Old things New Podcast

PrayReadEcc 2:1-11.MeditationThe truth is that we’re all on a search for happiness. Contentment, enjoyment, pleasure, joy, satisfaction. You can see it in the way that we try to avoid pain. You can see it in the way that we prioritise the things we want. Football fans in Melbourne dedicate their time and money to the sport because they enjoy it. Travellers save their money and spend their spare time holidaying because they enjoy it. Gym junkies search for self-worth and contentment in hours of exercise. Movie buffs lose themselves in the stories of the big screen, spending hours and hours of life searching for enjoyment. There are book-lovers, foodies, and workaholics. Everything under the sun.As I’ve been thinking about this, I’ve come to believe that everything a person does falls into one of three categories: escaping the things they do not want in their lives, enabling the things they do want, and actually doing the things they want to do. The world is full of seekers, people searching and looking for joy and satisfaction.You’ve probably noticed it in your own life. We have impulses and compulsions to pursue the things we want. We’re driven by deeper desires, both good and bad. And we fear and run away from the things we don’t want.As we embark on the second segment in Solomon’s Labyrinth (i.e. Ecclesiastes Chapter 2), he leads us on an epic journey for satisfaction, and he arrives at a quite staggering conclusion. Solomon is going to be showing us the reality about finding satisfaction in the stuff of this world.As we saw in previous studies, the world is broken. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted. The next basic fact he shows us is that people want to be happy. Everyone is doing it. As Solomon sees this, he says to himself, “Well, if everyone is looking for satisfaction in the things of this life, I want to know, is there an answer to be found here? In all the things people chase after, can they ever meet our longing for joy? Is it possible to find true, full, and lasting happiness in this life?” That’s what the first part of chapter two is looking at: “I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’”Solomon addresses this question head-on, and to put it bluntly, he tries everything. Every possible way of finding happiness in this world, Solomon searches it out by wisdom. Here we have the greatest king in the world, a man of unimaginable wealth, endowed with supernatural wisdom from God, with every possible resource at his disposal.And what is his conclusion on whether we can be happy in this life? “I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’ But behold, this also was vanity.” In typical fashion, Solomon states his conclusion right at the start. He searched the world over, turned it upside down in his quest for lasting and full happiness, and came up empty. Everything passes away like a breath; you cannot hold on to any of it.You could gain everything in the world, and within just a few short years, it would all be gone. This is why Solomon says of pleasure in verse two, “What use is it?” He is not saying there is no pleasure to be found. See verse ten, where he says, “My heart found pleasure in all my toil.” What he is saying is that it is quickly gone. You cannot keep it, it is not lasting, you cannot hold on to it.This passage puts it starkly and really throws down the gauntlet to us, because it only takes a moment to realise that we do try to hold on to the pleasures of this world. Our hearts become deeply attached to the things of this life. We pursue them and make them a top priority. Solomon’s word of wisdom to us in this passage is simple: do not do it. It is a dead end in the labyrinth of life. That is what we will see here. If life is a labyrinth, if Ecclesiastes is a labyrinth, then what Solomon shows us here is a series of pathways that all end in dead ends. They will not take you to life’s meaning. In a materialistic age such as ours, this is a message we desperately need to hear.So let us ask the question plainly: Is there anything in all the world that could possibly satisfy you? Think about it. Imagine you were in Solomon’s position. You have all the money in the world, and you have the freedom and power to enjoy anything you want. The world is absolutely your oyster. That is what Solomon does in this text. He says in verse ten, “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.”If you woke up tomorrow and could have anything you wanted, with no job to go to and no worries to take care of, what would you do? Chances are, whatever your answer is, it is on Solomon’s list. Because in this passage, Solomon does not hold back. He goes for everything. There was no good thing he denied himself, no experience, no pleasure, no source of potential joy. That’s what we’re going to be exploring over the next few studies. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationO Lord, you are the fountain of true joy. I confess that I have sought happiness in the fleeting pleasures of this world rather than in You. My heart has chased shadows and called them light, holding tightly to what cannot last. Forgive me for loving Your gifts more than Your glory, for seeking my satisfaction in what perishes. Please teach me to see that every earthly delight points beyond itself to Your eternal goodness. Grant me grace to seek satisfaction in You alone, and to spend my days delighting in Your will and resting in Your love. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

Note: Sorry, no picture this time - I have run out of my monthly usage on midjourney :( Want to support an upgrade to my subscription and ensure this doesn’t happen again? Why not become a paid subscriber! :) “I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.” Solomon is speaking here about the pursuit of wisdom: “I applied my heart to know wisdom.” Now, this is perplexing enough in and of itself. Why would Solomon say that applying your heart to know wisdom is like striving after the wind? He’s not suggesting that wisdom is worthless or that pursuing it is a waste of time. What he’s saying is that the search for wisdom and understanding is like trying to take hold of the wind. No matter how much wisdom you gain, there is always more to be found, and the more you gain, the more you realise how little you truly have.Let’s consider this from another angle: How deep is the wisdom of God? It is seen in every movement of time, every turn of providence, every particular in the natural world. The wisdom of God is everywhere. Now ask yourself: Is it possible for a human mind to fully fathom that kind of wisdom? Is it possible for us to understand everything there is to understand? Of course not, and that’s Solomon’s point.You could spend your whole life chasing after wisdom, seeking to understand both the pure and the crooked, but you cannot take hold of it. The more you gain, the smaller you see that you are. In that sense, to apply your heart to know wisdom is to try and catch the wind. It can’t be done. There is always more to be gained, and there is always more that lies beyond your grasp. This leads us into Solomon’s closing proverb in verse 18:“For in much wisdom is much vexation,and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”Here is a warning. As Solomon sets out to understand all that happens under the sun, he exposes the brokenness of the world, and our own inability to fix it. He also reveals our limits. We will not find complete answers to many of the questions that trouble us. We can no more grasp all wisdom than we can catch the wind. Again, he’s not saying that the pursuit of wisdom is meaningless, but he is warning us that it comes at a cost.If you want to go deeper, Solomon says, if you want to see beyond the surface of life and truly understand, then be prepared for sorrow. With much wisdom comes much vexation and sorrow. That’s the meaning of his second proverb.As you begin to understand this life more deeply, as you begin to see its meaning, you will also come face to face with uncomfortable truths. Wisdom opens your eyes to sorrow, to sadness, to grief.That’s not an easy pill to swallow. And yet, even as Solomon warns us, he invites us. Because following Jesus is, in one sense, an invitation to a life of sorrow. A life where we take up our cross daily and follow him. Yes, there is joy, hope, and encouragement in the Christian life, and we will see plenty of that as we continue through this book. But to follow Christ is also to become acquainted with grief, for that was the path that our Lord himself walked (Is 53:3).As you begin to understand and see sin for what it truly is, it will grieve you. As you begin to see what evil things have been done in this world, and how fallen humanity lives in rebellion against God, you will feel the burden of it. We see this throughout scripture, as the saints wrestle with life in a fallen world. The psalmist says: “My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law.” Jeremiah teaches that it is good for a man to bear the yoke of affliction in his youth. Solomon will later say in Ecclesiastes 7:4, “The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” And Isaiah foretells that our Saviour himself would be “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.”Do not be deceived, to follow Christ is to walk the path of the cross. Wisdom will not lead us to a life free from trouble. And yet, as you consider this, remember: Our Saviour has walked this path before us. So let me offer this as a final point of application for life:“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” - 2 Timothy 2:3-4Do not expect an easy life.Do not expect a path free from sorrow and suffering.Expect to walk through a world full of crookedness.Expect to experience vexation of soul.And yet, take heart. Life will be hard. Perplexing. Troubling. But it will also be short, and there is glory waiting just beyond the finishing line. Arm yourself with the same mind as Christ our Saviour who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. This life is crooked. It is broken. And yet, for a time, we are called to live in it. But Scripture tells us that “this light and momentary affliction is not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us.”Ecclesiastes is a book that stares reality in the face, but it is also a book that fills us with hope and reminds us of how precious each moment truly is. It will not be long before you see your Saviour, perhaps sooner than you think. None of us is guaranteed tomorrow. So as we walk through this broken, crooked world, resist the temptation to despair. Look by faith, and see things as they really are: See the temporary nature of this world. See that you cannot hold on to it. And see what lies at the end of the path of your suffering in Christ. SDG. 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On his quest to search out the meaning of life, here is where Solomon starts: I set my heart to search out by wisdom all that was done under the sun. And here is his conclusion, his summary based on everything he has seen in life (v14): “I have seen everything that is done under the sun,” says the preacher, “and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.” All is hevel, all is temporary and insubstantial. It’s over quickly, and it’s impossible to hold on to it. Solomon’s overarching observation on life is simply this: it is all passing quickly, it is a chasing after the wind.Solomon begins unpacking this big-picture conclusion with a riddle in verse fifteen: “What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.” Now what we have in this verse is a proverb. Check out the Book of Proverbs (also mostly written by Solomon) and you’ll find piles of these things. A proverb is a short, pithy, wisdom saying, a poetic expression – not intended necessarily to give you a quick easy answer, but an expression rather designed to make you think. You don’t speed read proverbs, you hold each one in your hand like a rubics cube and ponder it. You feel its weight, you consider its parts, you digest it slowly. That’s what Solomon wants us to do in here in verse fifteen, we’re not here for easy answers, we’re here to pause and consider. So let’s do that, let’s pause and consider what Solomon is saying here in this proverb.“What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is lacking cannot be counted.” What does Solomon mean by this? Well, in his quest to understand life, Solomon’s first observation is pointing out a single basic truth: that there is something wrong with the world. This is what he means when he speaks of crooked things – there is something wrong with the world. He also says that there is something missing in the world, this is what he means when he speaks of the things that are “lacking.” There’s something wrong with the world, and there’s something missing in the world – that’s what this proverb is meant to convey to us.And does that not make perfect sense? I was talking with an unbeliever a few months ago, and they were objecting to the Bible’s teaching that people are sinful. And I said to this person: “But surely you can see that there’s something wrong with the world?”And – unhesitatingly – this person agreed. There is something wrong with the world. When someone kills someone else, it’s wrong. When women or children are abused, it’s wrong. When families fall apart and the kids are scarred for life – something is wrong. And yet, these sorts of things happen every day in the world around us. This is the world we live in. Solomon is reminding us of Genesis 3, this is a fallen world.So then, as we begin trying to understand life, what Solomon is saying here is this: pay attention and take note, there are crooked things in this world, and there is something lacking.Now our tendency, when we see these crooked things, when we see the things that are lacking, is that we start thinking about how we can straighten what is crooked and how we can supply ourselves with what is lacking. That is a natural response to the world, you actually see people trying to do this all the time. Governments get re-elected by promises of straightening crooked sticks, they try and fill what is lacking with tax-payers dollars. And we do it on a personal level as well, we try and fix the crooked things in our lives, and we try and fill the gaping holes of what is lacking.But take note here of what Solomon is saying, because it’s profound. What he is saying is you won’t solve it that way. What is crooked cannot be made straight, and when it comes to what is lacking – forget about meeting the need, you can’t even count the problems! Here is wisdom: if you want to make sense of life, if you want to come to terms with what it means to live in a fallen world, then you need to realise that you do not have the capacity to make the crooked straight. You do not have what it takes to fill what is missing. Governments need to realise that it is not within their power to fix the world (this is why the election cycles become so tedious by the way). A generation comes, a generation goes, new promises and new