SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
5/23/2013 8:17 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Authority
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl. 8:1-9
Message of the
verses: Today we begin the eight
chapter in the book of Ecclesiastes and Dr. Wiersbe has entitled this chapter
in his commentary on Ecclesiastes “What About the Wicked?” This is a question that every person who has
ever been born has probably thought of at one time or another. I have mentioned the phrase “putting God in a
box” a number of times in past Spiritual Diaries and it is my belief that in
answering this question about the wicked and the bad things that happen in our
lives that God is put into a box more times than at any other time. People have to understand God if they want to
understand about the wicked and about the evil that is going on in our
world.
People solve the problem of the wicked by saying that
there is no God, but then where did good things come from if there is no God. Others say that God is not strong enough to
handle the problem of wickedness, but when you know of the attributes of God
and that He is all powerful then that belief has to be wrong.
Dr. Wiersbe writes in his introduction to this chapter
“Solomon didn’t deny the existence of God or the reality of evil, nor did he
limit the power of God. Solomon solved
the problem of evil by affirming these factors and seeing them in their proper perspective. We must not forget that one major source of
evil in this world is fallen man and his ‘many devices,’ both good and evil,
that have helped to create problems of one kind or another (7:29 NASB). God certainly can’t be blamed for that!” I had mentioned more about this in
yesterday’s SD.
“The preacher explored the problem of evil in the world
by examining three key areas of life.”
We will begin with the first area of life in today’s SD, but one more
quote from Dr. Wiersbe before we do that:
“During the darkest days of World War II, somebody asked a friend of
mine ‘Why doesn’t God stop the war?’ My
friend wisely replied, ‘Because He didn’t start it in the first place.’ Solomon would have agreed with that answer.”
1 ¶ Who is like
the wise man and who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom
illumines him and causes his stern face to beam. 2 I say, "Keep the command of the king
because of the oath before God, Eccl. 8:1-2 NASB).”
Kings in the ancient Middle East were, for the most part,
benevolent dictators and had the power to kill or not to kill. We can trace this back to the book of Genesis
with Nimrod as seen in Genesis 10:8-1, and then men like the Pharaohs, and
Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, the Caesars, and even men like Hitler,
Stalin, and a host of others have followed in being evil dictator. We have a situation in these first two verses
of chapter eight of a man who worked for an evil dictator and was asked to do
something that he did not want to do for it was not right in his eyes. Dr. Wiersbe writes “His wisdom told him that
there were four possible approaches he could take to this problem.”
Disobedience:
Verse two says “Keep the king’s commandment.” Why?
Because the king had the power and because the servant took an oath to
obey the king, (See Romans chapter 13).
The second reason is that the king’s word would be more powerful than
the servant. Third, the servant would be
punished if he did not follow the kings orders.
There is coming a day when all evil will be judged, even the evil of
these awful dictators. I heard a story
last Sunday in our morning service that was about a Supreme court Justice of
years gone by. The story goes that this
judge before he was a Supreme court Justice had a trial he was over and the
person on trial got off due to a technicality to which the judge told him that
even though the law got him off there would come a day when a real Judge would
hear his case and it would not go well for him.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “But suppose the servant simply cannot
obey his master? Then the servant must
consider the other possibilities.”
Desertion (vs. 3a):
“"Do not be in a hurry to leave him.’” There is such a thing as
integrity, and even though this man may lose his life he may have to leave the
king. In today’s world, at least in our
country at this time we have a choice to leave a job that calls for us to do
things that go against our Christian beliefs.
Defiance (vs. 3b):
“Do not join in an evil matter, for he will do whatever he
pleases." The NIV says “Do not stand up for a bad cause” and this can mean
‘Don’t promote the kings evil plan’ or ‘Don’t get involved in a plan to
overthrow the king.’” Dr. Wiersbe states that he prefers the second way the
verse is written because it would not be good for this servant to gather other
people who did not approve of the king’s actions and try to overtake him.
We know that there may come a time in our live that will
be similar to the time in Peter’s life when he stated in Acts 5:29 “We ought to
obey God rather than men.” There have
been millions of martyrs throughout the Church age who have done as Peter
stated and lost their lives. I have read
that there are at least 1000 people every day who die for the cause of Christ
around the world. 5/23/2013 9:38 AM 5/23/2013 10:10 PM
Discernment (vs. 5b-6):
“5b for a wise heart knows the proper time and procedure. 6 For there is
a proper time and procedure for every delight, though a man’s trouble is heavy
upon him.”
Solomon is saying that this wise servant must use
discernment in his actions, and this surely takes wisdom to do this. He must not storm out of the room, for that
would only make things worse on him.
Proverbs 15:1 says that a soft answer turns away wrath, but grievous
words stir up anger.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “High Priest.” (Hebrews 2:17
Today’s Bible
Question: “What did Jesus do in healing
the man born blind? (How did He heal
him?)”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
5/23/2013 10:21 PM
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