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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People of Wisdom (Proverbs 1)

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"Wisdom cries  aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks" (Proverbs 1:20-21).  Reading verses like the above tells us that the kind of faith taught in the Bible is not something private. This is contrary to what most people think today saying that when you talk about the things of God or matters of religion, you should keep it personally either in your home or in your local church, or you just talk about it during Sunday.  The introductory chapter of the book of Proverbs tells us that wisdom calls in public space. This teaches us that the whole of society cannot escape the call of God. To ignore such call will certainly reap disastrous consequences.  How about if the people of God Himself who supposed to live such wisdom are the ones undermining it? We do this either by disconnecting our faith from our public lives or by consenting to the ruling social norms thinking t
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The Special Duties of Husbands to their Wives

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Fulfill your duties to your wife in order to avoid the following unhappy results: Failure of your wife to fulfill her duties towards you Such will cause you much affliction She will be bitter towards you in the end Summary of your Duties as Christian Husbands: You are responsible to undertake the government of your family including your wife. This ability consists: In holiness and spiritual wisdom. An ungodly, irreligious man is both a stranger and an enemy to the most important part of family-government. In due acquaintance with the works of your calling. He that is utterly unacquainted with the members of his family, will be very unfit to govern them. He must be acquainted both with the common temper and infirmities of mankind, that he may know how much is to be borne with, and also with the particular temper, and faults, and virtues of those whom he is to govern. And he must have prudence to give them direction in accomplishing their tasks; and justice to deal with every one as they
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Ownership

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The first chapter is all about ownership. By discussing this topic, the author starts with the doctrine of creation. For him, this doctrine separates his approach from all other approaches by other economists. By insisting on the importance of the doctrine of creation to economics, he argues that the universe, man, economic laws, and economic growth are not autonomous. The doctrine of creation establishes the idea of original ownership , which belongs to God alone as explicitly stated in Psalm 24:1–2 and many other biblical passages. And since it is God who created the world, He is therefore the original and absolute Owner of everything. The idea therefore of ownership is basically theocentric. This tells us that the economic concept of ownership is ultimately a theological idea. The concept of ownership cannot be properly understood apart from God as the ultimate Owner of all things. Providence is another corollary doctrine that cannot be separated from the doctrine of creation. Thi
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