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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
exterior, it made the
inside of the house look shabby. So her husband told her to get an
interior decorator,
and she did. Finally, the entire estate sparkled and looked gorgeous.
But in the midst of
all this splendor her husband looked shabby, so she got rid of him.
Linkletter did not say
if this story was based on fact, but it could very well be. Here
was a woman who wanted
a place for everything, and everything in its place. What did
not fit, she got rid
of. All of us may like to follow such a plan, and keep in our lives only
those things which are
pleasant, and which our design for the ideal life. Solomon is telling
us this is fairy tale
dreaming, and does not face up to the reality that life is a mixture of
negative and positive.
You don't get to pick and choose, and select only the good things
of life. You must also
experience the bad things.
You cannot just be
born, and skip the dying part. You cannot just go out and harvest
a crop, and skip the work
of planting. You cannot just go through life laughing and dancing,
and bypass the weeping
and mourning that comes with the package called life. As the
cliché goes, "We
must learn to take the bad with the good." The key to being able to do
this, and still be
happy and successful, is timing. Timing plays a major role in life. Part of
what it means to be
wise is in recognizing the importance of timing.
Amusing is the story
of the Russian philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev who was pleading
passionately about the
insignificance and unreality of time, when suddenly he stopped,
and looked at his
watch with genuine anxiety, for he noticed he was late for taking his
medicine.
Solomon was right,
there is a time for every matter under heaven. A time for taking
medicine, and a time
for refraining medicine. This is not one of his 14 couplets, but it is
just as true, and we
could all come up with other couplets equally valid. These are just
key examples of his
main point, there is a time for everything. If this is the case, then
it naturally follows
that whether life goes smooth, or is rough, often will depend upon the
timing. We cannot
choose when to be born, and often have little choice as to when we
die, but there is much
of life where we do have choices, and wisdom is determined, not
just by the right
choice, but by the right timing.
A good thing done at
the wrong time can be a bad thing. That is, it can actually do
more harm than good.
For example, take Lucy, who is playing out the field, and a ball
drops right beside
her, and she makes no attempt to catch it. Charlie Brown, the manager
rushes out to her in
anger demanding an answer for why she didn't hold out her glove.
Her reply was simply,
"I was having my quiet time." Not even God could be pleased
with such timing for
devotions. Spirituality of any kind can get a bad reputation if it is used
as an excuse for
neglecting responsibility, or avoiding obligations. The student who fails
his history exam with
the excuse that he was reading his Bible, will not impress God or
the teacher. Life
demands balance. There is a time for devotions, and a time to refrain
from devotions. Peter
wanted to stay on the Mt. of Transfiguration, but Jesus said, in
effect, there is a
time to be on the mountain, and a time to be in the valley meeting the
urgent needs of men.
Escape is good only when it is a means to prepare for more effective
battle.
It is good to go
through an intersection, for if one does not he will never get anywhere.
All progress depends
on doing it, so it is good and right, but if you do this good and right
thing at the wrong
time it can be the worst thing you do. There is a time to go, and a time to
stop.
One epitaph reads,
"Here lies the body of William Jay, who died maintaining his right of way.
He was right-dead
right-as he sped a long, but he's just as dead as if he was wrong."
There is a time to
claim your rights, but wisdom recognizes there is also a time to give them up.
The importance of timing
is the key to understanding much of the teaching of Christ in
the sermon on the
Mount. There is a time for the Christian to mourn and be meek, and
to back away from his
rights and turn the other cheek. Jesus said if you are offering your
gift at the alter, and
remember that you brother is offended, go first and be reconciled to
your brother, and then
come and offer you gift. Jesus is saying, there is an order in life
that makes things
fitting, and if they are not in the right order, even though good, they
are not acceptable to
God. Jesus gave us specific examples of the importance of timing.
He said the Pharisees
failed by doing good things, and it was because they timed their
alms, prayers, and fasting,
so as to be seen of men. Jesus said the right time for these things
is when you are alone
with God.
Jesus agrees with
Solomon, timing is a key factor in the successful life that is pleasing
to God, and beneficial
to men. Failure and mistakes revolve around poor timing. Robert
Morris was a wealthy
merchant. He was so wealthy that his son Robert Morris Jr., who
was a signer of the
Declaration of Independence, was also the key financier of the American
Revolution.
His money saved our
government from bankruptcy. His father was also greatly honored; one might say,
overly honored. One day as he left one of his large ships on a small boat,
which was taking him to shore,
he was honored by the
Captain by being saluted with the ships cannon. In this case they saluted him
before he was out of range, and the cannon ball killed him. He was only 39, and
died because of poor timing.
The same thing done at
a different moment would have been a pleasure.
"How did you get
that black eye?" one friend asked another. "By kissing the bride
after the
ceremony," he replied. "But everybody does that," he responded.
"Yeah,
I know, but this was
two years after the ceremony." Poor timing was the cause of his
injury. Good and bad;
right and wrong; wise and foolish; often revolve around this matter
of timing. Growing in
wisdom, therefore, involves growing in your awareness of what is
the proper moment.
Arthur Gordon interviewed the well-known actor, Charles Coburn,
before he died. He
asked him the stock question, "What does one need to get ahead in
life? Brains, energy,
education?" He shook his head and said, "Those things help. But
there is something I
consider even more important: knowing the moment." He then went
on the say, "On
the stage, as every actor knows, timing is the all important factor. I
believe its the key in
life, too. If you could master the art of knowing the moment in your
marriage, your work,
your relationships with others, you won't have to pursue happiness
or run after success. They'll
walk right in through your front door!"
Arthur Gordon was
deeply impressed by this interview, and he recognized it was an
idea that Solomon had
stressed. He did some research on the subject, and discovered it
was one of the most
practical truths that a person can grasp. He quotes a family relations
court judge, who deals
with quarreling couples constantly. "If only they'd realize that
there are times when
everyone's threshold of irritability is low. When a person can't stand
nagging or criticism,
or even good advice! If married partners would just take the trouble
to study each other's
moods, and know when to air a grievance or when to show affection,
the divorce rate in
this country would be cut in half." I am convinced also that many
marriages are ruined
not by the problems and the conflicts, but by the poor timing involved
in dealing with them.
There is a time for
war says Solomon; a time when hostility and resentment has to be
dealt with in all
human relations, but only when it is timed right will it be followed by peace
rather than pieces.
Successful marriages are accomplished by two people who are aware
of the importance of
timing. Arthur Gordon learned of his own weakness in this area when
he asked his wife,
which of his failing annoyed her most. She responded, "Your tendency
to wait until we are
about to walk into a party before telling me that my hair is mussed or
my dress doesn't look
quite right." Even if it is true, it is better to leave it unsaid then to
speak the truth at the
wrong time. Some feel that the truth is always right to speak. This
is not so; even Jesus
kept back the truth until it was appropriate, and the time was right
for it to be received.
God's whole plan of
redemption is based on this principle of proper timing. It was not
until the fullness of
time, when all had been providentially prepared, that God sent forth
His Son into the
world. Those who could read the signs of the time came to worship the
Christ child. Those who
were prepared received the gift of God which was eternal life.
But, as is always the
case, even a blessing can be a curse to those who are not ready for
it. For those who had
no sense of God's timing, Jesus said His coming brought judgment.
The kingdom of God was
at hand, but they missed it, because they did not grasp God's
timing.
The Prodigal Son got
his inheritance at the wrong time. It was a blessing he was not
prepared to handle
wisely. The result was, it became a curse and cost him everything.
Had grace and love not
entered the story, it would have ended as a tragedy of poor timing.
Many have found sudden
wealth to be a curse. Take any other value, and the story is the
same. Power is good,
but let it fall into the hands of one who is not prepared to use it,
and it will lead to
tyranny and disaster. Fortunately, it works both ways, and we have the
story of Esther, of
whom Mordecai said, "Who knows whether you have not come to the
kingdom for such a
time as this?" Because she recognized the importance of timing, she
acted and used her
power to save the Jewish race. Mordecai knew the importance of
timing, and he told
Esther that if she made this a time for silence she would parish. Esther
agreed, it was time to
speak, and this gave her a major role in the plan of God.
History is constantly
revealing tragedy or triumph based on timing. The French
Revolution set the
masses free, but they were not prepared for freedom. It was bad
timing, and the result
was great bloodshed from which the nation never recovered. This
same thing has
happened in other nations, and almost happened in America. Booker
Washington in, Up From
Slavery, told of the great day of Lincoln's Emancipation
Proclamation. He
describes wild scenes of ecstasy as the slaves wept and danced, and
used every emotion
they had to express their joy in being liberated. But Washington
goes on to describe
the next day. Now they had to do something with their freedom, and
it became a burden,
for they didn't know how to use it. Gloom took over, for they had
found freedom to be a
very serious business. For some it became a tragedy, but thanks
to men of good timing,
like Booker Washington, and the black colleges, it did not become
the catastrophe it
might have been.
The point is, you can
go through all of history and see that what makes things good or
bad is not just what
happens, but the timing of what happens, and how aware the people
are of the importance
of timing, and being prepared to do what the time demands for
success. There is no
end of examples. Sex is good or evil depending on the timing.
Before marriage it is
called an evil, but after marriage it is a blessing. Sports almost
always depend upon
timing. Even a pro will not be a winner if his timing is off. In warfare
courage and bravery
are of great value, but the key to victory is in timing. Knowing when
to attack or retreat
is the key factor. If your car engine is not properly timed there will
be loss of power and
poor mileage. If your body does not get the proper nourishment at
the right time you
will not be as effective. Timing is a vital part of life.
The implications and
applications of this truth are so enormous and numerous that we
can only look at one
of them right now. The one that impresses me most is this: If there
is a time for every
matter under heaven, then it is evidently the will and plan of God that
the ideal life be one
of great variety. Variety is indeed the spice of life. There is a time
for chicken, but also
a time for shrimp. There is a time for study, but also a time for play.
There is a time for
culture, and also a time for clowning. A balance life is a life where one
has a taste of
diversity. When it comes to life we are made to be general practitioners and
not just specialists.
Let the life of
Charles Darwin illustrate my point. As a young man he had a great love
for art, music, and
literature. But as he pursued his career he lost his sense of balance
in life. He became
obsessed with his scientific thinking. He rejected the idea that there
is a time for every
matter under heaven. For him there was only time for his specialty.
Variety vanished from
his life, and with it the ability to appreciate the many gifts of God
that add pleasure to
life. In his declining years, when he had time to enjoy the beauty of
life's variety, he
discovered it was too late. He wrote,
To my unspeakable
sorrow I cannot endure to read a line of poetry.
I have tired lately to
enjoy Shakespeare, but I found it so intolerably
dull that it nauseated
me. I have even lost my taste for pictures and
music. I retain some
fondness for beautiful scenery, but it does not
cause me the exquisite
delight which it formerly did. My mind seems
to have become a mere
machine for grinding general laws out of large
collections of facts.
His problem was poor
timing. He never used a portion of his time to keep balanced,
and filled with a
variety of interests and experiences. He missed the boat as it passed
its dock, and later
when it stopped again, he no longer wanted the ride. Jesus said work
for the night is
coming when man should work no more. What this means is that if you do
not do what you can do
when you can do it, you may never get another chance, for either
the time will cease
when it can be done, or you will change and no longer care to do what
can be done. Darwin
learned the lesson too late, but his failure is a powerful lesson to us.
He said again,
"If I had to live my life over again, I would make it a rule to read a
little poetry,
and hear a little
music every week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would
thus have been kept
active through use."
It is always the right
time to be preparing to do the will of God. We do not always know what God's
will is, and what He may have in store for us, but whatever it is we will be
better prepared for it by starting now. Don't be like the boy who was running
to the bus just as it pulled away. A man standing there said, "I guess you
didn't run fast enough." "O yes I did," said the boy. "I
just didn't start soon enough." It is always the right time to trust in
Christ, and it is always perfect timing to start now obeying all that you know
of
God's will.
6.
EVERYTHING AT THE RIGHT TIME Based on Eccles. 3:1-8
Arthur Gordon tells
this true story of one of the leaders in a Christian school. He came from a
very poor background, and was rather homely, yet he was married to one of the
most beautiful and popular girls in Boston. He was asked how he managed to get
her to say yes to him. He explained his strategy. He knew he had many manly
rivals, and so he could not compete on that level. He had to appeal to her
tenderness, and so on one snowy night, when he had a date with her, he slipped
on the steps and fell down to the bottom of the porch. She came rushing to his
side, and he stopped groaning just long enough to ask her to marry him. He
figured she would not have the heart to add to his misery by turning him down.
He was right, and she said yes.
Timing plays a major
role in most every marriage, for how people meet is often a matter of timing.
This is true for friendship, jobs, and even in the matter of becoming a hero.
President John F. Kennedy was asked how he became a hero in the II World War,
and he said, "It was involuntary. They sank my boat." He was not looking
for a way to be a hero. It was forced upon him, and the point is, all of us may
do heroic things if our life depended on it. But if the time never occurs for
us to be heroic we just never get the opportunity. Time determines so much of
life, and in our text we see many examples.
In verse 2 Solomon
begins with the two ends of life-the start and the conclusion. The two major
events for all people are birth and death. Solomon says, "There is a time
to be born." He is not saying that birth always comes at the right time,
as if all births are appointed. We know this is not the case. The birth of
Jesus was in the fullness of time, and was precisely appointed, but there are
many births that are not so appointed, just as there are many deaths which are
not appointed by God.
There are some who
read this passage as teaching absolute determinism: That every event of life is
all planned, and the exact time and duration of it as well, so that all of life
is determined, and whatever will be will be. If this is what Solomon is saying
here, it is in total contrast to his emphasis on the meaninglessness and vanity
of life. If all is planned by God, and every detail is just what He wants, then
all has meaning, and all you have to do is just accept everything as it is as
the best of all possible worlds.
But Solomon is saying
in this book, life if loaded with the meaningless because so much of it is not
a part of God's plan, and has no order, rhyme, or reason. In a world where
people are free to reject God and His will, you are going to see a lot of
births and deaths that are not a part of His plan. In chapter 6 verse 3,
Solomon speaks of an untimely birth. This is a reference to being born so
premature that one is born dead. There are millions of births that are not rightly
timed, and this leads to defects or death. Today doctors can save children that
once had no hope, but still these premature births are not good. Poorly timed
births are a negative reality. If there is a right time for everything, there
is also a bad time for everything.
There are millions of
children conceived by acts which are forbidden by God. Adultery, fornication,
rape and incest to mention a few. In no way can you say these conceptions are
the will of God, for they violate His clear revelation. The result is poorly
timed births of children who are uninvited, unloved, and unwanted. Abortion is
the solution that millions choose to prevent these births, and this also is not
appointed by God. The beginning and the end are out of His will. If you think all
of this will make sense in heaven, I think you will be greatly disappointed,
for it will make no more sense than Hitler's killing of 6 million Jews. It is
all meaningless because it is all based on the rejection of God's will.
All of this is to say,
there is a time to be born, a right time; a time when the parents are ready,
the child is ready, and there is an environment of love. This is being born as
God intended birth. If there is a time to be born, then there is also a time
not to be born. Life either starts with good timing or poor timing, and that
start can often determine the destiny of a life.
"There is a time
to die." We could spend a long time on this one. If there is a time to
die, there is also a time not to, which means, there is such a thing as an
untimely death. Mass murderers produce mindless and purposeless death. It is
not a part of a plan that is rightly timed. It is evil and folly, and not a
part of God's will.
This text was read at
the funeral of the late President John Kennedy, but his death was a good
example of a time not to die. To be a president, and to be assassinated is not
part of God's ideal plan, for it is the result of evil. Many leaders through
history have died by the hands of assassins. There is no doubt that sometimes
it is a blessing, and even Christians plotted to assassinate Hitler, but the
fact remains, death by murder is not God's will.
