The Beloved Who Beautifies [Family Worship lesson in Song of Songs 1:16–17]

How does the Bride respond to the Bridegroom's praise? Song of Songs 1:16–17 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord's Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Bride responds to the Bridegroom's praise by praising both Him and her fellowship with Him.(click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson)

2025.12.02 Hopewell @Home ▫ Song of Songs 1:16–17

Read Song of Songs 1:16–17

Questions from the Scripture text: How does she introduce her exclamation (Song of Songs 1:16a)? What does she exclaim about Him? What does she call Him? What else does she exclaim about Him (verse 16b)? What else does she describe (verse 16c)? As what color? What else does she describe (Song of Songs 1:17a)? As of what wood? And what else (verse 17b)? As of what wood (verse 17c)?

How does the Bride respond to the Bridegroom’s praise? Song of Songs 1:16–17 prepares us for the opening portion of the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Bride responds to the Bridegroom’s praise by praising both Him and her fellowship with Him. 

In Song of Songs 1:16, the word that's being translated ‘handsome’ is the masculine form of the word ‘fair’ in Song of Songs 1:15. And what we have is the response of the church to Christ. Whenever He praises the beauty that he has attributed to us, the beauty that He has worked in us, the beauty that He sees in us (verse 15), we immediately want to throw it back onto Him—because any beauty that is in us is from Him. The beauty is natively, rightly, properly His. The beauty is only ours derivatively. It's ours as a gift, but it's His by virtue of Who He is and what He is like in Himself. He is inherently beautiful.

It's this way and should be this way with believers: that, in any good thing, as soon as we receive any commendation, or possess any good thing, or any praise whatsoever, we would always want to turn it, immediately, to the praise of the Lord Jesus. 

He never finds us more lovely (Song of Songs 1:15), or make us more lovely, than when we are expressing our love to Him (Song of Songs 1:12-14). Never do we perceive the loveliness of Christ (Song of Songs 1:16-17) so much as when He is displaying His love to us (Song of Songs 1:15).

The riches of the glories of Jesus (Song of Songs 1:16) are known especially when He is saying, “Behold, you are fair, my love, behold, you are fair” (Song of Songs 1:15). And the church ought to respond, recognizing that whatever good is in us is rightly and properly from Him, and rightly and properly to His praise.

He had commanded, “behold.” She responds, “behold,” not as a command, but as a form of obedience—as if to say, “yes, behold; I'm looking, and this is what I see; I see your beauty. Any beauty that might be in me has come from you.”

The beloved is the origin of His bride’s beauty. And His beauty is of a different quality, a different character. So she hurries to add the word, “pleasant” (Song of Songs 1:16b)—a second word that means a similar thing, with more emphasis on the experience of beauty, rather than the content of beauty. He is beautiful in Himself, and beautiful to enjoy.

By calling her “My love” (Song of Songs 1:15), He gave to her to find her identity in Him, and to know Him especially in his union with her. So now, she responds, “my Beloved” (Song of Songs 1:16). Again, she's recognizing that it is in union with Him, and in shared life (communion) with Him, that she has whatever beauty she has. He is the One Whose beauty is ultimate (verse 16a–b). He is the One Who is ultimately pleasant. And she has come to be beautiful (“fair,” Song of Songs 1:15), only because she has been united to Him, Whom she knows now as her Beloved.

But it isn’t just He Whom she experiences as beautiful. Her shared life with Him beautifies everything else that she is experiences (Song of Songs 1:16-17). Notice the shared life: not “Your bed,” but “our bed”; not “Your houses,” but “our houses.” She is experiencing her life as something in which she has a joint interest and experience with the Lord Jesus (cf. Romans 8:17).

And so, the church’s experience of the most comfort and intimacy with Christ (“our bed,” Song of Songs 1:16c) is given a color of refreshment and life and fruitfulness (“green”). And the structure and order which He has erected for their life together (“the beams of our houses,” Song of Songs 1:17a; and, “our rafters,” verse 17b) are given a substance of strength and beauty and endurance (“cedar” and “fir”). And there is certainly some allusion to the cedar of the temple that Solomon himself had built, where the Lord made a life for His people with Himself, by provision of priesthood, sacrifices, etc.