plans, but the government is no messiah, and we cannot be messiahs either. Can you make a church healthy? Can you fix a broken family? Can you even fix yourself? Free yourself of that addiction? Make yourself a better person? As you look around and see the brokenness of a fallen world, a step in the right direction is to come to terms with your own impotence. As I’ve said before, Solomon doesn’t offer easy, pretty answers in this book – but he does offer honest ones.So we can’t make this crooked world straight – but it’s worse than that too. We’re so limited, that we can’t even get our heads around the problem: “what is lacking cannot be counted” Solomon says. And so there was Solomon, with more wisdom and understanding than anyone who had ever lived, and as he looked around himself at the world and tried to understand everything he saw, trying to fathom what was missing in the world, no matter how hard he tried, this was the place where he landed: “What is lacking cannot be counted.” In other words Solomon, the wisest man in the history of the world, was bewildered!So let me apply this to our lives: you are not called to fix the world, you’re not even called to try and get your head around everything that is wrong, because the simple fact is that you can’t. What’s wrong with the world? How can we fix it? How can you make sense of all the mess in your life? How can you fix the things that are going wrong in the lives of your loved ones? These are questions with only God-sized answers – and we are not God. This is how verse 15 teaches us to fear the LORD which, again according to Ecc 12:13, is Solomon’s ultimate goal in this book.To fear the Lord is to have a true and living grasp of our own limitations. You see, we are not God. We can’t solve all of life’s problems, we can’t fix the world. Think about this in the bigger picture of history, think about even the most influential people you’re aware of. Think of Abraham, King David, the Apostle Paul, Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin… in the grand scheme of things, these people are tiny. They didn’t save the world, they didn’t straighten out everything that was crooked, they didn’t solve everyone’s problems. They played one small part in the much bigger plan of a Sovereign God. To fear God, then, is to have a well-established awareness of our own insignificance. It is find our small part in the immensity of history, and to play that part faithfully. We are not called to straighten the crookedness of the world.No, this is what it took to straighten out a crooked world and supply what was lacking. It took God himself, coming to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. When that baby was born in Bethlehem, the very foundations of the world were shaken. The shockwaves of God’s mighty power began to reverberate, and as history has unfolded, his power has continued to work through it all.Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Solomon tells us to begin by embracing our limitations. We are not mini-Messiahs, there is only one Messiah. Look to God. Look to Christ.At first glance, verse 15 of our passage might sound a little doom and gloom. Yet there is a glorious hope woven through it. A wonderful freedom and even a kind of glory in knowing your own limitations. You don’t need to get your head around all of life’s problems. You don’t need to live other people’s lives for them. You don’t need to solve everything. All you need to do, in any given moment, is live that moment in the fear of God. Look to him, and live each moment to please him.God doesn’t call you to change the world. He calls you to live each moment well, to depend on him, in Christ, through the Spirit.So know this: you can’t change the moments you’ve lost, and you can’t yet live the moments that haven’t come. What you can do is live this moment, right now, in the fear of God.Life will tempt us to ask big questions, questions that we cannot answer. They will perplex and challenge us. And yet, in the midst of this troubling existence, in the middle of life’s difficult questions, God speaks and says to us: I will do it. I will make the crooked straight.As Jesus was about to enter the world, the prophet John the Baptist declared, “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight.” Ultimately, it is God who will fill what is lacking. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

What is the meaning of life? Why are we here? It’s a question that has perplexed and troubled people throughout history. Philosophers have spent lifetimes searching for the answer, scientists have searched under microscopes and probed the heavens. World religions are full of seekers, all searching or thinking themselves to have found the answer. Some say there is no answer.But let me begin by asking you: What is your answer? Why are you here? Do you know? Have you ever seriously considered the question? As we launch into our passage, this is exactly the question that the Preacher seeks to raise, and it’s one he will continue to explore throughout the book. This is what he sets out to do, as we look at the world around us, he says, what does it all mean? How can we make sense of it all? Take a look in v12: “I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.”You can see it there can’t you? What Solomon proposes to do here is to apply his heart, and to search out by wisdom everything that us done under the sun. In other words, he proposes to apply his great wisdom in an attempt to make sense of the world, to see what meaning he can find. This is where he starts the journey in Ecclesiastes.We’ve been using the motif of a labyrinth to understand Ecclesiastes. For those of you who have ever walked into a maze, you know what to do first don’t you? You start exploring. You start trying to orient yourself, making sense of where you are and how you can get to the middle. Now entering into the labyrinth of Ecclesiastes, we don’t actually have to do that, because as soon as we enter, we find that there is a guide waiting for us in verse twelve. So let me introduce you to him: “I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.”Our guide is none other than King Solomon himself, the king of Jerusalem, and what he’s saying here is that he’s been on a quest, a quest to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. In other words, Solomon has used his wisdom to try and make sense of life. And as we enter the maze for the first time, this is what a wizened Solomon is saying to us: “I’ve seen it all,” he says, “I have seen everything that is done under the sun” (v14). He’s gone walking down the passages and pathways of life’s possibilities, he’s observed all the various activities of life, he’s considered the pathways of this labyrinth.Now an obvious immediate question here is this: Why should we listen to Solomon? Besides the obvious answer that this book is in the Bible, and therefore part of God’s revelation, let me impress upon you why Solomon himself is a particularly good guide. As we read the words of this book, we are listening to a man who, scripture says, was wise beyond any who were before him, and any who came after him. There was no one in history quite like Solomon. This was a man who was supernaturally gifted with the wisdom of God, as we learn in 1 Kings 3. In that chapter we read about how God granted any request that Solomon cared to ask, and here is what Solomon asked of the LORD: “Give your servant …an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?” And Scripture says that God was pleased that Solomon had asked for this, therefore God said: “Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you.” And so our guide is a man supernaturally endowed with the wisdom of God. Sounds like someone worth listening to!And Solomon reminds us of this again, and this is one of the reasons why we know that this is Solomon speaking in the book. You won’t find Solomon’s name in the book of Ecclesiastes, but it’s clear that he is the author. In verse sixteen he says: “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” We know for a fact that no one who came after Solomon could have made that boast, and – as the Son of David – there are no candidates before Solomon either. There’s just no question: Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes. Now note that he’s not simply bragging here, he’s making a point that we need to understand. Not to put too fine a point on it, what he’s saying here is that if anyone in the history of the world was qualified to discover the meaning of life, it was him. He was rich, powerful, and gifted with divine understanding and wisdom. And so in terms of application, that should tell us straight away – here is a book worth listening to, a book worth investing in, and worthy of careful attention.So... getting more personal now, has this question ever troubled you? Have you ever had unanswered questions in your life? Have you ever looked at the world and been perplexed and challenged by what you’ve seen and experienced? Difficult things? Things that challenge your faith? Things that trouble you on the deepest levels? The death of a child. The death of a parent. A friend being struck down permanently with illness or disability in the prime of life. Opportunities that you look back and realise that you lost. Things that keep resurfacing as sources of regret again and again. Does the aging of your body trouble you? And if you’re young, make no mistake, it will happen. So many things in life that perplex us, and questions that trouble us. If you’ve felt the weight of these questions, then come now and sit at the feet of Solomon, listen and become wise. Commit to finishing this book, because this will take us on a journey alongside Solomon. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

The door in front of you is ancient oak and black metal. The stonework of the walls towers above, worn smooth by time, and half consumed by the deep green ivy splashed across the grey colourscape. A pale mist moves slowly in the air, hanging before these portals. The forest behind you is quiet in the early morning chill, and the distant birdsong hails a sunrise yet to come. The dull yellow light of the lanterns is caught visibly in the morning air, suspended in the morning mist. This labyrinth has outlived empires. Welcome to the door of the labyrinth, because that is what Ecclesiastes 1:1-11 really is.This passage introduces us to the themes and questions of the entire book, and in that sense it stands before us as an ancient monolithic entryway into the maze. As we make our approach to the doorway of the labyrinth, I want you to open your imagination and try to visualize what’s before you. This maze, as we come to it, is vast. As you walk up to the entrance, on either side you see again those great stone walls spreading out in either direction. As you look at the door itself, what stands before you is a great set of twin oaken panels, closed fast. Each one of these panels represents a mystery – the twin mysteries that will be turned over in our minds and considered again and again as the book unfolds. Verse two lays out these twin enigmas before us in a single expression: “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”This phrase is one of the most famous and well-known verses in all of scripture, but it is also one of the most troubling. “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity!” Why in the world would a Christian, of all people, say that everything is vanity? Now to help you to understand this, I want to begin by giving you a lesson in Hebrew. I want you to forget the word vanity for a moment. Where verse two says “vanity,” I want you to insert the word: “hevel.” Hevel, heveleem, says the preacher, hevel, heveleem, all is hevel!” (that’s a rough English equivalent of the Hebrew word, by the way!). This is what I want you to do: every time you hear the word “vanity” I want you to replace it with the word “hevel.”Now, unless you’ve studied Hebrew, chances are that this word means nothing to you, which is exactly why I want you to use it. Because the truth is that “vanity” is an unfortunately limited translation. When we say “vanity,” in English, we’re calling to mind ideas like: “pointless, meaningless, etc,” but these are not the main ideas that the Preacher is trying to convey. There are times when he does use this word with a nuance of frustration, but “meaningless” is far from the dominating concept that’s on his mind.What is “hevel”? Literally speaking, it means: “breath.” More literally, then, you could translate verse two as saying: “A breath! A breath! Says the preacher, all things are but a breath.” “Vaporous” also captures the meaning here. All of a sudden, that expression makes a whole lot more sense doesn’t it? A Christian wouldn’t call life meaningless, but vaporous, that makes sense. And so what Solomon is primarily doing with this word is that he’s using an image to express his idea. “Vanity” represents an attempt to translate the imagery of a breath into a concept. I suggest that it’s better to keep the image. After all, we often use images ourselves to convey meaning.You might see a powerful rugby player and say: “He’s a beast!” He’s not actually a beast, of course, but he’s strong and powerful, and plays the game hard. We might also say something like: “University is a doorway to the future,” or: “The office is a hive of activity.” We use metaphors like this to communicate something about a concept or idea, and that’s what Solomon is doing here.Solomon is saying: “A breath! A breath! All things are but a breath!” Now when we say a man is a beast, we’re highlighting his strength and his savagery. When we say an office is a hive, we’re highlighting that it is full of activity. When Solomon describes “all things” under the sun as being a breath, he’s highlighting two things (and these two ideas form the twin doors of our labyrinth). First, he’s highlighting the temporary nature of things (a breath is gone in a moment). Secondly, he’s highlighting the lack of substance in the things of this world. As a breath is insubstantial, it cannot be grasped or held, so too is this life under the sun. We cannot hold on to it. It is short, and it is fleeting – insubstantial, impossible to grab hold of. The shortness of life, and the temporary nature of all things – these are Solomon’s key themes in this book.So then, contrary to the “vanity” translation, the Preacher is not saying that everything is vain, or meaningless, although that sense may be conveyed inasmuch as things are fleeting and insubstantial. And, again, there are times when Solomon does use hevel to highlight that something is meaningless or frustrating, but his purpose here is certainly not to say that all things are meaningless – that is a misreading of the text, and sadly one which is very widely in vogue. After all, you only need to read further in the book to see that he doesn’t think everything is meaningless. There are plenty of times when he commends certain things as good. There is more gain in wisdom than in folly (Ecc 2:13), it is a good thing to eat, drink, and enjoy your work (Ecc 2:24). These are not the comments of a man who literally thinks everything is meaningless. The idea that everything is meaningless is likewise at theological odds with the rest of scripture, and so we must reject it on that basis as well.Again, to be sure, there is a certain frustration that comes with the temporary nature of life in a fallen world – particularly in a life where one does not fear God. We may indeed struggle with a sense of meaninglessness in life at times, and the Preacher is candid about that struggle at different points. Nonetheless, he does not say that all things are vain or meaningless. It is a very limited and misleading translation of hevel. Again – Solomon’s point is not to say life is meaningless, his point is to highlight how quickly life passes, and how insubstantial the things of this life really are.And so we have the two doors to this labyrinth of Ecclesiastes: the first door is the recognition that life is short, and the second door is the recognition that the things of this life are insubstantial, transient, or passing – impossible to hold on to. The doors now stand open before us – we’ve unlocked their mystery!As we step inside, we then see Solomon develop these themes further in verses three and four. We see in verse four that he wants us to know how short life really is, how quickly it passes: “A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever.” And he also wants us to see that there is a certain lack of substance in the things that we do in our lives under the sun in verse 3: “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?”You see the frustration there don’t you? A man might work his whole life, and yet he himself disappears and no longer gains anything from his work. It’s as though a man breathes a puff of smoke on a cold morning, and he tries to take hold of it. It simply disappears in his fingers, it is a chasing after the wind.Life is a short and insubstantial thing – these are the twin realities that Solomon calls us to consider. I’m emphasizing this and repeating myself here because it’s so important that you get this – many commentators don’t. And, as you think about it on a personal level, these observations are true aren’t they? Life is short. Things quickly change. And the things of this world, however hard we may work, we cannot hold on to them. You could spend your whole life working, and you get to the end – and what have you gained? We pass away, and money won’t do us any good. Degrees, successful businesses, possessions – we can’t hold on to them, and so what have gained from all our toil?And it’s short too. Verse 11 says: “There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be.” It’s so true. Within just a few generations, our lives are nothing but a few words on www.ancestry.com. Let me put it this way: what do you know about your great, great grandparents? Most of us wouldn’t even know their names. And even if you know their names, what do you know about their lives? Their struggles? Their desires? Achievements? Failures? The truth of the matter is that within just a few short years, each one of us will be in the same position. Our great-great grandchildren will not know our names. And so the Preacher’s purpose is to bring our attention to just how short and insubstantial life really is, to show us how insubstantial our labours in this world really are.And the truth is that we need this reality check, because we tend to think of things as permanent and lasting, don’t we? The world around us, our homes, our church buildings, the earth beneath our feet, they all feel very solid don’t they? And yet time will surely wear them away. Riches similarly give people a sense of security. Our jobs, our health, our insurance policies. All of these things are walls in our self-made fortresses of security in this world. We build them up, and surround ourselves with them, and as we sit upon our self-made thrones, we think we are secure. But any one of these things could disappear in a moment. When your doctor tells you that you have cancer. When stock markets fail. When fires destroy homes. When car crashes take lives. We have no guarantee whatsoever that we will be alive tomorrow. And – what’s more – we have no guarantee whatsoever that things today will be the same tomorrow. Our money, our homes, possessions, they could all disappear at a moment’s notice. That is the nature of life under the sun.Now the culture around us seeks to ignore or alleviate these troubling realities, but the fact is that to fear

For many Christians, the book of Ecclesiastes has been an enigma. Maybe you’ve noticed that for yourself when you’ve read it. The Preacher of Ecclesiastes says all sorts of things, many of which are troubling, perplexing, and even seem heretical on the surface. The main refrain of the book itself is a classic example: “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.” The NIV translates it: “Meaningless, meaningless, all is meaningless.” Our polite Sunday morning self, of course, doesn’t make any critical comments. But the honest question of every thoughtful Christian is inevitable: “Really? Is it really vanity? Is it really all meaningless? Doesn’t that go against what the rest of what the Bible teaches?” There are plenty of other passages in the book that similarly leave us scratching our heads.So what are we to make of the enigma that is the Book of Ecclesiastes? Do we just ignore the tough bits? Do we jettison it from our Bibles? (if not officially, then at least practically by neglect). Do we take a superficial approach to it, giving trite Sunday School answers to the difficult questions? Never truly exploring what it really means? And where does Christ fit in this book?As we open up this conversation, I want to put to you that the message of Ecclesiastes is both powerful and timely in an age of materialism such as the one in which we find ourselves. There’s no doubt about it, the book is uncomfortable, and if you’re looking for an easy ride, you won’t find it here. What you will find, however, is an honest assessment of life. Ecclesiastes is uncomfortable precisely because life itself is often uncomfortable. Things happen that we don’t understand, things that make no sense to us, things that make us feel afraid. There are things that happen in our lives that make it feel impossible to hold on to hope, indeed hope itself may completely evaporate at times (see Psalm 88). Despair and depression can take hold, and we live our lives feeling sightless and in a dark mist. In times like these, Ecclesiastes will prove to be a balm to the soul.Contrary to the teaching of some commentators, however, Ecclesiastes is not the ramblings of a man who has succumbed to these trials. The writer is not a jaded old cynic. On the contrary, this book is an antidote to these uncomfortable truths in life. No, it’s not intended to make them disappear, and it won’t give you an easy answer. In fact, at times it won’t even give you an answer at all to some of life’s difficult questions. But what it will do is put strength into your limbs and resolve into your hearts. It will not lead you on easy paths, but it will lead you on faithful paths. Paths that have been tried and tested, paths that will fill you with wisdom and perseverance, and – yes – even hope. I dare go further. God’s desire for us as he has penned these words through Solomon, is that we should deeply and richly enjoy life in the fear of God.But where do you begin in Ecclesiastes? How do you start to make sense of it? Trying to understand this book is much like holding a rubix cube and trying to solve it. You have no idea where to begin, and even when you think you’re making inroads, some new impossibility arises. The book is, in a sense, an enigma, but that’s part of the point. Wisdom literature in the Bible is meant to get you thinking, it’s designed to make you think, to consider, to wrestle with mysteries. Indeed, that is part of the journey toward hope. And so as we study this book, I want to begin by equipping you with the means to solve this riddle. The book is perplexing at times, but it is not unsolvable. In fact, it is designed to be solved, and in solving it we will be enriched and made wiser.So to begin with, I want to give you a few basic tools that you will need for understanding Ecclesiastes. The first tool you will need is a correct approach. If you’re going to make any sense of Ecclesiastes, you need to realise what kind of a book it actually is. Now this is true of any piece of writing. As you approach it, you need to know what it is, and that knowledge will then shape how you read it. For example, you don’t come to read a newspaper the same way you would approach a joke book. You read a murder mystery in a very different way than you would read a history textbook. In this sense, it’s very important to get the right approach as we come to the book of Ecclesiastes. We need to understand what kind of book this is. If you read a fantasy novel as history, you will be very confused. If you read an academic journal as a children’s story, it simply will not work – you need to approach the book correctly.One of the problems with the way we read Ecclesiastes is that, for many Christians, we try and read it the same way we would probably read a book like Romans. When we come to Romans, for example, it’s a letter, largely didactic in its flow of thought. It has a logical structure as it deals with doctrine, and it changes gears obviously as it directly applies doctrine to life in the latter part of the epistle.Now Ecclesiastes is not like that, it’s much more like a Psalm. Let me give you an example, Psalm 73 will serve well to illustrate for us. In Psalm 73, the Psalmist gives a personal account of his struggles with suffering. In particular, he recounts the way he experiences suffering as wicked godless people seem to live a life of luxury. In the first half of the psalm, the psalmist reflects on the mindset that he had as he struggled with this conundrum. In verse three, for example, the psalmist says: “I was envious of the arrogant” (v3). That’s a description of what he was thinking at that point in time. Or how about verse four, where he talks about how wicked people have no troubles before death, and that they are always at ease. Now if you took those kinds of statements in isolation, they don’t sound very Christian. “I was envious of the arrogant.” Not very Christian to be jealous of the lifestyles of wicked people! And yet the psalmist clearly says that he was, and he describes what it was like to be in that mindset.Now we don’t read Psalm 73 and think: “Whoa! This shouldn’t be in the Bible!!” We don’t read it and apply it by envying wicked people, that would be a complete misreading! What we rightly see is that this psalm is a divinely inspired description of the very real struggles that the psalmist faced. It’s a poem, a testimony of this man’s spiritual journey, and so as we read the Psalm we understand that there is a context for his statements.Coming back to the Book of Ecclesiastes, the whole book kind of works like Psalm 73. What we’re seeing in Ecclesiastes is the Preacher’s account of his own journey, a journey that has ups and downs. Like many psalms, it is heavily auto-biographical, and often uses poetic devices. In fact, as a living member of the human race, the Preacher is still on the journey as he writes, which is why he doesn’t resolve so many of the questions that he raises. The point is that they aren’t supposed to be resolved yet, not in this life anyway. And so in this book we’re often seeing a man wrestling with what it means to live in a fallen world as he lives in a fallen world. At times his frustration and sadness are palpable as he struggles to come to terms with what he sees in the fallen world around him, and as he seeks to reconcile what he sees with his faith in God. And although there are many questions for which he lacks answers, yet as he continues he nonetheless comes to his ultimate conclusion in Ecc 12:13: “The end of the whole matter is this: fear God.” When all is said and done, Solomon accepts the conundrums of life by faith, and calls us to do the same. As the Psalmist does in Psalm 73, Solomon finds rest as he too submits to God by faith. He doesn’t have all the answers to life’s mysteries, but he does know who the Lord of all is, and he knows that God alone is to be feared. So then, as we work through this book, what we’ll be doing is taking a journey with the Preacher. We’ll be observing and wrestling with what it means to live in a fallen world, and in so doing we will have a little light for our own paths as well.So that was our first tool for approaching the book rightly, you need to know what kind of writing it is. One other tool I want to give you at the outset is a metaphor, a metaphor for thinking about the book as a whole and for grasping what it is and how it works. Because while the book is similar to a psalm, it is not actually a psalm. I got this metaphor from one of the commentators, Philip Ryken, and I think it works really well as a way of capturing clearly what this book is all about and how it works.I want you to think of Ecclesiastes as a labyrinth – a giant maze. Complex, puzzling, hard, exasperating, and even dangerous according to Greek mythology. It’s easy to get lost in this labyrinth. And yet there is also a destination… you go in to a labyrinth to get to the middle, and King Solomon wants us to arrive in the middle as well, to get to his destination. So Ecclesiastes is like a labyrinth, and the labyrinth itself can be viewed as a metaphor for life as well – because life is exactly what Solomon spends his time talking about. Like a labyrinth, life is complex and puzzling at times, it leaves us with many mysteries and many question unanswered. And so the Preacher is on a journey through life, and at the same time he’s using wisdom to explore this life, exploring what it means to live life and how to live life in a fallen world in the fear of God.Now in this labyrinth of Ecclesiastes, as we make our way to the destination in the middle of this maze, there are two kinds of paths. There are paths that lead to dead ends, and there are paths that lead us to the destination – to the solution of the labyrinth of life. And one important thing to keep in mind is that as the Preacher seeks to guide us through this labyrinth, sometimes he shows us a dead end. He warns us of places we shouldn’t go. But as the book unfo

