 |  |
Things far too wonderful, beyond my ken.
Hear now I pray thee: let me speak this once.
[Thou sadist (40: 2)]:--
`'tis I who ask thee: Answer me.'
I heard Thee with the hearing of the ear,
But now mine eye hath seen Thee, I abhor
[Myself]. In dust and ashes I repent."
(Job 43: 1-6. - Metrical Version of Companion Bible).
A modern example of this skeptical criticism, the product of failure to discern the plan
of the ages, is that of T. Hardy:--
"I have finished another year" said God,
"In grey, green, white and brown;
I have strewn the leaf upon the sod,
Sealed up the work within the clod,
And let the last sun down."
"AND WHAT'S THE GOOD OF IT?" I said.
While the age is set in the heart of man, and he is prevented from knowing what God
doeth from the beginning unto the end, he only hears with the ear; he knows in part. To
jump to conclusions, to construct theories, to attempt to pass the limits of revelation, is to
be made ashamed of our words when we "see Him". Far better to heed the teaching of
Koheleth, and fill our humble sphere with contentment. Does not the apostle, when
writing to the Thessalonians, take the same line? They had been shaken in mind
concerning the Day of the Lord. Paul instructs them concerning such deep things as the
manifestation of the Man of Sin, but does not leave them until, like Koheleth, he comes
down to everyday life, and says:--
"We command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with QUIETNESS they
WORK, and EAT their own bread" (II Thess. 3: 12).
What difference is there between these words and those of Ecclesiastes?
It is because of the conclusion arrived at in 6: 10, that Koheleth could view the
crooked things, and the oppressions, without being "astonished at the purpose".
"Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty:
Neither do I exercise myself in great matters,
Or in things too high for me.
Surely I have behaved and silenced myself,
As a child that is weaned of his mother:
My soul is even as a weaned child.
Let Israel hope in the Lord,
From henceforth and for ever" (Psa. 131:).