August 16 ▪ Day 228

Scripture Readings

Proverbs 21:17
Ecclesiastes 9–10
Mark 8
Psalms 44

Verse Focus (Proverbs 21:17)

Whoever loves pleasure will become poor;
     whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich.

Meditation

Today’s proverb says, “Whoever loves pleasure will become poor; whoever loves wine and olive oil will never be rich.” It’s a little bit dismaying to read this nugget of wisdom. After all, who doesn’t love pleasure? Who doesn’t enjoy good things? Who doesn’t appreciate quality in the finer things of life?

But I think it’s a matter of priorities. It’s okay to enjoy pleasure, but if you love it more than you love virtue, more than you love God and His word, that’s a recipe for disaster. After all, it’s Scripture that teaches us prudence. It’s wisdom that helps us manage our finances responsibly. It’s God who gives our lives purpose and meaning.

I think if we’re honest, we can all point to times in our life when we struggled with wanting to gratify our pleasure, as well as times when we were consumed by the desire for costly material things. I love to read. It’s a good thing, and for me, it’s one of my great pleasures. But if I read when I should be working, or cleaning, or handling any of a number of other responsibilities, then I’m allowing that pleasure to impoverish me. Likewise, those who struggle with wanting to buy nice clothes, or the extra fancy car, or just about any material possession our hearts could desire — well, it’s very easy to have our desire outstrip our financial resources.

So today’s proverb puts things into perspective for us. We should not let ourselves be ruled by the desire for pleasure. Nor should we be ruled by the desire to have costly items for our table or ourselves. We have an adage in English, “All things in moderation.” Ecclesiastes encourages us, time and again, to enjoy life and to enjoy our food and drink — but we should not make a god of that enjoyment. Pleasure can be one of our idols, just as wealth can become an idol.

Father God, thank you for today’s wisdom. I thank you that you are the one who created pleasure. You are the one who gives us good things. But sometimes a thing is good only in moderation. To excess, it brings our ruin. Help us not to love pleasure or things more than you. Transform our hearts by your Word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

In Ecclesiastes 9, Solomon speaks of two different kinds of “evil” things that exist in our world. The first evil is that “the same event happens to all (v. 3).” The Preacher is primarily referencing death. Death comes to all people, and all living things — it does not matter whether a person is wicked or good, if one is ordinary or famous, or rich or poor. Who you are and what kind of person you are doesn’t make one bit of difference. Death comes to all.

But there are other things, too, that affect large groups of people without distinguishing between the worthiness of those affected. Wildfires, hurricanes, pandemics… “the same event happens to all.” Yet something about having the same thing happen to everyone strikes us as being unfair. Perhaps it’s only the adversities that we view as being unfair when everyone is treated the same; when everyone gets sunshine and pleasant weather it doesn’t offend us in the same way — we actually recognize it as a manifestation of God’s mercy. But death and natural disasters are harder to see as an expression of God’s mercy.

Verse 11 speaks of the second “evil.” As Solomon says, “I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all.” Again, this is a violation of some internal sense that says that things should not be this way. Those who are deserving should win. They should not be leveled and treated the same as those who are undeserving. But Solomon tells us that, just as fish are caught in a net, so people may be “snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them (v. 12).”

Considering how these evils are seemingly random yet inescapable, the Teacher again advises us to be happy in life. “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart,” Solomon says in verse 7, “for God has already approved what you do.” God has already approved what we do? Yes, God approves of us having joy.

Solomon offers a few other bits of advice. “Let your garments be always white,” he says in verse 8. He tells us that we should act with enthusiasm. “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,” he says in verse 10. Solomon praises the value of wisdom, even though the wise may not receive due recognition. A wise man who saves a city is forgotten. “Wisdom is better than weapons of war,” the Preacher says in verse 18. Unfortunately, he concludes the verse by saying, “but one sinner destroys much good.”

As chapter 10 begins, Solomon expands on the theme of how one sinner can wreak havoc by telling us, in verse 1, “A little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.” Many of the ideas in this chapter are also expressed in Solomon’s proverbs. Verse 8 appears to be the original sentiment for Murphy’s Law: “He who digs a pit will fall into it, and a serpent will bite him who breaks through a wall.”

Verse 19 has long been one of my favorites. It’s especially fun to quote to your non-Christian friends out of context. “A feast is made for laughter, and wine makes life merry, but money is the answer for everything.” 🙂 Alas, context is everything. Just because money can be used as an answer for everything does not mean that Scripture necessarily endorses this attitude.

Indeed, context is what we need to understand the entire book of Ecclesiastes. Taken on its own, apart from the rest of Scripture, the book can appear bleak and morose. In some ways, it is likely more accessible to the non-believer. It speaks frankly of distressing inequities, and disparages but ultimately accepts that random chance governs our lives. Even though the Preacher speaks of faith and speaks of fearing God, in the very next breath he talks about everything being meaningless. That seems almost the opposite definition of faith to me!

