Day 142: Ecclesiastes 1-4
In the first book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon declares that "Everything is meaningless." Then he proceeds to explain why this is so. I have felt this way before--that nothing matters--and it's not a fun place to be. Where you feel like nothing matters. Like you're living a groundhog day that just repeats itself over and over and over again. Nothing changing. Nothing happening. Meaningless. Everything is meaningless.
Even when Solomon sought greater wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, he still found them meaningless. Reaching for these goals were vanity; they meant nothing. Even pleasure was meaningless to him, and there was no point to even seeking it. To Solomon, "Nothing was gained under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:11).
Right after these first two chapters on the meaningless of life, of everything under the sun, comes the chapter on there being a time for everything. This placement is an interesting juxtaposition because even in the midst of life lacking meaning, he recognized that there was a time for everything. Maybe Solomon only felt this way at this certain time. Who knows? It does sound like someone who is depressed. Even though Solomon still views everything as meaningless, he still says that God will make everything beautiful in His time. Even those hard days when we wonder why we're doing what we're doing. Even those days matter to God. They aren't meaningless to him, and this actually brings me a great deal of comfort. But after four chapters of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is still pointing out all the stuff in this life that is meaningless. I really hope that we get to see how he reconciles these feelings. I can't remember. But since I've felt this way before, I'd like to find some hope in how he reconciled it
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