Existence: neither time nor history stop repeating. It’s not the point. It’s the platform. RESULTS IN REALIZATION
BECOMING THE PERSON GOD CREATED AND REDEEMED YOU TO BE.
Knowledge: apart from revelation knowledge we will always be missing pieces of the puzzle which RESULTS IN GRIEF
Pleasure: makes promises it can’t keep. Promises to broaden your horizons but blinds you. RESULTS IN ADDICTION.
Law: as a point point of life is futile.
We are beasts without God and the eternal
Solomon is describing life under the sun-ragged edge reality, without God
-Charles Swindoll
Now that his reason has proven the theoretical, he switches from a more theoretical approach to a more practical(wisdom), how to navigate the vanities in life in order to get the most out of it and he uses a style of Hebrew parallelisms.
• Contrasting couplets, connected by the terms but or nevertheless.
A wise son accepts his father’s discipline, But a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.
Proverbs 13:1 (NKJV)
Through insolence comes nothing but strife, But wisdom is with those who receive counsel.
Proverbs 13:10 (NKJV)
• Completive couplets, connected by the terms and or so.
The heart knows its own bitterness, And a stranger does not share its joy.
Proverbs 14:10 (NKJV)
Even in laughter the heart may be in pain, And the end of joy may be grief.
Proverbs 14:13 (NKJV)
• Comparative couplets, connected by the terms better/than or like/so.
Better is a little with the fear of the LORD, Than great treasure and turmoil with it. Better is a dish of vegetables where love is, Than a fattened ox and hatred with it
Proverbs 15:16-17 (NKJV)
It is better to live in a corner of the roof Than in a house shared with a contentious woman. Like cold water to a weary soul, So is good news from a distant land
Proverbs 25:24-25 (NKJV)
Solomon uses a series of Comparative proverbs that HIGHLIGHT the external vs the internal to show us the wisdom of becoming the person He created and redeemed you to be. While navigating life in a fallen world
A good name is better than precious ointment, And the day of death than the day of one’s birth; Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting, For that is the end of all men; And the living will take it to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter, For by a sad countenance the heart is made better. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise Than for a man to hear the song of fools. For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, So is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity. Surely oppression destroys a wise man’s reason, And a bribe debases the heart. The end of a thing is better than its beginning; The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Do not hasten in your spirit to be angry, For anger rests in the bosom of fools. Do not say, “Why were the former days better than these?” For you do not inquire wisely concerning this.
Ecclesiastes 7:1-10 NKJV
Let’s look at the comparisons
1. A good name is better than a good ointment(restaurant illustration)
2. The day of one’s death is better than the day of one’s birth (Philippians 1:23-24)
3. It is better to go to a house of mourning than a house of feasting (what’s important)
4. Sorrow is better than laughter (learning from regret)
5. It is better to listen to the rebuke of a wise man than the song of fools
6. The end of a matter is better than the beginning.
7. Patience is better than pride
We want… not so much a Father in heaven as a grandfather in heaven… whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all’. I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed on such lines. But since it is abundantly clear that I don’t, and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless, that God is love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction.
The problem of reconciling human suffering with the existence of a God who loves is only insoluble so long as we attach a trivial meaning to the word “love,” and look on things as if man were the centre of them. Man is not the centre. God does not exist for the sake of man. Man does not exist for his own sake… We were made not primarily that we may love God (though we were made for that too) but that God may love us.