Wrestling with the Text

I listened to one commentator and author who has degrees from Cambridge and Oxford Universities who said that most things in life that are valuable are not convenient and she said, “like doing a PhD, reading a book or writing a book”. I would imagine writing a book is one of the most inconvenient things to do, let alone writing a commentary on a biblical book. I know of a former colleague also a biblical scholar who has written a few books in Malay, a couple of commentaries as well and he had taught in Sabah for almost 30 years before returning to his home country last year.

But I do not know of any locals who have written commentaries in Malay or in English because it is really inconvenient. It is toughest assignment there is - wrestling with the text. 

Now I am engaged in commenting on the book of Ecclesiastes, I have to wrestle with the Hebrew text, and the Greek translation called the Septuagint (LXX) and I can wrestle with the text for a whole day just to understand one or two words. So writing can be slow. 

That’s why when I started I prayed to God if within one year, I could complete one book, that’s a miracle of His grace. And I have one milestone to catch in early December, my 30th anniversary of my ordination as pastor. 

It just happened that I completed my 2 years as a full-time worker at the time (Dec 1996) and I was ordained with my colleagues in the Executive Council, the inaugural ordination service in SIB. 

And publishing Ecclesiastes will be the crown of ordained ministry, as Ecclesiastes answers the question of what is truly significant in our lives. The only significant and meaningful thing in our lives is serving God, and serving God full-time is the best career there is. 

Not a worldly career like one climbing a ladder of salary increase or promotion, titles and honours. I am proud quite often to testify that I experienced more salary decrease more than increase. From a local Seminary’s salary in the first part of 2024, I was “unemployed” for 5 months, then accepted a position with 40% of my previous pay. Even when I was a pastor in Ranau, I took a pay cut when I was appointed the Acting Principal of our Bible College. “Bukan keturunan tapi penurunan.” (Only in Malay one can understand the joke).

If not for the sale of my books and the occasional itinerant preaching with honourarium I don’t think I could have survived. What else for I had waited for different appointments close to 4 years in the past 12 years without pay. That means I was in paid employment only for 8 out of the 12 years. 

Who is adequate for all that? If not because I believe in a God who blesses and a God who will care for me even in old age, I would have long given up.