I did a study of Ecclesiastes, and what i learned was such a simple truth that often, often, goes unnoticed.
First off, this book is written by a guy, a king, by the name of Solomon.
Solomon was a very, very, very, successful and wealthy king.
In his youth, God asked Solomon,
“What do you want, I’ll give you whatever you ask of me”
And Solomon responded like this
“Wisdom”
He didn’t ask for wealth, or fame, or power, or anything. What he wanted more than anything, was wisdom.
God so honored his request that he did give him wisdom, so much wisdom.
AND on top of that, wealth, fame, power and success.
So Solomon had it pretty good. Really good actually.
So this book opens up like this,
“Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything Is Meaningless!” (ecc. 1.1 niv)
Solomon, the man who literally has EVERYthing is right off the bat saying Everything is meaningless.
There’s no intro, there’s no preface, it just goes right to it.
How is it that the man, who has everything, says that everything is meaningless?
If you continue to read, you’ll find it go into Solomon saying a bunch of surprising things.
“Listen, I have everything, everything, this world has to offer. I have fruit tress that were planted with seeds from the finest lands, watered by rivers i built, from lakes that i put in this earth, from the oceans and lands that I own. I have money, more money than I know what to do with. I have power, and I have fame. I even have women, hundreds of women. But i’m telling you right now, it’s all meaningless! Everything is meaningless! This world will never offer, or give you, anything that will truly satisfy you.”
That’s crazy to me.
Here is a king that has EVERYTHING, like, legitimately everything. and He is saying, it’s all for nothing, it’s not fulfilling or rewarding, or worth it.
“At the end of the day, what you toil for under the sun on this earth will not be your to take with you when you die. It will be passed on to someone who you might not even know. That person might not even use it for good, or even for gain. So what’s the point? why why why why why why”
He is going off on how this world has nothing to offer you, and how our reward will never be on this earth. We need to focus on our real prize, our real reward, our real treasure.
And that treasure is heaven.
I want to encourage you to definitely check this book out, it might change you a little bit. You might even feel a little convicted the next time you say something like “I love my computer” or “One day I’m going to be rich and famous”.
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I’m sorry for not posting a lot on here, the general pains and labor of life has kept me busy, but i’ll try try try my best to continue to share what’s going on in my life on a more consistant basis :]
