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Lev. 19
“You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your God; I am the LORD.” (Lev. 19:14). That tells me a couple of things. First, it tells me that what we do, even when those we do it to are unaware, matters. I find further support for this in verse 17. “You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.” Our fellow countryman may not know what’s in our heart, but God surly does. Nothing is done in secret before God.
Which brings me to the second thing this tells me. Our sins are not so much against others as they are against God. Even King David acknowledged in his sin concerning Bathsheba and Uriah, “Against You, You only, I have sinned” (Ps. 51:4a). We are to love others, not because of them, but because of God. So when we fail to do that, it doesn’t matter whether or not they know. God knows, and it is He whom we have disobeyed.
Ps. 23=24
David was a shepherd, yet he acknowledged God as his shepherd. He was a king, yet acknowledged God as his king. Whatever authority we have over others, God has over us. Our authority is not our own; it neither starts nor stops with us. David recognized this and, overall, lived by it. Even Jesus in His human form, though He was also fully God, recognized and lived by this truth. We would be wise to follow suit.
Ecc. 2
People chase after happiness as if it is life’s purpose, believing they will find fulfillment in it. There is actually nothing wrong with happiness but, like money, it makes a terrible master. Furthermore, people misunderstand what it is and how to find it. I like the old saying, “Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.” (Quote attributed to Henry David Thoreau). The Preacher discovered this to be true in his pursuit of pleasure. He held nothing back, but went after and got whatever he thought would make him happy. In the end, he found that it all lacked substance.
I couldn’t help but notice something in the Preacher’s pursuits, however, that I believe is the key to our misunderstandings about happiness. Six times in the first eleven verses I read the phrase, “for myself.” You see, we think happiness comes from satisfying self. The problem is that self is never satisfied. We can fill it up with every good thing, as the Preacher did, and find that it remains empty. Furthermore, the preacher realized that we can’t keep what we have. Eventually, it goes to someone who did not work for it and likely does not care about it.
So what is happiness, where does it come from, and how do we get it? The Preacher tells us the starting point. “For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without [God]?” (Ecc. 2:25). Enjoyment, pleasure, happiness – they all come from God. Thus, we obtain them by obeying Him. And He tells us to set self aside and love others. That’s where true happiness lies. When we stop trying to fill ourselves up and instead become open conduits of God’s character flowing out to others, that deep satisfaction we long for settles on us. When we trust in God rather than self, genuine contentment fills our lives. And when we let go of what we can’t keep anyway, learning to freely give, we store up treasures with real substance to keep for all eternity.