Devotionary

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Ep 472 – Ecclesiastes 8:9-17 Apr 02, 2018

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Is it wrong to enjoy life? Does God frown on those who find pleasure in the things this life has to offer? The obvious answer is, "No." And Solomon would fully concur. In Ecclesiastes 8:9-17, Solomon continues his discussion of life lived under the sun, giving his seasoned outlook on life. In fact, because he sometimes saw life as meaningless and full of injustice and inequities, he repeatedly advised that we should make the most out of what we have while we're here. In his words, "Eat, drink and be joyful." Life can be difficult, so Solomon concluded that finding pleasure in this life was a worthwhile endeavor. When you look around and see that the wicked seem to prosper, while the righteous suffer, you can lose your motivation. It all becomes a seeming effort in futility. Which is why Solomon advised that you look for those things that bring joy to your life and make them a high priority. For him, eating and drinking were symbolic of man's basic needs. Food and wine were necessities. One provided nourishment, while the other could provide comfort in times of heartache or intense pressure. Food fills us. Wine calms us. These two basic commodities played a huge part in the lives of those living in Solomon's day. The satisfaction of a good meal and the comfort of a glass of wine were seen as worthy objects of a man's attention. The rich and poor alike could enjoy them. And with all that can go wrong in life, Solomon recommended these two things as reliable options worth pursuing.

Ep 471 – Ecclesiastes 8:1-8 Apr 01, 2018

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Wisdom is a wonderful thing. And Solomon would be the first to agree with that statement. He admired wisdom. He depended upon wisdom in order to rule his kingdom. And he spent years trying to acquire more wisdom. He had an insatiable desire for it, just like he did for gold, silver, power, property, and pleasure. He had filled an entire book with simple, yet profound maxims regarding the need for wisdom in life. But as he drew closer to the end of his life, Solomon showed an increasing propensity to treat wisdom like just another possession. And what he seems to have forgotten was where his wisdom had come from in the first place: God. His wisdom was not self-made, but God-given. And while he had added to his wisdom over the years and increased his knowledge base, he had lost the one thing necessary to give wisdom its power and potential: The fear of God. He lost his reverence and respect for God. Unlike his father, David, Solomon tended to view God as a resource provider, rather than a relationship to be pursued. He knew wisdom had its benefits and even desired for his people to be wise. After all, what king wouldn't want his subjects to display wisdom. And Solomon knew wisdom made him a better king. But the problem was that wisdom without God is folly. It's useless. God scoffs at man-made wisdom, because it tends to leave Him out. And wisdom that leaves God out, tends to put man right where God belongs – at the center of everything. It becomes all about us and our worship of self.

Ep 470 – Ecclesiastes 7:15-29 Mar 31, 2018

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Extremism. That's a dirty word these days, because we've have been trained to fear extremists of all kinds, including religious and political extremists. They're regularly portrayed as dangerous and potentially deadly. And Solomon would tend to agree. In Ecclesiastes 7:15-29, he's going to warn against extremism, but not some external kind of radicalism and polarizing political posturing. No, he's going to warn against going to personal extremes in the daily affairs of life. And, as usual, Solomon spoke as a seasoned expert on the topic. He starts out claiming that, in his long life, he had seen it all. In fact, he had tried it all. He had seen the religious zealot who spent his entire life pursuing righteousness, only to die at the end of his life – just like the wicked man who had made his pursuit of wickedness his full-time passion. And yet, the wicked man lived longer than the righteous one. In these verses, Solomon seems to be advocating a life of balance, rather than extremes. He warns against not being overly righteous and not trying to make yourself too wise. After all, as far as he could see, neither extreme was going to prevent trials and troubles, or hold off the inevitable outcome of death. Since nobody could be perfectly and completely righteous at all times, it made no sense to Solomon to waste time trying to be overly righteous. It was a waste of time. But so was the other extreme. A life of foolishness and wickedness may appear tempting, but a steady diet of it could be deadly. That's why Solomon advocated a life that landed somewhere in the middle. But was he right? Is this sound advice or the resigned ramblings of a man who found everything to be nothing but vanity and a chasing after the wind?

