Peripherals, A Brief Look At Exorcism

Today I would like to begin a new series I am calling Peripherals. To explain, as opposed to my Molehills series, Peripherals will deal with issues within Christendom that are not necessarily doctrinal items, but an observational commentary on something that has become entrenched in the church or even popular culture. For the first entry I would like to have a brief examination regarding the history of exorcism. Mind you, this is hardly exhaustive, but rather a glimpse into the concept of exorcism.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Eight, Seeking The Impossible

 Ecclesiastes 8:16 When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, [17] then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.

Paradoxically, when the preacher attests that he applied his heart to know wisdom, he learned that man cannot learn what is done under the sun. In short, he realized that, through wisdom, he cannot know certain things. The sum of what is done under the sun is God’s providence: he says as much when he refers to it as “the work of God.”

Ecclesiastes Chapter Eight, Nothing Is Better

Ecclesiastes 8:15 So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

The familiar phrase “under the sun” is used twice in this verse, just as “vanity” is employed twice in the last for added emphasis on the preacher’s current point of view. The preacher wants to emphasize the fact that he is viewing the reward or purpose of life from an entirely earthly perspective. His conclusion? To indulge in enjoyment.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Eight, Reversing What Is Just

Ecclesiastes 8:14 There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

Once more the preacher tackles the noticeable and pointless disparity in human culture and society. Twice in a single verse the preacher calls this practice vanity, futility, pointlessness. There is no reason or rationality behind it; it simply is, and to make an effort to define or understand why is a labor in pointlessness. It is, because people are. I am unfair in some of my behavior. I have biases, preferences, and emotional turns that do nothing to commend logic, intelligence, or objective fairness. This is a part of being human and possessing a sin nature.

Ecclesiastes Chapter Eight, Fearing Before God

Ecclesiastes 8:11 Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. [12] Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. [13] But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

The idea is laxity of justice in government when law breakers are caught and tried. The sentence, or verdict, is not speedily carried out and therefore it emboldens future wrongdoers to follow in the footsteps of their progenitors. There is, in the United States, a strange amount of criminals condemned to death row that, rather than die because of their sentence, die from old age or sickness. Some inmates last 30+ years behind bars after being sentenced to death. Think of it, if a murderer is convicted at 30, lives 30 years behind bars and is finally then executed, he has doubled his lifespan since the time of the crime that put him in prison. Meanwhile, his victim remains dead, and their family awaits justice to be done.