Nets, Snares, and Fetters

One man among a thousand I found, but a woman among all these I have not found. -Ecclesiastes 7:28b 

The Preacher's observation seems rather cynical at first glance. Not one good woman in a thousand? Seems harsh, hmm?

Someone has done the math and pointed out that, according to this observation, only one-tenth of one percent separates the sexes. Not much to choose from there especially when you consider we are all fallen in our natures and therefore corrupt and deceitful.

How many times, after all, have you succeeded in fooling yourself (I have)? Are you doing so now? In fact does it not take all the honest soul-searching we can muster to observe the depth of self-deceit of which we are capable?  

It is easy to notice as well the careful diligence with which Satan labors to drive wedges in our marriages. So when I consider a man who had 700 wives and 300 concubines (that's a thousand, folks), I wonder that he was able at all to write anything near to the Song of Songs.

So when he speaks (in v.26) of the woman whose "heart is snares and nets" and whose "hands are fetters," I don't doubt that there may have been one or two of these in his acquaintance.

It doesn't take a doctorate in theology to understand that none of us are angels.  The Preacher knew his own heart apparently and notes (v.29) that "God made man upright but they have sought out many schemes."

Finally, it has also been noted, that these observations, made of matters "under the sun," speak clearly of a worldview where a sovereign God is conspicuously absent.

To read even one of Paul's New Testament epistles is to be struck by the amount of space dedicated to reminding Christians of the need for a God-centered outlook on life.

Which leads me. in the final analysis, to believe that none of us (male or female and etc.) has any room for self-congratulation.

Or any biblical basis for finger-pointing.