Scripture Daily

Context No. 290 of 4322 · Sirach

Context · Reflection

Sirach 15:1-20: in context

1He who fears the Lord will do this. He who has possession of the law will obtain her. 2She will meet him like a mother, and receive him like a wife married in her virginity. 3She will feed him with bread of understanding and give him water of wisdom to drink. 4He will be stayed upon her, and will not be moved. He will rely upon her, and will not be confounded. 5She will exalt him above his neighbors. She will open his mouth in the midst of the congregation. 6He will inherit joy, a crown of gladness, and an everlasting name. 7Foolish men will not obtain her. Sinners will not see her. 8She is far from pride. Liars will not remember her. 9Praise is not attractive in the mouth of a sinner; for it was not sent to him from the Lord. 10For praise will be spoken in wisdom; The Lord will prosper it. 11Don’t say, “It is through the Lord that I fell away;” for you shall not do the things that he hates. 12Don’t say, “It is he that caused me to err;” for he has no need of a sinful man. 13The Lord hates every abomination; and those who fear him don’t love them. 14He himself made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his own counsel. 15If you choose, you can keep the commandments. To be faithful is a matter of your choice. 16He has set fire and water before you. You will stretch forth your hand to whichever you desire. 17Before man is life and death. Whichever he likes, it will be given to him. 18For the wisdom of the Lord is great. He is mighty in power, and sees all things. 19His eyes are upon those who fear him. He knows every act of man. 20He has not commanded any man to be ungodly. He has not given any man license to sin.

Sirach here takes on a very old excuse and refuses to let it stand: the idea that when we sin, it is really God's doing. People have always found ways to say it. Ben Sira quotes them directly. Do not say, it was the Lord who made me fall. Do not say, it was he who led me astray. He answers flatly. God hates every sin, has no need of a single sinner, and has not commanded anyone to be ungodly or handed anyone a license to sin. The fault cannot be shipped upstairs.

Then he states the reason, and it is one of the plainest declarations of human freedom in the Bible. God made man in the beginning, he says, and left him in the hand of his own counsel. We were entrusted with our own choices. If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own decision. He gives it an image you can feel in your hand: God has set fire and water before you, and you stretch out your hand to whichever you want. Before every person lie life and death, and whichever one he reaches for is the one he gets. The choice is genuine, and so are the consequences. God sees everything, the passage adds, but seeing is not the same as forcing.

The dignity in this is also the weight of it. Because I am truly free, the excuse does not work. I cannot reach for the fire and then blame the one who set it on the table. What choice of mine have I been quietly relocating onto God, or fate, or how I was made, when the honest truth is that the fire and the water were both in front of me and I reached?

Sources