 |
||
ISSUES WORTH THINKING ABOUT
BY GLENN PEASE
CONTENTS
1. GOD LOVES TO SING Based on Zeph. 3:14-20
2. LAND OF LIBERTY Based on Jer. 34:8-22
3. THE MEANING OF MEANINGLESSNESS Eccles. 1:12-18, 2:1-11
4. TAKING LAUGHTER SERIOUSLY Based on Eccles. 2:1-11
5. A TIME FOR EVERYTHING Based on Eccles. 3:1-8
6. EVERYTHING AT THE RIGHT TIME Based on Eccles. 3:1-8
7. GOD AND BEAUTY Based on Eccles. 3:1-11
8. WHAT IS BEAUTY Based on Song of Songs 1:15-16
9. TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE Based on Eccles. 4:9-12
10. THE KEY TO FREEDOM Based on Judges 6:1-16
11. MARCHING FOR A MIRACLE Based on Josh. 6:1-21
12. INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE based on Numbers 12:1-15
13. DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE Based on Deut. 24:1-4
14. A JEWISH SERMON Based on Ezek. 47:1-12
1. GOD LOVES TO SING
Based on Zeph. 3:14-20
Knowing the Bible is the best education life has
to offer, for not only is it the light by which we come to see our Savior and
enter into His salvation, it is by its light that we get insights into all
areas of life that other books cannot give us. If you do research on the origin
of music, you will be taken back to the ancient world and told of instuments on
Egyptian hiroglyphics and in caves. Gen. 4:21 will be quoted about Jubal, the
father of all who play the harp and flute. All of the books will assume that
music had its source in man.
Even so scholarly a book as The Guinness Book of
Music will tell you that the earliest surviving hymn text goes back to the 8th
century B.C. to a poet in Corinth. All authorities stop far short of the
Biblical record that tells us that music is eternal because it is a part of the
nature of God. It did not have its origin in man, but in the God who made man,
and made him to love music and singing, for God has enjoyed it for all
eternity.
Music and song are as timeless as the nature of
God. If you consider God's singing as sacred music, then sacred music has no
beginning, for it is just as eternal as God is. It was a surprise to me when I
first discovered this text in Zeph. 3:17 which tells us clearly that God
delights and rejoices over His people with singing. I guess I never thought
about it before. Man made in God's image could hardly live without music. It is
so basic to His joy and happiness. But I never considered whether or not God
has delight in singing. When I found this text and gave it some thought, it
seemed a very logical thing to assume that God would love music. He is the source
of all music, for He created man with the gift of creating it, enjoying it, and
using it to praise Him. If He did not enjoy music, it would be a strange thing
to want it used in the worship of His people.
We should know that God loves music, and that He
has been singing for all eternity, even if this text was not in the Bible. But
I am delighted it is here, for it opens up some exciting windows into the
nature of our Lord, whom we praise in song. This text about God singing led me
to search the Bible to see if there is any other evidence that God enjoys the
same things that we do. What I discovered is that all three persons of the
Godhead are very happy persons, and they delight in singing, and in all that is
joyful.
We have a terrible misconception about Jesus
because of the great suffering He had to endure to atone for our sin. He was
called the man of sorrows and one acquainted with grief. This label stuck to
Jesus, and most of the artists of the ages pictured Jesus in His agony, and
this has been the image people have had of Him. The larger portrait of the
Bible has been ignored, which is the portrait of Jesus as the happiest man
whoever lived. The Lord of laughter; the life of the party, and the lover of
singing. Joy was the dominent emotion of His life, and it was the joy of
eternity that kept Him going to the cross. Jesus was spirit-filled, and joy is
a fruit of the Spirit, which He displayed constantly.
We are blinded to the bright side of His joyful life
by a focus on His tears and blood, which is truly a vital focus. We can never
forget the blood He sweat in Gethsemane, and that which He shed on Calvary. Our
salvation depends on that shed blood. But let's not lose the life He died to
give us-the life of joy and abundant living-the life He lived Himself. The book
of Hebrews makes it clear that Jesus was histories happinest man. Heb. 1:9
says, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God,
your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of
joy." Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy, and was set above all others
by this unique anointing. In plain language, Jesus was the most joy filled
person to ever walk this planet.
Spurgeon said, "I suppose there never lived
a happier man than the Lord Jesus. He was rightly called the man of sorrows,
but He might with unimpeachable truth, have been called the man of joys."
It would seem to follow, that if singing is one of the key ways by which joy is
expressed, that Jesus would, like His heavenly Father, be a singer. And sure
enough, the book of Hebrews reveals Jesus to be just that; like Father, like
Son. Just as God rejoiced over His temple in the Old Testament, and sang songs
of joy, so Jesus in the New Testament sings the praises of His heavenly Father
to His bride the church. We see this revealed in Heb. 2:11-12. So Jesus is not
ashamed to call them brothers. He says, "I will declare your name to my
brothers in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises."
Just before Jesus went into the garden of Gethesmane He sang a song with His
disciples, but this text tells us He sang the praises of God on a regular
basis.
James makes an interesting distinction between
praying and praising. Praying tends to be for the negatives of life, and
praising for the positives of life. Listen to James 5:13-14. "Is anyone of
you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of
praise." Singing songs of praise is a sign of a happy heart, and thus, we
know God the Father and God the Son are happy, for they both sing songs of
praise. But what about the Holy Spirit? There is no question about the joy of
the Holy Spirit, for He is the spirit of joy, and the one who produces the
fruit of joy in our lives. He is the one who inspired all the joyful songs of
praise in the Bible, and to be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with joy.
Paul wrote in I Thess. 1:6, "You welcome
the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit." In Rom. 14:17 he
wrote, for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of
righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." Joy is actually another
name for the Holy Spirit. In Acts 13:52 we read, "And the disciples were
filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." All the songs of praise and joy
through history are songs inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was a man of joy because He was filled
with the Spirit. In Isa. 61 we see the passage Jesus quoted and fulfilled in
His life when the Spirit of God came upon Him to preach good news to the poor;
to bind up the broken hearted, and to set the captives free. Then it says in
verse 3 what He came to do for those who grieve: "To bestow on them a
crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of morning, and a
garment of praise instead of despair." The work of the Holy Spirit was to,
through Jesus, eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive, that God's
people might be clothed in a garment of praise. The Trinity is a trio of praise
singers. All three persons of the Godhead are happy, delighted, and joyous
singers.
This explains why the Bible is so full of
praise. Praise is God's signiture. No wonder the Psalms have the entire
creation singing praises. Everything God made was made to praise. When anything
or anyone ceases to praise God, it is no longer what God made it to be. It is
broken and not functioning for the purpose for which it was created. When man
ceases to praise God, He is broken and doesn't work. Being saved is to repair
that brokenness and renew the ability to praise.
There is no praise in hell, for hell is the junk
yard where all go whose praise compacity is broken beyond repair, because they
did not call upon the only one who could repair it-the Lord Jesus. By the power
of the Holy Spirit the praise compacity is restored so that men can again be
praisers of God. Men are never more like God wants them to be then when they
are praising Him. The goal of this life is to get into God's choir which will
sing praises forever. The only way to qualify is to let the Holy Spirit into
your life by opening the door to Jesus Christ. He will give you a song that
will never end.
Joy is the emotion that leads to singing, and
this is an emotion that we see in Jesus who was filled with the spirit of joy.
When the 72 came back to Jesus all excited about their power in His name to
cast out demons, Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven," but He urged them not to rejoice that the demons submitted to
their power, but that their names were written in heaven. Then Luke 10:21
follows immediately: "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy
Spirit, said, 'I praise you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have
hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little
children.'"
We get a picture here of the disciples here like
little children finding a room full of new toys. They are so excited and full
of joy at the victory of good over evil, and Jesus is feeling like you and I
feel when we see our children tickled with delight when they receive the gift
of new games. Jesus knows the joy of the parent and grandparent, and He praised
God for that joy. Jesus is a joyful praiser of God. When you have the joy of
Jesus you have the ultimate joy. All other joy is partial, but His is complete.
