Podcast 98 Epistle of James, “Pt 1, Ch 1”

In Christian tradition, James is generally believed to be James the Just, brother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and a leader in the early church. His writings bring a practicality to Christianity. He does not remain in the abstract but envisions a practical religion modeled after the works of the Savior as well as his teachings. Curious beings that we are, we like to know more about the early writers. We want to eulogize them. We want to show them as perfect. We want to put them above the rest of us. James introduces himself merely as a humble servant. Perhaps that is sufficient.

James 1:1

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

His idea is that we should not only listen to what Christ said, but strive to live as Christ lived, a servant of mankind. The following verse summarizes James’ philosophy.

James 2:18

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

He was not without temptation. In fact, he teaches us how to deal with temptation.

James 1:2

My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;[3]

He sees temptation as a trial of our faith, as an opportunity to increase in virtue. Among the top virtues is patience.

James 1:3-4

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Paul teaches that patience leads to Hope. Christians often consider Faith, Hope, and Charity to be the highest achievement of man. They are known simply as The Three Theological Virtues. Paul teaches.

Romans 5:3-4

And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope.

It was Peter who said:

1 Peter 1:6-7

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:[5]

These teachings came out of enormous suffering, All had witnessed the persecution and death of Jesus Christ. Tradition has it that most of the apostles were killed, some in gruesome ways. It is believed that thousands were murdered because of their faith. John refers to it as a time of “great tribulation.”

Revelation 7:13-14

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.[6]

Words matter. Take, for example, the following words: wisdom, knowledge, information, facts, truth, understanding, awareness, learning, comprehension, insight, perception, erudition, scholarship, etc.

Synonym means “same-name” word. But they aren’t the same. Wisdom is greater than scholarship. Wisdom is the application of knowledge. It implies sound judgment, discernment, discretion, sagacity, sapience, prudence. Both God and Satan have knowledge. Only God has wisdom. James said the following:

James 1:5

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Podcast 97 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 12, Ch 12”

Understandably the final chapter in Ecclesiastes is a summing up. Characteristically Solomon boils down everything leaving to the end what is most important. I think we may properly assume that Ecclesiastes was written when King Solomon was old and knew that he was about to die. He gave us many clues. Consider the following statements given early on:

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Ecclesiastes 2:4

I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:

Ecclesiastes 2:11

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 2:18

Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me.

Ecclesiastes 2:23

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity.

If the above is not convincing that he is waiting to die, perhaps the opening statement of the final chapter is.

Ecclesiastes 12:1

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

Solomon is old. He has lost pleasure in life. He poignantly recognizes the vanity of earthly pleasures. One is reminded of William Wordsworth’s beautiful poem, Ode, Intimations of Immortality.

There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.

Solomon also laments those lost times.

Ecclesiastes 12:2-6

While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain: In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened, And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low; Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern.

“Because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets” refers to death. King Solomon continues:

Ecclesiastes 12:7

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Is that not another way of saying, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” Solomon gives his familiar refrain.

Ecclesiastes 12:8

Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity.

Words often have two values. One is connotative. The other is denotative. The connotative value refers to the emotional overtones, to the feelings the word conveys. The denotative refers to the dictionary definition. It is cold and abstract usually consisting of a name, a class, and a differentia. Without connotation, there would be no poetry; without denotation, there would be no sense. The connotation appeals to the emotions. The denotation appeals to the mind. The word vanity has many connotations, mostly negative as suggested by common synonyms:

Podcast 96 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 11, Ch 11”

The first verse of Ecclesiastes is such a common axiom in every Christian vocabulary, it is likely that most have forgotten its origin.

Ecclesiastes 11:1

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

What is it that keeps such a phrase alive. We hear it in other ways, “What goes around comes around.” “That which ye sow, so shall ye reap.” “It will come back to bite you.” “Do unto others as ye would have them do unto you.” The variations are, perhaps, multitudinous because everyone who has experienced life knows instinctively that it is true. We live on a spinning planet in a spinning universe. Everything circles something. The moon circles the earth. The earth circles the sun. Our solar system circles the galaxy at about 500,000 miles per hour. One cycle takes from 225 to 250 million years. What does our Milky Way Galaxy galaxy circle and where does it end? The point is everything returns. Consider the water cycle. From evaporation and transpiration to condensation to precipitation, water returns. It is quite possible that we have swallowed the same molecules of water many times, and those same molecules could have been consumed by every other living being since Adam.

