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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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Ecclesiastes 7:18
Comments
The path of the seeker is strewn with distractions and diversions which are opposed to his progress. Some of them lie at opposite poles and yet both are equally capable of bringing him down and preventing him ever arriving at his destination. Solomon has just mentioned two of these. A man may on the one hand be lured into the false path of self-righteousness, of making a spectacle of his religion before men, of putting on a show of devotion. This will lead him to his doom just as surely as the one who turns entirely away from God altogether and abandons himself to wickedness. Does that mean that the way to God is a middle path, which is simply a matter of avoiding extremes? We could hardly make that mistake if we took seriously Christ’s words, ‘And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force’ (Matthew 11:12). No one will reach heaven that without a strong resolve in their soul, put there by the Spirit of God. They must have decisively turned away from all that the world has to offer them and chosen to follow Christ in spite of the disdain of the world. They have had to suffer the loss of all things that they might gain Christ and to lose their lives in order that they may find life. These things are certainly not judged a happy medium by the world. The point is however that the devil continually tries to throw us off balance and urge us to hold onto one principle at the expense of another. What the world would call a happy medium is rejected in its entirety in verse 18.
Application
Is there any way that we can avoid all these dangers and come through or is it entirely random who escapes the devil’s wiles? Yes, he tells us, there is a safe path through all these dangers and it is followed by the one who fears God. The fear of God is what will keep us moment by moment from turning off the right path. It will enable us to resist those temptations which assail us along the way. The devil cannot lure us onto a wrong path without our being aware of it, and the fear of God will act like a sentinel, watching out for our protection. The fear of God will be sufficient to keep us from either extreme, for it contains within it a wisdom that recognises every strategy of the enemy.
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