Destination Unknown
and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover. Ecclesiastes 8:17 NASB
Cannot discover– “No longer one simple, consequential story, history divides into the age of Scripture, of the sacred texts, on the one hand, and present time, when Rabbinic Judaism arises to interpret those texts and detect the ways in which they may be seen to intersect with this quite different time. . . . This provides little comfort to those who are living ‘forward,’ in successive time. What is lacking now is precisely the biblical confidence that tockis certain to follow tick: the conviction, as we read, or as we live, that we are housed within a ‘plot’ that humanizes time. For this, a fiction is needed, like the fiction that makes tickdifferent from tock.”[1]
“In order to plot their course, they need to know the end. For this, they require an ordered world of numbers and patterns that can be read and used to advantage.”[2]
Zornberg’s comment refers to Rabbinic Judaism but it can just as easily be applied to Christianity and the Hebrew Messianic movement. What she suggests is that meaning is a function of paradigm, and paradigm requires the “fiction” of believing that life is part of a grander scheme, a plot written in the heavens acted out on earth. In opposition to this fiction, Qohelet observes that men simply cannot discover what life is really all about. The Hebrew term is māṣāʾ. “As a generalization, we may say that whenever māṣāʾ is used to describe a result following a time of ‘seeking’ the translation is ‘to find’”[3]although there are many other shades of meaning for this verb, such as “reach” or “attain.” Qohelet’s point is strong: one is not able (yukal lo) to find the meaning of what he does, or, for that matter, what God is doing. So we create fictions—paradigms of explanation—in order that we may convince ourselves we are heading in the right direction.
Of course, our fictions just might turn out to be reality. Maybe. At any rate, we’re betting that they will. That’s why it is so difficult to convince someone else to adopt your particular interpretation of experience (and the text) if they don’t share the same story (fiction). Just as it is so difficult to even begin to think that what we believe might not be true. Oh, that was scary, wasn’t it, but just think about it for a minute. What you believed was true last year, or last decade, certainly has changed by now, hasn’t it? And you didn’t die. Your world didn’t fall apart. You kept going. The story might have to be changed, but you continue to interpret your experience according to a modification in the original paradigm. That’s all. So why do you believe now that your understanding as you know it today is “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth”? Because to believe otherwise is to become paralyzed with doubt.
Now here’s the rather amazing and startling thing: life is supposed to be this way! You and I are on a journey to an unknown destination and as a result, we cannot know how the road is going to go before we get there. I have often remarked that one cannot read Hebrew without first knowing what it says. That is the paradox of reading a language without vowels. It’s a good analogy. What did the old Communist spy say in the movie, The International? “There is a difference between truth and fiction. Fiction has to make sense.”
So, make sense of your world—and be prepared to rewrite the story along the way.
Topical Index: māṣāʾ, to find, paradigm, truth, fiction, Ecclesiastes 8:17
[1]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious, pp. 114-115.
[3]Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 1231 מָצָא. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (521). Chicago: Moody Press.
Proverbs observes that “where there is no vision (revelation) the people perish”. From the very beginning, when God Himself prophesied the first coming of the One who would “bruise the serpent’s head”, God’s people have relied upon prophets to book-end their lives (provide the paradigm?) with meaning and purpose.
Right up until Messiah, the ultimate Prophet, the Jews lived and were conscious of tremendous meaning and purpose in the world. They were designated the people of Messiah, but when Messiah came, they ( as a nation, anyway) “knew him not”. Not a single prophet have they (as a nation, anyway) had since; not for any lack of prophets, but because all subsequent prophets have referenced Yeshua; specifically, Yeshua’s return.
The tremendous prophecies of Paul and particularly of John the Revelator are all hinged upon the most defining prophecy of time after Christ: namely, the time of His return. All prophecy relevant to us today is also hinged completely upon this event: which is to say either you are referencing this revelational prophecy as the only way to live (paradigm), or you are lost in numbers, fairy tales and specious speculations, for we are living in open-ended time, where everything depends upon our choices and determination to do our part of that return.
Because we, also, have been given – likewise through prophecy – the purpose for our lives today, the question then becomes, are we seeking to live within that paradigm, or are we seeking to satisfy the religion of humanism which requires us to ‘find’ our ‘own’ paradigm (yep, folks, now that is true fiction!).
This time (sic) around, however, we are not waiting on Him: He is waiting on us to get with the program – I do mean prophetic paradigm.
Laurita,
Don’t quite understand these thumbs down you have acquired. This (to my notion) is one of the best sermons I’ve heard all day.
Stay with it.
Glenn
Thank you, Glenn. If YHVH is not glorified, I am better off quiet.
Did the first children of God suffer from existential crisis, or did they know positively who they were, as the people of the promised Messiah? My identity is in Messiah, too. Nothing has changed from what our first ancestors identified with that I can see, except that we are now looking for a return!
There has not been a day of my life that that return has not shadowed the way I see the world, make choices, identify with other believers. It pervades my entire existence, and provides context for how I should then live. Halleluah!
Whether fiction or not…rational observations weigh heavily toward “not”…my basic paradigm is that there was a man of whom it was said “He is the son of God”, and furthermore, that he was resurrected from the dead to affirm the veracity of that declaration. All other narratives—every adjusted paradigm I consider to make existential sense of the events, stories and personal experiences of life—communicate a profound and complex whole when joined to that one. Truth, it seems to me, is reality as it really is, most of which, I conclude, remains hidden. But all I need to know of truth, life, and the way I interact with reality is revealed through Him.
Good morning. I recently experienced a major blowback from a friend of mine in regards to my questioning certain things and their “provabilty”. Even as I try to write that word “Provability” spellcheck keeps telling me there is no such word ! Case in point. In regards to my friends reaction, I wasn’t even allowed to take an idea out of the box and play with it for a while! I choose not to live in that kind of a world. I guess my security has to be in who God is for me, who he has declared himself to be.
I liked ( as usual) what Laurita was saying but I sort of translated it differently for myself. She said “God’s people have relied upon prophets[even today’s ‘prophets’] to bookend their lives”. I guess I would translate that into saying they have relied upon prophets to create a box (comfortable, of course!) in which they can live with ‘ certainty ‘. It’s a big world out there. That’s why being involved with this group of people is so beneficial. Somebody isn’t feeding us the answers that we so desperately want to have and seem to need to have. We are called upon to listen, respond and hopefully have some type of conclusion based in the God’s Word. It’s interesting to think about all the boxes there are in the universe. Little boxes, big boxes, pretty boxes, and questionable boxes. No wonder we have a hard time connecting, we actually have to break down the walls….and engage!
“Even as I try to write that word “Provability” spellcheck keeps telling me there is no such word”
Well there is now! I think that’s the point. 🙂
There’s an “i” missing from Larry’s first provability… it’s hard to not see between the “l” and “t”
“Little boxes made of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same…” Different colors, flipped floor plans, expectations… Thank you, Larry and Laurita
Here’s what I know.
God is real. So am I.
This world is real. And where
I’m going is real. (He’s said so.)
We can all compare our other notes
when we get there!