- Click here to read (the first post said 1-5 by accident)
- Click here to listen
I posted an Overview last night if you didn’t see it.
I am NOT going to preach during this post about how LIfe without the Lord will never bring us satisfaction: I will let you dig into the scriptures and hear that from HIm.
Solomon sits and investigates not just his life, but everyone’s life. Psalm 144:4 says:
4 They are like a breath;
their days are like a fleeting shadow.
Man do I feel it! I am at a point in my life when I think I am wasting the time I have on earth. I am 48 years old and lay in bed thinking…Wow, in 10 years I will be 58. In 20 years…will I still be alive? Time is fleeting! I heard a pastor once say the most important thing in your life is the “dash” on your tombstone. 1973 – ?. The “dash” between the dates sums up your life.
Solomon sits here and investigates his dash. “I saw”, “I realized”, I concluded”. In the end, he summarizes in Chapter 2:15-16 that both the wise and the fool both die, life’s great equalizer. BUT we start to see glimpses that Solomon knows the secret of the “dash” in 2:24
A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?
Chapter 3: Time- this IS the dash. Solomon begins to examine that we all do have seasons in our life. This might be a familiar chapter to read if you are old enough to have seen the first footloose.
In each verse, there is a “favorable” and an “unfavorable” but the conclusion for both comes in verse 10:
He has made everything beautiful in its time.
I have read this book several times, and I always look at it as “what is my purpose during this time”, but this year something else stood out….what is NOT my purpose. 2021 is a crazy year! But I take comfort in this:
16 And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.
17 I said to myself,
“God will bring into judgment
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”
Chapter 4- Solomon begins with examining society. Chapter 4:1-3 should hurt your heart it is so true. The human race as a whole, ignoring the oppressed, makes Solomon jealous of those who were never born because they never had to witness it with their own eyes! Ouch!
Solomon examines everything. By verse 4 he looks at our “work” and how God has designed us to work together. He designed us to pick each other up, keep each other safe, and protect us when we are attacked.
9 Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their labor:
10 If either of them falls down,
one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
and has no one to help them up.
11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
12 Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
Chapter 5. Read this carefully, money this is NOT the root of all evil. This attitude is about our heart, our attitude, towards money.
Verse 10-12 is the introduction to the “love of money”
Verse 13-17 is the effect of living an empty life when we put love first.
Verse 18-20 is the opposite. When it is NOT, the love of our life God will bring gladness in our heart from the profit of our heard work.
Finally, chapter 6 is our turning point for tomorrow’s read: End with verse 9 BUT then tomorrow start at verse 10…See you tomorrow.
Reading the Bible - 2021 
Is anyone able to explain chapter 2:26 for me? I was a little confused
LikeLiked by 1 person
People quote the Bible without reading it. Ummmm I would say A LOT of people do that. There are 6 scriptures called the “Carpe Diem” scriptures. Isn’t that so us…Seize the Day! You only get one life..be HAPPY. Uhh, I thought that God told us to be Holy, not Happy? So picture Solomon…pacing the floor….distraught. He has tried EVERYTHING: money, religion, wives, children, work, ‘sex, drugs, and rock and roll’! Yet, he still is pacing the floor about why he feels incomplete. Not everything he is has or is doing is bad but apart from God, it is all meaningless. As a millennial, we define the book of Ecclesiastes…” we want to have a purpose…we want to make a difference….(but my generation does it on the backside of pride). Anyway, I digress. Ok, back to Solomon:
24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, 25 for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? 26 To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness, but to the sinner, he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
2:24 is your Carpe Diem, right? Followed by verse 26. The best I can describe it is sometimes God channels the fruits of the one not living for God into the hands of the one that is. So as we look around at those that are seeing the day- and we are jealous of that we don’t need to be. He has a way of working it all out.
If you are wondering what the other Carpe Diem scriptures are that people throw around they are:
2:24
3:12
3:22
5:17
8:15
9:7-9
LikeLike