Think of it in a broader scale. We are children of God, of noble birthright. We once lived with our Father in heaven and every good Christian’s goal is to return to the presence of God the Father and God the Son. Each of us is a universe. A Jewish proverbs says that if you kill a man, you kill a nation. Regardless of what scientists concoct or atheist’s claim, we all descended from Adam and Eve. We are all brothers and sisters, equal in the eyes of God who is no respecter of persons. That which we do has eternal significance. Sometimes small things have the greatest consequences.

“Cast your bread upon the waters” has great spiritual significance. Christ is the ‘bread of life.’ Bethlehem, where Christ was born, means House of Bread. When we eat the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, we take bread to remind us that he gave his body for us. That which is Christ centered will last. If we follow his laws and obey his commandments, after many days, we shall find Christ. In 1st John we read the following:

1 John 3:2

Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

We live in a world of uncertainty; therefore, we must rely upon God, creator of all.

Ecclesiastes 11:2-5

Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

Solomon counsels us to sow our seed. When one sows seed he scatters it broadly, generally in prepared soil, hoping it will grow.

Ecclesiastes 11:6

In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

Sowing the seed both morning and evening significantly increases probability. We should also take joy in sowing our seed.

Ecclesiastes 11:7

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:

Of course, plants need sunlight, but Solomon is not talking about merely temporal seeds or temporal light. He is talking about spiritual seeds and spiritual light. In Isaiah we read.

Isaiah 2:5

O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.

In typical Antithetical Parallelism, so common in in the Bible, Solomon plays light against darkness.

Ecclesiastes 11:8

But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.

Among other things vanity refers to the temporary nature of things. It refers to putting our trust in things that have no lasting value. That is why we must walk in the light of the Lord. Perhaps that is the primary theme of Ecclesiastes which begins with the famous opening of Ecclesiastes:

Podcast 95 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 10, Ch 10”

One of the things that makes Ecclesiastes so interesting is that King Solomon, also known as The Preacher, is speaking from vast knowledge and experience as a political and spiritual leader. Perhaps everyone would agree that King Solomon is larger than life: the wealthiest man, the most powerful man, the wisest man, the most famous man, the greatest king, but not without faults. He speaks from experience. His great name is synonymous with wisdom; therefore, he speaks much of the importance of wisdom. Notice he is not talking about intelligence which is so praised today. He is talking about understanding with the heart not just the mind. Cleverness is abundant, but wisdom is rare. Cleverness is often camouflaged as wisdom. Its synonyms are bright, intelligent, brilliant, smart, etc. Such virtues have hurled many into stardom, success, wealth, fame, and power only to see them fall because they lacked wisdom. The graveyard of history is cluttered with clever people who brought about their own destruction as well as the destruction of others. As Solomon said,

Ecclesiastes 10:1

Dead flies cause the ointment of the apothecary to send forth a stinking savour: so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour.

A clever person, without wisdom, may become a fool.

Ecclesiastes 10:2-3

A wise man’s heart is at his right hand; but a fool’s heart at his left. Yea also, when he that is a fool walketh by the way, his wisdom faileth him, and he saith to every one that he is a fool.

Cleverness camouflages foolishness and pulls many under its spell. Time always lifts the curtain and reveals the fool; sometimes, however, it is too late. The damage is done and one has allowed a fool to make a fool of himself. That is a common story of life. It takes wisdom to recognize a fool before one falls into his own trap. King Solomon warns us against fools.

Ecclesiastes 10:4-8

If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for yielding pacifieth great offences. There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceedeth from the ruler: Folly is set in great dignity, and the rich sit in low place. I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth. He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.

How many have fallen for Ponzi schemes or pyramid schemes. I am in my eighties. In my lifetime I have never seen so many clever schemes set out to defraud us of our money. AI, the internet, social media, texting, etc. have introduced a new level of fraud, so exquisitely camouflaged that it appears legitimate. All of them have been based on fear and threats. What was once called “surfing the internet” has now bred a new breed—a breed of trollers whose dangling and jagged hooks are set to snag the unwary and relieve them of their freedom and their fortune.

Perhaps Solomon saw our day.

Ecclesiastes 10:9-11

Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby. If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct. Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.

Ultimately the fool is revealed, but not always before he has destroyed a lot of lives.

Ecclesiastes 10:12-13

The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself. The beginning of the words of his mouth is foolishness: and the end of his talk is mischievous madness.

I like the phrase “mischievous madness.” That well describes our day. Solomon is not just telling us to be wise. He is telling us that we must discern between the wiseman and the fool. The following is one earmark of a fool.

Ecclesiastes 10:14-15

A fool also is full of words: a man cannot tell what shall be; and what shall be after him, who can tell him? The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he knoweth not how to go to the city.

