Whenever my husband travels, this strange compulsion comes over me to "do the man's job". In France it used to be pruning hedges, or digging up tree stumps. Now that we have a whole forest in our back yard, I have taken to chopping down trees. Well not exactly chopping them "down". More like cleaning up the trees that are dead and have fallen down. And then dragging them to the wood pile. And today was the first day I attempted this.
Of course I know better than to use a power tool while my husband is away. Hello! So I went out armed with an axe and a hatchet. I cleaned off the first tree, and began to drag it to the woodpile. I learned something very quickly. You can't turn corners when you are dragging a tree through a forest. The average tree is about a hundred feet long, and the trees grow close to one another, about ten feet apart. If you want to change direction by a few degrees, you are going to have to walk several miles. I figured that, in order to turn my tree at right angles, I would have had to walk in a circle for about a hundred miles!
So I dropped the tree, and that was when these words from Ecclesiastes flashed into my mind: "Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there will it lie." Our pastor had quoted this verse last Sunday in his sermon. He had not elaborated on it, and I assume that is because he is not a seasoned woodcutter. Like me.
What the writer of Ecclesiastes failed to mention, is that the woodsman's camp was lying in an easterly or westerly direction from where he was collecting wood, and as he dropped the tree in frustration, just as I had, what he actually said to himself (no doubt) was: "In the place where the (expletive) tree falls, there let the (expletive) thing lie." But as we all know, the Bible cannot quote expletives, so we only get the sanitary version.
Sometimes verses like these can seem so puzzling, simply because we don't understand the context. It seems that the writer had something in mind - and we are left trying to work it out, all the days of our lives. At least it keeps us busy guessing - like this one Bible commentator: "If a tree about to fall lean to the north, to the north it will fall; if to the south, it will fall to that quarter. In whatever disposition or state of soul thou diest, in that thou wilt be found in the eternal world."
Now I don't know about you, but I haven't a clue what he just said!! Personally, I think the writer needs to get away from his books and out into the fresh air. Do something physical. Like cutting wood.
Our modern lives can be so removed from the day in which the Bible was written, we often have to do some serious research to discover it's original meaning. Or we have to do some serious hard labor - like cutting wood..
In this passage in Ecclesiastes, it seems that the writer is just making very obvious observations about life:
"If clouds are full of water, they pour rain upon the earth." Wow. Deep. Very deep. And "Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap." The equivalent in our modern society would read something like: "If you go to the mall on the first day of a sale, you will get crushed. If you go on the second day you will miss all the great bargains. Your choice." These are really what I would call "duh" statements.
And now that I am a seasoned woodcutter, you will hear me say "Buddy, I don't care if that is the perfect tree. It's lying the wrong way. Just leave it there, it ain't worth it. Go find yourself another tree. One which fell the right way! Trust me. And by the way, what I just said - it's in the Bible! Ecclesiastes 11:3."
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