The world has always seemed to have some inequalities, ranging from the bigger wealth disparity down to the type of hospital class you are eligible to stay in. Due to this inherent nature of human society, inevitably, there are differences in how we lead our lives, and how we think about the world. However, there is one thing that is the same for everyone, and that is the amount of time we all have. There are 24 hours in a day, and though the way we spend them differs by individuals, eventually, the amount of time we all have is the same, not one second more or less. Today, through this article, I also wish to remind myself of how the Bible talks about time, and by extension, of our temporal lives on Earth.
Recently, in Bible Class, we learned about Hosea. This particular verse in Hosea 13:3 stood out to me:
Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud
And like the early dew that passes away,
Like chaff blown off from a threshing floor
And like smoke from a chimney.
Hosea 13:3
It describes the temporal nature of the gods and images that the Israelites had made for themselves. The way the inspired writer described the temporal nature of things is clear and straightforward. Dew, chaff and smoke are things which we have seen in our daily lives. By using these simple metaphors, there is no reason for us not to understand.
This then reminds me of this particular lesson previously we had where the preacher gave the audience a roll of string, and everyone passed the ball of string to each other until it went around throughout the whole auditorium. The entire string signifies the concept of eternity, and our current life on Earth is only a tip of it. What we are going through now, when compared to the concept of eternity, is as what the author of Hosea mentions, like “early dew that passes away” and “like smoke from a chimney”; it appears and disappears so easily.
whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.
James 4:14
The most well-quoted verse to illustrate the fleeting nature of life is probably James 4:14, where the author actually likens our life to a vapor. A vapor is like a gas which only appears for a few seconds and then disappears into thin air, never to appear again. Many things in our lives, and even life itself, are temporary and fleeting.
However, even though the brain understands it, the heart does not. While we definitely can understand the meaning behind the verse, and even though the various illustrations of using vapour, dew and smoke to describe how fleeting life is are so plain and clear, we still put quite a significant amount of emphasis on our current life, myself included. To me, I think it is because this current world we live in feels the most real to us, as we interact with it daily, like it or not. It is then very tempting to ignore the more important things in our lives which are not so obvious or seemingly do not have an impact on our immediate well-being.
The other point that I think the Bible wants to bring across by using these metaphors is the uncertainty of life. Just like how random the vapor, dew and smoke appear, by chance and without much warning, when we will depart from the world is probably as random and uncertain as all these things are. However, perhaps as a self-protecting mechanism, we just very easily neglect and overlook this characteristic of life, and focus only on the daily things we face everyday, and take it for granted we will still be around tomorrow. This makes us, to a certain extent, apprehensive of remembering that such is the nature of life. Thus, we neglect this nature, and also forget that after we leave this world, there is still an eternal world waiting for us. How we think of the temporal and eternity also affects how we prioritise the things in our lives.
While it may not be so healthy to constantly be affected by how fleeting life is, in my personal opinion, it is definitely important for us to be regularly reminded of this nature of life, in order for us to be able to prioritise and focus on the right things in life. Some are fleeting, and some are permanent and here to stay.
Ask Yourself:
What do Dew, Vapor and Smoke tell us about life?
What are the Dew, Vapor and Smoke in your life today?
Suggested Answers:
The fleeting nature and the uncertain nature of life
It varies in individuals with some examples being our career, family, money, pride etc. These things are temporal and will fade away eventually. Besides, they make us confused as to what the more critical things are that we should focus on. It makes us constantly pursue them, but only to keep finding out that they disappear so fast time and again.