The Search

DEVOTION

SONG OF SONGS

THE SEARCH

Song 1:5-7

5 Dark am I, yet lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.   6 Do not stare at me because I am dark, because I am darkened by the sun. My mother's sons were angry with me and made me take care of the vineyards; my own vineyard I have neglected. 7 Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday. Why should I be like a veiled woman beside the flocks of your friends?

NIV

If we look at this as this love story, this drama played out between the man and the woman, these are supposed to be the words of the beloved, or some translations label her a Shulamite because they were a darker people. The next several verses are the lover’s response. Could this not also be the words of God spoken to Israel, O daughters of Jerusalem? Yet it could be the words of mankind toward God. We can be the ones who are dark, who have been darken by the sun, living within the world. This is not darkened, as in our skin, but in our heart. Why would God be mad at us because we were raised in a darkened home, with parents that did not shine with the light of Jesus? Why would he stare at us with anger because we were trained to chase after the things are parents did? We did not have the chose at that time, we had to live as they did. But now it is different. We can ask him where he grazes his people, the sheep of his pasture. We can now ask him why should we remained veiled, hidden from his flock, his sheep, the sheep of his pasture, the community of believers. No we do not have to live behind the veil, away from the Holy of Holies. Because of Jesus the veil was torn in two and we have full access to God, and can be encompassed into his flock. No longer do we stand outside, beside the flock of his friends. We live inside the flock with the friends of God. These friends could be seen as the believing community or seen as Jesus and the Spirit. But we no longer have this darken heart, yet let us allow this dialog to play out and see how this statement is answered. It will start out with telling how to find him. For now it was the search.   

Rejoice, Delight and Adore

DEVOTION

SONG OF SOLOMON

OR SONG OF SONGS

REJOICE, DELIGHT AND ADORE

Song 1:1-4

1:1 Solomon's Song of Songs.

2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth — for your love is more delightful than wine. 3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you! 4 Take me away with you — let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!

NIV

There is much debate over this Song of Songs in regard to it meaning. Some of our scholars believe it is all about a love affair between a man and a woman. That is this God directive as to how this human relationship should proceed and look at his Song of Songs in a sexual view. There are those who want it to be a play, with various characters, each having a part. Others of our scholars of old have taken the view that this is about the relationship of the church with God, or Jesus. He being the bridegroom and the church being the bride of Christ. The actual language Solomon used many times could be seen both ways. If taken from the historical literal perspective it can be seen as the wooing and wedding of a shepherdess by Solomon, with the joys and headaches of wedded love. If seen or taken allegorically, it is seen as Israel as God’s espoused bride, and the church as the bride of Christ. It can be confusing and we have heard both views. Those who want to see it in that sexual context believe God is instructing us in our relationships. But could that be in light of all the rest of scripture which gives us all we need in how to treat one another in both the community of believers as well as in our families with spouses and children, this is not about human relationships, but the relationship of God with his people. Even in Genesis, God gives the relationship he established in the family, but throughout the whole of scripture he gives us the insight into his relationship with us and ours with him. With that in mind, we believe this to be about God and his people, the love he has for us and how we are to live loving him. It is true that human life finds its highest fulfillment in the love of a man and a woman, so spiritual life finds it highest fulfillment in the love of for his people and Christ for his church.  In essence the Bible is the story of God wooing his people, trying to bring them to himself. The Bible is a witness of who God is and how he loves his creation. This Song of Songs should be no different than all the rest of his word in that sense. So we will endeavor to find the truth about his love for us and our love for him within this song. What could be sweeter, more delightful than wine, then the kiss of God upon our mouth and his love? When our mouth has the kiss of God, then we speak of him, we praise his name, and we lift up his lordship in our lives. Is there more pleasant fragrance, a sweeter name then the name of Jesus?

Ps 19:9-11

The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous. 10 They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. 11 By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.

NIV

Is it any wonder the church loves the Lord? Hurry Lord Jesus, take us away with you, and take us to your chamber, the place you dwell. You have told us that where you are we shall be also. Lord, O King bring us into your presence, your chamber, the realm of your love. We rejoice in you Lord, we delight in you. We will praise your love more the wine. Why would we not adore you? It is our purpose, our reason for living, to adore and praise you because of your great love for us. How right it is for us to adore you.

