a musings from ecclesiastes

"Nobody remembers what happened yesterday. And the things that will happen tomorrow? Nobody'll remember them either. Don't count on being remembered." --Ecclesiastes

Solomon opens the 'sequel' to Proverbs by throwing the truth in our faces. We're here for a short while, then we're gone. Puffs of smoke. We will never be remembered. Depressing, isn't it? Solomon then goes through several chapters, showing how pleasures and hard work and wisdom are all futile and meaningless in the end. His rememdy? Enjoy life. Eat, drink, by happy. Enjoy the days God gives you. At the same time he is saying that pleasures are meaningless. What's up with this guy?

Ecclesiastes is an amazing book. If you've never read it, check it out. It's awesome. Read it through a couple times, because the underlaying message is sometimes hard to draw out. Solomon tells us to enjoy life; and he tells the youth to "Relish your youthful vigor. Follow the impulses of your heart. If something looks good, pursue it." Because, in the end, nothing will be remembered. Your accomplishments, good deeds, your fame and glory will be replaced by someone else's. In the end, you're nothing in this earth. You will, ultimately, be forgotten. So have fun. Do whatever you want.

Wait! Solomon tells the youth, "But know also that not just anything goes; you have to answer to God for every last bit of it." And here is the central message of Ecclesiastes: you will not be remembered; you are living, but you will die; whatever you do won't matter in the end; but keep your paths straight and your eye on God; fear God, and do what he tells you; we will all have to answer to God in the turns of time.

Ecclesiastes tells us to stop, to realize what really matters. We must understand that true meaning and purpose and love is found only in God. We can try to fill our lives with anything, but unless we grab hold of God, it is all futile, a gust of wind.

As Eugene H. Peterson says of Ecclesiastes, "[It] is a John-the-Baptist kind of book. It funtions not as a meal but as a bath. It is not nourishment; it is cleansing. It is repentence. It is purging. We read Ecclesiastes to get scrubbed clean from illusion and sentiment, from ideas that are idolatrous and feelings that cloy. It is an expose and rejection of every arrogant and ignorant expectation that we can live our lives by ourselves on our terms."

This is a book about reality. It is a book about finding real life only in God.