The Darkest Book of the Bible

The old king sat bent over in his chair. There was more to do than he had the energy with which to do it. He knew that his health was failing; he knew that his days on Earth were growing fewer and fewer. Perhaps those days could be counted in double digits rather than in years. He looks out the window at the gray, dismal, cloudy, cold day. He pulls his blanket up closer around his shoulders, fighting off a cold that seems to grow from the inside. It was very cold.

He's not alone. There are courtiers, servants, and hangers-on. Manipulators and a few family members, but they all have one thing in common: what can they get from the old man before he's gone? He looks around the room, and he sees some people that are trustworthy and helpful and more than a few that are just waiting for the opportunity to advance their own cause. 

He knows that when he is gone, his kingdom will pass into the hands of a son who is not ready to reign. He's more than old enough, but his fascination with trappings and trinkets, his lack of wisdom, and his tendency to trust his peers, who also lack wisdom, indicate that the kingdom will be left in hands not capable of the task. The old king knows that everything he has accomplished will be gone within a generation.

Hoping that some future generation will learn from his failure, he returns to the pages on which he has been making notes. He begins to write again. With the last burst of vitality, he warns that all is merely smoke if it isn't a faith. Hebel, hebel, everything is hebel. And so, over the course of a few days, in as much privacy as he can have at the center of court, the king pours out his thoughts, his heartache, and the gloominess of his soul. He is “the teacher," the wisest man in the kingdom, perhaps the wisest man in the world, perhaps the wisest man of all time. So he composed his last book.

Once the old king has finished writing, all there is left to do is to wait to die. His great kingdom will fracture and fall apart under incompetent leadership. His great wealth will be scattered to surrounding nations, his magnificent buildings will begin their slow and long decay, and he hopes that his last book can prevent others from chasing after smoke.

No one in our world today compares to King Solomon. Everything we value, he had in excess or extreme. But his final book is dark, brooding, and filled with regret. There is a temptation to look at heroes and their prime and want to have what they have. But Solomon says of all of those things, it's merely smoke, hebel, a vanity; it's chasing after the wind.

The Book of Ecclesiastes is 12
short chapters of searching and regret and the conclusion that it's all just a bunch of smoke. It feels like Solomon would conclude his life by saying to anyone, but especially the young, “Live a life of faith from the beginning. At the critical junctions of life, follow God. That way, when you're old and it's hard to start over again, you will not be starting over from a place of deep regret.”

It is our tendency, because we love the word of God so much, to try to project onto all the passages of scripture a positive, upbeat, and hopeful story-line. All of the scriptures are inspired by God, but the message of the Book of Ecclesiastes is different. Ecclesiastes is more of a cautionary tale of failure than it is a veiled, mysterious, but hopeful book of promise. So we turn to this, perhaps the darkest book of all the Bible, and maybe learn not to chase after smoke.

Proverbs 31:1-31

Proverbs 31:1-31

The last chapter of this book is actually two appendices. Verses 1-9 are the sage advice of a queen mother to her young son, the king. It is a reminder to focus on the role of the king to both live by and protect truth and justice. Pleasure is not the primary purpose of power. Power exists to protect and to serve. That is true for all occasions and in all cultures.

Verses 10 - 21 are the most famous passage of Proverbs and are an acrostic poem with the verses beginning in the order of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This passage has been used and misused to proof-text all sorts of positions concerning the role of women. We would do well to look at this passage from the bigger context of the whole book. Over the last 30 chapters we have received advice and wisdom on every possible subject. We have looked at philosophy, psychology, economics, prostitution and vice, work, play, and almost every other aspect of life. Here the book concludes with the hopeful picture of a happy home. All the success in the world is empty if home is a misery. But in the happy, blessed home there is peace and contentment.

“Lord, give me the wisdom to keep the main priorities the focus of my life. AMEN."

Proverbs 30:1-33

Proverbs 30:1-33

In many ways this chapter is one of the most entertaining sections of the entire book of Proverbs.  Many, but not all, of these proverbs come in collections of four. They provide much fodder for an active imagination about what kind of events these proverbs provide the moral of the story. Read, reflect, and enjoy all of these humorous notations.

But for the moment, let's look at the beginning and the end of this chapter. Agur, whom we don't know, is speaking to two students and admits his own ignorance. From the rest of the chapter, we see he is not ignorant in the absolute sense. But when it comes to what matters most, it can't be learned by observation or what we may call the scientific process. It can only come by means of revelation, vs. 3-6.  All the observed truths he describes in verses 7 to 31 are at best a glimpse of God.

