Thursday, April 12, 2012

Thoughts on Ecclesiastes

Have you ever read Ecclesiastes? The majority of it is pretty negative and I got to thinking about it last night. Why is this something God wanted His people, the Church, to have? (All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. 2 Tim. 3:16-17 ESV) Let me give you some examples of the negativity, the hopelessness, the discouragement...

Soloman, the wisest man to ever live, right? says the following:

  • All is vanity (ch 1)
  • I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun. (ch 2)
  • And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. (ch4)
The entire book goes on and on like this. The best we can hope for is to "eat, drink and be merry" to take joy in our lot, etc. And then I tried to put on the lens of Jesus. How does this point to Jesus? And I was struck at my blindness. Without Jesus, this was our lot! But God, in Jesus, gave us a purpose! A commission, to "go and make disciples" and then I was comforted. Life is not meaningless, it is not striving after the wind. Solomon was wise after all and I fell asleep comforted that this story that God has been writing since the beginning of time was always pointing toward the cross and everything after the cross is still pointing toward Jesus. He is the pinnacle of history.

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