Blogging the Apocrypha - Wisdom of Solomon 18

Wow, I started this entry 7 months ago. Time to get back to it so we can finish it up and move on!

Wisdom of Solomon
I find myself on a quiet weekend. Lots of things to do - I'm so lucky. Went and spent some time with Amber, downtown, helped her get a prescription, then we bought some lunch for a few people. Always wish more could be done, you know? I was just thinking about that - I suppose I should count myself lucky in being able to say that I've spent my best years helping others.

Hey wow, only one more chapter to go after this one. We should celebrate.

We left off with the Roman occupation, ghosts, and a lesson in philosophy. Let's see what we've got for today.

"Their enemies heard their voices but did not see their forms, and counted them happy for not having suffered, and were thankful that thy holy ones, though previously wronged, were doing them no injury; and they begged their pardon for having been at variance with them."

Interesting conclusion of the occupation - their enemies seem a bit wonderous that only they were afflicted and were surprised at the behavior of their "victors." Imagine that, if all wars ended that way - imagine if the Japanese were like, "Oh, sorry we bombed Pearl Harbor."

"Therefore thou didst provide a flaming pillar of fire as a guide for thy people's unknown journey, and a harmless sun for their glorious wandering. For their enemies deserved to be deprived of light and imprisoned in darkness, those who had kept thy sons imprisoned, through whom the imperishable light of the law was to be given to the world. When they had resolved to kill the babes of thy holy ones, and one child had been exposed and rescued, thou didst in punishment take away a multitude of their children; and thou didst destroy them all together by a mighty flood."

Interesting how this speaker is now suddenly speaking to God. The audience seems to have shifted. I wonder how it sounds to an outsider when you're talking to God. There either seems to be more history here that I'm not familiar with or stuff pulled from random places - imprisonment of Jews, scurge of Hebrew children (we've seen that before a few times!) - is he referring to Moses being rescued? Jesus? Then there's a reference to a flood - The Flood? Or another flood? I'm confused here. What's the point though? That the enemies deserved to be punished, but God had grace for them and even gave them useful gifts - more unmerited grace. And a little throwback to the Lord clothing Adam and Eve on their way out of the Garden.

[6] That night was made known beforehand to our fathers, so that they might rejoice in sure knowledge of the oaths in which they trusted. [7] The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies were expected by thy people.

Prophecy is an interesting subject for me. I don't follow others' prophecies blindly, especially when they're self-fulfilling, unless they really feel supernatural. I have a friend who is afraid prophecy is more like the fortune telling he did back when he was into witchcraft. Anyhow, forknowledge of your for sure destruction is another thing. Reminds me my other friend's father is dying - but the doctors haven't come up with a reliable time frame for that either. At least Christians already know the end of the story. The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of our enemies is on its way - even non-Christians can speak of their own sure descent into hell. Boggles the mind how they don't care or are trying to get validation from you.

[8] For by the same means by which thou didst punish our enemies thou didst call us to thyself and glorify us. [9] For in secret the holy children of good men offered sacrifices, and with one accord agreed to the divine law, that the saints would share alike the same things, both blessings and dangers; and already they were singing the praises of the fathers.

Reminds me of Jesus...by the same way the Lord allowed him to be destroyed and beaten in every way, he used that to call us to himself and glorify us through the blood of Christ. Although I don't know who the "fathers" are. "Fathers of faith..."? The fathers of the "holy children of good men"? The gift of an innocent child...reminds us of the gift of Abraham laying down Isaac, the small children coming to Jesus, and the baby Jesus, later tattered on the cross.

[10] But the discordant cry of their enemies echoed back, and their piteous lament for their children was spread abroad. [11] The slave was punished with the same penalty as the master, and the common man suffered the same loss as the king; [12] and they all together, by the one form of death, had corpses too many to count. For the living were not sufficient even to bury them, since in one instant their most valued children had been destroyed.

If God was able to sacrifice his only child, we must be able to do the same, willingly. Letting go for me isn't an issue - it's getting it in the first place. Perhaps I should take comfort in the "blessed is she who has not borne children." Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. Ah, to love with reckless abandon. I can only love my God like that. And my cat, if he'll let me.

