2019 Mar 28 Ecclesiastes 2, 2Peter 3
2019 Mar 28 Ecclesiastes 2, 2Peter 3
Wishing you a fine day, with a thoughtful hello! Let’s pick up in Ecclesiastes 2, with verses 17-21:
“17 So I came to hate life, because everything being done under the sun seemed distressing to me, for everything was futile, a chasing after the wind. 18 I came to hate all that I had worked so hard for under the sun, because I must leave it behind for the man coming after me. 19 And who knows whether he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will take control over all the things I spent great effort and wisdom to acquire under the sun. This too is futility. 20 So I began to despair in my heart over all the hard work at which I had toiled under the sun. 21 For a man may work hard, guided by wisdom and knowledge and skill, but he must hand over his portion to a man who did not work for it. This too is futility and a great tragedy.”
Eccle 2:17 Solomon had spent a lot of time focusing on the wise skills of building, planting, designing and landscaping, organizing and accumulating silver and gold. Could he have begun to lose sight of the wise spiritual skills of building up and strengthening his family’s relationship with Jehovah, preparing them for an eternity of happiness serving God? Still, his wise words enable us to see the vanity of focusing only on the physical things of this life. We, too, would likely come to hate life, eventually feeling as though we’ve been “chasing after the wind.” How much finer to seek out the delightful will of God, and pursue spiritual riches.
Eccle 2:18,19 Surely Solomon aimed to love his children, but perhaps some were not turning out as wise as he had hoped, including one who may end up receiving his kingship. How distressing it may have been to him to consider that a beloved son may lack appreciation for all that his father had built up for the benefit of his family and the nation of Israel, including the temple in Jerusalem. Such an idea was depressing to Solomon, as he considered the leaving of his legacy to another to be “futility.”
Eccle 2:20,21 Solomon “began to despair” in his very heart over working so hard and accumulating so much, that he would leave to others who did not work so hard themselves. He considered this “futility and a great tragedy.” Solomon had known the inspired counsel of Proverbs 22 to “6 Train a boy in the way he should go; Even when he grows old he will not depart from it.” Jehovah took great delight in his first son, who would come to be called Jesus. As Solomon wrote in Proverbs 8:22-31, this son of God came to be beside Jehovah as a “master worker,” one God was especially fond of day by day. This one came to have deep appreciation for Jehovah and his ways, becoming so close, so that he could later say “I and the Father are one.” Solomon likely tried to raise many of his children with the same wisdom he had been given. Perhaps if he had included more of them in the work that he himself had done, having them work hard alongside himself, so that he could “hand over his portion to a man” who did indeed work hard for it, he would not have been so distressed by the futility and tragedy of not doing so. Nevertheless, Solomon’s wise words again show us the carelessness or risk of failing to be involving and training others in a responsibility that is to be handed over someday. Still, we are nearing the time when, as Jesus mentioned at John 11, “26 and everyone who is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?” Soon, many will no longer need to worry about not being around to, among other things, enjoy the fruits of our labor or hard work, even lovingly working for the benefit of others, with the greater happiness of giving more than receiving. (Acts 20:35). Of course, at that time, spiritual things will be a priority, as they should now be, loving and strengthening our families and others in their spiritual well-being and relationships with God and others, that they too may remain for life everlasting. May we lovingly train our precious children in the right ways of Jehovah, helping them gain the reverential fear of God, coming to hate what is bad in God’s eyes, and learning to practice what is good and experiencing the rewards for doing so.
2Peter 3:5-7 These verses remind us that ignorers of God are failing to learn from history—that such ones living in the days of Noah met their end, as a warning to us living in the “last days” of this system of things. While God is seeking the repentance of all people, aligning themselves for eternal happiness, He will still deny this privilege to unappreciative, unrepentant evil ones. This warning should move ones to reevaluate their relationship with God. These words read: “5 For they deliberately ignore this fact, that long ago there were heavens and an earth standing firmly out of water and in the midst of water by the word of God; 6 and that by those means the world of that time suffered destruction when it was flooded with water. 7 But by the same word the heavens and the earth that now exist are reserved for fire and are being kept until the day of judgment and of destruction of the ungodly people.” Jehovah is merciful, reasonable, and a God of perfect justice. (Psalm 86:5; Deute 32:4) May we grow to appreciate Him more, by looking into His trustworthy and beneficial word the Bible. (Psalm 1:1-3).
Find Life and See
Between Winchester, Virginia, and hopefully, Washington D.C., having confidence that our thankful trust in God will not fail to inspire us to the peace He has purposed via His Kingdom!
