Nothing New Under the Sun

The wisdom of the Bible never ceases to amaze me.  As I was reading today, it was the simple wisdom of this verse that made me smile

Ecclesiastes 1:9(NKJV)

9    That which has been is what will be,      That which is done is what will be done,     And there is nothing new under the sun.

The reason it made me smile is that there were two examples in my readings today that immediately made me think of this verse.  Let me share them with you.

One of the things that really bugs me is the hypocrisy that I see in the media and politics.  And lest you be offended, I see this on both sides, Democrat and Republican.  It's when a group gets all agitated and offended about something and then a short time later they will get all exorcised about the exact opposite  circumstances.  It's like your damned if you do and damned if you don't.  Know what I mean?

Now we tend to think that this type of thing is somewhat of a recent phenomenon but nothing could be further from the truth.  Take a look at this passage from Luke.

Luke 7:33-34(NKJV)

33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 

34The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 

Jesus himself is describing dealing with this same situation.  As I read that I was reminded of the simple wisdom of Ecclesiastes.  There is nothing new about this type of sniping.  Jesus had to deal with it in his day and we have to deal with it in ours.

The second one came from Song of Solomon. 

One of the words that is so over used today is the word awesome.  "Oh man that was awesome!"  "Wow, did you see that?  That was awesome!"  So when I ran across this verse in Song of Solomon I couldn't help but chuckle. 

Song of Songs 6:4(NKJV)

4    O my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah,      Lovely as Jerusalem,     Awesome as an army with banners!

 

We like to think that the things we go through are so new and unique and different.  Especially us Baby Boomers  (See there.  I'll bet even that isn't that different from what other generations thought of themselves).   But the truth of the matter is that most of what we deal with in our daily lives is the same stuff that people have been dealing with forever.

So would you like some good news?

We have the greatest manual of them all to help deal with all of those issues.  We have the Bible.  We have the Word of God to guide us.  This is just another example of the practical daily benefits of being a Christian and diligently seeking God's Word. 

Spending time in God's Word daily can be such a rewarding experience.  It's not just for "getting you to Heaven".  By being in the Word you will read about experiences and circumstances and how they were handled in the Bible.  Then when you confront those circumstances in real life you'll have a better idea of how to handle them. 

I'm talking about little things like "a soft answer turns away wrath" and other hokey stuff like that.  The cool thing is, there is wisdom in a lot of that hokey stuff.

So folks, if you aren't in the habit of being in the Word daily why don't you give it a try?  I can promise you that you'll be glad you did!