Day 170 (Ecclesiastes 1-6) - Year 4
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Hey Bible Readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we started Ecclesiastes, which is part of the wisdom literature in Scripture, and tomorrow we'll finish it. It's written by someone called the preacher or the teacher, and that may or may not be Solomon, but many people believe it points to the life of Solomon regardless who wrote it. This book is ultimately about a grand experiment that the main character sets up.

He has lots of resources at his disposal, and he wants to find out how to live the best, most joyful kind of life. Then he unpacks everything he learns so that we don't have to go through this experiment for ourselves. He basically buys every single thing on Amazon and writes a concise 12-chapter review sharing all his data with us to let us know what's worth our time and energy and money.

Right out of the gate in verse 2, we get an idea of how he feels about it all. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, he says. The word he uses for vanity here is hevel, which means vapor or smoke. But it also carries the connotation of something that's hard to grasp. He uses this word 38 times in this book, so it's definitely part of his overarching theme. Here are some of the things he learns through his observations. He starts out addressing work.

All hard work is eventually negated by death. You and I see this all the time. Buildings decay, technology is outdated, and even our income is diminished by taxes. It's just a reminder of the futility of work.

Not only that, but our names will be forgotten when we die. And even amassing knowledge doesn't enhance the preacher's life. He basically says ignorance is bliss. 118 says, "...in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow." He's worked hard, he's learned a lot, and he still feels empty, and maybe even worse off.

So he decides to test his heart with the things that seem to hold other kinds of value. Forget hard work and a legacy, let's go after joy and pleasure. But before we accuse him of just trying to be a hedonist, he says he's trying to do this experiment honestly and with wisdom, not recklessly.

So he builds an estate for himself. He throws huge parties. He hires all his favorite bands to play in his backyard. He has lots of concubines. And it's all a vapor, a fleeting pleasure that fails to satisfy him. He's gaining a lot of wisdom through this process, but he's frustrated that even though he's getting wiser, and that's a good thing, he's still going to die. His wisdom can't keep him from meeting the same end as a fool. They're both going to die and lose everything they've amassed on earth.

And he'll eventually lose even more than the fool because he has so much stuff to lose. Anything material he leaves behind will be handed off to someone else and they might not appreciate it. It seems so unfair to him. He decides that the best thing to do is just be in the moment and find contentment in working unto the Lord and trusting Him, not in trying to amass a fortune or a name for himself.

In chapter 3, he lists out the various seasons most people encounter in their lives. There are 14 pairs of seasons, and we usually prefer one of the things in each pair. A time to be born, a time to die, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. But God has appointed both things in each pair.

Some people may have trouble with two of the things in this list. First, the phrase, a time to kill, might bother you. But remember, this is not suggesting murder. This is the nation-state of Israel, and God has established laws about when the death penalty should be enacted. So there is, in fact, a time to kill in this scenario. But capital punishment in carrying out God's laws for their nation-state is different than revenge. Second, the phrase, a time to hate, might bother you too.

But God himself hates sin and calls us to hate it as well. Romans 12 9 says, Abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. And you may remember from our reading in Proverbs 6 how Solomon listed out several things God hates. His hatred doesn't mean he isn't loving. He hates the things that threaten what he loves, as we all do. These two attributes of God aren't contradictory. They're complementary. So even as much as we may hate that idea, there is, in fact, a time to hate.

One of the verses in this book that captures the complexity of life and all its seasons is 311. It says, "...he has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from beginning to end." This verse points out that God is actively working in everything for a specific purpose, namely redemption, and that he's given us a desire to grasp it all, but the inability to do so.

God leaves some things as mysteries, even to the wise. It's a reminder that we aren't God, and it's also an incentive to trust Him with all the things we don't know. This is both comforting and humbling. In chapter 4, the preacher points out how a lot of our work ethic is actually driven by our need for control and superiority, and how that's not just pointless, but it's exhausting too. We're motivated by competition and jealousy and pride.

But comparison is a terrible taskmaster. It never lets us rest. The teacher says there's more joy and wisdom in working together. If we're going to be working and trying to find actual contentment in it, it's best not to go it alone, not to set ourselves up against each other, but to partner with each other instead.

If Solomon isn't the author of Ecclesiastes, then whoever wrote chapter 5 has been reading a lot of his proverbs because it talks a lot about not talking a lot, which Solomon liked to talk a lot about.

The preacher keeps telling us to guard our mouths. He basically says, hey, God has given you a job to do. You have a calling. Are you working or just talking? When talking is your calling, like mine, this is even more important. All my fellow career talkers out there, we don't get a pass. We have to double down on this wisdom. The preacher also shows us how greed wounds the greedy. And he points out that greed and striving to be rich is altogether different than enjoying what God has given you.

If God has given you wealth and you can live with an open hand, not focused on it, then that's where real blessing is found. He says it this way in 5, 19-20, Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil, this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. Being occupied with God, not with wealth, is the path to joy.

And we can't enjoy God's gifts if we're focused on gaining more. We can only enjoy them when they aren't our focal point, when they're a byproduct of walking in contentment with God. What was your God shot today? Mine was in 3.14, which says, I perceived that whatever God does endures forever. Nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. The teacher starts out talking about all the striving we do to gain things that are fleeting and how we exhaust ourselves over a vapor of

And here we see that everything God sets in motion is immovable. It lasts. We can't add to it or take from it. It's fixed forever. How very opposite his ways are from ours. How powerful he is and how weak we are. I love that about him. I'm drawn to his strength and his permanence. He's where the joy is.

I believe God has some incredible things for you in those episodes.

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