[13] For though they had disbelieved everything because of their magic arts,yet, when their first-born were destroyed, they acknowledged thy people to be God's son.

Woah...there's some kind of grammatical error here. Reminds you of the final plague of pharoah even though this worlds away and generations later. Thy people to be God's son...like...Moses...? Like...the Jews were God's people/children/child - like the church is Christ's bride?

[14] For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone, [15] thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, a stern warrior [16] carrying the sharp sword of thy authentic command, and stood and filled all things with death, and touched heaven while standing on the earth. [17] Then at once apparitions in dreadful dreams greatly troubled them, and unexpected fears assailed them; [18] and one here and another there, hurled down half dead, made known why they were dying; [19] for the dreams which disturbed them forewarned them of this, so that they might not perish without knowing why they suffered.

A very powerful and poetic passage but, the WORD leaped from the royal throne of heaven - the authentic command of God - filled things with DEATH!? Ok, now I can see how from an enemy's apocolyptic view one might see things that way, but certainly not a victor of Christ's blood. Interesting how God continue to show us why we suffer and yet we refuse to acknowledge or believe it. Sometimes, however, the knowledge is worse than the suffering, so we persist in the pain of one rather than the other. Like a family member of mine and her father.

[20] The experience of death touched also the righteous, and a plague came upon the multitude in the desert, but the wrath did not long continue. [21] For a blameless man was quick to act as their champion; he brought forward the shield of his ministry, prayer and propitiation by incense; he withstood the anger and put an end to the disaster, showing that he was thy servant.[22] He conquered the wrath not by strength of body, and not by force of arms, but by his word he subdued the punisher, appealing to the oaths and covenants given to our fathers. [23] For when the dead had already fallen on one another in heaps, he intervened and held back the wrath, and cut off its way to the living.

Sounds like someone was daydreaming about the Savior before the Savior came. They did think he would be some great warrior. They almost get it right. The experience of death does continue to touch the righteous. But we have not lost our Champion. He still does all the things in v. 23. Praise Him!

[24] For upon his long robe the whole world was depicted, and the glories of the fathers were engraved on the four rows of stones, and thy majesty on the diadem upon his head. [25] To these the destroyer yielded, these he feared; for merely to test the wrath was enough.

I'm still confused here about the roles being played here. The Word comes and brings death, but there's some kind of Savior/Champion who bows to the "glories fo the fathers"? How Hellenistic! The voice switches here again to speaking to God - "thy majesty". The helmet of truth - the majesty of God covers all who wish to be covered.

Fascinating, and enough for today. Hopefully I'll finish 19 in the next 6 months. *LOL*!

Blogging the Apocrypha - Wisdom of Solomon 17

Wisdom of Solomon

Well, friends, I'm ready to restart this "I'm bored at work and need something to do" project. Also known as my "working out my salvation" effort. You might think I never have anything to do and work at boring jobs, but no, I always have something in the fire and am very grateful to have time to work at each of them!

So, whoever you are, ("to an unknown audience,") since we last left off I am coming to you from work in a different city! Nashville, the Belt Buckle of the Bible Belt. Oh how joyous it is to be a Christian in this city. It's so much easier for me to be friendly here and unsuspicious. I'm spreading my wings here!

So back to the work at hand. Let's pick up where we left off on fake Bible Books - Chapter 17!

"Great are thy judgments and hard to describe; therefore uninstructed souls have gone astray."

I really like verse 1 - very interesting. His judgments are great and hard to describe on many levels - their magnitude, their purpose...and if we do not learn our lessons we are surely uncorrected in our evil courses. Though I would argue that the two parts should be switched, "Uninstructed souls have gone astray, therefore great are thy judgments and hard to describe." It is certainly interesting how the Lord corrects us in ways that we can understand if we choose. There are some however that are just plain terrible - those are just meant to get our attention, I think. I think we always know in some way what He really wants us to do - and leaves the rest up to our discretion. (Free will, baby!)

"For when lawless men supposed that they held the holy nation in their power, they themselves lay as captives of darkness and prisoners of long night, shut in under their roofs, exiles from eternal providence."

