SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/21/2013
8:24 AM
My Worship Time Focus: He Accepted
Life
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl.
2:24-26
Message of the
verses: 24 There is nothing better
for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This
also I have seen that it is from the hand of God. 25 For who can eat and who can have enjoyment
without Him? 26 For to a person who is
good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, while to the
sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting so that he may give to
one who is good in God’s sight. This too is vanity and striving after wind.”
This is the first of six conclusions in the book of
Ecclesiastes and it seems fitting that Solomon would give this kind of a
conclusion to what he has just been talking about. I say that because it seems that things were
looking kind of negative and not Solomon wants to conclude this section with
some positive things, and I say positive because he is talking about God in
these verses. I mostly quote from the
NASB and when one looks at these verses in the KJV they may not get the true
idea of what Solomon is talking about.
He is not advocating “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you die.” This is not the faith of true believers think, but the philosophy of
fatalism. I have mentioned 1Tim 6:17b in
two other SD’s but it is worth repeating in this one too: “God, who richly supplies us with all things
to enjoy.” As believer we should know
how to enjoy the things that God gives us, something we all need to learn more
about. Solomon is teaching us that not
only the blessings of the gifts that God gives us are from Him, but the
enjoyment of the blessings was God’s gift to us as seen in verse twenty-four.
Dr. Wiersbe likes the translation of verse twenty-five in
the NASB better than in the KJV and states the following: “The farmer who prayed at the table ‘Thanks
for food and for good digestion’ knew what Solomon was writing about.”
Verse twenty-six teaches us to trust God, which is the
important thing, to meet are every need.
Dr. Wiersbe writes “God wants to give us wisdom, knowledge, and joy;
these three gifts enable us to appreciate God’s blessing and take pleasure in
them. It is not enough to possess ‘things’;
we must also possess the kind of character that enables us to use ‘things’
wisely and enjoy them properly.”
Verse twenty-six is rather a long verse and is divided
between what will happen with the believer and the sinner and so we must look
at what happens with the sinner which is much different than what happens with
the believer. Sinners or unbelievers may
heap up all kinds of riches but will never truly enjoy them; in fact they may
end up going to the believers. We know that
this is not always the case, but it surely does happen. At the end of the age this surely will
happen: “A good man leaves an
inheritance to his children’s children, And the wealth of the sinner is stored
up for the righteous (Pr. 13:22).” An
example of this verse happened when the children of Israel came out of Egypt as
seen in the book of Exodus. Apart from
the Lord there can be no true enjoyment of riches they are just vanity and
vexation of spirit as seen in the NIV.
We have just completed, with this SD, the first section
of Ecclesiastes and now look forward to the next eight chapters where Solomon
will consider each of these four arguments and refute them. We have not see God mentioned from 1:14-2:23,
but in the verses we looked at today we did see God mentioned. Life “under the sun” is what Solomon was
talking about but now when he speaks of God that changes everything.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes with the following statement: “’Life isn’t like a book,” says Chuck Colson,
founder of Prison Fellowship ministry. ‘Life
is a mess most of the time. And theology
must be lived in the midst of that mess.’”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: Through God’s
wisdom I desire Him to teach me how better to enjoy the riches of life that He
has given me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Same as the “Spiritual meaning for my life.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Syria” (I Kings 20:1)
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who was the captain of David’s
Army?”
Answer in Tomorrows SD.
4/21/2013 9:21 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment