All right, beautiful. Lesson six, this is entitled Practical Wisdom. We are looking at the final chapters of the second main part of the book here. It goes from chapter 33, verse 18 through 43, verse 33.
And then after chapter 43, it really shifts gears a lot. And we'll talk about that in lesson seven, about wisdom guiding the wise men of salvation history, which is a lot of fun. So that's going to be our last lesson. So this is our penultimate lesson here.
Practical Wisdom is the title. And I titled it because we're going to look at a lot of practical advice. So remember how C.R.A.K likes to alternate and vacillate between a poem on wisdom, and then practical wisdom, like wisdom applied. We're going to have a lot of applicable wisdom here in this lesson.
And there are some little poems or canticles on wisdom and creation, but they're not as significant as previous lessons. So let's begin here with no further ado. Roman numeral one, more practical wisdom. So the first section is 33, 18, 36, 17.
And it begins here with some pretty straightforward stuff. I'll talk really quickly about this on instructional property, right? Don't give your belongings away prematurely. It's pretty good straightforward advice here.
This is really a couple of verses. You'll see exactly what I mean by that. 33, 18, actually go to verse 19, it's fine. To a son or wife, to a brother or a friend, do not give power over yourself as long as you live.
Do not give your property to another, unless you change your mind and must ask for it. While you are still alive and have breath in you, you're not letting anyone take your place. For it is better that your children should ask them, should ask from you, than you should look to the hand of your sons, et cetera, et cetera. So pretty straightforward advice.
If you got life ahead of you, then don't give away your property. You don't let other people take over your life, just because you might have to make some decisions with your property or your authority that you have. So we can skip over that little section right there. It's pretty straightforward.
The next section here, a letter B in the notes, is instruction on servants and slaves. Now this part might not seem very relevant. In fact, it's really not that relevant for a lot of Westerners. We don't have slaves, thank God, anymore.
That's a part of our history, dark part of our history, but you know, a lot of other people do have slaves throughout the world. Slavery has always been a very huge evil, a dark stain on humanity. It's always been part of humanity, and it always will be whether it's human trafficking, which is very, very common. And honestly, the United States of America, apparently, is one of the worst human trafficking in the world today.
And I haven't back checked that, but you hear it from people's sources, it's pretty darn frightening. So when you're looking here on this section on how to treat servants and slaves, yeah, you might think, well, that's not that very relevant, but depending on the country, it might be relevant. And I think it's still important for apologetical purposes, just to understand the progression of revelation on when and how God deals with slavery in the Old Testament, might be kind of interesting to spend a little time on this section for apologetical reasons, just to understand what is being said and what is not being said in the scriptures on this topic. So certainly, and this is chapter 33 verse 24, and through 34, to verse 31.
And yes, many commentaries do point out, look, this is his advice and his discussion on slavery, is reflecting the times in which you live. That's true. He's about 200 years before Christ, they are slaves all over the world. People who would fall into difficult times, they become slaves not just by conquest, but through the selling of oneself to pay off debt or selling of family members, to pay off debt.
It was a very complicated issue, which honestly could take a lot of time to discuss in other studies, which I'm not gonna do, I don't have the time to do that. But what I do wanna point out here, as good commentaries will say that, the topic of slavery in the scripture, even before CIRAC, is very different than other ancient years in cultures. So Israelite law, it is what it is. I mean, Mosaic law, especially Deuteronomy, is temporary, it's imperfect.
It's given to a hardhearted people who keep falling into sin, and you have to go and study the commentaries and the Bible studies that I've given on Deuteronomy and Joshua, specifically Deuteronomy. But there's a lot of contrast between slavery and Israel versus slavery and other cultures. So Israelite law, the Deuteronomic law, greatly limited the mistreatment of servants and slaves. That's pretty unique, I think, for the Old Testament here.
And not only that, but the Old Testament provided various rights for slaves. And you can look at the various references here in the notes and certain commentaries will provide those as well. Just go check out Exodus 21 and 23, and you'll see some stuff there. So just because they're enslaved to you, or for a short amount of time, or for life, whatever it is, you have to treat them well.
You just can't treat them like trash or dirt or anything worse. And not only that, Israelite law demanded that you would free, excuse me, Hebrew slaves every seven years. Look at Deuteronomy 15, Exodus 21 for that. And the great Jubilee year, every 50th year, you had to free them.
