Notes: Proverbs 16:9 (cont'd) To Ecclesiastes 11:4

(Re: Means that there is no free will?)

Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 19:21, and Proverbs 20:24 are not contradicting that we have free will and so can wrongly make and perform plans against the counsel (advice) of God. For if we could not do that, then we could not sin. For God never counsels (advises) us to commit sin. Neither do these verses mean that no matter what we plan to do, God has us in His grip like macabre meat puppets, mere marionettes who have no control over ourselves, and no idea where God will make us to step next as He pulls on our strings. For then when we took a sinful step, we could blame it on God. But the truth is that God never makes us sin; He never even tempts us to sin (James 1:13-15). Instead, Proverbs 16:9, Proverbs 19:21, and Proverbs 20:24 mean that while we can make plans to do things, it is only by following God's infallible counsel in the Bible regarding how we are to behave (2 Timothy 3:16 to 4:4) that we fallible humans can know the best way forward, in order for our lives to be on firm ground spiritually, and so that we can avoid fulfilling Proverbs 14:12 (cf. also Matthew 7:26).

Also, not even Proverbs 21:1 takes away free will. For the imagery in the latter half of the verse is of God digging channels to direct water in directions that He wants it to go. But the water will still follow its own will in the sense that it will travel downhill and take the most direct path that it can. So God can have kings make certain decisions that He wants them to make, not by taking away their free will, but by arranging the situation around them so that they will decide what seems best to them in that situation, and so will end up deciding the way that God wants them to. Also, Proverbs 21:1 may apply only to rare situations when a certain decision by a king is crucial for the fulfillment of God's overall plan for that king's kingdom (e.g. 1 Kings 12:15). Nothing requires that Proverbs 21:1 means that every decision made by a king must have been led on by God's miraculous arranging of the situation around the king.

(See also section 3 of Mark 13:32 below)

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*Proverbs 17:11 / *Prov. 17:11 -

The original Hebrew word (mal'ak: H4397) translated as "messenger" can mean "angel" (Psalms 78:49).

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*Proverbs 17:26 / *Prov. 17:26 -

The original Hebrew word (yosher: H3476) translated as "equity" can mean "uprightness" (Proverbs 14:2).

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*Proverbs 19:21 / *Prov. 19:21 -

(Re: Means that there is no free will?)

See section 2 of Proverbs 16:9 above.

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*Proverbs 20:24 / *Prov. 20:24 -

(Re: Means that there is no free will?)

See section 2 of Proverbs 16:9 above.

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*Proverbs 21:1 / *Prov. 21:1 -

(Re: Means that there is no free will?)

See paragraph 2 of section 2 of Proverbs 16:9 above.

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*Proverbs 21:28 / *Prov. 21:28 -

The original Hebrew word (netsach: H5331) translated as "constantly" can mean "for evermore" (Psalms 16:11), contrasted with the false witness perishing.

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*Proverbs 25:20 / *Prov. 25:20 -

The original Hebrew word (nether: H5427) translated as "nitre", like the English word "nitre", or "niter", refers to a substance which hisses and foams when vinegar is poured on it.

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*Proverbs 26:2 / *Prov. 26:2 -

(A curse causeless)

God sometimes allows exceptions to Proverbs 26:2. For God the Father allowed Jesus Christ to be cursed (Galatians 3:13b), despite Jesus being completely innocent (Hebrews 4:15b). And God allowed Job to suffer at the hands of Satan, despite Job being righteous in God's eyes (Job chapters 1-2). And God allowed the first century AD church in Smyrna to suffer at the hands of Satan (Revelation 2:10), despite its being righteous in God's eyes (Revelation 2:9). And God will allow the obedient people in the Church (not in hiding) in every nation to suffer at the hands of Satan (the dragon) and the Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") during the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24 (Revelation 12:9,17, Revelation 13:7-10, Revelation 20:4-6, Matthew 24:9-13). But the obedient people in the Church who will die during that time will end up being blessed, not cursed (Revelation 14:12-13).

(See also the first entry under Job above. And see Matthew 24:31 below)

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(Re: But does not God have to ask our *permission to allow suffering to come to us, or else it would bring His character into disrepute?)

No. And that is a dangerous idea, for it could lead some Christians to reject God (cf. Isaiah 8:21-22) as unjust during their suffering in the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24. Indeed, that idea is used by atheists to try to bring God's character into disrepute for God's not asking Job's permission to let Satan torment him (Job chapters 1-2), or for not asking the Jews' permission to let the Holocaust happen. God also did not ask the righteous, first century AD church in Smyrna's permission to let Satan torment and kill it (Revelation 2:10). And God will not ask the righteous Church in every nation's permission to let Satan (the dragon) and the Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") kill people in the Church (not in hiding) during the future Tribulation (Revelation 12:9,17, Revelation 13:7-10, Revelation 14:12-13, Revelation 20:4-6, Matthew 24:9-13).

