The unfilled eye - Ecclesiastes 1:8; 4:8

I'm working through Ecclesiastes again for a daily devotion thing I'm sending out, and noticed a phrase pop up again which I hadn't previously. It's "the eye(s) is(are) not filled." 

It's an odd phrase because we don't think about eyes being filled, although it's not hard to make sense of it. It's also missed because the two occurrences are translated differently. In 1:8 the NIV has "the eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing." (has enough represents the verb שׂבע.) In 4:8 it comes across a little differently, "there was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth. (not content represents the verb שׂבע.)

As you can see (no pun intended), the same verb with the same subject represents two different subjects which can never fill one's eyes. In the opening poem, it is the ever-changing world and innumerable experiences which can never fill the eyes. In the observation of the lonely man in chapter 4, it is greed which is the bottomless hole. Of course, it could be that greed for experiences in chapter 1 is what binds the two expressions together. Although it is described as wearying in chapter 1, it could well be that this is the reflection of someone who has spent life trying to experience enough (like Faust, perhaps) and has reached a point when they have lost all desire to learn anything or experience anything new (like the end of The Good Place, perhaps). 

It was also interesting to chase this phrase a bit further. "Not filled" is a phrase which occurs some 20 times in the Old Testament, fairly evenly divided between the prophets and the writings (only once in the Pentateuch, Lev. 26.26). 

Mostly the description of what one cannot be filled with (moving now beyond just the eye) is food as a punishment. "You will eat but not be satisfied" is the common way of expressing this. Usually a punishment, it can also be Yhwh's means of testing - when they realise this, will they turn back to me?

The next most common way this phrase is used is to do with idolatry, as people went whoring after the nations or after greed, but as they did so and were not satisfied, their idolatry was exposed. They pursued something they thought would satisfy their desires but were left nonetheless with a bottomless hole, a gaping pit that could not be filled. 

One interesting unsatisfiable was Sheol/Abbadon, which could not be satisfied with death. I'm not sure if this is negative or nature - if probably depends on the context (eg Prov 30:15-16). There was also one positive, which was Job's conative use, asking whether anyone ever went away from his feasts not satisfied (expecting the answer "no"). 

But for me it's the greed-idolatry one which stands out most clearly. The way God has ordered this world means that serving the god of greed is a service which can never end and never give satisfaction. When greed, the accumulation of wealth is your god, there can never be enough. You will sacrifice friendships to the altar of greed but you will still never the gifts from the hand of God of true friendship, of true security, of shelter in the storm (see Eccl. 4:7-12).

The acrostic pair: Psalms 111-112

I'm on the home stretch now with my daily psalm blast,* but was fascinated by this diptych, two short alphabetic acrostic poems which play off each other in fascinating ways. There are a few other acrostic psalms, 9-10 (when read as one psalm); 25; 34; 37; 119; 145, and outside the psalter there are also the poem of the noble wife in Proverbs 31 and the first four chapters of Lamentations.

There are three reasons you might write an acrostic psalm:

1. you ran out of ideas (which kid hasn't written an acrostic and passed it off as an actual poem)
2. you want people to remember it (I almost memorised Prov 31 and found the acrostics helpful)
3. you want to get across the totality of something - the whole picture. In Lamentations it's the completeness of the destruction - an a-z of suffering.

Moving past the first two options, what is the whole story being told in these two psalms? Put simply, Psalm 111 tells the whole story of God's goodness and faithfulness, while Psalm 112 tells the whole story of the person who has learned from and lives out God's goodness and faithfulness.

Hallelujah!

There are multiple allusions and more specific links between the two, beginning with the heading, Hallelujah! or, Praise Yah! Of course, this is not unique to these two, and seems to be part of a Hallelujah collection, which goes from 111 perhaps until 118, because they all have Hallelujah at the beginning, or sometimes the end, depending on the psalm and which manuscript you're looking at. The Septuagint seems to read it in different spots, and if you look at the Leningrad Codex, you can see that it has its own line, so it's up to the copyist/translator/interpreter to assign it to the one above or below. 

