Wednesday November 26 A Mist Read James 4:14. What crucial point is being made here? “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” (James 4:14) Life is uncertain. Every breath is a gift. James 4:14 uses a very rare Greek word (atmis), which is translated as vapor or mist. Like the Hebrew word hebel (breath, vapor), which occurs 38 times in Ecclesiastes and is often translated as vanity, it emphasizes the transitory nature of life. Who hasn’t, especially as we get older, experienced just how fast and fleeting life is? Well into his old age, well-known evangelist Billy Graham said, I never knew that life went by so quickly. In other words, there’s always the imminence of death. We are all just a heartbeat away from it. Any of us, at any moment, for any number of reasons, could die in an instant. How rightly James says, “yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring” (4:14, ESV), including death. I will not here dwell upon the shortness and uncertainty of life; but there is a terrible danger-a danger not sufficiently understood-in delaying to yield to the pleading voice of God’s Holy Spirit, in choosing to live in sin; for such this delay really is.-Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 32. Plus, not only is life so short but, in and of itself, it can also be so unsatisfying. Read Ecclesiastes 2:15-19; 4:4; 5:10; 9:11-12. How does the message of Solomon here only add to the point that James has made? “15 Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity. 16 For there is no remembrance of the wise more than of the fool for ever; seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth the wise man? as the fool. 17 Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit. 18 Yea, I hated all my labour which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall be after me. 19 And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 2:15-19) “Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 4:4) “He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10) “11 I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.” (Ecclesiastes 9:11-12) We see so much injustice, so much unfairness, so much that doesn’t make sense in this life. No wonder we all long for the promise of eternal life made to us through Jesus. Without that, we are just a mist that will be gone and forever forgotten. Take stock: how much of this world holds you in its grip? How can you always keep in mind just how fleeting it all is?
Posted on: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 12:39:54 +0000
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