Jesus said in John 15:11, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in
you and that your joy may be complete." There can be no joy higher than
that of Jesus, for He was the joyest man whoever lived.
The Shepherd who finds the lost sheep calls his
friends and neighbors and says, "Rejoice with me, I have found my
sheep." Jesus said there is rejoicing in heaven over every sinner who
repents, but He was doing plenty of rejoicing on earth as well. It is the same
story with the woman who finds her lost coin and is rejoicing. The Prodigal's
father threw a great party with a feast, music, and dancing because he was so
full of joy that his son was restored. Jesus is joyful beyond words over every
person who is saved and restored to fellowship with God, and this happens
hundreds of times everyday. This means Jesus is in almost perpetual praise
inspite of a fallen world. But we must get back to the first person of the
Trinity-the Father. Our text tells us He is also full of joy, and in that joy
He sings over His people.
This is the basis for the great love song called
the Song of Songs. The heart of God is full of love songs for His bride. There
is no escaping the reality that all of life, as we know it, is one great
romance. God is the hero and man is the damsel in distress. Satan is the
villian that seeks to spoil the relationship of God and man. It is a long hard
struggle, but the story ends with the wedding feast of the Lamb. God wins His
bride, and the feasting, celebration, and the songs go on forever. Every story
has three parts: a setting; the setting is upset; and the setting is reset,
either successfully, and then there is a happy ending, or unsuccessfully and
there is a sad ending. God's story has a happy ending with love and singing
that lasts forever.
There is so much unfaithfulness on the part of
the bride, and thus, so much judgment that we tend to miss all the joyful
scenes of God's delight in His people. God is a happy God. He is a God in love,
and He sings as a lover, and He rejoices in His bride. I studied all the words
for happy and joyful emotions in the Old Testament, and I discovered that all
of them apply to God. God has a great deal of pleasure and enjoyment as He
interacts with people and His creation. It can be a lot of fun being God. Listen
to some of the evidence. God is always promising Israel He will make them
prosper if they obey Him, and in Duet. 30:9 He says, "The Lord will again
delight in you and make you prosperous just as He delighted in your
fathers." The Hebrew word for delight is the same word for rejoicing,
being glad, making mirth, and being joyful. It is used again in Isa. 62:5,
"As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over
you." God has the same emotion as the groom who feels he has the girl of
his dreams for his own. The word is used again in Isa. 65:19, "I will
rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people."
There are others, but we want to look at just
one more that gives us an insight into the emotions of our Maker. In Psa,
104:31 we read, "The Lord shall rejoice in His works." God said,
after He made the universe, "It is very good." He was happy with His
works just like an artist who gazes on His finished painting and says,
"That is good. It is the best I can do." God was happy, and no wonder
all the angels sang at creation. God was no doubt leading them, for God sings
when He is delighted, and He was delighted in His works. He will also be
delighted in the final heaven when the story of salvation is complete. So the
point is, we will hear God's singing forever, and we will sing with Him
forever. Song will be a part of our eternal life. Music is forever, for it is a
part of God's very being.
Music beautifies sound, and singing beautifies
language, and the purpose of music and singing is to do just that: add beauty
to life. It enables us to say on a higher plain what we cannot communicate in
words alone. Poetry is a step above pros, and poetry to music is a step above
that. There is no higher step of communicating love, joy, and all the emotions,
for when we reach the level of song we are on the highest level, where even God
is not revealed to go any higher. The Song of Songs is saying by its very
title, you cannot go higher than a song to communicate love.
It is also Godlike to rejoice over our works.
For all we know God whistled while He worked, or hummed a tune as He said,
"Let there be light." He enjoyed what He was doing, and when you
enjoy your work you have the potential of singing over your work. The work
itself can be a song we offer to God as a sacrifice of praise. Galen, the
famous second century physician, said of his professional life that he regarded
it "As a religious hymn in honor of the Creator." Life is on the
highest level when we can do all we do for the glory of God. When we do, all of
life is a song of praise to God, and this is what leads God to sing over us.
Maclaren, the great English preacher, wrote in
his Expositions of Holy Scripture, "Zion is called to rejoice in God
because God rejoices in her. She is to shout for joy and sing because God's joy
too has a voice, and breaks out into singing. For every throb of joy in man's
heart, there is a wave of gladness in God's." God loves to sing, and we
give Him reason to do so when we sing and make our life a cause for praise. The
Living Bible makes this text come alive. "Is that a joyous choir I hear?
No, it is the Lord Himself exalting over you in happy song." The questions
this raises are many, and we will have to wait till heaven to have our answers.
1. Does God write His own songs?
2. Does He sing solo, or always as a trio of
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?
3. Does He have the angels sing backup?
4. Is it recorded so we will be able to listen
to God's love songs for His bride?
It is so hard to imagine God singing that most never
try for they never see this text in Zeph. and never explore the joy of God in
His people. Spurgeon, however, usually discovers the gems of the Bible that
others pass by. Listen to his excited comments on this text. "Think of the
great Jehovah singins! Can you imagine it? Is it possible to conceive of the
Deity breaking into song: Father, Son and Holy Spirit together singing over the
redeemed? God is so happy in the love which He bears to His people that He
breaks the eternal silence, and the sun and moon and stars with astonishment
hear God chanting a hymn of joy."
It is interesting that Spurgeon would say the
sun, moon and stars hear God's song. The Bible and hymnology are full of this
idea that the whole universe listens to God's song, as if all of its orderly
and beauty of movement is its dance to God's tune. Psa. 148 says the whole
universe praises God, and other Psalms have the trees clapping and the
mountains skipping to God's tune. Jesus even said on Palm Sunday, if the people
had not praised Him, the very rocks would have cried out. That would have
really been Christian rock music had the literal rocks broken into songs of
praise for their Creator. We sing at Christmas, "Angels we have heard on
high sweetly singing o'er the plains, and the mountains in reply echo back
their joyous strains." Do the mountains really sing back in reply to this
heavenly song? D.L. Moody, the great evangelist, took it literally, and he
preached a sermon on praise in which he said, "Did you ever stop to think
that the heart of man is the only thing that does not praise the Lord? The
heavens declared His glory, the sun praises Him, the moon and stars praise Him;
as rain falls from heaven it praises God; all nature praises God-the ver dumb
creature gives Him praise, and it is only the heart of man that won't praise
Him."
Now I know what it means when God says He looks
not on the externals but on the heart. God is looking inside man to see if
their is a song of praise there. That is what matters to God, for if there is
praise in a man's heart, he is alive to God and has great potential. When
Samuel went to chose a son of Jesse as the new king of Israel, he thought for
sure the oldest son would be God's choice. He was big and handsome and seemed a
great follow-up to Saul, who was head and shoulders above most all men. God
however rejected all of the older sons and chose the youngest, which was David.
He was just a mere shepherd boy, but God saw in David what no one else could
see. Everyone saw a mere lad, but God saw a king; a king who would be the
greatest leader of God's people in praise. He wrote most of the songs God's
people sang all through the Old Testament, and all threw the history of the
church up to the last couple of centuries. Many of the popular songs today are
going back to the Psalms, and many Christians have never ceased to sing the
songs of David.
The words of David have gone up in praise to God
from all over the world. God saw the heart of praise in David. He was a man
after God's own heart, for there was a song in his heart. That is what God
looks for in all His children. That is why Paul, who could sing a song even
while in stocks in a dungeon, wrote to the Ephesians and said in Eph. 5:19,
"Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and
make music in your heart to the Lord."
God has a musical heart, and He loves to see a
song in the heart of all His children. He intends to sing with His family of
the redeemed forever, and so one of the best ways to prepare for the heavenly
culture is to fill your heart with songs of praise. That is what God saw in
David. Others saw a shepherd boy, but God saw a king. Don Mcminh, in his book
Entering His Presence writes, "God sings! What a delightful thought! When
God thinks about His love for us, it impels Him to sing. When God wants to
rejoice, when He wants to praise, He choses music to express Himself. Music is
a part of the eternal existence of God; how wonderful that He has given us the
joy of music as a tool to express godliness in our lives." One of the
major questions we need to ask of ourselves is, Does God see a song in my
heart? God loves to see a song there because He is ever looking for partners to
sing, for God loves to sing.