I should also add that 113-118 are called the Hallel Psalms, or the Egyptian Hallel psalms, and are associated with the Passover meal. Why they begin at 113 and not 111 is a question I don't know the answer to and am not really that interested in, except to say that it does seem a little odd to not include these two, especially considering the exodus allusions in Ps 111.

Yhwh and the Man

After the heading we are introduced to the characters which will be the focus of each psalm. Unsurprisingly Ps 111 has Yhwh as the focus: "I will extol Yhwh with all my heart." Ps 112 however begins in a way which immediately brings us back to the opening words of Ps 2: "Blessed is the one who fears Yhwh." The first two words, as with Ps 2, are literally "blessed person," to which English translations necessarily add the verb and the article, "Blessed is the person," (אשׁרי־איש, ashrei 'ish). This person is then further defined as one who fears Yhwh, which gives definition to and explains the course of their whole life. "Yhwh" occurs 4x in Ps 111 (111:1,2,4,10); but only 2x in 112 (112:1,7); nonetheless the location of this psalm alongside, and the parallels with the description of Yhwh in the preceding psalm, make it clear that this person has learned how to live from their Lord.

Parallelomania
What then are these parallels? We can describe these in a few categories:
1. Exact parallels

• 1a (א) has Yhwh as the object; in 111 of praise, in 112 of fear.
• 3b (ה) we find the exact same clause, וְצִדְקָתוֹ עֹמֶדֶת לָעַד, "and his righteousness endures forever."
• 4b (ח) begins with the same phrase, חַנּוּן וְרַחוּם, "gracious and compassionate," in 111 describing Yhwh, in 112 adding "and righteous", although I almost misread it as "are the righteous." Interestingly many versions add "is Yhwh," which seems to be either copying across from 111 and/or trying to avoid associating such terms with a mere mortal. 

2. Related but not exact

• The word חפץ (to delight) occurs in 112:1b (the verb) and 111:2b (an adjective as a substantive), in both cases describing the people who delight in Yhwh. 
• Another word, ישׁר (to be upright) also occurs in two forms; in 112:4a acting as a subjunctive (the upright ones) and in 111:8a to describe the character of Yhwh (enacted in uprightness).
• Everlasting/eternity occurs a few times in the middle of the psalms (111:5a; 112:6a, 6b), but the closest parallel actually occurs in both 9b's, albeit with different lexemes (עולם elsewhere in these two psalms except for עד in 111:10c; 112:9b). The similarities between the psalms at 9b is telling: the God who ordains his covenant forever (111) is lived out in the person whose righteousness endures forever (112).
• A similar parallel is found in the words covenant words: covenant, justice/judgement, precepts, which, apart from in 111:9b and 111:10b, also occurs in both 5b's: the God who remembers his covenant forever (111) is reflected in the person who conducts their affairs with justice (112). 
• זכר (to remember) occurs thrice (111:4a, 5b; 112:6b), with the parallel being that just as Yhwh - his wonders and his covenant - will be remembered forever (in 111), so too will be the memory of the righteous (112).
• Perhaps a final comment on rough parallels is the verb ירא (to fear), which comes in 111:5, 9; 112:1, 7, 8. The final two (112:7a, 8a) are both negated, showing that the one fears Yhwh (111:5, 9; 112:1) has nothing to fear from this world (112:7, 8).

3. The endings

The final verse of the psalms (the verse 10s), each containing the final three letters of the alphabets, act as a conclusion. Ps 111 reuses the familiar proverb, that the fear of Yhwh is the beginning of wisdom, and concludes with "to him belongs eternal praise." 

