I’m going to break this down today as we look at three significant words from our verse; Observe #8104, Lying #7723and Vanities # 1892, from Helps Word Study Dictionary ~
Observe ~ 8104 shāmar – guard pro-actively, quick to employ offensive as well as defensive measures to protect; ready to take aggressive (immediate) action to safeguard; be on guard to speedily engage in confrontation whatever jeopardizes what is entrusted; a guard on watch, ready to militantly guard.
***Summary (synonyms) 5341/nāṣar ("guard") stresses the vigilance needed to keep intact. It focuses on maintaining (preserving) what has been entrusted.
8104 (shāmar) stresses the readiness to fight for what is guarded, a more confrontative guarding than 5341 (nāṣar).
Lying ~ 7723 shāw’ – properly, nothingness (unreal), so connected to disappointment and deceit ("empty results"); without value because illusionary; misleadingly contrary to what is true (appropriate). "7723 (shāw’) designates anything that is unsubstantial, unreal, worthless, either materially or morally" .
Vanities ~ 1892 heb̠el – properly, a vapor, disappearing like a breath; vanity, coming to no purpose ("in vain") – without substance or value; what is "vaporous, coming to zero" – without meaning because merely temporary and fleeting (transient); be worthless, come to naught, futility, like worldly possessions and achievements "gained" apart from faith – hence of no eternal meaning. ["Vanity" is a key word of Ecclesiastes and occurs over 30 times elsewhere in the Bible. It literally refers to how all things under heaven (without the Lord) simply "end at zero”.]
Other translations render ‘lying vanities’ with the word idol. If we heed God’s rebuke about attending to idols that have eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t ear, mouths that don’t speak, we learn to observe the one who does see, hear and speak. Joshua was promised good success and a prosperous way as he meditated and obeyed the word of God, Joshua 1:8. Jesus repeated Moses command, during his temptation in the wilderness, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’
Our reality today is one where knowledge and information abounds. We’ve never had access to so much world wide information as the internet provides us. We are deeply engaged with a quest for knowledge but does it produce the abundant life Jesus came to provide? Confusion actually comes from too much knowledge. If there is confusion about something, it is not clear what the true situation is, especially because people believe different things. Confusion occurs in a situation in which everything is in disorder, especially because there are lots of things happening at the same time.
James chapter one addresses this very thing ~ ‘A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.’ We ask for wisdom and do not receive any because we are conflicted about what we really believe. It lies in the common statement we make,’ I know what the word says, but'.
What is the lying vanity I am observing causing me to waiver in the reality of God’s truth and forsake the mercy thatcould be mine?
Hosea reminds us we can be destroyed over three things ~
Lack of knowledge
Rejecting knowledge
Forgetting knowledge
As I’ve noted before, there are many voices in the world today and none of them our without significance, but I want my ear attuned to the words that will keep me rightly aligned with the Father, ‘a walk worthy of Lord, fulling pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good word and increasing in the knowledge of God,’ Colossians 1: 10.
I live continually these days pressed by the Holy Spirit to “Attend to my word. Do not let it depart from your eyes”, understanding the ease of deception that leads astray.
2 Timothy 3:14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it 15: and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17: that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
We are a people who are continually being shaped for this hour, to bring glory to our Father through our transformed lives. Viitally united to the Spirit of Truth and feeding upon His word, we want to be of quick understanding able to discern and refute lying vanities.
May the mercies of God keep us as we choose to rightly ‘observe’ guard pro-actively, quick to employ offensive as well as defensive measures to protect; ready to take aggressive (immediate) action to safeguard; be on guard to speedily engage in confrontation whatever jeopardizes what is entrusted; a guard on watch, ready to militantly guard - the truth God has decreed.