Ecclesiastes 8:14 English Standard Version

Man Cannot Know God’s Ways

¹⁴ There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

These comment can take you back a little if you do not have a proper understanding about our righteousness. Our righteousness is in Christ. There is nothing vain in that but our interaction with the world often ends up being a hope and a prayer that our leaders in government and industry are doing the right thing for all of us.

It has to come down to the issue of involving God more in our lives than we once did. In our past we only turned to God when things went bad. We lived and when things went bad cried for help. What we should do as sons of the living God is to engage ourselves more into His plans for us and follow His instructions.

If you love me, keep my commandments, is not a law abiding effort, it is a relationship choice. Since He is the Head and we are the body, we should ask Him directly, where are we going and what are we doing today? He never leaves us nor forsakes us, but like little children at times we are more focused on our toys and all the excitement going on outside.

Vanity is thinking that everything is going to be fine even if we do not involve God. We should involve God in all that we do. If He should say “You can handle this!” then that is an indication that we have been trained up properly. In order to hear than from Him, we would still need to ask.

Do not say that God has more important things to do than involve Himself in my life that much.

That is vanity on my part, not His.

Genesis 3:16 King James Version (KJV) Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Genesis 3:16 English Standard Version (ESV) To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

I do not remember reading this verse in any translation other than the KJV. Yesterday the ESV was used by a dear friend and it took me by surprise. Surprises can be good or bad. This one said to me that I have in my pass taken it for granted and accepted simple conclusions.

Here is a situation that is anything but simple. ‘ēl is used in 38 different ways. How do you pick the right one to relay a truth in a matter? It is interesting in the verse that God speaks to two distinct areas of life. One is physical and the other is emotional. God demonstrates the ability to control the physical aspects but when He speaks to woman about her desire there are so many variations within the context of ‘ēl that we have to know a woman to understand how her desire affects the relationship with the husband.

My young life assumed that my wife would have a physical desire for me according to my KJV understanding and my marriage proved to be much more complicated. I was wrong to assume that God would control free will in this matter. Emotions are a matter of free will. My first wife exercised her free will in the matter of ‘ēl in at least a dozen of the ways if not all 38. I was left not understanding my wife.

That explains one thing. Don’t get comfortable in assumptions.