But the house of God is not ultimately the structure that Solomon built out of cedar. That house itself—by use of cedar, by use of gold, by use of the great stones that were used in it—looked forward to the life of God with His people, in His ordinances, as they would ultimately be experienced in Christ: Christ leading our worship, Christ drawing us near to God, Christ addressing us with God's word, Christ consecrating us as our high priest. And He has furnished for us those ordained servants by whom He Himself leads us before God. The structure that He has provided should be strong, enduring, beautiful and sweet to us, as cedar and fir are. 

And so as the bride responds with her praise of His beauty, she is also responding with praise of intimacy with Him, and of the provision that he has made for the house.

Finally, this word rafters, refers to a covered walk, a third concentric circle, out from the bedroom and the household. The first is very intimate. Then there's the household, which is the life with Him which He provides. But then there's also these rafters, some sort of structure in which to walk. And so, even in her going out to do business, or daily life, or whatever she's going out to do, she still has that fellowship with Him that goes wherever she goes. 

As you do, in your, life all the things that you go to do, you go accompanied by, bordered by, the fellowship that you have with Him. His beauty, His pleasantness, fills the whole of the life of the church, the whole of the life of the Christian. May God give you to have this experience of Christ.

How are you enjoying Christ? How are you enjoying times of intimacy with Him? How are you enjoying the structure that He has provided for drawing near to Him? How are you enjoying fellowship with Him, even as you go out into the rest of your life?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You for this song. We thank You for the poetry of it. We thank You most of all for the reality that this poetry is being employed to describe. Give us, we pray, to have a life, not only of intimate moments with You, but then, in your church, and in our engagement even in the world, that it would always flow from, and be accompanied by, the fellowship that we have with our Lord Jesus. For we ask it in His Name, Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH425 “How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place”

2025.12.01 Hopewell @Home ▫ Proverbs 19:16–23

Read Proverbs 19:16–23

Questions from the Scripture text: What does the one in Proverbs 19:16a keep initially? And what does this cause him to keep? What is the opposite of doing this (verse 16b)? And what happens to that careless person? Upon whom does the man in Proverbs 19:17a have pity? To Whom, ultimately, is he lending? What will He do (verse 17b)? What should one do with his son (Proverbs 19:18a)? During what time? If he does not chasten his son, then upon what does he set his heart (verse 18b)? To what sort of man does Proverbs 19:19a refer? What will happen to him? What does not actually help him (verse 19b)? What must a son do (Proverbs 19:20a)? Unto what end (verse 20b)? What is he tempted to hope will be implemented (Proverbs 19:21a)? But what will actually win out (verse 21b)? What does the poor man desire for you to be (Proverbs 19:22a, cf. Proverbs 19:17a)? To whom is he superior (Proverbs 19:22b)? What leads to what end (Proverbs 19:23a)? In what condition (verse 23b)? Unmarred by what (verse 23c)?

What do godly parents hope for their children? Proverbs 19:16–23 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that parents hope in God to bless their discipline and instruction, unto their children’s fearing YHWH, unto their life and joy.  

This section continues to build on what a man can get from his father, which we have in the previous passage. And you remember that, especially when it came to the obtaining of a wife, What a man receives from his father is a subset of what he receives from God. This passage follows up on that, and it's bookended by two statements, presenting this as a matter of life (Proverbs 19:23) and death (Proverbs 19:16).

As a father gives the instruction of the Lord (cf. Ephesians 6:4), his children learn to obey God by obeying dad (Proverbs 19:16a). In this way, they come into the life-giving fear of YHWH (Proverbs 19:23a). And not just life, but fullness of joy (verse 23b) and absence of harm (verse 23c). There's nothing that a father should want for his children more than that they would have life, with abiding satisfaction, and not be harmed at all—i.e., that his children would fear YHWH.

The fear of YHWH is displayed when you do good in situations where no one but YHWH will repay you (Proverbs 19:17)—when someone is kind to the poor (verse 17a, Proverbs 19:22a) and tells the truth (verse 22b). For this fear, discipline is necessary (Proverbs 19:18a), because we are wrathful by nature (Proverbs 19:19, cf. Ephesians 6:4). Without discipline, a child will remain foolish (Proverbs 19:22) and be destroyed (Proverbs 19:18b). Discipline brings us into submission to YHWH’s will (v21b), rather than trying to exert our own (Proverbs 19:21a). 

