Day 170
The book of Ecclesiastes is deep.
Solomon was so wealthy, and he had time. Time to explore a lot and try several routes to see if anything gives one happiness outside God. He sought more wisdom, explored the things of the world, had many wives and concubines, many servants, built houses, work, leisure, travel, having fun, he even tried foolishness, wealth (2:1–8); he tried to find happiness in all these by doing it all. But he realised there is no happiness in those things; they bring temporary joy.
Solomon further compares wisdom to foolishness 2:12–16 and wonders about the value of wisdom when he and the foolish people die and are forgotten. He further said that all his hard work may not matter if his kids don’t make a mess of it. A customer whose account I managed at my previous job passed away recently, and not up to 24 hours, the kids were all his money and updating their statuses on how rich they were. The sad part was that I watched this man ‘suffer’. If I wasn’t his relationship manager, I wouldn’t have had an incline about how rich he was. I guess this is why Solomon also wondered what the essence of working hard and leaving stuff behind is if his children aren’t responsible. I wonder if his children or successor was already showing these signs too. Recall David also made way for Solomon, so Solomon himself seemed ok.
Then the famous chapter 3 tells us there is a time for everything and says he makes all things beautiful in their time. One must wonder how certain things are considered beautiful, right? And we can see that frustrates Solomon because of this lack of human understanding that there is a time for everything and all things are beautiful in their time. We understand how a time to laugh is beautiful, but how can a time to cry also be beautiful? Could it be that it is because it is part of the whole story? What makes us? Our ups and downs?
He further mentions a lot of observations about like, but one that struck me is that people envy others to the point where certain goals are set simply because we see others doing them. 4:4. This one hit home. It is easy to compare one’s results to those of others and make our ambitions around theirs — more education, money, leisure, travel etc. When we achieve, we want more again (5:10 says people are never satisfied). The question is, where is my heart when I set my goals. Am I easily defrayed when I see others’ achievements?
He concludes that there is no better satisfaction than to find satisfaction in his work and enjoy, and he realises that these pleasures are from God. He drew this same conclusion in different parts of today’s reading — 2:24–25, 3:12–13, 22, 5:18–19. He mentions that some people have wealth but no health to enjoy (6:1–2), and he returns to the same conclusion again to enjoy while you can and also, there is no happiness without God.