God has no obligation to ask anyone's permission before He permits or does anything. For He is the sovereign Creator (Daniel 4:35, Romans 9:20, Isaiah 40:17, Psalms 115:3). Indeed, He is so sovereign as the Creator that He has the right to create only some people to be His elect (His chosen, whom He saves), while creating other people to be the nonelect, without giving them any choice in the matter (Romans 9:11-22).

(See Romans 9:11 below)

God not offering a choice beforehand brings His character into disrepute only in the eyes of those who want to reject what the Bible shows, in order to follow their own, man-made (or even Satanic) ideas of what is right (cf. 2 Timothy 4:3-4; 1 Timothy 4:1).

~

(Re: The idea of God having to ask us permission can be confirmed only from above)

Note that it will never be truly confirmed from above to anyone (no matter what anyone may imagine: Jeremiah 23:28), for it is not in accord with the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16 to 4:4).

~

(Re: Is not universal subjugation of the whole world by the future Antichrist different than individual subjugation, given the obligations of public justice?)

No. And note that we need to be interested only in divine justice (what is shown in the Bible), which does not require that the sovereign God give people a choice before they enter even universal subjugation.

~

(Re: Is not divine government not asking our permission akin to the Antichrist government to come, which it is totally at odds with?)

Yes, but only as light is totally at odds with darkness, despite them both "subjugating" the whole world every day and night, without asking anyone's permission.

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*Proverbs 28:26a / *Prov. 28:26a -

Obedient Christians do not trust in their own hearts, for they know that apart from Jesus Christ their hearts are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), and cannot do any good work (Romans 3:12, John 15:5b).

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*Proverbs 29:18 / *Prov. 29:18 -

The original Hebrew word (chazown: H2377) translated as "vision" can mean a revelation, oracle, or prophecy (Isaiah 1:1, Daniel 1:17b, Micah 3:6).

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*Proverbs 29:24 / *Prov. 29:24 -

The original Hebrew word (shama`: H8085) translated as "heareth" can mean "obey" (Jeremiah 7:23).

The Hebrew word ('alah: H0423) translated as "cursing" can mean an "oath" between people (Ezekiel 17:16). (Note also the similarity of the pronunciation of 'alah -- aw-law' -- with the name of the Islamic god.)

The Hebrew word (nagad: H5046) translated as "bewrayeth" can mean "exposes", in the sense of "reporting" something (Jeremiah 20:10).

So Proverbs 29:24 can be referring to someone who makes an oath, forms a partnership, with thieves, not to expose their crimes. This in itself would be the crime of conspiracy, if one plans to act along with the thieves. Or, it in itself would be the crime of misprision, even if one does not plan to act along with the thieves, so long as the thefts were felonious.

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*Proverbs 30:6 / *Prov. 30:6 -

This is not contradicting that we can say things not expressly stated by the Bible. For otherwise all we could do is speak to each other with Bible quotes. Instead, Proverbs 30:6 means that we cannot add to the Bible in the sense of quoting or publishing any part of it with our own additions made to appear as if they were part of the original, divinely-inspired text (2 Timothy 3:16).

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*Proverbs 30:31 / *Prov. 30:31 -

The greyhound as a breed of dog was known to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, and so it could have existed when Proverbs 30 was written, possibly as early as 1,000 BC. The greyhound is known not only for its speed, but also for its unsurpassed elegance and grace among dog breeds. The original Hebrew words (zarziyr: H2223; and mothen: H4975) translated in Proverbs 30:31 as the "greyhound" can literally mean the "tight-waist", and so might refer instead to the cheetah, which is the fastest of all runners (it can reach 70 mph/120 kph for short bursts). The cheetah could have been known to Agur, the writer of Proverbs 30, even if he lived in ancient Israel. For animals native to India and Africa were brought into ancient Israel as curiosities (2 Chronicles 9:21c). Wild cheetahs existed in India from ancient times, until they were exterminated in the 1950s. They still exist in Africa, but their numbers are waning. May God help them.

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*Proverbs 30:33 / *Prov. 30:33 -

The original Hebrew word (miyts: H4330) translated as "forcing" is the same word translated in the same verse as both "churning" and "wringing". So while the word by itself can simply mean "pressure", the context implies a willful, purposeful action. That is, when we are angry, we can wrongly choose to purposely start striving/fighting with someone. Being angry in itself is not a sin, if we let go of our anger before the day is through (Ephesians 4:26). But forcing/starting a fight with someone is always wrong, even when we have been wronged (Matthew 5:39; 1 Peter 2:21-23).

(See also Matthew 5:39 below)

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*Proverbs 31:11 / *Prov. 31:11 -

The original Hebrew word (chacer: H2637) translated as no "need", like the English word, can mean no "lack" (Deuteronomy 8:9).