In one sense then, Ps 112 could slot in between the second-last and last verses of Ps 111. Ps 112 describes the person who fears Yhwh, who follows his precepts, and whose life is a reflection of the character of Yhwh, living out what they've learned. Their life is then an example of returning to Yhwh eternal praise (111:10c). 

The conclusion of Ps 112 is different, in that it describes the opposite group to the upright. Nothing is said about them, what they believe, where they are from, nor what they have done to others. The other point to mention is that those who fear Yhwh in the book of Proverbs are so often contrasted with the wicked, those who reject the teaching of Yhwh, and whose way is frustrated by the righteous. In this way the final verse of each psalm describes people in the traditional proverbial black and white way: one either trusts in Yhwh and follows in his paths, reflecting his glory, OR one rejects him, and what they long for will come to naught.

* My hope was 150 days of a psalm a day would take us to the end of Covid, but it looks like I may have to move on to some other books before that hope is realised!

the wisdom of wedlock

i tried to follow the same basic outline for all three weeks, so the outline was again

i] what is wedlock?
ii] we need wisdom to guide us through wedlock
iii] Proverbs is not the end of the story - Jesus redeems wedlock

again, it was an opportunity to put together some of the strands from ethics this year.

i] we first thought through the importance of wedlock in the media - both the gossip columns as well as the political sphere. we also recognised that we all have some interest in the topic - most of us are the product of wedlock, and most of us either are, will be, or desire to be married one day.

again, we looked at Gen 1-2 and 3, to see that there is a tarnished goodness in marriage - it is spoilt by sin, but there is still goodness in marriage.

ii] Proverbs is a bit politically incorrect - the context is the father to the son. and you can't just make it all gender non-specific, it doesn't always work. so that, as well as the context where most people are married (most at church aren't) means we need wisdom to apply the wisdom of Proverbs to us in our situations and contexts.

the two extremes are the adulteress and the quarrelsome woman.

• as far as the adulteress is concerned, this is not marriage advice but fooling around/sowing-wild-oats kind of advice. she is alluring
  

  Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
  let us delight ourselves with love.
  For my husband is not at home;
  he has gone on a long journey;
  he took a bag of money with him;
  he won’t be back for a month.”
  Prov. 7.18-20

  but despite the intoxication of the thought of 'lovemaking till morning', this woman leads us to death.
  
• the other extreme is marrying poorly
  

  a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.
  Prov. 9.13b
  
  Better to live on a corner of the roof
  than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
  Prov. 25.24
  
  Better to live in a desert
  than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.
  Prov. 21.19

  
  
• the middle point, the third way, is to choose your wife well and enjoy your life with her.
  

  May your fountain be blessed,
  and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
  A loving doe, a graceful deer—
  may her breasts satisfy you always,
  may you ever be captivated by her love.
  Prov. 5.18-19

  
  
• an even better good tho, than finding a good wife, is finding miss wisdom herself, and marrying her.
  

  Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
  and call understanding your relative.
  She will keep you from the forbidden woman,
  from the adulteress with her smooth words.
  Prov. 7.4-5

  that is, finding true wisdom will keep you from following the path of folly to death.
  this places the good of marriage into it's appropriate place, that is, it is a good thing to marry (Prov. 18.22), but this good is secondary to the goodness of seeking wisdom; the folly of marrying the quarrelsome woman is therefore not a good to be pursued.

iii] this then is how Jesus redeems wedlock. such that Paul can write to the Corinthians both of the goodness of marriage, but also great good of not being married. so then marriage is seen differently, as it points people to the love of Christ for the church. but singleness is seen differently also:

1. because we’re part of a community of believers, unmarried people can honour marriage, by being glad for those who are married without bitterness and envy, and caring for those who are married in their own areas of need.
   
2. part of this can be making sure marrieds don’t turn their marriages and families if they have them into an idol. you can do this by reminding them of those beyond their immediate horizon, that God’s Kingdom is to be our horizon, and service of others is to be the way of life for all Christians, whatever our marital status.
   