The ideal time to die
is when you have lived a life of obedience to God, and can enter His presence
assured that you leave behind an influence for His glory. Just as there is a
good time to be born, so there is a good time to die, and man has more freedom
of choice in this area than he realizes. The choice to live a life of healthy
exercise and eating is one that can make a major difference in when a person
dies. So also, family planning can determine when a person will be born. There
are many ways by which our choices can determine the right time to be born or
to die.
"There is a time
to plant." This varies a great deal depending on where you are in the
world, and what it is you are planting, but everything has an ideal time, and
success depends on being wise enough to discover that time. Constantine, the
Emperor of Rome, recognized the importance of timing in planting. He made it so
farmers had the freedom to do what was necessary to plant at the right time.
Listen to this part of his Edict Of Milan back in A.D. 313. "On the
venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people
residing in cities
rest, and let all work shops be closed. In the country, however, persons
engaged in the work of cultivation may freely and lawfully continue their
pursuits, because it often happens that another day is not so suitable for
grain sowing, or for vine planting less by neglecting the proper moment for
such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost." Christian farmers
were given the freedom not to keep the law of the Sabbath in order to keep the
law of nature, because the matter of timing can determine the destiny of the
crop. There is an ideal time, and those who do not seek it will suffer.
"There is a time
to pluck up what is planted." This is crucial too, and many a farmer loses
much of his crop by not harvesting it in time. Farming is so much a matter of
timing, and it takes a lot of wisdom to determine the ideal time, but those who
come closest to the ideal are the most successful farmers.
V. 3 "There is a
time to kill." The idea of never killing any living creature is impossible
to achieve. A scientist once showed a leader from India, who claimed to live
with absolutely no taking of life, a microscope with some of his drinking water
under it. It was so full of living creatures that the man broke the microscope
rather than believe he was killing many living creatures every time he took a
drink.
Death is a vital part
of life, and life only goes on because of death. There is a time to kill and
take life for the sake of life. But Solomon is not limiting this to the need
for food. There are numerous areas of life where killing may be timely. For
example: In a just war; self-defense; in administering justice; in the duties
of a police officer, and a swat team dealing with a dangerous person who is
threatening other lives. Like all of the others, this one can be abused, and
the timing be so off that the result is only a victory for evil. Christians can
kill at the wrong time and suffer judgment. Back in the year 1290, the Pope
sent Christian soldiers to help liberate the Holy Land from the control of the
Muslims. They landed at the city of Acre on the coast North of Jerusalem. It
was the key Christian city of the Holy Land, and it was a place of wealth and
glory. Christians had ruled it for generations. Half of the inhabitants were
Muslims who lived in peace with the Christians.
The ignorant
Crusaders, not bothering to learn and adjust to the new culture they had
entered, decided to fight the Muslims they encountered there. They went on a
rampage and started killing all of the Muslims in the city. Many Christians
with beards were mistaken for Muslims, and they were murdered as well. Over a
1,000 died before the authorities of Acre could arrest the blood crazed
soldiers who came to help save the Holy Land.
When the Sultan
Qalawrn heard what had happened, it was the beginning of the end. The
Christians apologized and tried to keep peace, but there was no excuse for what
had happened. The Muslims formed the largest army they ever put together. There
were 40,000 cavalry and 160,000 foot soldiers. They marched on the city and
ended 200 years of a Christian kingdom in the Holy Land. The Christians were
massacred, and all the other little towns of Christians were forced to
surrender, and the people were sold into slavery. All because of some Christian
soldiers who did not have the wisdom to know
there is a time not to
kill even in war.
Had they killed
Muslims in battle the Muslims would have held them in esteem for their courage,
but to cut down the innocent was an outrage they could not tolerate. The fact
that God did not spare His own people, but let them suffer severe judgment
reveals that God takes this matter seriously. There is a time to kill, and a
time not to. There is a time to heal. In this couplet it would seem that to
heal is in contrast with kill, and it almost seems like it is more a military
rather than medical idea. It is as if he is saying, there is a time to kill
your enemy, and a time to heal him, and show mercy, and to seek to restore him
from his wounds.
The paradox of war is
seen in the treatment of prisoners. Many an American has been saved by the
doctors and surgeons of the enemy, just as many of them have been saved by our
doctors. This has been a practice of civilized people, and it is agreed it is
right for the enemy to provide care and healing to those he is seeking to kill.
The courtesy of the battlefield goes way back. Saladin, the mightiest of the
leaders of the Saracens, who fought many battles with Richard the Lion Hearted,
had it. When Richard became severely ill, Saladin did not attack to take
advantage of it, but instead sent a messenger with special fruit cooled in the
snow of the mountain to bring healing. Only when he got well did they strive
again to kill each other. Strange but true, but there is something noble and
right about recognizing there is a time to heal even in fierce conflict.
There is a time to
tear down. Back in 850 A.D. it was decided that the Great International
Exhibition would be held in London's Hyde Park in the building which was unlike
any ever made. Paul Auraundt in his book Destiny, describes this structure
which came to be known as the Crystal Palace. It covered almost 20 acres with
5,000 tons of iron, and a third of a million panes of glass. It took 24 miles
of guttering to carry water away from the roof. It was the pride of London for
years until fire destroyed it in 1936, but the great towers survived the fire,
and they were preserved as a glittering reminder of the days of glory.
Hitler's bombing
persuaded the English to tear them down. It took the British a while to figure
out how the Germans could bomb London so accurately, but finally they did. The
glass towers would glisten in the moon light even in a black out, and they
became a guide for the German bombers. So in 1941 the British demolished these
magnificent towers. Precious as they were, it was agreed by everyone that they
had to be broken down.
This is not an
encouragement for a nervous breakdown, but a call to be aware that as much as
we resist change, sometimes the best thing is to scrap what you have built so
far, and start over. There are projects going nowhere that need to be
dismantled, and dreams that need to be forsaken in order to be free to get
going on new projects and dreams that better fit the times, and your own
motivation.
We read of the rise
and fall of the Roman Empire, or of the Third Reich, but all of us have such a
history. We go through stages and sometimes the interest of one stage is not
the interest of the other. We need to learn to tear down the old and obsolete,
and make
way for the new.
There is a time to
build. Building is to be a major part of the believer's life. Solomon built the
greatest and most elaborate Jerusalem that ever existed. It was the time to do
it, for it was a rare time of peace, and he had the wisdom and wealth to make
it happen.
There is also a time
not to build up. Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, tried to build up his fortune
at what was an opportune time by taking advantage of the Naaman's generosity.
Elisha refused payment for his advice that led to his being healed, but Gehazi
followed him and lied about a need. Naaman gave him a small fortune in silver
and garments, and he rode off a happy con man. Elisha came to him and said,
"Was it a time to accept money and garments and other gifts? Therefore the
leprosy of Naaman shall cleave to you and
to your descendants
forever." He choose the wrong time to build up, and the result was he tore
down his whole families heritage.
Paul writes, in Gal.
2:18, "But if I build up again these things which I tore down, then I
prove myself a transgressor." He tore down the old house of law, and built
a new house of faith, and it would be utter folly to build up that old place
again that could never meet his needs in the first place. It is always times to
tear down the works of self-righteousness, and build the house of faith. There
is a time to weep. It is not likely that anyone gets through life without
tears. Jesus didn't. He found appropriate times to weep, and, therefore, to be
Christlike is to be ready to shed tears when the time is right. When tears are
appropriate varies a great deal with the individual. I have known women who cry
so easily and so often that it seems a weakness, but they were just
super-sensitive people. They would cry for joy because they were loved, and
they would cry because of relief from a burden. They cried for so many good
things as well as tough things that it seemed like excessive tears.
For others tears seem
like a lack of self-control, and so the time for them to feel comfortable to
weep is not very often. Some men even have a hard time weeping when it is
clearly fitting. Paul said we are to weep with those who weep, and rejoice with
those who rejoice. There is something about others entering into the same
experience that lifts and encourages. It is a paradox, but weeping with someone
in their sorrow can be an encouragement that ends their weeping. Oliver Wendell
Holmes said that laugher and tears are both important powers. One is wind
power, and the other water power, and they both can turn the same machinery of
sensibility. Joyce Hiflar said, "Jesus wept, God forbid that I
cannot."
William Blake wrote,
Joy and woe are woven
fine,
A clothing for the
soul divine.
Under every grief and
pine,
Runs a joy with silken
twine.
It is right it should
be so;
Man was made for joy
and woe,
And when this we
rightly know,
Through the world we
safely go.
Safely may not be the
right word. Wisely might be more realistic, for those who can take the woe and not
let it get them low, and crush them, often add much to the joy of life for
others. Corrie Bond is a good example. Her prosperous father went bankrupt when
she was ten, and a weeks later he died. She married at 18, and had a son, but
before he was 6 she was divorced. She later married a respected doctor, Frank
Bond, in 1889, and she enjoyed a true love. It was a haven, at last, from her
world of troubles. But 6 years goes fast, and that is all she had, for Frank
suddenly died. He always told her to keep playing the piano and writing songs,
and so that is what she did. She went on to fame and wealth, and died in 1946
at age 84. We have all been blessed by what she wrote. For example:
I love you truly,
truly dear!
Life with its sorrows,
life with its tear,
Fades into dreams when
I feel you are near,
For I love you truly,
truly dear!
In contrast, is John
Toole. He wrote a book, but could not get it published. He tried over and over,
but it was always rejected by the publishers. His mother did not give up when
he did. She kept going to other publishers, and finally found one who would
publish the book called, Confederacy Of Duncer. It became a best seller, and in
1981 was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It was John's mother who had
to receive the prize, for John had given up and had put a pistol to his head in
1969. He ended his life at age 32. He could not take the woe times, so he
missed the joy times too. Only those who take the two together can make success
in life.
There is a time to
laugh.
It follows, therefore,
that there is a time not to laugh. Jesus told the crowd that the little girl
was not dead, but sleeping. There response was, as recorded in Mark 5:40,
"But they laughed at Him." It was poor timing for laughter, for Jesus
was not joking, but was dead serious, and when the little girl was soon eating
her lunch, the joke was on them.
Abraham and Sarah were
told they would have a child in their old age, and Sarah laughed. It would be a
joke for anybody to have a baby at age 90, but her laughter was a lack of
faith, and so it was poorly timed. When her son was born she laughed again, and
named her son Issac, which means laughter. It was a right time then to enjoy
God's sense of humor.
There is a time to
mourn. There are funeral times, and wedding times. There are times for sorrow
and times for gaiety. If it is true that there is a best time for the various
emotions, it follows then that we have a capacity to do a lot of choosing about
how we feel. We are not limited by the circumstances. Joyce Hiffler put it in
poetry,
Though April may bring
you a shower or a flower-
A rainbow of every
hew.
Though the sun may
touch your nose or your toes-
Happiness depends on
you.
Love may come with a
flair or with care-
Or whistle a tune for
your ear,
And whether the sound
be a joy or annoy-
Depends upon how you
hear.
Life waits for no one,
nor hurries away-
It's there for the
choosing, you see-
Whether April or May,
or whatever the day-
It's that which you
make it to be!
There is a time to
scatter stones and a time to gather them. Stones were gathered in order to make
a fence or boundary of one's property, and this is at times a good and
necessary thing for order and the protection of one's property. But the person
who is forever building walls to protect himself, and who never breaks them
down, will become a hermit, and cut himself off from relationships that give
life meaning.
There is a time in
embrace and a time to refrain. There is a time for affection, and a time to be
cool and save your affection for a more appropriate time. People disturb others
when they express affection constantly in public. At the airport or bus stop it
is okay if two people start hugging and kissing. In a store or restaurant this
seems out of place and bothers people. It is not that anybody is
anti-affection, but it seems to be to personal for public display. At a wedding
everybody is happy to see the bride and groom hold each other and kiss, but the
same thing in the mall makes people feel uncomfortable. Solomon is just saying
there are times when it is wise to refrain from expressing affection.
There is a time to
search and a time to give up.
There is a time to
keep and a time to throw away. We tend to go to extremes, and we either keep everything,
like a packrat, and make all of life messy, or we keep our environment neat by
throwing everything away. I have been in homes where keeping has become a key
virtue of life. Not a newspaper in the last ten years has left the house. You
know the minute you walk in something is wrong. The timing mechanism in these
people is not working. They do not have balance because they cannot throw
things away.
It is a joy to go into
a cluttered messy room and see it take on order as you fill the waste basket or
the garbage bag with junk. I have had this pleasure many times in life. It is
not always easy to know the best time to keep or to throw away. Many times I've
had the pleasure of seeing something on the garage shelf that I was glad I did
not throw away. On the other hand there are things I have kept for years that
should have been thrown away long ago. We just need to work at balance and keep
some things, and throw other things away.
There is a time to
tear and a time to mend.
There is a time to be
silent and a time to speak. The quite time is a good example when silence is
precious. But silence when you should speak up is not good. Silence can be
golden, but it can also be just yellow. Sir Arthur Conon Doyle had a large and
eager audience as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Because of this he had a
great responsibility for knowing when to speak and when to keep silent. He did
not recognize this, however,
and used his power of
speech to destroy many lives. He got so caught up in spiritualism, and in communicating
with the dead, that he traveled everywhere giving lectures on the subject.
His seven lectures in
New York City's Carnegie Hall was a record-breaking sell out. He so persuaded
people that they could speak to their dead loved ones that mediums did a
thriving business, but so did the undertaker. A rash of suicides followed his
lectures. People rushed into the next life to meet their loved ones. Suicide
notes littered the town, and they all had one thing in common: Gratitude to
Arthur. This was not his intention,
and he cannot be held
accountable for the foolish things people do, but the fact is, he was giving
people encouragement to do the foolish things they did. He would have done more
good by being silent until he could offer people what they needed to live,
rather than to escape.
Tom Dewey, in 1944,
was running for president against Franklin Roosevelt. He got some information
that United States intelligence had cracked the Japanese secret code. This
meant Roosevelt knew of the plan to attack Pearl Harbor before it happened. He
struggled to know whether he should bring this damming information into the
campaign, or not. The nation was still at war, and it could undermine U. S.
intelligence. He chose to keep silent. It was a wise decision, for in 1891,
over a decade after Dewey died, a secret document was declassified. It revealed
that the Japanese code cracked in 1931 was the diplomatic code, and not the
military code. There was no advance knowledge of the attack on Pearl Harbor. In
fact, Japan's own Premiere and Minister of War did not know about it. Dewey
died not knowing he had made the wise choice, but it was wise to chose silence.
There is a time to
love and a time to hate. There are many things to hate in this world, for it is
a world full of things that are contrary to the will of God. Alcoholism has a
right to be near the top of things to be hated. Millions who have seen their
loved ones killed or maimed know what it is to hate alcoholism. Paul Aurandt
tells this true story of Miss C. A. Moore. She married a doctor Charles Gloyal
during the Civil War. He was a captain in the war, and he began to drink. Miss
Moore did not know until after they were married in 1867. When patience came to
him he was often drunk. Things went down hill rapidly as she bore a child, and
had to live in poverty because of his drinking. Finally his father came to her
rescue and took her to his home. A year later her husband died of excessive
drinking.
She remarried, and
this time to a non-drinker. He was a minister named David. This could have been
a happy marriage, but she forgot there was a time for love. She was so bitter
that she devoted all her time to hate. She became quit famous as she traveled
around the country crusading against demon rum. She was so obsessed that David
divorced her on ground of desertion. With the balance of love in her life she
could have been a happy wife, but she chose to be known only for her hatred.
Her second husband,
however, did give her
the name that she is famous for. His name was pastor David Nation, the second
husband of Carry Nation.
