If this is your first visit, please see my introduction to these Lenten readings.
13 March, Ecclesiasticus chapters 15-18
Yesterday I wrote about the instruction to “be good to yourself”, not to let modesty lead to being unnecessarily harsh on oneself. Today I am picking up on the passage 17:1-14, which follows from an account of the creation of the universe, earth and animals. In these subsequent verses, the focus narrows down on humanity in particular.
Verses 1-2 are honest about our limitations: we are made from earth, will go back to it when we die, and have a finite life span. But this is followed by an appreciation of just how special we area – made in God’s image, master of other animals (though there is much debate these days over how that mastery should properly be employed), able to taste and smell, see and hear, to think and to judge. Our purpose is to praise God and “tell of his magnificent works”, even to see and hear God himself (13).
Much of this repeats elements of the creation stories in Genesis. But there is something different here. Verse 7, “he filled them with knowledge and understanding, and revealed to them good and evil”, seems to make this discernment between good and evil part of God’s plan, rather than the root of all sin as the Genesis account puts it. Like the exhortation we looked at yesterday to be good to your own self, it is a much more positive worldview than that of “traditional religion”. Here is a God whose aim is to “clothe [people] with strength like his own” (3), to “show them the magnificence of his works” (8). Humanity is something splendid, even when we are aware of right and wrong. Here there is no banishment from Eden for seeking knowledge that should not be ours, only a desire that we should understand as much of God’s creation as we can. That fits in with the whole idea of “seeking Wisdom” which is the theme of the book.
That’s not to say mankind is shown as perfect. Later in the same chapter there is encouragement to repent of sin and leave it behind, turning to God’s mercy (25-29). But fellowship with God is the default state, and he is never far away.