And not only did you have to free them, but you had this in them away with possessions, with material wealth, so that way they can start a new life. Which is pretty darn significant. I mean, you don't find out that I studied this in detail, in other cultures, so I mean, that's a little bit of a preamble there. But this is unique to free a slave every seven years, and send them away with possessions and belongings and material wealth to start their new lives.
That's an incredible right that Israelite law guided in this area. Also Israelite law forbade Israelites for to return runaway slaves. So if a runaway slave left his or her master and came into your town, you were not supposed to return that slave. I guess the idea being that the slave would only run away if it were an awful situation.
And so assuming that's the case, then you're not gonna send someone back to a horrific abuse of slave owner or servant owner. So these are all really interesting things to keep in mind here that Israelite law, even though it was secondary, temporary, it's not God's original standard, you still had various rights that were given. Now, Ben-Sirak himself, to kind of pull a full circle to our book here, he advises in this section, chapter 33 verse 31, to, it says, if you have a servant, let him be as yourself as verse 30 because you have bought him with blood. If you have a servant, treat him as a brother, for as your own soul, you will need him.
So you need to treat him really well, in fact, even as a brother. And then eventually of course, where he was a slave, he got to free them. And not only that, I don't know if you remember this, but back in chapter seven, verse 21, it even says to free them. You gotta free them, especially intelligent ones, who can take care of themselves.
It says in chapter seven, 30, 21, excuse me, let your soul love an intelligent servant, do not withhold from him his freedom. So yes, slavery was a part of his world, but still is realite law, and the wisdom that Sirak is pursuing here is saying to free people, take care of them, treat them well, treat them as a brother. Now, as I've said before, the Old Testament law, the Mosaic law was provisional. It's tolerated evil in various respects.
There are passages like Ezekiel 2025, when which God says, I gave them statutes and ordinances which were not good and did not give them life, because he's basic on his referring to the Deuteronomic law, because I can't get into all this, you have to go back and study the Pentateuch, but after Israel sins like horrifically, whether it's the golden calf or ballpey or God, well, really Moses, with God's permission, gives them all these laws, right? Especially Deuteronomy, right? So Levitical priesthood came because the golden calf, Deuteronomy came because of ballpey or, and they just kept sinning and so Moses, I gotta keep giving you more laws, they're so hard-hearted that Moses says, well, I'm gonna have to tolerate certain evils, so that way you do not commit greater evils. Even Jesus says as much with regard to divorce and remarriage in the Gospels.
This is Matthew, chapter 19, for example. They're wanting to divorce their wives for any reason at all, and Jesus says, no, right, you know what God is doing, let no man put us under. Like, well, why, why, Moses allowed us because of your hard-heartedness? And the rabbinic tradition is that the Israelites, these are like men would have killed their wives that couldn't divorce them.
And so Moses permitted a lesser evil for a greater evil. Now, when you get to the New Testament, the fullness of Christ, the fullness of revelation in Christ, the teachings of the church, even beginning with New Testament, is that slavery is a grave affront to human dignity, and the church, and you can study church documents, as this has been clarified in multiple instances, slavery is a great evil, and it's not to be accepted at any time. And you just have to keep in mind a bigger picture, all in all of this, is that God freed Israel from Egypt when they were slaves, right? So this is part of the great teachings of the Jubilee.
If you studied the Jubilee every 50 years in Israelite, well, if seven in an ultimately every 50th year, why did you have to free the slaves? Because you were slaves, and that wasn't any fun at all. So just as God delivered you from slavery, so you must free your slaves, and that is the great understanding, one of the great understandings of the Jubilee message, which Jesus is now free from Satan's and death, and we are never to enslave another person. That's just horrifically evil.
So in any case, this section is really, really interesting. He, yes, reflects the times in which he lived, but Israelite law did provide great balance to ancient years and cultures, even commanding freedom from slavery, which Sir Act does say as well as we read, in the New Testament in the life of the church, it's written outright. So just keep all that in mind if the topic ever comes up. But I can't say more on that, so let's move into the next topic, Point C, which is trusting in God, not in dreams.
Now this actually is pretty relevant, and the occult is growing a lot nowadays in the Western world, especially in America. Now in the Old Testament, occult practices, try to tell the future by divination, of any kind, see a source or a witch or whatever, that was common and it's common now today. And you can go and have someone read your palms, or read tarot cards, or even you can have someone interpret your dreams for you. They are like dream therapists or dream specialists, just for curiosity sake, I went online, I'm like, well, who can I find to interpret my dreams?
