SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/18/2013
7:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: He Tested
Life PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl. 2:4-11
Message of the
verses: In today’s Spiritual Diary
we will look at the second part of the first main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s
commentary (Be Satisfied) on the second chapter of the book of Ecclesiastes.
Employment (2:4-11):
4 I enlarged my works: I built
houses for myself, I planted vineyards for myself; 5 I made gardens and parks for myself and I
planted in them all kinds of fruit trees; 6
I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate a forest of
growing trees. 7 I bought male and
female slaves and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed flocks and herds
larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. 8
Also, I collected for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings
and provinces. I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures
of men-many concubines. 9 Then I became
great and increased more than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also
stood by me. 10 All that my eyes desired
I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my
heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my
labor. 11 Thus I considered all my
activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and
behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the
sun.”
In the passage above there are many evidences of what
Solomon is talking about in the book of 1 Kings. For instance it was Solomon who built the
temple of God and then he built his own house which took longer to build than
the temple which took seven years to build.
Solomon built cities (2 Chron. 8:4-6), and he built gardens and vineyards,
along with orchards and forests (1Kings 4:33).
Solomon built water systems also, and in all of this it took great
wisdom, but in all of this Solomon was not truly satisfied, it was all vanity,
a chasing after the wind.
We see from verse seven that Solomon had bought male and
female slaves and he also had his own slaves, but one thing that Solomon did
was use the people of Israel in forced labor to build the things that he wanted
to build, and this is one of the things that caused the people of Israel to
begin to not trust and even dislike Solomon, which would eventually lead to the
splitting of the country.
We know that Solomon also accumulated great wealth, for
he had tons of gold and it is said that during his rule that silver was not
even considered to be a great wealth because there was such an abundance of
gold. When I say tons of Gold that is
what I mean, thousands of tons of gold, but in all of this it did not bring satisfaction
to Solomon.
In verse ten of chapter two we find that Solomon found
joy in all of his labor, but after the labor was done the joy was gone from
him. He seemed to continually need a
project to keep him happy, but in the end there was no satisfaction when the
project was done. Henry Ward Beecher
said “Success is full of promise until en get it and then it is a last-year’s
nest from which the birds have flown.”
I want to be clear that there is nothing wrong with work,
for we know that it was Adam’s job to take care of the garden in which God put
him and this happened before the fall, but after the fall work got a whole lot
harder because of sin. Solomon writes
about labor in the book of Proverbs stating that laziness is wrong, but honest
labor is good. Paul writes “whatever you
do, do all to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31b).” Dr. Wiersbe states “But work alone cannot
satisfy the human heart, no matter how successful the work may be (Isa. 55:2).”
We can understand why many achievers are not truly happy. Ambrose Bierce is quoted by Dr. Wiersbe as he
called achievement “the death of endeavor and the birth of disgust.” Dr. Wiersbe states that this is often the
case, for “The overachiever is often a person who is trying to escape himself
or herself by becoming a workaholic, and this only results in disappointment.” He goes on to state that after the retirement
of a workaholic they usually die shortly afterwards.
The first Pastor that I sat under after becoming a
believer retired when he was sixty-five years old and told me that you have to
retire from something to something. He
was a wise man.
“Solomon tested life, and his heart said ‘Vanity!’” (Warren Wiersbe)
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: What I see in
this passage as far as getting to know God better is that without knowing Him
in a personal way that life has no real meaning at all. It was Augustine who said “Thou
hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart
is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” Perhaps Solomon knew this in his younger
years, but he must have forgotten it until near the end of his life.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Continue my quest in getting to know my Lord
better.
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 32:7-11
7 You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance.
Selah. 8 I will instruct you and
teach you in the way which you should go, I will counsel you with my eye upon
you. 9 Do not be as the horse or as the
mule which has no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold
them in check, otherwise they would not come near you. 10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he
who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness will surround you. 11 Be glade in the LORD and rejoice, your
righteous ones; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Grace” (Romans 5:21)
Today’s Bible
Question: “What did the soldiers offer
Jesus while he was on the cross?”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD. 4/18/2013 8:59 AM
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