For the parent, this knowledge makes it a matter of the heart. Proverbs 19:18b is sobering; to fail to discipline isn’t just to be lazy or naïve; it is to set your heart on your child’s destruction. Parenting isn’t just a matter of habits, but of the heart. There is a window of hope (verse 18a) that threatens to slip away.

If they don't receive counsel and instruction, then they will continue to be fools, and they will continue to need discipline. And once they get out of the season of life in which discipline will help, they will bring themselves more and more under the punishment and wrath of God. The goal is that by the time the child comes into the next season of life, he will be wise (Proverbs 19:20). Thus, he will come to receive everything happily under the providence of God, in the fear of God; and, even those things that others experience as evil, he will know to be for his good in God’s mercy to him.

What is your attitude toward disciplining children? What is your attitude toward being disciplined by the Lord? How can you tell what value you are placing upon fearing Him? What sort of life are you hoping to obtain?

Sample prayer:  Father, thank You for not setting Your heart on our destruction, but giving Christ for us. And then giving us Your word by Your Spirit, Who uses it to bring us to Christ and to grow us in Christ. We pray that Your Spirit would do so, even with this passage that we have just heard. For we ask it in Jesus's Name, Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP184 “Adoration and Submission” or TPH131B “Not Haughty Is My Heart” 

Lifesaving Discipline [Family Worship lesson in Proverbs 19:16–23]

What do godly parents hope for their children? Proverbs 19:16–23 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that godly parents hope in God to bless their discipline and instruction, unto their children’s fearing YHWH, unto their life and joy. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: This devotional presents a call to cultivate the fear of YHWH as the foundation of true life and lasting satisfaction. It emphasizes that obedience to divine instruction—applied by godly parenting—preserves the soul, while neglect leads to spiritual death. One example of this life is compassion for the poor, not as mere charity but as an act of reverence toward God’s image. The text underscores that genuine wisdom comes through heeding counsel and enduring discipline, especially in youth, as unchecked rebellion and indulgence lead to wrath and repeated consequences. Ultimately, the goal is a life trusting God’s eternal counsel, where even trials are received with joy under His providence, resulting in abiding satisfaction and freedom from evil’s grasp.

2025.12.01 Hopewell @Home ▫ Proverbs 19:16–23

Read Proverbs 19:16–23

Questions from the Scripture text: What does the one in v16a keep initially? And what does this cause him to keep? What is the opposite of doing this (v16b)? And what happens to that careless person? Upon whom does the man in v17a have pity? To Whom, ultimately, is he lending? What will He do (v17b)? What should one do with his son (v18a)? During what time? If he does not chasten his son, then upon what does he set his heart (v18b)? To what sort of man does v19a refer? What will happen to him? What does not actually help him (v19b)? What must a son do (v20a)? Unto what end (v20b)? What is he tempted to hope will be implemented (v21a)? But what will actually win out (v21b)? What does the poor man desire for you to be (v22a, cf. v17a)? To whom is he superior (v22b)? What leads to what end (v23a)? In what condition (v23b)? Unmarred by what (v23c)?

What do godly parents hope for their children? Proverbs 19:16–23 looks forward to the midweek sermon. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that parents hope in God to bless their discipline and instruction, unto their children’s fearing YHWH, unto their life and joy.  

This section continues to build on what a man can get from his father, which we have in the previous passage. And you remember that, especially when it came to the obtaining of a wife, What a man receives from his father is a subset of what he receives from God. This passage follows up on that, and it's bookended by two statements, presenting this as a matter of life (v23) and death (v16).

As a father gives the instruction of the Lord (cf. Eph 6:4), his children learn to obey God by obeying dad (v16a). In this way, they come into the life-giving fear of YHWH (v23a). And not just life, but fullness of joy (v23b) and absence of harm (v23c). There's nothing that a father should want for his children more than that they would have life, with abiding satisfaction, and not be harmed at all—i.e. that his children would fear YHWH.

The fear of YHWH is displayed when you do good in situations where no one but YHWH will repay you (v17)—when someone is kind to the poor (v17a, 22a) and tells the truth (v22b). For this fear, discipline is necessary (v18a), because we are wrathful by nature (v19, cf. Eph 6:4). Without discipline, a child will remain foolish (v22) and be destroyed (v18b). Discipline brings us into submission to YHWH’s will (v21b), rather than trying to exert our own (v21a).