Sounds like what's going on in the Middle East with Israel. God bless the Holy Nation of Israel!

"For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobserved behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness, they were scattered, terribly alarmed, and appalled by specters. For not even the inner chamber that held them protected them from fear, but terrifying sounds rang out around them, and dismal phantoms with gloomy faces appeared."

Okay, could I have picked a better day than Halloween to restart this blog and have this passage in here about darkness, fear, weird sounds, ghosts, and phantoms?? Yes, the haunting of people outside of the protection of the Lord! If believers are tormented, how much more non-believers! And yet, many are not even aware of it.

"And no power of fire was able to give light, nor did the brilliant flames of the stars avail to illumine that hateful night. Nothing was shining through to them except a dreadful, self-kindled fire, and in terror they deemed the things which they saw to be worse than that unseen appearance. The delusions of their magic art lay humbled, and their boasted wisdom was scornfully rebuked."

Methinks this refers to the Roman occupation, although I'm no historian - I just gleaned that off a cutting of an article from Encyclopedia Britannica. Ironic last line about their wisdom being rebuked. Example of the separation between man's wisdom and God's referred to in this text. Although one (me) might argue, in too many places they overlap here.

"For those who promised to drive off the fears and disorders of a sick soul were sick themselves with ridiculous fear. For even if nothing disturbing frightened them, yet, scared by the passing of beasts and the hissing of serpents, they perished in trembling fear, refusing to look even at the air, though it nowhere could be avoided."

Make no promises to cure or heal! That's sound. Only God has that power. How frightening is that? Refusing to look at the air! Perishing in fear! Talk about a "dark night of the soul."

"For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by its own testimony; distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated the difficulties. For fear is nothing but surrender of the helps that come from reason; and the inner expectation of help, being weak, prefers ignorance of what causes the torment."

Thick and confusing here. Wickedness is indeed cloaked fear. Interesting connection to being distressed by conscience - sounds like Paul in Romans 2:15. This is a lot of great psycho-babble. Well, the Hellenistic Athenians were great philosophers. This is almost like a direct quote from Epicureanism! (I wonder if it is! HA!) Although the negating attitude is leaning toward Stoicism! I have an image of a British chap looking down his nose and down his pipe saying, "Really dahlin, if you'd just be reasonable, you'd stop being so fearful." Hehe :)

"But throughout the night, which was really powerless, and which beset them from the recesses of powerless Hades, they all slept the same sleep, and now were driven by monstrous specters, and now were paralyzed by their souls' surrender, for sudden and unexpected fear overwhelmed them. And whoever was there fell down, and thus was kept shut up in a prison not made of iron; for whether he was a farmer or a shepherd or a workman who toiled in the wilderness, he was seized, and endured the inescapable fate; for with one chain of darkness they all were bound. Whether there came a whistling wind, or a melodious sound of birds in wide-spreading branches, or the rhythm of violently rushing water, or the harsh crash of rocks hurled down, or the unseen running of leaping animals, or the sound of the most savage roaring beasts, or an echo thrown back from a hollow of the mountains, it paralyzed them with terror. For the whole world was illumined with brilliant light, and was engaged in unhindered work, while over those men alone heavy night was spread, an image of the darkness that was destined to receive them; but still heavier than darkness were they to themselves."

This reads like a Shakespearean prologue. Very descriptive and imaginitive, but where is it going? Perhaps we'll find out in Chapter 18! But seriously, we have changed tones here - another reason this is not a true prophetic book. We've gone from Proverby advice and prattlings about the importance of Wisdom to a history book! What's going on here? Be wise...but not too wise...what is Wisdom without action? Oh, yeah, this was written by a Stoic. Know all, do nothing! Oh, wait, don't get too passionate about that.

Ok folks, Happy Hallowed Eve and All Saints Day - I'm looking forward to rejoining you soon for our next installment! (I feel like I'm announcing Masterpiece Theatre...or is it Tales from the Crypt!!?!!?) *Insert Evil Laugh*

Blogging the Apocrypha - Wisdom of Solomon 16

Wisdom of Solomon

Welcome to another exciting installation of the fake books in the Catholic Bible. (Tee hee - ouch.)
Right now, I come to you live from the scanner at work, where I am scanning in another 1,000 pages of boringness. My pages are being "rasterized" - is that related to Zionist prostylization? (Oh my good Lord, I spelled that right on the first try. Yes, this English teacher uses spellcheck.)