If you do not know the
story of Carry Nation and her method of destroying saloons with her hatchet,
you do not know one of the great hate stories of history. She had good reason
to hate, and she did a lot of good because of her hate, but she gave hate to
great a portion of her time. The result of this lack of balance was that her
life missed one of God's greatest blessings. It is right and good to hate evil,
but it must be balanced with a love for good.
There is a time for
war and a time for peace.
7
GOD AND BEAUTY Based on Eccles. 3:1-11
When my daughter was
little I use to take her for a ride on a mini bike through the fields. There
were a number of wild flowers, and just on impulse I said to Cindy, "Let's
see how many flowers we can find out here." Every time we saw a different
kind of flower she would pick it, and we would go on with the search. In a
matter of minutes we were amazed at the variety, and within half an hour we had
the most beautiful bouquet of 23 different kinds of wild flowers. Such an
experience made a deep impact on both of us. We were impressed with the fact
that God is a lover of beauty, and that there is more beauty in God's creation
than most of us ever see. If you keep your eyes open, you never know when or
where you will experience new beauties. Douglas Malloch put it in poetry-
Along the journey here
and there
You often find a
flower,
Just anytime or
anywhere,
No special place or
hour.
They are not planted
in a row;
You never guess, you
never know;
Around a bend a fellow
goes,
And right ahead he
sees a rose.
If a Christian is not
feeding his soul on the beauties of life, he will not be growing in beauty
himself, and will be failing to fulfill the purpose of God in his life.
Rousseau said, "Take from our hearts the love of the beautiful and you
take away the charm of life." Beauty plays an important role in the life
of a believer, but it is seldom given serious consideration. Dr. Harry Fosdick
once said, "Nothing in human life, least of all in religion, is ever right
until it is beautiful." Nothing that is truly Christlike is ever ugly. All
of the fruits of the spirit are beautiful.
William Blake went so
far as to say, "A Poet, a Painter, a Musician, an Architect, the man or
woman who is not one of these is not a Christian." He is saying that every
true Christian will add some beauty to life, or he is not being Christian.
Marion L. Bliss in her book The Way Of Wonder explains why this is so.
"Because to be a Christian is to be a follower of perfection, and a man
who seeks perfection soon becomes an artist. The true philosopher is a follower
of truth; the true musician is a follower of harmony and law; the true architect
is a follower of order and design and symmetry; the true painter is a follower
of light and beauty; the true poet is a follower of love. These paths are the
paths of perfection, truth, harmony, law, order, design, light, beauty and
love, and all lead to one goal-God."
The Gospel and beauty
have always gone hand in hand in their transforming march across the world
scared by sin. Whenever men turn to Christ their lives and their environment
become more beautiful. When John Wesley rode up and down through the English
countryside during the last half of the 18th century, his soul was touched by
the poverty, and ugliness of the village life. He decided to start a contest.
He distributed flower seeds to all of the housewives, and he offered prizes to
those who could raise the most beautiful gardens. The result is that the
English countryside has the reputation of being the most colorful in the world.
Wesley not only changed the history of Christianity in the English world, but
his love of beauty changed even the physical environment. He would have said
amen to the poet who wrote,
If of thy mortal goods
thou are bereft,
And from thy slender
store to loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the
dole
Buy hyacinths to feed
thy soul.
Our purpose in this
message is to show that the Bible supports this emphasis on the importance of
beauty. It is not a luxury, but a necessity for the good and godly life.
Philosophers have always included beauty among the highest values of life.
Their trinity of values have always been the good, the true, and the beautiful.
We want to consider this subject under three headings: The fact of beauty; the
form of beauty, and the force of beauty. Let's look first at-
I. THE FACT OF BEAUTY.
Our text tells that
God has made everything beautiful in its time. If there is any man who cannot
see that God loves beauty, he is blind indeed. You just as well try and teach a
stone to appreciate Bach as to try and teach such a person to appreciate the
Master Artist of all beauty. Such persons are rare, however, and Clarence E.
Macartney, the great preacher, was convinced that the love of beauty was so
deeply implanted in us by God that this is the reason why people long to escape
from the city into the country. God planted a garden of unspeakable beauty for
man's first environment, and Macartney says that man has never been able to
throw off the influence of that early environment.
The fact is, God made
the first garden and all of its beauty. In the Old Testament there are 23
different Hebrew words for beautiful, beauty, and beautify. In the New
Testament the word is seldom used, but the emphasis is still there. Jesus, for
example, pointed to the beauty around Him to illustrate His teachings.
"Behold the lilies of the field. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed
as one of these." Jesus saw greater beauty in a flower than in the man
made beauty of royal garments. Jesus appreciated beautiful clothes, and He wore
a robe of such beautiful handiwork that the soldiers gambled to see who would
become the fortunate possessor of it. For Jesus, however, nothing could match
the garments God gave to the flowers of the fields.
According to Ruskin in
his book The Seven Lamps of Architecture, all man made beauty is an imitation
of what God has made in the realm of natural beauty. This is illustrated by the
fact that God's design of the Tabernacle and Temple, and all that had to do
with architecture and worship was exceedingly beautiful in color, form, and was
to have flowers craved everywhere to ornament the place of worship. Let me
share just a few of the many references.
In I Kings 6:18 the
temple that Solomon built is described: "The cedar within was carved in
the form of gourds and open flowers..." v. 29 says, "He craved all
the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim and palm
trees and open flowers..." Ex. 25 describes the flowers carved in the
Tabernacle also. The fact is, God demanded everything connected with the
worship of Him to be of the finest beauty.
Psa. 96:6-"Honor
and majesty are before Him, strength and beauty are in His sanctuary."
Ezra
7:27-"Blessed be the Lord, the God of fathers, who put such a thing into
the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the Lord which is in
Jerusalem."
Isa. 60:13-"The
glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plane, and the pine, to
beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet
glorious."
These are just a few
of the many verses that make clear the fact of God's love of beauty. He wants
men to create beauty by imitating His own creativity in nature. Let us next
consider-
II. THE FORM OF
BEAUTY.
We can only touch on a
few of the many issues involved in what beauty really is. Many Christians have
had low standards in what they consider beautiful. In their rejection of the
world's values the Christians of the past have thrown out some of God's values
along with those of the world. This is easy to do because some things are
universally beautiful, and they appeal to all people whether they be Christians
or unbelievers. What a Christian considers beautiful determines a great deal as
to the character and conduct of his life.
Frank Gaebelein,
writing in Christianity Today, says that many evangelical Christians have,
"The snobbery of the banal." That is, a pride in the second and third
rate which expresses contempt for the first rate. Christians often call certain
music, drama, and art, high brow and egghead. They are devoted to third rate TV
programs and music that has nothing to do with worship. He writes, "Evangelicals
turn away from art as a side issue or frill at the peril of their own
impoverishment and at the cost of ineffectiveness in their witness. For art,
which is the expression of truth through beauty, cannot be brushed aside as a
luxury. We who know God through His Son who is altogether lovely must be
concerned that the art we look at, listen to, read, and use in the worship of
the living God has integrity."
He calls for
Christians to get their youth involved in, not just hikes, picnics, games, and
parties, but in activities where they learn to appreciate the beautiful in all
realms of life. William Lyon Phelps, the Christian professor at Yale, said,
"The way to appreciate beauty is to keep looking at it; to appreciate
music is to keep listening to it, and to appreciate poetry is to keep reading
it." All of this is but commentary on the words of Paul in Phil. 4:8,
which opens up the whole universe of beauty for the Christian. Paul said,
"...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is
pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if
there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." The
Christian is obligated to be devoted to the beautiful in every realm of life.
The Bible speaks of
many forms of beauty. There are a number of women referred to as beautiful. The
fair form of the female is a form of art in which most men need no
encouragement to gain an interest. The references to men's attraction to female
beauty in the Bible make it clear that beauty is the foundation for romantic
love. In the Song of Songs 6:4 the man says, "Thou art beautiful O my
love," and he goes on to describe her beauty. The majority of texts on
physical beauty deal with women, but they do not have the monopoly, for David and
his son Absolom were also beautiful of form and handsome. Physical beauty is
valuable according to Scripture. Prov. 20:29 says, "The glory of young men
is their strength, but the beauty of old men is their gray hair. There is a
form of beauty in old age not processed in youth.
A wife said to her
husband, "Will you love me when my hair turns gray?" He said,
"Why not? I've stuck with you through brown, black, blonde, and red."
American women spend several billion dollars a year on beauty aids. They obviously
consider beauty to be of great value. The druggist said to the customer,
"Did that mud pack I sold you help your wife's appearance?" He
answered, "It did for a couple of days, but then it wore off."
External beauty is
good, but the Bible makes it clear also that it is not the finest form of
beauty. Mrs. Ted Dienert, the youngest daughter of Billy Graham, gave a lecture
to a women's club on beauty. She said, "True beauty, I believe, comes from
the heart. It is something that can be cultivated. A beautiful woman is someone
who takes a positive attitude. She is an interesting person to be with."
She is saying that the best form of beauty is that which comes from the inner
life, and she gives this quote, "When a graceful figure is the habitation
of a virtuous soul, and when the beauty of the face speaks out the modesty and
humility of the mind, it raises our thoughts up to the great Creator."
The Apostle Peter
would say amen to this, and as a married man himself, he gives this advice to
married women in I Peter 3:3-4. "Let not yours be the outward adorning
with the braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of robes, but let it
be the hidden person of heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quite
spirit, which in God's sight is very precious." Real and lasting beauty is
spiritual. The church is in the greatest beauty business on earth, for its
message, if obeyed, can beautify any person with ultimate beauty.
Jesus died that we
might be forgiven and cleansed from sin, and restored to the image of God from
whence we fell. This is the greatest beautifying process in the entire
universe. Jesus only used the word beautiful once, and it was to show that
external beauty is superficial. He said to the Scribes and Pharisees in Matt.
23:27, "You are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful
but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." Depth
of beauty in the inner man is what really counts.
The Bible does not
oppose external beauty, for its speaks favorably of beautiful clothes, jewels,
settings, and places, but it makes clear that lasting and godlike beauty is
inner beauty. In Psa. 29:2, and in two other places, we are called upon to
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. When this is done Psa. 149:4 says
that God will beautify the meek with salvation. In Psa. 90:17 the prayer of
Moses is, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." David's
longing in Psa. 27:4 is to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his
life, and to behold the beauty of the Lord. God is the author of all beauty,
and the highest form of beauty is like His, which is the beauty of the spirit.
Let's look finally at-
III. THE FORCE OF
BEAUTY.
Beauty has great power
to move men, and that is why Paul urged Christians to think on the beautiful.
"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." A man whose focus is on the
beautiful will be an optimist. Beethoven composed his masterpiece the 5th
Symphony, called the Victory Symphony, during the first year of the Peninsular
War when Napoleon's shallow loomed over all of Europe. Napoleon was planning
for an all out attack, and Beethoven might have despaired of creating anything
beautiful in such a dark hour. But he knew beauty would remain when the smoke
of war cleared, and so with his mind focused on beauty he went ahead and
finished his symphony. The ugly war is long forgotten, but the beauty of his
music lives on, and it blesses and inspires people all over the world.
Beauty speaks a powerful
language to those who will listen. It is the language of hope, victory, and
optimism. Frederick Brown Harris, the one time chaplain of the U. S. Senate,
said, in hours of greatest sentiment and significance, when language breaks
down, and orchid takes over." You have heard the add, "Say it with
flowers," and philosophers and poets really mean it. They say the beauty
of flowers can communicate what words never can. J. G. Percival has even
written on the Language of Flowers, and in poetry says,
In Eastern lands they
talk in flowers,
And tell in a garland
their loves and cares;
Each blossom that
blooms in their garden bowers,
On its leaves a mystic
language bears.
The language of beauty
is universal, and so simple that all may understand. If men would listen to the
full implications of the message of beauty, it would lead them to the author of
beauty. Beauty has the force to move men to God. Hugh Macmillan has recorded
the beautiful French story of flower power. A nobleman was imprisoned in a
dreary fortress because of his part in a plot against Napoleon. During his
lonely captivity a little wild flower grew up between two stones in his prison
court. It attracted his attention, and having nothing else to do, he watched it
grow. He was amazed that he had never taken time before to watch the beauty of
nature develop.
That plant became his
companion, and he even gave it a name. One day while he lay ill in his bed the
jailer announced that his plant friend had put forth a flower. He leapt to his
feet, and forgetting his illness, was lost in admiration for its beauty and
fragrance. He felt the healing power of beauty, and his mind turned to God, who
alone could be the author of such loveliness. He had heard the Gospel of God's
love, and God's gift of salvation in His Son, but he had never accepted the Son
as his Savior. In the presence of this beauty, however, he submitted to the
Redeemer whose life was symbolized by the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the
Valley. Beauty had opened his eyes to the author of all beauty.
As the flower grew it
became to large for its small space, and it was beginning to whither. He asked
the jailer's daughter to take a message to the Empress Josephine pleading for a
stone to be removed to spare the life of his precious companion. The Empress
marveled at his concern for a flower, and she successfully pleaded for his
release. He married the jailer's daughter, and long after he died his widow
wore a costly broach in which were the faded remains of a prison flower, whose
beauty changed their lives so completely.
If any man will
honestly look at the facts of beauty, and consider all the forms of beauty,
especially the highest of inner and spiritual beauty, he will feel the force of
beauty leading him into fellowship with the author of beauty. The beauty of
salvation is a gift received by submitting to the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of
the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star-that is, to Him whose every name
proclaims Him the author, lover, and sustainer of all beauty-the Lord Jesus
Christ.
May the prayer of each
of our lives be, "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me." May our
lives be filled with the flower power of the Lily of the Valley. May our lives
be illuminated by the shining power of the Son of Righteousness, that through
us the force of beauty might move others to experience the beauty of salvation
in Christ.
8.
WHAT IS BEAUTY Based on Song of Songs 1:15-16
Every woman wants to
be beautiful, and that is why the beauty business is a seven billion dollar a
year industry, and the largest advertiser in America. American women actually
worship beauty. They will do almost anything to attain it, including fasting if
it is necessary. They will try anything, and the result is sometimes tragic. In
his book, Love In America, David Cohn writes, "These martyrs to physical
beauty are buried or hustled to hospitals while millions of their sisters,
quite undaunted, continue their fanatically persistent search for the perfect
figure, grimly making their way through tasteless diets, gymnasiums, dancing
classes, and plastics surgeon's offices with a fatalistic tenacity unmatched
except by lemmings marching to destruction."
Why do women have this
drive to be beautiful? The answer is very simple-men. A woman's deepest desire
is to be attractive to men, and her greatest fear is to lack that attraction.
This leads to all kinds of vanity. A woman came to a pastor and confessed she
had a problem with the sin of pride. She said, "Sometimes I sit before my
mirror for hours admiring my beauty." The pastor responded, "That is
not the sin of pride. Your problem is an over active imagination."
Many women imagine
they are beautiful because they try all the gimmicks, and use all the products
that promise beauty. Arlene Dahl has taken a more logical approach. She wrote a
book titled, Always Ask A Man. She spent years asking men what they felt made a
woman beautiful. She says that by listening to men you can learn what qualities
every Adam looks for in his Eve. She learned that the ideals of men vary, but
she writes, "But without exception-every man put one quality above all
others in describing his ideal. That one essential attribute which all men seek
and admire in a woman is femininity." She then quotes a host of famous men
on the subject, and shows that they all agree. Yul Brynner summed it all up,
"Simply femininity is the most important thing about a woman, and it is a
quality a great many women are in jeopardy of losing. Women are being
emancipated out of their femininity in this modern age."
It is not just modern
men who feel this way about feminine beauty. We can go back to Washington, the
father of our country, and discover the same feelings. We so often see George
Washington in cold stone, or metal statues, that we seldom think of him as a
man with warm affections, and a love of beauty. From his youth he struggled
with his passions for pretty girls, and he wrote a poem about it.
