November 11, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in Ecclesiastes? Here’s today’s reading:
Ecclesiastes 1 (NIV)
Everything Is Meaningless
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2“Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
3 What do people gain from all their labors
at which they toil under the sun?….Continue Reading
The words that apparently Solomon wrote in this chapter are words from a perspective without God. This is what the world must feel like when you have no eternal purpose or hope to look toward. We live, we work, we die, repeat….
This idea makes me so sad for people to have no hope or promise that they work for a purpose, that they have a creator that cares for them, and that they have a place in heaven with Him one day if they choose to believe that He sent His Son to make a way for that to happen. That hope then trickles down to our treatment of others and a desire for those we love to join us there one day.
Life without Christ really is a meaningless life and I pray for no one to live!
Ecclesiastes 1
Great word, Kelly!
For a man who had all things. All wisdom and knowledge. To look back at his life and try to find meaning in our accomplishments instead of in God we will never be satisfied. How many wrong choices do we make in life. Well one choice will nullify a million wrong choices.
Ecclesiastes 1
Ecclesiastes 2
I thought of the quote, familiarity breads contempt, when I read this chapter. Solomon is right about how repetitive the things of the world can be, but when you add to that the presence and purpose of God, life takes on a new dimension. It is what brought about our LHCC mission to bring people from the mediocrity of the world to the magnificence of Christ. It is the sentiments expressed in this chapter that also leads people to greater depravity and deeper ways to be stimulated or seek greater possessions, which often leads to some sort of suffering for someone else. It really is sad how they continue down this broad way of destruction and miss the abundant life that is on the narrow road that leads to life.
Ecclesiastes 1
9 That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us.
Steve stole my verse.
I was thinking that it is interesting that Solomon is writing this. He asked God to give him wiisdom….so this is Gods wisdom.
This book is believed to have been written by King Solomon even though it doesn`t say so. He was the son of David verse 1 and he had more wisdom than any that came before him. verse 16. In chapter 2;4 he did great works and built houses and planted vineyards. Who else would it be. Anyways he is very disillusioned for without God in his life anyone would be. What I mean is that even though he started out well with God for God even granted him wisdom above all he fell away and got entangled with the world. He disobeyed God and married foreign wives. Perhaps with all his greatness having power, wealth, his great wisdom it all went to his head. He took his eyes off of who gave him all this. Solomon took seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines. [ 1 Kings 11; 1-4] It says that when he was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods. After this God divided the kingdom into Judah and Israel. So now without that relationship with God there is now for him no purpose. What a sad ending. He never had the heart for God that his father had even though God spoke to him about his sin and what He was going to do. 1 Kings 11;9-13. Still no repentance by Solomon or at least it doesn`t record it. God wants us to have a humble heart before Him. Psalm 51;17 [ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.] We have to guard our hearts and knowledge can puff up so when we study the scriptures we need to apply it to our lives. God cares about our relation with Him. If our goal is to increase knowledge without that relationship then we will be disillusioned. May the Lord richly bless each one of us as we draw closer to Him.