Ecclesiastes 2:1-26
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As Solomon discovers that education is not the panacea for significance,
he turns to pleasure. This is on the other extreme.
PRINCIPLE: When we are seeking significance in human effort we will find
ourselves living a life out of balance and a life of extremes.
APPLICATION: That is why mild mannered middle age men sometimes go crazy.
They quit their jobs, leave their families, and go nuts.
Listen to how Solomon came to that point.
Ecclesiastes 2:1-3
I said to myself, Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy
yourself. And behold, it too was futility. I said of laughter, It is madness,
and of pleasure, What does it accomplish? I explored with my mind how to
stimulate my body with wine while my mind was guiding me wisely, and how
to take hold of folly, until I could see what good there is for the sons
of men to do under heaven the few years of their lives.
Eat, live, and be merry . . . for tomorrow we die.
"This is all there is so do it up to the limit." "We only
go around once in life so make the most of it." "Do deny yourself
any pleasure; if it feels good just do it."
All the platitudes we hear today were spoken by Solomon.
In his quest for significance and his seeking of knowledge and wisdom, he
got burned out on the books. Too many tutors, he got tired of the teachers.
So...let's party till we drop.
PLEASURE:BUT SOON HE DISCOVERD THAT, TOO, WAS FOLLY.
Notice verse 3: He took an academic approach to getting drunk. Which drink
effects me the fastest, the slowest?
PLEASURE: After all the study, Solomon was ready to have some fun so he
seeks happiness in pleasure. Mirth (KJV) is the lightness of life, laughter,
glee.
Conclusion: It is madness
PRINCIPLE: The greatest fun you will ever have is as a believer, in fellowship,
looking right down the barrel of life.
Solomon tried to become an alcoholic, but it didn't work and it did not
bring any happiness.
PLEASURE is not wrong, God wants us to enjoy life.
John 10:10 speaks of "an abundant life..."
It is hard to visit Israel and spend anytime with the Jews and not see that
these people have a zest for life.
It is only American Christians who have attempted to make our faith into
something it is not, a somber, serious, unpleasant approach to life.
Pleasure is great but it has two problems: First, it can become a distraction
to what is really important in life, growing in Christ. Second, it can
become a false foundation for life itself. By having temporal pleasure
in life you can fool yourself into thinking everything is okay, but pleasure
is only temporary and may have consequences.
The HEDONIST seeks pleasure and never looks at the consequences.
Ecclesiastes 2:4-6
I enlarged my works: I built houses for myself, I planted vineyards
for myself; I made gardens and parks for myself, and I planted in them all
kinds of fruit trees; I made ponds of water for myself from which to irrigate
a forest of growing trees.
ENGINEERING OR CONSTRUCTION: Solomon built the Temple that was planned
and designed by his father David. He was happy building the Temple.
Sounds like he is trying to build the garden of Eden
Now that he is on a frantic search for significance, he decides that he
will try a few building projects.
I Kings 9:10 tells us his building activity lasted for twenty-two years.
He built a great palace, many official buildings in Jerusalem, even a five
mile long covered riding path.
The closest thing we have to this today in our culture is probably the Hearst
Castle in San Simeon, California.
Conclusion of building career is given in Eccl 2:17-18
"So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was
grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind.
Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the
sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me."
NOTE: BITTERNESS COMES in life when we see these things we seek after not
bringing us the anticipated significance or security.
Why do we find older people who are bitter? Because they went through middle
age and saw the things that ones brought then significance slip away. They
continue to try to find significance but they don't so bitterness sets in.
Ecclesiastes 2:7-9
I bought male and female slaves, and I had homeborn slaves. Also I possessed
flocks and herds larger than all who preceded me in Jerusalem. Also, I
collected for myself silver and gold, and the treasure of kings and provinces.
I provided for myself male and female singers and the pleasures of men--
many concubines. Then I became great and increased more than all who preceded
me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also stood by me.
Solomon had the wealth to get anything he wanted, and he did. Also notice
that his wisdom when it came to making right decisions for others and for
the nation was still there.
God was protecting Israel through out all of Solomon's frantic search for
happiness.
As he begins to list what he had by way of possessions he knows that could
take up many chapters, so in verse 10 he summarizes.
Ecclesiastes 2:10
And all that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold
my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor
and this was my reward for all my labor.
But note his conclusion in verse 11.
Ecclesiastes 2:11-17
Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the
labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after
wind and there was no profit under the sun.
So I turned to consider wisdom, madness and folly, for what will the man
do who will come after the king except what has already been done?
And I saw that wisdom excels folly as light excels darkness.
The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And
yet I know that one fate befalls them both.
