Sunday -Guest Post by Mrs.Oz

Today's reading from the One Year Bible Chronological Reading Plan is Ecclesiastes 1:12-6:12

Many times I've thought frustrated thoughts about Solomon. If he was so darn wise, why did he make some foolish decisions? Why did he pursue life in the temporal so much? We evaluate, as in the previous post (and rightly so), the character of Solomon and his father and Solomon can seem like the one not to pattern yourself after quite so much! However, God has given us a great gift through this man and that is to see something we may see in our own lives on a smaller scale but NEVER at the level to which this man actually EXPERIENCED it.
I present to you that Solomon was what we humans may call a big experiment or a research project of God's. Now, as he would see it, this could not be true because God all ready knew what the results would be, but it seems that he did it for our benefit. To give one man on earth all the wisdom a human man could possibly have, all the wealth he could ever attain, the respect, the admiration, the pleasures, and on, and on. Every thing a man may think in his lifetime would be worth having to enjoy, Solomon was granted it. No other man in history would ever be given this by God and the fact that he allowed it, gave this man the character qualities of a thinker and a writer, and had him pursue it on evey level and document it, is a HUGE event in humanity that we should not miss! Solomon was allowed by God, and for the glory of God through men, to give us a gift that can and will change our lives. Although I understand the criticism of Solomon's relationship with God being very much on a the head knowledge level, we benefit so much by him treading waters we never will and coming back with the assessment of humanity's toil for us to learn from. That is a purpose his father David did not have, but it is hugely beneficial just the same. We are to love God with our minds as well as our hearts (Duet 6:5) and strength.
Thankfully, over and over in this book Solomon keeps coming back to the bottom line. That is what I want to focus on today.
" I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him."

This passage contains the key of understanding humanity's plight which Solomon could only get to by being the thinker that he was but it still brings great glory to God that he was used to reveal it to us. If we pay attention to Solomon, we can keep from wasting so much time and get on with living for God. Here is the key:
Eternity is in the hearts of men, and God has put it there. Therefore, there is something in us that wants to put our efforts into productive living, and pleasurable living with a long term benefit. That is the eternity in us, we want to see our efforts reap reward and enjoyment forever. Though a man man not realize this was given him by God, he will act upon this imprint on his heart from his Creator. The problem is, as Solomon found by acting on it in ever way humanly possible, in this sphere of humanity on the fallen earth, it is not allowed to fulfill us. God has given us a desire in all things that can only be filled by HIMSELF. The burden is that the desire in us is strong and compelling, but the fulfillment cannot be found in anything we look around to set our hearts and minds to. It's continual frustration for us, a want without relief. This is why a man can build, attain, possess and enjoy but still keep finding despair and depression.
When we "plug in" to God and HIS eternal work for HIS glory, whether it be a huge role with great possession or a humble role with little to speak of, we will get that eternal satisfaction we are longing for.
"I know that everything God does will endure forever"
What we do, bit it great or humble, in God, will endure forever and assurance of that will be our delight and our joy. It will make every remedial task in day to day life full of eternal significance, or as was said in the previous post so well, completely meaningful. It plugs us into the eternal we long from our Creator to take part in.
"That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God."
Eating and drinking are daily simple things that every man does. Whether he eats steak or a bowl of rice, when his heart is plugged into God and eternity is on his heart, he CAN be satisfied. In his toil, whatever his humble work may be, it is extremely noble when stamped with God's purposes of eternal significance and therefore will satisfy him. These satisfactions cannot be attained by man's wisdom, they are a gift of God himself.
"...nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it."
There is no stressful urgency to store up or build up as a man on this earth. What God has for you and I to do is ENOUGH and COMPLETE. We labor and stress ourselves to try to add to it and we cheat ourselves out of blessing to take from it. Doing more than what God has for us, or less that what he has for us will both make us miserable. This is where the wise and the fool end up the same. A man may achieve more and have wasted his time and efforts and a fool may sit on his hands and have wasted it as well. This is where they become equals
" God does it so that men will revere him. "
AHHH! There is the amazing point that we would not have reached without our "human experiment", Solomon. To get to the bottom of all that is humanly possible and pass on to us a warning that it will avail us nothing! So, don't even attempt it on the little levels we do each day. God showed Solomon that the emptiness of all things pointed to a HUGE NEED for HIMSELF and that by men realizing that, they would revere their God like never before.
I am doing a study of the book "If God is Good" by Randy Alcorn and I present to you that this statement is scripture is one of the huge answers not only to meaninglessness in humanity but also evil. God wants us to be emptied out to see how fulfilling he is. He allows us to see sorrows of the world and on our own doorsteps to have eyes that finally see all the beauty that He is. He uses all things to do one thing... show us HIMSELF. Which is therefore, in all things our complete, supreme, satisfaction.

Some men get the truth of God through the heart, some get it through conviction of the love of his law. God knew that some men would get it more through their tendency to logic. I personally love that Solomon loved to think and his journey proved that thinking through man's journey would also lead us to our need for God. He had to travel a rough road to get there, but I really believe God allowed all this in Solomon for the benefit of YOU and ME. We will never get to do what he did and now we can see from study of his thoughtful evaluation of all things, that what we think we may have wanted would never satisfy. He gave us great proverb evaluations of the wise man and the fool, he gave us some deep thoughts about our greatest desires in life. Had he not been the thinker and writer he was, we would not have this. God uses all of us in the gifts he has given for His own purposes.
Solomon's approach to learning about God is not simple and not formula oriented but it's very beneficial to us.
"Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart."

...in other words, he does not worry that he's running out of time because all he is meant to fulfill will be done and he will forever see it's reward in eternity because he is tapped into the enjoyment of the God of eternity and that joy will be both here and now and will make his heart oh, so glad. This also makes the seasons of life, good or bad, up or down, all significant to every man. Though I did not touch on the classic passage found in the text today, here is a little reflecting on that. Besides, it's been one of my favorite songs since I was a kid:)



Tomorrows passage is Ecclesiastes 7-11:6