PrayerAlmighty God, Lord of Glory, O Light of Heaven, please chase away the shadows of my heart and open my eyes to your truth. I am so quick to wander, so prone to settle for shallow thoughts—teach me to think your thoughts after you. Let your Word burn with clarity in my mind and settle with weight in my soul. Make me hungry for what is good, wise, and eternal; keep me from being dulled by lesser things. Give me illumination not only to understand, but to walk in your ways with joy. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.ReadingGenesis 2:18-25.“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”MeditationGod designed the Woman to provide companionship to the man. This is a universal and enduring pattern of creation. Verse 18 makes this abundantly clear:“It is not good for man to be alone.” Men need companionship, and specifically they need female companionship in marriage. Communities matter, and the Lord designed women to be builders of communities. We need mothers, sisters, cousins, friends, elders, aunties, uncles. If you are a woman of God, this is a big part of your purpose: to provide community. Women are community builders. The wives of the patriarchs in Genesis were said to be “building their houses.” That’s a big job, building houses and communities. That’s a significant aspect of God’s purpose for women. The world doesn’t honour this design. In fact, they despise it. But we should know better—this is huge! Without women, we wouldn’t have communities.Be ye doers of the word….There are a host of practical applications that flow out of these insights. First: don’t live in isolation. This applies to both men and women. Don’t be an island. Don’t be a distant person. It’s not good for you, and you’re also depriving others of your companionship. None of us were made to live in self-sufficiency. We need each other. That’s not easy in modern society, which is potently individualistic. We don’t know our neighbours, and the sharp edge of loneliness is dulled by the second-hand connection of technology. But technology, useful as it can be, is no substitute for actual relationships. Whether you’re married or single, it’s important to offer your gifts in service of others. To actively seek to build real relationships. It is not good for us to be alone.Secondly, men need intimacy. This is the positive side of everything we’ve just been saying. Man needs relationship. He needs closeness. He needs company. Wives have a special role to play here. If you’re a wife reading these words, here is a “prophetic” word for you: God has called you to meet this need in your husband. He has given you that role. No one else can fulfill it. Your identity is image of God, but your job description is helpmeet. One preacher said, “there is no more effective way to destroy a man than to deprive him of companionship.” That is profoundly true. Your husband might be a big strong man, but it is well within your power to make or break him, even if you are both short and slight.And men, this responsibility falls on us too. In a sense, even more so. As heads of our homes, God will hold us accountable for everything that happens under our roofs. We are responsible to cultivate companionship with our wives. God gave them to us for this purpose, and we must not work against that by using them, neglecting them, or taking them for granted. If we do, we will crush them. Since sin entered the world, that is exactly our inclination. We must live with them in an understanding way (1 Peter 3:7). That means we will need to repent regularly. And constantly seek help in prayer. Husbands, we must cultivate companionship with our wives.And again, doesn’t this show all of us our need for Christ? It’s so easy to be self-serving in marriage. That’s a word from the wisdom of God’s word for the single as well. If you get married, prepare for an almighty battle with selfishness. But selfishness is not God’s design. We must repent of it, confess it, and seek the Lord’s help to honour him in our relationships.Now I want to speak directly to the single men for a moment. Single men: look for a woman who answers your need for companionship. When looking for a wife, look for someone you enjoy talking to. Someone with whom you can enjoy real fellowship in Christ. Don’t make physical beauty your number one priority (even though it has a lot of default pulling power in your mind). As one preacher said: “Cuteness on your arm will not make up for emptiness in your home.” That’s a word especially for young men, because you will be inclined to value outward appearance above all else. While that matters, it must not blind you to what’s most important. Look for a woman who loves Christ. A woman who can be your friend and walk beside you in companionship.And to single women—it’s the same thing. If you’re considering a relationship with a man, think carefully about how suitable you are together. Think about companionship. Think about whether this is a relationship where friendship and fellowship in Christ can flourish.And let me remind us all about the bigger Christological picture. As we think about companionship and intimacy in marriage, what it really points to is companionship and intimacy with Christ. And that applies to all of us, whether we are married or unmarried. Far more important than companionship in marriage is daily companionship with Christ. We must walk closely with him. We must be on intimate terms with him. Does that describe your life? Does it describe mine? Marriage will pass away. But the deeper reality of our union with Christ will only grow larger and brighter as time goes by. Seek above all things companionship and intimacy with Christ. And all of us, married and single, will flourish and grow, so long as we are near to him. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationO Lord, I confess my tendency to retreat into myself, to live as an island when you made me for communion. Forgive me for choosing convenience over connection, and for withholding the companionship others may need from me. I repent of my selfishness in marriage and friendship, of the ways I have used people rather than served them. Please teach and help me to cultivate intimacy, not just with others, but with you above all. Please renew my desire to walk in understanding with those you’ve placed near me, and help me to honour your design for community.Consecrate my life again, that whether married or single, I would seek deeper fellowship with Christ, and offer my presence as a gift to others. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerHeavenly Father, My soul looks up to you this day. Without you, Lord, I am nothing and can do nothing. Without you all hope is gone. I look to you on this new day, my hope is in you, Lord. Give me strength, according to your word. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Please give me today the daily bread of your word that my soul may live and not die. Please give to me a heart of wisdom. Search me and know me, O God, and see if there be any wicked way within me, and lead me in the way everlasting. My soul looks up to you, O Lord, I wait upon you for my help and deliverance. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.ReadingProv 1:10-12 - “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12. like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit”Meditation.Sin is greedy for gain, this is very clear in our passage today. “If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12. like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit” Sin is discontent, always wanting more. A sure sign that the world is enticing you is that you are being tempted in your life to prioritise material gain for yourself. 1 Tim 6:6 says: “godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.”The way of the world is to seek to get more out of the world, and so when offers come your way to get something out of it – be wary. Examine your own heart – ask yourself: Am I content if I don’t get this thing? A better question might be: How would it glorify God for me to have this thing? Building wealth and working hard are good gifts of God, and there’s nothing wrong with building wealth, but the motivation is key. Greed for gain crosses the line into idolatry, and the world’s whispers will try and tempt you into this idolatry. 1 Corinthians 6:10 says that the greedy will not enter the kingdom of God.Be ye doers of the word…Let us then put off greed. Confess your tendencies toward selfish gain to God. And, having put off greed, enjoy His gifts in moderation, self-control, and thanksgiving. Hold the things of this world lightly in the palm of your hand. Beyond this, combat the mindset of greed with seeking that which is good. Sow to the Spirit. Do not toil for that which does not satisfy, go and read Ecclesiastes 2 and see how futile it is! Instead, invest richly in the things of God. Galatians 6:8 says: “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Seek first the kingdom of God. Proverbs 15:16 says: “Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.” We may gain all the world’s riches, but if we are not rich toward God, it will come to nothing. The world will try and tempt you with promises of gain, but only in Christ can this promise be realised. All the words of the world are nothing but wind and vanity. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration.Lord Jesus, please forgive me for setting my desires and affections upon the things of this world. I thank you for your good gifts in this life, they are constant reminders of your goodness and generosity. Please help me, Lord, that I may have a right heart toward earthly goods. To give thanks in receiving them, and to live in such a way that I do not desire them more than I ought. Lord, please help me to treasure you above all things. Please help me to seek your kingdom first, and find all my delight in you alone. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerLord God, our loving Heavenly Father, your ways are altogether wise. Please open our eyes to see the beauty of your designs and purposes. Please help us to see and walk in your design for men and women. May we be freed from the false divisions of our age, please give us a heart of understanding. In Jesus’ name, Amen.ReadingGenesis 2:18-25.“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”MeditationThe woman, alongside the man, was made for dominion. From the beginning, man was called to rule the earth and subdue it. God gave Adam a divine commission to cultivate, to dig, to build, to nurture, and to grow. His task was to develop the world, to shape creation through labor and ingenuity, to advance technology, and to multiply until the wide and wild world became a fruitful garden. Man was meant to rule as a king upon the earth, and the woman was given to him as his queen. She would help him in this great task, and work with him side by side. Together, they were to carry out the dominion mandate.Modern society has tried to divide the call to work from the domestic sphere. Family and the home have become places of leisure rather than responsibility and dominion. The truth is, however, that the home is bound up in the calling of dominion. In one sense, it is the engine room of dominion. The home and the workplace are all different parts of a single, harmonious picture of dominion, in which Christ’s reign is to be realised on the earth. Both men and women have their place in this vision. I think Matthew Henry said something like: the woman was created not to stand behind man, nor beneath him, but beside him, close to his heart, as his helper and partner in the work of ruling, redeeming, and renewing the world.Be ye doers of the word….Now, I know that this raises other questions—important ones. Questions like: What about women in the workplace? What about our roles in domestic life? What exactly is God’s design for all of that? I’m not going to get into those areas much further today, but we will get to them in the next number of posts in Genesis. We will get to a deeper dive on the topic of work, and more specifically, the interplay between work, marriage, men, and women. So hang tight—we’ll get to all of this in more detail soon.For now, however, I want you to try and get the big picture. God calls each of us, men and women alike, to a life of service and hard work. And this life of service isn’t aimless; it’s about something far greater than ourselves. For each of us, it is ultimately about seeing Christ exalted. Don’t lose sight of that. Before we look at more of the details, keep this vision in your mind and make sure you’ve got it embedded in your worldview: the woman was created not to stand behind man, nor beneath him, but beside him, close to his heart, as his helper and partner in the work of ruling, redeeming, and renewing the world. We’re in this, male and female, together. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationLord, You formed me for your service, yet I confess I have often served my own comfort instead of your kingdom. Please forgive me for my pride, my passivity, and my fear. Teach me to honour your design for men and women, to embrace my role with joy, and to labour in whatever field you place me, whether seen or unseen, for the glory of Christ. Let my life exalt him, in all things, and at all times. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerHeavenly Father, There is nothing I can gain that is more precious than wisdom, and I thank you that you have provided me with the means of getting wisdom through your Holy Word. As I turn again to you today, please meet with me and I ask that you would give me wisdom. I lack the needed wisdom to honour and obey you as I ought, and I stand in great need – please hear my request and bless me Lord. For your name’s sake I pray, Amen.ReadingProv 1:10-12 - “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12. like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit”Meditation.Proverbs 1:11-19 is a case study of the warning laid out in verse ten. Consider 1 Corinthians 15:33. “Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”.” The people that we invite into our lives have a profound and lasting impact on who we ourselves become. Godless people will not help us to love Christ, and they will tend to draw us toward sinful ways of thinking and living. Following the introductory material of Proverbs 1, the first call of wisdom proper we see here is to avoid the enticement of sinners. Sin is not just some abstract reality, it’s personal, and it comes to us through people. Because of this, taking godless people to be our close companions is spiritually dangerous business. People who do not trust, revere, and submit to God cannot help us to trust, revere, and submit to God either. In verses 11-19 we have some concrete training in how to beware of the enticement of sinners.The first lesson laid out in the case study is that we must identify worldly enticements. That’s what Solomon is helping his son to do here. Let’s look at verses 10-12 again: “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit”. Now maybe you read that and think to yourself that no one has ever tried to entice you with something like that. Fair enough, it is a somewhat extreme example, but the extreme example is helpful because it illustrates so clearly the basic nature of worldly enticements from godless people. In studying the example, I believe that we find three major characteristics of worldly enticements – we’ll address the first here, and the second two in subsequent studies.The first characteristic of sinful enticements that we see here is that they are self-centred. “If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit”. There