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*Proverbs 31:24 / *Prov. 31:24 -

The original Hebrew word (chagowr: H2289) translated as "girdles" can mean "belts" (Strong's Hebrew Dictionary).

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*Proverbs 31:30 / *Prov. 31:30 -

The original Hebrew word (chen: H2580) translated as "favour" can mean "graciousness" (Proverbs 11:16).

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*Ecclesiastes 1:2 / *Eccl. 1:2 -

(Re: Someone thinking that youth are leaving the Church because it has abandoned intellectualism, while someone else thinks that they are leaving because of their nihilism)

Or, what about their hedonism? That is, youth could be leaving the Church simply because they find it too boring. They would rather gossip with their friends on their smartphones, or play video games, or get high. And if someone invites them to sit in a pew and listen to a philosophy lecture on the indivisibility of perfection and the Trinity, then they will run for the hills (or to the mall). For they, like most people, can be "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God" (2 Timothy 3:4b).

But hedonism can ultimately lead to nihilism. For without God, everything can eventually get boring, everything can eventually seem empty.

This brings to mind the response to a young man who started smoking pot, but it got him thinking that everything around him was a thought, causing him to have a panic attack. When he told someone else about this, he was asked:

When you say: "everything around me is a thought", do you mean that it feels like nothing really exists? If so, that brings to mind what someone felt in the Bible: "all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2). There, the original Hebrew word (hebel: H1892) translated as "vanity" can mean "emptiness" (Strong's Hebrew Dictionary), in the sense of everything seeming empty of any lasting existence or value.

Also, when you say: "everything around me is a thought", if you mean that it feels like nothing really exists, can you articulate why this instills panic inside you, instead of some other response? For example, Zen masters and Buddhist monks spend their whole lives meditating hoping to experience that feeling, which they see as the highest level of enlightenment, which they call satori ("emptiness") or nirvana ("a candle flame blown out"), and which instills in them not panic, but the utmost equanimity. For they think that it is true that nothing actually exists, that the only true reality is complete nothingness.

But from a Christian perspective, this is not the case, and can cause panic as you fear that the nothingness (which seems to be the true and only reality) is about to consume everything, including you; that it is about to kill you, and turn you into nothingness as well.

But it will not, because God exists. He says "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14). And He came into the world as Jesus Christ not to turn us into nothingness. Instead, he says: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10b).

And He does this even though He is "nothingness" Himself, in the sense of His not being any "thing", but the very ground of existence for all things (Colossians 1:17). The Hebrew word (El) which means "God" (Genesis 14:20) also means "nothing" (Genesis 19:8), insofar as both H0410 (God) and H0408 (nothing) are the same Hebrew word consisting of two letters: Aleph and Lamed.

Also, when you say: "everything around me is a thought", do you mean your own thought? If so, one way to counteract this is to think: "Okay, if everything around me is just my thought, I should be able to poke my finger into this wall next to me. I should be able to 'think' my finger into the wall". Then go ahead and try, thinking as hard as you can to make your finger go into the wall. Of course, no matter how hard you think, your finger will not get past the surface of the wall, because the wall has its own existence separate from your thought. (I tried something like the finger trick even in a lucid dream, and still it did not work.)

Or, when you say: "everything around me is a thought", do you mean God's thought? If so, try the same finger-into-the-wall trick and you will again prove to yourself that even if everything is God's thought, it still has real existence, real substance. This is because God's thought is so powerful that what He thinks of as existing actually comes into and remains in existence for as long as He wants.

Everything continues to exist by God's power, for "by him all things consist" (Colossians 1:17). We can even think of ourselves as existing inside God in some manner: "For in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

God is an infinite Spirit and an infinite consciousness (John 4:24, Psalms 139:7-10, Jeremiah 23:24), so if we exist inside Him we would exist in His consciousness, His thought.

A human analogy would be how characters in a novel exist in the novelist's thought. For the characters, their world is as real as ours is for us. So they act and think in their world as we do in ours. And their actions and thoughts existing only in the novelist's thought does not take away their free will. For as any novelist will tell you, characters take on a life of their own. It is as if the novelist is simply watching in his mind what his characters are doing and thinking, and writing it down. But the characters never have a life of their own in the sense that they can ever do or think things outside of the novelist's thought.

(See also the "Consciousness" section of 1 Thessalonians 5:23 below)

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*Ecclesiastes 1:10 / *Eccl. 1:10 -

(Re: Means that there really was an *Atlantis?)

The Bible nowhere teaches about "Atlantis", but it does suggest that there have been past civilizations on the earth, before our current civilization which began after the creation of Adam about 4000 BC.

For Ecclesiastes 1:10 suggests that all of the things which we think of as being new inventions (e.g. computers, jets, atomic weapons) were also invented during past civilizations on the earth. And Ecclesiastes 1:9 suggests that we are not the last civilization which will be on the earth.

