Monday, February 26, 2024

Solomon's Two Points of View - Financial Distribution

 

 King Solomon's reputation is one of wealth and wisdom. Paradoxically, some of that Wisdom was his discovery of Foolishness. 

Take for example,  Ecclesiastes 2:26, "...to the sinner He has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind."

This verse should be an encouragement as we look at the ungodly political environment of a regime that is foolish enough to make the Biden character its figurehead. There is no shortage of examples of sinners of all ranks who have been collecting and accumulating all manner of earthly spoils. The spectrum runs from those paid to keep silent to those who sacrifice babies for power. They are all sinners given the task of gathering.   

Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes late in his life after he'd been influenced by his many foreign wives. Unlike Solomon's previous contributions to the book of Proverbs which acknowledges a Supernatural God in control, this book of Ecclesiastics was written from an entirely Earthly point of view. This perspective correctly analyzed the futile arrogance of the sinner in his pursuit of worldly goods and power. Without God, they are chasing after the wind.

Yet in a previous time, when Solomon gave a supernatural Lord of All his proper deference, he wrote on the same topic. When this concept was expressed in Proverbs 13:22, we read that "the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous." 

When God was given His proper due, we learn that the wealth isn't lost to the wind, but stored for the godly. "Stored" has even been translated as "treasured up," which alludes more to a working warehouse or distribution center than it does to a depository for preservation, although either way, it is collected for use in God's time and place.  

In the worldly point-of-view, the sinners gathered in vanity. Solomon wrote about this in Eccsiastes when he was looking through his physical eyes.  In the heavenly point-of-view, their gathering has been garnered and squirreled away for provision and use by those who love the Lord. Solomon wrote about this in Proverbs when he was looking through his spiritual eyes. We need to nurture and fortify our trust in heaven's point of view. 


We are barreling toward that point of the sinner's financial collapse. They are gathering in futility. But that is not the Great Shepherd's plan for His sheep. Be encouraged. Don't fret when you see the sinners filling your stockroom. Rejoice! 

Monday, January 1, 2024

Glory In The Highest

Glory to God in the Highest...
English grammar question—
What is the "highest" here?  I never really knew. Is it referring to "Glory" in the highest, skipping the prepositional phrase? Or "to God," the highest God of gods?  So I went to it check out, and I found that some translations of Luke 2:14 read, "Glory to God in the highest [heaven]." That's a third option for the English interpretation!
I kept digging into the original Greek and found that the best object for the modifying adjective "highest" is neither quantitative highest praise/glory nor qualitative highest God. The concept implied in the words "in the highest" (the Greek is plural), is that the extolling (exalting) is heard in the very Heaven of heavens—in the highest regions of the universe; the Supreme Heavens. The most fitting meaning in the Greek is actually geographical, extending to all Creation—and that it was occurring in a continuing-tense that doesn't exist in English; the angelic armies didn't simply "announce" Glory to God in the Highest, but were announcing, announcing, announcing it.
Some commentaries went on to say that all three interpretations were possible. None are totally "wrong." Highest praise. Highest God. Highest extent of Creation.  But what comes through in the original language is that the message was meant for All the World.