SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/19/2013
8:31 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Solomon
Hated Life PT-1
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Eccl.
2:12-23
Message
of the verses: 12 ¶
So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what will the man
do who will come after the king except what has already been done?” Solomon is saying in this verse that he is
considering things from another viewpoint.
He looks at wisdom in verses 12-17, and then he looks at his wealth from
verses 18-23. He looks at all of these
in light that he will one day surely die, and he wonders what good is his
wealth or wisdom in light of someday he will die. We will see that Solomon talks about the
certainty of death more than once in this book that he has penned. We must remember that at this point he is
looking at things that are happening under the sun. Dr. Wiersbe quotes a French essayist named
Montaigne who said “Philosophy is no other thing than for a an to prepare
himself to death,” to which Dr. Wiersbe says “Only that person is prepared to
live who is prepared to die.”
He considered his wisdom (Eccl. 2:12-17): 12 ¶
So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly; for what will the man
do who will come after the king except what has already been done? 13 And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light
excels darkness. 14 The wise man’s eyes
are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I know that one fate
befalls them both. 15 Then I said to
myself, "As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall me. Why then have
I been extremely wise?" So I said to myself, "This too is
vanity." 16 For there is no lasting
remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch as in the coming days
all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the fool alike die! 17 So I hated life, for the work which had
been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and
striving after wind.”
I think that it is a good thing that Solomon is not alive
in our world today because someone may want to look him up in a padded
cell. He is feeling the things that
others feel throughout history who look only at things that happen under the
sun.
The question that Solomon seems to be asking is what
value is wisdom in light of those who are fools and those who are wise will
both end up dying. Perhaps he missed
out, but I don’t think so, that a wise man can leave his wisdom to others which
is exactly what Solomon has done, for he has written three OT books which are
called “Wisdom Books,” and so he has left us a lot to look at to help us become
wise. Latter on Solomon asks in verse
twelve “who will come after the king except what has already been done.” He may be saying that since he has already
done all of these experiments the one that follows him will have no need in
doing them again. That is true because
no one has ever had the wisdom that Solomon had except of course the Lord Jesus
Christ. The problem is that Solomon not
only make these experiments, but he also made great mistakes while doing them,
which leads to another problem and that is that people for years have been
making these same mistakes even though he made them first. For Solomon continues to say that there is
nothing new under the sun.
We have already concluded that it is better to be wise
than to be a fool, and we will see that Solomon believed this too. A wise man knows that death will come and
prepares for it, and the only way to do this is to be a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ. A Pastor friend of mine
who is retired spoke at the church that I attend a week ago and stated that the
Bible teaches that there are three kinds of death. The first is physically death to which all of
us will someday experience if the Lord does not return to take those believers
who are alive directly to heaven. The
second is spiritual death, and this happened to all of us when Adam and Eve
sinned in the garden which resulted in everyone who has been born since in the
normal way is born spiritually dead. The
last death that the Bible speaks of is eternal death and what follows that is
judgment. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small,
standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened,
which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were
written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in
it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were
judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the
lake of fire. This is the
second death, the lake of fire. 15
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was
thrown into the lake of fire (Rev.20:12-15).”
I stated that this is the third kind of death, and it is for those who
will be at this judgment were born spiritually dead, died physically without
accepting the free gift of salvation that is offered by the Lord Jesus Christ
and not are cast into the lake of fire which is the third kind of death.
Solomon says that both the wise man and the fool die and
after they die they are forgotten. We
know that Solomon fame has remained but most famous people who have already
died are rarely mentioned again with the exception of reading about them in
biographies or in encyclopedias, or on the internet. When we read that Solomon hated life we know
that he was not considering the taking of his own life. Dr. Wiersbe says that a good paraphrase of
this verse would be “Therefore, I was disgusted with life!”
We know that there are people in the Bible that got so
disgusted with life that they wanted to die, Jonah was surely one of them along
with Moses and Job and Elijah, but in the end they got out of their depression
and continued to serve the Lord.
Dr. Wiersbe concludes his commentary on this section with
the following words, “No, the Christian should ‘love life’ (1Peter 3:10, quoted
from Ps. 34:12ff), seeking to put the most into it and getting the most out of
it, to the glory of God. We may not
enjoy everything in life, or be able to explain everything about life, but that
is not important. We live by promises
and not by explanations, and we know that our ‘labor is not in vain in the Lord’
(1 Cor. 15:58).”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I want to talk a
bit about the wisdom of God when it comes to salvation by quoting a few verses
from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians 17 ¶
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in
cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
18 For the word of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God. 19 For it is written,
"I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I
WILL SET ASIDE." 20 Where is the
wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God
made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21
For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come
to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached
to save those who believe (1 Cor. 1:17-21).”
My Steps of Faith for Today: I have to quote Proverbs 3:5-6 for this part
of my SD, “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own
understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths
straight.”
Memory verses for the
week: Psalm 32:7-11
7 Your 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 have 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, you
righteous; and shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
Question: “Vinegar”
Today’s Bible
Question: “Who said ‘If I be shaven,
then my strength will go from me, and I shall become weak?’”
Answer in tomorrow’s SD.
4/19/2013 10:43 AM
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