Ep 469 – Ecclesiastes 7:1-14 Mar 30, 2018

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Most of us think we know what makes life good. We have our own view of what is necessary to enjoy our days on this planet. For some of us, it's the company of good friends. For others, it's the pleasure of good food. Or the sense of accomplishment from a job well done. Or the thrill and excitement of a risk taken or a fear, overcome. There are some who never seem to find satisfaction in this life because they can't ever get enough of whatever it is they think they need. So, they spend all their time pursuing and accruing, in the hopes of finding that magic amount that will bring them true satisfaction. Life can become a quest to find what is preferable and to avoid what is not. And in Ecclesiastes 7:1-14, Solomon is going to throw us a curve ball, surprising us with his assessment of what is really better in this life. He will take some fairly recognizable aspects of life and contrast them with one another, revealing that what we believe to be the better of two opposing alternatives is actually the one to be avoided. If given the choice between mourning or feasting, we would choose the latter over the former – hands down. But Solomon would say we made a mistake. There are few of us, if given the option, who would prefer to have a wise person point out our flaws, instead of having a fool sing our praises. It's a no-brainer. But Solomon has learned that what we think will bring us joy and satisfaction is often the very thing that increases our sense of futility in life. Sometimes simpler is simply better. Birth may appear better than death, but there is more assurance of success at the end of life than at the beginning. Life begins with hope, but can end in disappointment. Yet death can reveal the proof of a life well-lived.

Ep 468 – Ecclesiastes 6:1-12 Mar 29, 2018

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God is to be the source of all joy, contentment, satisfaction and meaning in life. But think about how seldom that seems to be the case on your own life. If we were honest, and Solomon was, we would have to admit that there are times when we think God owes us a comfortable, enjoyable life, filled with all the things we deem necessary for finding contentment. And when we don't get them, we feel a bit cheated by God. When we observe others, who seem to have all that their hearts could want and all our hearts would ever envy, we get confused and even upset. We wonder why God is holding out on us. And without knowing it, we reveal that we suffer from the same problem Solomon had. He thought God was the giver of all good things, and he was right. But where he missed the mark was in thinking that the good things were the point. For Solomon, God was the giver, but he never seemed to recognize that God was actually the gift. God gives us life, so that we might enjoy Him. He provides us with food, so that we might have the strength to serve Him. He allows us to experience the joys of life, so we might express our gratitude to Him. God pours out His blessings and showers us with His gifts, not so we might worship the blessings and gifts, but so that we might understand and appreciate the graciousness and goodness of our God. Solomon had it all. But it all meant nothing. What he really needed was a healthy relationship with the one who had provided it all. Because, without that, it doesn't matter what or how much you possess, you'll never have enough to make you truly happy.

Ep 467 – Ecclesiastes 5:8-20 Mar 28, 2018

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They say money can't buy happiness. But Solomon would add that money can't purchase contentment either. And nobody knew that fact better than Solomon. He was wealthy beyond belief and surrounded by every imaginable luxury and convenience that money could buy. He had slaves and servants, singers and musicians, palaces and vineyards, the latest chariot model and the finest food cooked by the world's greatest chefs. But he was deficient in contentment. In Ecclesiastes 5:8-20, Solomon continues to share his time-tested proverbs, hoping to shed some light on the grievous evil he has seen under the sun. The gap between wealth and poverty was narrow and the potential for material goods to bring spiritual well-being was negligible. Solomon had first-hand experience with the failure of self-gratification to provide any hope of true satisfaction. It never worked. He had learned the hard way that the more you owned, the more it tended to own you. Wealth comes with baggage. Like golden handcuffs, materialism may look attractive, but it can end up holding you captive. We can easily find ourselves lying awake at night, grieving over what we don't have, and worrying over losing what we do have. In Solomon's words, it's a grievous evil. So, about all you can do is make the most of it by enjoying what you have as long as you have it. For Solomon, life had boiled down to a moment-by-moment experience, where satisfaction was short-lived and contentment was a long shot. And while he recognized that the ability to enjoy what you owned came from God, he wasn't overly enthusiastic in his expression of thanks.

Ep 466 – Ecclesiastes 5:1-7 Mar 27, 2018

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Promises. We all make them. And the sad truth is, we all end up breaking them. In this section of his book, Solomon is going to go into proverb-mode, something with which he was very familiar. He was a collector of proverbs – wise sayings that provide deep truths in a simple, easy-to-understand format. He filled an entire book with them. And in Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, he is going to provide some timely truths learned along the way that had special meaning and significance to him. They all have to do with a man's relationship with God. While, at this point in his life, Solomon had veered off course and abandoned his relationship with God, he still had a healthy fear of God. He knew better than to treat God with disrespect. Of course, he had placed idols to false gods all over the kingdom, but in his old age, he seems to realize that he had made a drastic error in judgment. He could look back over his long life and see the many times he had rushed into God's presence, offering his sacrifice, while neglecting to offer his heart. He also knew what it was like to make promises to God and then fail to keep them. In a way, his entire reign had been one big broken promise to God. At the very beginning of his reign, God had told Solomon that if he remained faithful, God would establish his throne forever. But Solomon had failed. He had made a promise to God and had not kept it. And like so many other things he has to say in this book, Solomon's words in these verses resound with regret.

Ep 465 – Ecclesiastes 4:1-16 Mar 26, 2018

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Solomon knew what it was like to have fame and fortune. He was a powerful and wealthy king, ruling over a kingdom of adoring subjects and enjoying all the perks that came with his high position. Yet, in Ecclesiastes 4:1-16, Solomon opens up and shares some intimate insights into his life. All is not well. His power is matched by his overpowering loneliness. His great wealth is contrasted his poverty of true friends and close relationships. His renowned wisdom has not kept him from becoming a man who no longer knows how to take advice from others. He is at the top of the world, but isolated and alone. These verses provide us with an autobiographical sketch of Solomon the king, designed to teach us some valuable life lessons learned the hard way. Too often, we think the answer to all our problems is more power, possessions or popularity. We buy into the lie that more money will bring happiness. We take the bait that lures us into believing the more "likes" we have on Facebook, the more friends we have. We allow ourselves to think that accumulation is the key to satisfaction. But Solomon would warn us to watch out. He had learned the truth about the lies. They were all vanity and a striving after wind. So, what was missing from Solomon's life? What did he need that he did not already have? The simple answer is peace with God. He was a man who had walked away from the very one who had placed him on the throne and had blessed him with wisdom and wealth. Somewhere along the way, Solomon had made it his life's mission to focus on the gifts rather than the giver. He began to worship and adore the blessings, instead of the one behind them. And as he grew ever-wealthier and more powerful, he became increasingly more lonely.

Ep 464 – Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 Mar 25, 2018

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In Ecclesiastes 3:16-22, Solomon continues his diatribe against the injustices of life, communicating his distress over the topsy-turvy nature of the world, where righteousness and justice get replaced by wickedness and oppression. From his perspective, man was no better off than the animals, because both end their lives in death. And as far as Solomon could tell, there was no guarantee that man ended up any place different after death than any other creature created by God. In fact, he flatly states that man has no advantage over the animals. He may get to enjoy the benefits of his manhood while on this planet, but once death comes calling, a dead man is no better off than a dead dog. But one of the things we have to keep reminding ourselves about is that Solomon was a man who had lost touch with his God. He had proven unfaithful to God. And while his life was filled with all kinds of material possessions and pleasures, he was missing the one thing he needed most: A healthy and vibrant relationship with God. Without God, he was operating in a vacuum, unable to see life through God's eyes. His whole perspective was warped by his secular world view and his obsession with seeking satisfaction and meaning in this life. And the real eye-opener in all of this is the stark contrast between the views of Solomon and those of his father. How could a father and son end up so far apart in their understanding of and love for God. They both believed in Him, but while one saw Him as loving, gracious and kind, the other had come to view Him as distant and detached. And those opposing views of God dramatically influenced their view of the world.

Ep 463 – Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 Mar 24, 2018

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We are temporal creatures. We live, bound by the restrictions of time and space, measuring our lives in terms of minutes, hours, years and decades. We know our date of birth and while we may not know the day of our death, we have no doubt it is coming. Our five sense dominate our perspective on life. What we can see, taste, smell, hear, and touch becomes the measurement of reality. The invisible becomes essentially unknowable and, therefore, little more than speculation and a waste of our time. And, as we will see in Ecclesiastes 3:1-5, that word time was important to Solomon. In his old age, he was well aware that he was running out of time. His days were numbered. And he had no idea what lay beyond death's door, so he couldn't help but reminisce about all the days he had wasted and the dwindling number of days that lie ahead. When you view life as nothing more than an existence that has a start date and an end date, it shouldn't be a surprise if your outlook becomes a bit jaded over time. Solomon couldn't help but notice that life was little more than a repetitive cycle filled with ups and downs, beginnings and ends, and joys and sorrows. From his perspective, so much of life was uncontrollable and seemingly futile. Your tear. You sow. You love. You hate. You make war. You make peace. And then you begin again. It's all part of the cycle of life lived under the sun. But what Solomon fails to recognize is that time exists within the larger scope of eternity. God is not bound by time, and neither is man. Yes, at the moment we find ourselves restricted to this time and place, but God has eternity in store for each and every human being.

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