LIMITED DISCERNMENT

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered”:

“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—while I was still searching but not finding—I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all. This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.”

Ecclesiastes 7:27-29 

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Human beings like to try and figure things out. It’s something that is inherent within us.

Perhaps that’s why we like a good mystery, because it allows our deductive juices to flow as we try and sort out the facts and solve the case at hand.

This desire to figure out why things are the way they are is really at the heart of science, isn’t it? A person of science is one who believes there is a tangible reason for everything and will not rest until they find that reason. Everything has an explanation and people can rely on their own intellect to figure things out, providing answer and hopefully solutions to the matters of life.

There’s only one problem with this mindset. For every person created has limited discernment.

The truth is that we are limited in what we can do and think. No one is perfect in wisdom or understanding of things. Only God is.

And yet, despite this truth, we choose to pursue things that we’ll never be able to comprehend fully and along the way, in our quest for knowledge and perception, we will inevitably draw false conclusions about things and convince others to agree with us. In other words, we are also flawed in our intellect and if we’re not careful, we can very easily get it wrong and then lead others to be wrong too.

Well, looking at our scripture passage today, we’ll see the theme of this devotion brought to life by the very words of Solomon, the one referred to as the Teacher, and be reminded by God of the limited nature of our discernment. Look again at these verses that conclude Ecclesiastes, Chapter 7:

“Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered”:

“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—while I was still searching but not finding—I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all. This only have I found: God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.” Ecclesiastes 7:27-29

In this passage, we find Solomon trying to figure things out, adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things and sharing what he discovered with the reader.

Note here that there is an immediate problem. For Solomon is telling us what he discovered, what he learned while searching to discover the scheme of things. There is no revelation that he was asking the Lord to reveal truth to him. No, Solomon was trying to figure it out on his own.

With this, it should be no surprise that he was searching but not finding because Solomon relied on his own understanding and in his limited discernment, he started to draw his own conclusions, some right and some wrong.  

Look at what he claimed to discover:

1. One upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all.

I’m not sure who that one upright man was or what distinguished him to where Solomon thought he was upright but Solomon was simply in error for not one man or woman is upright, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). No one is righteous (Romans 3:10) and if Solomon would have allowed God to impart understanding, he would have seen the error in his deductions.

2. God created mankind upright, but they have gone in search of many schemes.

Here, Solomon is spot on and he is because he turns his attention to God. For as he continues to deduct his way through the matter of mankind’s uprightness, we see he adjusts his reference point toward the Creator God who fashioned every man and woman to be upright but that was ruined by the very first man and woman who allowed sin to enter in and poison God’s perfection (Genesis 3). The outcome of that first transgression was generations upon generations of people going in search of many schemes, schemes that were wicked, evil, and self serving instead of righteous, holy, and self sacrificial.

The Lord God Almighty gave each of us a brain and the ability to think but He didn’t do so for us to completely abandon Him and lean on our own understanding, our own limited discernment. We would be best served in life to never delve into discovery without first partnering with God who will allow us to know what He wants us to know. He will always lead us to where He wants us to be and to understand what He wants us to understand when we are there.

As my study bible so accurately states, human wisdom and understanding must always yield to revealed truth. I hope you’ll join me by yielding gratefully to the God who always shines light on our quest for truth, ever trumping our limited discernment.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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