Joined To All The Living

ECCLESIASTES 9:3-4

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
But for him who is joined to all the living there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion.

The Bible has a different perception of living and dead to the one that you and I were raised to understand. It looks at the soul and considers whether a soul is spiritually alive in Christ or not. It gives rise to the notion that though we be alive, yet we are dead, that is, not alive to the Spirit of the Living God.

This idea is explored in a previous meditation from 2021, ‘The Living And The Dead’. However, here we wish to look at this from a slightly different perspective. In Genesis 2:7-8 we read:
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. (KJV)

The spiritual man that God created was a living soul, and having known God’s spark within, wishes to cling to it. Psalm 16:10-11 shows us the cry of one such…

For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,*
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

*Sheol = the world of the dead

The images of lion and dog conjure up thoughts of opposites. The dog is often depicted as venal and unsavoury — As a dog returns to his own vomit, So a fool repeats his folly. [Proverbs 26:11] — whereas the lion is more often seen as the king of beasts, a creature of great strength, even if not always a picture of goodness and often of evil. Christ is described in the book of Revelation as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, so the lion can be used to show both good and evil.

How does this help us in our daily struggle; in our walk with God? It is simply this — remembering that Ecclesiastes is the book of clear-sightedness, of reality and truth — it is better to be a sinner saved by grace (a living dog) than a proud and boastful man of great strength who knows not the Lord (a dead lion). Remember also that a family of lions is known as ‘a pride’.

So why is Christ known as The Lion of Judah? He is the King of the family of Praise. Be joined to that family and you live amongst all the living. Hallelujah!

MEDITATE ON THESE THINGS

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.
It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud;
and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.
The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
GENESIS 9:12-17

LIVING ON THE HALLELUJAH SIDE — Cloverdale Bibleway

PRAYER REQUIRES SILENCE

THINK OF THOSE days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything analogous to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking for a visible answer? His silence is the sign that He is bringing you in to a marvelous understanding of Himself. If God has given you a silence, praise Him, He is bringing you into the great run of His purposes. The manifestation of the answer in time is a matter of God's sovereignty. Time is nothing to God.
[from ’My Utmost For His Highest’ by Oswald Chambers]

LISTEN TO THIS MEDITATION HERE

23-06-27_516_joined_to_all_the_living.m4a
File Size:	3513 kb
File Type:	m4a

Download File

---

COMING NEXT… #517 COME TO THE WATERS