And Ecclesiastes 1:11 suggests that there is a complete break between earth civilizations, so that there is no record left of previous civilizations. This could be accomplished by God completely melting the surface of the earth between civilizations, so as to completely obliterate all of the works of the intelligent creatures who lived during each civilization (cf. 2 Peter 3:10-13). Because the planet earth itself must last forever (Ecclesiastes 1:4), each new civilization could unfold on what could be called a "new earth" (cf. Revelation 21:1), as in a new surface for the earth, on which a newly-created race of intelligent beings can begin to build its works.

(See also sections 5-7 of Genesis 1(space) above)

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*Ecclesiastes 1:15 / *Eccl. 1:15 -

The original Hebrew word (checrown: H2642) translated as "wanting", like the English word, can mean "deficient", or "lacking".

The Hebrew word (manah: H4487) translated as "numbered" can mean just that (1 Chronicles 21:17), or it can mean "weighed out", "allotted", or "appointed" (1 Chronicles 9:29).

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*Ecclesiastes 1:18 / *Eccl. 1:18 -

While we can have joy in knowing things, increasing our knowledge can also increase our sorrow. For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increases knowledge increases sorrow (Ecclesiastes 1:18).

But for Christians, this is not the depression-sorrow of the world which often leads to suicide (2 Corinthians 7:10b), but the repentance-sorrow of Christians which saves their souls (2 Corinthians 7:10a), and breaks them off of their love for this fallen world and the things thereof (1 John 2:15-16; 1 John 5:19), knowing that this world and these things are all doomed to destruction (1 John 2:17; 1 Peter 1:24, Isaiah 14:17a; 2 Peter 3:10-13; 2 Corinthians 4:18).

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*Ecclesiastes 2:21 / *Eccl. 2:21 -

The original Hebrew word (kishrown: H3788) translated as "equity", like the English word, can refer to what is "right" (Ecclesiastes 4:4).

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*Ecclesiastes 2:24 / *Eccl. 2:24 -

This is from the perspective of the Old Covenant (Deuteronomy 14:26). Contrast the perspective from the New Covenant (John 6:27).

(See also the "Covenants" section of Ephesians 2:15 below)

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*Ecclesiastes 3:11 / *Eccl. 3:11 -

The original Hebrew word (`owlam: H5769) translated as "the world" can mean "eternity" (Isaiah 60:15).

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*Ecclesiastes 3:14 / *Eccl. 3:14 -

This means only that once God does something, that event will exist in history forever. Otherwise, one would have to say, for example, that when God raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:43-44), Lazarus stayed alive forever. But that cannot be the case, because Jesus Christ was subsequently the first person to be raised from the dead to stay alive forever (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

(See also John 11:43 below)

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*Ecclesiastes 4:1 / *Eccl. 4:1 -

(Re: Means that the Holy Spirit/Comforter in John 14:26 is the one taken out of the way in 2 Thessalonians 2:7-8?)

No, for Ecclesiastes 4:1 is not a prophecy about the future Tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24, but a general observation applicable to all times in this fallen world. That is, there have always been some oppressed people without anyone to comfort them. Similarly, Ecclesiastes 4:7-8 is not a prophecy about the future Tribulation, but a general observation applicable to all times in this fallen world. That is, there have always been some people who live alone and work hard, without asking why.

(See also 2 Thessalonians 2:6 below)

~

The original Hebrew word (shuwb: H7725) translated as "returned" can mean "called" to mind (Deuteronomy 30:1), or "recalled" (Lamentations 3:21).

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*Ecclesiastes 5:1 / *Eccl. 5:1 -

The original Hebrew words (shamar: H8104; and regel: H7272) translated as "keep thy foot" can mean to figuratively "watch your step"; that is, to be careful what you do.

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*Ecclesiastes 5:6 / *Eccl. 5:6 -

The original Hebrew word (malak: H4397) translated as "angel" could in this context refer to a priest with whom one tries to annul a religious vow which one has made (Ecclesiastes 5:5-6).

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*Ecclesiastes 6:2 / *Eccl. 6:2 -

The original Hebrew word (choliy: H2483) translated as "disease" can mean "calamity" (Strong's Hebrew Dictionary).

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*Ecclesiastes 6:8 / *Eccl. 6:8 -

The original Hebrew word (halak: H1980) translated as "walk" can mean "behave" (Psalms 35:14).

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*Ecclesiastes 7:11 / *Eccl. 7:11 -

The original Hebrew word (`im: H5973) translated as "with" can mean "like" (Psalms 28:1).

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*Ecclesiastes 9:5 / *Eccl. 9:5 -

See the "Soul sleep?" section of 1 Corinthians 15:51 below.

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Nov 19, 2018

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