Family Worship- Ecclessiastes 12:11-12
Family Worship Liturgy:
Read and Sing Psalm 19 from Trinity Psalter (Tune: Columbia)
Questions to discuss based on Ecclesiastes 12:11-12:
Why is the making of many books so physically/spiritually exhausting?
How does knowing the wisdom of God, i.e. Christ rescue us from man-ufacturing our own salvation?
Father: Dear child, why are laws ultimately not satisfying to our human hearts?
Child: Because the making of laws requires the making of many more laws, and many laws can overwhelm and constrict us.
Mother: are laws bad then?
Child: No, laws show and reflect to us our sins, and make us desire Christ!
Father: Dear child, who is this Christ?
Child: The Christ is the true wisdom of God!
Mother: Where do the holy and inspired scriptures teach this?
Father: Dear child, please read the scriptures:
Child: I Corinthians 1:23-24: “For Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks ask for wisdom, but we preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Colossians 2:2-3: “My goal is that your hearts, having been knit together in love, may be encouraged and that you may have all the riches that assurance brings in their understanding of the knowledge of the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Mother: What does the wisdom of God, that is Christ Jesus, give us?
Child: I Corinthians 1:30 says that Christ is for us our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
1. Jesus here is referring to the Talmud, the expansive 5th-century BC Jewish rulebook written by Rabbinic Judaism. The Talmud has 2,711 laws for determining every possible scenario for Jewish life and religious practice. Just thinking about that many is overwhelming! How many American laws can you know at any given time when we can’t even remember 1 password for our email?
2. During the “intertestamental” period, commonly known as the time between the Old and New Testament, the Jewish religious leaders created the Talmud. Their purpose was to “hedge” the Law in order not to break the Law of God. Their piety got them into trouble like Eve hedging the Law of God in Genesis 3:3b when she said “Neither shall you touch it.” The command from God was only to eat it. Eve did not send humanity into sin by hedging the Law, whereas the religious leaders forgot their ultimate goal of worshiping God with all their hearts.
“The four-fold repetition in Hebrew of the word we translate ‘all’ in 12:13-14 suggests that the Preacher is emphasizing the ‘bottom line,’ that is, that the basic duty of man is simply to fear and obey God” See D. Barthélemy, ed., Preliminary and Interim Report on the Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, 3:596.