For the parent, this knowledge makes it a matter of the heart. v18b is sobering; to fail to discipline isn’t just to be lazy or naïve; it is to set your heart on your child’s destruction. Parenting isn’t just a matter of habits, but of the heart. There is a window of hope (v18a) that threatens to slip away.

If they don't receive counsel and instruction, then they will continue to be fools, and they will continue to need discipline. And once they get out of the season of life in which discipline will help, they will bring themselves more and more under the punishment and wrath of God. The goal is that by the time the child comes into the next season of life, he will be wise (v20). Thus, he will come to receive everything happily under the providence of God, in the fear of God; and, even those things that others experience as evil, he will know to be for his good in God’s mercy to him.

What is your attitude toward disciplining children? What is your attitude toward being disciplined by the Lord? How can you tell what value you are placing upon fearing Him? What sort of life are you hoping to obtain?

Sample prayer:  Father, thank You for not setting Your heart on our destruction, but giving Christ for us. And then giving us Your word by Your Spirit, Who uses it to bring us to Christ and to grow us in Christ. We pray that Your Spirit would do so, even with this passage that we have just heard. For we ask it in Jesus's Name, Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP184 “Adoration and Submission” or TPH131B “Not Haughty Is My Heart”

Identifying Kingdom Heirs [Family Worship lesson in Matthew 25:31–46]

How do you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory? Matthew 25:31–46 looks forward to the morning sermon in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory by grace-sustained adoration, affection, and action. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: This passage reveals that readiness for Christ’s return is rooted in divine election and sustained by a life of adoration, affection, and action toward fellow believers. The final judgment centers not on abstract moral performance but on how individuals have responded to Christ’s suffering through His mystical union with His people, making acts of mercy toward the vulnerable a reflection of worship and love for Him. True faith is marked by adoration of Christ as YHWH, which produces genuine affection for His redeemed, expressed in tangible acts of service. These actions are not a means of earning salvation, but a fruit of being predestined for the kingdom, and living by God’s grace.

2025.11.29 Hopewell @Home ▫ Matthew 25:31–46

 Read Matthew 25:31–46

Questions from the Scripture text: Who is coming (v31)? In what condition? With whom? To do what? Who will be gathered before Him (v32)? What will He do to them (v32–33)? What will He say to those on the right hand (v34–36)? By Whom are they blessed (v34)? What is prepared for them? Since when? What are they now to do with it? What have they done? How will they respond to His saying this (v37–39)? What is His explanation (v40)? What will He say to those on the left hand (v41–43)? Where will they be sent (v41)? What haven’t they done (v42–43)? How will they answer (v44)? What is His explanation (v45)? How does v46 summarize the outcome?

How do you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory? Matthew 25:31–46 looks forward to the morning sermon in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixteen verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory by grace-sustained adoration, affection, and action.

How do you get ready for the Son of Man to come in His glory (v31)? What makes you ready is being predestined from the foundation of the world (v34). Who will receive, and what they receive, is prepared from all eternity. All depends upon Him, so even as we think about how to live, we realize that this will only be by His grace. We are dependent upon Him for our living that way. The rest of humanity are cursed. They are volitional, they make their choices, their real choices, they are wicked, but ultimately it is because they are reprobate. There is a double predestination, and God is righteous and just in doing so.

So election is one answer. But those who are elected have these three attributes: adoration, affection, and action.

The first is adoration. It is all done as worship unto Him. He receives what is done, particularly to Christians, as being done unto Him. And therefore, they are not just actions made in affection for particular people. they are actions made in adoration of the Glorious One.

Do you adore the Lord Jesus? Do you worship him? In all of the love that you have for those who are Christians, is it especially because they are His? Is it especially because they are His, and because He receives it as done unto Him? We can't skip adoration. We can't go straight to feeling really warm and fuzzy towards those who are called Christians. Adoration first.

