What is lawless and wicked

The life breath returns to God who gave it

The first readings over the past week drop like stepping stones, leading us to the climax of Saturday’s reading, which is to walk with God in everything because we will end up with him at the end.

And the dust returns to the earth as it once was,
and the life breath returns to God who gave it.
(Ecclesiastes 12:7)

The organizers of the lectionary, our daily scripture readings, probably knew what they were doing. The way God works according to the following litany of readings should come as no surprise. The intricacy of that process, though, does give us pause.

On Monday, two verses from Proverbs 12:31-32 set the scene:

Envy not the lawless man
and choose none of his ways:
To the LORD the perverse one is an abomination,
but with the upright is his friendship.

From ancient times, Scripture separates God’s partnership with us from the unrighteous alliances, all of which we must avoid. Evil exists, and we should have none of it.

Image by Andrew Martin

Tuesday’s warning continues the path of this week’s scriptural call, but adds a wrinkle. We’re vessels of God’s truth. Also from Proverbs, 21:12-13, the author invokes God’s urgency.

The just man appraises the house of the wicked:
there is one who brings down the wicked to ruin.
He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself also call and not be heard.

We are to avoid the wicked but must also put ourselves in their crosshairs by pointing out transgressions. We do that because the poor need protection from the selfishness and calculations of those who have chosen lawlessness, and God asks us to act on his behalf.

We’re still in Proverbs on Wednesday, 30:5-6, and we are reminded that the profile of what is lawless and wicked can be found in the scriptures. Knowing good and evil can be grasped.

However, armed with good and evil, we must be careful when using the teachings because changing their meaning or adding to them will plant us in the column of the wicked. (You would be right in my editing worry over making such an error myself.)

Every word of God is tested;
he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.
Add nothing to his words,
lest he reprove you, and you will be exposed as a deceiver.

Shifting to Ecclesiastes on Thursday, the lectionary architects continue the notion of good over evil. The Thursday through Saturday readings leave Proverbs and now come from Ecclesiastes. Saturday’s Ecclesiastes 12:8 ends with a repeated verse from Thursday in Ecclesiastes 1:2:

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities!  All things are vanity!

The passing nature of this life should remind us that we are not the center of attention. We have a tendency to look upon everything we see and do as fruitful and life-changing. “Meh,” the author Qoheleth would say.

Thursday’s book-end beginning verse then moves into the next step in our scriptural litany.

One generation passes and another comes,
but the world forever stays.
(Ecclesiastes 1:3)

Our lifetime is only a comma in the history of time, the end or beginning of some phase that has some meaning but certainly not the entire purpose of time. God relates to us a task at hand, some specific thing(s) that he wants us to do. Everything from mourning to love has a place and time, and God is with us. Yes, but billions upon billions of people are part of his orchestra. We are important, but miniscule.

In Friday’s excerpt from Ecclesiastes, the die is cast. We are part of a plan we don’t know and will not yet discover.

He has made everything appropriate to its time,
and has put the timeless into their hearts,
without man’s ever discovering,
from beginning to end, the work which God has done.
(Eccl 3:1-11)

We’re born and raised in a broken world in which God wants to work with us and transform creation, little bits and pieces at a time. We won’t be the ones who finish that work or likely even move the dial, but our part is nonetheless essential.

The core point of Saturday’s reading, under the umbrella of our vane and sinful nature, is a helpful nudge to remind us again of God’s relationship with us. We’re not alone. Our God is with us and intends to form us in his nature and will purge out the tempting world’s work in us.

Follow the ways of your heart,
the vision of your eyes;
Yet understand that as regards all this
God will bring you to judgment.

The only way to live is with God. Every off-path adventure we take, we should take with him. He’ll be there with us in everything.

But fear not too much. God’s mercy, though judgment will still be meted out, will end with our life back to him.

And the dust returns to the earth as it once was,
and the life breath returns to God who gave it.
(Ecclesiastes 12:7)