Learning from the Legends: Solomon 1
Brad Reiches
Nov 16 2006 08:50PM
Brad Reiches
Nov 16 2006 08:50PM
Please visit our website at www.godthoughts.org, or www.willowspringchurch.org to download today's audio version of GodThoughts Wired!, music, sermons, sermonettes, the Bible Says Series, and The Lifestyle of the Disciple Series...ALL FOR FREE. You may also go to the Apple iTunes Music Store on the web and search the podcast directory for Willow Spring Church and/or GodThoughts. Subscribe there for automatic updates and download the daily GodThoughts podcast directly to your i-pod...ALL FOR FREE!
Friday, November 17, 2006
GodThoughtsWired!
GodThoughtsWired!
"Learning from the Legends: Solomon"
PART 1
"In much wisdom there is much grief;
and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain."
PART 1
"In much wisdom there is much grief;
and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain."
Ecclesiastes 1:18
I've been a student of the life of Solomon for many years. For decades now, I've been intrigued by the bitterness, despair and disallusionment that the "wisest man in the word" displayed in his twilight years. How does a man of such great wisdom wind up with so little understanding? These are my current musings.
UNDERSTANDING IS THE ABILITY
TO VIEW LIFE FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE.
TO VIEW LIFE FROM GOD'S PERSPECTIVE.
This concept occured to me as I noticed how many times Solomon used the phrase, "under the sun" in his book of Ecclesiastes. "There is nothing new under the sun (1:8)...No profit under the sun (2:11)...I looked again at vanity under the sun (4:7)...and so on.
Herein, I believe, lies the root of Solomon's discontent. Ultimate meaning and fulfillment are found in God alone . Every endeavor in life - no matter how momentarily gratifying it might be - is purposeless and futile if viewed as an end in itself (even feeding the poor, althought noble, is futile when viewed as an end in itself). It is only as we begin to see life from God's vantage point, above the sun, that we gain the perspective of life as the "precious gift" that it is (see Ecclesiastes 2:24).
Herein, I believe, lies the root of Solomon's discontent. Ultimate meaning and fulfillment are found in God alone . Every endeavor in life - no matter how momentarily gratifying it might be - is purposeless and futile if viewed as an end in itself (even feeding the poor, althought noble, is futile when viewed as an end in itself). It is only as we begin to see life from God's vantage point, above the sun, that we gain the perspective of life as the "precious gift" that it is (see Ecclesiastes 2:24).
No comments:
Post a Comment