Ecclesiastes 2:12-17

Eccl. 2:12 ¶ So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what will the man do who will come after the king except what has already been done? 

Eccl. 2:13 And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness. 

Eccl. 2:14 The wise man’s eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I know that one fate befalls them both. 

Eccl. 2:15 Then I said to myself, “As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why then have I been extremely wise?” So I said to myself, “This too is vanity.” 

Eccl. 2:16 For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch as in the coming days all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool alike die! 

Eccl. 2:17 So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind. 

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Solomon tried both wisdom and foolishness.  He discovered that both end up in the same place, in a hole in the ground.  However, he found that wisdom was better than foolishness.  The fool creates his own mess that he has to deal with, he makes his own life a wreck.  A wise man avoids pitfalls the fool rushes into and he sets his life in better order so that he is more prepared when the day of disaster comes.  He also helps other, he keeps others from harm.  The fool walks in darkness and stumbles and trips and is afraid.  The wise man walks in the light, he can see his path, keep from stumbling, and walks in the safety of the light.

Yet there is nothing we do that lasts.  Other people and nature will lay claim to all we have done when we leave this planet.  It is only the treasures we store up in Heaven that will last.

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11

Eccl. 2:1 ¶ I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.” And behold, it too was futility. 

Eccl. 2:2 I said of laughter, “It is madness,” and of pleasure, “What does it accomplish?” 

Eccl. 2:3 I explored with my mind how to stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives. 

Eccl. 2:4 I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; 

Eccl. 2:5 I made gardens and parks for myself and I planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; 

Eccl. 2:6 I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of growing trees. 

Eccl. 2:7 I bought male and female slaves and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. 

Eccl. 2:8 Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men—many concubines. 

Eccl. 2:9 ¶ Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me. 

Eccl. 2:10 All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor. 

Eccl. 2:11 Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun. 

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I recently read in a book that the whole desire of a man is to be happy.  No matter what we do, that is our end goal.  We'll go through suffering now in hopes that it will bring us a lasting happiness.  The first place people go to find happiness is the pleasures of this world.  Whether it's a fancy vacation, sitting in front of the TV or movie, playing sports, drugs, alcohol, sex, fancy cars, electronic gadgets, and a millions other things, we are searching for a pleasure that will make us happy.  Solomon tried it all, and though it brought temporary pleasure, he soon found that he was empty again and had to try something else to make him happy.

If you pay any attention at all to news out of Hollywood, you read stories about people who seem to have it all.  Fame, fortune, fancy houses, nice cars, and what seems to be the perfect life.  Yet about everything there has a therapist, many are on antidepressants, they are getting divorced all the time, and discover that though they seem to have it all, they are not very happy.  The place I've been that seems to have had the people who were the most happy was the village of Ojague in Guinea.  They didn't have anything, not even electricity.  Yet they seemed to be a happy people.  They laughed, they played, they were generous to a fault, and seemed to have a higher quality of life than most.  That's not to say their life is perfect, they have many hardships.  But as people have studied various people around the world, the ones that seem to have the strongest faith, the most hope, and have the most happiness are the poor.

Solomon decided that laughter was madness.  Laughter is not a bad thing, I think it's one of the most important gifts from God.  But if we seek to fill the God shaped hole in our heart with laughter we will find ourselves empty.  A joke may have us rolling on the floor the first time, by the fifth time it won't even be funny.  It's a happiness that can't laugh.  Partying doesn't fill that void either.  

Solomon built gardens, houses, and great buildings.  None of them brought him happiness.  They weren't bad things, they just didn't fill the void.  He collected slaves and treasure, they didn't do it either.  At over 600 concubines, it seems that Solomon never found anyone that could satisfy him with sex either.

Solomon tried everything that he thought might make him happy and in the end he was left empty.  We can't depend on the things of this world to make us happy.  They might for a moment, but the moment will soon be past.  That doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy things in life, but we can't view them as filling the God shaped hole in our lives.  Only One is big enough to fill the God shaped hole in our heart and we must seek Him to fill that hole.  He may allow pleasures and His good gifts to be a part of that, but our focus and desire must be in the Giver and not the gift.

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18

Eccl. 1:12  ¶ I, the Preacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 

Eccl. 1:13 And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with. 

Eccl. 1:14 I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind. 

Eccl. 1:15 What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted. 

Eccl. 1:16 ¶ I said to myself, “Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge.” 

Eccl. 1:17 And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind. 

Eccl. 1:18 Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain. 

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It has been said that ignorance is bliss.  I have to admit to being an intellectual.  I love to read, I love to learn about new things, there is something in me that desires to know more and to understand.  As we grow in knowledge and understanding, we begin to realize that we live in a jacked up world.  Our knowledge and understanding doesn't help us to fix things.  To look at the poverty, injustice, the inherent brokenness of the world we are surrounded by, none of us has the wisdom to repair what is broken.  We can take steps to improve things, but in the end we can do nothing to bring an end to them.

