365 Reflections

Live long enough and you'll eventually find yourself stuck. You cant change the conditions of your life. You can't change the people around you. You can't find your way out of a season that seems to last forever. What do you do? Solomon explores this in Ecclesiastes 8. He starts by giving practical advice when you find yourself working for a difficult person. Perhaps a king.  Ecclesiastes 8:2 (ESV) I say: Keep the king’s command, because of God’s oath to him. God's oath here refers to the sovereign choice of God to elect certain people to high office and remove others. Daniel backs this up well: Daniel 2:21 (ESV) He (God) changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; It was God who gave the people their kings - Saul, David, and now Solomon. It was God who used Pharaoh to show His glory in delivering His people from Egypt's grip and God who used Nebuchadnezzar to punish them ...

One of the best proverbs in the scripture is found in Ecclesiastes 7. Ecclesiastes 7:21–22 (ESV) Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. 22 Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others. In these two verses, we have so much Gospel-centered truth. What is the Gospel's first statement to man but that we have sinned! We are therefore all flawed and stained by sin. Since this is so, we must regard the insults of men or their praises as rooted in such flaws. The insult or praise is not necessarily true as it comes from a heart navigationally off course from the truth. In the end, the words or opinions of men and women must not be the definition of our lives. And we should consider that from our own hearts we have cursed others.  James rightly agrees: James 3:9 (ESV) With (our tongue) we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. Solomon further enumerates our own des...

Ecclesiastes 7:1 (ESV) A good name is better than precious ointment, and the day of death than the day of birth. When we come to Ecclesiastes 7 we meet a few proverbs concerning the inevitable reality of death. What seems odd to say back to back - a good name + the day of death - really tie together in this particular sense: Your name (reputation) is finalized on the day of your death. How you start in life does not necessarily determine how you finish. And if you keep your end in mind, rather than your past, you'll live wisely.  In simpler terms - CONSIDER the END of your LIFE and what you want people to say about you. Thus the next two proverbs: Ecclesiastes 7:2 (ESV) It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart. And then verse 4: Ecclesiastes 7:4 (ESV) The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. We are told by cultur...

Solomon was wrecked with emptiness. It's on every page of Ecclesiastes. He has so much and finds so little joy in all of it. And he comes to some conclusions: Ecclesiastes 6:1–3 (ESV) There is an evil that I have seen under the sun, and it lies heavy on mankind: 2 a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil. 3 If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he. Notice the great evil of this man's life. He doesn't enjoy what he has. What a terrible kind of life. To have all kinds of things, all kinds of money and honor, and yet to find no enjoyment in them. No wonder Jesus came to Earth being born to a poor family in Nazareth....

The preacher talks about money in Ecclesiastes 5. And if we want to live full lives, we best pay attention. For Solomon had more money than we can imagine. And he realized the danger in ways few will understand. So what does he have to say? Ecclesiastes 5:10–12 (ESV) He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. 11 When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? 12 Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. Is it a coincidence that money is discussed RIGHT AFTER Solomon instructs us in repeated terms to come to God's house with silence to listen rather than offer the "sacrifices of fools?" (See Ecclesiastes 5:1). Not at all. Solomon knows that money and riches can stop your ears and darken your heart to God. And so many of our prayers are sustenance related. Th...

Ecclesiastes 5:1–2 (ESV) Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven and you are on earth. Therefore let your words be few. The answer to true companionship as Solomon has observed in Ecclesiastes 4 is the know the Lord and come to Him and enjoy fellowship with Him. But that approach must be done with great care and contrition, with seriousness and sincerity.  The first command - listen.  Think of how often we do NOT consider this. We usually approach God with words, saying whatever is on our minds. But the first part of our approach should be to hear what He has to say. Notice how in several different synonymous participles, the text calls on us to silence our speech. This is so counterintuitive. For most of us believe God is pleased when we vocal...

Are you like me? Do you languish over the state of our world? Do you see the oppression and injustice and long to give up? Do you wonder where hope is to be found? That was Solomon's case in Ecclesiastes 4.  Ecclesiastes 4:1 (ESV) Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. The world is full of oppressors and oppression. They are those who take power or gain power and abuse power over those whom they overpower. It hurts to see and it causes many to question God's existence.  What is at the heart of oppression? It is segregation of mankind. The division of brother and sister, neighbors, boss and employee or ruler and citizen. When we forget that we belong to each other, oppression is one of the inevitable results.  Then Solomon looks at the rat race: Ecclesiastes 4:4 (ESV) Then I saw that all ...