Stop regarding man
in whose nostrils is breath,
for of what account is he?
So I read Matthew Henry’s Commentary on this section. I haven’t let it (the passage itself) ruminate too much but I wanted some sound explanation from someone else. Just to see what he might exposit from it. It is solid. It was refreshing.
This passage is summing up a lot of everything. I do not wish to take the light off of the MOST HIGH, but I do want to point out that I am striving to stop regarding man and if that is the case, what other alternative is there? It must be to place all my bets on the Lamb that was slain, but yet that rose to conquer not only the grave, but to unseat the authority that had set itself up. [I pray that I may not fall into lofty speech that is beyond understanding.]
to be continued. Have to run again. [Now where was I..]
Stop regarding man
Who is man that we might regard him? Is not man frail and fallen? Even at his best he is a mockery to the MOST HIGH in his attempts to do well and be wise. My own experience (of what little weight that holds) comfirms this in part. How many times have intentions been well and the outcome still hurts the one whom you have tried to aid? How many times have both the intention and the outcome been a ‘positive’ and yet there is a lack of completeness.
Stop – cease. do not continue
regarding – taking into account. paying attention to.
man – flesh.
Might I make the assumption that man here speaks of man living within the flesh? The unrenewed mind of man. The man that is not seeking to live by the Spirit and in the Spirit, whose utterance does not begin in the heart of God. (Consider the apostolic sending of Jesus Christ himself.)
in whose nostrils is breath,
A word study of breath throughout the Bible might prove useful here. Consider breath in terms of what we experience and know for truth and reality. First and foremost within my thoughts is being able to “see your breath” when the temperature reaches a certain point. Even in those tangible moments breath quickly disappears. It disperses leaving little trace of what is left. I have always been drawn to the romantic nature of being able to see your breath on such a cool evening. There is a moment of making the invisible, the indefinableable, to be seen and known(?) if only for a short time.
However. It is fading. It is not lasting. It is far from eternal.
Matthew Henry made a comment here about the breath in the nostrils, saying something to the effect of the nostrils as something that makes up man and the breathe is the temporary thing that is contained within him. It then follows that all of man is temporary.
for of what account is he?
This phrase ends the chapter, but not the passage.
For of what account is he? How did passage of scripture begin? Chapter 2 (which happens to be the beginning of this section) starts with
The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” [This passage is too good to break up. Let me continue.] For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide the disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nationa shall not lift up sword against nationa, neither shall they learn war anymore.
The glory of the LORD is at stake. What account or portion does man have in that? Why are we so concerned with what man has to say (my own thoughts very much included, unless they are from the LORD,) that we ignore the very working of God Almighty? We have taught ourselves to be more concious of the temporal things instead of the eternal God.
May he have mercy on all those that he has called and that have turned to him to seek his will without benefit to themselves.
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