3. single people can model in a different way what it looks like to be a Christian who is content with the riches we share in Christ. this means being sexually pure, making the most of the gift of singleness. this also means that while you may ask God for the gift of marriage, there is no place for thinking of yourself as a second-class Christian, or for making crass jokes about getting people married. there may be many reasons that people are single, some not by choice, but others are single for well-thought through reasons.

finally, i reflected a bit more on the sadness that singleness can be, because it is good part of God's good creation.
and then there was a call in line with Heb. 13.4, that all are to honour marriage.
and lastly, a reminder to all, to keep focussing on the thing greater than the greatest marriage, the future of all believers, in the closest of relationships with our saviour.

the wisdom of work

doing a series on proverbs at church atm.
the first week was an intro (1-9), 2 weeks ago was wine, last week i was on with work, as well as the next two weeks with wedlock and then words.
i stole the titles from st albans lindfield when we did these a while ago (you may remember me posting thoughts from my intro talk)

i've really found ethics helpful this year, and we spent a bit of time thinking about work, so it was nice to try and put it all together

my basic outline:
i] what is work?
ii] we need wisdom to guide us through work
iii] Proverbs is not the end of the story - Jesus redeems work

i] tried to show that work is part of creation, that even though tarnished by sin and cursed by God, it's not devoid of good. there's usually both good and bad in all work, and what's good one day can be toilsome the next.

ii] talked through three areas where proverbs is particularly vocal:

1. honesty
   

   The balance and scales must be just according to the Lord;
   he concerns himself with the weights of the pouch.
   Prov. 16.11

2. the way you work
   here i talked about the two poles - the sluggard on the one hand
   

   The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
   it wears him out to bring it back to his mouth.
   Prov. 26.15

   - and the wicked, on the other, who i tried to show were not dissimilar to the workaholic.
   

   10 My son, if sinners entice you,
   do not consent 11 If they say,
   “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood;
   let us ambush the innocent without reason;"
   [...]
   18 these men lie in wait for their own blood;
   they set an ambush for their own lives.
   19 Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain;
   it takes away the life of its possessors.
   Prov. 1.10-19

   what proverbs advises is therefore contentment, such that we can pray this prayer with Jesus in the Lord's prayer:
   

   Two things I ask of you;
   deny them not to me before I die:
   Falsehood and lies keep far from me;
   give me neither poverty nor riches,
   but give me only my daily bread.
   lest I be full and deny you
   and say, “Who is the LORD?”
   or lest I be poor and steal
   and profane the name of my God.
   Prov. 30.7-9

3. generosity
   

   Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the LORD,
   and he will repay him for his deed.
   Prov. 19.17

iii] Proverbs is not the end of the story - Jesus redeems work.   yet even saying this, we need to recognise the deep fallen-ness of so much work, where people are forced into demeaning jobs, where people are unable to find work, where physical or mental illness or disability deny people the opportunities to work, and others are in pointless, purpose-less jobs. thankfully we can see how even in jobs that seem close to pointless, these areas of work have value

1. Creation
   this is stuff like subduing and having dominion. like mothers changing nappies, people building engineers, weeding
   
2. Community
   keeping society functioning. IT, accountants, all these sort of things which seem quite pointless in any eternal sense are hence given purpose
   
3. Gospel
   

i finished off talking about Luther, his idea of vocation (Beruf), that we are called by God into his service - thus making all of life holy, be it changing nappies, applying for jobs, plucking chickens, taking out the rubbish.

therefore we can understand why Luther, even if Jesus were coming back tomorrow, would still plant an apple tree today.


and that was it.
i wanted to talk about the idea of rest, and how that fits in. but no time.

sermon downloads a plenty

if you don't find my voice whiney, nasal, dull, or patronising, you may be tempted to listen to some of my sermons which are available to download.


09 Mar 2008 Grace that Works Philippians 2:12-30
    i particularly liked the way Daniel 12 helped us think through what this meant.

