Tag: Solomon

Meaningless Life

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App1 Comment

Solomon likely wrote the Book of Ecclesiastes and he is considered by many to be one of the wisest men who ever lived. Yet he wrote a book that for twelve chapters expounds on how meaningless life is. I think he derailed his own life by marrying so many foreign women who did not worship the One True God who gave him the gift of wisdom to begin with. I don’t know for a fact, but I think that he left the train station fully intending to follow the track all the way home to God and got derailed by his own lust. He did point out wisely that he concluded one needs to fear God and keep His commandments. Well, that is truth for sure! We cannot keep God’s commandments without a relationship with Him because I think it is His Spirit in us that enables us daily to fight the spiritual battles against all of the darkness in the world around us. I don’t know what happened to Solomon after his death or what his relationship with God was like after he married so many women and built altars to their gods. I do know that he was wise in exhorting us to fear the Lord and to keep His commandments. Without God, life is meaningless. With God, life has purpose because God has a plan for us that He wants to fulfill in our lives. We have to stay on the track and keep chugging along through all of the challenges in life in order to reach our eternal destination that God has prepared for us. Life isn’t meaningless unless we choose the wrong path and go in the wrong direction, away from God and His best for us. Choose God and choose His plan! That is wisdom.

What’s the Point?

There once lived a king whose experience exploring and grappling with life’s perplexities was recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes.

What’s interesting is that this king—likely King Solomon—reigned in Israel during some of the best years in its history. From the world’s standards, he had more power, prestige, and wealth than any other person before him. Yet, still, he summarized his luxuries with one depressing word: Meaningless!

“Everything is meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) “Everything is wearisome beyond description.” (Ecclesiastes 1:8) “Nothing under the sun is truly new.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9) “I observed everything going on under the sun, and really, it is all meaningless—like chasing the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 1:14)

Though written thousands of years ago, this bleak analysis still resonates with our own restless yearning for more. We want more than meaningless stuff. We want more than surface-level connections and ambitions. We want more than a seemingly thriving, yet secretly unsatisfied life. We want more—but what we want doesn’t typically satisfy us.

Like the author of Ecclesiastes, we might find ourselves asking: “What is the point of life?”

By the end of the book, “the Teacher” has tried to find meaning in everything under the sun, and he concludes his reflections with these powerful words…

“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.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13 NIV

We can chase after everything this world has to offer and it might bring temporary pleasure. But in the end, pursuing those things apart from God will always leave us empty.

The great news is, there’s a God in heaven who created and loves us, and He understands what we really need. He knows that life is best when we follow His design for life. He is worthy of our awe, our honor, and our worship.

So, fear God and keep His commandments. Love Him with everything in you and love your neighbor as yourself. That is the point. Only then will life no longer be meaningless.

Consecration: Turning Away and Turning Toward

On By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App3 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/13696/day/18

This devotional presents one of the simplest and easily understood explanation of consecration that I think I have ever read. We have to turn away from the things of the world and turn towards God. The wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, started out right, wholeheartedly devoted to God. He built the temple and dedicated it to the Lord in a long prayer asking for God to dwell there and bless His people. But as he aged, Solomon’s heart was turned towards the wives that he had married from other nations, the very thing that God had warned him not to do. In turning away from God, Solomon turned to the world, worshipping the false gods of Moab among others. As a result, God took the kingdom away from Solomon and Israel was divided between Jeroboam and Rehoboam. What great blessings could have continued for generations if only Solomon had kept his first love for God and not for his foreign wives! We will never know the outcome of that scenario because it didn’t happen that way. Solomon had consecrated his life to serving the Lord, asking only for wisdom to rule well. Then he turned AWAY from God and toward the world and his own ego destroyed his kingdom. How many times have we felt the pull of the world, the entertainment that others seem to get so much pleasure from, the language that others use freely and seem to be accepted because of their irreverence, the riches and success that the world clamors for? We feel the pull, but if we are turned away from the world and toward God, these things cannot capture our hearts and souls. They may capture our attention, hopefully only briefly, but not enough to entice us away from our commitment to God. Each time we feel a tug to turn towards the world, we must remember that leads to destruction, not to life. Only God offers life eternally. Thus, our consecration to Him must be wholehearted, sincere and with a complete knowledge that the choices we make today may affect our eternal destiny and the witness we show others affects the way they turn, either towards God or away. Solomon’s choices led to the destruction on a united nation; choices matter. God desires us to turn towards Him but He will not force us to do so. It is our free will choice, and therein lies the problem. We are a sinful people saved by grace, a fact that we must remember every day, especially when we are faced with the choice to turn towards the world instead of towards God.

Reflect on the Past, Trust in the Future

On By vickleaIn YouVersion AppLeave a comment

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The author of Ecclesiastes spent a lot of time exploring the meaning of life. This “Teacher,” a king of Israel in Jerusalem (traditionally identified as King Solomon), tried it all in his quest for meaning—power and prestige, wealth and women. And, yet, still, he observed that generations come and generations go, but it all seems to be an endless cycle…

We work hard, but we eventually die.
We acquire things, but we eventually die.
We have families, but eventually we die.
Whether we spend our lives doing good or evil, we all eventually die.

But he goes on to say:

“Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.”
Ecclesiastes‬ ‭3‬:‭11‬ ‭NLT‬‬

When you gaze up at a star-filled sky, hold a newborn baby in your arms, or hike through a field of wildflowers, you are meant to be reminded of something greater—your Creator.

When you study what’s been recorded in human history or even process your own life, you get glimpses of the bigger picture—but you can still only see so much.

It’s not your job to know everything, but it is your job to trust God.

At the very end of the book, the Teacher shares his final thoughts: “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” (Ecclesiastes‬ ‭12‬:‭13‬).

When you look back on this year, what was beautiful? Even if it was challenging or excruciating, what did God teach you through it?

Regardless of the past or what the future holds, you can trust that God is working—from beginning to end.