The conclusion of this chapter is to emphasize the priority of humility. Pride always grows from evil, and it will bring about suffering. Nothing arouses anger or churning more quickly than pride and its actions. To humbly and honestly seek God is the best alternative.

“Lord, help me to walk in humility with You and my fellow man. AMEN”

Proverbs 29:15-27

Proverbs 29:15-27

“Immediate gratification is the near-perfect opposite of long-term success." “The easy way now is the path to the hard way later." These sentiments are very much a theme we find in this passage.

It is the approach of the “long game” that gives us success in domestic life. In verses 15, 17, 18, and 21, for example, we see the warning that the easy way now, leads to hardship later. Verse 21 is a bit odd, and the oddity is from the word translated "son." That word appears nowhere else in the Old Testament. It may reflect a man with no heirs adopting a slave to be his heir. But the boy never learns the hard work of a slave nor the training of a son and so sinks to the lowest level of human nature.

The short-term solution is an approach to life that will fail at the social level. Verses 16, 18, 20, and 22 are examples of people who give full vent to their passions of the moment, but the results are disastrous. The application for our lives is clear: while short-term thinking has effects that are noteworthy because they are easy, the long-term goal needs to take precedence. 

“Lord, help me to have a long-term approach to life. AMEN”

Proverbs 29:1-14

Proverbs 29:1-14

There is a tendency to look at our elected officials, especially past presidents, with one eye closed. With one eye we see the good, and with the other we see the evil, depending on our party loyalties.  How we view our leaders depends on which eye we have open and which eye we have closed. John F. Kennedy was a cool-headed leader during the Cuban Missile Crisis, but we say little about his runaway sexual misconduct. We celebrate Abraham Lincoln as one who by force of will and arms kept the union together, but we dare not talk about his invitation to demons, by occultic practices, to come into the White House. Both parties and every generation face the challenge of what to do when we find a few good deeds done by wicked men.

In contrast, this passage gives us an example of integrity that goes to the core of a person's being. No leader is perfect, but there is a difference between the one for whom evil is an isolated aberration and the one who makes it the habit of his life. Reread this passage and keep in mind the inner character of our leaders. And not just our leader but our own inner character. Sooner or later what's on the inside will become evident. Apparently character does matter. Stormy Daniels and Monica Lewinsky will stay hidden only so long. 

“Lord, help me to develop the inner character that You desire. AMEN."

Proverbs 28:15-28

Proverbs 28:15-28

There are several places in the section that address the sad state of people who have to deal with the greedy rich. There is a collection of three proverbs that specifically address this issue in verses 20 - 22.

In verse 20 the contrast is between the man who is faithful or is a man of integrity and the person who has an agenda of wealth. His agenda or eagerness to gain leads to punishment. "Why?" Because of his lack of faithfulness or integrity.

The next verse builds on that fact. Even though partiality is wrong, it still happens, and sometimes the price of a compromise is amazingly small. There is a story of a businessman who asks a young lady to sleep with him for $50,000. She agrees and then he offers her $20. Offended, she asked, “What kind of girl do you think I am?” The businessman replies, “We've established what you are; now we are negotiating the price." 

In verse 22 most modern translations failed to translate the phrase “evil eye” accurately. The man who is passionate about wealth has a distorted sense of vision. It is both incorrect and morally wrong. Everything is seen in terms of gain and advantage. He is unaware that wont or poverty is coming. What he most hates will become his justice.

“Help me, Lord, to be a person of deep integrity. AMEN."

Proverbs 28:1-14

Proverbs 28:1-14

There are a couple of proverbs in this passage that seem odd to us. Verse 3, which is poorly translated in many modern translations, should begin, “The poor man who oppresses the poor…” What is described here is the practice of securing a possession by a person who by clever means in order to enrich himself. Think of how tax collector posts were purchased in the Roman Empire. A poor man buys the position by means of a high-interest loan. They could secure their payoff and profit by oppressing those least able to resist. We see today ‘poor’ people in leadership who are anything but public servants.

The first line of vs. 14 seems odd when we read the NASB or the KJV. The NIV gets the message across, but it is not a precise translation of the original text. The NIV inserts the word "God," but that is not in the original text. “Blessed is the man who is constantly in fear…” The word "fear" implies being startled. The event is sudden fear in the most intense way. We can become casual about the "Fear of the Lord." What this proverb advocates is the high level of fear "of God" as the constant of life.

“Lord, help me to live constantly in an awesome awareness of You. AMEN."