A friend posted the following verse as her Facebook status wondering what in the world it is supposed to mean:
"Though I have searched repeatedly, I have not found what I was looking for. Only one out of a thousand men is virtuous, but not one woman!" Ecc. 7:28
And somewhere inside I'm thinking, "What the?!?!" If it wasn't the Bible I might just call that sexist.
In this post I will not pretend that I have a clue and it would take more exegesis than I can muster at the moment. I was just thinking how funny the Bible is. So many things that make me stop and go, "Huh?" The thing is that I think perhaps that is exactly what it was intended to do. See, had this Scripture been reversed and said that he could find a virtuous woman but not any men, all the women would say, "Tell me about it." And the men would probably say, "That's about right." And we would all leave it at that.
A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.
Mark TwainIt seems to me that men are a lot more honest about the fact that they are all screwed up. They know it and generally admit it. Women on the other hand....well, we are always on our moral high horses. If only our men would listen to us we could tell them how to run these families, these churches and this country. We think the "fairer" sex has something to do with justice.
Truth be told, we are every bit as debased as men. We just hide behind our spirituality, our upbringing, our gender and sometimes our guidebooks--like Sgt. Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls. We are perfect angels until the very moment we get drunk and in a bar fight.
And that's just one reason why the Bible is so great, it states the obvious that no one ever wants to admit. But when I strip away all my conceit and own cleverness I have to admit, "Yeah, that's right." And then the next thing is "So, what? If that's true what does that mean for me?" I guess I could begin with stop playing the victim every time I'm in a conflict with a man (namely, Gana). I suppose I could start there. Why'd I start reading this verse again? Oh yeah, I was tricked by Facebook.
"Of course, what we make of the Bible will never be as great a thing as what the Bible will--if we let it--make of us. For that which is born of the flesh--our human understanding and handlings--is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit--God's revelation of Himself and the power of that revelation to enliven us--is spirit....So, let us press on with no faith in our own understanding and nothing but faith in the Truth that is too great to be diminished by our feeble minds and too great to not transform us....The Bible is a very great book. Let us submit to it so God may do the great work of making us into a great people." Rich Mullins
1 comment:
Yeah...that's a tough Scripture, but it does seem accurate in the way you stated. We, women, think we are perfect in our virtues...like even maybe we could improve, but we certainly aren't THAT messed up!! AND definitely not as messed up as our husband, for sure!! Oh, if we could learn what it really means....
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