Day in and day out. Wake up early, take kids to school, go to work, come home, make dinner, put kids to bed, go to bed, and wake up again. Life can seem so meaning- less. And then you fill it up with more duties in the hopes of adding meaningfulness only to find out that even that is meaningless. Read Ecclesiastes and you'll easily begin feeling like everything you’re working for isn't worth it. On top of it, why is it that those who try to do the right thing don’t get what they deserve and those that are dishonest and don’t do the right thing get what they don’t deserve?
Our struggle with life and meaning is also Solomon’s struggle. If God is faithful, right, and true, how is it that we feel like what we do for Him, seeking truth, honesty, wisdom, and justice doesn’t mean a whole lot? How is it that the results of our work do not seem to produce the fruits we expect? In light of this, where is the hope, the drive, and desire to live rightly when it doesn’t seem worth it at all?
God is definitely mysterious. He wants us to find Him, and it’s not like He won’t be there. I think the issue is mostly with us and not with God. We are finite, He is infinite. We can only see a mile ahead of us, He can see forever ahead of us. We determine our next actions usually by the immediate conseq- uences of the prior actions, but I believe Godly results are out beyond our view of the horizon. Even though a wise person may claim to know what God is doing, he or she still cannot comprehend it (9:17).
14 There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: the righteous who get what the wicked deserve, and the wicked who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless. 15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.
16 When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the labor that is done on earth—people getting no sleep day or night— 17 then I saw all that God has done. No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can discover its meaning. Even if the wise claim they know, they cannot really comprehend it.
1 So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God’s hands, but no one knows whether love or hate awaits them. 2 All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad,[a] the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not.
As it is with the good,
so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
so with those who are afraid to take them.
so with the sinful;
as it is with those who take oaths,
so with those who are afraid to take them.
3 This is the evil in everything that happens under the sun: The same destiny overtakes all. The hearts of people, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterward they join the dead.
Ecclesiastes 8:14-17;9:1-3
9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd. 12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the duty of all mankind.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
Ecclesiastes 12:9-14
17 days!
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