Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
Life Under the Sun
July 19, 2012
King Solomon is considered by some to be the wisest man who ever lived. Yet, he only received, too late, what one might consider to be the true wisdom of living a life above the sun. He lived most of his life under the sun with his eyes on the lures, which appeal to the vanity of man. In fact, as a man of appetites, he took far more bait, attached to the lures, than that which your average man could ever take. Unwittingly, or otherwise, he gave up the eternal throne of his father David, who ruled over Israel, in order to live life to its fullest under the sun.
He discovered a great truth in his old age, when the past could no longer be changed. He had led a life of vanities; all had been vanities. He came to see life from within the perspective of the futility of death, which erases the vanities to leave no lasting memory or enjoyment in their place.
What is life under the sun, if not life on this earth? Does the sun really rotate around the earth or does the earth rotate around the sun? Do the works of man beneath control the movement of the sun, or is there another Son above the sun, who is even a greater light in control of the affairs of man beneath?
Satan, the author of death, who first chose life beneath the sun, presents his lures and arguments to mankind from a beastly state within the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God created all things good, but Satan wants to ensnare man with a belief system, which will lure him into a life lived under the sun with the message that this is all there is, and that it can all be found in the here and the now.
He lures man into making himself the god of his own life and then into following the yellow brick road to the great magician by adopting the feel-good theory – if it feels, looks and smells good, then grasp the pleasures of the present and enjoy oneself until one dies. One is led to believe that there is nothing above the sun, which rotates around man and his world. Satan tells man to ignore the moon and the stars, for there is no light in them. Man is the center of the universe; he is his own god, and there is no other.
Yet, the God above the sun had a purpose for the reflected lights of the moon and stars. Now, the moon rotates around the earth and not the other way around. Is there not a purpose for this? Is there not a woman with a crown who walks on this moon in its reflected light (see Revelation, chapter 12)? If one only had understanding, one would know that Jacob’s son, Joseph, had a dream, which gives mankind the answer to this question, but then man looks in the wrong places for answers and understanding. He looks to academia and to a religious priesthood, both of which aspire to Ph.D.’s offered in man’s academic and theological halls of learning, under the sun.
Their finite limitations of reason never allow such men to soar above the sun and into the divine revelation of the supernatural, where all of the answers are to be found. The only Ph.D., which counts, is the one delivered by the Son and Teacher, who came from God, above the sun, and down to the earth beneath. He delivered the truth into a world ensnared and trapped in the lies of religion by Satan beneath. He came with one Book, the words of which are like diamonds, loaded with self-validating prophecy, shooting rays of light in all directions. The Book lights the entire universe and not just the earth; for the Word was made flesh and dwelt with man (see John 1:14).
To whom do you really want to listen and trust for your answers – the Ph.D.’s of academia who have trusted in Satan’s tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which delivers only fruit leading to death, or the Ph.D.’s of divine revelation coming from God and His tree of life, producing the fruit that leads to life? Do you look up to see only the light of the sun, or do you look far beyond it with spiritual sight and understanding to see the light of the Son who created all things and in whom we have our being?
Now Joseph was seen in Egypt as an interpreter of dreams, for he trusted in God, knowing that all interpretation came from Him. Pharaoh was about to discover that the sun gods had no such power under the sun, as did the God above it; there was no one in Egypt among his magicians who had divine power to predict the future. But the Lord God knows all things; He does not believe them, He knows them. For, as the Creator, He knows the end from the beginning. Joseph demonstrates to us that a divine Ph.D. in revelation of prophecy is infinitely superior to a limited Ph.D. in the religion of men.
Never believe for a moment that academia is not as religious as it gets within perimeters set by Secular Humanism. The gods of the religious sun worshipers could not tell Pharaoh that seven years of plenty were going to precede seven years of famine. Likewise, only Daniel, and no magician in the courts of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylonian empire, could interpret the dream of the king, concerning the religious world empires of nations and the terrible period lying ahead of this world, called the tribulation.
It is a seven-year period of horror when the Antichrist will sit on his throne, which Satan has always sought to put in place with a One World Empire of nations in order to rule over a world without there being any nation of God remaining, which is ruled by the truth. This is the spiritual world famine of which Joseph prophesied, one, which I believe, is a famine of truth that is nearly upon us.
Only those who search for their answers from above the sun will be ready for such a period of terrible tribulation, because they have trusted in the Son of God, and have His protection covering them. They will see the incredibly prophetic, deep meaning of Matthew, chapter 16, where Jesus establishes His church on this single divine message that He is the Son of God and the flesh and blood of man cannot reveal this through the religious practices and teaching of the world. It must be revealed from God, who reigns on His throne above the sun.
Jesus, on this occasion, had just revealed that the Judaic, religious priesthood was a bunch of hypocrites who could not read the signs of prophecy. The bread that Jesus multiplied was the spiritual bread of truth, which was eaten; the leftover crumbs were nothing other than the doctrines of the men of academia and the priests, alike. Only that which is built on the Rock of truth, the Son of God, shall escape the gates of Hades and hell because of the choice man makes between living life under the sun and trusting one’s life to the Son who reigns on high above it.
One can either live above the sun and become a reflected light from the Son, like a moon shining out to all nations as it rotates around the earth witnessing to the truth as it goes, or one can live under the only light one knows as the sun one sees in the natural world, trusting in Satan’s message that this is all there is. Fame and fortune will cement this belief in the feel-good theory, but those who testify to their pleasures are usually interpreters of shattered dreams.
‘Tis true! Solomon’s real wisdom came when the years drew near to him in which he had no pleasure in the former things – while the sun and the light, the moon and the stars, are not darkened, and the clouds do not return after the rain (Ecclesiastes 12:2). Perhaps, his greatest advice of all is to remember our Creator before the silver cord is loosed.
For Solomon had a very special revelation of life under the sun: Moreover I saw under the sun: In the place of judgment, wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. I said in my heart, “God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there shall be a time there for every purpose and for every work” (Ecclesiastes 3:16-17).
His conclusion to it all: “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “All is vanity.” And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright – words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil (Ecclesiastes 12:8-14).