I n the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon, the king of Israel, ponders the mystery of life. It’s the only book in the Bible written from the point of view of natural man, written no doubt toward the end of his life.
King Solomon started out well. He asked for wisdom and knowledge and as a reward God gave him wealth as well. He used his wealth and wisdom to build a beautiful temple. He built many other buildings as well as putting together all the things that would give him happiness and fulfillment. He greatly enjoyed using his great wisdom to make everything jut right, and apparently did.
Solomon would look forward to the pleasure he would have sitting on his beautiful throne, enjoying all the things he had spent twenty years working for. It didn’t work out that way. When he was all done he had nothing more to live for. He tried
everything both good and sinful in his attempt to find happiness in life.
Now as we think about this we do see the importance of this particular book so that we fully understand the futility of life apart from God. Solomon himself testified in Ecclesiastes 3:22 and 23: “For what hath man of all his labor, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath labored under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart findeth not rest in the night. This is also vanity”. But the things, both good and bad happened to Solomon largely because of the gifts and talents that God gave him. Can we really blame Solomon?
There had to be a man like Solomon to make the Bible a fully complete book. Here I think we see two things. God is the Great Stage Manager. When we stand on the Sea of Glass we will see that not only is the Bible a perfect and complete book, but that all of history is perfect and complete in every detail. But we also must recognize.that each is fully responsible for his actions and will answer to God regarding his obedience to the divine commands.
To manage a world of people with free will and make the entire story end exactly as planned requires divine intelligence; as in Psalm 147:5: “His understanding is infinite”. Each must decide whither he will be a willing partner in His plan or simply
used of Him. The choice is yours, but all things are going to end up as He pleases.
Archive for July, 2010
THE GREAT STAGE MANAGER
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010SHEBA AND DEDAN
Thursday, July 1st, 2010I wrote the following after seeing an article in the inter-net by the Prophecy Club. See the article at the bottom.. I suppose when threatened with extinction even the Moslems can face the truth. Apparently the Saudis fear Iran more than they hate Israel.
There are two Shebas and Dedans in the Bible which can be confusing. The first are in Genesis 10:6 and 7, great grandsons of Ham. One of the sons of Ham was Mizr which is the Arabic name for Egypt. In II Chronicles 9 we find a descendant
of Ham and of Sheba. She js the queen of Sheba who came to visit Solomon. In Matthew 12:42 Jesus said that she was from the south. From this we can gather that much of the family went to Africa. We can here dispense with this Sheba and Dedan.
The other two (Sheba and Dedan) were grandsons of Abraham (Genesis 25:I-3).
To get the complete picture we need to begin in Genesis 16 where we see the first mention of Ishmael and the story of his mother Hagar. In verse 12 we see that Ishmael “shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren”. In Genesis 21:14 –21 is the story of Ishmael being sent away. Verse 21 tells us that he went to Paran. It is universally agreed that Ishmael is the father of the Arabs.
Now to establish the location of Paran. If you will look at any map it shows Paran to be in the Sinai desert. For this we have Biblical proof:
Amalek was a grandson of Esau=Genesis 36:10-12. He lived in Paran or Sinai. Amalek fought with Israel in Sinai or Paran=Genesis17:8. Again see Genesis 21:21. israel went SE (into Sinai) not NW, the shorter route; Exodus 13:17 and 18.
Sinai in time past was part of Arabia=Galatians 4:25.
Now a couple more things before I move on. In Genesis 1:12 we saw that Ishmael would dwell in the presence of all his brothers. Who were his brothers? Abraham married Keturah after Sarah died. Abraham had six sons with her. They would be Ishmael’s half brothers among whom he would dwell. Notice Genesis 25:17 and 18 where we see confirmed the prophecy of Genesis 16:12. It is also confirmed in Genesis 25:6. Abraham sent his sons to the East and they went to their brother Ishmael. In the verses already quoted, one of the brothers of Ishmael was Midian.
Now here I need to mention something about directions as far as Israel is concerned. For example although Babylon was east of Israel it wfrom. To the east was the desert which their armies could not cross, being on horses. This same thinking held in the case of as always spoken of as coming from the north. To the Israelite the direction had to do with where the armies came the desert although it was really more SE and south. To Israel (and of course to Abraham) the desert was east. More on that later.
In Genesis 37 we see the story of Joseph being sold into slavery. In verse 25 we read that the brothers see the Ishmaelites coming. Then they sell him to the Midianites. Remember Midian was a brother of Ishmael (Genesis 25:1and 2. From a ways off the brothers could see that they were of the tribe of Ishmael but as they came nearer they would see them to be of the family of Midian. Here again we see the fulfillment of Genesis 16:12.
The next passage to look at is Judges 6-8: the story of Gideon and the Midianites. There were not only Midianites but also the Amalekites=6:3. Remember that Amalek was a grandson of Esau. The descendants of Esau were Edomites which was right on the border of Arabia and I think absorbed into Arabia; Jeremiah 25:20-24. Uz was the land of which Edom was a part (Job 1:25 and Lamentations 4:21).
There is a bit more in Jeremiah 25:20-25. In verse 20 we read of the land of Uz, in 21 Edom and in 23 Dedan, one of the cities in Edom. In 24 there is the mention of Arabia with “all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert”.
Back to Judges. The Midianites were from the east and they had camels, a desert creature. When the Babylonians or Assyrians came they rode on horses. In 8:24 we again see the connection between Ishmael and Midian.
