QT 8/19/2024 Eccl 2, Finding meaning where we have destroyed meaning

Ecclesiastes 2:13–16 (ESV)

13 Then I saw that there is more gain in wisdom than in folly, as there is more gain in light than in darkness. 14 The wise person has his eyes in his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceived that the same event happens to all of them. 15 Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16 For of the wise as of the fool there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool!

Ecclesiastes 2:24–25 (ESV)

24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25 for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment?

 

NOTE: The rich and poor, the wise and fool all face the same event, death. I would add that apart from something 'above the sun,' or beyond 'life,' it is feels meaningless. But there are some pearls here. There is more gain in wisdom than there is in folly. And light has better yields than darkness. As the saying goes, nothing good happens in the middle of the night.

 

I think one of the great catastrophes of science was Darwin. When we started to see life as all there is, and neglected the unseen dimension, we headed down a path that truly is meaningless (because it is 'life under the sun'). We have wasted nearly 200 years trying to prove evolution by random processes. Mathematically, the more we learn about DNA and the workings of the cell, it is statistically impossible for random mutations (and natural selection) to be the mechanism for evolution. We have spent the years looking for randomness (and survival of the fittest) as our meaning to life, and wasted the time that we could have been looking for the beauty, purpose, and intelligence in creation. We are the product of that wasted time.

 

In the midst of this 'meaningless' life under the sun, we do find enjoyment of one's labors as a gift of God. Although, as the teacher hints, apart from God, how can one truly enjoy life?

 

PONDER:

1. Do I see God in life or do I live life without any thought toward God?
2. Do I see God in the everyday aspects of life, or do I practically live without any thought of God except during a religious service? Where is God in my life?

 

PRAYER: Father, You create life with purpose and meaning. You created man to enjoy creation and to experience a relationship with you. But we sinned, and separated ourselves from you. And so what was eternal life on this planet is now less than 120 years and full of pain. You came to the earth to pay our penalty for sin and restore the broken relationship. In time, you will also restore the original creation. You offer real life, not the meaningless life we have created in our foolishness.