"Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days" (Ecclesiastes 11:1)
The Greek word for "bread" is lechem meaning 'food' or 'grain' and we know that Jesus commonly referred to the gospel as the "bread of life". So when Solomon is referring to casting bread in the waters, we can understand this as the mechanism of sowing. Essentially he is telling us to sow our seed in "the waters". Now even without any farm experience most of us can quickly identify that "the waters" is not the typical place you would sow bread/grain. So this should give us a hint that this has a spiritual significance. Let's go to the Greek dictionary to see the different ways this word can be/has been translated. The Greek word for "water" here is mayim which, when used in the plural form, indicates figuratively "danger and/or violence or transitory things". In this particular instance, I think this first definition (e.g. danger/violence) would be the most accurate. Thus when we cast our bread upon the waters, we are purposefully sowing grain on ground we recognize is not ideal for the harvest. Moreover, we do it out of obedience to God's command: go ye to all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). We have no control over how it is to be received. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6, one plants and another waters but it is God that gives the increase. We must not concern ourselves with how our message is to be received. Nowadays we have made "soul-winning" our focus and have thus deceptively shifted the power away from God towards ourselves. We are quick to declare scores of individuals saved after they repeat the so-called sinner's prayer, and record proudly in our church hallways as trophies of our success. Moreover we shun "hard to reach" areas where such successes are not so easily attained for fear that our gospel will be ridiculed and we may have preached in vain. This must not be so. We must relinquish this paralyzing fear, for God has given us His assurance: "my word will not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it" (Isaiah 55:11). Our message is no ordinary product advertisement, and we are no ordinary salesmen (if I may borrow that analogy). Our words are Life, for they were breathed by Life Himself. In the words of Apostle Paul, "my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4). We are not to view evangelism in light of our own efforts, but rather as an extension of sovereign authority. The Spirit has the power to make dead people live, and God has chosen His enactment through "the foolishness of preaching". Thus our obedience is significant in that it opens the medium through which God may choose to work. We are to preach independent of how it will be perceived or received by those around us. We were forewarned that "(we) will be hated by all for my name's sake" (Matthew 10:22). In fact, this passage in Ecclesiastes even exhorts us to "cast our bread" specifically "in the waters" of violence or danger, so we can be sure to expect great resistance. Satan isn't your friendly neighborhood villain--'this ain't no Lion King', he is out to get you and he has no rules of engagement. In his kingdom, anything goes and you can bet he will use all his best weapons on you. Satan knows your weaknesses and your fears. He will play it against you, even using scriptural references to support a foul doctrine. We must be careful! Remember Jesus said, "be gentle as doves but shrewd as serpents" (Matthew 10:16). Finally, let us not "be weary in well doing" and sit idly by awaiting the tides to turn. If the apostles had lived by that principle, the church as we know it would not exist. "He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. " (Ecclesiastes 11:4). We must adopt an attitude of total devotion to God that our actions might reflect what is just in His sight and not what appeases man. It is difficult, I know. But the difficulty comes only if we think too long and hard at our circumstances or on the potential responses/backlash of those around us. We are not of the world, thus the world will not and can not understand us. We must trust the God we believe. Read your Bible. Meditate on the lives and circumstances of the men and women contained therein. "Taste and see that The Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8) and that His Words are everlasting. Then your faith will grow and you will have the confidence to enter boldly the lions den where before you cowered yet miles away. May God bless you as you continue reading His Word! --Junève |
Today's Verse
“Behold you are beautiful my love, behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves” Song of Solomon 1:15 ESV Quotations"A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear and your heart full of God's Spirit is worth ten thousand words spoken in unbelief and sin." Archives
January 2023
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