What would you do if you came across an important secret? What if this secret could change the way you think about your self? What if this secret could offset the weather of your energy? What if you learned that, what you thought was for you, actually wasn’t? What would you do?
There are many secrets within the Bible: secrets that have to be searched out, translated, examined, and refined for understanding. But then there are secrets that are hidden in plain sight, secrets that if unconscious to, we will pass by them as if they aren’t there. I guess, then, such a secret, if passing by what is plainly in front of us, isn’t honestly a secret, but is a mistake on our part.
The Bible tells us the secret exercise of theologians and scientists within the religious world. This secret really isn’t a secret, but because we may not give enough care to language and context within the Bible, we pass over two very telling verses:
“I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end,” Ecclesiastes 3:10,11.
The author of the book of Ecclesiastes put their self to the test, exercising themselves in the lifestyle of the sons of men. Who are the “sons of men”? The phrase is revealing, because these are men that are born from or conceived by men. This idea is put together from how it says, “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,” Hebrews 5:1.
“Son,” to the Bible’s mind, doesn’t actually mean a biological son to a father. “Son” is a term understood from how it says, “To Titus, mine own son after the common faith,” Titus 1:4, and, “Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith,” 1 Timothy 1:2.
When the Bible mentions “son,” in its truest context, the Bible is mentioning no literal or biological child, but a priest or a minister that has become the priest or the minister of a priest or minister, these two bound together by the passing down of doctrine or philosophy. This idea is again understood from how it says, “He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length,” Proverbs 29:21.
The “sons of men” are a category of individuals within the Bible. The “sons of men” are priests born from priests; said in present terms, these are priests and ministers graduated from universities and seminaries with the “seed” of men within their mission and understanding.
The Bible tells us a secret about this group. The author of Ecclesiastes spent time living the lifestyle of the “sons of men” and wrote a report on the experience; Ecclesiastes is that report. The author found out that the “sons of men” are given a curse from God. This “curse” is as its says:
“I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith,” Ecclesiastes 1:13.
The “sons of men” are plagued with a desire to only know what is within “the world” of religion and nothing more. Said again in present terms, the mind of the “sons of men” cannot extend beyond their philosophy or theology. It is not I that is making this report, but the Bible, and we do well, if our concern is inward growth and development, to take knowledge of what the Bible is saying.
Why is this important? Why is the Bible saying this? Why is the Bible “hating” on “the sons of men”? There is a dislike for the “sons of men” because this group dislikes the actual philosophy within the Bible. Instead of understanding what the Bible is articulating, they meander through handwritten philosophy and theology. The Bible speaks ill of them because they speak ill of the Bible, even while professing to speak from it.
This is important to know because the exercise of the “sons of men” is not our exercise. After living the delusion of the “sons of men,” the author of Ecclesiastes concluded that their religious or doctrinal lifestyle and habits were vanity. Taking their experience into consideration, the author writes:
“I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts,” Ecclesiastes 3:18.
The exercise of the “sons of men” should be left to the “sons of men.” We spend our mind, time, and energy in the realm of the “sons of men,” peddling their theories, maintaining their approach, and consenting to their frame of mind. Our conversation does not know its self because the “sons of men” have control of it. True justification is resurrecting from the threshold of the “sons of men”; we have to know this.