Exercise

Amen! I love God’s play on words and double entendre with “sore” being connected with exercise! Also, Amos 8:11 got brought up during our family Bible study yesterday. :)

-Hope ❤️⚔️🗡️🎯

 Dear Dad’s (Randall Hartinger) Bible Study Today. BLESSED!

💥🔥🕊️✅📖🏹🎯🍯⌛⌚🔝☝️🏔️🙏⚔️🛡️🕛⚠️

Exhorting to Exercise toward Excellency…

01/13 Daily Exhortation (Matt.6:11; Luke 11:3; Heb.3:13;10:25)…

For this date of 1/13, here is a verse 1:13 from which to glean: 

 Ecclesiastes 1:13 (KJB)  And 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.

I Love, love, love this verse. It has been an oft-quoted verse for nigh 3 decades. What take aways are therein? 

Let’s highlight “exercised” there:

2 Timothy 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

God commands us to STUDY. 

Ecclesiastes 12:12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

2 Samuel 23:9-10 And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David, when they defied the Philistines that were there gathered together to battle, and the men of Israel were gone away:

He arose, and smote the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand clave unto the sword: and the LORD wrought a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to spoil.

Let us draw an allegory here. Eleazar is quickly phonetically identified with “Eliezer” the steward of Abraham, who is  emblematic of the Holy Spirit getting Rebekah (Bride of Christ) for Isaac (the Son) for Abraham (the Father). 

Now, the sword represents the word of God which is also called the “sword of the Spirit” (Eph. 6; Heb.4:12; Jer.48:10, etc.). The Bible speaks of handling the Word (1 John 1). The sword has a HANDLE for your HAND. Note that his hand was WEARY. Much study is a WEARINESS OF THE FLESH. But the Bible teaches that the flesh will lust against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh but that if you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:16-17).  This brings us to another passage in Galatians 6…

Galatians 6:7-9 

7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

You can reap the spoils by allowing the sword to CLEAVE TO YOUR HAND regardless of how much weariness is involved. This is the LAW OF THE HARVEST. There is a blessing to those that read and hear and obey God’s word (see Revelation 1, etc.). These days are prophesied as a famine of hearing God’s words (Amos 8:11) and of being able to “endure sound doctrine” (2 Tim.4:3), etc. 

Our focus passage calls this a “sore travail” to be exercised therewith. Hebrews 5 says that the milk of the word is for those that are unskillful in the word of righteousness, but strong meat is for those that have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil by their “reason of use” of the word. 

How about YOU today? Will you “Seek ye out of the Book of the Lord, and Read” (Isaiah 34:16)? Have you set in your heart to pursue wisdom or just amusement ("a" means NO and "muse" means TO THINK)? 

There can be no “excellent spirit” (Prov.17:27; Dan.5:12,14;Dan.6:3) apart from exercise, -r <3