15 Jun 2008 Between A Rock & A Hard Place Exodus 16-17
    i tried something quite different here - i tried to start with the OT, jump to the NT and explain how that increased our understanding of what is going on in the OT. i wanted to get away from the 'here's the OT, but don't worry about that so much: here's where it points to in the NT' - as if there were no value in it of itself, as if the OT were only of value for showing us the NT. tell me if you think it worked!

20 Jul 2008 The King with Authority Luke 4.1-13
    how to do a sermon on Isaiah 61 without really going there properly

11 Jan 2009 The Blessing of Forgiveness Psalm 32
    interestingly, i did a sermon in October on Matthew 18 also on forgiveness (the guest speaker in the evening is the one who made the web page, mine obviously didn't make the cut), so i really enjoyed having a second dip into this really tough topic.

19 Apr 2009 The value of wisdom Proverbs 1-3
    an introductory sermon on the prologue to Proverbs, focussing on ch3

i'm also on tonight, talking about prayer as mission, but the boss is speaking (as i write this!) on the same topic: i'm assuming i won't make the cut, but thinking about how our prayers promote the gospel has been quite rebuking for me as i think through it. perhaps i'll post some thoughts on it sometime.

UPDATE:

24 May 2009 Promoting Jesus :: Our prayers Matthew 9:35-10:5
    trying to think through where prayer fits in in promoting the gospel. i wonder where you might have gone, what you would have emphasised, whether you would have done a bit more of a systematic theology of prayer.

Proverbs 3:1-12 Chiasm

yes, i know, it's been too long between chiasms. here's a little sugar for you all:

1 My Son, do not forget my teaching,
 but keep my commands in your heart,
2  for they will prolong your life many years
 and bring you prosperity.
3  Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
  bind them around your neck,
  write them on the tablet of your heart.
4  Then you will win favour and a good name
  in the sight of God and man.

5        Trust in the LORD with all your heart
        and lean not on your own understanding;
6         in all your ways acknowledge him,
        and he will make your paths straight.

7               Do not be wise in your own eyes;
              fear the LORD and shun evil.
8               This will bring health to your body
              and nourishment to your bones.

9         Honour the LORD with your wealth,
         with the firstfruits of all your crops;
10        then your barns will be filled to overflowing,
         and your vats will brim over with new wine.

11 My Son, do not despise the LORD’S discipline
  and do not resent his rebuke,
12  because the LORD disciplines those he loves,
  as a father the son he delights in.

as you can see from what i've bolded, the structure presents itself:
1&11 - my son
5&9 - Trust/Honour the Lord
7&8 - the central idea
yep, we've got a typical A B C B' A' chiasm

i'm actually preaching on proverbs 3 this week (see post below), here are my notes that i plan to preach from for this section:

• My son - tefillin, t-shirt. v3b,c - breath, heart.
  
• maybe mention Hebrews 12 - the good father, the son who can trust in his father
  
• Trust - lean = chair
  
• Honour --> generosity
  
• Central idea = 7-8 = Don’t determine for yourself what wisdom is. but fear the Lord, knowing he is the one with power over life and death, he is the one who by means of a crucified Palestinian carpenter was able to reconcile a sinful humanity to himself.
  
• What healing and refreshment this will bring!
  
• It’s not all about us.
  
• We need to keep remembering our poverty, our inability to create a universe – let alone to keep a family functioning. But we have God’s wisdom – revealed ultimately in Christ.
  
• So we keep turning away from evil, and to this omniscient (all wise) God.

i think that with our new website at St Albans Lindfield, there may be the opportunity to listen to my sage words. check there in a week or so. or just check out the site anyway - it's pretty!