Wisdom isn't a bad thing, Solomon experimented with being foolish also.  Foolishness is worse than wisdom.  The fool is not burdened with an understanding of the brokenness of the world as the wise man is, but he creates the brokenness in his own life.  To be a fool with money, with relationships, with the simple things we do each day.  It creates our own pain.  I know a man who makes decisions based on the rationale of a child, he makes himself miserable.

I'm thankful for the wisdom that God has given me, but I also realize that it can not save me and it can not save this world.  Only the love of Christ can save me and save the world.  My heart aches because I see the brokenness and I desire to do something, I seek the Lord to understand what it means to truely love the way Christ loves.  Wisdom is an instrument, but God's love is the hand that moves it.

Deeper Thoughts on Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

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Ecclesiastes 1:4
A generation goes and a generation comes,
But the earth remains forever.
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This was illustrated really well to me when I was out in West Virginia. The
town of Kaymoor was a thriving community less than a hundred years. The
mines produced massive amounts of coal, train traffic was more busy than
some of the major cities. The mines stretched 3 miles into the mountain,
hundreds of people made their living there. If you go there now you'll find
a few remains of the town and the mine. The national park has preserved
some of it for the sake of preserving history, but it's gone. The forest
has reclaimed everything. The wood is rotting, the meal is rusting, and
everything is falling apart. Man's mark on that place has been forgotten.

There are man made things that have remained for hundreds, even thousands of
years. They have remained because people have fought the forces of nature
to preserve them. Yet most remain as a historical site, a memory of what
was. Not something that is. The names of great people have remained for
everyone to know and remember, yet what good is that to them? The only
thing that remains of them is their impact on other people, whether good or
bad. The bad people remain as villains, the good as heros. History has a
tendancy to amplify the strong characteristic.

Remember this as your choose the direction of your life. The only thing
that will remain is the impact you have in the lives of other people. It is
your choice as to whether that will be a good thing or a bad thing.

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Ecclesiastes 1:8
All things are wearisome;
Man is not able to tell it.
The eye is not satisfied with seeing,
Nor is the ear filled with hearing.
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There is no activity that is beyond our capability to make it into drudgery.
Work is a four letter word and there's a reason they pay us to do it. We
may think our favorite hobby would be a job we'd never get tired of, but do
it long enough and it gets old. I enjoy hiking, but if that was my job
there would be days I didn't want to go. We won't be able to find
satisfaction in anything here, we have a short attention span. We thrive on
new things, different things, special things. If we had to eat filet minon
for every meal we'd be tired of it by the end of the week.

How many movies have we seen? How many TV shows? How many sunsets? How
many grand vistas? How many famous paintings? After seeing them, did any
of us say "I never need to see another movie". Or "I never need to see the
sunset again." No, we continue to search for beauty, mystery, new things.
We sit around work and talk about upcoming movies, we'll talk about it for
months before the movie comes out. We see the movie, love it, talk about it
a couple of days afterwards, and it's gone from memory. We could pick our
favorite painting out of the Louvre, hang it in our living room, and we'd
stop noticing it within a month.

I'm a music nut, I have a large collection. I've never reached the point
where I've said to myself "I've heard all I need to hear." I'll listen to
something over and over, but eventually I get burned out and need something
new. I do get tired of hearing people talk and noise, but eventually my
ears itch for a new input.

None of this is to say that the things we like, our hobbies, movies, or
music, are wrong and we shouldn't want them. It's that if we expect them to
fulfill our hunger we will always be left hungry. I'm almost 29 years old.
I've eaten approximately 29 x 365 x 3 = 31755 meals in my lifetime. Right
now it's almost lunch time and I'm hungry. Not one of those meals, even all
of them put together, has ended my hunger. They filled me for a short time,
but I became hungry again. We don't stop eating, but we keep in perspective
that this will only fill us for a short time. Whether I spend $5 or $50 on
a meal, I will be hungry in a few hours and within the next couple of days I
will flush the processed food down the toilet. However, there is a place
where we can find final satisfaction for our desires:

John 4:10-14
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is
who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would
have given you living water."
She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep;
where then do You get that living water? "You are not greater than our
father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his
sons and his cattle?"
Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will
thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall
never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well
of water springing up to eternal life."

Notice that Jesus does not eliminate our desires, He provides an unending
source to fulfill our desires. If we seek Christ to fulfill our desires, we
can see the things in our life as a gift to enjoy for a short time instead
of seeing them as something that will fulfill us.

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Ecclesiastes 1:9-10
That which has been is that which will be,
And that which has been done is that which will be done.
So there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there anything of which one might say,
"See this, it is new"?
Already it has existed for ages
Which were before us.
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I've heard this one explained before in terms of the First Law of
Thermodynamics:

First Law of Thermodynamics: Energy can be changed from one form to another,
but it cannot be created or destroyed. The total amount of energy and matter
in the Universe remains constant, merely changing from one form to another.
The First Law of Thermodynamics (Conservation) states that energy is always
conserved, it cannot be created or destroyed.