Second, affection. If we adore Him, we will love Him and all those who are united to Him (v40). So He'll say, for I was hungry, you gave Me food. I was thirsty, you gave Me drink. I was a stranger, you took Me in. I was naked, you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited Me. I was in prison, you came to Me (v35–36). How could the Lord Himself have ben in such situations (v37)? He has so united Himself to those whom He is saving that they inherit with Him, but He suffers with them (cf. Rom 8:16–18). Thus, adoration of Christ must necessarily be joined to affection toward Christians. If you do not adore Jesus, then whatever affection you have for others who are called Christian is not truly Christian affection, because true Christian affection is rooted in adoration of the Christ to Whom they are united. But if you don't have affection towards Christians, it is also true then that you don't adore Jesus.

Finally, affection towards Christians isn't just a warm feeling. Affection is expressed in actions. Those who are His have real earthly needs, like food and hunger and clothing and illness, like having no home and needing a place to stay, or being imprisoned and needing to be remembered or advocated for. If we take no action, then there was no affection. That doesn't mean that love is only an action. That means that love includes both. There are those who take lots of actions, but they do it out of pride or a desire to justify themselves or feel good about themselves. These actions are a litmus test, not because they make the difference between the sheep and the goats, but because the difference between the sheep and the goats makes their actions.

So that's one of the ways that we can diagnose whether we need to be brought to a repentance that begins with renewed adoration of the Lord Jesus, and is felt in affection for Christians, which is expressed in those actions. And that's how you live as someone who is ready for his return.

How are you adoring Jesus? What is your affection to Christians? How are you putting this into action?

Sample prayer:  Father, we thank You for this portion of Your Word. We thank You for Your Son and His clear teaching about His return and what makes the difference in us. We thank You for Your electing love and for Your free decree and predestining out of Your good pleasure. And we ask that by Your Spirit, You would produce in us that adoration of Christ, and affection towards Christians, that produces Christian action. For we ask it in Christ's name, AMEN!

 Suggested Songs: ARP32AB “What Blessedness” or TPH98A “O Sing a New Song to the Lord”

2025.11.28 Hopewell @Home ▫ Song of Songs 1:16–17

Read Song of Songs 1:16–17

Questions from the Scripture text: How does she introduce her exclamation (v16a)? What does she exclaim about Him? What does she call Him? What else does she exclaim about Him (v16b)? What else does she describe (v16c)? As what color? What else does she describe (v17a)? As of what wood? And what else (v17b)? As of what wood (v17c)?

How does the Bride respond to the Bridegroom’s praise? Song of Songs 1:16–17 prepares us for the evening sermon on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that the Bride responds to the Bridegroom’s praise by praising both Him and her fellowship with Him.

In v16, the word that's being translated ‘handsome’ is the masculine form of the word ‘fair’ in v15. And what we have is the response of the church to Christ. Whenever He praises the beauty that he has attributed to us, the beauty that He has worked in us, the beauty that He sees in us (v15), we immediately want to throw it back onto Him—because any beauty that is in us is from Him. The beauty is natively, rightly, properly His. The beauty is only ours derivatively. It's ours as a gift, but it's His by virtue of Who He is and what He is like in Himself. He is inherently beautiful.

It's this way and should be this way with believers: that, in any good thing, as soon as we receive any commendation, or possess any good thing, or any praise whatsoever, we would always want to turn it, immediately, to the praise of the Lord Jesus.

He never finds us more lovely (v15), or make us more lovely, than when we are expressing our love to Him (v12–14). Never do we perceive the loveliness of Christ (v16–17) so much as when He is displaying His love to us (v15).

The riches of the glories of Jesus (v16) are known especially when He is saying, “Behold, you are fair, my love, behold, you are fair” (v15). And the church ought to respond, recognizing that whatever good is in us is rightly and properly from Him, and rightly and properly to His praise.

He had commanded, “behold.” She responds, “behold,” not as a command, but as a form of obedience—as if to say, “yes, behold; I'm looking, and this is what I see; I see your beauty. Any beauty that might be in me has come from you.”

The beloved is the origin of His bride’s beauty. And His beauty is of a different quality, a different character. So she hurries to add the word, “pleasant” (v16b)—a second word that means a similar thing, with more emphasis on the experience of beauty, rather than the content of beauty. He is beautiful in Himself, and beautiful to enjoy.

By calling her, “My love” (v15) He gave to her to find her own identity in Him, and to know Him especially in his union with her. So now, she responds, “my Beloved” (v16). Again, she's recognizing that it is in union with Him, and in shared life (communion) with Him, that she has whatever beauty she has. He is the One Whose beauty is ultimate (v16a–b). He is the One Who is ultimately pleasant. And she has come to be beautiful (“fair,” v15), only because she has been united to Him, Whom she knows now as her Beloved.