Paraphrasing Proverbs

The worshippers of Yhwh counted the wise among them, and the wise faced the realities of experience from the point of view of the Yahwist faith that was theirs.
R.E. Murphy, Proverbs WBC 1998, i think describing G. von Rad's understanding of OT wisdom

i'm trying to work out (preferably before Sunday @8:30am!) what the relationship is between

wisdom,

the son, and

the man (הַאָדָם)

do you think the above quote is right?

i'm thinking in particular about Proverbs 3:13-26, and throughout proverbs - i take it that instruction for the man is general advice to humanity, whilst that to the son is specific for the follower of Yhwh. but why would the man care unless he followed Yhwh?

fun with fitna

ever since Dutch Parliamentarian Geert Wilder's film Fitna was released a week or so ago, there has been a furore of anger, from those agreeing with his sentiments, from those arguing that Christianity is every bit as evil as Islam, from the atheists arguing that every religion is equally evil.

the film has been removed, replaced, removed, replaced, many times over. last time i looked you could still watch it here.

the first voice of moderation came from Richard Shumack's article, followed by CPX's directors' discussion of it:


these encourage the viewer to actually listen to a Muslim hermeneutic of their own text.

a Saudi blogger Raed al-Saeed responds with the following film, an interspersing of OT verses mainly about God instructing Israel to take posession of Canaan, with images of Gulf War II and the documentary "Jesus Camp".


there are plenty of other video responses, most of them having lost any sense of reasonability.

an article on jesus.de by Rolf Krüger, here, maintains the critique of Koran inspired violence is valid, whereas al-Saeed's twisting is not - yet his reason seems to be more emotive than hermeneutical.
for whilst i disagree that the US-led invasion of Iraq and their behaviour there as seen (heard) by the leerish voice in al-Saeed's film are in no wise representative of Christendom, and "Jesus Camp" is likewise a scary indictment on how not to do church, the fact remains that for some Christians they somehow do see these things as representing them, and are proud to be associated with them.

so in the same way as we may see the attacks on the west as the valid working-out of Islam - as doubtless there are some Muslims who do too - listening to these as representative is unfair, and unreasonable.

if one gives an answer before he hears,
it is his folly and shame
Proverbs 18:13

A Dedication

to Britney, Paris, Nicole; all you little Hollywood startlets, as well as anyone who's ever been on Big Brother, plus anyone who thinks wearing a nice frock makes them look good regardless of how smashed they're getting;

Like a gold ring in a pig's snout
is a beautiful woman without discretion.

Proverbs 11:22

terseness

i quite like the hebrew section of the bible. as a written language, as a heard language, there's a lot that's great about it.

i might just qualify this by making clear that i can neither speak, read, or otherwise understand the language, but i don't think that automatically disqualifies me from commenting (feel free to correct me on that count!)

one of the nice things is the many literary devices used:

alliteration, the repitition of sounds, which one can see even looking at the hebrew, take for example ps122:

שַׁאֲלוּ, שְׁלוֹם יְרוּשָׁלִָם;

יִשְׁלָיוּ, אֹהֲבָיִךְ

יְהִי-שָׁלוֹם בְּחֵילֵךְ;

שַׁלְוָה, בְּאַרְמְנוֹתָיִךְ

it's a heap easier than rhyming!

imagery is something we don't really think about so much, considering we have so darn many words to say everything in. which would explain why the next point is my favourite.

Terseness is an expressive word, and is basically the opposite of wordiness (c/f Matthew 6:5). it's the thing out of the three that i most feel saddened by, in not being a master of many languages and being forced to read the wordy english.

take for example Proverbs 16:18,

לִפְנֵי-שֶׁבֶר גָּאוֹן;

וְלִפְנֵי כִשָּׁלוֹן, גֹּבַהּ רוּחַ

They don’t need to say, "before you are utterly wiped out like Sodom and Gomorrah was you would be filled to the brim, bubbling over, ready to explode, so it’s sort of natural to think that you would explode, this then leading to your own self-destruction". It’s a lot simpler to say "before destruction: pride"