Yet I do love this book. But part of it, for me, is that I understand this book within the context of all of Scripture. Despite how life appears, I am assured that there is nothing that can separate me from Christ’s love. And understanding Ecclesiastes from the context of the whole Bible helps me to recognize the wisdom this book contains.

As we read again the miraculous story of the feeding of the four thousand in Mark chapter 8, I am struck by what verse 6 tells us. Before he distributes the food, and before the miracle occurs, Jesus gives thanks. I find this very significant. What is Jesus thanking God for? His provision? For the gift of food? For the fact that there is a small amount of food they have to work with? For the miracle about to occur? Probably all these things. But from the way we view the world, if there was anyone who did not need to give thanks, it was Jesus. He had the power and the access and the desire to do this miracle. So either Jesus gives thanks to model the behavior for us (a distinct possibility!), or else we fundamentally misunderstand the role of thanksgiving in our life of faith. Today I’m leaning toward the second interpretation. Mostly because I believe that Jesus’ giving thanks was genuine; it wasn’t something that he just modeled to teach us how we should interact with God.

I believe thanksgiving opens the way for God to demonstrate His power. It is placing us in the correct position before God. He is everything; we are nothing, but we receive His grace. We thank Him not only for what He has done, but for what He will do. So why do I find it difficult to believe that Christ would be doing the same thing that we do when we give thanks? I think I keep stumbling over his divinity. Christ has special power. He is God incarnate. And when I see his humility in action, part of me is left going, “But, but, but….” Christ took on the nature of a servant. He took on humanity. He took on helplessness. He gives thanks because God the Father is everything. The power might come through Jesus, but it comes from the Father.

I also meditate on the story about the blind man that Jesus heals in Bethsaida. It’s a curious story. Jesus works to heal the man, and then asks the man if he can see. And he can see, but it’s blurry. So Jesus lays hands on him for a second time. And then the man is healed. So, why did it take two tries for the man to be healed? That’s really odd. I believe Jesus could have healed him in one go if he had wanted to do so. So why is this a two-part process?

I believe it has something to do with the blind man himself. In many of the gospel stories, we see that a person’s faith seems to directly affect his or her ability to be healed. Perhaps the blind man believed that Jesus could help him, but he didn’t really have the faith to believe he could be healed. So Jesus gives him a partial healing to encourage his faith. And once his faith is strengthened — he can see trees walking around! — then his faith is sufficient for complete and total healing.

God does this with us, too. Sometimes we ask for something in prayer. We have faith enough to ask, but maybe not total faith that we will actually receive an answer. Yesterday, I prayed for a big thing — I asked God to bring me the perfect job “speedily.” Today I got a call to come in for an interview next week for a promising job opportunity. It may or may not be the job God wants for me, but it’s so encouraging to be asked to interview! And I find myself a bit chagrined; I believe God answers my prayers. But when He answers, I realize how much doubt I’ve been carrying as well. So if your faith wavers and isn’t as strong as you’d like it to be, don’t let that stop you from asking with the amount of faith you do have. God knows whether or not to give you the answers all at once or piecemeal. He hears us, and He loves us more than we can possibly understand.

As we read Psalm 44 today, I find myself treading some familiar paths with this psalm. The psalmist prays for God to remember Israel. He claims that they have been faithful to God, but that God has inexplicably rejected them. God is silent. And His silence is not result of the Israelites’ behavior. They have been doing everything right.

It occurs to me, as it has occurred to me in the past, that the psalmist could be deluding himself. He may think that Israel is righteous and has behaved with honor, but he could also be wrong. He could be ignorant, or worse — self-deceived. But the less comfortable possibility is that the psalmist is right. Israel has been faithful; yet God appears that He is being unfaithful in response.

We are quick to judge others and to believe that the fault must lie with those that God ignores. And the heart is deceitful — so there is good reason to think that God’s silence or His judgment through natural disasters is a response to sin.

But I think the real lesson of this psalm — just like Ecclesiastes — is that God is sometimes silent for His own purposes. There is evil under the sun and we cannot fully understand how or why God rules as He does. Disasters happen for reasons we may not be able to comprehend. Or perhaps we will not have the opportunity to understand until the next life. But even though we do not understand, even though our experience does not seem to match what God promises to be true, we have the choice of whether or not we will respond in faith. As the psalmist cries in verses 25 and 26, “Our soul is bowed down to the dust… Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!”

Father God, our faith can sometimes be so very small. And many circumstances will try our faith and tempt us to give up on you. Thank you for today’s answer to prayer (the job interview). Thank you that you are faithful. Thank you for sending us Jesus Christ. Please continue to grow my faith and remove my doubts. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. Use me and my words for your purposes. In Jesus’ name, Amen.