In or Out

DEVOTION

ECCLESIASTES

IN OR OUT

Eccl 12:6-14

6 Remember him — before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, 7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

8 "Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Everything is meaningless!"

9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails — given by one Shepherd. 12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. 13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. 14 For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

NIV

Well, these verses six thru eight should have been with the preceding verses about the young and the aged, life and death or just waiting for death. However, it does sort of end with the truth that our body returns to the ground, but our spirit departs and returns to God who gave it. This gives us the truth that he created our spirit, not just our body in the womb. That which science cannot determine how we were formed. They had the physical part understood, but not the individual person, the mind, the personality, our spirit. That is the work of God and man just will never understand that. Oh they are even working on understanding how our brain works, but do not understand how each of us are someone different. If all our brains are alike, then we all would be alike, but we are not. However, Solomon says it is all vanity, all meaningless. It just is the way God did what he did and continues to do. But let us finish this up now as we are at the end of all these sayings. The teacher has spoken and his words are wise because they are from God, who inspired all that Solomon wrote. All the proverbs, which we went through, and all these sayings in the collection which is called Ecclesiastes. Just as a side note, we never investigated what this word Ecclesiastes means. How that slipped by is a mystery. In the Septuagint, which is the Old Testament translated into Greek, it finds that Greek word rooted in the Latin word which means preacher or speaking before the assembly. So Solomon was preaching the word. He concludes it all with the statement of the matter. Fear God and keep his commands. This is the whole of man, the reason we are hear. Life is not about life as we make it. It is about life as God intends it. The fact he will judge all mankind, all life. He will bring all to account, every deed, even the hidden ones. Now does that mean the secret sins we commit in the closet? That could mean the closet of our heart, or the actually closet in our homes. Who of us can say we have never had an evil thought, or action. Are we doing anything that is opposed to God? If we say, no, they are we being prideful and lying to ourselves and God, which is an evil deed. If we say, yes, then are we doing that willfully or is it just because we are a fallen people, imperfect, unable to attain perfection? The harder we try to be good, the more frustrated we become because we cannot be completely good. What are we to do? Will God judge our every little fault, failure, willful or not? Who then can stand in his presence? We will not, every knee will bow, but who then gets to go in and who is cast out? If we all have sin, then he judges us all guilty, no matter the degree of amount of sin. Sin is sin and we are sinful so how do we get to go in, instead of being cast out? The answer is Jesus. He took our sin upon himself and that is that. If we are in Christ, then God has already judged us holy and blameless in his sight. Should we just go on sinning in whatever way we can imagine, no, of course not, as Paul says, “God forbid”. But the fact is we are going to falter, we are going to give in to some temptation sometime in the course of our daily life. Even when we know better, when we know it is not right, we still give in on occasion. So then we need Jesus. We try to be good, but it just does not work all the time. God knows that and it is why he sent Jesus, it is why he came to earth as a human to take our sin and to give us a way into heaven. The real judgment of deeds is whether we are in Christ or we have refused his offer of salvation, whether we say yes or no to God. If Jesus in our heart, then our deed is good, if Jesus is not in our heart, then our deed is evil.

Just Waiting

DEVOTION

ECCLESIASTES

JUST WAITING

Eccl 12:1-5

12:1

Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them"— 2 before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain; 3 when the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men stoop, when the grinders cease because they are few, and those looking through the windows grow dim; 4 when the doors to the street are closed and the sound of grinding fades; when men rise up at the sound of birds, but all their songs grow faint; 5 when men are afraid of heights and of dangers in the streets; when the almond tree blossoms and the grasshopper drags himself along and desire no longer is stirred. Then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets.

