Lesson for October 7, 2020
Knowing the Bible
Lesson 20
The Book of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon
The term poetical is assigned to these books and refers to their form only. The Hebrew poetic form is not achieved by repetition of similar sounds, but by repetition of ideas. These ideas can be identical, in contrast, or when the thought is developed further.
The book of Job is a dramatic poem, which was written before the giving of the Law of Moses and is probably the oldest book in the Bible. The theme of the book of Job is, “why do the godly suffer?” The story of Job is well-known by most of us and tells of a man who was a faithful believer. Satan accused Job of being faithful because God had prospered him, which we will see was not the reason. As a test, and to prove Satan wrong, God allowed Satan to take everything that Job had and loved including his family and his health. Job’s wife encouraged him to curse God and die, but Job remained faithful and refused to curse God.
When Job’s three friends heard the news of Job’s misfortune, they assumed it was because of some sin Job had committed. The book of Job contains the individual discourses of each of Job’s friends and a discourse from God. Each friend represents a different human viewpoint regarding Job’s testing. Eliphaz was the first to speak and set himself up as the authority on why human beings suffer and dogmatically declared that Job was suffering because of some secret sin against God. Bildad spoke second in religious platitudes that he believed set him apart as the authority on suffering. However, Bildad was superficial and depended on tradition, using pious phrases to explain Job’s suffering. Zophar was the last friend to speak and assumed to know all about God, what He will do in any given situation, why He did it and all His thoughts about it. Void of reason, Zophar was the most arrogant of the three. All three were wrong and lacked the true understanding of why believers sometimes suffer.
Suffering for the believer can be either deserved or undeserved. Discipline from God is deserved suffering, but testing from God is undeserved suffering. Both can be blessings if the believer responds to the suffering in the proper way. In order to orient to suffering, the believer must exhibit the same mental attitude that Jesus Christ exhibited when He suffered in His humanity. What was His attitude? Peace, joy, stability, single-mindedness, humility and obedience to the plan of God. (Isaiah 26:3-4; Hebrews 12:2; II Timothy 1:7; II Corinthians 13:11; II Corinthians 10:5-6; Philippians 2:5-8)
The book of Psalms (150 chapters) forms the Psalter, which was the hymnbook of the Temple. The majority of the Psalms were set to music and accompanied by instruments and were used by the Temple choir. Psalms gives us a glimpse of the devotional spiritual life of the psalmist (David). The Psalms were greatly loved by Jesus and His apostles and they quoted them regularly. (Acts 1:16, 20; James 5:13; Luke 20:42-44)
During the Church Age, God, in His grace, has set up certain protocols that must be strictly adhered to if a believer is to advance in his spiritual life. Random intake of Bible doctrine will not accomplish the goal. If a believer is to properly execute God’s protocol plan, he must be consistent with his intake and application of Bible doctrine. Believers receive all the necessary tools for the fulfillment of the Protocol Plan of God. The objective for a believer should be to reach the status of spiritual maturity. Only by residing in God’s system under the control of the Holy Spirit can the believer reach this status.
God’s policy for dealing with mankind is always His grace. This grace begins with providing salvation through Jesus Christ. Since Christ paid the penalty for the sin of the entire human race, anyone can have eternal life and be saved from eternal separation from God. All that God requires is a simple act of faith in Jesus Christ (apart from any human merit). This simply means that you are relying (trusting) upon Jesus Christ for eternal life and not on your good works or anything else. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
After salvation, God’s policy continues to be grace. Only by orienting to His grace can a believer execute the Protocol Plan of God. The Christian Way of Life was not designed to be a life of human good works performed as a means of gaining the approbation of God. The Christian Way of Life is a life of thinking divine viewpoint and the divine production that results. Divine production can be visible or invisible. (Titus 2:12)
The book of Proverbs was compiled by Solomon and some were perhaps his personal writings. In this book we see Solomon’s wisdom in dealing with everyday life. Even though Solomon was gifted with great wisdom by God, he did not always use that wisdom in a wise manner. The object of Proverbs is to inspire a reverence for God, a referential trust for His commandments, a love for God’s wisdom and a desire to possess and use it.
