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Ecclesiastes 2: 3, 4, 10, 11 I tried cheering myself . . . I built houses
for myself . . . I denied myself nothing . . . Yet when I surveyed all that my
hands had done . . . everything was meaningless. (NIV)
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Blessed are those who, if everything they own were taken from them, would be, at most, inconvenienced, because their true wealth is elsewhere.* |
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Compare
the life that Solomon led to Job’s life. Job lost all that he had and suffered
misery. Solomon had no concept of loss or deprivation. Job said, “The Lord gave
and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.” Solomon
says, “I have everything and it means nothing.” Maybe both men have reached the
same conclusion from different approaches: things
are worthless.
Solomon’s
story could have had a happy ending if he had conducted the experiment with a
different twist: try cheering someone else; build houses for others; deny
nothing to those in need. He would not have concluded that “everything was
meaningless” if he had looked for pleasure in using his riches to bless someone
else.
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Our focus is on accumulating possessions, retaining power, indulging in pleasure, and maintaining close relationships. Those are temporary goals. They are the goals of pagans and can be snatched from us in a minute.* |
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