You are no doubt well into your study of Ecclesiastes 5 this week. My email was a little delayed by a small error this week. I was filling up our steam boiler slowly, just as Jim Boyd had instructed, so I wouldn't crack the hot boiler with liquid ice. I busied myself while I waited, running this way and that, and I forgot about the boiler merrily filling itself. And the pipe system in the basement. And the radiators on the first floor. And the vertical pipes up to the second floor. And the radiators on the second floor.
When the system was nicely full with mains-pressure water, the weakest links in the system provided a most beautiful multi-room fountain display, perhaps rivaling Solomon's water works mentioned in chapter 2. Maybe not.
So that was my study of madness and folly (1:17) this week. With much water comes much sorrow.
This week's study continues on through the proverbs, with one unique diversion. The 'son of David' has quite a lot to say about vows and oaths. Interesting. I can't say I understand why 'declaring something' and 'declaring something in an oath to God' makes any difference. Either we mean what we say, or we don't.
This time last year I had dinner in London with a witness who was to testify in court the next day. He ran through his planned testimony with the lawyers, and then testified totally differently under oath the next day. What made the difference? The oath?
I think about the marriage vow. Would I treat my vow to Angela any differently if it had been solemnly declared to her alone, instead of before an ordained minister and onlooking family and friends? I think of Robin and Patti Graham in their fascinating first book, Dove.
"... as I put [her ring] on again I said, "Patti, I don't know the words of the marriage ceremony. I just know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. There now; from this day we are man and wife.
It was as simple as that."
It is seldom as simple as that. Societies the world around have developed elaborate religious/administrative systems for solemnizing statements by one human to another. Why?
Study guide attached, albeit belatedly. Just wring the water out of it before you start reading.
When the system was nicely full with mains-pressure water, the weakest links in the system provided a most beautiful multi-room fountain display, perhaps rivaling Solomon's water works mentioned in chapter 2. Maybe not.
So that was my study of madness and folly (1:17) this week. With much water comes much sorrow.
This week's study continues on through the proverbs, with one unique diversion. The 'son of David' has quite a lot to say about vows and oaths. Interesting. I can't say I understand why 'declaring something' and 'declaring something in an oath to God' makes any difference. Either we mean what we say, or we don't.
This time last year I had dinner in London with a witness who was to testify in court the next day. He ran through his planned testimony with the lawyers, and then testified totally differently under oath the next day. What made the difference? The oath?
I think about the marriage vow. Would I treat my vow to Angela any differently if it had been solemnly declared to her alone, instead of before an ordained minister and onlooking family and friends? I think of Robin and Patti Graham in their fascinating first book, Dove.
"... as I put [her ring] on again I said, "Patti, I don't know the words of the marriage ceremony. I just know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. There now; from this day we are man and wife.
It was as simple as that."
It is seldom as simple as that. Societies the world around have developed elaborate religious/administrative systems for solemnizing statements by one human to another. Why?
Study guide attached, albeit belatedly. Just wring the water out of it before you start reading.
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