Questions without Answers (Part-2)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/15/2013 4:44 PM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  Questions without Answers

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Eccl. 6:10-12

            Message of the verses:  We began this section in yesterday’s SD and when we stopped we said that there were five questions that people often asked that Solomon will address.

            “10  Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is; for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is.  11 For there are many words which increase futility. What then is the advantage to a man? 12  For who knows what is good for a man during his lifetime, during the few years of his futile life? He will spend them like a shadow. For who can tell a man what will be after him under the sun?”  (NASB)

            “10 Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny.  11 The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they? 12 In the few days of our meaningless lives, who knows how our days can best be spent? Our lives are like a shadow. Who can tell what will happen on this earth after we are gone?”  (NLT)

            Question # 1:  “What’s going to be is going to be, why bother to make decisions?”  In Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on this question he goes into the things that God has named, things like day is day, and night is night and they cannot be changed.  Sin is sin and when we make the choice not to call sin, sin then we are going to get into trouble.  Dr. Wiersbe states “We are free to decide and choose our world, but we are not free to change the consequences.  If we choose a world of illusion, we start living on substitutes, and there can be no satisfaction in a world of substitutes.”

            Question # 2:  “Why disagree with God?  We can’t oppose Him and win, can we?”  This question comes from the last part of verse ten:  “for he cannot dispute with him who is stronger than he is.”  What Solomon seems to be saying is that it is not going to do us any good to argue with God, or to fight God?  He is saying that this is the way life is so we might as well accept it. 

            As we look at this logic that Solomon is stating we could think that this is a negative statement, that the will of God is painful and difficult.  Let us look at a couple of verses that looks at this from a different angle:  John 4:32-34 “32  But He said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." 33  So the disciples were saying to one another, "No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?" 34  Jesus *said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”  Jesus is saying that the will of God is meat and not medicine.  Psalm 33:11 “The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.”  Here we see that God’s counsel and plans come from His heart and are done with love. 

            In our Bible study from the church that I attend we are studying the book of Romans and have been looking at the first chapter of Romans.  The last study we looked at verses 18-32 and in those verse we can see one of the most difficult judgments that God can give to sinful man:  “Therefore God gave them over, (Romans 1:24),” and this phrase is given more than one time in this section and what it is saying that man wants to sin so God just gives them over to the consequences of that sin.  Paul writes that the wages of sin is death later on in the book of Romans.  My question is why do we want to do what we want to do and not accept what God has for us to do.  Paul says in the book of Galatians that the Law is our tutor, and he also says in the book of Romans that the “Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, (Romans 5:20).”  The Law shows us the righteousness of God, but we cannot keep it, so that does not make the Law bad, but good, however the Law will convict us of sin because we cannot keep it:  “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET.’”  (Rom. 7:7)  What I am saying is that we cannot get the wrong idea of the Law, and what it is all about, and if we decide to strike out on our own ignoring God and His Law we will get ourselves into a lot of trouble.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have to remember that God truly does have my best interest in His heart for me and I have to trust Him fully.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to teach me contentment.

Memory verses for the week:  2 Cor. 5:17-19

            17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. 18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Answer to yesterday’s Bible Question:  “Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Prizzites, Hivites, Jebusites.”  (Exodus 3:8)

Today’ Bible Question:  “What were Barnabas and Paul called in Lystra?”

Answer in tomorrow’s SD.