O ye gods, why should
my poor resistless heart
Stand to oppose thy
might and power,
At last surrender to
Cupid's feathered dart,
And now lays bleeding
every hour.
He fell in love
several times, but his proposals for marriage were refused. We have other poems
he wrote to his sweethearts. When he fell in love with a widow, Martha Custis,
he finally found one who would marry him, and they had a great love, and a
great life together. So passionate was their love that before she died Martha
Washington destroyed all his letters to her, for she felt such love deserved to
be kept secret.
The Song of Solomon,
however, records for us the universal experience of love, and the universal
love of beauty. The Shepherd lover of this great song feels toward his shepherd
maiden just like men have always felt about the women they love. Throughout the
song he praises her feminine charms, and expresses delight in every aspect of
her beauty. He makes it clear that beauty does include the physical, for he
describes how he adores her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, cheeks, neck, and breasts.
All of these are described in the first few verses of chapter 4.
Beauty is not only in
the eyes of the beholder, but is an objective reality visible to all. Someone
said the average man can tell all he knows in 2 hours, and after that, he
begins to talk about women. Men do not claim to understand women, but they do
understand beauty. A man does not need to know anything about flowers to
appreciate and enjoy them. So also, ignorance cannot rob men of the one thing
they do know about women, and that is their beauty.
Abraham loved Sarah,
and she was beautiful to him, but he knew other men could see her beauty as
well, and so when he went to Egypt he said to her in Gen. 12:11, "I know
that you are a woman beautiful to behold, and when the Egyptians see you, they
will say, this is his wife, then they will kill me, but they will let you live."
He persuaded her to say she was his sister. The text goes on to say the
Egyptians thought Sarah was so beautiful, so they told Pharaoh, and he took her
into his harem. She was spared, however, and God saw to it she was returned to
Abraham undefiled. Beauty, we see here, was objective, and could be the cause
of a great deal of trouble in the life of a woman, or in the life of a man who
marries her.
Confucius was at least
partially right when he said, "She who is born beautiful is born with
sorrow for many a man." Uriah got himself murdered because he married the
beautiful Bathsheba. I remember an old Abbott and Costello film in which Lou
Costello was determined to marry a homely girl. He said, "If I marry a
pretty girl she may run away." Abbott thinks that is stupid logic and
says, "But a homely girl may run away too." "I know," said
Costello, "But if a homely girl runs away, who cares?"
Beauty can be a
problem, but it can also be a blessing. In Esther 2:7 we read of her,
"The maiden was beautiful
and lovely." In her case, many lives were saved because of her beauty. The
Jews would have suffered a great slaughter had it not been for the kings love
for this beautiful woman. The Jews celebrate to this day a yearly feast in
remembrance of their deliverance because of a beautiful woman. The Jews have
always had a very positive attitude toward the beauty of women. Ibn Ezra said,
"Rather little with beauty than much without it." Ben Siriach said,
"The beauty of a woman maketh bright the countenance," and, "As
the lamp shining on the holy candlestick, so is the beauty of a face on a
stately figure."
We could go on
stressing the importance the Old Testament gives to beauty in a woman, but to
relate it all to our passage in the Song of Songs, we need to see that beauty
is not limited to the feminine. Males can also be beautiful. In I Sam. 16:12 we
read of David, "Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was
handsome." His son Absolom was even more so, for we read in II Sam. 14:25,
"Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his beauty
as Absolom; from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no
blemish in him."
Beauty is a two way
street and covers both male and female. This is what we see in the 15th and
16th verses of this first chapter. In verse 15 the Shepherd says to the
Shulamite girl, "Behold you are beautiful, my love, behold you are
beautiful." The repetition is a method of expressing superlative and
surpassing beauty. In verse16, most commentators agree, we have her response,
and she returns the compliment, behold, you are beautiful my beloved."
Leigh Hunt said, "The beautiful attracts the beautiful." Here are two
beautiful people trying to out do each other in expressing their adoration.
This is the kind of mutual love and admiration we see between the lovers in
this greatest of songs. Beauty is one of the themes that runs all through this
song, because beauty and love go together, and that is why beauty, like love,
is a great power.
Beauty can motivate both
men and women to live lives of loyalty and sacrifice.
When Paul wrote to the
Philippians he said in 4:8, "Whatever is lovely, whatever is
gracious, if there is
any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about
these things."
Paul probably did not have lovely looking people in mind, but the fact
is, the power of
positive thinking is aided by the beauty of people. Power can be used
for good or evil, and
so the devil himself uses the power of beauty, for he can be an angel of light.
The world is full of beautiful lights and beautiful places to lure people into
the ugliness of sin. Evil cannot succeed on its own. It must make use of
something good to get anywhere, and that is why beauty is one of its primary
resources.
Nevertheless, it is
God who is the author of beauty, and it is a great power for good.
Joanna Bailie wrote,
To make the cunning
artless, tame the rude,
Subdue the haughty,
shake the undaunted soul;
Yea, put a bridal in
the lion's mouth,
And lead him forth as
a domestic cur,
These are the triumphs
of all-powerful Beauty!
Micheal Angelo said of
his love, that her beauty led him up from low desires and made
him want to strive for
heaven's best. He said, "How good, how beautiful must be the God
that made so good a
thing as thee." History is full of great men of God whose greatness,
in part, was due to
their love of one they felt was beautiful. Johnathan Edwards, the
giant intellect, had
some awful burdens to bear. Without his wife Sarah it is doubtful he
could have survived his
trials. He was so captivated by her beauty that he wrote to her
concerning a speedy
wedding, "Patience is commonly esteemed a virtue, but in this case
I may also regard it
as a vice."
The beauty he saw was
physical, but love does deepen the beauty of lovers so that it is far more than
a mere matter of the skin. That beauty is only skin deep is a skin deep saying.
External beauty is for attraction, but it is internal beauty that will bind two
people together even when age or circumstances rob them of the external.
Lasting beauty is inner beauty, and that is why Peter urged Christian women not
to labor for surface beauty, but to beautify the heart with the imperishable
jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit. Sir Hunt wrote,
What is beauty? Not a
show
of shapely limbs and
features. No.
These are but flowers
That have their dated
hours
To breathe their
momentary sweets, then go.
Tis the stainless soul
within
That outshines the
fairest skin.
The French say,
"Beauty without virtue is a flower without perfume." Capito said,
"Beauty alone may
please, not captivate; If lacking grace, tis but a hookless bait." We
must recognize that
the real power of beauty depends upon its depth. If it does not go
into the very heart of
the person, then however enchanting the external beauty, it will
not have a lasting
effect. This is not just a Christian teaching, but has been recognized
by all wise men. The
ancient Greek poet Euripides said, "More precious in a woman is
a virtuous heart than
a face of beauty." Not only is the virtuous heart a vital element,
but intelligence is
also an important part of a truly beautiful person. The surface specialist
forgets this aspect of beauty. Margaret Fishbeck wrote, "Women are wacky.
Women
are vain. They'd
rather be pretty than have a good brain."
If the internal
aspects of beauty are neglected, and only the externals are emphasized,
beauty becomes a
negative thing, and a source of vanity. That is why Prov. 31:30 says,
"Charm is
deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be
praised."
The beauty that has
the power to please God is the beauty of mind and soul. It is still
true, however, that
external beauty is a great value and power. The Shepherd lover says
to the Shulamite girl
that her eyes are doves. He repeats this again later. He is deeply
moved by the beauty of
her eyes. In love poetry the eyes are a key focus of attention.
Heine wrote,
Two sapphires those
dear eyes of thine,
Soft as the skies
above thee;
Thrice happy is the
man to whom
Those dear eyes say: I
love thee.
The reference here to
eyes like a dove refers to their gentleness and purity. The dove
has meek and gentle
eyes. They are very feminine, and not like the fierce eyes of the
hawk or vulture. The
dove is symbolic of the Holy Spirit because of its affectionate nature
and fidelity of its
mate. The spirit of a woman is reflected in her eyes. Byron wrote,
She walks in beauty
like the night
of cloudless climes
and starry skies;
and all that's best of
dark and bright
meet in her aspect and
her eyes.
All Christians should
have beautiful eyes. If the spirit of Christ is allowed to fill us,
then the dove-like
gentleness of the Holy Spirit should fill our eyes with love. As we
look at the love
language of this song, it is so easy to forget that though it deals with
literal lovers, it
also has reference to the spiritual love of Christ and His church. This means
that beauty is an important aspect of the Christian life. Jesus is the author
of all
beauty, and He loves
beauty, and especially the beauty of people who are being conformed
to His image. He
became ugly for a while as He went through the agony of the cross that
we might become
beautiful forever.
Jesus was a beautiful
person Himself. Many fail to realize this because of a misunder-
standing of one
passage in Isa. 53:2 which says, "He had no form or comeliness that we
should look at Him,
and no beauty that we should desire Him." Some have concluded
that Jesus must have
been homely, but the context makes it clear that this refers to Jesus
only in His hour of
rejection when He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Before the cross all
the evidence points to Jesus as being one of the most handsome
of men ever to live.
John Gill, the great Puritan commentator, referring to the virgin birth
of Christ, "As it
was free from sin, so was no doubt free from all the blemishes and defects
of nature.....and in
this sense, ...may He be said to be fairer than the children of Adam."
No sacrifice could be
offered to the Lord if it was not perfect and without blemish. Jesus
was the perfect once
for all sacrifice for the sins of the world, and He, therefore, had to
be a perfect specimen
of mankind.
The body of Jesus is
the ideal toward which we all move, for we shall ultimately be
like Him. When we
sing, "Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me," it is true, we think
of
His internal beauty,
but the fact is, in glory, when we are like Him, it will be a likeness
also to His external
beauty. Jesus was the brightness of His Father's glory, and the expressed image
of His person. It is not likely Jesus had any defect in His body, or anything
that would be inconsistent with the image of God. All people were drawn to Him.
Women and children, and great husky fishermen were moved by His charm and
personality. He was an ideal man, and nothing in Scripture indicates otherwise.
If I see a person known for their beauty who has been in an accident, and I
come and tell you they look terrible, you would not conclude that that person
was ugly. You would know that the accident had marred them, and made them ugly
to behold. So it is with Christ on the cross. His beauty was marred by man's
cruelty, but He was a beautiful person before the cross, and a beautiful person
after His resurrection.
We do not have a homely
lover of our souls on the throne of majesty. One day we will
see the King in His
beauty and behold His glory. Even now Paul says the light of the
knowledge of the glory
of God is given us in the face of Jesus Christ. There is great power
in the beauty of
Christ to move us to acts of love, and to transform us into His likeness.
The hymn says,
Jesus! I am resting,
resting in the joy of what Thou art;
I am finding out the
greatness of Thy loving heart.
Thou hast bid me gaze
upon Thee, and Thy beauty fills my soul;
For, by Thine
transforming power Thou hast made me whole.
Whether it be a
romantic or a religious love, there is no escaping the importance of
beauty. Men must be
attracted by beauty before they can love. If Jesus can look at us
like the Shepherd
looked at the Shulamite girl, and say we are beautiful, and our eyes are
doves, then we are
beautiful people. We are people whose life and attitude express the gentle love
of the Holy Spirit. If we find the fire of love is going out, and we do not care
for those for whom
Christ died, then we need to get a spiritual beauty treatment, and pray,
Come Holy Spirit,
heavenly dove,
With all thy
quickening powers;
Kindle a flame of
heavenly love
In these cold hearts
of ours.
We can get by without
beauty of body, but there is no substitute of beauty of soul.
D. L. Moody in his
book, Secret Power said, "A man may be a very successful lawyer
and no love for his
clients...a man may be a very successful physician and have no love
for his patients...a
man may be a very successful merchant and have no love for his
customers.....but no
man can be a co-worker with God without love.....We cannot work
for God without love.
It is the only tree that can produce fruit on this sin-cursed earth
that is acceptable to
God."
George Pinwell painted
a famous picture he called, The Elixir Of Love. A charlatan
is standing in the
village square offering for sale a love potion which he guarantees will
awaken love, and make
you beautiful to your lover. Young lovers are crowded around
wondering if it can be
true. Older people purchased some in expectation that it will bring
back the glow of
love's younger days. People of all kinds are portrayed as being hungry
for a taste of that
which will make them beautiful. With keen spiritual insight the artist
represents the
charlatan standing at the foot of the village cross. Above him the arms of
the cross are
stretched out, symbolic of the all encompassing love of Christ who longs
to make all men
beautiful before God, by forgiving and cleansing from sin. None give
heed, however, but go
on buying that which will not satisfy.
Beauty is possible for
all, but what is beauty? It is Christlikeness, and can only be attained by
those who love Christ and adore Him as the Shulamite girl did her Shepherd lover.
A loyal love is not only beautiful in itself, it is the key to growth in
beauty. Loving people are beautiful people. Just as we have an obligation to be
loving, we have an obligation to be beautiful, and being loving and beautiful
means to be like Christ.
9.
TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE Based on Eccles. 4:9-12
History is filled with
stories of how feuding people become peaceful partners because of the power of
love in the lives of two people. One of the most famous in American history is
that of an 18-year-old Indian girl Pocahontas and the Englishman John Rolfe.
The Virginia colony was very close to war with the Indian leader Powhatan. They
were in the midst of negotiations when the letter came from John Rolfe asking
for permission to marry Pocahontas. It was a pleasant surprise to both sides,
for they were heading for a showdown, and now everything was changed. It was
the first wedding between a white man and an Indian, and both sides were
pleased for it would mean peace between their peoples.
It was a glorious
feasting affair, and the first time that the whites and Indians could relax in
each other's presence for several years. The Indians brought much food, and so
it was the first time in as many years that the whites had been well-fed. Pocahontas
had become a Christian, and she took on the Christian name of Rebecca, and she
and her new husband went to England where she became the belle of London
society. Neither of these two people could have done much for their people
alone, but the two together made an impact that brought peace and profit to
all. They illustrate the truth of our text that two are better than one.
Two dollars are better
than one dollar, and two heads are better than one. Jesus was single, but he
chose disciples to be with them. He had no intention of trying to reach the
world by himself. Paul was single, but he was always seeking for companions and
partners in the ministry. Without Dr. Luke being by his side we would not have
the record of his life and journeys. God sent both His Son and His Spirit into
the world, and we need both to accomplish God's purpose because two are better
than one.
Jesus sent out His
disciples two by two for good reason, and we demand a second in parliamentary
procedure because at least two people have to be in agreement to make anything
worth debating. An idea that cannot get at least two people interested is not
worth the time of any group. It is just another way of saying that two are
better than one. Show me the man or woman who has ever become great alone, and
I will show you a fictional character. History will not support the idea that
you can become great alone. Everybody who is anybody needs somebody as a
partner. Even Cruso needed his Friday, and the Lone Ranger needed his Tonto.
Where would Abbot be without Costello, and Laurel without Hardy?
In the Christian world
we see that all great evangelists had their partners. Moody had his Sankey, and
Billy Graham had his George Beverly Shea. But there is no point in endlessly
trying to prove the obvious that two are better than one. It is almost as
self-evident as the saying that two are more than one. Everything about this
text is rather obvious. Two can get more work done than one. Two can handle a
problem better than one. Two can keep warm better than one. Two can defend
themselves better than one. It is not an absolute, for two masters are not
better than one, and Jesus said you can not serve two masters. It is not an
absolute truth, but it is true, and the challenge is to see how it should
change our lives in relationship to other people, and especially other people
we work with daily.
The essence of the
text is that everybody needs somebody. We all need support and help, and so we
all need a friend and companion. If Christ is going to transform our daily
work, or any other part of our life, there are two things that must be
happening in our lives at all times. We must be receptive to help from others,
and we must be responsive with help that is needed by others. In other words,
we need to practice in every situation the truth that two are better than one.
