod to awaken us from stupidity and slumber. Sometimes it is pain which opens our eyes so that we may come to ourselves:

The voice of the LORD cries to the city— and it is sound wisdom to fear your name: “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it! Micah 6:9 (ESV)

And in hearing the rod, do not forget God’s end:

30 If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, 31 if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, 32 then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, 33 but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. 34 I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. 35 Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David. 36 His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. 37 Like the moon it shall be established forever, a faithful witness in the skies.” Selah Psalm 89:30–37 (ESV)

Second, don’t miss the Lord’s comfort. If one forgets the fact of God behind the crook in the lot, then one misses the comfort which can come from Christ. We can this if we assume the opposite: Imagine that the trouble which has befallen you has come for no reason beyond chance. God did not bring this sorrow, but it is has come. That would mean that this loss, this death, this trouble and trial means nothing. It has no purpose, point – yes, perhaps God will intervene to stop some of the pain (provided that we manipulate and beg sufficiently) – it has no good purpose.

To think in such a way is to cast off all the comfort of God.

First, the temptation has come from the Lord, therefore, it will not overwhelm us:

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV)

If God has brought the temptation, then will measure and fit to the temptation to you. He will not crush you without mercy:

18 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. 19 He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; 20 a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; 21 and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” Matthew 12:18–21 (ESV)

God will match the trial to the heart: he will bruise, but not break.

Second, God will work all things for good:

Thomas Watson explains:

This is as Jacob’s staff in the hand of faith, with which we may walk cheerfully to the mount of God! What will satisfy or make us content, if this will not? All things work together for good. This expression “work together” refers to medicine. Several poisonous ingredients put together, being tempered by the skill of the apothecary, make a sovereign medicine, and work together for the good of the patient. So all God’s providences being divinely tempered and sanctified, do work together for the best to the saints. He who loves God and is called according to His purpose, may rest assured that everything in the world shall be for his good. This is a Christian’s cordial, which may warm him—and make him like Jonathan who, when he had tasted the honey at the end of the rod, “his eyes were enlightened” (1 Sam. xiv. 27). Why should a Christian destroy himself? Why should he kill himself with care, when all things shall sweetly concur, yes, conspire for his good? The result of the text is this—all the various dealings of God with His children, do by a special providence turn to their good. “All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant” (Psalm 25:10). If every path has mercy in it, then it works for good.

Third, God himself will bring comfort in the midst of trials:

1 “Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3 Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” Hosea 6:1–3 (ESV)

In bringing us to trials and through trials, God himself is fitting us to come to him. It is to the throne of grace that he calls us;

14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14–16 (ESV)

As Richard Sibbes explains:

For the concluding of this point, and our encouragement to a thorough work of bruising, and patience under God’s bruising of us, let all know that none are fitter for comfort than those that think themselves furthest off. Men, for the most part, are not lost enough in their own feeling for a Saviour. A holy despair in ourselves is the ground of true hope. In God the fatherless find mercy (Hos. 14:3); if men were more fatherless, they should feel more God’s fatherly affection from heaven, for the God who dwells in the highest heavens dwells likewise in the lowest soul (Isa. 57:15). Christ’s sheep are weak sheep, and lacking in something or other; he therefore applies himself to the necessities of every sheep. He seeks that which was lost, and brings again that which was driven out of the way, and binds up that which was broken, and strengthens the weak (Ezek. 34:16). His tenderest care is over the weakest. The lambs he carries in his bosom (Isa. 40:11). He says to Peter, `Feed my lambs’ (John 21:15). He was most familiar and open to troubled souls. How careful he was that Peter and the rest of the apostles should not be too much dejected after his resurrection! `Go your way, tell his disciples and Peter’ (Mark 16:7). Christ knew that guilt of their unkindness in leaving of him had dejected their spirits. How gently did he endure the unbelief of Thomas and stooped so far unto his weakness, as to suffer him to thrust his hand into his side.

Fourth, this is all of grace. We may forget and look to the creature and miss the comfort which God has offered. God will never act but for our good:

10 For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. 11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly. 12 O LORD of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you! Psalm 84:10–12 (ESV)

He will never break us nor bring trouble but for our good. No parent in love would punish a child a malice; but, with a heavy heart the parent corrects and crosses the child for the child’s good. The parent stands ready to comfort and encourage the child. Why then do we think our Father full of less grace than we ourselves stand ready to give?

The grace of God in all crooks – when seen and when the good work of God is complete – will lead us to greater love of our Savior and a deeper hope than we previously knew:

When the crook lies most plainly through our lot, we must then walk by faith and know that God is a God of mercy and grace:

4 The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens! 5 Who is like the LORD our God, who is seated on high, 6 who looks far down on the heavens and the earth? 7 He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, 8 to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. 9 He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the LORD! Psalm 113:4–9 (ESV)

[1] “The Crook in the Lot” was a sermon of Thomas Boston (1676-1732). I have retained the basic outline but I have rewritten the sermon throughout. The original of the sermon is available online in several locations.

[2] Q. 11. What are God’s works of providence?
A. God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful, preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions. Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 11.

[3] This, of course, does not make us puppets. Christianity is not fatalism. The interaction between human moral freedom and God’s sovereignty has vexed and puzzled Christians at least since Justin Martyr’s First Apology.

George Muller’s Journal

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in George Muller, Ministry, Prayer, Submission, Uncategorized

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Arthur Pierson summarized the lessons presented by George Muller’s extensive ministry journal as follows:

1. An experience of frequent and at times prolonged financial straits.
The money in hand for personal needs, and for the needs of hundreds and thousands of orphans, and for the various branches of the work of the Scriptural Knowledge Institution, was often reduced to a single pound, or even penny, and sometimes to nothing. There was therefore a necessity for constant waiting on God, looking to Him directly for all supplies. For months, if not years, together, and at several periods in the work, supplies were furnished only from month to month, week to week, day to day, hour to hour! Faith was thus kept in lively exercise and under perpetual training.

2. An experience of the unchanging faithfulness of the Father-God.
The straits were long and trying, but never was there one case of failure to receive help; never a meal-time without at least a frugal meal, never a want or a crisis unmet by divine supply and support. Mr. Muller said to the writer: “Not once, or five times, or five hundred times, but thousands of times in these threescore years, have we had in hand not enough for one more meal, either in food or in funds; but not once has God failed us; not once have we or the orphans gone hungry or lacked any good thing.” From 1838 to 1844 was a period of peculiar and prolonged straits, yet when the time of need actually came the supply was always given, though often
at the last moment.

