Everywhere we go we are greeted in this manner. It’s a twentieth century custom. Or is it? Nearly two thousand years ago, Paul found that “all the Athenians and strangers which were there (in Athens) spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21). This recalls the words of the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 1:9: “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
The word “astronaut” belongs to this age of space travel and of orbits around the earth in very expensive, especially constructed capsules, but the idea of travel through outer space is not new. There are many instances in Scripture of angelic visits; but one, in particular, in Daniel 9:21 records the visit of “the man Gabriel . . . ” “who was caused to fly swiftly” to reach Daniel while he was still praying. As wonderful as man’s inventions are in this field (and they are amazing to the non-scientific mind), God’s ways are far superior. The angels who came to earth from “outer space” needed no special equipment, no capsules, suits or other paraphernalia to enable them to make the journey. They simply appeared as men, and left when their mission was accomplished. Atmospheric conditions were no deterrent, and they were not obliged to wait for favorable weather. God has allowed men to progress far in this sphere; how much more he will be allowed to do only time will tell.
On a more prosaic plane, those of us who are no longer young will well remember when the current jokes were about the butcher who weighed his thumb in with the meat purchased. By slightly depressing the scale each time he weighed a piece of meat, he could make a small, consistent, additional profit. To protect customers and guarantee a full sixteen ounces to the pound, the government established the Bureau of Standards, and they continually check on merchants’ scales and methods of weighing and packaging. Surely this is new. The Bureau of Standards may be new, but the conditions which made it necessary are not. In Dueteronomy 25: 13-15 we read of the standards given the Israelites thousands of years ago. “Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have . . . ” Human nature does not change. A little excess profit was just as attractive to men in that early age as it is now.
Let us consider the matter of glass curtains! What a pleasure to live in this age of advanced knowledge. But I remember vaguely, although not in detail, studying in school about a queen who lived in Medieval Engand, I believe, who had a wedding dress made of spun glass. In accordance with the practice of the times, she had the artisans who created it put to death so that they could never make another. Apparently women were just as interested in “original models” then as now.
A very popular and widely read magazine of our day encourages busy people to keep abreast of the literature of the day by condensing a number of books each year and putting them out in shortened form so that a person whose time is limited may still read the essential part of the book without getting bogged down with many time-consuming but really unimportant details. This is really a help. Do we ever realize that the Bible is the oldest “condensed book” in the world? In the first eleven chapters of Genesis, we cover the broad outlines of the history of man from the time of Adam to the time of Abraham. If the Bible contained all the details we should like to know concerning the incidents recorded, it would fill so many volumes the Truth we are seeking would he lost in its pages.
What about air-conditioning? We move a switch and sit down to enjoy a cool spot even on the hottest days. Many thousand years ago however, the Arabs used a crude arrangement of their own to make the hot desert air more endurable. A hole in the wall, on the side of the prevailing breeze, was covered with damp palm leaves, and the air coming through was cooled and moistened. Modern invention, no! Air-conditioning, yes!
One of the religious leaders of our time, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, has written a widely-read book entitled, “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Without being in agreement with his theology, there are many good ideas in the book. It is really an enlargement on the idea presented in Proverbs 23:7: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he . . .”
The incidence of divorce has been on the upswing for some years, not only in this country but in many others in the world. Whether or not married couples find more areas of disagreement now than formerly, or whether it was always so, but now they resort to divorce more often, I don’t know. But the matter has become so important that many religious leaders have written lengthy articles pointing out that a difference in religion between husband and wife usually results in discord, and often in divorce. It has become a major concern of many churches to alert their followers to the pitfalls of what are termed “interfaith marriages.” The Bible clearly states the problem in just eight words in Amos 3:3: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed ?”
Frequently, when we desire to obtain something, but hesitate to spend the money, someone will remind us, “You can’t take it with you.” They will then point out that if we deny ourselves now, when we are gone someone else will spend our money on things we would consider foolish. The Preacher realized the situation fully when he wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:18,19: “Yea, I hated all my labor which I had taken under the sun: because I should leave it unto the man that shall he after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labor wherein I have labored, and wherein I have shewed myself wise under the sun.”
These are just a few examples which I have noted in passing. There are many more, and it is an interesting study to jot them down as we find them. How many more can you find while doing your daily readings?
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One