2. LAND OF LIBERTY Based
on Jer. 34:8-22
Liberty is America's second name. We have such
national symbols as the Statue Of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the songs of
liberty like My Country Tis Of Thee-sweet land of liberty, of thee of I sing.
The Preamble to our Constitution says, "We the people...in order to establish
justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure
the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, due ordain and
establish this Constitution. Our Constitution exists to secure for us the
blessing of liberty. Our Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag ends with, "With
liberty and justice for all." The Declaration of Independence says that we
have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Why is liberty so important? It is because
bondage of some kind is always a battle. If we are not in bondage to some
master or government, we are in bondage to sin, and if not to sin, then to our
past, or someone else's legalism. We may be in bondage to family tradition, or
social tradition. We are in bondage to our culture and to our peer group. We
are in bondage to fears, anxieties, and guilt. We are always fighting to be
free from some kind of bondage. The biggest battle of the believer is in
staying free as the Son has set us free.
The battle never ceases, for the oppressor is
always somewhere seeking to bring you into bondage. The Judaisers sought to do
this to the early Christians. They tried to bring them again under the bondage
to the law of Moses. Paul had to shout in their ear, "It is for freedom
that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be
burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Liberty is the name of the game.
Liberty is life. It is the abundant life Jesus came to give. Liberty is the goal
of almost all we do, or do not do. To be free from sin is a goal of God for us.
To be free from tyranny is the goal of our government. To be free of all that
robs us of God's best is what it is all about, and so liberty is life.
In Isa. 58:6 God says, "Is not this the
kind of fasting I have chosen-to loose the chains of injustice and untie the
cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke." As
Christians and as Americans we are, by our very nature and heritage, a people
committed to liberty. But why do we have it when all men have always loved
liberty, and yet have not achieved it? It is because we have a piece of paper
that prevents human nature from doing what robs us of our liberty, and that is
our constitution.
In our text of Jer. 34 we see human nature for
what it is, and how that man is the worst enemy of liberty. Here we see Jews
who will not let their fellow Jews be set free from bondage. It is to their
benefit to keep them in bondage, and so they enslave those who worship the same
God. It is in direct violation of the revealed will of God and leads to
judgment. What we see in this passage is an example of why it is a perpetual
battle to secure human rights and liberty. Christian history does not differ
from Jewish history, but reveals the same danger of power being used to rob
people of liberty.
The Christians who came to America to enjoy
liberty did not come here to escape the bondage of atheists or humanists, but
of other Christians. In our Western history it has been Christians who have
been the greatest opponents of religious liberty. The people who fled to
America were not coming from non-Christian lands, but from England and Europe
where Christians were in control of the church and state. These state-church
Christians came to America as well, and so the battle continued in this land
for liberty of Christians from other Christians.
The Puritans were some of the most godly people
to ever inhabit this planet, but they were convinced that the church and state
should be one, and that the laws of the land should be laws that support the
church. What they failed to realize was that other Christians did not believe
this was right. They assumed that all Christians would benefit from the laws,
but the fact is, the laws hindered other Christians to be free to worship God
as they were convinced they should.
The Puritans had all kinds of law that put
Baptists in bondage. The laws of the early colonies demanded that all babies be
baptized, and that all citizens be taxed to support the state church. As the
nation became more diverse, and people with different convictions came, there
were more and more laws passed to restrain their freedom. Laws were passed that
said there could be no preaching at night, and that none could preach without
consent of the authorities. No servant could be baptized without the consent of
his or her master, and that no one could vote unless they were a member of the
established church. America was fast on its way to becoming a nation where one
group of Christians enslaved all others.
Then God sent to these shores a man who changed
the course of history and helped America become the greatest land of liberty in
the history of mankind. His name was Roger Williams, and he was the Apostle of
religious liberty. The Puritans did everything they could to get rid of this
fanatic for freedom. They vanished him from the country, but he fled and
started his own colony. In 1638 he founded the colony of Rhode Island. It was
the only place on earth at that time where all Christians were free to worship
God and practice their religious convictions without persecution from other
Christians. The following year in 1639 he founded the First Baptist Church in
America. He laid the foundation for the Baptist being the denomination most
famous for its fight for religious liberty.
It was a long hard battle, for the state church
was already deeply embedded in America, and the other colonies were governed by
Christians who were convinced that their church alone represented the kingdom
of God. The Baptists demanded the right to worship and obey God in accordance
with their interpretation of the Scriptures. They did not want the ideas of
others imposed on them. Isaac Backus stood before the Massachusetts legislature
shortly after the famous Boston Tea Party, which was a protest against taxation
without representation. He applied this demand for liberty to the religious
realm, and he said:
"That which has made the greatest noise, is
a tax of 3 pence
a pound upon tea; but your law of last June laid
a tax of the
same sum every year upon the Baptists in each
perish, as they
would expect to defend themselves against a
greater one. And
only because the Baptists in Middleburo have
refused to pay
that little tax, we hear that the first perish
in said town had this
fall voted to lay a greater tax upon us. All
Americans are alarmed
at the tea tax; though, if they please, they can
avoid it by not buying
the tea; but we have no such liberty. We must
either pay the little tax,
or else you people appear even in this time of
extremity, determined to lay the great one upon us.
But these lines are to let you know, that we are
determined not to pay either of them; not only upon your principles of
not being taxed where we are not represented,
but also because we
dare not render homage to any earthly power,
which I and many of my
brethren are fully convinced belongs only to
God. Her, therefore, we
claim charter rights, liberty of
conscience."
What we need to see is that the battle for
religious liberty is not just a fight for freedom of religion, but for freedom
from religion. We need to be free from the religious convictions of other
people being imposed upon us. This has been the battle of the Baptists. Nobody
is more likely to rob you of your liberty than other religious people. John
5:16 says, "Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay Him
because He had done these things on the Sabbath day." Jesus had a
different conviction about how the Sabbath was to be used, and so they sought
to eliminate Him. This is the way human nature responds to new ideas, and that
is why progress in the religious realm is often so painful and costly for the
pioneers who blaze new trails.
Who killed the prophets of God? It was not the
Gentile kings, but it was God's own people. Who killed Christ? Again, it was
God's own people. There is no freedom of religion until you have some means by
which you have freedom from the religious convictions of others. That is what
makes America so unique in the history of nations. We have freedom from
religion guaranteed by our constitution.
Sometimes we might think it would be great if
Christians had the power to eliminate all other beliefs. Historians are in
agreement, however, that this is the surest way to corrupt Christianity and
make it ineffective. Everything Protestants despise about the history of
Catholicism began when Constantine linked the Roman Empire and the church.
Almost every bad thing you can say about the history of the church has its
origin in that marriage of the church and state. The Church gained control of
civil power, and it began to write the worst chapters in its history of evil
and corruption. Power does not just corrupt the ungodly. The godly are also its
victims, and history makes it clear that Christians need protection from
themselves. Our Constitution limits Christian political power, and we need to
be grateful that it does.
Christians who have had the power to persecute
have done so, for they all follow the same line of thinking that seems to be so
reasonable. Lord Macaulay put it into these words: "The doctrine which,
from the very first origin of the religious dissensions has been held by all
bigots of all sects, when condensed into a few words, and stripped of
rhetorical disguise, is simply this: I am in the right, and you are in the
wrong. When you are the stronger, you ought to tolerate me; for it is your duty
to tolerate truth. But when I am the stronger, I shall persecute you; for it is
my duty to persecute error." That is the way Christians tend to think when
they get power.