Podcast 94 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 9, Ch 9”

To King Solomon the world is a precarious place. The world is not fair. The world is not equitable. The world does not discriminate. That theme appears to dominate Chapter 9. Perhaps Solomon’s most often quoted words, found in Ecclesiastes 9, are “Time and chance happeneth to them all.” It is proverbial. It is provocative. It is true to life. We live in a world governed by time and chance. We must come to terms with coincidence. Coincidence is one of the greatest stumbling blocks to Christianity for the simple reason that every miracle can be attributed to chance. It is an argument that is irrefutable. All miracles begin with faith. All miracles are only recognized through faith. Faith precedes the miracle. Faith in Christ brings about the miracle. And faith in Christ sustains our belief that a miracle occurred.

There is a logical fallacy logicians call ‘post hoc ergo propter hoc’ which means ‘after the fact therefore because of the fact. The argument is that just because an event precedes the effect, the event did not cause the effect. It is a necessary precaution because it prevents us from ‘jumping to conclusions.’ On the other hand, it is a double edged sword. Skepticism may cause us to deny the miracle. For example, the skeptic would say, just because you prayed doesn’t mean that God brought about a miracle. They may argue that prayer and the miracle were merely coincidental.

Atheists insist that creation is accidental, that all things, even the creation of man, came about through coincidence, accident. The philosopher Bertrand Russell said, “Man is nothing but an accidental collocation of atoms.”

Christians cannot prove that God created the world. It is an act of faith.

Another reality is that wicked people prosper in a wicked world. If one equates success by the accumulation of wealth, then the wicked are probably more likely to be considered some of the most successful. Still Solomon declares that the righteous are in the hands of God.

Ecclesiastes 9:1

For all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God: no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.

Notice how deceitful the eyes can be, “No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them.” To see the hand of God, one must use a different standard of judgment. One must have faith. We live in a complicated world which prompted the following very discouraging observation.

Ecclesiastes 9:2

All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

That is why faith is required to see the hand of God. Faith is required to even see the hand of the devil for if the devil is not real then neither is God. Malachi understood that. He understood that logic has its limitations in discerning divine truth.

Malachi 3:13-18

Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.

Podcast 93 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 8, Ch 8”

Solomon’s gift was to plumb the depth of things. He did not allow all the distractions of his kingdom to keep him from a contemplative life.

Ecclesiastes 8:1

Who is as the wise man? and who knoweth the interpretation of a thing? a man’s wisdom maketh his face to shine, and the boldness of his face shall be changed.

What does it mean “to know the interpretation of a thing”? For one thing it suggests that there is meaning to life, there is purpose, there is design, there is more than meets the eye. How does wisdom make one’s face shine? The answer is simple: It is the light of Christ. It is Christ who gives meaning to life, who makes life worthwhile, who makes life eternal, who enlightens the mind, the body, and the spirit. There are temporal things and there are spiritual things; there are mortal things and there are immortal things; there is the body and there is the soul. Solomon acknowledges the existence of the soul. That is why “his face shall be changed.” There is more to life than ‘eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.’

Ecclesiastes 8:2-4

I counsel thee to keep the king’s commandment, and that in regard of the oath of God. Be not hasty to go out of his sight: stand not in an evil thing; for he doeth whatsoever pleaseth him. Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

Let’s assume that what king Solomon is referring to is actually the law of the land. He is warning against a lawless society. “Stand not in an evil thing” refers to the criminal element that would thumb their nose at the law. A criminal “doeth whatsoever pleaseth him.” Society cannot survive a lawless world. “Where the word of a king is, there is power.” There is power in law and order, and the king, of course, symbolizes law and order.

Because we have a physical body and an immortal spirit, we are complex beings, yet we must live together in harmony. Given the complexity of our dual citizenship, let me present four conflicts that are inherent in each of us. By dual citizenship, I mean the citizenship our spirit has with our God vs the citizenship our mortal body has with our government. In the. above Solomon addressed our citizenship with our government. Solomon is a king and he expects to be obeyed.

We have four conflicting elements that make up our being. We have freewill, agency, freedom, and liberty. All are based on law, but different kinds of Law.

· Freewill depends upon the spiritual Laws of God.

· Agency depends upon our ability to choose good or evil.

· Freedom depends upon the Laws of Nature or Temporal Laws of God.

· Liberty depends upon the Laws of man.