3. An experience of the working of God upon the minds, hearts, and consciences of contributors to the work.
It will amply repay one to plod, step by step, over these thousands of pages, if only to trace the hand of God touching the springs of human action all over the world in ways of His own, and at times of great need, and adjusting the amount and the exact day and hour of the supply, to the existing want. Literally from the earth’s ends, men, women, and children who had never seen Mr. Muller and could have known nothing of the pressure at the time, have been led at the exact crisis of affairs to send aid in the very sum or form most needful. In countless cases, while he was on his knees asking, the answer has come in such close correspondence with the request as to shut out chance as an explanation, and compel belief in a prayer-hearing God.

4. An experience of habitual hanging upon the unseen God and nothing else.
The reports, issued annually to acquaint the public with the history and progress of the work, and give an account of stewardship to the many donors who had a right to a report—these made no direct appeal for aid. At one time, and that of great need, Mr. Muller felt led to withhold the usual annual statement, lest some might construe the account of work already done as an appeal for aid in work yet to be done, and thus detract detract from the glory of the Great Provider.* The Living God alone was and is the Patron of these institutions; and not even the wisest and wealthiest, the noblest and the most influential of human beings, has ever been looked to as their dependence.

5. An experience of conscientious care in accepting and using gifts.
Here is a pattern for all who act as stewards for God. Whenever there was any ground of misgiving as to the propriety or expediency of receiving what was offered, it was declined, however pressing the need, unless or until all such objectionable features no more existed. If the party contributing was known to dishonour lawful debts, so that the money was righteously due to others; if the gift was encumbered and embarrassed by restrictions that “hindered its free use for God; if it was designated for endowment purposes or as a provision for Mr. Muller’s old age, or for the future of the institutions; or if there was any evidence or suspicion that the donation was given grudgingly, reluctantly, or for self-glory, it was promptly declined and returned. In some cases, even where large amounts were involved, parties were urged to wait until more prayer and deliberation made clear that they were acting under divine leading.

6. An experience of extreme caution lest there should be even a careless betrayal of the fact of pressing need, to the outside public.
The helpers in the institutions were allowed to come into such close fellowship and to have such knowledge of the exact state of the work as aids not only in common labours, but in common prayers and self-denials. Without such acquaintance they could not serve, pray, nor sacrifice intelligently. But these associates were most solemnly and repeatedly charged never to reveal to those without, not even in the most serious crises, any want whatsoever of the work. The one and only resort was ever to be the God who hears the cry of the needy; and the greater the exigency, the greater the caution lest there should even seem to be a looking away from divine to human help.

7. An experience of growing boldness of faith in asking and trusting for great things.
As faith was exercised it was energized, so that it became as easy and natural to ask confidently for a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand pounds, as once it had been for a pound or a penny. After confidence in God had been strengthened through discipline, and God had been proven faithful, it required no more venture to cast himself on God for provision for two thousand children and an annual outlay of at least twenty-five thousand pounds for them than in the earlier periods of the work to look to Him to care for twenty homeless orphans at a cost of two hundred and fifty pounds a year. Only by using faith are we kept from practically losing it, and, on the contrary, to use faith is to lose the unbelief that hinders God’s mighty acts.

Excerpt From: Arthur Tappan Pierson. “George Müller of Bristol”

How we should understand true Christian ministry

28 Thursday Feb 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in George Muller, Ministry, Submission, Uncategorized

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Pierson notes that Muller’s journal is titled, “The Lord’s Dealings with George Muller”. He explains that Christianity ministry – even of the most eminent apostles – was always a question of the The Lord did the man for other men and women — not a matter of what Peter or Paul did alone. True Christianity ministry must be a matter of God working in us, through us, upon us — but never a matter of us working independently of The Lord. Indeed a life of faith must be a life of dependence; the minister is only an instrument of the Lord’s work:

The meaning of such repeated phraseology cannot be mistaken. God is here presented as the one agent or actor, and even the most conspicuous apostles, like Paul and Peter, as only His instruments. No twenty verses in the word of God contain more emphatic and repeated lessons on man’s insufficiency and nothingness, and God’s all-sufficiency and almightiness. It was God that wrought upon man through man. It was He who chose Peter to be His mouthpiece, He whose key unlocked shut doors, He who visited the nations, who turned sinners into saints, who was even then taking out a people for His name, purifying hearts and bearing them witness; it was He and He alone who did all these wondrous things, and according to His knowledge and plan of what He would do, from the beginning. We are not reading so much the Acts of the Apostles as the acts of God through the apostles. Was it not this very passage in this inspired book that suggested, perhaps, the name of this journal: “The Lord’s dealings with George Miiller”?

Excerpt From: Arthur Tappan Pierson. “George Müller of Bristol.”

All of our work must be a work of faith — and faith is a matter of dependence.

How the love of God purifies the heart

13 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in Church History, George Muller, John, Mortification, Submission

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Arthur Pierson, Church History, Faith, faith, Feeling, George Muller, John, love, Love, Love of God, Mortification, Mortification of Sin, Sanctification, saving faith, Self-denial, Submission

“Truly to grasp this fact is the beginning of a true and saving faith—what the Spirit calls ” laying hold.” He who believes and knows that God so loved him first, finds himself loving God in return, and faith works by love to purify the heart, transform the life, and overcome the world.

It was so with George Muller. He found in the word of God one great fact: the love of God in Christ. Upon that fact faith, not feeling, laid hold; and then the feeling came naturally without being waited for or sought after. The love of God in Christ constrained him to a love—infinitely unworthy, indeed, of that to which it responded, yet supplying a new impulse unknown before. What all his father’s injunctions, chastisements, entreaties, with all the urgent dictates of his own conscience, motives of expediency, and repeated resolves of amendment, utterly failed to effect, the love of God both impelled and enabled him to do—renounce a life of sinful self-indulgence. Thus early he learned that double truth, which he afterwards passionately loved to teach others, that in the blood of God’s atoning Lamb is the Fountain of both forgiveness and cleansing.”

Excerpt From: Arthur Tappan Pierson. “George Müller of Bristol.” James Nisbet. iBooks.