In Virginia, for example, there was a fine of
2000 pounds of tobacco for any parent who refused to have their child baptized
by the state church. The Baptists went through horrible persecution when
resisting such laws, and they were whipped and jailed by other Christians who
did not want them to have the freedom to do it the way they were convinced the
Scripture taught. But men of liberty who had the desire for freedom began to
see the Baptists position. A young lawyer by the name of Patrick Henry got
three preachers set free who were on trial for preaching the Gospel without the
consent of the state church.
As the Baptists were dragged to court for their
violations of the church-state laws their views were being heard by lovers of liberty.
James Madison, the father of the Constitution, came over to their side. Thomas
Jefferson became sympathetic, and George Washington became open to their plea
for liberty. In 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed, but because of
the Baptist fight, three years later in 1779 Virginia gave the Baptists their
independence from the state church. No longer did they have to pay the tax to
support the state church, and by 1786 the law established complete separation
of church and state. The Baptists had won a great victory for religious
liberty.
The Baptists were fearful, however, that the
central government would gain power over religious liberty and enslave them
again, and deprive them of the victory they had won from the states. So in 1788
a General Committee of Baptists met in Virginia to discuss the new Constitution
of the U. S. They sent a delegation to George Washington, the new President.
They persuaded him to urge the congress to listen to the Baptist concern. The
result was the First Amendment of the Constitution, which says, "Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof."
America was at last a land of full religious
liberty like no other land ever before. The First Amendment eliminated all of
the dangers of a state church. No body of religious people can now impose their
conviction on any other body of people. All are free to worship and obey God
according to their own convictions. This has been the major contribution
Baptists have made to our nation. The American historian Mr. Bancroft said,
"Freedom of conscience, unlimited freedom of mind, was from the first the
trophy of the Baptists." John Locke said, "The Baptists were the
first propounders of absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and
impartial liberty."
We need to appreciate just how much this liberty
makes America the unique nation that it is. The great leaders of the Protestant
Reformation did not believe in religious liberty for all people any more than
did the Catholic church. The majority of Christians in history have felt that
liberty should be limited to their convictions which they hoped could be
imposed on others. In England when a Catholic gained the throne there was
persecution of the Protestants, and when a Protestant gained the throne there
was persecution of the Catholics. The only escape from this abuse of power is
in separation of church and state, and it was only in America that this goal
became a reality. In our land the largest groups of Christians cannot impose
any of their convictions on the smallest group of other Christians. We are
indeed a land of liberty.
History and the Bible make it clear that the
most godly people cannot have power over other people and not abuse that power.
That is why the only way to secure religious liberty is by a Constitution like
ours that makes it illegal to impose your convictions on others by force. Our
liberty does not depend upon the goodness and kindness of those in power. They
can hate us, but they cannot deny our liberty, for it is written that they
cannot do it. We have our liberty, not as a gift from those in power, but as a
right guaranteed by our Constitution.
God demanded that the Jews give their fellow
Jews liberty. It is not just a good idea or suggestion, but it is an absolute
obligation. Failure to honor God's will in this regard led to great judgment of
destruction. God takes man's freedom very seriously. That is why it is
essential to preserve the separation of church and state. This does not mean they
cannot cooperate, for they are both a vital part of society. They just cannot
have power over each other to coerce each other into conformity. They are to be
mutually beneficial friends working together for the good of the people. The
wall of separation is to protect them from each other. It is like the wall
between the men's room and the women's room. But this is not to be interpreted
to mean that the two sexes cannot work together for the good of all. The wall
is just protection so that the temptation to abuse power is kept under control.
In the Cross of Christ I glory as a Christian,
but in the Constitution I glory as an American. In these we have the best of
both worlds-a Lord of liberty in a Land of liberty. Let us praise God for His providence
that led this nation to be the greatest land of liberty that has ever been.
3. THE MEANING OF
MEANINGLESSNESS Eccles. 1:12-18, 2:1-11
Pastor W. Robert McClelland had to endure the
painful experience of hearing his grown son curse God and cry out in angry
rebellion at Him. His son had worked hard for congressman Jerry Litton in his
senatorial campaign. When the polls closed that Tuesday night and Litton come
through with an upset victory, it was an experience of great joy. But as is so
often the case with life, it suddenly switched tracks and the entire Litton
family was killed in a plane crash on the way to the victory celebration.
You can put yourselves in the shoes of a young
man who has just poured himself out for a cause, and then seeing it all come to
an end just as it was beginning. The absurdity of it; the futility of it, and
the total nonsense and utter waste of it is hard to swallow. He was a
Christian, but he felt like Solomon in his very sub-Christian mind in this book
of Ecclesiastes. His preacher father did not like to hear his deep negative
expressions, but he knew in his heart he had felt the same way on another
occasion. He was a professor at a mid-western college, and the wife of one of
his colleagues became very ill. He and other Christian friends battered the
gates of heaven for her with prayer, and they spent hours at her bedside. The
doctor said she would not live, but she did recover and was home for Christmas
celebration. It was a great victory but she had a relapse, and on New Year's
Day she died. He was so angry at God that he refused to make excuses for God at
the memorial service. He said, "This is your doing God, you get yourself
off the hook. If this is your idea of wisdom, then you explain it."
He, like his son, experienced the deep dark
feeling of meaninglessness. It is that feeling that nothing makes any sense at
all, and that life is a joke, but a joke that isn't even funny. You feel like
everything you do is as worthless as rearranging deck chair on the Titanic.
What's the difference when the ship of life is sinking? This is not a pleasant
experience, but it is a universal experience, and at one time or another almost
every Christian will get a taste of this bitter stuff. Solomon had to eat it as
a regular diet for sometime. Few Christians will have to endure what he did,
but the point is, his experience of the meaninglessness of life is in the Bible
because it is, was, and will be, as long as history lasts, a very relevant
issue.
Dr. Viktor Frankl, a leading psychotherapist in
Europe for generations, developed Logotherapy to deal with this very issue. He
survived the Nazi concentration camp experience, and he learned through it that
those who survived while others in as good health died, did so because they had
meaning to their lives. Logotherapy is healing through meaning. If you could
get people to see some rhyme or reason in the meaninglessness of life, they can
live happy lives, or at least survive. Meaninglessness is the number one enemy
of human happiness. Studies show that in both Communist and Capitalist
countries modern meaninglessness has multiplied. You might assume that this is
due to the masses of the poor who cannot get in on the joys of affluence, but
this is not the case.
This malady afflicts those who would feel right
at home at Solomon's table. A study of 100 alumni of Harvard who were
successful doctors, lawyers, and business men, 20 years after their graduation,
made this clear. The majority of them had the feeling of futility, and they
wondered what the meaning of their achievements was all about. The Bible deals
with the real, and this matter of meaninglessness is very real, and has been
one of the major struggles of mankind. Dr. Frankl calls it the existential
vacuum. It results from the frustration of not being able to find meaning even
in those things which are suppose to be the goals of life, such as wealth,
fame, power, and all the other things Solomon succeeded in gaining in great
quantity.
The paradox is that the more man succeeds in getting
all that life offers under the sun, the more he questions the meaning of life.
It is because when he does not have them he can hope and dream that they would
fill his need for meaning, but when he has them he knows they do not, and he
can no longer delude himself. Success and progress, therefore, do not take away
the struggle for meaning, but they add to it. That is why the very successful
often battle with despair, for they have everything and yet they are empty of
the one thing they most need, and that is meaning.
Wood Allen says that his only regret in life is
that he is not somebody else expresses, with tongue and cheek, the dilemma of
modern man. He writes, "More than any other time in history, mankind faces
a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other to
total distinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."
Many feel that these are the only choices. Solomon in this book is also a
pessimist, and he experienced the despair that comes with the search for
meaning, but as we follow him we find that though the road is rough it does
reach a desirable destination and a meaningful choice. We want to look at his
journey in three stages.
I. HIS QUESTIONING OF THE MEANING OF LIFE.
This is the theme of chapter one where he asks,
what is the sense of it all? It is the striving after the wind and all is
vanity. Dr. Frankl, who works with those who suffer from meaninglessness, says
it is a good thing for man to question the meaning of life. Animals never do
this, but it is a very human experience. He says it is being honest and sincere
to question life's meaning, for to just take it for granted is to live on the
level of the animal. As long as there is food and comfort the animal does not
care, for that is enough. It is not enough for man, for he wants more because
he is more than an animal.