Let's take a look at Chapter 16.

The first verses reveal the Lord's kindness to the Egyptians (notice this author never uses names likein other parts of the Bible when history is being invoked to prove a point?) It also refers in verse two about the quail the Lord provided in the desert. We were joking about this recently about how the Lord says, in essence, you want quail? I'll give you quail until it's coming out of your nose, you ingrates." Seems like the Lord expressed anger through this "blessing" of "lovingkindness of delicacies" - completely different message.

It is true the Lord gets our attention in myriad ways - we are often "troubled for a little while as a warning." Thankfully His grace and mercy and lovingkindess are seen - often as an afterthought to this flesh. We forget Him so easily when we do not get what we want when we want it. When we heed His warning, however, and remember His benefits and promises aloud, our enemies can not use our flesh as argument against God. Indeed, one who uses one of His servants complaints as an argument against Him does not know Him indeed. But, you know, we must show our humanity at times, or our faith would not be real. They must wonder, why do they keep going back for more? Even though they suffer, they love Him. They must love Him awfully far above and beyond the suffering they have endured. Ah, but those who love Him, do love Him far above and beyond anything and everything. This world has nothing for us. No joy, or pain, comes close to the joy and sweet pain of knowing Him.

The language becomes a bit muddied here and the history criss-crossed. The memories of the Lord's warnings seem to be reminiscent of the prophets, and the punishments of the Israelites in captivity w/ Egypt. The Lord did not punish His faithful in Egypt - He delivered them. And it was only because of their disobedience that they were "reminded" of the Lord's power. Strange stuff indeed. Unless the author wants to categorize Egyptians and Israelites in the same category - which is even stranger - that concept only really comes in the new Testament - after argument!

Haha - verse 13 gives it all away when it refers to God leading men to Hades and back. Our cultural reference points give it away. There are earlier mentions of Sheol and "the depths" but this is clearly a Greek location and concept.

Verse 14 is a pointer ahead to the purity of Jesus. Only a perfect man/god could bring life in death and set free souls. And we, in the vine of the purity of Jesus can do the same.

"To escape from thy hand is impossible..." (verse 15) truly true.

The next verses muddle together several stories - manna from Heaven, the fire and rains in Egypt? Maybe I'm not clear on my Israeli history, but this author isn't any more so! It mentions something about everyone eating the taste that suited himself - where is that? I have no clue. This might be a made-up part about the flavor of the manna, because, as far as I know, they got so bored with it they cried out for meat! If the manna changed flavor, why wouldn't they imagine it to be meat?

Verse 24 is a mind-boggler. Creation serves the Lord, it "exerts itself to punish" and "in kindness relaxes" - that's way too much personification of the Creation. While the Creation has the Breath of Life, it does not have the Mind of the Creator. The Lord does seem to punish various areas with natural disasters and yet modern man will not accept that idea. What do you think? I'm still blown away by the connections I see - yet the words will sometimes not leave my mouth. Was Louisiana punished by God for its sin? Did the Towers fall because of the sin of the financial world? Do the mudslides and earthquakes come upon the heathen in Asia so they might see the Hand of God? I am not the one who decides this, but I do take note. Hopefully I take action too - Lord strengthen me.

Deuteronomy is quoted in verse 26 - a verse that Jesus speaks aloud to Satan in the desert.

I don't really know what the fire, sun, ray, and ice refers too - I should reread some chapters and do some research on that for you. The last line of this chapter is thoughtful - "the hope of an ungrateful man will melt like wintry frost, and flow away like waste water."

Lord, I am grateful for my friends, my family, those who rule justly, for the basic needs you have more than covered, for the prosperity I enjoy. For ample food, protection, service, and that all my needs are taken care of by you. You serve me well. I wish I could serve you a fraction of how well you serve me. But I can not, as you made me to need you. So, I am your friend, your bride! AMEN.