Translation and Notes Ecclesiastes 7:7-14

30 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 Peter, 1 Timothy, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Ecclesiastes, Hebrew, Obedience, Submission

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1 Peter, 1 Timothy, Affliction, anger, Biblical Counseling, bribery, corruption, Discipleship, Ecclesiastes, Ecclesiastes 7, Hebrew, Hebrew Translation, nostalgia, Obedience, Oppression, patience, Resignation, Self-denial, Submission, Thankfulness, vexation

Ecclesiastes 7:7–14 (BHS/WHM 4.2)

⁷כִּ֥י הָעֹ֖שֶׁק יְהוֹלֵ֣ל חָכָ֑ם וִֽיאַבֵּ֥ד אֶת־לֵ֖ב מַתָּנָֽה׃⁸ט֛וֹב אַחֲרִ֥ית דָּבָ֖ר מֵֽרֵאשִׁית֑וֹ ט֥וֹב אֶֽרֶךְ־ר֖וּחַ מִגְּבַהּ־רֽוּחַ׃⁹אַל־תְּבַהֵ֥ל בְּרֽוּחֲךָ֖ לִכְע֑וֹס כִּ֣י כַ֔עַס בְּחֵ֥יק כְּסִילִ֖ים יָנֽוּחַ׃¹⁰אַל־תֹּאמַר֙ מֶ֣ה הָיָ֔ה שֶׁ֤הַיָּמִים֙ הָרִ֣אשֹׁנִ֔ים הָי֥וּ טוֹבִ֖ים מֵאֵ֑לֶּה כִּ֛י לֹ֥א מֵחָכְמָ֖ה שָׁאַ֥לְתָּ עַל־זֶֽה׃¹¹טוֹבָ֥ה חָכְמָ֖ה עִֽם־נַחֲלָ֑ה וְיֹתֵ֖ר לְרֹאֵ֥י הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃¹²כִּ֛י בְּצֵ֥ל הַֽחָכְמָ֖ה בְּצֵ֣ל הַכָּ֑סֶף וְיִתְר֣וֹן דַּ֔עַת הַֽחָכְמָ֖ה תְּחַיֶּ֥ה בְעָלֶֽיהָ׃¹³רְאֵ֖ה אֶת־מַעֲשֵׂ֣ה הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים כִּ֣י מִ֤י יוּכַל֙ לְתַקֵּ֔ן אֵ֖ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר עִוְּתֽוֹ׃¹⁴בְּי֤וֹם טוֹבָה֙ הֱיֵ֣ה בְט֔וֹב וּבְי֥וֹם רָעָ֖ה רְאֵ֑ה גַּ֣ם אֶת־זֶ֤ה לְעֻמַּת־זֶה֙ עָשָׂ֣ה הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים עַל־דִּבְרַ֗ת שֶׁלֹּ֨א יִמְצָ֧א הָֽאָדָ֛ם אַחֲרָ֖יו מְאֽוּמָה׃

One great source of unhappiness in the world, a copious and perennial spring of bitter waters, is discontent,—dissatisfaction with the situation, as to time, place, and circumstances, in which Divine providence has placed us.

Ralph Wardlaw, Lectures on the Book of Ecclesiastes, Volume 1 (London; Glasgow: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; Wardlaw and Cunninghame, 1821), 344.

This entire section seems to tie together by examining one’s response to the brokenness of the world in light of the sovereignty of God. In effect, Qoheleth turns the argument from harm on its head. While the skeptic argues how can God permit evil? Qoheleth presumes harm because we are on this side of the Fall – which brought on death. We are always unhappy where God has placed us, because God has placed us on this side of the Fall.

The overarching move of the book is to force out of any false comfort, any belief that the creature can make us happy or that death can be avoided. Thus, having told us to solemnly acknowledge our status, Qoheleth next rules out any complaint or avoidance of the implications. We may and should enjoy kindness which God has provided to alleviate our sorrow; but, we must not think God can be avoided. We must humbly receive what he has given:

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 1 Timothy 6:6–10 (ESV)

VERSE 7:

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.

134. כִּי Surely (Eng. Vers.), or But (M. Stuart). הָעשֶׁק, see 5:7: Gesenius and Lee say it is here put by meton. for unjust gain, conf. Levit. 5:23; Ps. 62:11: the Eng. Vers. oppression may mean either that practised by the wise man, or of which he is the object, and sees others to suffer. יְהוֹלֵל makes foolish, or mad,a Poel Imperf. (§ 55, Rem. 1), conf. 1:17, LXX., περιφέρει. Desvœux and Holden render it, “gives lustre to,” and suppose allusion to be made to the beneficial effects of affliction when rightly borne, and that these are contrasted in the next clause with the injurious effect of prosperity, the gift of fortune: but rather the term refers here to the injurious effect of power on a wise man, who is tempted to its abuse;b see, e.g., the contrast between the character of Tiberius before, and after, his accession to power, Tacit. Annal. vi. 51. וִיאַבֵּד contrac. for וִיְאַבֵּד conf. ver. 3, Piel Imperf. “destroys,” i.e., corrupts (Gesen. Lex.), lit., causes to go astray, from אָבַד to be lost, to wander, 3:6; though mas. it has here a fem. subj., as is often the case when the verb precedes (§ 147, a). מַתָּנָה a gift, here a bribe, i.q., שֹׁחַד, Ex. 23:8. M. Stuart remarks that in Arabic Hakem (= חָכָם) means magistrate, and that not improbably it does so in this passage, for it is the corruption of a judge to which the gift (bribery) refers. Bribery was expressly forbidden by the Mosaic Law, Ex. 23:8; Deut. 16:19.c

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), 89.

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.

IT is evident, that what is said, in the first of these verses, of the tendency of oppression to “make a wise man mad,” may be understood either of the suffering or of the exercise of oppression.—The former, it is needless to prove, serves to fret, and harass, and exasperate the spirit; so that there are not wanting instances, in which men, even eminent in reputation for wisdom, have, by its long continuance, by their being the constant victims of injustice, privation, insult, and violence, been worked up to a pitch of absolute phrenzy; have given way, after long and difficult restraint, to the burst of ungovernable indignation, and have acted the part of madness, rather than of considerate sobriety.—Moses, describing the unrighteous oppression which, amongst other curses, should befall the Israelites under the Divine visitation for their sins, concludes in these words:—“Thy sons and thy daughters (shall be) given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look and fail for them all the day long; and (there shall be) no might in thy hand. The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway: so that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.”*

I am disposed, however, to understand the expression in the passage before us, as relating to the oppressor, rather than to the oppressed. The possession of power carries in it a strong temptation to its abuse; a temptation before which even men who had borne a previous character for wisdom, have not seldom fallen. And when a man, even a wise man, exalted to power, once gives way before the tempting inducements to its corrupt employment, the very exercise of oppression tends to infatuate and bewilder him. It blinds his judgment, it perverts his principles, it hardens his heart, it changes his character. A contention arises in his bosom between the love of power, with the profit of its abuse, on the one hand, and the remonstrances and upbraidings of conscience, on the other. The reluctance too, so mighty in human nature, to own an error, produces a passionate impatience of reproof and counsel, which is proportionally the more vehement, as he is inwardly sensible he is wrong. This state of mind drives him forward to measures of new violence; the very opposition of conscience, reacting, as an irritating stimulus, in the contrary direction, the anger at its torturing remonstrances producing a desperate effort to silence and to banish them; as when a man, to show his indignant scorn of rebuke, repeats his fault more offensively than before. One step leads on to another; till his conduct, losing all the characteristics of wisdom, becomes like that of a man bereft of reason, and swayed by the derangement of passion.