Questioning the meaning of life is the first
step in the quest to find that meaning. Those who never take the first step
never make the journey, and so they add nothing to life's meaning. It is a fact
of life that those who often give us the most are those who question the most.
God is saying to us by allowing the book of Ecclesiastes to be a part of His
Word to man. It is okay to question. It is not out of God's will to doubt, struggle,
and be skeptical about life. In fact, it makes you more authentic and realistic
if you can honestly face up to the dark side of reality and not pretend it does
not exist.
The Christian who goes through life always
saying that God is in heaven and all is right with the world may enjoy his
isolation from the real world, but he will not be enjoyed by the world. In
other words, he will never be the salt of the world making life taste better,
for he will never get out of the salt shaker into the meat and add to life's
meaning. He will not be compassionate and caring for a world that is hurting,
because he refuses to acknowledge that it is. He insulates himself from the
world by denying that tragedy and despair is real. It has to be of value to
struggle with the meaning of life, or this book has no business being in the
Bible, and is itself meaningless.
We need to learn from this book to avoid
extremes. There is the extreme of never questioning life and its meaning, and
this makes us superficial and unrealistic optimists. Then there is the extreme
of always questioning life and being skeptical of all ultimate values, and this
makes us hardened pessimists. Positive pessimism questions life and its
meaning, but always with the assurance that in God there is an answer. Solomon
questions everything, and yet he never questions the reality of God. This is
what keeps him from being a pure pessimist.
Novelist Romain Gary in book The Ski Bum has an
older man tell a restless and alienated young person: "Your generation is
suffering from what for lack of a better word I shall call over-debunk.....the
generation before yours went too far with their debunking job. You went
over-board...You were so angry with all the dangerous phony piper's tunes that
you ended up by breaking all the pipes and hating all the tunes. You have
reduced the world to a spiritual shambles. God is ha-ha-ha. The soul is
ho-ho-ho. Booze is reality. Love is sex....But you don't seem to enjoy it.
Something is still missing, eh? You got rid of God and, isn't that funny,
something is still missing." It is tragically funny when you think about
it. You throw out God and then wonder why something is still missing. People do
it all the time and do not even realize how foolish it is.
II. HIS QUEST FOR THE MEANING OF LIFE.
This is the theme of chapter 2. This book could
well be titled Solomon's Search. He leaves no stone unturned in his quest to
find that which gives life meaning. I made a list of all the things Solomon
tried and I can't imagine that there is anything new under the sun that could
be tried. He tried all of these things:
1. Being a workaholic.
2. A nature lover.
3. A history fanatic.
4. Being an intellectual.
5. Pleasure seeking. He gave himself up to the
trio of wine, women and song.
If life's meaning could be found in the good
times with alcohol, sex, music,
laughter and fun, Solomon would have discovered
it.
6. He tried creativity of all kinds, and he
built marvelous buildings.
7. He tried possessions and had things from all
over the world in great quantity.
8. He tried power and being superior to
everyone. He was number one.
9. He did not limit himself to what was wise,
but gave folly and madness a chance to prove their case, and he acted the fool
to see life from all sides.
The one thing you have to give Solomon credit
for was his thoroughness. He covered all bases, and yet when the experiment was
over he came up with the same thing he would have had had he chased the wind,
and that was nothing. He could not find the meaning of life in any of these
experiences, nor in all of them combined. Two out of three ain't bad, but
nothing out of everything is really sad. This Solomon search is what
characterizes the life of most people.
One of the reasons we live in a world of
constant change is due to man's quest for meaning. Nothing can stay the same
very long when it is not adequate to satisfy this thirst for meaning. There is
constant change because there is constant dissatisfaction. Solomon tried
everything, and the human spirit in general is like that of Solomon. The answer
must be just around the corner in some new experience, and so life is a quest
for meaning by seeking endless new experiences. This means nothing can be
stable for it soon gets old and boring because it does not fill the emptiness.
Solomon's experience is being repeated over and
over again as people everywhere discover all of their achievements still leaves
them unsatisfied. This is what motivates people to do all sorts of foolish
things. People throw away good marriages because they think marrying someone
new will bring them happiness. One wife said, "I feel like an unfinished
symphony." Another said, "I feel like a column of figures that needs
totaling. There should be something that will sum things up and bring the various
strands of life together." This quest for meaning affects marriages, and
it affects jobs. Many men are constantly dreaming and scheming because their
job does not fill life with meaning as it ought. Change is the name of the game
because it is man's perpetual hope that change will lead to meaning. Solomon
says forget it, for going from one meaningless event to another does not add
meaning to life.
III. HIS QUINTESSENCE OF THE MEANING OF LIFE.
This is not a word we often use, but it fits
what Solomon does for us as no other word does. Quintessence means the
essential principle of anything in its most concentrated form. Quint, as we
know, means 5, and so quintessence means the 5th essence of something. This
only makes sense when we go back to the history of philosophy, and to the time
when men said the 4 elements of all reality are earth, air, fire, and water.
These were the 4 essences-the 4 essentials. These represent everything under
the sun.
But for those who recognize a higher reality,
such as the celestial or heavenly, there was a 5th essence. The quintessence of
anything is what it is from the heavenly or ultimate perspective. That is
precisely where Solomon finally comes to in his search for the meaning of life.
He could not find it anywhere under the sun, but he did find it when he looked
beyond the sun to the God who made the sun and all creation. He gives us the
meaning of life in a nutshell in the last two verses of this book. "Here
is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this
is whole duty of man, for God will bring every deed into judgement, including
every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil."
You may not see it at first, but his conclusion
is the very essence of both the Old and New Testament. Solomon was one of the
wisest men whoever lived after all, for by his wisdom he was able to sum up the
meaning of life with these two principles-relationship and responsibility.
Relationship to God by fearing Him and obeying Him, and responsibility to man,
for you will be judged for everything you do as to its good or evil.
This is indeed the quintessence of the heavenly
perspective, for that is what the Ten Commandments are all about. They are
about relating to God as the supreme Person in your life, and secondly of being
responsible in your relationships to your fellowmen. Jesus sums up the whole
law with these two great commandments: To love God with your whole being, and
to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said it simpler and clearer, but the
fact is, Solomon's conclusion is the same, for to love God is to fear and obey
Him, and to love your neighbor as yourself is to recognize you will be held
accountable for the good or evil you do in their lives, and so you must live
responsibly.
If one truly keeps the first table of the law
and makes God supreme, he will keep the second table and live responsibly
toward his neighbor. If a man truly prays the first part of the Lord's Prayer,
"hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven," then he will truly mean the second part, "Forgive us
as we forgive others, and lead us not into temptation." If one keeps the
first commandment to love God, he will follow through on the golden rule and do
unto others as he would have them do unto him.
Solomon's quintessence of life's meaning is the
same as all the rest of the Bible. It is found in an obedient relationship to
God. Life under the sun only has meaning when there is a link to that which is
above the sun. Augustine said it in a sentence-"Our souls are restless
till they find rest in Thee." A. J. Cronin put it in a paragraph:
"There comes a moment when man wearies of the things he has won; when he
suspects with bewilderment and dismay that there is another purpose, some
profound and eternal purpose, in his being. It is then that he discovers that
beyond the kingdom of the world there exists a kingdom of the soul."
Solomon took a terribly twisted road to get
their, but he did finally learn that life only has meaning in relationship to
God. This means that life without God really is meaningless. They ultimate in
meaninglessness is to be without God and hope in the world. Will Durant in his
book On The Meaning Of Life was biblically accurate when he wrote, "The
greatest question of our time is not communism verses individualism, not Europe
verses America, not ever East verses West; it is whether man can bear to live
without God. The answer of Solomon is, no, men cannot bear it, for everything
minus God equals nothing, and men cannot live in a universe without meaning,
for his very nature, which is made by God, demands it. Man has no alternative
for he needs God to give meaning to life, and nothing else will satisfy that
need.
