Ecclesiastes 1:1 — Welcome to a new book in the wisdom genre! Today we’ll be getting a double dose of Solomon (Ecclesiastes as well as Proverbs)! What does the wisest man who ever lived (1 Kings 4:30) want to tell us about life? From Bob Utley:
Its main purpose was to show the futility of human existence apart from God. It is a tract to convert self-sufficient materialists or intellectuals.
Let’s look at the futility of human existence apart from God.
Ecclesiastes 1:4 — Generations come and generations go, but the sun goes up and the sun goes down (Ecclesiastes 1:5).
… whirleth about continually … This is a remarkable anticipation of the modern discovery of the world’s great wind circuits, in the global circulation of the atmosphere.
Ecclesiastes 2:1 — What did Solomon try for contentment? Pleasure (Ecclesiastes 2:1), wine (Ecclesiastes 2:3), building projects (Ecclesiastes 2:4-6), servants and possessions (Ecclesiastes 2:7), and silver and gold (Ecclesiastes 2:8).
Ecclesiastes 3:1 — The 1965 secular song from the Byrds “Turn, Turn, Turn” was based on this passage.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 — ”In His Time“, a gospel chorus, is based on this verse. Interesting that this verse talks about the capacity God has built within us.
Ecclesiastes 3:13-14 — Some call this book secular wisdom. But we know that God intends for us to enjoy His creation, and that His doings are far greater than our doings.
Ecclesiastes 3:17 — God will judge – there is a time we must give account.
Ecclesiastes 3:21 — Mark Lowry has humorously used Psalm 36:6 to say that dogs go to heaven. Unfortunately, his exegesis has skipped Ecclesiastes 3:21.
2 Corinthians 6:2 — There is no reason to delay salvation – now is the accepted time!
Psalm 46:3 — Did Shakespeare leave his mark on the King James Version? Kyle Butt says, “Yes!”
Proverbs 22:15 — Proverbs has much wisdom on child training. The point is not abuse but removing foolishness.
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Job 40:4 — Job has an Isaiah-like experience (Isaiah 6:5). He no longer wishes to take his case to the LORD. He wants to close his mouth and take back the foolish words he has said.
Job 40:9 — James Weldon Johnson communicated this verse by applying it to today’s society: “Young man, young man, your arm’s too short to box with God!”
Two great creatures, behemoth and leviathan, are described by God in Job. Some commentators have suggested behemoth was an elephant or hippo but the description simply doesn’t match (e.g. behemoth “moves his “tail like a cedar”). It’s appears God is describing a sauropod dinosaur and a fearsome now-extinct sea creature.
Behemoth and leviathan may well be now extinct species that were still living in Job’s day. While what is known about several species of dinosaurs may appear to fit some aspects of God’s description of behemoth and leviathan, the most we can say with confidence is that the descriptions do not match any known living species today. At the same time, to call them ‘mythological’ creatures is to do violence to the text and context of Job; therefore, we affirm that these were actual creatures of which Job had knowledge (although we cannot state whether Job had direct or indirect knowledge of them). They symbolize the power of evil, connected with Satan, who is mentioned in the first chapters of the book. The words of God humbled Job and showed him that God is above all powers in this world.
Job 42:2 — Job responds by admitting the LORD’s omnipotence and omniscience. He then declares his insufficiency (Job 42:3) and repents (Job 42:6).
Job 42:9 — God forgives Job and continues to accept him! What a merciful God we have!
Job 42:10 — If God gave Job twice what he had before – the sheep were doubled, the camels were doubled, the oxen were doubled, and the she asses were doubled. But notice that Job’s children were replaced but not doubled (Job 42:13). Job’s children did not succumb to nihilism and vanish. No … God had taken them. Job’s children had doubled as well – half were on earth with him and half were in heaven with the LORD.
Job 42:17 — Job died, not having cursed God but having been full of days. A godly legacy!
2 Corinthians 5:11 — Terror … not in the sense of the irrational fear that we’ve charged this word with today, but in the historic sense of “calculated to impress fear.” (Webster’s Dictionary 1848)
2 Corinthians 5:14 — What was the irresistible power behind Paul? The love of Christ!
So man has to be dramatically, transformed, but God also has to have His attitude dealt with because God cannot look upon iniquity and iniquity is going to have to be dealt with, right? Something has got to modify God’s wrath. Something’s got to deal with God’s attitude.
However you take it – it’s not the direction of reconciliation but the “causer” of reconciliation that’s important. As Oswald Chambers summarizes it:
Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross. A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete.
How was the reconciliation accomplished? Because of the substitutionary, vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ that allowed God’s imputed righteousness to be deposited in our account (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Proverbs 22:14 — A choice of companions can affect your life. And when your greatest companion is your lifelong spouse, it is important that you choose not the Strange Woman but the woman that fears the LORD (Proverbs 31:30)!
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Job 37:14 — Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God! I’ve seen the Planetarium Show at the Creation Museum many times, but it is still amazing every time!
Job 37:23 — The technical term is “inscrutable.” Elihu is right, we will not be able to “unscrute” the inscrutable!
Job 38:3 — God speaks to Job. He doesn’t explain to him why he went through the tragedies, but He asked Job some questions. Notice the question God asked man: He asked Adam to explain his behavior (Genesis 3:9). Israel Wayne exposited the Questions God Asks in his recent book.
Job 38:23 — God used hail as a weapon in the Exodus and in the conquest of Canaan (Exodus 9:13-18, Joshua 10:10-11).
Job 38:37 — Clouds, those harmless puffs of water vapor, are one of the main reasons your favorite meteorologist can’t predict Friday’s weather. “Clouds and precipitation are among the more challenging weather parameters to forecast accurately.”
Job 39:9-10 — But I thought unicorns weren’t real? The problem isn’t Scripture, but the gradual deterioration of the English language. Eric Hovind points out that the word “unicorn” is not only a transliteration from the Latin, but it also originally (per Webster’s 1828 Dictionary) referred to animals such as the rhinoceros.
2 Corinthians 4:14 — We’ve just read in Job about our God’s amazing power. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead will raise us up from the dead as well!
2 Corinthians 5:10 — The most sobering doctrine in the Bible is the Bema Seat. We aren’t just on a 80-some year cruise boat voyage to do our own pleasures. We are working towards a reviewal of our performance. Chuck Missler dispels some myths about the Bema:
This judgment is often taught as simply an awards ceremony, but that is not entirely correct. It was the tribunal seat, the judicial bench, the judgment seat, or throne of the one in charge. Herod Agrippa I addressed the people of Tyre and Sidon from his Bema seat. Jesus was brought before Pilate and his Bema seat. Paul was accused before Proconsul Gallio; and brought before Festus at Caesarea facing a Bema seat. A relic of one was found among the ruins in Corinth.
Psalm 44:9 — Did the psalmist just borrow from Job?
Psalm 44:23 — The proper response is not to dispute with God, but to continue to call upon the name of the LORD!
Proverbs 22:13 — When you need an excuse, any excuse will do!
Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.