One of the reasons for preferring this interpretation of the former part of the verse, is its affording so clear a connection with the latter:—“and a gift destroyeth the heart.”—“A gift” is a bribe to oppression. The taking of gifts was prohibited by the law of Moses, on account of the same corrupting tendency that is here ascribed to them. The man, indeed, who consents to receive a gift, known to be bestowed with such an intention, is already corrupted. “Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. Thou shalt not wrest judgment: thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”*—“A gift destroyeth the heart.” It operates as a temptation. It undermines the principles of impartial equity, and deadens the feelings of humanity and mercy. It perverts the moral sentiments, and leads to the wo denounced on the man who “calls evil good, and good evil, who puts darkness for light, and light for darkness.”

Ralph Wardlaw, Lectures on the Book of Ecclesiastes, Volume 1 (London; Glasgow: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; Wardlaw and Cunninghame, 1821), 335-38.

VERSE 8a:

ט֛וֹב אַחֲרִ֥ית דָּבָ֖ר מֵֽרֵאשִׁית֑וֹ

Better is the end of a thing, than its beginning[1]

The construction is a standard better than construction (tob +mem + noun).

Interestingly, the words “end” and “beginning” are both plural, which the word “thing” (dabar, word, thing, matter) & the personal pronoun “its” are singular. Seow writes that it is possible that the original reading was a plural “matters” (the m which would mark matters as plural was dropped by the proximity to m which begins the next word). However, he rejects that possibility on two grounds: (1) the pronominal suffix at the end of “beginning” is singular (its); and (2) the LXX also has a singular pronoun, autou. Since the possessive pronoun refers back to “thing/matter”, the noun must have been singular also.

Dabar, thing may mean “word”. The LXX has logos (word) at the translation. Lloyd

135. This verse is connected with the foregoing, and recommends to wait patiently, and see how oppression turns out in the end, rather than haughtily to resent it. דָּבָר a business, or a thing (Eng. Vers.), i.e., the oppression just spoken of. This rendering suits the context better than the λόγων of the LXX., orationis, Vulg., which Le Clerc, Grotius, and Gousset explain of strife and contention. As a general truth the saying is applicable to every affliction which is sanctified to us; see Heb. 12:11; 1 Pet. 1:6, 7, and conf. Job 1. with Job 42:12.

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), 90. Similarly, Stuart:

What he means is, that the end of this matter of oppressing will show at last the true state of the thing; and that it is better to wait—to exercise forbearance of mind, than haughtily to resent the injuries received. We might expect קֹצְררוּחַ, hastiness of spirit, in contrast with אֶרֶךְרוּחַ. But haughtiness is the passion which most and quickest of all resents oppression, being very sensitive to indignity. The caution is, not to move too hastily in such a matter, but to wait, and see how it will turn out in the sequel.

Moses Stuart, A Commentary on Ecclesiastes (New York: George P. Putnam, 1851), 211.

VERSE 8b:

ט֥וֹב אֶֽרֶךְ־ר֖וּחַ מִגְּבַהּ־רֽוּחַ׃

Better is (one) long in spirit than one high (proud) of spirit.

Long of spirit is an idiom which means patient. Compare Exodus 9:6, “shortness of spirit” means impatience. Longmen suggests, “Better long patience than soaring pride” (187).

Discussing the connection the two halves of the verse, Longmen writes, “R.N. Whybray has suggested a plausible connection between the two parts of the verse: ‘self-control is needed to carry though any project.’ I would go on tot add that on one can know the outcome of anything until it is completed, patience not pride is called for, the latter presuming to control the future or outcome. Crenshaw quoted the proverb in 2 Kings 20:11: ‘Let not the person putting on armor brag like the one taking it off.”” (188).

To wait calmly for the result of an action, not to be hasty in arraigning Providence, is the part of a patient man; while the proud, inflated, conceited man, who thinks all must be arranged according to his notions, is never resigned or content, but rebels against the ordained course of events. “In your patience ye shall win your souls,” said Christ (Luke 21:19);

Ecclesiastes, ed. H. D. M. Spence-Jones, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 158.

1 The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. 2 All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. 3 Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established. 4 The LORD has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Proverbs 16:1–4 (ESV)

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:6–7 (ESV)

VERSE 9a:

אַל־תְּבַהֵ֥ל בְּרֽוּחֲךָ֖ לִכְע֑וֹס

Do not be quick/terrified in your spirit to be vexed

VERSE 9b:

כִּ֣י כַ֔עַס בְּחֵ֥יק כְּסִילִ֖ים יָנֽוּחַ׃

For vexation in the fold of fools it rests/settles down.

On the subject of anger St. Gregory writes, “As often as we restrain the turbulent motions of the mind under the virtue of mildness, we are essaying to return to the likeness of our Creator. For when the peace of mind is lashed with anger, torn and rent, as it were, it is thrown into confusion, so that it is not in harmony with itself, and loses the force of the inward likeness. By anger wisdom is parted with, so that we are left wholly in ignorance what to do; as it is written, ‘Anger resteth in the bosom of a fool,’ in this way, that it withdraws the light of understanding, while by agitating it troubles the mind” (‘Moral.,’ v. 78).

Ecclesiastes, ed. H. D. M. Spence-Jones, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 158.

As noted in the previous section’s notes, כַ֔עַס denotes the response to foolishness or vexation. The fool responds too quickly, too easily:

8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 1 Peter 4:8 (ESV)

Fredricks:

These two (vs. 8-9) ‘better than’ phrase interpret each other and imply that if one patiently waits until the end of certain matters, withholding judgment, one’s patience will prove wiser than jumping to self-centered conclusions at the start. Thus the verse supports the earlier contention that there is a season for everything ….. (170).