What this means then is that much of life is
meaningless because it is life without God. Solomon is not out of line at all
by his pessimistic cry of vanity, vanity, all is meaningless. Life under the
sun that has no link to God above the sun is, in fact, a life with no ultimate
meaning. The despair of the man without God is not superficial, but it is
reality. Meaninglessness is a major malady of our time because modern man is
trying the same experiments that Solomon did. They are trying to find life's
meaning in everything but God, and they are learning the hard way, just as Solomon
did, that all is an empty world without God.
Solomon is not all wet, but he is telling it
like it is, all of the philosophers who seek for meaning without God tend to
come to the same conclusion that life is futile search in a dark room for a
black cat that isn't there. The paradox of meaninglessness is that it explains
so many things about life. If everything has meaning, and every event and
tragedy, and all brutal evil and mindless folly are a part of some plan, then
the mystery is indeed mind boggling. If a man's dashing into a McDonald's and
killing innocent people by the dozens is meaningful, then we really have a
problem. But if the meaningless is real, then the problem is solved, for it is
meaningless. You don't need to find a meaning for the meaningless, for by
definition it doesn't have any.
This explains why the world is so full of things
that do not make sense. What else can you expect in a world where people reject
the only way to meaning? They reject God and Christ, who is the only way to God,
and the only alternative is the way of meaninglessness. They rob and kill
helpless old ladies; they rape and kill helpless young children, or do they a
million and one other less violent things, but equally meaningless. It is not
part of a plan. It is pure folly and rebellion against the plan of God. It is
not part of a puzzle, but is meaningless.
The more you grasp the reality of what Solomon
is saying, the more you realize that Ecclesiastes is a powerful introduction to
the Gospel. It is the darkness that makes the light of hope so glorious. Until
men see the reality of the meaningless they will never seek God and ultimate
meaning, for they will always be convinced they can find meaning without
submission to God. Solomon says it can't be done, but they do not know it yet,
and refuse to learn from him, but keep trying the same failed experiments that
he did.
Jesus confirms the pessimistic truth of Solomon.
Jesus said, "What shall it profit a man if he gained the whole world but
lose his own soul?" That is Eccles. 1 and 2 in a nutshell. Jesus says that
if a man gains everything life can offer under the sun, but has not been saved
by coming into a loving relationship to God, that man's life is of no profit;
it is empty; it is meaningless. His life might just as well have been spent
throwing pebbles into the ocean, for the end result will be the same-nothing.
So often Christians resent the truth of Solomon,
or they just flatly reject it. Many who say they believe the Bible from cover
to cover are not honest, for they do not believe in meaninglessness. They do
not see the powerful positive purpose of pessimism. They say of all tragedy
that some day we will understand, as if it is really a meaningful part of some
master plan. Solomon says, and Jesus confirms it, you don't have to wait to
understand many of the mysteries of life. You can know all there is to know
about them right now, and that is that they are meaningless. They don't fit
now, and they never will, for they are not a part of God's plan. They are the
consequences of the rejection of His plan.
When God says thou shalt not murder, and a man
does it anyway, that is not a part of God's plan, but a rejection of it, and
the result is a meaningless loss of life. Can anyone believe that the millions
of babies conceived by immoral sex and then killed by abortion is meaningful?
Neither the beginning nor the end are a part of God's plan, and so the whole of
it is meaningless. The world is filled with illustrations of what is not a part
of God's plan.
If you are expecting that in heaven we will be
able to take the mindless massacre of millions of Jews by Hitler and fit it
into a logical and sensible picture, as if it was all planned by God, you are
ignoring the clear revelation of God. God is light and in Him is no darkness at
all. A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand said Jesus. God is not on
both sides of good and evil. Evil will be eliminated precisely because it is
meaningless, and it can never fit into the ultimate plan of God.
Just as it is foolish to try to make the
impossible possible, so it is foolish to try and make the meaningless
meaningful. So what do we do if we are wise and accept the wisdom of Solomon? We
accept the reality of the meaningless. When we do we can experience the paradox
of the meaning of the meaningless. That's right! Even the meaningless has
meaning to those who have found the ultimate meaning in relationship to God.
Going into the ditch is meaningless usually, but
not always, for sometimes it is a necessity to save your life. As a way of life
and pattern of driving, however, I think we can all agree it would be
meaningless to drive down into the ditch. But because it is meaningless we are
motivated to avoid doing it. The meaningless helps us better define the
meaningful. Being burned is not as meaningful as not being burned, and so we
avoid being burned. Being sick is not as meaningful as being well, and so we
seek health and avoid sickness. If it was just as meaningful to drive in the
ditch as on the road, there would be no good reason to choose one over the
other. The negative makes the positive all the more positive, and the
meaningless makes the meaningful all the more so.
So if all of life is meaningful, and all life
styles and philosophies are meaningful, then there is no good reason to choose
one over the other. All roads, including the ditches, lead to the same place,
and so if you choose Naturalism, Humanism, Communism, or Hedonism, or any of
the ways Solomon chose to find meaning, you are always on the right road, for
all is good. If there is no distinction between the meaningful and meaningless,
you have no right to judge any road as of less value then another.
But if Solomon is right, and meaningless is
real, and all roads that leave out a relationship to God are dead ends, then
man is left with only one major choice: The way of meaning with God, or the
ways of meaninglessness without Him. Sometimes we are Christians want to have our
cake and eat it too. We want Christ to be the only way to God, and the only way
to life with meaning, but we also want everything else in life to have meaning.
It can when it is incorporated into our relationship to Christ, but so much of
life is not. We must stop being superficial and accept the truth of
Ecclesiastes, that much of life is meaningless. In fact, all of it is
meaningless that is the result of the choices of men that are contrary to the
will of God. Even good and innocent things are meaningless when they are cut
off from God, for they have no ultimate value.
Is this suppose to be good news? Yes it is, for
it makes life very simple so that one does not need to be a philosopher to
understand it. You do not need to be wealthy and powerful like Solomon to get
in on the meaning of life, for the way to meaning is available to all, for it
has nothing to do with power, possession, or pleasure. It is in a relationship
to a Person-the Person of God, revealed to us fully in Jesus Christ. When that
relationship is the center of your life, and all else revolves around it, your
life and all of it events have a basis for meaning. But even the Christian can
get out of fellowship and do what is not God's will, and that will lead to what
is meaningless.
Jesus said that without him we can do nothing.
We can do much without Him, but the point is it will be meaningless, for it
will have no ultimate relevance to the purpose of God. When the Christian
decides to disobey the known will of God and do what is evil, it will be
meaningless and of no value for the kingdom of God, or for them as individuals.
It is a going into the ditch, and so we need to repent and that means getting
back onto the road that leads to meaning in all that we do.
The Bible rejects the idea that all is
meaningful. It stresses the reality of the meaningless, for the more we know of
this reality, the more we will strive to avoid it and stay on the road of
meaningfulness. It is important to be aware of the reality of the meaningless
so that we can specialize in that which is meaningful. Life makes a lot more
sense when you do not have to figure out how to make sense of that which makes
no sense. We do not have to defend God against the critics who blame Him for so
much evil and tragedy. These are the results of evil and are not a part of His
plan at all. They are part of the world of the meaningless. Do not waste your
time trying to prove that driving in the ditch is meaningful, or that many
other such nonsense things have meaning. Accept the reality of the meaningless
and do what Solomon and Jesus agree on- Make God the first priority in your
life, and develop a relationship to Him, which is best done by receiving Jesus
Christ as your personal Savior, and then you can find meaning in all of life, and
even the meaninglessness of life will make some sense and be helpful to your
development of meaning.