is no concern for others in these words, there is only a using of others for the purpose of selfish gain.Sin is self-centred. Love is selfless, and abides in sacrificial service of itself to do good to others. Sin is selfish, willing to sacrifice the energies and life of others to gain more for self. Love lays itself down for the good of others. Sin lays others down for the good of self. We see this principle starkly demonstrated in our verses.Be ye doers of the word…Considering these principles, and the example laid out in these verses, this should help us to identify the real-life “offers” we might receive, as warned against in verse ten. If someone makes you an offer, and it comes at the expense of others, it’s a dead giveaway that this is a self-centred and sinful proposition. It might be cheating on the boss through laziness or neglect; or cheating on your spouse with another person. It might involve passively ignoring the needs of others when it is in your power to meet those needs. It might involve taking advantage of others, or viewing them as resources to be used. These are all basic aspects of godless ways of living.Sin has a fundamentally self-centred view of the world, it makes an idol of itself, it prioritises self. Now, in the first place, we should certainly avoid those who try to tempt us to use other people in self-centred ways. But as disciples we should alsoexamine ourselves in this, because as sin remains in our hearts so we are still prone to use other people in self-centred ways. Even though our identity is wrapped up in Christ, this sinful and self-centred mindset will still always be there trying to take control. It will be waging war agains the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit in us. We must examine our own hearts for selfishness.We must ask ourselves the question of concern here: “Am I self-centred?” Of course, the follow-up question is then: “How can I tell if I’m self-centred?” To explore that possibility, we might ask ourselves and reflect questions like: Are most of my thoughts about me? Am I generally thinking about my desires and wants? Does my happiness depend on things going my way? Does it bother me when others are hurt, or am I generally focused on how others are hurting me? Do my thoughts about others revolve around how I am affected? Or what I might gain out of them? Honest answers to these questions will show us how selfish we really are.We must avoid the temptation to be selfish, and we must seek to kill selfish inclinations in our own heart. Pastor Paul Washer put it this way:“If you do not deal with your self-centredness now, early, in time you won’t recognise yourself.” This is a serious warning, it’s sobering.But how we do this? How do we kill selfishness? You prayerfully examine your own heart, asking God to show you yourselfishness. Whenever you find evidence of selfishness in your heart, you then bring it to the cross, confess it, and God will forgive you. We must then ask the Lord to renew our mind and heart, that we may put off selfishness. Then we must look to Christ, and set the eyes of our hearts upon him who is love incarnate. As we do this, the Lord will continually remake us from self-serving people into others-serving people. May the Lord so work in our hearts as to make us truly selfless. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration.Lord God Almighty, I confess that my heart harbors selfish resistance to your will, and I need your help to become a truly loving person. Please forgive me for focusing so much on myself and responding sinfully when things don’t go my way. Forgive me for my lack of concern for others’ struggles and for using others' efforts without gratitude. Cover me in your grace and remake me, helping me to serve and value others above myself. Work this transformation within me and within your people, for your glory alone, in Jesus’ name, Amen Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerHeavenly Father, I praise and thank you for this new day, I have done nothing to deserve it. For all of your manifold mercies, I confess that I have rendered a poor return unto you. How can I repay you, Lord, for all of your goodness to me? Help me, O Lord. I seek you this day, I want to walk before you and be blameless, I want to worship you in spirit and in truth. And yet my flesh constantly wages war against me. Be merciful to me, O Lord, do what work you must, please lead me in the way everlasting. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your word. In Jesus’ name, Amen.ReadingHosea 1:4-7.“And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel. She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.””MeditationGod had been patient with his people. He had endured adultery on the very first night of their union as the people built for themselves a golden calf (Exodus 32), and as you read the history of the people, it doesn’t get any better. Through Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, and right through the book of Kings it is a sordid history of Israel’s shocking faithlessness, and God’s amazing faithfulness. But the time had at last come, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was now hardened in its spiritual adultery. God’s long patience had at last come to an end. Judgment was imminent.Hosea was called to be a living metaphor of God’s covenant with Israel, and so as Hosea and Gomer have children together in verses two through nine, what we see is that the children themselves are symbolic of the judgments of God. As the three children are born to them in the course of time, three judgments are prophetically declared through the names that God tells Hosea to give to these children.As the first son is born, in verse four we read: “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” Israel had been an unfaithful wife, and God was now enforcing the death penalty for adultery as the kingdom itself would be ended.Now to understand this properly, we need to understand what the name Jezreel refers to. Jezreel was quite infamous in the history of the Northern Kingdom. It was the place where King Ahab, urged on by Jezebel, had slaughtered Naboth and taken his vineyard. And it was also the place where later, King Jehu had slaughtered the servants of Baal and others as well – and yet, in spite of that, Jehu persisted in idolatry – spiritual adultery. And so the reason God refers to Jezreel in verse four is because in a symbolic way, it represents some of the worst of Israel’s sins. Jezreel, if you like, is a symbol of Israel’s sin.The reference to Jehu specifically is because he was the very best of the kings of the Northern Kingdom. As you read the history of the Northern Kingdom, every king without fail is an idolater and faithless to God. And so even Jehu, who rightly slaughtered the prophets of Baal, was guilty. The very best of the northern kings still had blood on his hands, that’s what Hosea’s prophecy is referring to here.And so in calling the child Jezreel, the entirety of Israel’s guilt is symbolised and summarised, and because of their unrepentant guilt, God would put an end to this kingdom.Two more judgments follow, and it’s as though the divorce proceedings have begun, and now the case will be established by the mouth of three witnesses. The second child is called “No-mercy.” Verse six says: “the LORD said to Hosea, Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God.” There is a real finality about this judgment, the Lord is saying that there will be no more mercy – this is the end. No more forgiveness. The Northern Kingdom had abandoned Temple worship. They had traded in the mercy seat of the Temple for twin golden calves, and their rejection of God has at last come to its full fruition. They had already had many opportunities to repent and receive mercy, but since they were hardened and persistent in their sins, at last God says: “Since you have scorned the provision of mercy in the Temple, I will withdraw my mercy from you.”And yet so great is God’s compassion that even here there is a message of mercy for those who had ears to hear, for in verse seven God refers to mercy for the House of Judah. This was a call to all true God-fearers in the Northern Kingdom to “abandon ship.” Right away they would know that the only chance they have is to leave and take refuge in the Southern Kingdom with the tribe of Judah, and there may well have been some who did that. How patient and kind God was to extend the opportunity for mercy to people in the Northern Kingdom – even as their final judgment was being declared!This also comes as another reminder that all the salvation hope of God’s people rested in the line of Judah. The LORD had made the promise that a Messiah would come from David’s line, in the house of Judah, and save his people. This, then, is a clear foreshadow of the promised salvation that was to come, the promise that would ultimately be fulfilled in Christ. From the perspective of the New Covenant, what this is saying is that in Christ alone salvation is to be found.Be ye doers of the word…In applying this warning to ourselves, the message is very clear. If we spurn and turn aside from God’s mercy in Christ, then we too will be shown no-mercy. We find this warning essentially presented in New Covenant garb in Hebrews 10:26-31: “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”Certainly if a professing believer abandons the faith, this warning and judgment applies. If one does such a thing and persists in that path, they are surely on the road to destruction and will receive no mercy. But one may still have a measure of the external trappings of the Christian Religion and still be in danger of following the Northern Kingdom. Churches that abandon the true doctrine of Christ are in the same position (1 John 4:1-6), and their judgment approaches unless they repent. If you find yourself in a church where Christ is not preached, you would do well to heed the warning of our passage, for there is mercy in the House of Judah. Be sure that you are in a church where true salvation and true faithfulness to Christ is upheld in the doctrine, teaching, and life of the church. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationGod of all mercy, I thank you that there is mercy in Christ Jesus. I cast myself wholly upon him who is my only hope before you. I am sorry for my faithlessness until this point, my unwillingness to be whole-heartedly devoted unto Christ. O Lord, weak as I am, poor though I be, helpless without your help and strength, yet I give myself to you. Please help me to be wholly dedicated unto Christ, to walk in his ways, to give no quarter to sinful desires and inclinations in my heart. Please help me to be wholly and fully devoted unto him who died for me. I thank you for the goodness of your mercies, you are a faithful and wonderful God – wonderful beyond all my understanding, worthy beyond any word I could possibly express. Please meet with your people today, O Lord, lift us up, convict, correct, instruct, rebuke, comfort and encourage – according as each has need – and that your kindgom may come. Please protect us from Satan’s devices, and from the temptations of our own hearts today. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerHeavenly Father, I give all glory and thanks to you this new day. I praise you, for you are holy and exalted over all the earth. No shadow has touched you, nor is there any darkness in you at all. Glory be to you, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Lord, in this vale of tears, where sin so easily entangles me, and where I so readily set my eyes on the things of this world, help me to lift up my eyes to the hills from where my help comes – my help comes from you, Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Please help me to set my mind on things above, not on things that are on earth. Feed me now from your holy word I pray, in Jesus’ name, Amen.ReadingProv 1:10 - “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.”Meditation.We must heed the warning of Proverbs 1:10. When sinners entice us, we must not consent. One of the most important aspects of heeding this warning is to be aware of the state of our own hearts, and to be protective over what we allow to influence our hearts. We must guard our hearts. If someone entices us to sin, we haven’t done the wrong thing. It’s only when we consent that we are entering in to that temptation sinfully. For this reason – again – we must guard our hearts: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov 4:23). The biggest danger is not in the temptation of the world or the words of the sinner, they can’t force us to sin. One of the biggest dangers comes when we entertain the temptation in our hearts.Let me put it this way: there’s a door in your heart and mind, and you must keep careful watch on that door. You must see to it that only good things come in, and see to it that bad things stay out. When some enticement presents itself to us, and we ask the question in our minds: “What if I did that…?” At that point we are opening that door to entertain temptation in our hearts. If we’re imagining what it would be like to give in to some sin, the temptation is now already walking in and wiping its muddy shoes on the carpet of our hearts. We must guard our hearts, refuse even to entertain the “What if?”.Be ye doers of the word…When you hear that knock in your heart, look through the peep-hole of the door, notice who it is that’s standing there, and put an extra padlock on. Don’t even entertain the sinful ideas that the world lays before you. Instead, open the door of your heart to Christ alone. Let his words take up residence and abide in your heart and mind. As we read in Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” If we’re musing upon and considering what it might look like to enact our temptations, by definition we’ve just failed that test. Lust subsists firstly in lustful thoughts (for example). I believe John Owen once said that the imagination is the gateway for temptation. Guard your heart, especially when sinners entice you. What enticements is the world laying on your door at the moment? Where and when have you been tempted to open and let them in? Fortify yourself against these occasions in prayer, and arm yourself to engage your enemy with the sword of the Spirit. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration.Lord I thank you for refreshing my soul with your word. I thank you for a fresh draught of life to renew and invigorate me this morning. Lord, I long to be one who has my mind always set on Christ, who is seated at your right hand in heaven. I confess that often times I have rather set my thoughts and desires on the things of earth – please pardon me for my sin, it is very great. Please protect your people from worldly enticements, help us to abide in your word, and help us always and increasingly to have our minds occupied with heavenly glories, that we might turn all earthly moments into occasions for praise and joy in Jesus. Strengthen us, Lord, build up and strengthen your church. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I pray that my church would be full of and increasing in holy zeal toward you. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerO Lord, giver of truth and wisdom, help me to understand your word as I study your purposes in creation. Teach me to grasp the beauty of your design, that you made the woman not as an afterthought, but as a strong and vital helper in the great task of ruling and cultivating your world. Open my eyes to the dignity of this work and the partnership you ordained for men and women from the beginning. Let your Spirit guide me into all truth, that I may honor your design and walk faithfully in it. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.ReadingGenesis 2:18-25.“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”MeditationThe woman was made as a helper, as we see in verse 18. This is clear, but it raises the question: Help with what? It’s an important question, and has a few layers to it. At the most basic level, we need to see that the woman was created to help the man with the dominion mandate. That’s the big picture. In verse 15, the man is placed in the garden to work and keep it, and verse 18 shows that the woman was made to help him in this task of subduing the earth.Building on this insight, it should be very clear to us that women were made for work. In verse 15, we see the man had a job—to work and keep the garden, to rule the earth and subdue it. Rebekah Merkle in her excellent book “Eve in Exile” explains this well. She says that the first man was given a wild and empty planet and told to subdue it, which was a huge task too big for Adam to do alone. Eve was created specifically to assist Adam in his work, because he couldn’t rule and cultivate the world on his own. God created a woman who was a worker, meant to stand beside Adam as they took dominion of the earth together.Be ye doers of the word….Whether we are men or women, the truth remains: God made us to work and to serve. The woman was made for work. God wants the earth to be fruitful, and he calls us to work to make that happen. Each of us has a calling to work hard at whatever is before us—whether in the home, the workplace, the church, or society. God wants us to work hard and be fruitful, and if we’re not doing that, we’re missing God’s purpose for our lives. Whatever it is that God has called you to do, are you working hard?And let’s not devalue or downplay the special role that God has for wives and mothers in family life, especially in bearing and nurturing the children who will literally fill the world. The surrounding culture devalues the significance of domestic life, and wages outright war on child-bearing by it’s passive toleration of abortion. Family life is not the drudgery our culture makes it out to be, it is rather the powerhouse and generator of culture itself. Bearing children, and many of them, is a noble and wonderful calling, without it, the Lord Jesus himself would not have come to us. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationO God of heaven, I confess that I have often forgotten your purpose for my life, to work diligently and serve faithfully in the place you have set for me. Too easily I have given in to laziness, selfishness, or the lies of a culture that despises the good work of home, family, and fruitfulness. Forgive me for devaluing what you call noble, for neglecting the work you have given, and for fearing man more than you. Strengthen me by your Spirit to obey your calling with joy, and to labor with all my heart for your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerHeavenly Father, I come before you this morning with a confession upon my lips. I am desperately weak, desperately sinful. My sinful nature wages war within me, seeking to destroy me and to have sway over my heart. I am poor and needy, turn not your face from me. Deliver my soul, O Lord. Please forgive me for my many sins. Have mercy upon me for Jesus’ sake. I am yours, a slave of Christ. Disobedient, yes, but I belong to you. Deserving nothing, yet needing everything. Lead me in your truth, I pray, please subdue my rebel heart that I might live in a manner that honours you. Into your hands I commit my spirit, Amen.ReadingHosea 1:2-3.“When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.”MeditationThere is no other way to put it, this is shocking! God says to Hosea: “Hosea, go and marry a w***e. Go and take up a faithless, promiscuous, immoral woman and make her your wife – and then have children with her.” Now this should disturb you, in fact that’s really the point. Israel was so complacent with their sins, so hardened in heart, that God decided to send them this shocking image to show them what they were really doing.Now I want to impress this on you, just imagine for a moment, try and step in to Hosea’s shoes. For those of us who are married, or hope to marry, we generally marry someone of our own choice, someone we love. We choose someone that we think will make a good and godly spouse, and generally that’s the way it’s supposed to work. You apply godly wisdom, and make a godly decision. And yet here is Hosea, a younger man at this point in time, and he is given this instruction: “Go and marry a w***e.”Now can you imagine being in that position? In obedience to God, you go and take this woman to be your wife. And as you marry her and you bring her to the marriage bed, knowing full well that just days or weeks before, she has been sleeping with other men. “Go and have children with this woman Hosea.” That’s the instruction! That would be a trying thing to go through! And yet, full of faith, verse three simply says, “So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.”This is the image God chooses to use to show his people what’s really happening in the northern kingdom. They had forsaken God, verse two says. They did not love him, they did not follow him, and they had set their hearts to love and worship idols. And what this amounts to, God says, is spiritual adultery. God’s people had become no different than a harlot.I want to pause for a moment to address a question, because at this point there’s always a question that comes up in Hosea, and the question is: “How could God command Hosea to marry a w***e? Isn’t that immoral?”And the answer, of course, is: No, it’s not immoral. Firstly, God does not command his people to sin. Ever. The question should be a moot point purely on the grounds of basic theology – i.e. God is righteous. But second, while whoring is immoral, and harlotry itself was worthy of the death penalty in a civil sense (Deut 22:21), the only people for whom it was a sin to marry a w***e were the Levitical priests (Lev 21:7). Hosea was not a priest. Did it defy logic for Hosea to marry a w***e? Well, in a sense, yes it did. No one in their right mind would marry a harlot. But was it immoral? No. The Civil Authorities had failed to implement Deuteronomy 22:21, but Hosea had broken no law in marrying Gomer. So although it is surprising and shocking that Hosea might marry a w***e, it was not immoral.The other significant fact here is that Hosea’s actions were actually a reflection of how God had loved his people. God was married to an adulterous people – that’s what the image of Hosea is meant to teach us. So you might say that if Hosea was being immoral to marry Gomer, then you’re leveling the same accusation at God who married his adulterous people to himself! And that is the key point: Israel were an adulterous, whorish people.As we look at their history, we see that this is undeniably true. Even at the very start, on the wedding night itself at Mount Sinai, as the covenant had just been freshly established, there were God’s people, committing adultery through the golden calf. Can you imagine that? On the very night of your wedding you find your spouse in bed with another person! And so the shock of Hosea’s marriage to Gomer, which is the symbol and type, pales in comparison to the reality of God’s marriage with Israel.That’s the real point in Hosea’s life here, of course. If there’s anything to be shocked about, it’s not the shock that Hosea married Gomer, it’s the shock of thinking that God had somehow remained committed to faithless Israel. And so the question is not so much: “How could Hosea marry a harlot?” The far more significant questions are: “How could Israel be so faithless to their God?” and, more to the point: “How could God remain committed to such a faithless people?”Be ye doers of the word…There’s an important lesson here for us in application, and the application is this: sin is adultery. When we commit sin against God, it’s as though we’re climbing into bed with someone who is not our spouse. That’s how God feels when his people sin, he feels the heartache of a spouse who has been cheated. Because he sees in our hearts that we are not dedicated to him, but rather that we are dedicated to ourselves and the fulfillment of our lusts. Sin is spiritual adultery.This knowledge should profoundly humble us in two ways. The first way lies in the fact that it teaches us what we were before God’s grace found us. We need to realise very clearly that, before we believed, that’s who we were. We were spiritual prostitutes, wondering up and down through the world, offering ourselves to whatever sin captured our hearts. And so in our salvation, we must never think highly of ourselves, because the truth of the matter is that each and every one of us is a Gomer. In his shocking love, God has chosen us and set his love upon us. We must never grow prideful in our Christianity, because but for the grace of God, we are nothing but immoral, filthy, prostitutes.Do you live with this awareness of who you are? And do you live with this awareness of how staggering God’s love for you in Christ actually is? While we were still sinners, enemies of God, spiritual prostitutes, Christ died for the ungodly to bring us to God.The second way in which we should be profoundly humbled here is to realise that in spite of the grace we have been shown, even as Christians we still go back to our old whorish ways often. As Gomer does in chapter three, do we not ourselves return to our old lovers regularly? Not only should we be humbled at who we were, but we must realise who we still are. We are new creatures in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), and yet there is still a harlot lurking within our hearts. Every time we sin, what we are doing is leaving Christ to embrace our sins as an adulterous lover. And every time we sin, God experiences that pain, the pain of a husband whose wife has slept with another man. The anguish of experiencing a faithless wife. And every time we sin, that’s what we have done – we have been faithless to Christ.Think about this. And think of Christ’s words in Matthew 5:27: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” You see adultery is not just about the actual act of adultery – although that in itself is a weighty and serious thing it’s own right. The real issue of adultery is the state of the heart. It’s the direction of the affections. If a man never cheats on his wife, and yet habitually entertains lustful fantasies in his mind, then he has the heart of adultery beating in his breast, and that is who we are. Because when we sin, it shows that sin itself has captured our affections. We do this every day in a thousand ways. Do we not have every reason to be humbled? For even though we have been saved by God through Christ, even though he graciously empowers us, having given us a new spiritual nature, there is still adultery in our hearts.We must not think highly of ourselves, we must not think of ourselves as better than others, because the truth is that – as we think that – we are committing spiritual adultery in that moment through our sinful thoughts. Are you starting to see the shocking grace of God? It’s shocking in the first place that he even considered joining himself to us. It’s shocking in the second place that – day by day – he continues to forgive us and pour out his grace upon us. But it’s more shocking still because of what he intends for us. Because not only has he married us, as it were, but he has poured out every spiritual blessing upon us. He has promised us eternal bliss in Christ. And he is constantly washing us, by his word, remaking us, and at the end he will have a spotless bride before him. Because that’s why he spilled his blood for us, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. He takes us, prostitutes that we were, and cleanses us, washes us, and will bring us spotless to his wedding feast.So then your battle against sin is, as it were, and to switch the metaphor, as though you were a bride preparing for the wedding. For the marriage of the Lamb approaches, and the bride has made herself ready (Rev 19:7). Are you making yourself ready for that day? Prepared as a bride adorned for her husband? This is the grace and glory of our God. He has washed, he has sanctified us, and he continues to do so. May God so help us to see our sins for what they are, and t