NIV

The Story of growing old and of the final breathe before death. Things just work like they did on our youth. Hearing goes bad, eyesight fades, and it even looks like Solomon was describing cataracts. How much of a daredevil we were in our youth, not afraid of jumping out of an airplane, with a chute of course, or driving at the speed of sound, in a manner of speaking. What didn’t we want to try to do? But did we remember our creator in our youth? Not so much, we just wanted to get going, experience life to its fullest. But age has a way of creeping up, it is so sly, we don’t even notice it and then suddenly it is there and we are looking at an old person in the mirror. We could even get like that grasshopper who drags himself along and our desire is no longer stirred. We could just accept this age thing, quit work, and sit back and wait for death. Then those who knew us, loved us, would gather for a night, some taking a trip down the street to the grave site, and mourn for a moment, but then go back and get on with life, maybe we might be just a memory. How sad to think like that. Life is a precious gift from God, every day of life is his gift to us, and he also gave himself for us, so we could continue on in eternal life, our eternal home. But in the meantime, let us not allow age to dim our sight, or hamper our hearing. Let us always see the Lord high and lifted up. Let us always be able to hear his voice. Let us never stop grinding, stop praising him, nor stop working both in the world and in his kingdom. Let us not be afraid of the high places or the dangers in the streets, hiding in our homes or our churches, just waiting to die. Let us get out there, living life large and out loud, as if we were still in our youth. Death will come soon enough even if we are not waiting for it, so why sit around like an old person and wait, there are things to do, places to go and people to see. We cannot be someone who is just waiting.

Life After Life After death After life

DEVOTION

ECCLESIASTES

LIFE AFTER LIFE AFTER DEATH AFTER LIFE

Eccl 11:6-10

6 Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

7 Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun. 8 However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is meaningless.

9 Be happy, young man, while you are young, and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and whatever your eyes see, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment. 10 So then, banish anxiety from your heart and cast off the troubles of your body, for youth and vigor are meaningless.

NIV

Three different little tidbits of wisdom, yet they all have similar meaning. There is day and there is night. There is life and there is death. Enjoy the life as short as it is for the death is forever. At least from the humanistic point of view. We know that life leads to life after life after death. We know that sounds a little odd, but when we consider that as death seizes this body, we depart to what we refer to as heaven. This heaven or whatever it actually exists as, is only a temporary place, just as whatever the place is that we call hell. No one really knows what either those places are like as no one have returned from them to inform us. Yet as temporary as they are, we have a life, then when the last day arrives we will have a life after that life, but it will be in a place we know somewhat of as it is described to us in the revelation to John. This is the new city of Jerusalem on a new earth. That is the life after the life after death. But there is a point that still exists in this life. Work while it is day and night, sowing the seed of the word of God. It is an endeavor we never retire from and become idle just because we get old. We just do not know, we could be successful in our youth or in our later years. Life is to be enjoyed as it is a gift from God. The verse before these speaks of God forming us in the womb. Although science believes it understands it all now, it is still a wonder of God. Science may know how the physical form comes together, but it still does not know how the person, the individual mind, and the personality becomes a living soul, the spirit who lives in that physical form. Enjoying this gift of life is not about living for all that can pleasure us, as Solomon makes note of, for God will judge all things. With age comes a certain sense of wisdom, but from a life in Christ comes far more wisdom, whether we are young or old. Banish all anxiety in our hearts. Sometimes we do get anxious about our life, we want this and that, we are anxious about what is going to happen next. How is our life going to travel? It seems many people expend so much effort in trying to plan out their whole lives. Some people send entirely too much time concerned with their physical form, trying to make it look its very best. Even Christians get hung up too much using the idea our body is the temple of the Spirit so we should take care of it. The Spirit does not live in our body, we do, the spirit lives in us, in union with our Spirit. He is the Spirit, not the Son, who lived in a physical form. So we cast off the troubles of this body, youth to aged, it matters not for we are spirit, and we are what matters, who will be judged by our deed of accepting or rejecting Jesus as our Savior. Casting off the physical and understanding that life after life after death is what is important to God and thus it should be to us. So let us live the life before death expecting the life after life after death.