Ver. 9. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry. The anger or wrath is to be conceived as directed against God and the evil doers favoured by Him, that is, in this present case, against the heathen; compare Psalm 37:1, 2, 8. For anger resteth in the bosom of fools, who only look at the present and at once fall into error with regard to God and his providence if things go otherwise than in their view they ought to do. It is folly to fix the attention only on that which lies directly before our eyes, to speak wisdom in presence of the good fortune of the wicked: “as grass shall they be cut down, and as the green herb shall they wither,” and, “evil doers shall be rooted out, but they that wait on the Lord shall possess the land.” If we only do not make haste to be angry, the Lord will in his own good time remove all occasions to wrath out of the way. As the Berleburger Bible says: “blessed, on the contrary, is he who in all the events of life maintains a calm patience, equips himself with a spirit of humble submissiveness and magnanimous contentment, accommodates himself to good and evil times alike, and ever derives strength and quickening from the petition,—“thy will be done.”

E. W. Hengstenberg, Commentary on Ecclesiastes, trans. D. W. Simon (Philadelphia; New York; Boston: Smith, English, & Co.; Sheldon and Company; Gould and Lincoln, 1860), 166.

VERSE 10:

אַל־תֹּאמַר֙ מֶ֣ה הָיָ֔ה שֶׁ֤הַיָּמִים֙ הָרִ֣אשֹׁנִ֔ים הָי֥וּ טוֹבִ֖ים מֵאֵ֑לֶּה

Do not say why were the days, the first ones, they were best (better than) these

כִּ֛י לֹ֥א מֵחָכְמָ֖ה שָׁאַ֥לְתָּ עַל־זֶֽה׃

For (it is) not from wisdom that you ask unto this.

שָׁאַלְתָּ has here a subjunctive signification, thou wouldst not ask, as is evident from the context, which alone must decide it, since the indicative form of the verb is used to express the different moods. The construction of שָׁאַל with עַל־ only occurs once more in later Hebrew (Nehem. 1:2), in the earlier stages of the language it is construed with לְ (Gen. 43:7). זֶה, these, refers to הַיָּמִיםהָרִאשֹׁנִים, as is evident from the preposition עַל, concerning, after. The paraphrastic rendering of the Vulgate, (STULTA ENIM EST HUJUSCEMODI INTERROGATION), which is followed by Luther (denn du fragst solches nicht weislich), Coverdale and the Bishops’ Bible (“for that were no wise question”), the Geneva Version and the Authorised Version (“for thou doest not enquire wisely of this thing or concerning this”), and most commentators, refers שָׁאַלְתָּעַל־זֶה to the question מֶההָיָח, and thereby confounds it with שָׁאַלְתָּ־זֶה.

Christian D. Ginsburg, Coheleth, Commonly Called the Book of Ecclesiastes: Translated from the Original Hebrew, With a Commentary, Historical and Critical (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861), 375.

The same impatience leads a man to disparage the present in comparison with a past age.

Ecclesiastes, ed. H. D. M. Spence-Jones, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 158.

מֵחָכְמָ֖ה

“With verbs of speaking and looking, min often means ‘out of’” (Seow, 239).

VERSE 11:

¹¹טוֹבָ֥ה חָכְמָ֖ה עִֽם־נַחֲלָ֑ה וְיֹתֵ֖ר לְרֹאֵ֥י הַשָּֽׁמֶשׁ׃

Good is wisdom with an inheritance, and an advantage to those who see the sun.

The difficulty here is the word ‘im’ which may mean either “with” or “as” (Wisdom is as good as an inheritance). The “im” is translated “as” in Ecclesiastes 2:16 (For of the wise as of the fool). Seow cites Job 9:26 & 1 Chronicles 25:8 as examples of ki/im parallel mean like/the same as. The ESV/NASB95/KJV take the ‘im’ as “with”. The NIV/NRSV/NET take is as a comparative.

Verse 11a should be translated, “Wisdom, with an inheritance, is good.”165 Even the wise prefer prosperity to poverty. Those who possess both money and wisdom are under the protection of both.166 The superiority of wisdom, however, is that it guides one through difficult times and thus preserves life. Money, to the contrary, often vanishes in hard times.

Duane A. Garrett, vol. 14, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1993), 321.

VERSE 12:

¹²כִּ֛י בְּצֵ֥ל הַֽחָכְמָ֖ה בְּצֵ֣ל הַכָּ֑סֶף

For in a shade/shadow of wisdom, in a shade/shadow of silver

Gordis suggests reading the בּ as כִּ “the protection of wisdom is like the protection of silver” (Gordis, 274); or as wisdom & wealth are a “double” protection (ibid).

literally, in the shade is wisdom, in the shade is money; Septuagint, Ὅτι ἐν σκιᾷ αὐτῆς ἡ σοφία ὡς σκιὰ ἀργυρίου, “For in its shadow wisdom is as the shadow of money.” Symmachus has, Σκέπει σοφία ὡς σκέπει τὸ ἀργύριον, “Wisdom shelters as money shelters.” The Vulgate explains the obscure text by paraphrasing, Sicut enim protegit sapientia, sic protegit pecunia. Shadow, in Oriental phrase, is equivalent to protection (see Numb. 14:9; Ps. 17:8; Lam. 4:20). Wisdom as well as money is a shield and defence to men. As it is said in one passage (Prov. 13:8) that riches are the ransom of a man’s life, so in another (Ch. 9:15) we are told how wisdom delivered a city from destruction. The literal translation given above implies that he who has wisdom and he who has money rest under a safe protection, are secure from material evil. In this respect they are alike, and have analogous claims to man’s regard. But the excellency—profit, or advantage—of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it. “Knowledge” (daath) and “wisdom” (chokmah) are practically here identical, the terms being varied for the sake of poetic parallelism.

Ecclesiastes, ed. H. D. M. Spence-Jones, The Pulpit Commentary (London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1909), 159.

Fredricks takes the beths as “beth essentia” and translate the line, “wisdom is a shadow – money is a shadow.” Similarly Lloyd:

The sentence is regarded as proverbial, and is expressed, like most proverbs, briefly. Others, as Hitzig and M. Stuart, consider בְּ before צֵל to be בְּ essentiœ, or pleonastic, and not translateable, which serves to introduce the predicate, see Gesen. Lex. (D) p. 99, and Gram. § 154, 3, 2nd par. γ, conf. ver. 14; thus Symm., σκέπει σοφία ὡς σκέπει τὸ ἀργύριον, so the Syr. and Luther; Vulg., “sicut enim protegit sapientia, sic protegit pecunia;” Eng. Vers., “For wisdom (is) a defence, (and) money (is) a defence.”