Wisdom is the proper application of Bible doctrine. A lifestyle of wisdom emphasizes relationship with God before relationship with people. Often the trend in Christianity is to emphasize the believer’s experience with people as taking precedence over the believer’s experience and relationship with God. This erroneous emphasis results in the idea that if you’re right in your relationships with people, you’re right in your relationship with God.
A lifestyle of wisdom is the winner portion of the Protocol Plan of God. God is perfect; His protocol plan is perfect. God’s protocol plan was designed to be lived inside your very own palace, the Divine Dynasphere, designed for you by God the Father in eternity past. This result of living in the Divine Dynasphere is the elimination of opposition to God’s plan in your life. Either a believer will reside, function, and continue his advance in God’s power system or he will eventually become a loser through residence in Satan’s cosmic system, with results such as apostasy, reversionism, moral or immoral degeneracy. Becoming a loser as a Christian is a contradiction to the Protocol Plan of God, and therefore a contradiction to a lifestyle of wisdom.
A lifestyle of wisdom means you can define the principles of Christianity and relate them to your life on a daily basis. The Protocol Plan of God has its own technical vocabulary and its own language. Through the consistent learning and metabolization of Bible doctrine a believer will master technical, theological language. This means a believer’s #1 priority should be perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine. You learn and apply doctrine in your relationship with God, with yourself, with others and to the circumstances around you. This means understanding your Portfolio of Invisible Assets. Each of us has equal privilege and equal opportunity to have a lifestyle of wisdom. You must understand when you are failing and when you are succeeding by looking into the mirror of the Word of God. A new believer has no spiritual language, no spiritual vocabulary, and no knowledge about God or His plan. Therefore, it is necessary to be consistent in studying, learning and applying Bible doctrine.
A lifestyle of wisdom cannot be executed through human viewpoint thinking, human counseling, or the influence of another person. As royal priests we are designed to operate on our own, spiritually. A lifestyle of wisdom is designed for us to utilize the resources in our souls from Bible doctrine to meet and handle problems and enjoy the greater blessings of life that God has planned for us in 2021.
The book of Ecclesiastes was written by Solomon. The meaning of the word Ecclesiastes is preacher. The theme of the book is the inability of man to find happiness apart from God. Solomon concluded that all in life without God is vanity. Human pleasure, worldly pursuits and human wisdom cannot bring a person lasting happiness is the conclusion of Solomon in this book. Who better to speak to this subject than Solomon? He was one of the wealthiest men of his time and had all the worldly possessions and power a human being was capable of having in this life. Yet Solomon’s conclusion was that his life was nothing without God.
Sharing the happiness of God is having permanent contentment as your constant companion. This happiness is permanent because it does not depend on the circumstances in your life. It is actually God’s own perfect happiness that He shares with the advancing believer as a grace gift. Sharing God’s happiness is obtained only by consistently learning, believing and applying the Word of God over a period of time. The more time you log under the power and control of God the Holy Spirit and thinking Divine viewpoint, the happier you are going to be. Therefore, sharing the happiness of God is not for the novice believer. It is impossible to share in something that you know nothing about. Being happy is one of the many spiritual blessings that comes with increased capacity. Increased capacity to receive God’s blessing of happiness comes only by the study and the application of Bible doctrine. (Jeremiah 15:16; John 13:17)
The Song of Solomon deals with the relationship between a bridegroom and his bride and has been seen by many as an analogy of Christ and His bride (the Church). This book was rejected as part of the canon of Scripture by some who thought it too sensual. The truth is that the Song of Solomon is an expression of true martial love between a man and a woman as ordained by God. The book can be divided into six parts: 1) the loving communion of a bride and a bridegroom 2) a lapse and restoration 3) the joy of communion between the two 4) the bridegroom unsatisfied and seeking others 5) the bride seeking to find the straying bridegroom 6) restoration and unbroken communion.
During the Church Age, God is forming a bride for the Bridegroom (Jesus Christ). It is the body of Christ (the Church) that will become the “Bride of Christ” in the eternal state. This analogy refers to the fact that we are uniquely united to Christ at salvation. We are placed into union with Him in the same manner as a bride and a bridegroom “become one” in marriage. (I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 5:23-32; Revelation 21:9) As the Bride of Christ, we will participate in the marriage feast, which will be a time of joy and celebration. As the Bride of Christ, Church Age believers will be “dressed in fine white linen,” which is a reference to God’s righteousness. (Revelation 19:7-9)