Ecclesiastes 6
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Important messages
Chapter 6
Wealth
without joy and other lessons
1. There is an
evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind:
2. a man to who
God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that
he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys
them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.
3. If a man
fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years
are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also
has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
4. For it comes in
vanity and goes in darkness, and in darkness its name is covered.
5. Moreover, it
has not seen the sun or known anything, yet it finds rest rather than he.
6. Even though he
should live a thousand years twice over, yet enjoy no good… do not all go to
the one place?
7. All the toil of
man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied.
8. For what
advantage has the wise man over the fool? And what does the poor man have who
knows how to conduct himself before the living?
9. Better is the
sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a
striving after wind.
10. Whatever has
come to be has already been named, and it is known what man is, and that he is
not able to dispute with one stronger than he.
11. The more
words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?
12. For who knows
what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he
passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the
sun?
Revelation 1:8-11
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Important messages
8. “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is
and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
9. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the
kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called
Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.
10. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me
a loud voice like a trumpet
11. saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the
seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to
Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.”
The main purpose of
Scripture
The Scriptures are
about who God is; they are a revelation of His person. It is not primarily
about the human race, and He is the one that His true people want to know. They
have known Him personally from the beginning of their Christian experience, but
they are continually looking into His word with hungry hearts, seeking to learn
a little more of His personality.
In verse 8, God has
given us something, upon which we can meditate. There are so many things, which
can be used to describe Him and yet, we still must recognize the limitations of
human language and everything known to man, to fully unveil His infinite
essence and nature. The Greek alphabet becomes the tool in this text. Not only
words, but letters, will help to open our understanding, and the Lord God uses
the first and last Greek letters, Alpha and
Omega. God is in every minute detail
of written truth.
Ecclesiastes 5
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Important messages
Chapter 5
The vanity of talk
1. Guard your
steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to
offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil.
2. Be not rash
with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for
God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few.
3. For a dream
comes with much business, and a fool’s voice with many words.
4. When you vow a
vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what
you vow.
5. It is better
that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.
6. Let not your
mouth lead you into sin, and do not say before the messenger that it was a
mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice and destroy the work of your
hands?
7. For when dreams
increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must
fear.
Five times in the biblical books of wisdom an almost
identical statement appears: “The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This is the point, at which vanity
ends and wisdom begins. In the midst of his discourse on life under the sun, a
negative report to be sure, Solomon interjects some jewels. One is found in
verse seven, “God is the one you must fear”,
and it is the secret to life beyond the sun that has lasting value. It is the
theme of the first seven verses. Though these gems may be few and far between in Ecclesiastes,
they carry more than enough weight to tip the scale of earth’s value system in
the right direction for the person, who knows how to measure and appreciate
them.
A reverent fear of God is beyond price, and it is a rare
asset in today’s society. When the time comes to approach the things of God,
see to it that it is done with the highest regard for his honor and worthiness.
Guard your steps… remove your shoes, when you come to the holy place of
encounter with the Almighty. Religious pretense is an enemy; it is not only
deceitful, it is evil.
Revelation 1:4-7
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Important messages
4. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace
from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who
are before his throne,
5. and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our
sins by his blood
6. and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
7. Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even
those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him.
Even so, Amen.
Grace and Peace from the Trinity
 |
| Isle of Patmos |
“Grace and peace”, was Paul’s
salutation in all 13 of his letters to the churches, as well as to Titus.
Curiously, he added “mercy”, when writing to Timothy. Peter uses “grace and
peace” in his second epistle and Jude adds mercy and love to peace. John in his
second letter also adds mercy, but now in Revelation, he gives the simple greeting,
which we find most commonly in the epistles. I simply want to point out that it
is important to understand that in the Word of God, these greetings are not
just customary, but carry the full weight of divine blessing.
This book is addressed
directly to seven churches in Asia Minor and they are literally the first
recipients of it. However, it is worth noting that there were more than seven
churches in this Roman province in John’s day. Given the symbolism and the
prophetic nature of the book, we can easily surmise that only seven were chosen
to serve a wider purpose. Seven is the number of perfect completeness and I
believe that these churches represent the church of all ages. I think that
their characteristics are the same as those we find in different churches in
every period of history. I also tend to think that each one represents a
dominant type of church in seven historical periods, the Laodicean church
standing for the dominant church of our times. I will write more about this, as
we come to chapters two and three.
Revelation of Jesus Christ
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| Landscape on Patmos; traditional site of John's cave is on the nearest hillside (the large, white building). |
I finished my annual reading through the Bible (twice through the New Testament) a few days ago and have been thinking of what book to study and present on this blogspot through the rest of 2018. Since we went through Daniel's prophecy last year, it is logical to follow with the book of Revelation. So we begin today. If some of you are wondering about the study of Ecclesiastes, we will continue to post articles here intermittently from those immensely important observations of King Solomon.
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