Symmachus (σκέπεἷ σοφία ὡς σκέπει τὸ ἀργύριον, wisdom protects just as money protects), and the Vulgate (SICUT ENIM PROTEGIT SAPIENTIA, SIC PROTEGIT PECUNIA), who are followed by Luther (benn die Weisheit befchirmet, fo befchirmet Geld auch), Coverdale and the Bishops’ Bible (“for wisdom defendeth as well as money”), and the Authorised Version (“for wisdom is a defence and money is a defence”), ignoring the בְּ, have made some modern commentators to to regard it here as the so-called בְּ essentiæ. But this, to say the least, is an unnecessary deviation from the natural signification of this preposition, and necessitates us to supply the בְּ comparison. The explanation of Rashi (כלמישישנובצלהחכמהישנובצלהכסףשהחכמהגורמתלעשרשיבא, whoso is under the protection of wisdom is under the protection of money, because it is wisdom that brings riches), and Ibn Ezra (אזיהיההחכםחוסהבצלהחכמהובצלהכסף, then—i.e., when he has riches with wisdom, according to Ibn Ezra’s view of the preceding verse—will the wise man be protected both by the shelter of wisdom and the shelter of money), are as far-fetched as they are at variance with the scope of the passage. וְיִתְרוֹןדַּעַת, and, moreover, an advantage of wisdom is, takes up וְיוֹתֵר of the preceding verse, and hence shews that the latter is a noun, and that דּעַת is the same as חָכְמָה, wisdom, of which וְיוֹתֵר, and there is an advantage, is the predicate. The Septuagint’s rendering of וְיִתְרוֹןדַּעַתהַחָכְמָהוְנוֹ״ by καὶ περίσσεια γνώσεως τὴς σοφίας, and the advantage of the knowledge of wisdom, &c, which is that of the Chaldee וּמוֹתַרמַנְדְּעָאחוּמְתָאדְאוֹרַיְיתָא, taking דַּעַת as the construct with חָכְמָה, is contrary to the accents, and, if admitted, would yield the same sense which we have given to the passage.

Christian D. Ginsburg, Coheleth, Commonly Called the Book of Ecclesiastes: Translated from the Original Hebrew, With a Commentary, Historical and Critical (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861), 376-77.

וְיִתְר֣וֹן דַּ֔עַת הַֽחָכְמָ֖ה תְּחַיֶּ֥ה בְעָלֶֽיהָ׃

And a profit/advantage (is) knowledge; wisdom preserves the owner/master of it.

בְעָלֶֽיהָ

The noun is plural. Longmen writes, “Here, the plural is honorific” (181).

תְּחַיֶּ֥ה

Wisdom giveth life to them that have it; lit., “it animates him” (תְּחַיֶה). חִיָה is not “to keep in life” (HITZIG), but “to grant life,” i.e., to bestow a genuine happy life. Comp. Job 36:6; Ps. 16:11; 38:9; Prov. 3:18; especially the last passage, which may be quoted as most decisive for our meaning. HENGSTENBERG lays too much stress on תְּחַיֶה in claiming for it the sense of reanimating, of the resurrection of that which was spiritually dead (according to Hosea 6:2; Luke 15:32, etc.); and KNOBEL too little, when he declares: “wisdom affords a calm and contented spirit.”

John Peter Lange, Philip Schaff, Otto Zöckler et al., A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures: Ecclesiastes (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2008), 107.

Preserves the life of him who has it is in Hebrew “it gives life to the one who masters it.” The causative form of the Hebrew verb for “live” describes giving life to something, bringing it to life; it is a dynamic action whereby life is given, restored, or “preserved.” Thus TEV “keeps you safe” seems rather weak by comparison. The translation can be “gives life,” “makes alive,” or possibly (as FRCL) “prolongs the life.” The person who is revived or given life is expressed as him who has it, literally “its masters” or “those who master it.” The Hebrew term denotes mastery or lordship and has been used in this manner in 5:11, 13 (“owner”).

Graham S. Ogden and Lynell Zogbo, A Handbook on Ecclesiastes, UBS Handbook Series (New York: United Bible Societies, 1998), 239.

VERSE 13:

¹³רְאֵ֖ה אֶת־מַעֲשֵׂ֣ה הָאֱלֹהִ֑ים

Look unto the works of God

It is not the work of creation, but the work of Providence which we are commanded to consider. God is over all; we can not, by our wishes and strivings, alter the course of things which be ordains. The man who is under the influence of this doctrine of religion has a better protection against disappointment and misery, than if he had an inheritance alone, or had to contend with the ills of life, by the aid which can be derived from a cold and speculative philosophy.

James M. MacDonald, The Book of Ecclesiastes Explained (New York: M. W. Dodd, 1856), 347.

VERSE 13b:

כִּ֣י מִ֤י יוּכַל֙ לְתַקֵּ֔ן אֵ֖ת אֲשֶׁ֥ר עִוְּתֽוֹ

For who is able to make straight that which he bent.

