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| Ecclesiastes 2:1-3 |
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Lesson # Eccl. 2:1-3 Study Material - Eccl. 2:1-3 You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth. Eccl. 2:1-3 1 I said to myself, 'Come now, I will test you with pleasure. So enjoy yourself.' And behold, it too was futility. 2 I said of laughter, 'It is madness,' and of pleasure, 'What does it accomplish?' 3 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. Ecclesiastes is the book of human viewpoint. The next book, which we will study after we are finished with Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, is the book of divine viewpoint. That book looks at life from a lovers point of view, whereas this book looks at life from the self indulgent point of view. We have already seen that there is nothing new in life that has not already occurred. That there will be nothing new in life that will surprise us and suddenly bring us to a point of contentment. Each morning and evening is the same. Life is full of repetition and we should learn from that repetition that there is nothing in this world that will preserve us into eternity. If you are reading or hearing these words then you must have been born at some point in your life. Perhaps at the beginning of your life??? There is also another truth which will present itself at the end of your life, and that is death. This may come sooner than you think or you may live a very long life. Maybe even live to be over a hundred years old. But whether you live to be 20 or 100 makes no difference, you will be aware of life's beginning and its end. So what do you do about the time in between? Well some of us prepare for the end and the time after death, and at the same time we enhance our life here on earth. So we win both ways. This is not a morbid doom and gloom attitude, but a very wise decision to better our current lives and at the same time prepare for eternity. The alternative? Now Solomon takes us on a trip through pleasure. Self gratification. The key to these first three verses is in verse 3, our lives are only a few short years. Compared to eternity, any life span of 50 or 100, or even 500 years is short. So our life here on earth is but a drop in an ocean the size of the universe. This makes our life very insignificant. Do we invest in that drop, or invest in the ocean. A smart person would pick the ocean, of course. Solomon tries laughter. What a party animal he was too. Being king and wealthy of course. The kings table was always flowing with the best of foods, beverages, music and entertainment. What more could one ask for! He participated in debate, speculation and philosophy. He explored with his mind and then turned to his body, to stimulate it with pleasures which you can only imagine. But first the laughter and good conversation. Conversation with people of renown, with people of low status in life. To stimulate the mind seems to be good for ones self. But it is not. Futility is Solomon's discovery and conclusion. What you think is what you are. And you are a living soul. The soul is the vessel which houses your human life, and the body is the vessel which houses the soul, at least temporarily in this life. We will have a permanent and indestructible resurrection body for the next life, but for now we have this fleshy body which will have to do. The third component of your being is the human spirit, which is the vessel which houses your eternal life. The body is going to be discarded one day and the soul and spirit will continue into the future, therefore this is your object or target for investment. Do you fill it up with human viewpoint of Gods viewpoint? The soul, to be nourished properly requires eternal nourishment, not temporary nourishment. Mans wisdom is temporary. Gods wisdom is eternal. So obviously we need Gods truth to nourish us in order to have a healthy soul. Laughter and good conversation may stimulate the soul, but when Gods word is excluded from ones life, then these ingredients lack the necessary components to satisfy a soul. Popcorn is good, but one cannot live on it. Even taking a good thing and using it exclusively in ones life, will turn it into a bad thing. Actually laughter and good conversation are, or should be, results of a good spiritual life, they can never be the source of a spiritual life. If they are taken alone and used to replace God, then they are being misapplied, misused. Their intent is to enhance the life not to become the basis for a life. Alone they can never satisfy. They can never bring contentment. You can talk all you want, read all you want, laugh all you want, but if you leave God out of your life then your life will be empty and miserable. 
Now is the time to post a prayer. End Of Lesson Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth. |
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