Now to Ezekiel 38. In verse 5 the first country named is Persia. In verse 8 are the details regarding Israel in the last days upon their return to the land of Israel:
Brought back from the sword=Israel became a nation in 1948, just three years after the holocaust.
In verse 8 we are also told it will happen in the latter years, they return to the mountains of Israel, they will have returned from many people (102 nations at this date), a land always waste (when Mark Twain was in Israel over a century ago, he saw nothing but waste land and a few wanderers), and thy will dwell safely and after living in places like Russia or the Arab lands they are now a free people.
It is certainly interesting that just now, at this time in history Israel should be threatened by Persia and join hands with Saudi Arabia. Speak of strange bedfellows. In verse 13 there are Sheba and Dedan working in hand with “Tarshish with all the young lions”. Which nation has the symbol of the lion? England. So who are the young lions? America, Canada and Australia. We need Saudi’s oil and with the world-wide recession they need us as a costumer. Is this the prey in verse 12? In Ezekiel’s day the area which was then Sheba and Dedan is now Saudi Arabia. From all we have seen in Scripture we know for a certainty that the descendants of Sheba and Dedan are in Saudi Arabia.
Let me quote from the article I mentioned:
Israel Air Force aircraft dropped off large quantities of military gear
at a Saudi Arabian military base last week in preparation for a
potential attack on Iran, a number of Iranian and Israeli news outlets
have reported.
The unconfirmed report, (note that it is unconfirmed. Nevertheless, the rest
of the article still stands) first published by the semi-official
news Agency Fars and the Islam Times, claimed that on June 18 and 19,
Israeli helicopters unloaded military equipment and built a base just
over five miles outside the northwestern city of Tabuk, the closest
Saudi city to Israel.
The claim follows a report two weeks ago in the London Times
Magazine that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to fly
through a narrow corridor of air space in northern Saudi Arabia
so as to shorten the flight time required for Israeli jets to reach Iran.
Anticipated Joy
Thursday, July 1st, 2010Anticipated Joy and Experienced Joy
Sometimes it troubles us that we don’t experience more real felt happiness when we think of the perfect and endless joy which awaits us relatively soon. The same is true of the person who knows he will spend eternity in hell. For some, at least, they don’t give it a lot of thought. It does not greatly concern them. For them it is more comfortable to think about other things.
There are different reasons for this. Perhaps one reason is that it’s so completely outside of both our experience and any real knowledge that we have of heaven. Also, many of us are quite comfortable here. Then, too, we spend most of our thinking on things down here. We really have no choice: our daily activities require it of us.
As an example of this that we see in the Bible: Abraham spent one hundred years living in a tent. In Hebrews we read that he was willing to do so because he was looking forward to a city. This home would be for ever compared to which the hundred years would be less than nothing. Now I can’t imagine that he woke up every morning dancing for joy because he was looking forward to that glorious home of the future, especially after a sleepless night chasing the cows out of Abimelech’s corn. Even so great a saint as Fanny Crosby wrote in one of her hymns:
There are depths of love that I cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till I rest in peace with Thee
But when all is said it is certainly better to live knowing that infinite, eternal joy will be my experience even though we now live only in anticipation of it. A good passage to think on is found in the I Peter:3-6. Verse four reads: “wherein ye greatly rejoice” that is in the hope of heaven. Verse 6 talks of being “in heaviness through manifold temptations”. Neverheless, it is good to have the anticipated joy.
Moral Laws
Thursday, July 1st, 2010 .
Many nations, both past and present have their laws, written and unwritten.
The laws of these peoples are in many places somewhat like the ten commandments and
of some of the things we would read in the Old Testament, although they would be imperfect. We see this in Romans 2:14 and 15: “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which show the work of the law written on their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness—“. As God is good He would give to all men a conscience which would be basically good.
An example of imperfect laws would be that most cultures put property ahead of people. Because the Bible taught that man was made in the image of God, a man could not be touched for stealing an animal. He must make it right but only with money or goods. Man was of more value than money, animals or property. Psalm 19 tells us that the law of God is perfect, unlike the laws of men.
The western world was based entirely and only on the Judeo-Christian ethic, which in turn was based on the Bible. In fact, in the dictionary of 1812 by Webster the Bible is often used as a reference point or proof for a word or phrase. It is obvious that even the non-Christians believed the Bible to be absolutely true. The young were brought up accordingly. Their entire upbringing was based on the Judeo-Christian ethic.
My point is that all young people were taught the difference between right and wrong; but we today would not accept the laws of ancient Rome or Greece or the modern laws of Japan or of the pantheists. All that the western world has knowledge of is the laws we have, based on Biblical do’s and don’ts. Therefore when the ten commandments were put out of our schools we left an entire generation growing up with no moral instruction. That was just the beginning. Now more and more any reference to Christianity is being erased.
The entire doctrine of salvation is also a subject of which only the Bible has the answer. All other religions teach that if one does his best, hopefully all will end up alright. This is true of even most Christian religions. The Bible is very clear on this: “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight”=Romans 3:20.
Galatians chapter 4:1-10 spells out clearly the difference between law keeping and salvation. “Even so we (the Jewish law keepers) were under bondage”=verse 3.
Verse 8 is to the Gentiles; “ye (the Gentiles) did service unto them which by nature are
no gods”. But both must come under the blood of the cross.