But it isn’t just He Whom she experiences as beautiful. Her shared life with Him beautifies everything else that she is experiences (v16c–17). Notice the shared life: not “Your bed,” but “our bed”; not “Your houses,” but “our houses.” She is experiencing her life as something in which she has a joint interest and experience with the Lord Jesus (cf. Rom 8:17).

And so, the church’s experience of the most comfort and intimacy with Christ (“our bed,” v16c) is given a color of refreshment and life and fruitfulness (“green”). And the structure and order which He has erected for their life together (“the beams of our houses,” v17a; and, “our rafters,” v17b) are given a substance of strength and beauty and endurance (“cedar” and “fir”). And there is certainly some allusion to the cedar of the temple that Solomon himself had built, where the Lord made a life for His people with Himself, by provision of priesthood, sacrifices, etc.

But the house of God is not ultimately the structure that Solomon built out of cedar. That house itself—by use of cedar, by use of gold, by use of the great stones that were used in it—looked forward to the life of God with His people, in His ordinances, as they would ultimately be experienced in Christ: Christ leading our worship, Christ drawing us near to God, Christ addressing us with God's word, Christ consecrating us as our high priest. And He has furnished for us those ordained servants by whom He Himself leads us before God. The structure that He has provided should be strong, enduring, beautiful and sweet to us, as cedar and fir are.

And so as the bride responds with her praise of His beauty, she is also responding with praise of intimacy with Him, and of the provision that he has made for the house.

Finally, this word rafters, refers to a covered walk, a third concentric circle, out from the bedroom and the household. The first is very intimate. Then there's the household, which is the life with Him which He provides. But then there's also these rafters, some sort of structure in which to walk. And so, even in her going out to do business, or daily life, or whatever she's going out to do, she still has that fellowship with Him that goes wherever she goes.

As you do, in your, life all the things that you go to do, you go accompanied by, bordered by, the fellowship that you have with Him. His beauty, His pleasantness, fills the whole of the life of the church, the whole of the life of the Christian. May God give you to have this experience of Christ.

How are you enjoying the Lord Jesus? How are you enjoying times of intimacy with Him? How are you enjoying the structure that He has provided for drawing near to Him? How are you enjoying fellowship with Him, even as you go out into the rest of your life?

Sample prayer:  Lord, we thank You for this song. We thank You for the poetry of it. We thank You most of all for the reality that this poetry is being employed to describe. Give us, we pray, to have a life, not only of intimate moments with You, but then, in your church, and in our engagement even in the world, that it would always flow from, and be accompanied by, the fellowship that we have with our Lord Jesus. For we ask it in His Name, Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP73C “Yet Constantly, I Am with You” or TPH425 “How Sweet and Awesome Is the Place”

Trusting the God Who Knows and Gives [Family Worship lesson in Ecclesiastes 8:16–17]

How much of God’s work can man figure out? Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 prepares us for the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that man cannot even begin to find out all of God’s work, let alone comprehend it all. (click here to DOWNLOAD mp3/pdf files of this lesson) Summary of the transcript of the audio: The devotional centers on the humility required to find true happiness, rooted in the recognition that human wisdom cannot comprehend the full scope of God’s sovereign work in the world. No matter how diligently one seeks to understand the mysteries of life and divine providence, God’s wisdom remains beyond human grasp. Pastor warns against the danger of equating happiness with theological mastery, instead calling for trust in God’s incomprehensible wisdom and goodness. Acknowledging that God knows all and has all things in perfect order—is presented as the antidote to anxiety and the foundation of lasting joy. It concludes by calling us to rest in God’s sovereignty, remembering that true contentment comes not from understanding God, but from trusting Him.

2025.11.27 Hopewell @Home ▫ Ecclesiastes 8:16–17

 Read Ecclesiastes 8:16–17

Questions from the Scripture text: What did Solomon apply (v16)? To know what? And to see what? How much res did he take? But what did he end up seeing (v17)? And concluding about it? What might a man do? But what can he still not do? What sort of man might say (more literal than NKJ ‘attempts’) that he knows it? But what is this man not even able to do?