PrayerOur Father in heaven, hallowed be your name this day. May your kingdom come, may you reign supreme in the hearts of your people today. May your gracious rule extend mightily in my heart today. May your will be done in the lives and homes of your people, and may you guide me in your ways. Please give to your saints today refreshment, strength, and nourishment from your word. As I read your word now, may you please strengthen and feed my soul for the day ahead. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.ReadingProv 1:10 - “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.”MeditationPlainly put, what we find in this verse is a warning not to consent to the enticements of sinners. Question: what does it mean to consent? We’re talking about compliance here. When we have sinners, godless folk, to be our companions, and the worldly enticement comes, consent means that we understand what they’re offering and then we receive it. It’s to comply with their way of life. It’s to conform with them in what they do, to follow after them. When our workmate gossips and slanders someone, for example, consenting is gossiping and slandering along with them, not defending the reputation of the one who is being slandered. When someone tempts you into an unlawful sexual relationship, consent would be to give in to that temptation. If those around us live lazy and irresponsible lives, consent would be to fall in step with laziness and irresponsibility.Be ye doers of the word…A chief point of application to guard against giving this kind of consent is to firstly be mindful of the kind of company that we keep. To begin with, don’t make close friends with sinners. When it comes to choosing your companions, your life may well hang in the balance on this decision. By all means, treat unbelievers kindly, do good to them, extend hospitality to them, and be friendly. In some relationships, there may be a closeness that develops over some common interest or connection (e.g. with a neighbour, a doctor, etc.). I’m not saying that we ought to be relationally distant, but there is a kind of closeness and intimacy that we ought not to cultivate with them. Having a close, spiritually unguarded relationship with an unbeliever will mean that we are putting ourselves regularly into situations where we may be enticed into godless ways of thinking, speaking, and living. Especially in the context of our passage, our relationships with obviously and flagrantly immoral people must not be such that might lead us into sin. We must be on guard against this.Conversely, we ought also to explicitly seek godly friendships. Just as sinners can lead us astray, so too spiritually mature and godly people can lead us on the right path. What if you don’t have any godly friends? Start by asking God to provide them for you. Secondly, consciously make an effort to develop fellowship and friendships with your fellow believers – especially those whom you can clearly see are serious in their faith and mature and godly in their manner of life. Get close to the people you look up to. Furthermore, read good, spiritual, godly books. Take the puritans to be your friends and mentors. Above all, stay in constant fellowship with Christ. Take him to be your closest friend, because in truth it is he who speaks to us in all these means of grace. Let Christ’s word abide in you, for the words of sinners will take you on a path of death. You will lose your life. The words of Christ will have the opposite effect, they will give life. SDG.Prayer of Confession & Consecration.Lord I do pray that you would forgive me for my sins, and especially that you would forgive me for the sin of letting godless voices have an undue sway and influence over my soul. I pray that you would please forgive me for the times when I have heard and listened to those voices of enticement, and for the grievous sinful consequences that followed. Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgression. Wash away my iniquity, and cleanse me from all my sins. Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, O Lord, and take not your Holy Spirit from me, restore to me the joy of your salvation, and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you, save me from the guilt upon me, Lord, who saves me. And Lord I pray that you would provide wisdom and opportunity for me to invest in godly friendships and relationships also, please provide godly older saints whom I can imitate, and help me to be a good friend to others also. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerO Lord Most High, fountain of all wisdom and grace, I praise you for sending your Son, the Lord Jesus, to lift the lowly and giving grace to the contrite in heart. Teach me to see myself as I truly am—needy, dependent, and upheld only by your mercy. Crush every proud thought that rises against your truth, and clothe me instead with the beauty of Christlike meekness. Let me delight in serving rather than striving, in yielding rather than grasping, in being made low so that you may be exalted. Help me, by your Spirit, to walk in the valley where you dwell, and there find rest for my soul.ReadingGenesis 2:18-25.“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”MeditationMen and women need each other. What we see very clearly in this passage is a profound harmony and interdependence between the sexes. For this reason, there really ought to be a mutual humility for each of us, as men and women. I believe that’s how God designed it to work.He made the woman for the man, and that’s a deeply humbling truth for a woman. Wives, you were made for your husband. That man who lives in your house, God formed you in your mother’s womb for his benefit, to be a helper to him. The idea that the woman was made for the man is not some abstract theological point. It’s a truth that hits home quite literally. It touches your home, your marriage, your everyday life. And I think that’s precisely why the world hates this message today, because it takes real humility to accept it.But this truth works both ways. Yes, the woman was made for the man, but the man needed the woman. Men often like to think they are strong enough to do it all, and do it their own way. But the fact is, Adam wasn’t sufficient for his calling without Eve by his side. That, too, is humbling. He was dependent on the woman. He needed her help. As we see in verse 18, God declares that it is not good for the man to be alone.So, do you see how this works? God built into each sex a dependence on the other. The union of man and woman was designed in such a way that both parties would be appropriately humbled and thankful. Women were made for men, they weren’t called to live for themselves. And men are dependent on women, they can’t live by themselves.Be doers of the word….Don’t fight the battle of the sexes. One of the tragic outcomes of the fall has been the ongoing battle of the sexes. It’s part of the curse, as Genesis 3:16 make clear. This struggle has existed throughout history, and it continues even today. As believers, we must not buy into this mindset. There is no superior sex. Men and women were designed to function in harmony. Each one of us has different roles to play, but both sexes were perfectly made to complement each other and serve God together.Our culture often thrives on pitting the sexes against one another. It’s easy enough to do, men and women do have different strengths and weaknesses. But those strengths and weaknesses were never meant to be used for competition. They were given so that we could work together, each supplying what the other lacks. The church ought to radiate with this kind of harmony. There should be no room, no space at all, for the battle of the sexes within the body of Christ.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationRighteous Father, we confess that as men and women, we have often walked in pride, despising your design, resisting our roles, and seeking to exalt ourselves rather than serve one another. We have acted as if we were our own masters, forgetting that you are the one who formed us, male and female, for your glory and not our own. Forgive us, Lord, and cleanse us from the sin that divides and dishonors. By the power of your Holy Spirit, enable us, with all the saints, to walk in joyful, humble obedience in the roles you have assigned. We pray this that we may reflect the beauty of your wisdom in every place you’ve appointed us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerDear Lord, I thank you and praise you for this new day. In this world with devils filled, which threatens to undo me, I cast myself upon you O Lord. You are my rock, my salvation, my only hope. You are my strength, and you are my Saviour. Rescue me, O Lord, from the mighty waters. Please forgive me for my many sins, and lead me in the way everlasting. Please make me to walk in the way of your commands, and to utterly forsake sin. Deliver me, I pray, from this body of death. My soul looks up to you, please feed me now with the daily food of your word. Give us this day our daily bread, give us Christ. I pray in Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.ReadingProv 1:10 - “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.”MeditationProverbs 1:10 is also a warning against worldly enticements. “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.” First question: What does it mean to entice? For a sinner to entice us means, in the words of Pastor Al Martin, that they attempt to lead us into sin by persuasion or subtlety. It means that they will attempt to attract you into sin by offering the hope of reward or pleasure. Satan in the garden of Eden is the original example of this. God had said: “Do not eat of the tree”. As 1 John teaches us, sin is lawlessness, and so Satan tried to entice her to disobey God. He persuaded her, he used subtlety to hide the danger. He made sin look attractive through deception. When a sinner seeks to entice a believer, it always follows the same Satanic pattern. Sin, which is destructive, is made to look attractive – that’s an enticement.Let me put it this way: enticement is a piece of chocolate mud cake filled with rat poison. We need to be aware of this danger. We live in a world where sinners will try to entice us, and they will not be passive, they will be actively trying to entice us to sin. Solomon knows this, and he warns his son in advance. Expect to face temptations. Be on the look out for them, and especially be aware of the points in your life where you engage with unbelievers.Be ye doers of the word…What times during your week are you engaging with unbelievers? Hold those times in your mind now, then consider this follow up question: Do they tempt me to sin? Do my colleagues lead me in to conversations about things that I shouldn’t talk about? Do my school mates lead me into bullying or lazy behaviour? Do my online conversations draw me into sin? Am I having private text messages with anyone leading me into temptation? Do conversations with my unbelieving neighbour entice me into gossiping?I think that one of the biggest sources of worldly enticement that we face today comes through entertainment media. The movies we watch, the books we read, articles, games, apps, social media contacts, and the list goes on. As a simple word of warning: be careful about what you consume when it comes to entertainment media. Now maybe you don’t see the connection here. Why am I warning you about what to watch when verse ten is talking about sinners enticing us? If we’re watching a movie, we’re not being enticed, we’re just watching a movie, aren’t we? We’re in the privacy of our own home!In response to that objection, we need to realise that face to face contact is not the only form of communication or influence. When we watch or read something, we are communing in a sense with that person. We are being exposed to the way they think and feel about the world. You read a book by the puritans and, in a sense, you’re taking the puritans to be your companions. You watch a tv series written and produced by unbelievers and, in the same way, you’re inviting those people into your mind and heart. Entertainment media is a powerful tool for the world to use to entice us. As we soak up hours of Netflix, it’s having an effect on us, there’s no question about it.But what kind of effect is it having? (I hear you ask). Well let me put it this way: Is it helping you to be godly? Hollywood will entice us if it can, and it does shape culture. So, what kind of entertainment media are you allowing into your life today? How much time in our week is it taking up? Does it pass the Philippians 4:8 test? “...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”Parents, prepare your children for worldly temptations. That’s what Solomon is doing here, and that’s what we are called to do with our own children, grandchildren, and as we engage with the children in the church as well. Here are a few specific directives for preparing our children for worldly temptations. First, keep the lines of communication open. In our verse, the father is talking to the son. We need to talk with our children. Tedd Tripp has some great material on this in his book “Shepherding a Child’s Heart.” I commend it to you. Secondly, disciple them in the use of the means of grace. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Proverbs comes as part of the word of God, and the word is necessary for spiritual development. We must lead our children in family worship, personal devotion, and train them in the diligent use of the public means of grace. Third, use the book of proverbs regularly in discipling children. This book has a special place in the instruction of the young, we ought not to neglect it. Fourth, instruct them to avoid making close friends of sinners. If nothing else, that much is very plain in this passage. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationAlmighty God, you are worthy to be exalted and glorified. Please forgive me for following after the world’s enticements. On many an occasion, I have simply allowed myself to be led into sinful patterns of thought, speech, and behaviour. Lord God, please forgive me for defiling my own heart, wash me and cleanse me I pray through the blood of the Lord Jesus. And Lord, as I repent, please help me to abide in your word day and night inconstant meditation and thanksgiving. Thank you for your tender loving mercies. Thank you that you have us grace upon grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. I commit my soul into your care, I commit this day unto you, and I ask for your leading and guidance. I pray that you would help me always to see worldly enticements for what they are, and that I would no longer give my consent again. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerAll praise to you this day, O Lord my God. I praise you for preserving me through the night, and I praise you for new life and mercies this morning. Please be merciful to me, Lord. Without your word, my soul will perish. Even this morning, I feel my soul is famished and needy. Have mercy on me, O Lord, and give me life according to your word. Please unite my heart to fear your name, please give me a heart of wisdom. May your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, this day and always. Amen.ReadingProv 1:10 - “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.”MeditationProverbs 1:10 brings to us what can sometimes be an uncomfortable truth: parents must be prepared to be unpopular at times with their children. And children must be prepared to hear some things that that may not want to hear. “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.” The fact of the matter is, this warning would not be necessary if it did not have the potential to be tempting or desirable on some level. When a young person falls in with the wrong crowd, that influence can have a powerful pulling effect. It can come with the desire to follow them, to do as they do.Young people in our day face this most obviously in the school yard, and we need to be clear: the school yard can be a very spiritually dangerous place to be when we are impressionable young people. I know personally of scores of kids who were dragged away from church and into the world under the influence of their unbelieving school friends. I watched it happen with over half the kids in my youth group growing up. I watched them get invited to parties and take up drinking – it was a Proverbs 1:10-19 scenario. They fell in with the wrong crowd and they turned away from God.Be ye doers of the word…Parents, think carefully, and – if necessary – be prepared to make unpopular decisions sometimes. I think it was about year nine, a well-known punk rock band had come to my town to play. I desperately wanted to go. I will be forever thankful that my dad, knowing what kind of event it would be, and what sort of reputation the venue had, firmly said no. He didn’t often give me a firm no, but on this occasion he did. I was really upset at the time, but I’m entirely grateful now. When our children are young, we must guard what we expose them to and when. Think carefully about the age when you’re going to let them have a phone, and what boundaries will be in place when you do. Think carefully about how you’re going to let them use that phone. We must be wary of sinners and the influence that they can have on our lives.If I can speak directly to any young people and children who may be reading: be careful who you take as friends. Better to be unpopular at school and follow Christ, than to be popular and forsake him. Better to say no when the crowd tempts you to say yes to do something sinful. The pathway to destruction is broad and easy, and many are walking on it. Turn instead to Christ and follow him. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationDear Lord, thank you for your preserving grace. Thank you for the many times you have preserved me from doing what is wrong. Please help me to truly see the great danger of disobeying you, and to be fearful of being enticed into disobedience. Lord, please help me to stand firm upon your word at all times, obeying you entirely in all things. My flesh is weak, Lord, and my sinful desires are constantly waging war within my heart. Please forgive me for my sins, please forgive me for the occasions I have given in to sinful enticements and followed in the footsteps of the world. Help me instead to be enticed to worship by your beauty, and to desire you only of all things in the earth. I pray especially for discernment and wisdom in how I choose to engage with media and the online environment. Thank you for leading and guiding me contrary to where my natural, sinful desires would otherwise have taken me. Please guide and lead me in your ways always, in Jesus’ name, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerOur Father in Heaven, as we praise you for a new day of life, and thank you for your word which gives life to our souls, we ask you that you would plant your word deep in our hearts as we read and study now. Please make it to take root within us, and bear fruit in our lives. Please make our feet walk in your commands, and turn our eyes from worthless things. Let your truth be our delight, more precious than silver, sweeter than honey. Teach us to love your statutes, and to live them with joy for your glory. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.ReadingGenesis 2:18-25.“Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19. Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. 25. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”MeditationThe woman was not only from the man, not only equal in dignity, but she was also made to be like the man. She was suitable for him, a fitting helper, designed to complement him. She didn’t have wings like a bird or claws like a cat, she wasn’t some foreign creature. She was, in many ways, just like him. She could think, speak, and reason. She had hands and feet, legs and arms. She felt emotion. Her face was like his (only it was beautiful!). This is what Genesis 2:18 means when God says he would make a helper fit for him. The word means suitable — someone who corresponded to him.Man couldn’t talk with his dog. He couldn’t share his life with the animals. But he could talk with the woman. He could relate to her and share himself with her because she was like him. And that is exactly what he needed: someone made in the image of God, someone he could know and love. So God made the woman, his perfect complement in every way. And again, we should notice that God did not create men and women to compete with one another. He created them to complement one another, to suit one another. She was made for the man, and she was made like the man.This is very important for us to realise – the woman gave companionship to the man. Genesis 2:18 begins with these words: "It is not good for the man to be alone." When Adam was in the garden by himself, he was not complete. He could not fulfill his calling. So when we say the woman was created for the man, we do not mean she was just an added bonus to his life. She was not a convenient extra thrown into the picture. She was essential.Be doers of the word….I want to write, for a moment, directly to those of my readers who are women in the household of God. Women of the church, you are essential. You are not meaningless or purposeless. You have a calling from God on your life. He made you as women for a reason. And now let me say this — something that applies to all of us, but in this context applies first to women. Ladies, hear this: you are not here for yourself. God did not make you for you. He also did not make men for themselves. If there is one thing we should have begun to understand by now in this series of studies, it is this: God made us all, men and women, for Christ. As one preacher put it: “He for God, and she for God through him.”And ladies, to apply this more particularly, God made you for men. That is his design. Yes, men love to spend time with other men. They need fathers and brothers and strong male friendships. But there is a fundamental need in the heart of a man that only a woman can meet. Speaking again to the women: only you can meet that need.This applies first and foremost in the context of marriage. It applies most directly to wives. Wives, your husband needs you. He cannot get by without you. Have you ever thought about that? As you walk in wisdom and godliness, you are an indispensable help to your husband. God gave you to him for the specific purpose of helping him. And husbands, we need our wives. We neglect them to our own hurt. She is flesh of our flesh.Now I know not everyone reading this is married. So how does this truth apply to the unmarried?First, if you are single, consider marriage seriously. Do not simply assume it is not for you. Be open to it. Be prayerful about the possibility of marriage. Especially to the men I say: consider pursuing marriage. Prepare yourself for it. Be marriageable — become the kind of person who would make a godly husband or wife. Even if you do not marry, growing in that kind of character will be a blessing to others.Maybe you are someone who wants to marry but have not yet found a spouse. If that is you, let me say this: remember, this is in God’s timing. Lay your desires before him. Cast your cares on the Lord, for he cares for you. Be proactive, especially men. And also pursue contentment. That is so important. Do not turn the desire for a spouse into an idol.And for all of us, whether married or single, we must keep the bigger picture in mind. Marriage is the shadow; Christ is the reality. Marriage, as it now exists, will one day give way to the eternal wedding between Christ and His church. In that light, we remember that whether married or single, we each have a far greater calling — to be devoted to Christ. Masculinity is Christ-centered. Femininity is Christ-centered. So if you are married, glorify and serve Christ in your marriage. And if you are single, glorify and serve Christ with all your heart.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationMerciful Father, we confess that we have often we resisted your design, seeking independence where you have called us to love and serve one another. We have treated your order lightly, neglecting the beauty of our roles and the gift of complementarity between the sexes in your creation. Forgive us for our pride, our selfishness, and for every way we have twisted your purpose to fit our desires. Cleanse us, O Lord, and renew in us a heart that rejoices in your wisdom. Teach us to walk humbly in the places you have assigned, to honor one another in love, and to reflect the glory of Christ in our homes and in our lives. Strengthen men to lead with humility, to serve with courage, and to love as Christ loves the church; strengthen women to build with wisdom, to nurture their families with grace, and to walk in the beauty of holiness as women of God. Make us faithful stewards of your truth, obedient to your Word, and eager to live for your name. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe

PrayerAlmighty God, my loving Heavenly Father, all praise be to you this day. I call upon your name this morning, I seek your face. Send out your light and your truth let them lead me. Thank you, Lord, that although I was once hostile toward you and alienated from you, you have reconciled me through the death of your dear Son, the Lord Jesus. Please sanctify me now in your word of truth, in order to present me holy and blameless before you, above reproach. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, purify my heart, my mind, and my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.ReadingProv 1:10 - “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.”MeditationThe warning of Proverbs 1:10 is very specific. It’s a warning against sinners. We’ve seen that this is a loving, authoritative warning from a father to a son, but now we ask: What is he warning his son against? “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.” The answer is very plain: he’s warning his son against sinners.Question: Who are sinners? In relation to the book of Proverbs, sinners could be described as people who are devoid of the fear of God. These are the sort of people who live their lives without reference to God. They do not revere him and they do not obey him. Looking back from the vantage of the cross to this verse, we can say that sinners are those who are defined by their sinful lives. They are people who are defined, not by belief in Christ, but by the fact that they remain in a condition of unbelief and alienation from God. That’s what a sinner is. Christians sin, but we are not sinners in this sense, we are Christians and reconciled to God (Col 1:22). Who we now are is defined by who we are in Christ. For sinners, they are defined by the fact that they remain in an unbelieving, fallen condition.Be ye doers of the word…Here, then, is the first plain implication of our verse: be wary of unbelievers. I’m not saying don’t be kind to unbelievers, nor am I saying don’t do good to them. To the contrary, we ought to love our enemies. What I am saying is: be wary of them. When unbelievers come into close contact with your life, that is a time to be on the alert, because there is potentially spiritual danger nearby.To apply this, you could start with this question: When in my life do I come into contact with sinners? Is it with my colleagues at work? Is it at drinks on Friday afternoon? Is it online when I’m gaming? Is it my hairdresser? Do I have a close relationship with unbelieving family members? Maybe it’s an old school friend. Maybe it’s your psychologist. Now – again – please don’t hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying cut yourself off from these people, what I am saying is be aware of the influence that they are having on you. And especially be wary of inviting them in to your life as close companions.We are especially vulnerable to this kind of emphasis when we are young. One of the basic premises of Proverbs is that it is in fact dangerous to be young. Now you might think I’m being a bit sensationalist in saying that, but the text bears it out. We are all impressionable, but one of the key insights of this passage is that young people are especially impressionable. Remember – this is a father talking to his son. The Book of Proverbs is especially geared toward the youth, and so this passage is likewise especially applicable to the young. So while we are all influenced by our peers, the years of our youth are the time when we are most susceptible to this.If you’re a young person (or spiritually young), let me urge you: be careful of which friends you choose. More specifically: be careful not to make close companions of people who do not love and follow Christ. Many have been ruined for doing just that. Again, I’m not saying don’t be kind to unbelievers, I’m not saying don’t do good to them, but I am saying don’t make close and intimate companions of them. If they do not fear God, any close friendship with them is bound to influence you to some extent in that direction.This comes as a word to parents as well: keep a close watch on the friends that your children make. I think in today’s world, the warning here primarily applies in our schools, that’s where kids make their friends most these days, it’s where they spend most of their time. The warning is positively blaring if your child is in a public school particularly. I went through public school myself in the 1990s and 2000s, and while plenty of Christian schools have their problems (and in the words of one friend of mine – even if you home educate – there are dragons at home that you’ve got to watch out for), public schools especially are an environment where young people are constantly surrounded by unbelievers and godless teaching. When you’re in that environment as a young person, speaking from experience, you constantly feel the pull and temptation to fall in step with how the unbelievers around you speak and act. I presume that the corruption has intensified since I was in school.I can remember being in High School, and the urge to fit in and have friends dominated my life in years eight and nine. I’m not proud to admit it, but for those couple of years in High School I took up swearing and filthy language just to fit in. I developed an interest in punk rock music with the kind of lyrics that I now wish I could forget. My companions at school – who weren’t even what you would call the bad kids (thanks be to God) – sometimes pulled out pornography in the lunch hour. That was not beneficial for me. I presume it’s even easier today when every kid has a phone and easy access to the internet.Now I’m not saying remove your kids or yourself from the world (though it may be best to remove them from public schools), part of Solomon’s warning here is the recognition that that can’t be done. There are going be sinners and they’re going to try and entice you. Solomon is not naive, he knows that this is a likely scenario. So while we can’t necessarily remove our kids from the world, we should avoid obvious danger. And we should instruct them and teach them to avoid that danger themselves when they see it. That’s what verse ten is saying, don’t follow after sinners. If you’re ever in a position where you’re exposed to falling in step with their way of life, get out of there. SDG.Prayer of Confession & ConsecrationLord, I thank you for rescuing me from the corrupting influence of the fallen world all around us. I thank you that although I was devoted member of the world, loving sin and hating you, you brought me out of the kingdom of darkness and into your marvellous life. I pray, Lord, for forgiveness for the times that I have allowed the world to entice my heart into sinful ways of living. I pray for your mercies and forgiveness for the influence and enticement I have allowed entertainment media to have upon my soul. Please forgive me for my sins, and help me to be wholly devoted to you, meditating upon your word day and night. This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen. Get full access to Old things New. at rcbhpastor.substack.com/subscribe