13. If the depravity of the times be so great, and injuries and corruptions so prevalent, that neither wealth nor wisdom can prove a defence against them; we are here directed to another act of wisdom, to look above the creatures, and all second causes, to the righteous hand and irresistible providence of God in them all; and where wisdom cannot improve our condition, nor render the times, or our neighbours, or our own affairs, so perfect as we could wish them, let us endeavour to manifest contentment, silence, and a humble acquiescence in the good pleasure of the Lord. There are many things which no human wisdom can rectify. In a public famine or pestilence, no ability of man can purge the air, or open the windows of heaven to supply us. In a shipwreck no wisdom of man can rebuke the winds and seas, and command a calm. But in all such cases wisdom must teach us to submit to God, and to wait upon him.—“See,” i. e. diligently view and take notice in the course of the world of God’s overruling providence. The Scripture commonly uses words applicable to the external senses to express the inward actions of the soul, ch. 2:24. and 3:10.—“The work of God;” namely, his righteous government of the world: when thou art apt to complain of the times, and the oppressions of the wicked, then remember, that how crooked soever things may appear, God orders and appoints all events; and it is vain to suppose thou canst rectify every evil of which thou art tempted to complain: for the divine decrees are unalterable, like mountains of brass, which cannot be moved, Zech. 6:1; ch. 1:15; therefore in patience possess thy soul.—“For who can make that straight which he hath made crooked?” This shews the unalterableness of God’s order, in which by his providence be has placed all things. It may be understood, first, in reference to the course of nature. Be not angry nor fretful against the Almighty in unreasonableness of winds or weather, in losses by sea or land, in sickness, infirmities, or deformities, which he suffers to befal thee or thy relatives; nor murmur at the unsuccessfulness of any means, or weakness of any endeavours, thou mayest adopt to rectify these casualties. This was the sin of Israel in the wilderness, Exod. 17:2, 3; Numb. 11:4, 5, 6; 2 Kings 6:33; Jon. 4:8, 9. Secondly, as to civil policy and the management of human societies. If thou seest great concussions of states, depopulation of countries, translation of kingdoms, plucking down, and rooting up, the sword devouring as it pleaseth; neither wonder nor murmur, but seriously consider, that an overruling providence regulates all these changes, which calls for silence and contentment under his administrations, Job 9:5–13. and 12:14–24; Ps. 75:6, 7; Isai. 2:10–19; Dan. 2:11; Jer. 18:6, 10. and 47:6, 7; Ezek. 14:17. Thirdly, in relation to the sins and miscarriages of mankind. When thou seest men incorrigible in wickedness, and so perverse that no means will reclaim or reform them, consider the work of God’s most righteous judgment in hardening whom he will; and remember, that God is so holy, that he would not suffer sin to prevail, if he were not also equally wise and powerful to order it so as to secure his own glory: hence no wickedness shall proceed further than to execute his predeterminate counsel; and the remainder of it he will restrain, Rom. 9:18; 1 Sam. 2:25; Gen. 50:20; Exod. 7:3, 4; 2 Thes. 2:11, 12; Acts 4:28; Rom. 11:8; Ps. 76:10.

Edward Reynolds, A Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes, ed. Daniel Washbourn (London: Mathews and Leigh, 1811), 223-25.

Another reason for obeying the injunction given in verse 10. Complaining is vain; God has ordained it so, and, however crooked it may appear to us, no man can rectify it. רְאֵה, see, consider, bear in mind, remember. The expression moreover, which is often omitted in Hebrew, must be supplied in the translation, מַעֲשֶׂה, work, i.e., of providence, appointment, ordaining; so also לְתַקֵּן, to rectify, and עִוֵּת, to make crooked, are used in a spiritual sense. The interrogative, in which the last clause is expressed, is tantamount to an emphatic denial, i.e., no one can, &c. (vide supra, 1:3). For the pleonastic suffix in עִוְּתוֹ, see 2:12. The Septuagint’s rendering of כִּימִייוּכַללְתַקֵּןאֵתאֲשֶׁרעִוְּתוֹ by ὅτι τίς δυνήσεται τοῦ κοσμῆσαι ὅν ἄν ὁ φεὸς διαστρέψη αὐτόν; for who is able to make him straight, if God has distorted him? which is followed by the Vulgate, QUOD NEMO POSSIT CORRIGERE, QUEM ILLE DESPEXERIT, that no man can correct him whom He has despised, has evidently originated from the traditional explanation,

Christian D. Ginsburg, Coheleth, Commonly Called the Book of Ecclesiastes: Translated from the Original Hebrew, With a Commentary, Historical and Critical (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1861), 377.

VERSE 14a:

⁴בְּי֤וֹם טוֹבָה֙ הֱיֵ֣ה בְט֔וֹב וּבְי֥וֹם רָעָ֖ה רְאֵ֑ה

In the good day let it be in good, but in an evil day see/consider

VERSE 14b:

גַּ֣ם אֶת־זֶ֤ה לְעֻמַּת־זֶה֙ עָשָׂ֣ה הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים

Also this, corresponding to that God made

VERSE 14c:

עַל־דִּבְרַ֗ת שֶׁלֹּ֨א יִמְצָ֧א הָֽאָדָ֛ם אַחֲרָ֖יו מְאֽוּמָה

On/onto the word/matter this not to search/find the Adam after him from something/nothing.

For לְעֻמַּת, in connection with, like, see 5:15, and for עַלדִּבְרַת giving the motive or occasion of the action, see 3:18.

With the sentiment conf. 8:15; 9:7–9, and mark the reason given, Deut. 28:47, for the curses which should come upon Israel, “Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things.” The next clause is rendered by the Arab. Vers. “look upon the day of adversity,” i.e., keep it in view, be prepared for it; malam diem prœcave, Vulg.; but this rendering does not preserve the evident sameness of construction between בְּיוֹםטוֹבָה and בְּיוֹםרָעָה, hence rightly the Eng. Vers., “in the day of adversity consider.” What we should consider is, that affliction comes from God, and therefore calls for submission (Micah 6:9), that it is sent for our good, to show us the vanity of the world, to bring us to repentance for sin, and to earnest preparation for a better life. “Let no man flatter himself that any thing external will make him wise or virtuous, without his taking pains to learn wisdom or virtue from it.” (Archbp. Whately’s Notes on Essay V. of Lord Bacon, p. 59.) Observe the paronomasia or alliteration between טוֹבָה and טוֹב; רָעָה and רְאֵה. לְעֻמַּת over against, Eng. Vers., or equally with, even as, Gesen. Lex., see עֻמַּת, 5:15. עָשָׂה hath ordered, or hath arranged. עַל־דִּבִרַתשֶ to the end that, Gesen. Lex., conf. 3:18. אַחֲרָיו after him; if the suff. is used as a reflex pron. (§ 124, 1, b), referring to הָאָדָם, as in 3:22, 6:12, the meaning is that God has so ordered the vicissitudes of good and evil that man may never find out what shall be after himself, i.e., be able to foresee with certainty the future; but if the suff. refers to Elohim, that man may not after God find out any thing, i.e., any thing wiser or more suitable than the arrangements of God’s Providence, nor be able to follow in God’s track, and trace His footsteps, God’s ways being inscrutable, conf. 8:17; Rom. 11:33.

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), 93-94.

Doct. Whatsoever the estate of times be, it is our part to consider the work of God as so disposing the times, and in setting good and evil times one against another; and accordingly in good times to be in goodness, and in ill times to look at God’s hand as only able to amend therein. As who should say, Look not at the creature as the chief agent in the estate of the times, but consider his hand in all estates, and make use of them, as his hand leadeth unto, Job 1:21.

