I think that so often, it's really easy to read stories in the Bible and put them characters in them on a pedestal. "They were so much holier than I am," we think. "Trusting in and following God must have been so easy, so simple for them." That's why I like the book of Ecclesiastes. It reminds me that the people in the Bible were just as human as I am.
The majority of the book of Ecclesiastes is a pretty depressing book. The headlines in my Bible read something like this: Everything is meaningless....Wisdom is meaningless...pleasures are meaningless...wisdom and folly are meaningless...toil is meaningless...advancement is meaningless...riches are meaningless...oppression, toil, friendlessness....I think you see the common theme here.
The cool thing to me, though, is that this book is still in the Bible. God doesn't want us to mask our feelings. He wants to know how we really feel; He'd rather us be honest than pretend to think something that we really don't. God doesn't want an army of little robots who are programmed to worship Him; He wants sincerity, both the good AND the bad emotions.
So then all of a sudden, after all of this depression, there is a break in the gloom. It's as if the author has just woken up and realized Who his God really is. He has stopped his morose philosophical ramblings just long enough to understand how big, how amazing, how purely awe-inspiring his God really is.
Does the thought of God provoke you to think more about the words that you utter, to consider more carefully the places that your feet take you, to focus your dreams on His goals rather than yours? Does the thought of God make you stand in awe of Him? I hope it does. He is surely an awe-inspiring God.
The majority of the book of Ecclesiastes is a pretty depressing book. The headlines in my Bible read something like this: Everything is meaningless....Wisdom is meaningless...pleasures are meaningless...wisdom and folly are meaningless...toil is meaningless...advancement is meaningless...riches are meaningless...oppression, toil, friendlessness....I think you see the common theme here.
The cool thing to me, though, is that this book is still in the Bible. God doesn't want us to mask our feelings. He wants to know how we really feel; He'd rather us be honest than pretend to think something that we really don't. God doesn't want an army of little robots who are programmed to worship Him; He wants sincerity, both the good AND the bad emotions.
So then all of a sudden, after all of this depression, there is a break in the gloom. It's as if the author has just woken up and realized Who his God really is. He has stopped his morose philosophical ramblings just long enough to understand how big, how amazing, how purely awe-inspiring his God really is.
Does the thought of God provoke you to think more about the words that you utter, to consider more carefully the places that your feet take you, to focus your dreams on His goals rather than yours? Does the thought of God make you stand in awe of Him? I hope it does. He is surely an awe-inspiring God.
Ecclesiastes 5:4-7
4 When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow. 5 It is better not to make a vow than to make one and not fulfill it. 6
Do not let your mouth lead you into sin. And do not protest to the
temple messenger, “My vow was a mistake.” Why should God be angry at
what you say and destroy the work of your hands? 7 Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God.
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