This two-fold process is basically love in action. You are to be ever
recruiting partners in life because two are better than one for you, and you
are to be ever recognizing the need for a partner in others because two are
better than one for them.
This two-fold process
of receptiveness and responsiveness will make this truth very practical and
helpful in all aspects of your life, and in all of your relationships. It is
really just another way of looking at how to do good to all men, for by
receiving help and giving help you do just that. Let's look at each of these
and see how they work.
I. BEING RECEPTIVE OF
HELP.
Our text says that two
are better than one for profits in work, for provision in meeting needs, and
for protection in conflict. The wise person, therefore, is one who rejects the
idea of isolation and total independence as the best life style. The one who
chooses that approach to life is saying that one is better than two, or any
other number. This is the satanic approach to life. It says, "I do not
need God or anybody else. I am self-sufficient and independent. All I need is
myself alone." Satan refused to be receptive to the idea of partnership
with God. He wanted to be God, and so he tempted Adam and Eve to renounce their
partnership and become gods on their own. Why share the power and the glory
with anybody when you can become your own god? This is the big lie of Satan.
Nietzsche bought into
this idea and became obsessed with keeping himself isolated from others lest
they contaminate his power and independence. His goal was to have no need of
anybody. He would only have a star-like relation to other people. A star can be
seen by another, but yet be far distant. Where did this egoistic isolation lead
him? It was to the mad house. God did not make us to be alone. He said it was
not good for man to be alone. That was the first negative in God's ideal
creation. We are made to be social creatures, and that is why two are better
than one. Nobody can be all God wants them to be by being alone. We must all be
receptive to help just as every part of the body must be receptive to the help
of other parts of the body. That is the only way the body can be all it can be.
One hand cannot applaud alone. It must be open to receive the partnership of
the other hand, and then the two can get the job done.
Aesop tells the story
of the members of the body getting sick and tired of the stomach getting all
the food and doing so little work. They decided to go on strike and not
cooperate with the stomach. The hands refused to put the food to the mouth, and
the mouth refused to take it in, and the teeth would not chew it anyway. They
all decided to go independent. In a few days they began to doubt the wisdom of their
approach. The hands could hardly move, and the legs could not support the body.
The mouth was parched and dry. The strike was called off because they
discovered that the body was not made to be independent. Only as each member
cooperated with the others could any of them fulfill their potential and
experience the best of life.
Because two are better
than one we have an obligation to be receptive to anyone who can add their one
to ours and make two. It is a part of wise living to be a cooperative person
ever open to help. On the job this means that that Christian needs to swallow
the pride that makes them feel they do not need the help of others. This is
especially the case when it comes to the help of non-believers. Christ can
transform your work just by getting you to realize that by being receptive to
the help of non-believers you can open the door to their interest in the things
of Christ. Paul needed the help of pagans to accomplish the plan of God for his
life, and he was not afraid to ask for their help. Because of this receptive
spirit Paul was able to open doors into the Gentile kingdom for the Word of
God. Solomon got much pagan help in building the temple to the glory of God.
The church and all
Christian relationships are built by cooperation. A theme that runs all through
the New Testament is that Christians are members one of another, and so all
that they do is to be on an interdependent level of one for another. We are to
love one another, have peace with one another, honor one another, not judge one
another, edify one another, receive one another, greet one another, serve one
another, bear one another's burdens, be kind to one another, submit to one
another, and comfort one another. There are many others that make it clear that
two are better than one. All that is good about the Christian life is found in
the relationship we have in the body with one another. It is the support and
encouragement we receive from one another that makes the Christian life
precious. We cannot be all God wants us to be without one another.
The secret of getting
Sunday to carry over into Monday is to recognize that his principle is one that
will fit the work place as well. We cannot cooperate with the worldly person in
their sin and folly, but we can find common ground where we can appreciate
their help and be open to receive that help. We need to recognize that
non-believers have skills and social values that are of value to the believer.
Christians and non-Christians work together to build much that is made in this world.
Some unknown poet put it,
All have a share in
the beauty;
All have a part in the
plan;
What does it matter
what duty
Falls to the lot of a
man?
Someone has blended
the plaster;
Someone has carried
the stone;
Never the man, nor the
master
Ever has builded
alone;
Making a roof for the
weather,
Building a house for
the king;
Only by working
together
Have men accomplished
a thing.
If we believe this, it
means the Christian has to take the principle of cooperation into the work
place and be a part of the answer rather than part of the problem. If two are
better than one, then the Christian had better seek every way they can to be a
partner. I never did win my atheist boss to Christ. I worked with him for 4
years, and I did leave him with a clear message that Christians can be good
partners with non-Christians in the work place. We did many projects together,
and we benefited one another. I was open to receive his help, and he was open
to receive mine. That is the kind of relationship we need to strive for in the
work place. I know from experience that it makes the work place so much more
enjoyable for everyone.
This principle applies
in all of life. Seek help from others, for by so doing you create a partnership
that is a mutual benefit. All of us have benefited because John Newton, the
author of amazing grace, applied this truth in relationship to William Cowper.
In 1773 Cowper was suffering another of his many spells of mental derangement
where he wanted to kill himself. Newton asked Cowper if he would help him write
a hymn book that would make church services more evangelical. This was the
beginning of one of the most beautiful of all historic friendships. These two
men worked together for 8 years in producing the Olney Hymns. Cowper, instead of
being dead, wrote 68 of the hymns in that collection, and they have made him
immortal in the church. Some of them we still sing, such as God Moves In A
Mysterious Way, and There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood.
Had Newton not been
receptive to his help, the Christian world may have lost one of its best hymn
writers. Not only that, but Cowper went on after this project to write his
first book of poems in 1785, and this made him the most favorably talked about
author in England. It was all because he had a friend who recognized that two
are better than one. All our work in life can be transformed by being receptive
to the help of others. The other side of the coin is-
II. BEING RESPONSIVE
WITH HELP.
There are always two
perspectives in a party of two. There is the partner who falls, and there is
the partner who helps the fallen up. We have looked at the need to be willing
to receive help when we have fallen, or are in some need. We have to be willing
to be dependent and open to receive the help of others. But this is only half
of the role of a partnership. You must also be willing to be the helper, and
the one who comes to the rescue to lift and support someone else when they are
down. This involves an active role of seeking to find those who need to go from
being one to being two.
This means a more
active and aggressive role in applying this truth that two are better than one.
It is not just being willing and open to receive help, but it is actively
seeking people who need help and responding to that need. It means a striving
to relieve the burden of oneness where ever you find it by an active
cooperation. Nansen and Johansen were polar explorers and they came to a point
where their survival depended upon the shooting and eating of their own dogs.
Neither had the heart to shoot his own dog, and so they exchanged their dogs,
and each sadly and silently went off and shot the other's dog. It was an awful
experience, but they demonstrated how two are better than one for survival.
People have different feelings about many things, and they need other people to
help them through difficult situations. A great way to help others is to be
willing to do things for them that they do not like to do themselves.
Charles Darwin had an
impact on the world because he proclaimed a view of life that changed history.
He painted a picture of nature that made it red in tooth and claw. It was the
survival of the fittest, and the weak would not make it. Life is a struggle,
and competition is the name of the game. This kind of thinking justified the
use of children in slave labor in the Industrial Revolution. Why not get out of
them all you can, and if they die in the process that is a matter of the
survival of the fittest. All prejudice and social evils could be justified, for
they were but human expressions of the laws of nature where the strong dominate
the weak.
Darwin's doctrine was
just what the exploiters of the world needed to justify all of their inhumanity
to man. His writings became the bible for all who would exploit inferiors. Social
Darwinism developed which said that the same laws, which govern nature and
evolution govern social life. That meant that the superior must dominate the
inferior. Competition is the key to success, and only those who compete well
will survive. It is a dog eat dog world in nature, and that is what it has to
be in the realm of man as well.
Peter Kropotkins was
the first reputable scientist to repudiate Darwin. He wrote a book in 1896
called Mutual Aid. In it he describes the force in nature that called for a
close dependency and cooperation. There is an interdependency that runs all
through nature that is consistently saying that two are better than one. More
and more scientist began to agree that nature does not just reveal competition,
but also the tremendous power and value of cooperation. The African crocodile,
after a hearty dinner, rests on the banks of the river with its mouth wide
open. Several kinds of birds dash across its tongue and teeth picking out
shreds of meat. He gets a free tooth cleaning, and they get a free meal.
Everybody is a winner. There are many such examples of cooperation in nature.
Kropotkins showed that
nature was loaded with mutual aid, and where the strong did not destroy the
weak, but where they worked together for mutual benefit and survival. Many
began to see that nature is not all about survival of the fittest only, but
about mutual dependency. Nature became an example of the truth that two are
better than one, and of the need for others help for survival and for a meaningful
life. This movement toward a different perspective of nature had a major
impact. Key leaders of radical Darwinism even changed their tune. Thomas
Huxley, for example, repudiated his gladiator theory of existence and admitted
that nature not only revealed the survival of the fittest, but also the
striving by cooperation to fit as many as possible for survival.
Biologists began to
focus on this side and discovered that even the single celled amoeba sought out
the companionship of other amoeba, and revealing that there is a social
appetite in all living things. Other studies revealed that all plants and
animals exhibit an automatic mutualism, which is a life of cooperation, making
two better than one. The fittest who survive are not those who are rugged individualists
who trample others down and care only for themselves, but rather those who care
for others as well as themselves. Experiments with gold fish showed that when a
toxic silver was given to them in isolation they all quickly died. But if this same
fatal dose was given to a group together they secreted a slime that diluted the
toxic poison that enabled them to live much longer, and had they been in nature
where rain could have diluted it even more they could have all survived.
Nature was shown to teach
not only the survival of the fittest but of the friendliest. Those who seek
companionship among all creatures are the most likely to survive, and the loner
is the most likely to be the first to perish. In 1944 a group of 15
distinguished biologists published a statement in Proceedings Of The
Philosophical Society Of Texas, which said, "The probability of survival
of individual living things increases with the degree in which they
harmoniously adjust themselves to each other and to their environment."
Ashley Montague in his
book On Being Human says the essence of life can be expressed in one
word-cooperation, or as Solomon put it-two are better than one. Science is
telling us that nature has a definition of sin. It is non-cooperation with
others that hurts them and you. This fits Satan's attitude toward God and that
of Adam and Eve in the fall. Nature confirms the revelation God has given in
His Word. His works confirm His words. Cooperation is the key, not only to
life, but to the good life. Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me." He felt like two all the time. To be Christ-like is
to never be alone. Jesus is the One who makes every Christian two. He is our
Companion who promises to never leave us nor forsake us.
In Christ we are never
alone, and to be aware of this is the key to so much of the Christian life.
Being good, or doing good to all men is hard, but it is made possible when we
recognize we are not alone. Christ is with us and is pleased by our attempts to
be of service in all situations. Ruth Calkins wonders aloud in her poem. She
writes-
You know, Lord, how I
serve you
With great emotional
fervor
In the limelight.
You know how eagerly I
speak for you
At a woman's club.
You know how I
effervesce when I promote
A fellowship group.
You know my genuine
enthusiasm
At a Bible study.
But how would I react,
I wonder
If you pointed to a
basin of water
And asked me to wash
the calloused feet
Of a bent and wrinkled
old woman
Day after day,
Month after month,
In a room where nobody
saw
And nobody knew.
There are many things
hard for the Christian to do when there is no recognition, but if we could only
grasp that we are recognized by Christ, and that we never do anything alone, but
are always made two with His presence, then we could do far more. We would be
motivated to do the things we get no credit for because they please our Partner
and Companion. The key to success in the Christian life is being always aware
that with Christ we are two, and two are always better than one.
10.
THE KEY TO FREEDOM Based on Judges 6:1-16
The story I am about
to tell is fiction, but it is funny and it has a point. After 38 years of
marriage I thought I knew everything about Lavonne. But I discovered something
new when we got back from our trip to Washington. I was putting things away and
I was pushing something under her side of the bed when I discovered a box that
was in the way. I asked her what it was and she just told me not to get into
it. I kept carrying things in from the car, but my mind was on that box. When
she went down for another load I quickly grabbed a peak into that box. I was
really surprised and mystified for in that box there were three eggs and 500
dollars.
When Lavonne came back
up I told her I was just too curious and could not resist looking into the box.
I asked her why there were three eggs in it? She just told me that when I would
preach a sermon that was not very good she would put an egg in the box. I
thought after 30 years of preaching that only three eggs was not bad at all.
But then I asked her what the 500 dollars was doing there? She explained,
"Every time I get a dozen eggs I sell them."
The story isn't true,
but it is an excellent illustration of the need to laugh at our selves, and to
realize that the best preacher and the best leader, and the best Christian are
nothing without God. Sarah laughed when the Angel of the Lord said she would
bear a child in her old age. What a joke that God would use her feeble body to
change history. If you want to see the sense of humor that God has, just look
at the heroes of history in and out of the Bible. Paul knew his history when he
wrote, "God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."
This is what the 4th of July is all about. It is about celebrating the freedom
that the weak have won from the strong.
The 13 colonies were
divided and weak, and they were going up against the greatest military power in
the world on both land and sea. The men who signed the Declaration of
Independence knew they were signing their own death warrant, for death was the
penalty for defying the crown of England. They were men of great stature like
Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. But the fact is, they were
all weak in many ways, and they knew that without the providence of God they
did not stand a chance.
The Declaration of
Independence was composed by using phrases from the popular sermons of that
day. Listen to it and you can hear the clear sense of dependence upon God.
"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal.... We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America,
in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for
the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name and by the Authority of the
good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, that these United
Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent States.... And for
the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of
divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes,
and our sacred Honor."
What we need to keep
in mind is that these noble words were forged in debate. Jefferson, the deist,
did not want so much about God in the Declaration, but he was out voted by the
others. Many did not want to approve of the Declaration, and there were
eloquent voices that spoke against it. John Adams called it the greatest debate
of all and he argued vigorously for its acceptance. When congress voted nine of
the thirteen colonies voted for it, but that was not enough, for it had to be
unanimous. So the debate went on and on until all of the colonies agreed, and
thus they became the United States of America.
The more you read of
the history of our nation the more you realize the heroes of our history were
not gods come down to earth, but they were weak and fallible men who knew they
didn't have a prayer without the providence of God. It was their dependence
upon God that enabled them to declare their independence from tyranny.
Dependence upon God was the key to freedom. It was a joke to think this puny
body of people could win a war with England, but that is just the kind of joke
God loves to play on the tyrants of history.
Puny David defeated
Goliath; puny Daniel defeated the powerful leaders of Babylon, and puny Israel
defeated the Egyptians and the mighty Midianites. It is one of God's favorite
jokes, and we see it again so clearly in the life of Gideon. We want to focus on
his story as an illustration of how God works in history, for it is a great
encouragement to all of us who feel so weak and inadequate to do the will of
God in this fallen world. That Gideon would ever become a hero was a real joke.
He was one of the greatest cowards in the Bible, and he had good reason to be
one. His whole nation was a people of weakness.
Israel was oppressed
by the power of the Midianites. Every year they would plant their crops, and then
just when they were ready for harvest the Midianite hoards would sworn over
their land and destroy it, and leave them in poverty. They were helpless, and
they had to leave their land and climb into the mountains and live in caves.
They were like the scrawny little chicken that all the other chickens pecked
until it was nearly dead. Among these weaklings was Joash and his son Gideon.
They had some grain that was secretly threshed in a wine press to hide it from
the Midianites. Imagine being so weak you had to hide your food lest a bully
take it away from you and leave you starving.
Now we see the humor
of God, for the Angel of the Lord comes to Gideon as he is making enough grain
for his lunch, and looking around to make sure the Midianites do not spot him.
