Lesson 33
Ecclesiastes
The Things That Don't
Work!
Chapter Nine
Intro review:
The observations of Solomon here point out the importance of using,
applying wisdom in a time of great testing or pressure not human resources for
deliverance.
In the last 2
verses of chapter 9 Solomon gives us some great conclusions from the
illustration given in vs:13-16.
The
wise one will give accurate advice/counsel but the fool would rather hear the
advice of loud rulers who give nothing but human vpt solutions - counsel, but do so very
persuasively.
-
No matter what the problem area is, KNOW that there will be those around who
will always have an answer, a solution, something that is going to bail you out
quickly.
-
The point is that human vpt advice from
the enemy of God is always going to be there, its going to be prominent and
loud, and its going to be convincing on the surface and if you don't evaluate
it verses the absolute criteria of the
WOG your going to be deceived into wrong action.
Since wisdom is
powerful and is to be our objective as BEL's we must
carefully guard, evaluate the counsel that we seek and receive.
Mankind has a
natural tendency (like electricity) to choose the path of least resistance and
therefore to seek out the so-called experts or authorities who will help us
rationalize the situation - who often offer new definitions of truth or
alternatives to truth.
Today one of the
great tragedies among believers is that many are selling their souls to a
secular humanist therapist.
Observations on
psychology:
Before you submit
yourself to any counsel for an extended period of time, be absolutely certain
that person is listening first and foremost to the Living God and His
word.
Dr William Kirk
Kilpatrick writing in his book titled "Psychological Seduction" makes
some very interesting observations.
"In C.S. Lewis'
classic book The
Screwtape Letters , Screwtape
instructs Wormwood to keep his man confused.
"Keep his mind
off the plain antithesis between True and False"; and keep him "in a
state of mind I call 'Christianity and.' You know -
Christianity and the Crisis; Christianity and the New Psychology. Christianity
and the New Order..."
... Lewis was more
prophetic than he could have guessed. What was only a minor confusion in 1941
has turned into mass confusion. It is difficult to say any longer where
psychology leaves off and Christianity begins in many cases.
For non-Christians,
popular psychology has an equally seductive influence. Many seem to turn to it
as a substitute for traditional faiths.
They may even think
of it as a more evolved form of religion - a more efficient and compassionate
way of doing good than through Christianity.
Psychology levels
the hills of anxiety and makes the crooked way straight. It is the rod and
staff that comforts them.
The appeal
psychology has for
both Christians and non-Christians is a complex one. But it is
difficult to make sense of it at all unless you understand that it is basically
a religious appeal.
For the truth is,
Psychology bears only surface resemblance to Christianity.
Not doctrinal
Christianity, of course. Most psychologists are hstile
to that. And naturally enough, so are non-Christians.
Nevertheless, there
is a certain Christian tone to what psychology says and does: echoes of loving
your neighbor as yourself, the promise of being made whole, avoidance of
judging others. Those ideas are appealing to most people, no matter what their
faith.
But like most
counterfeits, popular psychology does not deliver on its promises. Instead, it
leads both Christians and non-Christians away from responsibility or proper
conduct. It is a seduction in the true sense of the word..
True Christianity
does not mix well with psychology. When you try to mix them, you often end up
with a watered-down Christianity instead of a Christianized psychology. But the
process is subtle and rarely noticed.
**
Psychiatrist Garth Wood, his book “Myth of Neurosis” in which he describes the bankruptcy
of psychotherapists.
Most people he says
are “cowed by their status as men of science, deferring to their academic
titles, bewitched by the initials after their names, we, the gullible, lap up
their pretentious nonsense as if it were the gospel truth.
We must be learn to
recognize them for what they are, professors of no special knowledge of the
human psyche, who have nonetheless, chosen to earn their living from the
dissemination of the myth they do indeed know how the mind works, are
thoroughly conversant with the “rules” that govern human behavior.
The Things That Don't
Work!
Chapter Ten
In this chapter Solomon presents a series of proverbs before he goes
on to present his final conclusions and dvpt in ch 11 & 12.
In these proverbs the prevailing theme is to contrast wisdom and
folly.
10:1
Dead flies make a perfumer's oil stink, so a little
foolishness is weightier than wisdom and honor.
-
dead
flies = lit.. flies that bring death, by the
excrement left, it brings putrification to the whole batch of costly ointment.
-
He's just given us an illustration of something that impressed him
greatly. The wisdom of the poor wise man
delivered his small city from the hands of a great king and here he says that
the foolishness of man is able to display itself with even greater impact.
OBSERVATIONS
1.
Like dead flies in an expensive perfume, carnality in the life of the bel'r also brings a stench, a putrification in the CWOL.
-
A little fly - one little sin left un dealt with, not confessed, leavens the whole
lump.
2. Man's inconsistency shows the frailty of man apart from grace and
truth.
-
we must be objective in our self evaluation to
discover and to work on with God's help our areas of weakness.
3. The key to our consistency in life in time is twofold:
#1
- our status in Christ - and He indwelling you through His word for "Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever." Heb 13:8
#2
- a single-mindedness of purpose (establish priorities) Phil 3:7-14