There are always forces in a fallen world that seek to destroy freewill, agency, freedom, and liberty. Sometimes the king is the enemy, especially if he is a wicked king. The source of freewill is God. Will, or intelligence, self-exist or we have no freedom. We would be automatons acting under the forces of nature. Nothing earthly can give us freewill. We brought it with us when we came to earth. Nothing less than divine law can give us freewill. Freewill is what makes us unique, nonpareil. Our intelligence or consciousness is who we are and determines what we become. Agency, on the other hand, depends entirely upon the absolute existence of good and evil. That is why we have divine law. The two masterful laws are the Law of Justice and the Law of Mercy. All the laws of God are designed to give us agency. Agency is the ability to choose between good and evil. If we choose good we reap the benefits of divine law, called the law of justice. If we choose evil, we reap the punishment of divine law, also called the law of justice. The law of justice is why we have freewill. The law of mercy is why we have agency.

Podcast 92 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 7, Ch 7”

Prophets often turn things upside down. King Solomon is an empire builder. He governs twelve great nations. He has power, wealth, fame, prestige, and wisdom, but he is also given to the contemplative life. Notice the startling statement in verse 1.

Ecclesiastes 7:1

A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.

“A good name is better than a precious ointment” reminds me of a line from Shakespeare’s Othello.

Othello, Act 3, Scene 3

“Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
’Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.”

The line is spoken by Iago, a villain of the first order, yet that doesn’t make the concept less true. But why does Solomon say that “the day of death is more precious than the day of one’s birth?” Is it because with birth comes uncertainty and trials. In Job we read:

Job 5:7

“Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.”

Of course, we know the story of Job, the wealthiest and most powerful man in the region round about. In a short time, he lost his animals, his power, his position, his wealth, his health, and his children. Next to Christ, Job has become the symbol of endurance, of patient suffering, of inequity, of the power of Satan, and of faith. That makes his statement profoundly meaningful. As Mark Twain quipped, “sparks must fly upward,” suggesting that trouble is unavoidable. Is that why the day of death is more precious than the day of one’s birth, or is Solomon aiming at a higher purpose? Death symbolizes, not only the end of life, but the end of our probation. We were sent to earth by God, our creator, to prove ourselves. After earth comes the judgment, and the judgment determines how we spend eternity. Repeatedly Solomon speaks of the vanity of earthly things. His eye was always on eternity.

Solomon finds virtue in the house of mourning

Ecclesiastes 7: 2-3

It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart. Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

We have the following senses: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell. But we also have feelings. We have a heart. We have a mind. We have a spirit. We have the Holy Ghost. We have faith, etc. Solomon subordinates the five senses to the higher senses.

Ecclesiastes 7:4-9

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

“Better is the end of the thing than the beginning thereof” is another way of saying, “the day of death is more precious than the day of one’s birth.” What is his message? It is clear. We should dedicate our lives to making death the greatest day of our life. In other words, we must not have the ‘heart of a fool.’ Solomon naturally goes to the importance of wisdom.

Podcast 91 Ecclesiastes, “Pt 6, Ch 6”

It is very common in scriptures for the prophet to make a sweeping statement in the beginning upon which the rest of the chapter follows, giving specific detail explaining its meaning. It moves from general to specific. In English we call it a thesis statement, a purpose statement, or topic sentence. In other words, the prophet raises a question and then answers it thoroughly. Notice the first verse of Ecclesiastes 6:

Ecclesiastes 6:1

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:

Now we may expect King Solomon to expound or answer his own question: What is that evil common to man? His object, of course, is to persuade us to avoid that evil; otherwise, our lives, regardless of how outwardly successful we may appear to be, will be in vain. Consistently Solomon has the eternal perspective in mind. The key words in Chapter 6 are good vs evil. The first two verses speak of evil. In verse one he said, “There is an evil…under the sun.” It is set apart by the fact that the evil is ‘common among men.’

Ecclesiastes 6:2

A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

First of all, Solomon acknowledges that all good things come from God, but it is what we do with those good things that matter. When Solomon said, “God giveth him not power to eat thereof’ he is saying that God does not create a glutton, which, as all Christians know, is considered one of the seven deadly sins. Why then is it vanity? Why is it an evil disease? It is evil because he does not use the wealth God gave him to do good. He hoards it. Christ addressed the same issue.

Luke 12:15-21

And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Part of the genius of the grammar of scripture is both its concreteness and its economy. Real life becomes a parable, a type, a model for us all to strive for or to guard against. Consider the following example given by Solomon.

Ecclesiastes 6:3

If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.

Though Solomon may well have had a hundred children, it is not the common lot of man. But hyperbole serves his purpose. And he appears to be saying that it is better not to have been born than to not fill our lives with good. Again, Solomon has his eyes on eternity. The vanity and vexation he speaks of is of the temporal or mortal world only. Again, we rely upon the words of the Savior.

Mark 8:36

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?