He is in fear lest he be caught making his lunch, and the Angel greets him with
these words, "The Lord is with you mighty warrior." Mighty warrior
was such an exaggeration that Gideon did not even respond. He just questioned
the Lord being with him, or with anyone among his people. Not only was Gideon a
weakling and a coward, he was a skeptic and a pessimist. They lived in fear for
their lives, and even lived in fear while preparing their lunch. They were a
weak and helpless people. They had every reason to be discouraged and
disillusioned about the good old days when God lead His people out of Egypt
with great power. Gideon's question was, "Big deal, what has he done for
us lately?"
The Angel of the Lord
persists in the joke of treating Gideon like a mighty warrior, and he says,
"Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of the hand of the
Midianites." But Gideon is equally persistent in trying to set the Lord
straight on the facts. "All this talk of strength and power is superficial.
Look at the facts: Israel is the weakest nation around, and I belong to the
weakest clan in my tribe, and I am the least in my family." If the
Guinness Book of Records was printed in Gideon's day, he would be found under
the weakest man in the world. Gideon could not even make a sandwich without
fear and trembling that the Midianites might see it and take it away from him.
From a human point of
view this would be a handicap for one called to lead an army against a mighty
foe. But from God's point of view this is just the kind of man He was looking
for. Why? Because the problem of God's people all through history is that they
thought it was their power and their goodness that made them God's people. And
in their pride they fell. God was continually having to teach them that He did
not choose them because they were wonderful. He chose them in their weakness to
reveal to the world how great and wonderful He was in loving and saving people
even though they were totally unworthy.
If we get God's joke,
we will laugh at ourselves, and we will see the foolishness of pride and
self-glory. Tal Bonham in his book Humor God's Gift points out that ability to
laugh at our selves is the key to spiritual health. Christians who take
themselves too seriously, as if their gifts and their wisdom and their service
is the key ingredient to the success of the kingdom of God, have missed the
whole point of God's joke. The success of anything that leads to God's glory is
not dependent upon man but upon God. We need to laugh at ourselves when we have
the audacity to think that God's plan depends upon us.
Ethel Barrymore said,
"You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself."
Reinhold Niebuhr, the great theologian, said, "The less we are able to
laugh at ourselves, the more it becomes necessary and inevitable that others
laugh at us." Many are convinced that people that cannot laugh at
themselves cannot see their sinful nature, and so they are really blind to how
weak they really are. Bernard Ramm said, "Humor reminds us that we are not
gods nor goddess." He said that dictators and fanatics always lack a sense
of humor because they have classified themselves among the gods. They refuse to
tolerate any reminder of their humanity.
The point is, the
truly humble person that God is looking for is one who, like Gideon, knows it
is joke to call him a mighty warrior. He is weak and he knows it. But he also
knows that if God is really with him, he can be used to do mighty things.
Gideon was a chicken and a skeptic, and he needed all kinds of proof that God
was with him. And even when God gave him evidence he did not boldly obey but
had to get up in the middle of the night to destroy the altar of Baal. He was
afraid of the Midianites and afraid of his own people as well. This great hero
was afraid of everybody, and he was afraid of God also. He pleaded with God not
to be angry with him for his doubting spirit.
When Gideon did
finally raise an army to fight the Midianites God had to teach him again that
his might was not in the power of man, but in the power of His providence. He
had 32 thousand men ready to fight, but God had him whittle his forces down to
300 men to fight an army that was so vast that it filled a valley with camels.
They were so numerous they could no more be counted than the sand on the
seashore. Again we see God's sense of humor. What a joke-300 men with trumpets
and pitchers going against a mighty army. Why not send the youth group with
peashooters against an army of tanks? God does go to extremes sometimes to make
His point. His point is made clear in 7:2 where he says to Gideon, "You
have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that
Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her."
God used the totally
inadequate band of 300 men to route the mighty foe just to make this point that
He is the one who won the battle. We need to declare our independence from man
in order to be free to depend upon God for victory. We see this in the Bible
and in our own history as Americans. We are not a great nation and a free
nation because we are such wonderful people. We are so because we had heroes
who were dependent upon God. They knew they were weak and inadequate, but they
knew they were strong in the Lord. Listen to the famous words of Patrick Henry
in 1775:
"There is no
longer hope. If we wish to be free, we must fight!
An appeal to arms and
to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!
They tell me that we
are weak, but shall we gather strength by
irresolution? We are
not weak. Three million people, armed
in the holy cause of
liberty and in such a country, are invincible
by any force which our
enemy can send against us. We shall
not fight alone. God
presides over the destinies of nations, and
will raise up friends
for us. The battle is not to the strong alone;
it is to the vigilant,
the active, the brave.... Is life so dear, or peace
so sweet, as to be
purchased at the price of chains and slavery?
Forbid it, almighty
God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or
give me death!"
God gave us liberty
because of men like that, and God gave Israel because of men like Gideon. God
called him a mighty warrior. He was a nobody and a coward, but God made him a
hero, and by so doing made it possible for every believer though history to
realize that successful living does not depend upon them and their gifts.
Success living depends upon our freedom to be dependent upon God.
All the evidence
points to the fact that the church is enslaved to the world, and it is much
like Israel under the Midianites. The church is often afraid to be the church,
and so it conforms to the world. The church has adopted the idols of our
culture, and it gives only token honor to the God of our salvation. The average
American Christian cannot stand to give more than an hour or two to the things
of God each weak, but they spend many more hours pursuing the idols of our
culture. They care more about success and what looks good than about the
kingdom of God. If it has a Las Vegas glow and a Hollywood show, that is the
way to go. Pride goes before a fall, and many of God's people have fallen
because they thought they could stand in their own power. This is folly, for no
one can stand alone. All of us need a constant dependence upon God to remain
free.
We are free as a
nation because of men and women who took God's joke seriously, and they
believed that the weak can be victorious over the strong if they are dependent
upon God. We celebrate the 4th of July because of weak people who found their
strength in God. The only way we can experience the full joy of freedom in
Christ is to take God's joke seriously. We need to realize that He can use us
in all of our weakness to make a difference in this world if we declare our
dependence upon Him.
Laugh at yourselves, and
laugh at the dreams and schemes of men who think they can make a difference by
their own wisdom and power. Psa. 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the
house, its builders labor in vain." The bottom line is this: We need to be
a people of prayer and a people of dependence upon God. We need to do more than
just say Lord, Lord. We need to live in a way that reveals that Jesus is truly
Lord of our lives, or we labor in vain. May God help us as we celebrate the
Declaration of Independence to declare our dependence on Christ, and thereby
experience the inner freedom to match the external freedom we have as
Americans. Dependence on Christ is the key to freedom.
11.
MARCHING FOR A MIRACLE Based on Josh. 6:1-21
We don’t sing Onward Christian
Soldiers marching as to war very much any more, for we seldom see the relevance
of being soldiers of the cross fighting the forces of darkness. Marching seems
irrelevant also, for even in the military world the real force is now in the
air and on the sea. The firepower of missiles and bombs makes marching to war
less vital. But the fact is, marching has been the key to effective warfare all
through history. George Washington won the war for Independence by much
marching.
On one occasion when
the British were strung out over 12 miles Washington asked his war council what
they should do. General Charles Lee urged them to wait, but younger men urged
him to attack. Washington took the counsel of the younger men, and his
Continental Army marched out of Valley Forge onto the trail of the British. The
pipers lit into Yankee Doodle, and the sergeants called out marching orders.
With precision the American forces marched against a superior foe, and they
dwell them such a blow that the British never again underestimated their
American opponents.
There was much
marching yet to do, but Washington motivated his men to never stop marching
until they forced the British to surrender and leave this land free and
independent. If you study the history of warfare, you will discover that many,
if not most, of the great victories that have changed the course of history
were decided by the marching men. In our age the march has been the key to
victories in the civil rights battles. Martin Luther King Jr. changed the history
of our nation by means of marches.
In 1965 black people
in Alabama could not register to vote. King led a large group marching to the
courthouse to register. He and 2 thousand other blacks were put in jail. When a
black man was shot and killed by a state trooper, King called for a march to
the state capital in Montgomery. Governor Wallace forbid such a march, but King
defied the order. The state police attacked the marchers and sent 70 to the
hospital. King did not back down, but he ordered another march. This time 400
white ministers, priests and rabbis from all over the United States joined the
march. One of them died in the march, and the nation was shocked. President
Johnson and the courts got involved, and congress passed the Voting Rights Act
of 1965. Marching won for blacks the right to vote without being hampered, and
that victory has changed the whole complexion of government in the U. S. Ever
since that victory, marching has been a means by which the masses get their
message out to the world. If enough people care enough about an issue to march
it is a powerful witness for their perspective.
As we look at the
march around Jericho that led to the opening victory in Israel’s conquering of
the Promise Land, we see that the march was basically just that-a witness. The
march did not have any military value, for it did not take the marchers
anywhere but around the city. It did not give Israel the advantage of a
surprise attack, for it was done in broad daylight with the enemy watching.
From a military viewpoint this was the most futile march in the history of
warfare. It may have been a great idea for a parade, but it was worthless
strategy for taking a walled city. The enemy, no doubt, had a good many hearty
laughs at Israel’s war games. It was more like entertainment as they watched
the march and listened to the trumpets. The daily parade had to be the talk of
the town, and everybody in Jericho had to have seen it at least once. You can
just imagine the mockery the citizens of Jericho hurled out at the marchers.
It was probably very
embarrassing for fighting men to march around the city instead of building
battering rams, catapults and ladders, which was the normal preparation for
taking a walled city. It was not that it was a hard task to do, for Jericho was
only about 9 acres of coverage, and so it took only about 25 to 35 minutes to
march around it. These people had been marching for 40 years in the wilderness,
and so a half hour a day for one more week was a snap. But the question is, why
could God want His people to march like this when it was obvious to all that it
had no effect on the situation? The answer to that question is what makes the
march for Jesus a relevant activity for Christians in our day. Why does God
want His people to march? First of all because-
MARCHING IS A MEANS.
I think we often view
God as a superman who goes around doing marvelous things and solving problems
as an individualist. If you look closely at how God actually operates in
history, you see He is really more like the Lone Ranger with his trusted
companion Tonto. God does not enjoy working alone. He likes companionship and
cooperation. He desires that men work with Him to accomplish His goals. Only
Jesus could die for the sins of the world, but He gave the task of taking this
good news to the world to His disciples. He could have fed the 5 thousand with
no help, but He used the lad’s lunch, and He used His disciples to distribute
it. Every chance He got He used some means to achieve His miracles so that the
natural and supernatural were linked as partners.
God used the womb of
Mary to bring His Son into the world, and it is almost always His method of
working to use some natural means as a basis for miracles. Jesus did not make
wine out of thin air, but He used the water that was present. He did heal at a
distance using no means but His divine power, but usually He used a natural
means of conveying His power. He used the laying on of hands, the mud and
spittle, the washing in the water, or some other physical means. Why? It is
because Jesus is in His very being a combination of the natural and
supernatural. He represents the way God is as a being who delights in the
combination and cooperation of the two. So God uses means to do His will. He
could bypass all means, and sometimes He does, but usually He uses means to
achieve His goals. This gives man an opportunity to be partners with God in
doing the miraculous. This was the case with the march around Jericho. It is
was God giving man a role in His miraculous plan. God wants to make it a joint
venture.
We have no idea what
marching for Jesus will achieve. We may not see any walls fall at all, but it
will bear witness to the world that lovers of Jesus are alive and well, and
they are not ashamed to let it be known. It could be a means by which God
changes lives, and that is why we do it. We want to be available to God as a
means He can use to make a difference in the world.
If you see a beautiful
and fruitful garden, you know somebody has put a lot of time and labor into it.
Only God can make the seeds grow and bring forth the pleasure-giving flowers
and food, but it will not happen if man does not do his part. Almost all the
beauty in civilization is a combination of the labor of God and man.
Cooperation is the name of the game in beautifying the city. If you take man
out of the picture, and have no watering, fertilizing and weeding, you will
soon see how true Augustine was when he said over 1500 years ago, "Without
God man cannot. With man God will not." God is a user of means, and men
are His major means, and the marching of men is one of those means. It is one
of the ways we cooperate with God to make a difference.
Vincoe Paxton was a
missionary nurse in China many years ago. She saw so many people die for lack
of modern medicine and surgery. Later she served as an army nurse in Europe
near the front, and she saw many American boys brought back from the brink of
death by means of advanced medical knowledge and equipment. She realized how
the grace of God works through human means. An American boy of 20, who suffered
a serious head wound, said to her, "But for the grace of God I wouldn’t be
here." She reflected on that and wrote this paragraph:
"He did not know
the long combined efforts of the United States
Army Medical Service:
The batallion aid man who found him
in the mud and snow;
the litter men bearing his dead weight on
their shoulders; the
doctors and medical soldiers at the batallion
aid stations who had
given him supportive treatment; the ambulance
drivers traveling with
headlights reduced to the slits of cat eyes in
the total blackness
over treacherous roads; the hospital where he
was operated. He could
not go back to the test tube the lecture
room, the wheels of
American industry and transportation, which
had placed these
scientifically trained minds, skilled hands and
carefully prepared
medical supplies at the front. He didn’t know
of these things.
"By the grace of God," he called it. And of course
he was right."
God’s grace is not
just a matter of luck, but it is directly related to man’s recognition of the
importance of means. If man does not devise means by which he can cooperate
with God, but just sits and lets God do it on His own, he will rob himself of
the power of God. God is a user of means. He used pagan powers to punish
Israel, and also to liberate them and get them back into the Promised Land
after their exile. God is using means to achieve His will all the time, and
most answers to prayer come through human agents as the means.
God often uses strange
and unlikely means to achieve His goals. This march around Jericho is a good
example. What good is such a march? It is meaningless in itself, and useless to
achieve the goal. It is of no value for the miracle, but it provides the
context of obedience in which God is delighted to do the miracle. You might say
the march was of no value, but if Israel would have said this is nonsense, and
if they refused to march, it is not likely the wall would have come down. What
is likely is that they would have been marching in the wilderness for another
40 years until the next generation would have learned to cooperate with God and
be willing to become a means by which He could accomplish His purpose.
Marching does not do
any miracles, but it provides God with a means by which He can work miracles
for His glory and man’s good. That is why Christians are marching for Jesus
around the world. They are marching as a means. They are making themselves
available to God to be a means by which He can give the kingdom of God a victory
over the kingdom of darkness. The second thing we want to see is-
MARCHING IS A MEASURE.
It is a measure of
faith. There is only one reference to this event in the New Testament, and it
is in the great faith chapter. Heb. 11:30 says, "By faith the walls of
Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for 7 days." What
if they would have said after 5 days, "This is stupid. It does no good.
Let’s take the weekend off and stop this ridiculous parade of folly."
There were, no doubt, people saying something just like that, for they were
experts at complaining and griping about what they did not understand.
God tests the faith of
His people and all people by asking that they do things that are not of any
obvious value. If they are obvious, it does not take faith. If you can see any
logical connection between obedience and the end result it is not a test of
faith. You have to believe God will honor your obedience even if it does not
make sense. Naaman, the pagan army commander, had leprosy, and by the grace of
God a little Jewish girl, who had been taken captive, told him about the
prophet Elisha who could cure him. After much negation Naaman finally a got
message from the prophet that said he should go and wash 7 times in the Jordan
River and He would be healed. Listen to his response to this prescription,
which to him was as meaningless as trying to conquer a city by marching around
it.
"But Naaman went
away angry and said, I thought that he
would surely come out
to me and stand and call on the name
of the Lord his God,
wave his hand over the spot and cure
me of my leprosy. Are
not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers
of Damascus, better
than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn’t
I wash in them and be
cleansed? So he turned and went off in
a rage." (II Kings
5:11-12).
