Solomon on Worship: Ecclesiastes 5

Solomon on worship:

1. Be cautious when you enter the house of God. He hears your vows--your commitments. It is better not to utter a commitment than to say you will serve and then fall short of your vow.

Reminds me of Jesus: Matthew 5:33-37. 33"Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ 34But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or’No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil."


2. Listen when you enter God's house. Are your words more valuable than God's Word?

3. Stand in awe of God. He builds and he tears down. He holds your present and your future in his hands. Honor him.

4. Love God and him alone. He who loves money never has enough. His wealth does not permit him peace. (5:10, 12) Money comes and goes (5:14-15). God is forever. Love God alone.

5. Praise God for his provision and peace. He gives money and possession, and enables the receiver to enjoy the gift--to accept his lot and enjoy his work. This is a gift from God. Happy is the man who seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart. (5:19-20)

The futility of greed/The blessing of contentment: Ecclesiastes 4

So, Solomon again looks out over creation and notices that the oppressed have no comforter (4:1). Yet I wonder to myself, "Isn't the king supposed to have the power to initiate justice?" When did Solomon become powerless? Is it only in his final days that he realizes just how empty his kingship had become? Or is he looking at the world at large, and moaning his limited impact? Or both?

I find it ironic and sad that Solomon asked for wisdom, God granted it with great pleasure, and yet all that Solomon sees is wisdom thwarted.

Yet there are reinforcements of divine truth and peace in Solomon' story. "Better is one handful and tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind." Be satisfied with God's simple gifts and provisions. Chasing after wealth and power will only prove fruitless. This is affirmed in 4:8: "There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. There was no end to his toil, yet his eyes were not content with his wealth." God has given us all we need.

Ultimately, Solomon sees that human relationship is much more beneficial than wealth.

4:9 Two are better than one, because they have good return for their work.

4:12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands in not quickly broken.

Thus, we must be humble and accept the help that God places in our lives. Also, we must not hoard our blessings. Life is much better when shared.

Thank you God for the friends and family you have blessed me with. They are more than I deserve. They also give life value, both for the present and the future.

What is there time for?--Ecclesiastes 3

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. 3:1

Can you hear Pete Seeger's rendition of these verses as sung by the Byrds? This version, while quoting the basic emphasis of Ecclesiastes 3, ends with a call for peaceful living (while not mentioning war). Really a nice use of scripture with an intentional purpose in mind. And a catchy tune to boot.

However, when Solomon makes his list of things that have a "time" or purpose in this world, he does it within the context of hard work and God's sovereignty.

There is a time for everything, according to Solomon. Then he states in 3:11 "God has made everything beautiful in its time." So, Solomon sees that all experiences in life have a beauty all their own and purpose ordained by God. Now, I understand how laughing, dance, birth, planting, love, and peace fit into this. But their opposites--crying, mourning, uprooting, hate, and war--all seem to be negative actions bent on destruction. How can God bless acts of destruction? Alas, destruction is a part of life where sin and corruption are intertwined in our DNA. Everything we are is affected. Everything we do is affected. But, God can even bless our destruction and corruption. That is true power--taking the negative and making it positive.

But this is the irony--or the depth of wisdom--that Solomon has encountered in his relationship with God. "He has also set eternity in their heart, yet [man cannot comprehend] the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one’s lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. (3:11b-14 NASB, brackets are my own interpretation)

Thus, Solomon realizes that God has left a hole in the heart of man--a hole that cannot be filled with anything but the Eternal God. For Solomon, it is frustrating that this hole is there because with all his wisdom and insight, he still cannot comprehend fully the ways of God. Thus, the broken and corrupted human has the shape of eternity drawn his or her heart.

With that in mind, I see three things in this passage that bring God pleasure: 1) that we should enjoy our daily labor; 2) that we should enjoy God's gifts to us in creation; and 3) that God should be feared by humanity based on his gifts and our own foolishness (inability to understand him completely).

Now, fear here is a respect born out of relationship and awe. We recognize his power and authority over us, and we respect it. The word "fear" is appropriate because ultimately we cannot control God, and thus we are always one step behind and one idea short of understanding him and following him. To me, this "fear" is the first step to knowing God (Proverbs 1:7) and thus the first step to filling the God-sized hole in our hearts.

Ultimately, Solomon recognizes the sovereignty of God in 3:17, "I said to myself, 'God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man,' for a time for every matter and for every deed is there." Ultimately, there is a time for everything because God exercises authority and judgment on all things. Our work and our lives fit into the framework of his divinely ordained time.

Amazingly, his divine power is also designed to fit into our hearts. Of all things, this is more amazing--something I do not truly understand--but willingly accept and am forever grateful for.