No Stinginess

DEVOTION

ECCLESIASTES

NO STINGINESS

Eccl 11:1-5

11:1

Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. 2 Give portions to seven, yes to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land. 3 If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie. 4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

NIV

What? Sometimes these sayings sound like nonsense, yet this is the word of God and it has to have a significant meaning. Why would we cast our bread upon the waters only to find it again in many days? Referring to our scholars of old on this reveals their  thinking this refers to the planting of rice, which is done in ground covered with water and after it takes root it is grows out of the water. Solomon could have just said that if that is what was meant. But we think this may not be as our scholars contend. The idea which then would include the giving of seven even eight portions because we do not know what disaster may come upon the land has to do with being generous with those in need, casting our bread, giving eight portions, both being generous as we never know, someday we may be in need and will have to rely on others being generous to us. This is not a give to get scheme which has been espoused by some false teachers over the years. It is just saying that when we have, give some of it to those who don’t have. Some day we could not have and be in need. Just saying. We should be like the clouds full of water, pour out rain upon the earth. Because we have a lot, pour it out on others. That tree can represent the life of a person, just never know which way life will fall, but it still can fall and there we find ourselves. However on the other side of the coin, we are not to just sit around and look to others who have to give to us. If we are watching for that, the wind, then we never get out there and plant, work trying to make our own way in life. We just can’t say, “I am in need” and look to others to give. If that is the case we will never reap. It goes back to the fact God designed us to work for our living. Yes, we trust him for more the salvation. We trust him to provide for us. He provides us with employment so we do not have idle hands. He provides us with the ability to work for our sustenance, to toil the ground, so to speak, by the sweat of our brow. If a man does not work, he does not eat. That is a principle which has been taught in scripture. Yet we are also to share with those who are in need. Sometimes life just turns in a way that things just go south and somehow people cannot work, or are able to work, or have some troubles which cause them to be in need. In fact that could be us, we never know. So don’t be stingy.

Who's Counsel

DEVOTION

ECCLESIASTES

WHO’S COUNSEL

Eccl 10:16-20

16 Woe to you, O land whose king was a servant and whose princes feast in the morning. 17 Blessed are you, O land whose king is of noble birth and whose princes eat at a proper time — for strength and not for drunkenness. 18 If a man is lazy, the rafters sag; if his hands are idle, the house leaks. 19 A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything. 20 Do not revile the king even in your thoughts, or curse the rich in your bedroom, because a bird of the air may carry your words, and a bird on the wing may report what you say.

NIV

Several thoughts to finish up these little tidbits of knowledge. It seems there is a contrast between two types of leaders. The one appears to be a young experienced ruler who takes is lead from his staff, or counselors, while the king of noble birth ascends to the throne through rightful ways. The youth parties all day, the noble reigns in a right manner. But how does that apply, if any, to our lives? What can we gain or garner as a truth to live by? Perhaps we should not be so eager to take everyone’s advice about life, especially those who would say eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die. There is also the advice or counsel of the worldly way to live for self-pleasure, fulfill every desire, being a servant to Satan. The king of noble birth knows how to reign and he could represent those who know how the live rightly, wise and with God. There is a proper time for all aspects of life. As Solomon as already stated a time to sow and a time to reap and so forth, the whole section is about living life with the right perspective, knowing the Lord. We have been commissioned by the Lord to work, in fact to work all the days of our life, for by the sweat of our brow we will toil for our sustenance. We are descendants of Adam and that was his curse as he was cast out of the Garden of Eden, the paradise of God. Until we are back in that paradise, we are subject to that same destiny, to labor all the days of our lives. This retirement thing is the work of the devil. We were never meant to retire, to sit back and just wait to die. When are hands become idle, and we sit back doing nothing, our house leaks, our life leaks, and our mind leaks. When he says money is the answer for everything, does that mean it is the central theme of our life? In the context of idle hands, which is then also a life of feasting, laughter and drinking being merry, enjoying the good life of retirement, however working, earning our way in life, doing what we are designed to do, work, then we keep earning our keep, our way in life. Of course this is all in the view of from the human eye. Yet that is the curse upon Adam and all mankind, to work for our food. One day when we are back in the paradise of God, we will not work, we will enjoy all the fruit from the trees, especially the fruit from the tree of life. There is also this concept about our thoughts about the king. It is not good to have a negative attitude about anyone. It is amazing how so many people publicly confess their discontentment with their jobs, or disapproval about some people. We should be careful with our words. To speak about how stupid our boss is, or how dumb our customers are, or what idiots those politicians are, and on and on, always filling our mouths with negative words about someone just brings us down, and surely we will reap what we sow. Living as a wise person or a foolish one is always what it comes back to. Wisdom is found in the Lord, foolishness is found in man. Who we take counsel from makes all the difference in being a young prince or a king of noble birth.