Then I said to myself, "As is the fate of the fool, it will also befall
me. Why then have I been extremely wise?" So I said to myself, "This
too is vanity."
For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man as with the fool, inasmuch
as in the coming days all will be forgotten. And how the wise man and the
fool alike die!
So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous
to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind.
PRINCIPLE: The things of life, the details of life cannot bring happiness.
If you chase happiness in things, you are going to become a slave to the
details of life. Instead, be a master over the things, the details of life.
Have your happiness in something that is eternal.
Eccl 2:18-23 HERITAGE and FAMILY.
Ecclesiastes 2:18
Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under
the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me.
Solomon, as an extension of possessions, decided that happiness could be
found in having many children. Since he had 700 wives and 300 concubines,
he had the potential for having many children.
The Bible does not record how many children Solomon had but we do see his
conclusion of attitude towards his frantic search for happiness in children.
Ecclesiastes 2:19
And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have
control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting
wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.
Will the children be wise men or fools, hence, the idea of happiness through
children is vanity.
CHILDREN are never a source of happiness and children are not a problem
solvers. Children can bring happiness into an already happy home. But
they will bring misery into an already miserable home.
Eccl. 6:3, If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that
the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and
also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than
he.
Solomon's heir to the throne was Rehoboam and Rehoboam turned out to be
a fool.
Read I Kings 12: The foolishness of Rehoboam
Solomon draws a conclusion that set the stage for the next section. He
states this now, that he is again in fellowship, coming a conclusion he
should have come to many years before, but did not.
[There are no notes for verses 20 to 23]
Ecclesiastes 2:24
There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself
that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the hand
of God.
The EATING AND DRINKING here is daily activity. Doing the things that sustain
physical life.
Then he tells himself his labor is good. This is the recognition that what
we do is significant so long as it is part of God's plan for us.
REGARDLESS OF THE MEDIOCRITY of the tasks we do we can do them as unto the
Lord . . . because He has given us that task at that time.
Ecclesiastes 2:25
For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?
Get that? No true enjoyment without God!!!
We must hold in mind that all the distractions, all the seeking of significance
that we might do is senseless apart from Him.
In Revelation Jesus is called the Alpha and the Omega. Can we apply that
to ourselves? Is He the beginning and the end, the first and the last of
all we do, whatever we do?
Or have we elevated our happiness to that of being the goal of our existence.
And if we have, we see be on a quest, just like Solomon. A quest that
will have no end until we exhaust all that we can do and begin to depend
upon God.
Colossians 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so
walk in Him.
And we did not become children of God as a result of a quest, we did not
search according to our mind or our limited ability...but by faith.
Ecclesiastes 2:26
For to a person who is good in His sight He has given wisdom and knowledge
and joy, while to the sinner He has given the task of gathering and collecting
so that he may give to one who is good in God's sight. This too is vanity
and striving after wind.
Two people, Solomon had a choice of being approved as good in God's sight
or being a sinner, that is one who disobeys God. it took him fifteen years
to decide what he wanted to be.
As one approved in God's sight, by faith, he would have three things unobtainable
anywhere, any way else:
1. Wisdom
2. Knowledge
3. Joy
Now here is the wisest and wealthiest man in the world telling us there
are certain things in life that we will never have apart from a relationship
with God.
Notice the phrase: Good in His sight: The word SIGHT in the Hebrew is PAN-IM
and can be simply translated FACE, but it means so much more.
It is the identity of a person, their attitudes, their true being, their
real self. It was more than physiological, it revealed the emotions, moods,
character of a person.
To be good in GOD'S SIGHT is to know Him, to have a relationship with Him,
to be intimate, to walk with Him as a friend.
This is not some STANDARD, it is not some MECHANIC, it is a RELATIONSHIP
that Solomon sees as being all important in life.
ILLUSTRATION: Who are we going to spend eternity with? Someone we know
well, and anticipate being with them, or someone who is a stranger to us?
For too many believers the God of eternity will be someone they do not
really know.
Solomon makes a very interesting point here. You see, he has prospered
even during his years of being out of fellowship. Why? So others could
be blessed.
Jeremiah need to know what Solomon had learned:
Jeremiah 12:1 Righteous art Thou, O Lord, that I would plead my case with
Thee; Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with Thee: Why has the way
of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?
Do the wicked prosper? Of course, and maybe it is to bless the nation,
the believers who know God.
Don't ever complain about the prosperity of the wicked, the UB, the carnal
believer. First, that is they have, and Secondly, their prosperity can
bless you.
But notice also what he says of their prosperity, it is all like chasing
after the wind
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