Fortunately for him he
had some servants with more light and less heat, and they persuaded him to do
what the prophet said. He did it, and he was healed. He was right, of course,
for 7 dips in the Jordan had nothing to do with healing leprosy. If it did, the
whole world of lepers would be lined up at the Jordan. The prescription was not
what healed him. It was his obedience to the will of God. His servants had the
faith to believe that God could use this means to heal their leader, and their faith
was honored with a miracle. God used this simple means to achieve a marvelous
healing. Had he not used the means, he would not have been healed.
The marching of God’s
people around Jericho was the same as that dipping in the Jordan. It was a
measure of faith. And so it is with every march for Jesus. All we can do is go
by faith that God can use such a powerful witness to break down some walls that
keep people out of the kingdom of God. We march by faith because we know God
can use every means to do a marvelous work in the lives of others. The essence
of faith is action, which pleases God. Heb. 11:6 says, "Without faith it
is impossible to please God." With faith it is possible, and that is what
this march around Jericho did. It pleased God that His people would obey His
command and get involved in cooperation with Him. When God is pleased with His
people, they are rewarded by His blessings. All their victory, wealth and joy
in the Promised Land came to them because they marched in faith.
An Eastern story tells
of the king who proclaimed that when his new highway opened the one who
traveled it best on opening day would receive a purse of gold. Everyone asked,
"What does it mean to travel it best?" Each according to his own
interpretation made preparation for the contest. Some came on horseback and
others in chariots. Some came as runners to travel it on foot. Each was doing
their best to travel best. At one point in the road there was a pile of stones,
and each contestant complained that this hazard was left on the kings new
highway. It was a sorry sight, a disfigurement, and an obstacle they complained
as they passed by the heap of rough stones.
Only one runner
stopped to clear the road of that pile of stones. Under them he found a purse
of gold coins. The king’s servants brought this man to the king and he
announced that that bag of gold belonged to the finder. The man exclaimed,
"There must be some mistake!" "No," said the king."
"The prize was for the one who would travel my new highway best. The gold
is yours, for he travels best who makes the way easier and safer for those who
come after." He pleased the king by doing what the king wanted done, and
he was rewarded accordingly. So it was with the march around Jericho. It
pleased God, and they were rewarded with the victory. We always win the victory
when we are willing to be a means by which God can work His will in the world.
12.
INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE based on Numbers 12:1-15
A boy in Harvard College,
many years back, got his father in Maine to come to Cambridge and see the
football game between Yale and Harvard. As they sat down, the boy slapped his
father on the back and said, "Dad, for three dollars you are going to see
more fight than you ever saw before." The old man smiled and replied,
"I'm not so sure about that Son, that's what I paid for my marriage
license." Marriage is like football in several ways. It covers a lot of
ground, and their are many obstacles to overcome. Whoever is not prepared to
face obstacles had better not plan to play football, or get married.
The football player
faces two kinds of obstacles. There are those built into the game, and which
must be accepted to give the game meaning. Then there are the illegal, or
unjust, obstacles, which we call dirty playing. Sometimes the dirty player is
penalized, and sometimes he gets by with it, and the innocent player suffers
unjustly. Those who enter into marriage face obstacles they know to be part of
the game. There are natural and normal trials, struggles, and adjustments.
Marriage partners also face the obstacles of dirty play also. They face the
opposition of the ignorant, the cruel, the prejudiced, the jealous, and those
with numerous other evil motives.
Moses had to face this
kind of dirty play when he chose to marry across the race line. He chose an
Ethiopian, who was a descendant of Ham, to be his wife. His sister and brother
were offended by this union, and they made it known publicly. They sought to
degrade Moses because of it. Hastings Dictionary of the Bible says concerning
the Ethiopian, "It is likely that a black slave girl is meant and that the
fault found by Miriam and Aaron was with the indignity of such a union."
Most are convinced she was black, or at least dark, but their is a possibility
that she was no darker that Moses himself. She could have been a part of the
Cushites who were of Arabian stock, and less dark that the Ethiopians. This is
really irrelevant since the major fact is that it was an interracial marriage.
The text indicates
that Miriam did not approve of the union, but it does not give the slightest
hint as to why. It could have that it had nothing to do with her race at all,
even though this is assumed by almost everyone. It is possible that she was
jealous of the woman. There is an ancient translation that reads, "Because
of the beautiful woman he had married, for he had married a beautiful
woman." Jealousy could have been the problem, and not racism, for it was
thought to be a disgrace at this early stage for a Jew to marry a Gentile.
Many find a typology
here. Moses is like Christ marrying a Gentile, who represents the church.
Miriam and Aaron are the angry Jews who oppose this union. All of this is
historically true, but we have no basis for reading it back into this text as a
prophetic type. We cannot read race hatred and prejudice back into the hearts
of Miriam and Aaron. All we can say is that we have here an instance of
interracial marriage by one who is a great man of God, and that he was upheld
by God, and the opposition was judged. Moses was not lowered in his dignity
before God, or the people, but is exalted as being a servant of God. His
marriage across race lines did not reduce his role in the least. God appears to
be highly indifferent to the matter of race or color in marriage. There is not
biblical evidence against interracial marriage, but much that would show it to
be perfectly normal and honorable.
But why would anyone
marry a person from another race? Why do you suppose Moses married an Ethiopian
when there were all kinds of Jewish girls he could choose from as the leader of
his nation? Solomon, no doubt, had dozens, if not hundreds of dark skinned
wives, or concubines. Many were gifts from foreign governments. Moses, however,
freely chose to marry one outside of his own race. The reason is likely the
same as the one that accounts for interracial marriages all over the Western
Hemisphere. He fell in love with her. It is a human fact that where any two
races are in frequent contact, there will be intermarriage. People will fall in
love with people of any race if they are in contact.
A little known fact is
that when Israel was delivered from Egypt a great many people of mixed races
also went out with them. In the 400 years of captivity there was a good deal of
interracial marriage. Joseph, who brought his people into Egypt, married
Aseneth, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. He could do this, even as a member
of a minority race, because he rose to a high level social status. Jews and Egyptians
would intermarry, but most such marriages would be between the Jews and other
slaves, such as the dark skinned people of Ethiopia to the South. Their would
also be a mixture of Jews and Arabs. We read in Ex. 12:37-38, "And the
people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succdoth, about six hundred thousand
men on foot, besides women and children. A mixed multitude also went up with
them..."
It is not surprising
that Moses would find one of this mixed multitude attractive, and then choose
to take her as his wife. She was among his people, and romantic love knows no
race barrier. This is so true that there is no such thing as a pure race. All
races have intermarried down through the centuries. For example, if we study
the genealogy of Jesus we discover that Jesus was not a pure Jew. There is
Gentile blood in blood line. The Jews were forbidden to marry with the wicked
Canaanites, but Rahab the Canaanite is in the genealogy of Jesus. He had in his
blood line some of the blood of Canaan who was cursed by Noah.
Intermarriage with the
Moabites was not allowed either, but Ruth the Moabitess is in the genealogy of
Jesus. She was, in fact, the grandmother of David, Jesus, as the son of David, had
a Gentile for a grandmother. Jesus was not a pure Jew, and there are few who
are. The fact that Jesus had interracial marriage in His family tree makes it
obvious that there is only a disgrace in the mind of the racist who makes race
an idol, and pure blood a god. You might ask, however, why were these marriages
allowed to be a part of the blood line to the Messiah when they were forbidden
in general? This is the key to the whole subject. The reason marriage was
forbidden between Jews and others was not at all based on race or color, but on
belief and unbelief. The only kind of marriage the Bible forbids is a marriage
between a believer and an unbeliever. If anyone of another race becomes a
believer, as did Rahab and Ruth, there is no longer any reason to forbid
marriage. Anyone who enters the kingdom of God by faith in Christ becomes a
potential mate for anyone else in the kingdom.
The secular scholars
battle back and forth on the level of brain capacity, social and cultural
equality, and other such issues which are totally irrelevant to the Christian
perspective. There is only one factor that makes any ultimate difference to the
Christian, and that is the factor of faith in Christ. When that is present, all
else is secondary. We will look at the problems the secondary factors do cause,
but these are no basis for rejecting a legitimate interracial marriage.
Jesus Christ is our
Lord and Savior, and our example. Does He practice interracial marriage?
Consider His bride the church. Here is marriage on the highest spiritual level,
and we can discover that Jesus chooses all races to make up His bride. His
bride is red and yellow, black and white. There are millions of racial
differences in the body of Christ. The body, like the Head, is not of any pure
race, but is both Jew and Gentile. The Head is more Jewish, and the body is
more Gentile, but everywhere it is an interracial body. Christ receives all
races, and the Holy Spirit indwells all races. Here is union on the highest
level of God and man. It is very near blasphemy to suggest that what he Holy
Spirit freely does on the spiritual level is somehow evil on the physical
level. If a colored person can be a part of the body of Christ, and the Holy
Spirit will impregnate them so that they bear spiritual children of God, who
can find an objection to a white child of God taking a black child of God for
his or her mate?
Let us recognize we
are dealing here with a totally Christian perspective that is unique to the
body of Christ, and no other philosophy or viewpoint can see this as the
Christian does. Only the believer can see race from within the kingdom of God,
and through the mind of Christ. We cannot expect that non-Christians will share
this view. It is an exclusive Christian view. Practically it means this: Any
marriage between two believers is acceptable in the body of Christ. Race is
irrelevant. A mixed marriage is preferable to an unmixed marriage of a believer
and non-believer. If a white Christian has a choice of marrying a black
Christian or a white non-Christian, he is obligated to Christ and the church to
choose the black mate.
It is never right for
a child of God to willfully and knowingly marry a non-believer. From a
Christian perspective an interracial marriage is always superior to a marriage
between faith and non-faith. The deciding factor is faith. The Christian does
not stand on anthropology or psychology, or any other ology. He stands in
Christ, and sees all people through the eyes of Christ. From there he
recognizes that those in Christ from every race are really the only pure race,
for they alone are all equally children of God. All believers are as free as
Moses to choose their mate from any race, as long as the mate chosen is also a
believer.
This does not scratch
the surface of the problem out there in the world where the vast majority are
not Christians. When this message was written a good many years ago, there were
still 19 states that forbid interracial marriages. This was progress, however,
for in 1957 there were 30 states that forbid it. I have no figures as to when
all were changed, but at that time the United States was the only place in the
world where interracial marriage was against the law. This is no longer the
case because of the advancement of civil rights.
Interracial marriage is
going on continuously, and has been, and that is why there is no such thing as
a pure race. Whenever soldiers go to war they choose mates from among the
people they are fighting. During World War II American soldiers brought back
over 5000 Chinese brides, and even 752 Japanese brides. All the hate propaganda
against the enemy could not stop men and women from joining in marriage. This
was true back in the days of Israel's conquest also. We read in Deut. 21:10-13.
"When you go
forth to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your
hands, and take them captive, and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and
you have desire for her and would take her for yourself as wife, then you shall
bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and pare her nails,
and she shall put off her captive's grab, and shall remain in your house and
bewail her father and her mother a full month, after that you may go into her,
and be her husband and she shall be your wife."
This has happened all
through history, and there is probably never been a war where it did not lead
to intermarriage of the enemies. When men see beauty they desire the beautiful
one for a mate, and it makes no difference that they are enemies, or that they
are of different races. Those who have fought for segregation know this, and
that is the main reason for their objection to the races being together. They
know they will fall in love with each other and marry each other. The fear of
interracial marriage is behind most racism.
Where does this leave
the Christian? We have already made it clear that race purity is irrelevant to
the church. Sherwood Wirt in his book The Social Conscience of the Evangelical,
which Billy Graham has said every evangelical should read, wrote, "It is
the mark of original sin that men take their greatest pride in things over
which they exercise no control and for which they can take absolutely no
credit. Human skin color falls into this category." We cannot join the
racist and remain Christian. We do not have to encourage interracial marriage
anymore than we have to encourage marriage between classes, but we do have to
encourage all who are married of whatever races and classes, for it is a
Christian obligation to be encouragers of people in whatever circumstance, when
they are not doing anything that displeases God. Miriam and Aaron made this
mistake so we can learn not to make the same mistake.
13.
DIVORCE AND REMARRIAGE Based on Deut. 24:1-4
Divorce, like death,
is an unpleasant reality that we have to deal with because it won't ignore us.
In one way or another it forces its way into our lives. If we are fortunate
enough to have no friends, neighbors, or loved ones caught in its grasp, we
must still face the issue because it is a biblical issue, and one that is of
growing relevance in our world. Divorce is affecting the church as never before
in history. The secular acceptance of easy divorce has made in roads into the
church, and more and more Christian people are conforming to the trend to end a
marriage that isn't working. Christians divorce almost at the same rate as
non-Christians.
The statistics are not
all pessimistic, however, for most divorced people do remarry, and so the
American people are still sold on marriage. The problem is that more people are
marrying the wrong person first, and this indicates a marriage that was entered
into without adequate preparation. One of the key areas of controversy among
Christians today is the whole issue of remarriage. Should the church permit it,
and on what basis. Who has the right according to Scripture to enter a second
marriage if they have ended a first one in divorce? This is an issue that is of
special importance to pastors, for they are constantly confronted with this
decision. For the layman it is often just an academic issue, and for them it
makes no real difference. The pastor, however, must deal with real people and
their needs, and he must be honest and faithful with the Word of God.
Some denominations
have made radical policy changes to relieve the pastor of pressure in this
area. But more important is the question, what does the Bible say about divorce
and remarriage? The issue is not whether divorce is good or bad, for everyone
agrees it is a bad thing to happen. It is never the best, and it always
indicates failure on the part of two people. But once the damage is done, what
is God's will for the persons living in that state of failure? Is it His will
that they stay in a state of failure, or that they press on to a state of
success in some new relationship such as a second marriage. We want to study
this issue by first looking at the Old Testament message in Deut. 24:1-4. We
will look at it verse by verse.
24:1 The first thing
to observe about the Old Testament law on divorce is that it was only the
husband who had the right of divorce. If he found some indecency in his wife he
could put her away. There was no provision for the wife to put him away if she
did not find him to her liking. Women should not get upset, however, for as we
shall see, the divorce law was for her protection.
First of all a man
could not rob a woman of her virginity and then turn around and divorce her. A
man forfeited his right of divorce by premarital sex. God holds a man
responsible for the rest of his life to care for a woman he forces into a
sexual relationship. Deut. 22:28-29 says, "If a man happens to meet a
virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,
he shall pay the girls father 50 shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for
he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives." You
can just imagine how much this law cut down on pre-marital sex. A man would
only want to become intimate with a woman that he loved enough to treasure for
the rest of his life.
You notice that he can
never put her away, not because he made her pregnant, but because he violated
her. The female was protected from becoming an old maid that no man ever wanted
by someone taking advantage of her. This law was very sensitive to a woman's
security, and made sure that sexual abuse would never destroy her future. The
principal we see here is that in God's eyes intercourse with a woman commits
you to be responsible to that woman the rest of your life. Sex without a life
commitment is not acceptable to God. Men were not free to use women any way
they wanted to, and have no responsibility. Deut. 22:13-19 also makes a man
never free to divorce a woman that he has accused of not being a virgin, if in
fact she is.
Getting back to Deut.
24 we want to see that even here where men have the right to divorce a woman,
they have an obligation to give her a bill of divorce. If a man had the right
to just kick her out of the house, she would be forced to become a slave or a
prostitute in order to survive. With her bill of divorce, however, she was a
free woman with the right to remarry.
24:2 This verse
pictures her going to become another man's wife immediately. She was free to do
so because the divorce ended any obligation she had to her former husband. He
is no longer her husband in any sense. In verse 4 he is called her former
husband. We see here that remarriage was acceptable, and even expected after a
divorce. The only aspect of remarriage that is condemned and forbidden in this
passage is the remarriage of the wife to her former husband after she has been
married to another man. Even if the other man dies this is forbidden.