Blogging the Apocrypha - Wisdom of Solomon 15

Wisdom of Solomon

Well, hello again! A very Merry Christmas to you! And a lovely, wonderful New Year.


I came across this line while I was terribly bored at Christmas Eve service - a guest pastor preached and performed quite terribly. I tried not to be offended by the message. :) Anyway, I took the opportunity to pray through Psalm 32 (since I'm 32 years old,) and to re-read 1st Corinthians. It was God's Holy Spirit that drew me for I found this line that makes total sense in regard to the "Wisdom of Solomon" having been written by a Hellenic Jew.


1 Corinthians 1:22 "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom..."


Doesn't this put the whole thing into perspective? Amazing how the Bible knows itself and tells on other pieces of literature that aren't authentic. We must be well-versed in being able to tell the difference and listen to varying opinions about history and interpretation, letting God's Holy Spirit reveal His truth.

On a semi-related side note, I'm thinking of blogging the Psalms next year - praying through them "aloud" as a demonstration of my approach to them. Amazing literature. I read them through a couple summers ago - one a day - it was great practice. I have a friend, Bruce, who reads five a day and a Chapter of Proverbs - every day! I'll have to work up to that.


Let's look at Chapter 15 - only a few more to go!


The first three verses remind me of 2nd Peter and Romans.


2 Peter 1:3 "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."


Romans 6:15 "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!"


Remarkable, this trickery of sin that we may not realize we are involved in until it is too late and our weak flesh presses forward into it. There were times I knew I was moving toward sin and felt myself walking further out on a thin limb of a tree - feeling myself very alone. Thankfully that has caused me to take precautions and move back, away from the edge. He has spoken to me repeatedly, warning me of pending danger and whispering His desires for me in my ear. Oh how He knows me and cares for me!


Verse four and the following verses are a bunny trail about idolatry again. I think we get the point. There is one line of note - verse eight where he talks about an idol being made of the same material that he is made of - earth. This is a good argument for those who think God is in everything around us. How can someone create something from scratch that he is already made of? The latter end of that line is somewhat strange and unbiblical - "required to return the soul that was lent him." Makes you think of all sorts of strange arguments. If the soul is not the personality, what is? Of course we are fashioned by God, but having been given free will and autonomy, surely we do not have our souls on loan, having these bodies on loan is a more popular argument.

A beautiful line about the lifelessness of someone who does not believe in the fullness of the one true living God, "His heart is ashes, his hope is cheaper than dirt, and his life is of less worth than clay, because he failed to know the one who formed him and inspired him with an active soul and breathed into him a living spirit." (Verses 10 & 11.) This is purely poetic, but we appreciate it very much.

I do like the metaphor also in verse 12 about our existance being considered an idle game. Some days it does seem like that. It is only when we are actively engaged in His work that we have our usefulness and our joyful purpose, whatever He set us to do.

Verse 16 also talks about a borrowed spirit. I see the poetic imagery, but let us not delve into facts here. Interesting discussion may ensue, however, about the basis of the personality - spirit, soul & body or just soul & body...my pastors are divided on the issue. Paul feeling it is the two and Alex feeling it is the three. Paul mentioned he was so disappointed to discover Alex's thoughts on the subject. I'm glad they don't always agree and have active dialogue.

An excellent and beautiful idea there too, at the end of 16, "no man can form a god which is like himself." That is an argument for those who feel God is "made up." Of all the gods that have ever been made up, who compares to the true living God who makes up Himself? One can not devise the mysterious nor fashion anything that is not a reflection of Himself. So if we are honest, could we have truly fashioned the Lord God and His gift of Jesus? That is hardly a reflection of the ways of man. Truly, His ways were not our ways, so how could we possibly have made Him up?

The last verse is somewhat confusing - about less desirable animals not having the blessing of God. We do say something about, "having been blessed with good looks." It was the weak and poor that the Lord blessed - the cripple son of the predecessor of David, the bleeding woman, the prostitutes and tax collectors. Every "gift" has its responsibility. For those of us who know our weakness, the greater gifts are given.