The Meaning of Life: Ecclesiastes 2

Solomon was a very manly thinker. Men have this ability to put things in boxes mentally, so that one thing does not touch another. So Solomon says that he tried to cheer himself with wine, wealth, and women. He embraced foolishness (2:3) while remaining under the guidance of wisdom. Now, I don't doubt the truth of the scripture, but I have to wonder if I am hearing some arrogance coming from a former human king of Israel. That takes some brass--to confess that you experimented with drinking and pleasure, but analyzed it with a clear mind. Sure, God could have blessed him with immunity from the impact of alcohol, and allowed him to explore the folly of drunkenness without ever loosing control. Or maybe Solomon simply explored folly, wake up with a splitting headache the next morning, and then analyzed the foolishness of it all. It seems like he tried to separate the physical and mental aspects of his personality here--analyzing with his mind while he put his body through all sorts of tests. I think in the end, he found out that you cannot separate the impact of the physical from the mental or spiritual. We are whole beings, and it is foolish to think that turning off your mind or feelings will allow you to do whatever you want with your body.

In the end, Solomon concludes, " I surveyed all that my hands had done, . . . everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind." (2:11)

He says the same about emphasizing the mind and reason over all other things. "I saw that wisdom is better than foolishness . . . but I came to realize that the same fate overtakes them both." (2:13-14). In other words, it doesn't matter how smart you are. Your wisdom is limited and cannot find a way to defeat death.

Even his hard work and wealth did not provide sanctuary. "A man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who had not worked for it." (2:21) "All his days his work is pain and grief." (2:23). In the end, his observations about his own life lead him to express "My heart began to despair over all my labor." (2:20)

So, what is the heart of life--the path to happiness? Solomon states that pleasure, wisdom, and work are all dead ends.

Yet, he leaves us with this one nugget of hope at the end of chapter 2. "A man can do no better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too I see from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the man who pleases God, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God." In the end, Solomon sees the building of wealth as foolishness, because God will give it to those who please him. In other words, IT ALL BELONGS TO GOD, AND HE WILL MANAGE IT AS HE SEES FIT.

The hope resides in knowing God. Wine, women, wisdom, and work are all meaningless without God's presence. Knowing God brings real satisfaction and enjoyment. Also, finding contentment in the basics of life--working, eating, breathing--is essential because these are basic gifts of God to all of us. If we fail to enjoy God's basic provision, how can we enjoy anything this world has to offer?

Ecclesiastes 1: Did Solomon ask for this?

When I was a boy, I always felt the presence of God with me. I thank my parents for providing a lifestyle for me that taught me to listen for God. From an early age (11) I knew that he wanted me to follow him. One Sunday School lessons that impacted me as a child was God's offer to Solomon to give him anything he wanted. This is comparable to finding a genie in a lamp, and who hasn't dreamed about having those three wishes? I wondered what I would say if God made that offer to me? I remember reading 1 Kings 3:1-15. God comes to Solomon in a dream and says "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." Now there's a blank check.

Solomon humbly considers the offer and asks for a discerning heart (3:9) so that he can govern God's people. So his initial request comes from a heart that is humble, and his motivation is to shepherd God's people.

1 Kings 3:10 says "The Lord was pleased that Solomon asked for this." Then God went on to offer Solomon wealth and prosperity as well. He got every man's desire because he did not ask for it. "Seek first God's kingdom, and all these things will be added to you." This prayer so inspired me that I prayed it as written in the KJV at the age of 11, and many other times as well. If God was pleased by the prayer, then I wanted to pray it over and over again.

So, Solomon got brains, power, wealth--and a kingdom at peace after decades of war. Not a bad set up, if you ask me.

When I was young, it all sounded so simple. Now that I'm older, my first question would be, "What is the catch?" It is never that easy.

Here it is: 1 Kings 3:14 "If you will walk in my ways and obey my statutes and commands as David your father did, I will give you long life." See also 9:4-7: "As for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked, in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. But if you or your sons indeed turn away from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them, and the house which I have consecrated for My name, I will cast out of My sight. So Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples."

Follow my ways. Listen to the life and testimony of your father. Teach your children to follow my ways. This is the catch.

And if you have any knowledge at all of God's people, then you know they wouldn't be able to sustain their commitment for long.

So, Solomon receives wisdom, and he also gains notoriety, power, and great wealth.

And somewhere along the way he compromised his commitment to God's ways, which compromised his governing of the people. In the end, his kids didn't listen to him.

Thus, I enter Ecclesiastes 1, and I see a king who knows via the wisdom of God what is expected of his people. And I see a king who is frustrated because everything he knows is not being adopted by his people. Why is this? His own indiscretions with his wives and concubines and their gods? His lack of focus on the daily activities of governing? Too smart for his own good?

Simple answers may be too much to hope for. However, Solomon made a long journey from the young man who pleased God to the tired old man who saw everything as meaningless in Ecclesiastes 1.

I can't help but wonder: Did Solomon wake up one day and say to God "Did I ask for this? I don't remember asking for THIS!!!"

I prayed this prayer when I was young as well. Now, I want to have God's wisdom, but I want to avoid Solomon's failures, if it is possible to avoid failure. At the end of my days, I want to rejoice in the Lord, not to lament the darkness of the days. Can Ecclesiastes teach me anything about this? I HOPE (and believe) so.

