Thursday, June 14th ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is 2 Chronicles 6-7, Psalm 136.

Today's scripture focus is Ecclesiastes 7:23-8:1.

²³ All this I tested by wisdom and I said,

“I am determined to be wise” —
    but this was beyond me.
²⁴ Whatever wisdom may be,
    it is far off and most profound—
    who can discover it? 
²⁵ So I turned my mind to understand,
    to investigate and to search out wisdom and the scheme of things 
and to understand the stupidity of wickedness
    and the madness of folly.

²⁶ I find more bitter than death
    the woman who is a snare, 
whose heart is a trap
    and whose hands are chains.
The man who pleases God will escape her,
    but the sinner she will ensnare.

²⁷ “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered:

“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
²⁸     while I was still searching
    but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
    but not one upright woman among them all.
²⁹ This only have I found:
    God made mankind upright,
    but men have gone in search of many schemes.”

8 Who is like the wise man?
    Who knows the explanation of things?
Wisdom brightens a man’s face
    and changes its hard appearance.

Oh my gosh, I just skimmed through Mark Driscoll's sermon on this passage, 11 Steps to Becoming a Jerk for Jesus, and I laughed so much.  He's FUNNY!  Okay, but he has some really good things to say.  Talking about verse 27, he talks about how many people look to a person whose theology they agree with, and then base all their faith and belief on that one person's book(s) or sermons, etc. and because of this, they are not well rounded.  They become extremists.  Didn't we just learn to avoid extremes?

Anyway, I was also curious about verse 28, where it talks about not finding a single righteous woman.  Obviously, this is not literal, so I went looking for some more information.  Following is an excerpt from a study called Wise Words for Wise Ones on bible.org by Keith Krell:

These verses (27-29) lead us to ask whether Solomon was a chauvinist or a misogynist. Yet, when we read Proverbs and the Song of Solomon, we know that this is not the case.³⁰⁹ In fact, in Proverbs, Solomon often personifies wisdom as a woman. So let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: Solomon isn’t making a relative comparison as to the worth of men and women in general. That wouldn’t be fair and his conclusion wouldn’t be right. Furthermore, remember that with 1,000 women Solomon was the consummate ladies man.³¹⁰ He’s not going to jeopardize his relationship with women, right?

The “man” in view in 7:28 is the “one who is pleasing to God” in 7:26. The Hebrew word for “man” here (adam) is generic and refers to people rather than males in contrast to females. Solomon meant in 7:28b that a person who is pleasing to God is extremely rare (cf. Job 9:3; 33:23). The reference to “woman” (7:28c) is a way of expressing in parallelism (with “man”) that no one really pleases God completely. A paraphrase of 7:28b-c is, “I have found very few people who please God, no one at all really.”³¹¹ This interpretation is confirmed by 7:29 where Solomon demonstrates the scarcity—even nonexistence—of good people, whether man or woman. That the parallelism of man and woman in 7:28 describes all humankind is corroborated by 7:29—a probable reference to the creation and fall of “mankind.”³¹²

Verse 29 asserts two truths from Genesis: Initially, all of God’s creation was good.³¹³ Humans can understand and implement God’s will. Fallen humans are creative and energetic in the area of evil and rebellion.³¹⁴Though morally capable, humans turn from God’s will to self-will at every opportunity! Even though we seek righteousness, we need to remember that no matter how good we get, we are still sinful—every last one of us—men and women both. We need to remember that no matter how good we get, the only reason people tolerate us is that we have learned how to tame our public evil as opposed to our private evil. Does that disturb you about yourself? Here it is again: The only reason that you’re a likable person is that you have learned to distinguish between your public and private obnoxiousness, and you are smart enough to keep your lustful, hateful, wicked thoughts contained in your brain. In your public treatment of people, you have remained basically hygienic and nonviolent.³¹⁵ I know this is a hard word, but don’t get mad at me; I’m just the mailman. I just deliver the mail.

So who is responsible for the universal failure to please God? Solomon said people are, not God. God made us upright in the sense of being able to choose to please or not please God. Nevertheless, in 7:29 we have all gone our own way in pursuit of “many devices.”³¹⁶ The point is not that people have turned aside to sin, but that they have sought out many explanations.³¹⁷ They have sought many explanations of what? In the context Solomon was talking about God’s plan. Failing to understand fully God’s scheme of things, people have turned aside to their own explanations of these things.  (emphasis mine)

Happy Thursday!

Tomorrow's scripture focus:  Ecclesiastes 8:2-8.

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  Psalm 134 & 146-150.