Blogging the Apocrypha - Wisdom of Solomon 14

More snow, more free time at work this afternoon. I see the end in sight too, so my pace as picked up. I am a runner at heart, trying to run the good race.

Wisdom of Solomon

More language at the beginning here about the inefficacy of idolatry. An idol being no more helpful than the wooden ship made to carry the sailor.

Great imagery here about the Lord giving us "a path in the sea, and a safe way through the waves." He does have a good plan for our lives if we but trust Him. Out of the noise of the hustle and bustle of commerce, business, greed, and gain, one can hear the calling to a higher life. The day to day grind often drowns it out and we are lost again and so easily distracted to have completely forgotten Him.

The next part focuses on the abomination of idols, the wood, being created by God, were twisted by sinful man. This is true of many things in our world. Our flesh is corruptable. We were given such minds so as to do great things-great things that quickly become small and become "traps for the souls of men and a snare to the feet of the foolish."

Verse 12 doesn't make sense to me. Although I understand and note the power of sexuality throughout the ages, and how fertility is intertwined with it, I'm not sure of this line. Verse 16 then talks about how these things are handed down generation to generation. One might say the same of the Jewish law.

The next verses talk about the power of the visual upon men. One might say the same about Catholic statues. Worshipping the power of the Virgin Mary slab of concrete is more disrespectful to the mother of Jesus than disrespecting the statue.

Verses 23 through 26 comes close to a description of modern times. Reminds me of when I read Jeremiah and mourned for the state of sin I discovered our poor American was in. She has certainly dirtied her undergarments and stained the pure democratic bed she was created in. Can we be rid of the sin? Only through repentance and Jesus' healing.

Our peace: "all is a raging riot of blood and murder, theft and deceit, corruption, faithlessness, tumult, perjury, confusion over what is good, forgetfulness of favors, pollution of souls, sex perversion, disorder in marriage, adultery, and debauchery." And we are happy and satisfied with this? No, we are drunk on the wine of the world! Dear Lord Jesus in Heaven save us!

"For the worship of idols not to be named is the beginning and cause and end of every evil." What are our idols? From there we will see the birth of our evils. Let us destroy them, you and I.

What a great couple of lines: "Because they trust in lifeless idols they swear wicked oaths and expect to suffer no harm. But just penalties will overtake them on two counts: because they thought wickedly of God in devoting themselves to idols, and because in deceit they swore unrighteously through contempt for holiness." We have no idea our idols are idols because we have no learned better. We have fashioned our own holiness in the day of the "Higher Power" - we have not learned to trust or to have faith in the unseen.

Lord, change our hearts. We want to be like you.

Blogging the Apocrypha - Wisdom of Solomon 13

Wisdom of Solomon

Lucky number 13! Okay, right. I don't believe in numerology. Although, numbers are significant, I am unsure divination are their purpose.

Anyway - digressing again! (You've caught on already that I like to follow bunny trails.)

The first line gets you right off the bat. This claims that "all men who were ignorant of God were foolish by nature," but the New Testament tells us that our nature is foolish. Our natural state of flesh is utter foolishness. It wants what it wants and will do whatever it takes to get it. With knowledge of God, however, we gain all we need for a life independent of our desires. The second part of the line is important, however. How can one, while continuing to look at the Creation, not recognize or acknowledge the Creator? And I agree with verse two - how could one assume that the Creation were better than the Creator? Who could be so foolish?

There are thoughtful prayers in verses three and four, "let them know how much better than these is their Lord,for the author of beauty created them," and "let them perceive from them how much more powerful is he who formed them." Verse five contains a most excellent point as well, "For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator." How can we not understand the nature of the Creator by viewing the Created? How can we rightly love the Creation while ignoring the Creator? It is certainly a disrespect of the Creation itself, let alone the Creator.

It is empathetic in part to its understanding to even today's seeker with "hopes set on dead things." Interesting to not that the idolator prays - just as much as the believer - and for the same things - "his marriage and children, for life...for aid...for a prosperous journey...for money-making, and work and success," - and then the illogic of it all - to pray to something that can not love, has never experienced sickness or sin, or has never taken a step, nor can work. And excellent line, "for life he prays to a thing that is dead." Asking for something from something that can not give it - what a colossal waste of time!