And there's tons of people you can contact. So this section is really interesting and very relevant, because just like the occult practices were forbidden in the Old Testament, they're forbidden in the New Testament, in the life of the church today, there's all kinds of passages about this, you are not to pursue a superstitious interpretation of dreams, to try to tell the future and try to have some kind of control over the future. You need to just trust God. And so a faulty interpretation of dreams, either you're trying to interpret your own dreams, or you're going to a dream therapist or something like that, it can cause grave, grave damage.
And so I have a quote for you from the tradition that Saint Gregory the Great says, one should not be inclined to have faith in dreams. The saints can distinguish illusions from revelations and discover the meaning of the words and images. However, if a soul is not prudent in a matter of dreams, it can be misled into a forest of vanity by the deceiving spirit, who can sometimes predict things accurately and thereby imprison a soul in a single lie. End quote.
So that's good advice, even today. Dreams are strange. Dreams are really, really wonky. And 99.99% of the time, it's just random synoptic, I'm not a dream specialist myself, but the brain is just firing, the synaptic firing's in your chivello there, your grave matter, and it's random.
One moment you're on the moon, having some pasta with an old friend that you haven't seen in 20 years. And the next moment you're just like at home, studying a book or watching a movie or something, it's just random stuff. So don't trust your dreams. Don't especially go spend your hard earned money on a dream therapist to try to tell the future.
That's not good stuff, just trust in God. And that's what this section concludes with in chapter 34, verse 13. The spirit of those who fear the Lord will live. Their hope is in him who saves them.
He who fears the Lord will not be timid nor play the coward for, he is his hope. Blessed is the soul of the man who fears the Lord to whom does he look and who is his support. The eyes of the Lord are upon those who love him and the mighty protection and a strong support, etc. Sorry, don't trust your dreams, just trust in God.
Again, very relevant I think for today. He then moves on to some advice and instruction on true worship. And this honestly is a topic that comes up a lot of times in the Bible. God does not look favorably upon empty religious ritualism.
He does not like people who just go through the motions, check the boxes, show up at church, knock out a rosary, you know mumbling a rosary and their heart is not in worship. And then they go home and they do all kinds of stuff. That's obviously very contrary to the faith. So this is really all over the Bible.
I'll give you some examples here in your notes for Samuel 15 and Isaiah 1. Hosea 6, 6 is really important because Jesus quotes that twice in the Gospels where he's confronting the Pharisees, Hosea 6, 6, as I desire mercy and not sacrifice because the leaders of Israel during Hosea's time, as well as Jesus's time, they're following the law on the externals but inside are dead men's bones right, they're whitewashed tombs. They are so very careful to follow the law meticulously, tithing even little bits of their herbs, but they don't really care about the more weightier parts of the law which is love and compassion and mercy and forgiveness. So this is a very big topic that comes up all the time.
So don't go through the motions, do not just check the boxes, love God with all your heart, soul and strength. And so after he says this, he begins in a series of contrasts to talk about there are many good things that can be canceled out by bad things. And there's a whole bunch of examples in chapter 34. Let's see here.
But I'm gonna read for you the worst of which is returning to your sin. So let's get down in chapter 34 to 23, it would be fine. 34, 23 says this. When one builds and another tears down, what do they gain but toil?
When one prays and another curses, to whose voice will the Lord listen? If a man washes after touching a dead body and touches it again, what is he gained by his watching? So if a man fasts for his sins and goes again and does the same things, who will listen to his prayer? What has he gained by humbling himself?
So this is just a series of contrasts. Again, if you go back to your sins after having repented from them, what are you to gain from that? So you need, above all, do not return to your sins and turn to God in authentic, sincere religious rituals. Now again, rituals are not bad.
Offering sacrifices for the Israelites was demanded by the law, you're supposed to do that. But those sacrifices are part of the interior conversion to sacrifice yourself for love of God and for love of neighbor. So what God does want here in true repentance of sin and fasting and cleansing yourself and what not is sincere worship. And he mentions yet again, giving alms, this is very, very common throughout all the books.
When you give alms to help people in need, God really, really smiles upon that. So here's an example. And tell me if this sounds familiar. If you've seen this in the New Testament.
So chapter 35 verse nine says, with every gift show a cheerful face and dedicate your tithe with gladness. Give to the most high as he is given and as generously as your hand has found. For the Lord is the one who repays and he will repay you sevenfold. That's really beautiful.
