Yet, in the Bible it says, “the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23). The Bible contains the promise of God that will never change. The more I read the Bible, the more I am aware that these words are alive and speaking to me. Books like the novels the people of this world write may be read one or two times, but after that they are no longer interesting. If the content of a novel is rather difficult to understand when you first read it, after a couple more readings you will see what it is saying and realize the meaning, and that will be the end of the matter. The more I draw close to the words of the Bible, however, the more deeply I become aware that it is saying something to me. It is similar to the way you come to understand a person you love little by little and draw closer to them the more that time passes.
The things we see and enjoy in this world please our flesh, and literary works or the field of learning we pursue may touch our emotions or thoughts. Nevertheless, the Bible, which is the word of God, touches much more than our flesh or our thoughts; it touches the conscience within us. So, when I read the Bible, I often find myself eager to know what it is saying to me, and this causes me to dig deeper. The conversation begins between man and God in this way through the words of the Bible.
The Bible says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). This is why it often happens that the answers we get from the Bible, even when we read the same verse, will differ depending on how much we know about the Bible, and the state of our hearts as we are reading. This proves that God’s word is living.
All the Days of Man’s Vain Life which He Passes like a Shadow
Every time I get to know what it says in some other part of the Bible, I feel I am drawn more deeply into Genesis chapter 1. This is not only true of Genesis of course, the more we come to know the vast content from Genesis chapter 1 to Revelation chapter 22, the more the power of life gradually stretches out its roots in our hearts.
The book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament, says, “Vanity of vanities, . . . Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” and that the life of man that he lives under the sun is itself vain (see 1:2-3). In the New Testament, on the other hand, in the letter to the Romans it says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20). We can see and know the power of God through all the things He has made.
As we read the book of Ecclesiastes, we need to know precisely what God is telling us through these words. Otherwise, the Bible will seem nothing more than a book of philosophy. This book called Ecclesiastes is telling us that life is empty and vain, so we need to be able to distinguish clearly between living as we please and looking for something more than this empty life.
Ecclesiastes says everything is vain. The book tells us there is a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to laugh, and a time to weep; a time to begin and a time to end. This world that has a beginning and an end is under the sun. The sun that always gives us light is actually a shadow of God who is the light. In the same way, we can see our lives, which the Bible describes as being under the sun, as a shadow of the actual entity.
Let’s turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 6 verse 12.
For who knows what is good for man in life, all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will happen after him under the sun?
Here it says, “all the days of his vain life which he passes like a shadow.” A shadow is a phenomenon that appears as a result of light. When light is shining, when I move my hand, the shadow of my hand moves in the same way. There has to be an actual object in order for a shadow that resembles it to exist. The Bible is explaining to us that our lives—these short lives which at their longest continue for little more than eighty or ninety years—are a shadow of something.
The manifold knowledge of this world is taught to us in many ways in order that we might grasp or find something in the course of our lives in this world. Certain philosophers say that man goes to the grave empty handed. There is also a religion that says that there is nothing after death; man simply returns to where he was originally, so his life is like a circle. Many religions and many people say many things, but they are not able to define “vanity,” or this emptiness.
The Bible, however, says, “Vanity of vanities, . . . Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,” and explains and defines precisely what this “vanity” is. It says there is an actual entity, and as we live our lives in this world in the process of preparation for that entity, our lives are like shadows, and this is what is referred to as vanity. So when we study carefully what the Bible refers to as vanity, we have an opportunity to grasp hold of the true entity hidden behind it.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
James 1:17-18
This passage is talking about the life that is given to us. It says that every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, and with Him there is no shadow of turning. Yet the Bible also tells us that human history is like a shadow. Through passages like, this we can see that the world in which we live and our own lives in this world are the process of preparation to enter the world of God, which is perfect through the light which has no shadow, and which is not under but beyond the sun. So the many incidents, people, and regions that appear in the Bible are all shadows of the true entities that exist in the world of God.
The Bible tells us that the holy mountain of God is in the first paradise that He created, and that is also the location of the true Eden, which is called the garden of God and is the true entity reflected in the Eden in which Adam lived (see Ezekiel 28:13-14). Joshua conquered Jerusalem and David designated it as his capital city, but the Bible also tells us that the true Jerusalem is above (see Hebrews 12:22). Then in the letter to the Hebrews it also says that when God explained the tabernacle to Moses, it was a copy and shadow of the heavenly things (see 8:5). The Bible explains in various passages that this world is a shadow of the world above and the heavenly things.
In this world there exist all those shadows of things in heaven, but which of them is a shadow of God? There is something in this world that is a shadow of the eternal life that is in God. The Bible itself is not a shadow of God, but the Bible provides the answer when it says, “the Word was God” (John 1:1). In other words, the Bible is not a shadow of God; it is God.
Amongst the many things that exist like shadows in this world, we are the ones who were created like shadows of God. In Genesis, God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness” (1:26). The life that we have exists as a shadow of the eternal life that is in God.
God put the shadow of the life of God in our blood, but the question is, can man who has this blood in his body live forever? The words, “The word was God” are vital if man—this shadow who was made similar to God—is to be changed to the true entity. Since God put into the blood that flows through our bodies a shadow of the life of God, God’s blood needed to be shed on this earth in order to deal with the matter of our sin.
God gave man dominion over everything in this world, and this is a shadow of the dominion that God has over the entire universe. So it would be a great problem if man ended his vain life merely a shadow of God. The task remains for us to seek out the true image of God in the course of our lives, and come to resemble that image.
This is why we automatically feel a longing deep down in our
| 정회원으로 가입하시면 전체기사와 사진(동영상)을 보실수 있습니다. |
 |
이전기사 :<2019.11> 오직 성경과 함께
다음기사 :<2019.11> 하나님의 살아 있고 항상 있는 말씀