- What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. -
What do you get for working? You get to be worm food.
How does that not invoke sorrow? How can you go to work and put up with it? How do you ever sleep knowing how it’s going to end?
That’s life without Christ. We have a word for it, and sometimes we don’t think that place exists on Earth.
It does, and it’s called Hell.
One thing that’s important as Christians to realize is that some traditional beliefs we hold about the Bible aren’t in the Bible.
You know how Lucifer lead the choirs in heaven? The chief musician?
That’s not in the Bible. That’s from John Milton’s Paradise Lost.
Also that name Lucifer? Yeah, that doesn’t appear in the Bible either.
“Okay, Hunter I’m reading the King James right now, and I clearly see Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12.”
Yep, that’s because the original term is a Hebrew word meaning “morning star” typically referring to Venus.
The Romans have a mythological figure known as Lucifer associated with Venus and when the Bible was written in their own language, they just used their word.
The guys who wrote the KJB? They just took it. It’s a mythological name to refer to the same idea, but it’s not an “original” name for Satan.
What am I saying? The Jews were referring to the glory of the morning star (i.e. Venus) being brought low in that verse as a metaphor.
The Romans saw it either literally or figuratively as this character from their own mythology.
The term you use when you say Lucifer refers to their myth, not the Hebrew metaphor.
Now, I say it too. Perhaps there’s even more connection between the myth and Satan then we know.
Have you heard that Hell is separation from God? Well, it is, and it’s worse than that. Hell is eternal separation from God.
If you want to dive into this more, go read 2 Thessalonians 1:5-12. It puts everything in a stark light.
In our finite lives on earth though, we can experience this state. We can be separated from God’s presence and feel that anguish in our souls.
This is similar to the euphoria you get worshiping in church surrounded by saints. It’s a glimpse into the perfect worship of the Father, but it’s not fully revealed.
These are given to us so we might know and have faith in the God we serve.
So where is Solomon in this verse? He’s in our metaphorical, here-and-now Hell, awake in his bed, unable to sleep due stress and anxiety.
Question, do you ever feel this way as a believer?
If you do, when does it happen? Is it not when you deny yourselves the fruit of the Spirit? When you tell yourself lies about those around you?
There is no quicker way to Hell on Earth than to believe in lies, especially those concerning eternity.