OK... so every summmer my kids are gone [basically the even numbered years] I immerse myself in one book of the BIBLE. By "immerse," I mean that I read the Bible Book in question several times [in the old King James, o'course] and augment that reading with "sound" commentaries and devotional readings from various periods of Christian History.
In 2008 it was the The Book Of Job, [WOW] and in 2010 it was Proverbs.
These were some really rewarding studies, mind you, so when I said "So long" to my kids for the 2012 summer, I found I could hardly wait to begin my study of yet another "OT Wisdom" book: The amazing Book of ECCLESIASTES!
ECCLESIASTES, it turns out, is one of the more "controversial" books in all of our Biblical "Canon."
One old commentator says that this book "is as close as Our Bible ever comes to a discussion of True Philosophy"... while no less a "fundamental" heavy-weight than old C. I. Scofield warns that:
“The student should notice that it is not at all the will of God which is developed, but that of man ‘under the sun’ forming his own code. It is, therefore, as idle to quote such passages as ii.24, iii.22, etc., as expressions of the divine will as it would be to apply Job ii.4, 5 or Gen. iii.4. The constant repetition of such expressions as ‘I perceived,’ ‘I said in my heart,’ ‘then I saw,’ etc., sufficiently indicate that here the Holy Spirit is showing us the workings of man’s own wisdom and his reaction in weariness and disgust.”
So I approach the book with this question in mind: Am I to constatntly relegate passages I don't understand to the junk heap of Scofield's "not-to be-taken-as-God's-words" rationalization, or do I simply read it and let God be my guide??
Something tells me the latter is always the safest path.
So, in any case... let the summer begin!
In 2008 it was the The Book Of Job, [WOW] and in 2010 it was Proverbs.
These were some really rewarding studies, mind you, so when I said "So long" to my kids for the 2012 summer, I found I could hardly wait to begin my study of yet another "OT Wisdom" book: The amazing Book of ECCLESIASTES!
One old commentator says that this book "is as close as Our Bible ever comes to a discussion of True Philosophy"... while no less a "fundamental" heavy-weight than old C. I. Scofield warns that:
“The student should notice that it is not at all the will of God which is developed, but that of man ‘under the sun’ forming his own code. It is, therefore, as idle to quote such passages as ii.24, iii.22, etc., as expressions of the divine will as it would be to apply Job ii.4, 5 or Gen. iii.4. The constant repetition of such expressions as ‘I perceived,’ ‘I said in my heart,’ ‘then I saw,’ etc., sufficiently indicate that here the Holy Spirit is showing us the workings of man’s own wisdom and his reaction in weariness and disgust.”
So I approach the book with this question in mind: Am I to constatntly relegate passages I don't understand to the junk heap of Scofield's "not-to be-taken-as-God's-words" rationalization, or do I simply read it and let God be my guide??
Something tells me the latter is always the safest path.
So, in any case... let the summer begin!
PEACE!
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