Ecclesiastes 1: Where's the Hope? OR Was Solomon dealing with teenagers?

After reading Ecclesiastes 1, my first impression is that the Teacher (who I assume is King Solomon) is an old man who is frustrated with life and is now having to come to terms with his own mortality. Having a fair bit of optimism in my heart (in spite of the critical cynicism of a PhD), I find this first chapter to be a "downer."

Here are a couple of phrases that I find difficult to explain from a Christian perspective:

Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly Meaningless! Everything is meaningless! (1:2)
All things are wearisome, more than one can say. (1:8)

I have seen all things under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind. (1:15)

For much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief. (1:18) [So, is "Ignorance is bliss" a biblical corollary?]

Probably the most personal lament in these verses is in 1:11: There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow. Was Solomon having a pity party? An identity crisis? Lamenting the failure of himself and his people to learn from history?

Perhaps Solomon, with all of the knowledge and power he had attained was feeling a little unappreciated by his family in his old age. Maybe all of the experience and success he had was being ignored by his followers. Maybe he was finding that in his old age there was no consolation for a man with wisdom who had no teachable audience.

So, what does all this mean? Ecclesiastes actually sounds like a book that any parent of adolescents would be able to appreciate. After all, parents know a great deal of stuff. But try passing that on to your teenage kids. It is amazing how much smarter parents get after a child passes from high school into adult life. Maybe Solomon, with all of those wives and concubines, was having trouble administrating the highschool that he himself had probably populated there in Jerusalem. Whatever his personal frustrations, Solomon is expressing a universal lament that focuses on the meaning of life.

The problem for me is this: Is Solomon frustrated without hope? He sure sounds depressed. But I believe that every aspect of scripture is written with the hope of Christ in mind. So, as I journey through Ecclesiastes, my eyes are open to find the hope. After reading Ecclesiastes 1, this may be more difficult than I thought.

A sober observation from Solomon

Ecclesiastes 9:11-12

I again saw under the sun
that the race is not to the swift and
the battle is not to the warriors
and neither is bread to the wise
nor wealth to the discerning
nor favor to men of ability;
for time and chance overtake them all.

Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.



As I read this, I understand his cynicism--and I find it foreign to my normal interpretations of the Scripture. Yet, he reminds me that everything we do "is in God's hands" (Eccl. 9:1). However, we are forced to recognize that physical giftedness and ability is not what makes a man. It lasts for a short time, and then the physical ability is gone.

As we saw on Wall Street last week, wealth is the same way.

In the end, what are we left with? I get the impression from the author of Ecclesiastes that all that is left is death (Eccl 9:3: the same destiny overtakes us all). And his view of death is rather ultimate and empty (there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom--Eccl 9:10).

What does it all mean? Well, it is a sober reminder from Solomon. Money, strength, wealth, and power last for a brief moment. In the end, all of humanity must deal with the same questions: when death comes, what is my legacy, and what is my eternity? Those that trust in physical/material things do not have a happy or hopeful answers to these questions.

When things look out of control

It is always an adventure when big-picture events in our world take a negative turn. When the banking industry suffers a significant meltdown, all of us are left to ponder the future. Most of us have to acknowledge that fact that most of the things we put our faith in are very temporary and subject to change. Thus, when Wall Street shakes, we all feel it. Our faith is only as strong as the object of our faith.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Russia. Rumors of wars in Iran, N. Korea, and any other country in the world.

Persecution of Christians all over our world.

The upheaval of nature including hurricanes (four MAJOR hurricanes in three years between New Orleans and Houston), a major tsunami, wild fires, global warming or freezing (depending on where you are standing at the moment).

All of the signs of the end of the world about us. Is it time?

These events remind me of "The Gospel Apocalypse" found in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21. These accounts have a general order of events that goes something like this:
1. False Messiahs will appear
2. Political unrest (wars, rumors of war)
3. Upheaval in nature (famines, earthquakes)
4. Persecution of Christians
These images also appear in Revelation 6 in the four horses of the Apocalypse--a sign to me that both passages seem to be addressing similar issues.

And these things are just the beginning.

But I do not want to sound an alarm of panic. The basic truth of the situation is that our mission as Christians does not change in the end time. We are to be proclaiming the good news of Christ regardless of the day or the hour. There is an urgency that the "end" brings, kind of like a 2 minute drill in football. However, we are to be urgent about the eternal fate of all people, and our motivation should be more than the end of time. Our motivation should be the love of Christ.

We want to avoid the sign of the end times mentioned in Matthew 24:12: "Because of increased wickedness, the love of most will grow cold . . ."

Instead we need to be like those "who stand firm to the end. . ." (Matthew 24:13).

Stand firm is the opposite of panic. So, hold to your hope in Christ and continue to serve him regardless of the times.

Remember, when things are out of control, God is in control.