Just God will take care of you. If you take care of others, he is not gonna be outdone by generosity. There's so many passages and we can go whole Bible study just on giving alms and taking care of people and how God will repay your tithe will repay your generosity because it's like, you know, he's indebted to you so to speak as the image and he will repay his debts. But this passage here about every gift to show a cheerful face and dedicate your tithe with gladness, does that sound familiar to you?
It should because Paul says something very, very similar in Second Corinthians chapter nine verse seven, which is quoted a lot by priests if they're doing or pastors, eventually go otherwise, if they're doing a capital campaign or they're trying to raise money for a particular project or a personal staff member, whatever, or the bishops' line and appeal, whatever it is. This comes up a lot. I've heard it a ton. Second Corinthians nine seven, for God loves a cheerful giver.
So it's very, very possible that yet again, we have an example of Paul referencing directly or indirectly the book of C-R-A-C, which 100% is an inspired book. So I think that's kind of an interesting connection there. So yeah, devout sacrifice is giving alms but the cheerful, glad face is a type of true, authentic worship that God wants us to pursue. So we need to be as generous to others as God is with us.
So that's a beautiful section. All right, then he has a little bit of a concluding prayer here on praying for mercy and deliverance for his people. So again, you still have the alternating idea of practical wisdom and a poem or prayer, and you still kind of see that reflected here. Now this prayer in chapter 36 verse one and following is very, very interesting because he is praying for deliverance for his people.
They're still waiting for the coming of the son of David, the king of Israel to restore all things and to gregather the tribes. The prophets talk about this a ton, even Moses talked about it back in Deuteronomy, there's gonna be an exile and then a re-gathering by a prophet like Moses and all this beautiful stuff. So it's really interesting how C-R-A-C touches upon this praying for his people. Now Daniel did something very similar.
When Daniel was hauled off into captivity by Babylon, right around when the temple was destroyed or right before then. I believe he might get this wrong, but Daniel was hauled off in the second wave of exiles. So he had a little bit of time left before the temple was actually destroyed. But while he is in exile, he's praying and fasting and asking the Lord to deliver his people.
He famously Gabriel shows up and says, hey Daniel, how you doing? Beautiful prayers there, buddy, but the people aren't gonna return after 70 years. I mean, they will partially. But the true return from spiritual exile and the forgiveness of sins and the atonement of iniquity, et cetera, is going to be 70 weeks of years, 490 years.
So he's like, oh man, gosh, that's a long time. And so during this whole period leading up to Christ, they're waiting for the fulfillment of his prophecy. So this section here, chapter 36 verse one through 17, is very unique because as the Navar Bible says, it's one of the few passages in C-R-A-C that looks forward to the Messianic times which God or when God will restore Israel. And that's pretty cool, right?
Because it shows that he truly is an Israelite man who really knows the scriptures as we've read going all the way back to chapter, well the prologue, right? And following where Jesus binned C-R-A-C really steeped himself in the study of scripture, the study of the law, the prophets and the wisdom literature, and he is praying for the fulfillment of his prophecy. So that's really nice. Let's look at this for a little bit.
Chapter 36 verse one, have mercy upon us, O Lord, the God of all and look upon us and show us the light of your mercy. Sin fear of you upon the nations, lift up your hand against four nations and let them see your might. As in us, you have been sanctified before them. So in them may you be magnified before us and let them know you as we have known that there is no God but you, O Lord.
So that was verses one through five, where is it simply praying that God would be glorified and magnified amongst Israel as well as among the nations, that everyone would know that word is Ytach in Hebrew, that's covenantal knowledge, it's very famous, very important word in the study of the book of Exodus. God does everything that he does in Exodus, that Egypt and Israel and all nations would Ytach, they would know there was only one God of the universe and that's Yahweh. So that's what he's evoking here in verses one through five. Then in verse six, he says, show signs anew and work further wonders.
What signs and wonders is he talking about? Well, that's the Exodus. That is the signs and wonders that Moses performed with the power of God to free Israel from Egypt. So we're saying do it again.
So he's echoing the first Exodus in the hope of a new Exodus, right? The old Exodus, the original Exodus, is the foundation for his hope that God would deliver his people. So do it again, Lord, he says, work new signs and new wonders. But by the way, really big part, really quickly, in the gospel of John, guess what?
All of Jesus's miracles are called. Well, they're not called miracles, John calls them signs and wonders because Jesus is the new Moses who's bringing about the new Exodus and incidentally fulfilling the prayer of Sirak as well, which is awesome. Hey, this is Doc Neck. Thank you so much for listening to this course sample.
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