We must know our Lord is one who has experienced our life and has experience in the things we ask Him for. We may know through the life of Jesus that He knows us and our experience intimately so that He is the right one to ask for help from. He has loved, He has created a child, He has made journeys, He has been prosperous and poor, He has experienced our sin and sickness in His suffering and death, and He has worked - worked so hard to gain our attention. He, Lord of all, must know - and not merely through observation, but practical experience. We do not go to an uneducated, inexperienced "mentor" for help, but seek out those who demonstrate they know what they are doing. How much has the Lord demonstrated? We can trust Him.

Blogging the Apocrypha - Wisdom of Solomon 12

Wisdom of Solomon

And now for Chapter 12.

Wait, what, no greeting? Sorry...what? I got busy. What, you never been busy before? :)

Okay, so back to blogging.

We've only got 7 more after this!

Again, Chapter 12.

Right off the bat, verse one we've got an issue. "For thy immortal spirit is in all things." This is reminiscent of naturalistic pantheism, so we've got to tread lightly. Those who have received the Holy Spirit have been endowed with the very spirit that was in Christ Jesus. Those who have not, simply, factually and actually don't have His immortal spirit. Now one might argue that a bit of the Creator is in all His creation, but that is as true as my saying that a piece of me is in a piece of pottery I've molded. I may leave my mark on it, but I have not given it my spirit, although it may reflect my thinking and my heart.

Keeping the "rule" for who has the spirit and who doesn't, we can go forward and agree with verse two that it has the effect of ongoing sanctification. And thankfully, it is "little by little" - too much is simply too much.

Verses 3 through 7 refer to the worshippers of Baal written about extensively in the old testament. Verses 8 through 11 describe the Lord's grace and "sanctification" with even those who do not belong to Him. It is a wonder to think on that issue. I know the Lord was working before I knew He was. The Arminian calls this "prevenient grace" - grace that came before we knew about it. The Calvinist says that those who are called are predestined and always called. (Feel free to disagree here, these are but generalizations.) Amazing that we who are His own are sometimes so worried about being rejected by Him that we forget how much grace He has for those who care so little for Him. How much more should we who already love Him so and experience His presence delight in and feel safe in His shelter?

An interesting Messianic line in verse 12b - "Or who will come before thee to plead as an advocate for unrighteous men?" God so loved the world, that He gave such an advocate. I read recently that Jews believe that Satan is "The Accuser" and actually "works for God." If that were to turn out to be true, (which I don't believe it will - Satan is underestimated in that view - and the rest of evil unaccounted for in the definition,) then Jesus is the ultimate defense attorney. And, if it were so simple, why wouldn't a Jew take Him at that?

I do like the description of (which, who could rightly, truly understand God's reasoning - even Jesus said the only one who knew the mind of the Father was the Father, ) the judgment of God in verses 13-17. Summary: God cares for all men; we can not prove that God has judged justly or unjustly, and it is foreign to God to make an error in judgment. We must accept His final say, and when we are at our wits end to understand the many "whys" we burst forth with in this life, come to acceptance of this fact. His rule over His creation causes Him to spare it. Anything less would prove a smaller God.

I love verse 18b, "for thou hast power to act whenever thou dost choose," because it reminds me of a conversation I had with someone I loved a long time ago, the hostess of our young adult Bible study. God has all eternity to answer our prayers - whether in advance, after the fact, or at the very last second beforehand.

This demonstration of grace is our model.

The final verses speak of the comparison between the way the Lord handles those He loves, His Sons, and those He is enemies with.

Look at how He treated His own Son and how He has treated His enemies? He has been tough on the Son to show more love to the enemy. And the enemy has not understood it. Why is it so blind? How he shall rue the bitter day he discovers what he has rejected.

How is the Lord treating you these days? It is always interesting to peer into the stories of other people. To read the books the Lord is writing with their lives and see how He handles them. Sometimes I question certain chapters, Lord, but you MUST know best. I trust you do and that all your purposes will be made plain one sweet day.