Lesson 33                          

Ecclesiastes

The Things That Don't Work!

Chapter Nine

 

Intro review:  9:13-16

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.

 

9:17  The words of the wise (dabarim - communication of chakam = dvpt)     heard in quietness (emphasis is  the receptivity of the listener;

 

 

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.

 

 

 

9:18  Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.

 

 

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