How much of God’s work can man figure out? Ecclesiastes 8:16–17 prepares us for the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these two verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that man cannot even begin to find out all of God’s work, let alone comprehend it all.

One necessary ingredient of happiness is humility. We've the conclusion that, if you receive your eating your food as a gift from God, your drink as a gift from God, your being merry as a gift from God, your laboring as a gift from God, every day of your life as a gift from God, that this is the key to true happiness (v15). Because God Himself is the answer for all the things that make man miserable. And now we see that a big part of remembering you Creator is not to think that you have your Creator figured out, but to think that your Creator has you (and everything else) figured out. Even with sleepless application of oneself (v16), it is utterly impossible to begin examining the scope of God’s work (v17a), let alone understand it (v17b).

Our pride endangers us of trying to have your happiness in God by thinking that the extent of our theological understanding of Him (and His will and His work) is what will make us happy. But we cannot comprehend God, so it is foolish to think that we will achieve happiness by intellectual, theological achievement. This is what Solomon has discovered in v16–17. If you could trace all the things that men do (v16a). And if you could sleeplessly trace all those things that all men sleeplessly do (v16b), you still wouldn't begin to scratch the surface of the work of God. Because everything that all men do, taken all together, is this infinitesimal little component of the whole of the work that God is doing in His sovereign providence (v17a).

So, not only is it impossible to comprehend all of the work that men do under the sun, but this impossible quantity is itself an insignificant fraction of what one would have to know in order to comprehend all that is happening. The total amount of all that man could potentially know is not even a rounding error in the equation of the work of God. Even if a man labors to discover it, he cannot not find it (v17a). And if the wisest man says that he knows it (a more literal translation than NKJ’s “attempts”), still he is not able even to find it, let alone to analyze what he has found. The one who says that he has it all figured out is either self-deceived in saying that he knows it, or he is lying, deceiving others in saying that he knows it.

No human wisdom can figure out everything that God is doing. The New Testament often uses the word “mystery” to refer to parts of God’s redemptive plan that man could never have discovered—but that God has been pleased to explain to us. It is good for us to remember that there remains an infinity that He has kept to Himself—and that is the perfectly safe place for those things to be kept. You don’t have to “leave it all with God”—it is already there!

We should apply this to our life prospectively: don't think that your happiness will come from figuring out what God is doing. Instead, your happiness will be bound up in knowing that God Himself has what He Himself is doing all figured out. God knows how all things fit together. There is great happiness there is in knowing this, with your heart embracing Christ and His cross (cf. Rom 8:32), so that you are always sure that God intends and knows it all for good (cf. Rom 8:28).

Also retrospectively, if God permits you to see a little glimpse of part of the wisdom of how He has put everything together, be careful. Do not let yourself think things like, “now I know why God did this.” You don't. You maybe glimpse an infinitesimal little sliver of why God did it. And that sliver might not even be understood or perceived accurately. And what you do perceive, you do not fully understand. And what you do understand is a tiny little component of the whole.

So, instead of  “now I understand why God did this,” you could say, “now I remember that God is infinitely wiser and infinitely more good than I am; how kind of him to show me again! How His wisdom is beyond my finding out, and His goodness is without measure!”

Thus, such rememberings further develop that humility which is necessary unto biblical contentment. It is sweet and peaceful to “develop” into that weaned child, who meddle with things that are too lofty for him, but who knows that he can trust his Heavenly Father (cf. Ps 131).

Humility is necessary to happiness. It is the cure for anxiety and worry. We know so little. But the One Who is our happiness, and Who gives us our food, our drink, our merriment, our labor—Who gives us every day of our life—He knows everything. And we trust it to Him.

In what, in God’s providence, have you enjoyed glimpsing His wisdom and goodness? How can you respond to it in a way that develops more happiness by admitting how little of that wisdom you have even seen thus far?

Sample prayer:  Our gracious God and our heavenly Father, We pray that You would help us to learn this lesson of humility, and not to think that figuring You out is what makes us happy. Rather, give us to realize that trusting You, and having You as our happiness, is what makes us happy. So be our happiness, we ask, and give us humility by Your Spirit, we ask through Your Son, the Lord Jesus, our Savior. Amen!

Suggested songs: ARP23B “The Lord’s My Shepherd” or TPH131B “Not Haughty Is My Heart”