Pagbubulay-Bulay sa Banal na Kasulatan

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In this blog, I published three articles on Ecclesiastes, two on Proverbs, and three on Psalms. 

In Ecclesiastes, I wrote articles that introduced the book and presented two views of human history. The book's theme is about the hopelessness of a philosophy based on human autonomy. The key word is "meaningless." This theme is elaborated in relation to inheritance and death.

The book is not easy to read. It seems to contain contradictions. Examples of such include the contradictions regarding the value of labor (1:2-3;5:18), the value of wisdom (2:15-16; 7:19), and the value of wealth (5:19:6:1). 

In the end, the preacher offers the only way out of a destructive philosophy, which is the fear of God and obedience to His commands (12:13).

As to the two different views of human history, the dominant perspective of nations around Israel is that human history is cyclical and they used this perspective to interpret the future of mankind. The preacher spoke of such mindset as if it was his own. He verbalized the dominant view as if he was a representative of it.   

The cyclical view of history is inimical to progress. It doesn't see any value in human labor and progress is perceived as an illusion. 

Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 provide us a different view of history where obedience to God's command is rewarded with blessings. Only in such a perspective of history that any idea of growth will have its meaning. 

Turning to Proverbs, we are told that this book can be legitimately called as self-help book. This is a book about personal success. The book contains numerous short sayings based on general observation about life. Many of these sayings are related to economic issues such as the standard and steps to personal success, signs of both success and failure, basis and use of wealth, concept of property, nature of economic activity, concept of an economy based on biblical principles, and the purpose of inheritance. However, just like all the books in the Bible, the sayings in the book of Proverbs are not centered on man, but on God. The book does not tell us what we need about God but the duty He requires from us - a righteous or a holy life! 

The law given to Moses directs us to God's standard of holiness. This serves as the underlying basis of the book of Proverbs. The sayings are collected for us to easily remember them. This reminds us that human society is governed not by impersonal laws of nature, but by God's law. 

The book of Proverbs show us an economic perspective that is contrary to all modern theories of economics, which God and morality have been removed from the science of economics. This kind of economic perspective teaches us that it is not man, but God that originally inputs value on everything. Man inputs economic value not on the principle of autonomy, but in view of the fact that he is God's image. 

Note:

As for the content of the remaining articles, I think it is just best to leave them as they are. After more than two months, I no longer have similar inspiration that I had when I started rewriting about this blog. This is my post serving as a guide to the content of those articles.  


    

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