1 It is God’s work, first, To send. 1. Good times, 2 Chron. 2:11; 2. Evil times, Prov. 28:2. Secondly, To set good and evil times in a vicissitude or interchange, one contrary over against another, Jer. 18:7, 9. In good times, first, God maketh men’s, or at least some chief men’s, hearts and ways right before him, 1 Sam. 13:14; secondly, God giveth them a right course, and good success in their proceedings, Jer. 22:15, 16; 2 Chron. 17:3–5. In evil times, first, God giveth men up to the crookedness of their own hearts and ways, Ps. 125:5, and 81:11, 12; 2 Chron. 28:1; secondly, God sendeth them cross and crooked issues of their ways, 2 Chron. 28:1–6, 16–20; Jer. 22:17–19; Ps. 18:26.

2. God setteth these good and evil times interchangeably one against another. Saul’s times were, bad; the times of David and Solomon good. Reho—boam and Abijam bad; Asa and Jehoshaphat good.Joram and Joash bad; Uzziah and Jotham good. Ahaz bad; Hezekiah good. Manasseh and Amonbad; Josias good; his successors, to the captivity bad, after the captivity good.

Reason 1. From God’s people’s abuse of prosperity into self—confidence. Ps. 30:6, 7, and luxury, Deut. 32:15; hence followeth calamity and adversity.

Reason 2. From the humiliation and reformation of God’s people in adversity. Hosea 5:15, with 6:1, 2.

Reason 3. To the end we should find nothing after God. as in the text—to wit, first. No stability in the creature, but unsettled vicissitudes; secondly, No fault in God and his administrations. So the phrase and word is taken, John 14:30 Job 31:7.

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), 67-68.

God has set prosperity and adversity over against each other in men’s history. Why? “To the end that man should find (find out) nothing after him.” The meanings somewhat obscure at the first glance. But the sentiment corresponds with 9:1, where it says, “No man knoweth either love or hatred (whether God loves or hates him) by all that is before them.” God’s outward dealings furnish no clue as to God’s love to us. They are various, that we may not know what is to be our future lot. “Man can find out nothing after him;” i. e., no satisfactory explanation after all his inquiries, if this life is man’s entire existence. And the next verse corroborates this view.

Loyal Young, A Commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1865), 168.

[1] Ironically, it is the end of sin which reveals its nature:

1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, 2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. 3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; Proverbs 5:1–5 (ESV)

29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? 30 Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. 31 Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. 32 In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. Proverbs 23:29–32 (ESV)

Christian Resignation: Samuel Rutherford to Lady Kenmure (Letter 3)

19 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by memoirandremains in 1 John, Biblical Counseling, Hope, Romans, Submission

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1 John, 1 John 4, All Things for Good, Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Epictetus, good, Hope, Lady Kenmure, love, Resignation, Romans, Romans 8, Romans 8:28, Rutherford, Rutherford's Letters, Samuel Rutherford, Stoicism, Submission, Wisdom

In July 1628, Samuel Rutherford wrote to Lady Kenmure (who outlive Rutherford, and be one of his longest standing friends. Their last correspondence being 1661, the year of his death) on the occasion of an illness. He writes to her to live with Christian resignation to God’s will. Rutherford well lays out the two strands of Christian resignation. We resign ourselves to God’s will (1) because he loves us and (2) because we love him. It is submission bound up with and flowing from love. It is submission founded upon and flowing through the cross of Christ.

First, we must submit because The Lord acts in love toward us.

The Christian must submit her will to the greater will of Christ. Note how he presents the command. One could baldy state, we must submit to God’s will, because is simply stronger than us; thus, resisting such will would be madness — like trying to resist the sun from rising. Epictetus speaks of this a matter of freedom, the world may be able to compel my body, but it cannot compel my thoughts and affections.

Rutherford stands the resignation on a different ground. Christian submission must be grounded in the greater wisdom and power of God (who can resist him?), and upon our freedom to respond (else, why would he counsel her as to how to respond?) — but (and this is the key difference), upon love: The Lord loves us and acts in wisdom, power and love toward us:

It is then best for us, in the obedience of faith, and in an holy submission, to give that to God which the law of His almighty and just power will have of us. Therefore, Madam, your Lord willeth you, in all states of life, to say, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven:” and herein shall ye have comfort, that He, who seeth perfectly through all your evils, and knoweth the frame and constitution of your nature, and what is most healthful for your soul, holdeth every cup of affliction to your head, with His own gracious hand. Never believe that your tender-hearted Saviour, who knoweth the strength of your stomach, will mix that cup with one drachm-weight of poison. Drink then with the patience of the saints, and the God of patience bless your physic.

Love lies at the very heart of what God is:

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 1 John 4:7-12.

The Trinity of God is boudn together in love. The redemption of human beings takes place by means of this Trinitarian love. Redemption does not release us from guilt and leave us alone, rather the love of God is worked out in and through us. We take on the stamp of God’s love. That love is not a love which merely prizes that which pleases us. Rather it is a love which prizes God and flows in action toward those who do not “deserve” that love.

If this is the end sought by God is God’s love working through our hearts and lives, then the trials God sets upon us must be to fit us for such love. Therefore, knowing that God does love us, we know that God does not mix “poison” into our trials but fits them for our stomach.

The Christian must resign herself to trial, for trials come from God who has already demonstrated love by sending the Son. Such a God would not keep from us any “good”. Therefore, the trial must be “good”:

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:28-39

Second, Christian must submit, must be resigned to trials out of love for Christ.

Christian submit to trials as such lie between us and Christ — much as one submits to travel with eye to come home. Who would ever willing pay to locked in a metal box in a small unpleasant seat suspended thousdands of feet above the ground, all the while in danger of death — and paying a great sum of money for the privileged — were it not that the airplane will land in a place one desires?

Ye have now, Madam, a sickness before you; and also after that a death. Gather then now food for the journey. God give you eyes to see through sickness and death, and to see something beyond death. I doubt not but that, if hell were betwixt you and Christ, as a river which ye behoved to cross ere you could come at Him, but ye would willingly put in your foot, and make through to be at Him, upon hope that He would come in Himself, in the deepest of the river, and lend you His hand. Now, I believe your hell is dried up, and ye have only these two shallow brooks, sickness and death, to pass through; and ye have also a promise that Christ shall do more than meet you, even that He shall come Himself, and go with you foot for foot, yea and bear you in His arms. O then! O then! for the joy that is set before you; for the love of the Man (who is also “God over all, blessed for ever”), that is standing upon the shore to welcome you, run your race with patience. The Lord go with you.