4. TAKING LAUGHTER
SERIOUSLY Based on Eccles. 2:1-11
Tom Mullen begins his book, Laughing Out Loud
and Other Religious Experiences with this story. An engineer, a psychologist,
and a theologian were hunting in the wilds of Northern Canada. They came across
a isolated cabin, and decided to check it out. When no one answered their
knocks, they tried the door and found it open. It was a simple two room cabin
with a minimum of furniture. Nothing was surprising about the cabin except the
stove. It was a typical pot bellied cast ironed stove, but it was suspended in
mid air by wires attached to the ceiling beams.
The psychologist was the first to speculate on
this strange location for a stove. He said, "It is obvious that this
lonely trapper, isolated from humanity, has elevated his stove so he can curl
up under it and vicariously experience a return to the womb."
"Nonsense!" Replied the engineer. "The man is clearly practicing
laws of thermodynamics. By elevating his stove he has discovered a way to
distribute the heat more evenly throughout the cabin." "With all due
respect," interrupted the theologian, "I'm sure that hanging his
stove from the ceiling has religious meaning. Fire lifted up has been a
religious symbol for centuries."
As the three debated their theories, the trapper
returned, and they asked him immediately why he hung his stove by wires from
the ceiling. He said, "Because I had plenty of wire, but not much stove
pipe." The answer to many mysteries is much simpler than we think.
Reading commentaries on the book of Ecclesiastes
is often like listening to those three hunters speculate about the stove. They
come up with complex and confusing theories to explain this book, and the
theories are more difficult to grasp than the book itself. The simple and
obvious, and commonsense approach is the best. All we have to do is recognize
that Solomon is simply telling us how he really felt. He is not saying he
should feel this way, or that it is good to feel this way, but that it is how
he really felt.
He had himself a ball, and laughed his head off,
and then he examined the experience afterward, and he concluded that laughter,
like the rest of the pleasures of life, is of no use.
You do not need any complex theory to explain
this. It is simple. He is depressed because laughter and pleasure are merely
passing experiences, and they are not permanent, and so they do not fill the
human need for the eternal. The merry monarch found his mirth of little worth,
and it left him melancholy. This is no surprise, for we have all had that kind
of experience where after a good time we become to some degree depressed simply
because the laughter doesn't last, and the pleasure of it does not persist.
This is an universal experience, and that is why
it is in the Bible. It good for all of us to know that even the man with
everything goes through the same experience we do. This releases us from the
burden of envy where we think we could escape this type of feeling if only we
were somebody else, especially somebody with everything life can offer. It also
releases us from the burden of loneliness when we feel we have emotions that
the rest of the human race does not have. Paul said in I Cor. 10:13, "No
temptation has seized except what is common to man."
What the Bible teaches is that the common man is
the only kind of man there is. Solomon was so great, wise, and unique in many
ways, but he was still a common man. That was the kind of man Jesus became as
well, for there is no other kind, and he entered into the same temptations and
the same feelings that we all experience. "He was tempted in all points
like as we are, yet without sin." Jesus understood what Solomon was saying
in this book. He had plenty of good times and laughter, but he also knew its
limitations, and he endured the experience of depression, and was a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Solomon was right, for laughter is not enough to
give life ultimate meaning. But it is, nevertheless, a vital part of the
meaningful life. Solomon is himself one of the key authorities in the Bible for
supporting the value of laughter. Why then, if he sees the worth of mirth, does
he stress the worthlessness of it here? It is because, like all other values of
life, if they are sought as goal of life, and one becomes as obsessed with them
that they push God into a secondary position, they become sources of sickness
rather than health, when this happens, as it did with him, then it is true as
he says in 7:3, "Sorrow is better than laughter." Jesus confirmed
this when He said, "Blessed are those who mourn." In James 4:9-10 we
see Christians who have gone off the deep end in their search for pleasure, and
they urged to, "Change your laughter to mourning, and you joy to gloom.
Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up."
The Bible makes it clear that there is a time to
stop horsing around and having a good time, and get down to the serious
business of living for a purpose in God's will. Those who never do, never
discover the full value of joy and laughter. So what we see in Solomon is both
sides of the coin. We see the futility of laughter, and the fruitfulness of
laughter. In 3:4 he says there is a time to weep and a time to laugh. Both are
good and valid. Since we have been looking at some heavy subjects in our study
of this book, I thought we should look at the lighter and brighter side, and
reap some value from-
I. THE FRUITFULNESS OF LAUGHTER.
In Pro. 17:22 we read the most famous biblical
precept on the value of laughter. Solomon there says, "A cheerful heart is
a good medicine, but a downcast spirit dries up the bones." Laughter is
the lubrication of life that keeps us from drying up and grinding to a halt. Drain
your life of humor, and it is like draining your car of oil. You will not get
far before you lose power and lock up the engine. Laughter keeps the engine of
life running smooth. It allows us to keep making progress down the road to
God's goals.
What a blessing is the sense of humor for
releasing of tension in times of stress. I visited Vern Miller before his
by-pass surgery. His room mate Virgil was facing the same surgery. There was
tension as they faced the unpleasant prospect of being cut open, but they were easing
the friction by using the oil of laughter. Together we were experiencing
healing by anointing the whole situation with the oil of gladness. It was good
medicine. The doctors have to take out the whole vain in the leg for the
by-pass. Vern was having five by-passes, and the other man only three. So he
commented that he could use the extra he would have left over for bait. I could
see the potential for his practical mind, and I encouraged him to write a book
on tips for what to do with your spare parts.
Vern then told of another man who was going into
surgery at the same time as he was. He said I am assuming he has a different
surgeon, or maybe mine is ambidextrous, and will be doing one with each hand,
and he stretched out his arms to illustrate. We had a good laugh. Sure, it was
nonsense, and just a way to escape from the tension, but that is what medicine
is for, and that is what laughter does. I do not take aspirin because I like
the taste, but to escape the pain of a headache. Laughter can help us escape
also, and it even tastes good. The point is, laughter is appropriate even in
the most serious times because it is a medicine, and it lifts and lightens the
load. It is God's most natural drug. Thank God for laughter.
Sometimes when life is on a disaster trail, and
everything seems to be going wrong, you can be suddenly touched with a sense of
humor, and it is like a shot in the arm to revive your spirit. Bonhoffer, the
theologian, who died in Hitler's concentration camp could write, "Absolute
seriousness is not without a dose of humor." Abraham Lincoln was able to
survive his responsibility through the Civil War because of the aid of his
sense of humor. Sometimes his cabinet felt his humor was out of place, but he
replied, "Gentlemen, why don't you laugh? If I didn't laugh with the
strain that in on me day and night, I should go mad. And you need the medicine
as much as I do." Laughter is a life saver to many in times of unusual
stress. My father lived in pain for many years and said that his sense of humor
was the only thing that kept him from taking his own life to escape the pain.
Laughter can be life saving medicine.
Jesus said that we should face life's worst
without letting fear dominate us. He said do not fear those who can kill the
body, and that is all they can do. He made it sound like martyrdom was a minor
matter. After they kill you, he is saying, the matter is out of their hands,
and so don't worry. This can only be experienced by those who have a sense of
humor, and who can laugh even at death. You have to be able to see beyond
death, and see the joke involved in men thinking they can win by killing you,
when all they do is send you into the presence of Him who has the keys of
death, and who has a mansion waiting for you to enter and enjoy forever. They
think they are robbing you of life, and what they are doing is sending you to
the ultimate life of joy.
Faith in Christ and a sense of humor go hand in
hand. Eugene O'Neill portrayed this in his play Lazarus Laughed. He had Lazarus
say, "I heard the heart of Jesus laughing in my heart, and I laughed in
the laughter of God." the crowd joined Lazarus in his happy mood and
laughed with him, for the fear of death had been conquered. The play comes to a
climax with Caesar threatening Lazarus with death. It was a joke to him, and he
responded like a grandpa responds when his 4 year old grandchild threatens to
pound him into dust. He laughs, and he dies laughing. It is the laughter of God
when we laugh at the absurdities of life.
