Ecc. 7: The Gravity of Life

Ecclesiastes 7:13 "Consider what God has done: Who can straighten what he has made crooked?"

This is a pretty serious chapter. The Choir have a pretty incredible song that kind of made me wonder, but as I read Ecclesiastes 7 for the first time in my life, it became clear because of it's context.



When you read something like the day of death being better than the day of birth, and that a sad face is good for the heart, that sorrow is better than laughter, what comes to mind? What is your first instinct? In my case it was a bit of incredulity. I had the consider it. I wondered if Solomon (presumably) was referring to an afterlife, and the departure of a meaningless world under the sun, with the hope of entering God's presence. I think more than that, it is a grim reminder not to forget that life is temporary. Remember the sad times, for balance, for a greater sense of joy in the good times, and hope. I think a good answer or elaboration can be found in verse 14. God creates the good and bad times.

To be quickly provoked is meaningless foolishness. Why get so angry? Why let emotion get the better of you?

God's methods and intentions are inscrutable. When God zigs when we zag, or he's crooked when we expect a straight line, its not...normal. It's unexpected. It's incredible. We don't know why he does these things, and can only count on his promise that he has our best interests in mind. Its confusing, and upsetting. Our minds are crammed in this compartment of a limited understanding of an omnipotent, eternally-wise God. Why bother attempting to figure it out? Maybe our feeble brains derive some sort of legitimacy in the attempt to connect impossibly far-flung dots or impossible combinations of possible outcomes to our perceived suffering.

There is no one on earth not culpable for sin. (V. 20) God started making man upright, but, like Adam, man searched for other schemes.

Good practical advice...don't worry about catching everything someone says about you. Someone's bound to badmouth you whether you deserve it or not. Do you always keep things to yourself?

Is the voice of a jilted lover writing verse 28? Not one upright woman in a thousand? Srsly? Maybe he is looking in the wrong thousand? Solomon had his problems with women, to be sure, and it cost him a lot.

Ecc. 3: Enjoy your Work

Ecclesiastes 3:22 "So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?"

Ecclesiastes 3 is probably best know for comprising a majority of the 1959 Pete Seeger tune "Turn! Turn! Turn!" The first 8 verses are a Proverbs-like set of couplets, declaring that there are times for everything. At one time, there is a time to plant, and a time to harvest. A time to kill and a time to heal. They all seem to be opposites. Something we would declare good, and something that could ostensibly be bad. There are times for all of them.

In keeping with the context of meaninglessness, of vanity, is the writer saying it doesn't really matter what you do? Maybe its not to do one thing full time. If you are going to do one thing, you should do the other.

Again there is the emphasis to find satisfaction in our toil. To be happy with that. God created man with this burden. To only know life. To only know time. To be unable to fathom the eternity of God and his works. This is why eternity is so mind blowing. It was meant to never be understood by mere men. We have one go-around. Life is temporary, while God, who transcends life, is eternal, not to be grasped.

Life under the sun, is not ideal, where judgment and justice should be rightfully, wickedness exists. God, who also transcends time, sets our time. And everything will happen in his time.

The writer has faith in God, and appears to trust God with eternity, but still doesn't know. He wonders if man and animal are truly so different. Both die (like the wise and the fool). Both are composed of the dust to which they will return. Man doesn't know what happens after him. Man can only know history, not future.

Ps. 48: God's Eternal Beauty

Psalm 48:2 "It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. Like the utmost heights of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King."

God is eternally strong, and also eternally...eternal. Which blows my mind like nothing I have ever tried to figure out. Sit there for a second, and ponder eternity. A state of never ending. Its equally as befuddling as it is horrifying. Its impossible to figure out, because its not our nature. You live, then you die.

But anyway. I had to consider the words of this chapter. Not much is made of the beauty of God to this point. Creation, beautiful. Women, beautiful. The tabernacle, the temple, beautiful. But here God is described as beautiful. An invisible God is beautiful. This is beyond appearance. Incredible that with just the presence of God, a place becomes beautiful. It assumes that character. The mountain, the city of God, beautiful because of the presence of God. If God is in you...