The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him in Ecclesiastes 8:17,
"No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it."
We are born sinners. No matter how cute, cuddley and innocent our babies appear to us, they are born with a sinful nature awaiting its opportunity to blossom. Although we love them dearly, as does the Lord, I suspect most of us disabuse ourselves of the notion of their sinlessness when they hit the "terrible twos". Not only do we all enter this life as sinners, we are born into a cursed and fallen world, estranged from God, held captive by a collective sinful nature the Scriptures calls "the world".
Because of this state of affairs, we struggle with our understanding of things. Our hearts, influenced by our sinful nature and the world often lead us astray. The Lord tells us in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" One way our hearts lead us astray is we often view this life as all there is. We look to see how we can satisfy ourselves and seek out our best in this life without consideration of the next. As Paul discusses those who reject the gospel he puts it this way, "for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger." Romans 2:8. A way we decieve ourselves is in the thinking that those things that are just beyond us can bring us happiness and satisfaction, a fulfillment our hearts yearn for. We seem to be driven by notions of more money, more accomplishment and more of those things that offer us pleasure will bring us this fulfillment we are driven to find.
This book of Ecclesiastes, I believe, one of the most misunderstood books of the Bible, is devoted to this very issue. Solomon, often accused of writing it at an elderly age, having indulged himself with what God told him not to, writes this book from the perspective of a man bitter at life, disgusted and discouraged due to his sin. I couldn't disagree more. Through Solomon, a man of faith, a man that God himself equipped for the very task, God is communicating to us that happiness and fulfillment is not to be found in this lost and fallen world, this world estranged from God and given to its sinful proclivities: "life under the sun". It is a message very relelant for our day. So lost is this message, that when presented to us by Solomon we miss the point and criticize him for being disgruntled and discouraged. Whether this book or any other book of Scripture, I am driven by Peter's observation, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit."
No, Ecclesiastes is not a book of observations made by an old, disgruntled and discouraged man. It is a message to us from God himself, a message he wants us to know. Afterall, God himself is the one who inspired Solomon to say, "No one can comprehend what goes on under the sun. Despite all his efforts to search it out, man cannot discover its meaning. Even if a wise man claims he knows, he cannot really comprehend it." Our misunderstanding of the book only proves the point!
But more importantly, I am just astonished at the lengths God has gone to help us overcome our ignorance to help us find him in the truth of the gospel messge.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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