The second marriage is
not out of God's will, but is perfectly acceptable, but the remarriage to her
first husband was an abomination. This reveals that God will not tolerate a
light-hearted divorce. If a divorce takes place, it is the death of that
marriage for good, and God will not tolerate a renewal of that marriage once
another marriage has been consummated. Matthew Henry says, "The divorce
had dissolved the bond of marriage as effectively as death could; so that she
was as free to marry again as if her first husband had been naturally
dead."
You can see how the
divorce bill was a protection to the woman, and gave her the chance to find
happiness in a new marriage. If she did not have this certificate, any
relationship with another man would be adultery, and she would have been stoned
to death. Her divorce bill was her life insurance.
The reason for the
divorce here is because the husband found some indecency in his wife. This does
not mean he found out that she had committed adultery. This would be punished
by death, and not by divorce. The indecency was something the husband did not
like about her naked body. Hillel, the Jewish scholar of New Testament days,
said that it could be a mole on her thigh for example. Others say a sore, or a
disease, or even something as trivial as bad breath. Divorce could be based on
very minor problems in the Old Testament. Jesus rejected this and said that a
man could only justly put his wife away if he found her guilty of adultery.
As easy as divorce was
in the Old Testament, let us keep in mind that the laws were merciful to women.
She could not be treated as a mere thing. Her sexual honor could not be taken
from her freely. Even a foreign wife taken captive in battle had to be treated
fairly. In Deut. 21:1-14 we see that she could not be sold as a slave, but had
to be set free if her husband was not pleased with her. In this text we see the
relationship dissolved with no divorce at all. It was much like today when
couples live together, and then decide to go their own way. Even this foreign
captive woman had her rights, and she could not be dishonored.
The men, of course,
had superior rights. They married as many, and as often, as they desired. There
was never any question of his right to remarry after divorce. He could marry
anyone except a wife he had already divorced, assuming she had entered into
another marriage. If she remained single, there would be no problem in the
remarriage. The point we want to establish firmly is that remarriage after
divorce was acceptable regardless of the reason for the divorce, and this was
valid for both the husband and the wife. It was all so simple that it is amazing
that Israel survived. There was no lawyer or court involved. It was all a
do-it-yourself divorce. There was no red tape, and no complex paper work. The
husband just handed her a bill of divorce, and the marriage was over when she
walked out the door.
What a contrast to the
words of Jesus in Matt. 19:6, "What God has joined together let not man
put asunder." Many women criticize Paul's view of women in marriage, but
just contrast his words, "Husbands love your wife as Christ loved the church,"
to what we see here in the Old Testament. Marriage was primarily based on
sexual attraction and satisfaction. It ended when the husband was no longer
pleased. A wife was primarily a sex object, even though her rights as a person
were given protection. What we see in history is the constant tendency of man
not to press on to the higher and nobler laws of the New Testament, but to slip
back to the sub-Christian laws of the Old Testament.
My concern is to find a
principle that runs through both the Old Testament and New Testament that is a
perpetual guide on the issue of remarriage. The principle I wish to defend is
this: Any person who is truly divorced has the right to remarry. There is no
such thing as a legitimate divorce where there is no freedom to remarry.
Remarriage is the logical and biblical right of anyone who is truly divorced. A
true divorce makes the marriage dead, and leaves both partners free to remarry.
John R. Rice in his
famous book The Home Courtship Marriage And Children defends this principle
strongly. Dr. Rice was not a liberal, but a fighting fundamentalist. Listen to
his conviction that has influenced tens of thousands of pastors.
"Scriptural divorce gives a right to remarry; one who has a right to
divorce has a right to remarry. The modern idea of some Christians that one has
a right to a divorce, but should remain single thereafter and never remarry,
has no warrant in the Scriptures. In the Bible it is everywhere taken for
granted that a right to a divorce means a right to remarry. A divorce, on Bible
grounds, means that the former marriage is no longer binding. The former
husband is no longer a husband. The former wife is no longer a wife. Those who
are divorced on Bible grounds are really divorced, are single, unmarried,
unbound."
On the basis of this
Deut. 24 passage Rice says it is clear that even if a man divorces his wife for
a poor reason, once she has remarried there is no going back to her first
husband, for the second marriage which is adultery kills the first marriage,
and makes it of no account. He rejects the whole idea of any mate going back to
their first mate once they have remarried. Once people are divorced for any
reason there marriage is dead when another marriage is consummated. The idea of
ending the second marriage to go back to the first is foolishness and totally
out of line with God's law. The only way it can be right for divorced mates to
get back together is if they have not entered into a new marriage. Once they do
there first marriage is dead for good.
Anytime a marriage is
dead due to death, a divorce for adultery, or one of the divorced mates
remarries, the partners are free to remarry. If this view is consistent with
the New Testament teaching, and I am convinced it is, then it means that most
divorced people have a right to remarry. This is contrary to many who feel
strongly that the teachings of Jesus make it mandatory that few remarry. We
will look at the teachings of Jesus in detail, but for now let me share with
you again the views of John R. Rice.
Many say the innocent
party can remarry, but the guilty party cannot. Rice says this is nonsense, and
it violates the teaching of Jesus. There is no law that says a thief cannot
marry, or a blasphemer, or a drunkard, or any other kind of sinner. Why should
men say and adulterer cannot marry. If the guilty party in a divorce for
adultery has killed the marriage bond, he is just as single and free to remarry
after the divorce as the innocent one. Once a marriage is dead there is no
biblical basis for expecting anyone to remain bound to it. It is a grave sin to
have killed it, nevertheless, when the deed is done who could expect him to
remain bound to his former mate any more than he would be if he had killed her?
Such a man would be a high risk for anyone to marry, but there is no basis for
thinking he has no right to remarry.
We want to look
briefly at how Jesus did not in any way forbid the remarriage of a truly
divorced person. In Matt. 5:32 Jesus said, "But I say to you that anyone
who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to commit
adultery, and anyone who marries a woman so divorced commits adultery."
How can divorce of a faithful woman make her and adulterer? It is because Jesus
is taking for granted that she will remarry. It is always assumed by Jesus that
divorced people will remarry. Nowhere in the Bible is it expected for divorced
people to remain single. So Jesus says that when she remarries she will be
forced to commit adultery if her first husband puts her away for no good
reason. None of the reasons in the Old Testament were legitimate for divorce
except her being unfaithful. If he puts her away because he hates the mole on
her thigh, he forces her, and the man she marries, into adultery.
Jesus did not forbid
her to remarry, nor did He forbid another man to marry her. He is saying that
the folly lies in that first husband who divorced her on inadequate grounds.
His wickedness and light view of divorce is the source of the problem, and he
forces others into sin. He is the bad guy here, and not the wife or the second
husband. They do not live in adultery, for once they have sex relations they
destroy the bound she had with her first husband, and now she is free from him
for good. So free, in fact, that God forbids that she ever go back to him. The
first husband is guilty of forcing his wife to kill their marriage by entering
a second marriage. This does kill it by the adultery that it leads to, and so
the marriage is over. But it is the first husband who is responsible for the
adultery, and not his wife and the man she marries. It is important to lay the
guilt where it belongs.
In Matt. 19:9 Jesus
deals with the man's own remarriage, and He says, "I tell you that anyone
who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another
woman commits adultery." This would mean that if he does divorce her for
unfaithfulness he would not commit adultery by remarriage. These two texts make
it clear that any sex with a non mate is adultery, and so until a marriage is
dead it is adultery to remarry. What Jesus is saying is that they only thing
that can end a marriage is sex with another person other than a mate. All other
reasons for divorce do not kill the marriage. When two people divorce, they are
still married until one of them has sex with another person and commits
adultery. Only then is the marriage really dead.
The key difference
between the Old Testament and the teaching of Jesus is not on remarriage. That
is expected in both, but the grounds for divorce are radically different. In
the Old Testament it was the man's pleasure, and he could put away his wife for
anything that he did not like about his wife. Jesus narrowed things down from
that broad basis to the single issue of unfaithfulness. But there is no
disagreement on the principle we are looking at, and that is that any person
who is legitimately divorced has a right to remarry.
14.
A JEWISH SERMON Based on Ezek. 47:1-12
Orville Wright,
co-inventor with his brother Wilbur of the first plane to really fly, was
looking at the headlines of a newspaper with David Lefkowitz, a well-known
Jewish preacher back in 1918. The headlines told of a terrible air battle
between German and America aces. Orville said, "We thought that our
invention of the heavier-than-air flying machine would advance the happiness of
man, but it has been the swift messenger of death." After a long pause he
went on-"I fear we gave this to mankind before we were ready to control
its use for blessing rather than for a curse; our spiritual and religious
development have lagged behind the fast pace of science." Lefkowitz said
that Orville saw, "The sputtering of the candle of the Lord while the
fierce bright light of science shown across the world."
This is one area where
Jews and Christians clearly agree, and that is that our world has turned away
from the spiritual, and it has turned toward the material. The Jews agree that
the world is sick and that man's sin has polluted the stream of history, and
that a return to God is the only cure. In a sermon on Ezek. 47:12 Lefkowitz
said that many have prepared remedies for the world's sickness, but the only
one that will work is the one Ezekiel writes about. Ezekiel is a prophet who
speaks in pictures, and in this chapter he paints a picture of a river, which
gives life, new strength and vitality. It is a river with the power of
regeneration, and what is its secret? Verse 12 reveals the secret in the
phrase, "Because the water flows from the sanctuary." Lefkowitz says,
"In plain words, the prophet Ezekiel feels certain that the ills of
society in his day or any other day can only be cured by spiritual means-out of
the sanctuary."
The Jews recognize
that modern man in his quest for power, wealth and conquest over the forces of
nature has ended up spiritually empty. God's moral law in the universe condemns
man to pay a heavy penalty for such folly. The Jews believed strongly in man's
responsibility and in his ability to fulfill God's will if he chooses. Lefkowitz
says of the world's judgments, "It is not honest thinking to regard these
as visitations of God which we are powerless to prevent. They are clearly of
our own making..." If men do not turn to the sanctuary and stand in the
stream of the water flowing from God, Ezekiel says they will not become fresh
and fertile soil, but will become salt. Israel's history reveals this over and
over again. Man is responsible for the mess he is in. God has a cure, and the
task of the Jew, as they see it, is to help the sick world see its need of
God's cure. They feel they are the people that God is calling to minister to
the needs of men, and the poetry they use could be used as a missionary call in
a Christian church.
The voice of God is
calling its summons onto men,
As once He called at
Zion, so now He calls again.
Whom shall I send to
succor my people and their need?
Whom shall I send to
shatter the bonds of lust and greed?
We hear, O Lord, Thy
summons and answer here are we,
Send us upon Thine
errand, let us Thy servants be.
Take us and make us
holy; teach us Thy will and way;
Speak, and behold, we
answer, "Command and we obey."
This response to the
call is the ideal. The real is far different, but Judaism has high goals.
Abraham Caplan in his testimony called Beyond Humanism says, "The hope of
Moses that every Jew become a prophet is essential to the viability of every
religion. Jewish life today is in danger of being choked by professionalism. We
cannot live indefinitely off our "heritage," no matter how skillfully
the capital of the past is managed for us by others." It is clear that
Jews feel the same need as Christians. They feel that God is the answer. They
feel that they are His people to spread the news, but they feel they are
failing because the majority are spectators. Their proclamation of principles
and their problems are very similar to those of Christians. The great
difference is on the person of Christ.
The value of reading
Jewish sermons is that it makes you aware of the rich heritage we have received
from them. It makes you realize that the Old Testament revelation is far more
broad and inclusive than we may think. There is hardly a subject that a
Christian can preach on from the New Testament that cannot be found in the Old
Testament. The Jews can match Christians on almost anything you can imagine.
The Lordship of Christ is that distinctive note of the church. It is no wonder
the Gospel is made so simple.
All people need to do
is to confess that Jesus is Lord, and believe in their hearts that God raised Him
from the dead, and they will be saved. Many to whom the Gospel was spoken
already knew more biblical theology than the average Christian of today. Many
were priests and scribes who knew the Old Testament in depth. All the needed to
do to complete their relationship to God was to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. For
the Gentile without this heritage, coming to Christ was the beginning. But for
a Jew it was the climax of his response to God. Studying Judaism makes you
realize that Christ alone makes Christianity distinctive, and as soon as you
omit Christ you become Jewish, for all biblical theology without Christ is from
the Jews. This means we can learn much from the Jews about God's Word, but they
can offer nothing that comes close to salvation and new life in Christ.
The Jews know the
value of devotion and meditation. To be still and know that God is God, and to
consider His wondrous works is vital to their faith. They live in the same
world of tension as we do. Their teachers and preachers push them to take time
to be holy, and to give God a part of their daily life. Their poets stress this
as do ours. One wrote,
Once I met an angel by
the way,
A brief hour he stayed
and then did part;
And now his halo
guilds my every hour,
His song sings always
in my heart.
Listening to Lefkowitz
comment on this would leave you unable to distinguish his Jewish perspective
from a Christian perspective on the need and value of devotion. He wrote,
"The angel of that hour might guild our everyday and his song sings always
in our heart. It is a silent hour, like the hour of the turning tide. Have you
stood on the shore of the sea and seen the waves with hoary manes ride in and
break with terrific din? There comes a moment of silence when the self-same
waves, drawn by the lunar pole 238,000 miles away, turn about and with the same
crash of sound with which they came in now ride out again to sea. That moment
of silence is the turning of the tide; so the silent hour in our day, the hour
of retrospection, the hour of thinking it all out, is the true turning of our
life's tide. In that hour we hear the voice of God, in a world that in
Wordsworth phrase is 'Too much with us.'"
Jews believe in
devotion, quiet time and a deep involvement with the Word of God. Let us not
think that only Christians are Bible lovers. Do not think we speak only of the
Old Testament either, for a good many Jews are likewise students of the New
Testament. It is also a Jewish book, and part of the literature which they
claim as their heritage and gift to the world. Their claims for the Bible are
as strong as ours. In another sermon Lefkowitz says, "The writers of the
Bible were realists. You will look in vain for a single area of life, which the
Bible does not see clearly, and about which it does not speak candidly."
The Jews believed that
idolatry is the great curse of man. It is the making of gods in their own
image. The gods of money, success and power are the most popular. They see it
just as the Christian does, and they see the answer as we do, but they do not possess
the whole and adequate answer. Lefkowitz ends the sermon by saying, "The
conception of the true God and understanding of His will must reach the hearts
of men...before democracy and brotherhood and human decency and kindness can
flower forth in fullest splendor upon the earth." When you come right down
to it the Jews believe salvation is in knowing God, and their mission is to
make the truth of God known. They are so close to Christians, for Jesus said in
John 17:3, "And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent."
The only difference
that really matters between Jews and Christians is Jesus Christ. This is a
difference that makes all the difference in the world, however, for it is a
matter of eternal life and death. The Christian does not disagree with the Jew.
He says to them that you are right, but you must go one more step in receiving
Jesus as the Son of God. Listen again to Lefkowitz exalt God as the answer to
man's need for redemption: "First comes God. The world will not be
redeemed by poor laws, not even by disarmament conferences. The accumulated
wrongs of the ages will not be cleared out with electric fans. Not even with
the fans of a hundred legislative enactments or relief agencies. None but God
can redeem this world. God in the human heart, God softening the passions of
men, transforming the stuff man is made of, rendering man as sensitive to the
call of the spirit as an Aeolian harp is to the wayward breath of the wondering
wind."
He is so close, and
yet so far. You can see why our heritage is referred to as the Judao-Christian
heritage. Jews and Christians are brothers in so many ways. It is our
obligation to love them and seek to win them to be brothers in Christ also. We
have received all that the Jews have and more, and it is our responsibility to
encourage them to receive that more, which is Jesus Christ.