In Ps. 2 we see the folly of man as he plots to
overthrow the plan of God and take over the universe. Verse 4 says, "The
one enthroned in heaven laughs." God has a sense of humor, and it tickles
him to laughter to see puny men develop such delusions of grandeur. It is like
a gnat organizing his fellow gnat to take over a tank. You get the same funny
sensation when a small child in rebellion decides to defy the very powers that
gave him life and sustain his life. The most Godlike response you can have to
those deluded by their pride is to laugh. In Ps. 37:12-13 we read, "The
wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord
laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming."
Oswald J. Smith, the great preacher and hymn writer,
puts the scene in poetry.
Methinks I hear God laugh, so let them rage.
He'll hold them in derision till the day
He rises in His wrath, and in His hot
Displeasure, vexes those who vainly seek
To tear Him from His throne for judgment set.
What folly if a sparrow hurl itself
Against a locomotive in its pride,
Expecting thus to check it in its speed!
As little hope have they who mock at God.
Is life a joke? Yes it is when man takes himself
so seriously that he thinks he can make it meaningful without God, and so sets
out to dethrone God. It is good for us to step back once in awhile, and see the
dark side of man from God's perspective, and join Him in a good laugh. Some
people think the tower of Babel was where Solomon kept all his wives, but what
it is, is a monument to man's silliness. He thought he could build a tower to
the heavens and become a power that was supreme. It was the Lucifer approach to
life that says, I will exalt myself to the throne of the universe. The funny
thing about life is not the psychotic who thinks he is Napoleon, but the normal
people who think they are God. History makes all of man's pride a laugh. One of
the ways you can divide up the human race in two camps is this: Those who laugh
at God, and those who laugh with God.
Jesus was a man of sorrows, but Jesus was also
the Son of God, and the express image of the Father. In Jesus we see the same
sense of humor that we see in the Father. Jesus saw the comical, the absurd,
and the ridiculous side of life. We are so brainwashed into thinking that Jesus
was always serious, and even sad, that we miss all of His humor. We refuse to
give Him the balance life in our thinking, and by so doing we rob the only
truly ideal man of what is vital to that ideal, and that is a sense of humor. Most
students of the life of Jesus see it, but it is seldom stressed, and the result
is that most Christians do not recognize the sense of humor in their Savior.
G. Campbell Morgan, that prince of expositors, sees
it in the most serious of setting even. After the resurrection when Jesus is
walking with the two on the road to Emmaus we see Jesus in this very serious
setting playing the game of hide and seek with His disciples. Morgan comments,
"There is a tender and beautiful playfulness in the way He dealt with
these men. Humor is as divine as Pathos, and I cannot study the life of Jesus
without finding humor there."
Tennyson said humor is generally most fruitful
in the most solemn spirits, and, "You will even find it in the Gospel of
Christ." Elton Trueblood in his book The Humor Of Christ gives numerous
illustrations. We will look at just a few. Jesus had a lot of fun with the
humorless Pharisees, and often described them in ways that would make the people
chuckle. In Matt. 15:14 He calls them blind guides. The very concept is
ridiculous. Who would ever have confidence in a blind guide? Imagine a sign on
the entrance to a cave that says, blind guides available-reasonable rates.
Jesus says, when the blind lead the blind they both fall into a pit. Such is
the folly of the Pharisees and their followers. Follow me and I will make you
fishers of men was the message of Jesus. Follow them, and you will be pit
filler.
This form of humor was typical of Jesus. He
described them in all kinds of humorous ways. They kept the outside of their
cups shining and spotless. They were germ free, but inside they neglected to
clean, but let that fill up with cobwebs, dirt, and dead flies. They would
choke on a gnat showing that they were super fussy with minute details of the
law, but then they would swallow a camel, hump and all, without batting an eye.
That means they could by-pass the major purpose of the law if it was in their
self-interest.
Jesus pictured the Pharisees seeking sympathy in
the pity party method of looking dismal and pathetic because of their
supposedly sacrificial fasting. Jesus said that His followers were to have
nothing to do with such sad sack piety. They were to anoint their heads, wash
their faces, and look presentable rather than laughable. Jesus had a sarcastic
wit that has tickled me many times. My favorite, is in John 10:31-32 where we
read, "The Jews took up stones again to stone him." This sounds like
a serious situation doesn't it? It is no time for wise cracks, but Jesus
responds, "I have shown you many good works from my Father, for which of
these do you stone me?" Jesus never did any bad works, and so He knew they
had to be stoning Him for some good work that He did, and He was curious as to
which of His kindnesses it was that provoked them to such hatred. Jesus, just
like His Father, saw the absurdity of man's folly, and the utter ridiculousness
of his rebellion.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it
abundantly. He came that we might be reconciled to God and experience life in
its fullness, and enjoy all that He has made, and especially the gift He has
given uniquely to man-the sense of humor. Animals do not have this gift, for it
is part of the image of God given only to man. Helmut Thielike, the greatest
German preacher of modern times, said of Christians, "When they lose their
sense of humor it is nothing less than a denial of their Lord."
What use is laughter Solomon asks, and the
answer of the centuries is, it is our link with our heavenly Father that lifts
us above the mere earthly to the heavenly perspective. Those who see the
humorous built into life by God enjoy life so much more. I certainly enjoy
being a grandfather more due to the constant laughter that comes from children.
Many great Christians point to the animal creation to show God's sense of
humor. Dean Inge in one of his many books wrote, "I cannot help thinking
that the Creator made some animals and some human beings just for fun. The
elephant, the hippo, the baboon with blue cheeks and scarlet stern are not
ugly. They are figures of comedy. Why should not the deity have a sense of
humor?"
I personally feel that children are the greatest
proof of God's sense of humor. To me they are God's clowns in the circus of
life. And they add more laughter than all the comedians combined. Just the
otheriew of God to the world, and a view that is not consistent with God's
revelation of Himself.
Take Devorah Wigoder for example. She rebelled
against her Christian heritage and married a Jew. In her book Hope Is My House
she writes, "To me, one of the most disappointing aspects in the life of
Jesus was his lack of humor." What a shame that her Christian heritage
never exposed her to the truth of Jesus' sense of humor. If she was only an
isolated case, we could brush it off as of no consequence, but she is not. As I
study the lives of people who have rebelled against the Christian faith, and
have become skeptics and cynics, and even atheists, I discover that they see no
humor in the Christian faith. A writer for Christianity Today for many years
confirms this when he writes, "I have learned that too many Christian
people and organizations can't laugh at themselves. They take themselves too
seriously, and this makes them stuffy. Some people are not serious enough about
humor and this makes them shallow."
The Christian who does not develop his sense of
humor will not likely be an attractive person to the world, like Jesus was. He
could fit into most every social situation, and bring joy to the guests because
He was ever ready with a story or some humor. One of the best things we can
have up our sleeve is a funny bone. Charles Aked said humor is a gift of God,
and, "A face as long as a fiddle and a voice like that of an alpine crow
will not be imputed to us for righteousness." Solomon said there is a time
to laugh, and the time to do it is when you want to make clear to a sad and
hurting world that in Christ there is really something to laugh about, for in
Him life's blessings become all the more enjoyable, and life's folly's become
all the more ridiculous. Both good and evil become causes for laughter in
Christ. Tragedy and tears are only for time, but in Christ laughter is forever.
Martin Luther said, "If you're not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't
want to go there." He knew he was safe, for he knew of the laughter of
God, and of the laughter of Jesus. If you do not, then you need to take
laughter more seriously and learn to pray-
Give me the gift of laughter, oh, I pray,
Though tears should hover near;
Give me the gift of laughter for each day,
Laughter to cast out fear.
5.
A TIME FOR EVERYTHING Based on Eccles. 3:1-8
Art Linkletter tells
of the young woman who married a wealthy old man. She was
apparently quite fond of
him in the beginning, but then she started to focus on the demands
of maintaining a home.
She told her husband that the garden looked shabby. All right
he said spend some
money to take care of it. So she brought in the gardening crew,
and soon the grounds
looked wonderful. Then she noticed that the cutting away of the
shrubs and hedges left
the house looking shabby. So she called in the painters, and soon
the house looked just wonderful. But when she walked into the house, from this beautiful