That's rather nerdy, but it's true. Nothing really is created or destroyed,
it only changes forms. No, King David didn't have an iPod. Jesus didn't
have an iBook. Solomon's Temple didn't have Wifi. But look of the themes
of the Bible. It reads a lot like today's newspaper. Murder, rape,
poverty, war, jealousy, lust, hate, etc. Same story, we're just more
efficient at it. I think God brings us to this so that we can again see the
futility of it all. Man is fallen, we're trapped in a broken world, we need
someone to rescue us. The world wants us to believe we've advanced, God is
showing us that we are just as much in need of a Savior as we were 2000
years ago.

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Ecclesiastes 1:11
There is no remembrance of earlier things;
And also of the later things which will occur,
There will be for them no remembrance
Among those who will come later still.
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What about history books? What about memorials? For most people, our
family will remember us for a couple of generations. Then we'll be
relegated to a place in a school geneological study and a tombstone that
someone might stumble across. A few will have a highway named after them,
though no one knows who that person is. Even fewer find a place in books or
historical films. But is anyone really remembered? Or is it just something
about them that is remembered? The farther we move forward in history the
less these people are remembered. Who they were distorts or fades away. In
the end, only God remains. We are but a wisp of smoke.

Lots of warm fuzzy thoughts from Solomon. It's all to remind us that this
world is fickle, nothing lasts, we have no hope in anything in this world.
Our Hope must come from a place that is not corrupted. Our meaning and our
purpose here means nothing outside of eternity. Jesus told us:

Matthew 6:19-21
"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust
destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

New American Standard Version

Eccl. 1:1 ¶  The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. 

Eccl. 1:2     “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher,

    “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” 

Eccl. 1:3 ¶     What advantage does man have in all his work

    Which he does under the sun? 

Eccl. 1:4     A generation goes and a generation comes,

    But the earth remains forever. 

Eccl. 1:5     Also, the sun rises and the sun sets;

    And hastening to its place it rises there again. 

Eccl. 1:6     Blowing toward the south,

    Then turning toward the north,

    The wind continues swirling along;

    And on its circular courses the wind returns. 

Eccl. 1:7     All the rivers flow into the sea,

    Yet the sea is not full.

    To the place where the rivers flow,

    There they flow again. 

Eccl. 1:8     All things are wearisome;

    Man is not able to tell it.

    The eye is not satisfied with seeing,

    Nor is the ear filled with hearing. 

Eccl. 1:9     That which has been is that which will be,

    And that which has been done is that which will be done.

    So there is nothing new under the sun. 

Eccl. 1:10     Is there anything of which one might say,

    “See this, it is new”?

    Already it has existed for ages

    Which were before us. 

Eccl. 1:11     There is no remembrance of earlier things;

    And also of the later things which will occur,

    There will be for them no remembrance

    Among those who will come later still. 

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What is the purpose of life?  What is the point?  Where is the meaning?  Things are constantly in motion, yet they don't seem to go anywhere.  How will my day today be any different than yesterday?  Yes, I can see a forward motion in my life and things are always changing.  Yet what difference does it make?  What gives my life any more meaning today than it did a year ago?  5 years ago?  10 years ago?  I have all my toys and all my friends, things to keep me entertained.  I keep thinking that the next thing is going to fulfill me, bring me joy.  Yet I keep searching for it.  How is my life any better than it was 5 years ago?  What gives me any advantage in life over the settlers 200 years ago?  I have a longer life, indoor plumbing, less sickness, less fear of being killed by a wild animal, I don't have to work as hard.  Yet so many people today are on antidepressants.  So many people are in slavery to debt.  People are still dying of disease, now it's cancer instead of typhoid.  We're not killed by wild animals, we're killed by each other.  We stress out about our work instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment.  Then we have to pay $20 a month for a membership at the gym to stay in shape because we sit in front of a computer all day and eat food that is bad for us.  Has civilization really advanced or have we traded one futility for another?

I think God set this futility in motion to put us in our place.  We hope in the next big thing and He's letting us know that the next big thing can't be our hope.  After we have lived the same day over and over again He puts in us a Spirit that cries out for more.  What we experience now won't change when we die.  Our circumstances may change, but this cycle of life won't change.  We have eternity to go.  Maybe one of the torments of hell will be to continue to exist in this futility for the rest of eternity.  What Heaven offers us is eternal communion with God.  God never changes, He is constant.  But His infinate being is something that we will spend the rest of eternity searching out.  The one thing I've seen in my own life that has changed and brought meaning and joy to my life is that I know Christ more.  The work that I have done that hasn't been futile is how God has used me to help others know Him more.  I look at my own transformed life and the life of those who have been transformed around me, I see meaning and purpose.  I think we're just getting warmed up, in Heaven we will be able to search the unfathomable depths of God for the rest of eternity, always discovering greater measures of His Glory.

I think Solomon opens this way because He wants us to see the futility of life, that we can't find meaning and hope in the world around us.  He whetting our appetite to become hungry for something real, something that will fill us.  Jesus Christ.

Bible Study

I've decided that I'm going to start writing out my Bible study during my quiet time. I seem to do a better job of meditation when writing so I thought I'd share what I'm studying. I think I'm going to start with Ecclesiastes.