Wrestling With Stuff     Ecclesiastes 2,5

We exchange our lives for the things we buy. But is what we buy worth the price we pay in terms of the time we spend accumulating it? Every verse in Ecclesiastes 2:4-8 begins with "I". By adding every occurrence of I, my, myself, and me, we arrive at a total of 16 references to self in the Holman Christian Standard Bible, and actually 19 in the Hebrew. Solomon was evaluating a time in his life when he was centered on self. He had such an "I" problem this passage is called the "gospel of selfishness".

In verse 10 he states "All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them." Can the same be said of us? Look at the following graphic, taken from USA Today:

We live in an era where storage is big business. We have so much that we refuse to release, we have to pay others to store it for us, or buy a building ourselves to house our trinkets. No one ever had more than Solomon, and after piling it all up he said, "When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind" Ecclesiastes 2:11(HCSB).

What benefit is the over-accumulation of worldly possessions? The old popular bumper sticker that said, "He who dies with the most toys - wins!" is a gross lie! He who dies with the most toys, still dies, still must face God in judgment, and leaves the toys for the relatives to fight over. "What will it benefit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?" Matthew 16:26 (HCSB) My pastor used to say "There is nothing wrong with having things, so long as things do not have you". That statement is true; but the difficulty is possessing things and not allowing them to possess you.

We must find our sense of sufficiency and self-worth not in the amount of things we possess, but in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. "As he came from his mother's womb, so he will go again, naked as he came; he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands" Ecclesiastes 5:15 (HCSB). Only when we invest in what is eternal will we find wealth that lasts. Only three things in this world are eternal: Christ's Kingdom, the Word of God, and people. Only what is invested in those three will last for eternity.

In Philippians 4 the Apostle Paul wrote the most powerful words on contentment from a prison cell. He wrote that he had learned a secret all of us should learn. Learning contentment (4:10-13) can only be done through Kingdom investment (4:14-18) and trusting completely in God's promised endowment (4:19). When our lives are fully and completely in His hands, we stop worrying about what we have or do not have, and we begin enjoying the abundance He provides!

Wrestling with Injustice   Ecclesiastes 3,4,8

As I write this I am keeping up with news reports from Haiti, where a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the tiny island on Tuesday afternoon. President Barak Obama said, "For a country and a people who are no strangers to hardship and suffering, this tragedy seems especially cruel and incomprehensible." (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/01/13/haiti.earthquake/index.html) In Ecclesiastes 8:6-8, Solomon proclaims, "For every activity there is a right time and procedure, even though man’s troubles are heavy on him. Yet no one knows what will happen, because who can tell him what will happen? No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; there is no furlough in battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape." (HCSB)

The Bible says in numerous places that God loves justice (see Psalm 11:7; 33:5; 99:4). Simply put, justice is when everyone receives exactly what they deserve, good or bad. But a cursory look around our world reveals that justice does not prevail. Further, this seems to be the norm, and it appears for the most part that no one is doing anything about it. Perhaps more unsettling, injustice is seen all through the pages of Scripture. In Genesis 12 Abram lied to Pharaoh concerning his wife Sarai, so Pharaoh took her into his harem. God struck Pharaoh for taking Abram's wife, and he returned her to her husband. But there is no record of God punishing Abram for lying. In Genesis 2 God clearly states that the punishment for sin is death. In Genesis 3 Adam sinned and he didn't die immediately. However, in Acts 5 Ananias and Sapphira are struck dead by God for their sin. According to human reasoning God is anything but just.

"I also observed under the sun: there is wickedness at the place of judgment and there is wickedness at the place of righteousness." Ecclesiastes 3:16 (HCSB)

"Again, I observed all the acts of oppression being done under the sun. Look at the tears of those who are oppressed; they have no one to comfort them. Power is with those who oppress them; they have no one to comfort them." Ecclesiastes 4:1 (HCSB)

Is it hopeless to battle against injustice? Is God unjust? Is He truly perfect, or does He show favoritism to some and harshness to others? While we cannot begin to adequately explain God or His actions, we can go to the Scriptures for help with these questions.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. He presented Him to demonstrate His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be righteous and declare righteous the one who has faith in Jesus." Romans 3:23-26 (HCSB)

Read the words of R. Kent Hughes in his commentary on Romans: "In Christ's death the demands of God for justice against a sinful race are fully met, leaving Him free to be merciful to those who formerly merited only judgment."

"Simply put, in the past God did not pour out his full wrath on men for their sins. He was patient and merciful. Some might question His righteousness in doing this. However, in Jesus' death He demonstrated His wrath against sin. It is here - in Christ being the mercy seat - that we see the miraculous love and creativity of God. God found a way to forgive us and yet maintain His moral integrity. He forgave us without condoning our sin. How? By directing toward Himself, in the person of His Son, the full weight of the wrath we deserved. Thus God's holy character is not compromised" (page 85).

There is hope in standing against injustice. God has demonstrated His justice in the cross. He will ultimately judge the world in perfect justice and righteousness. "I said to myself, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every work." Ecclesiastes 3:17 (HCSB). Until that time yet in the future, Solomon gives us some guidelines for how we are to strive for justice in our world. Ecclesiastes 8:2-9 teaches us to:

• Live right consistently (2)
• Be patient when looking for ways to help others (3)
• Follow appropriate protocol so our desire to help will not make matters worse (4-6)
• Honor those in authority (7-9)

In Ecclesiastes 8:10-13 Solomon declares that we need not despair. There is hope for change, in our world, and in the future judgment before God. Our efforts to promote justice are not in vain. The God who personifies justice will use us as His instruments to bring about hope and justice to the oppressed. We cannot remedy all injustice, but we can each do something.

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Follow this link to a YouTube Video Playlist of 19 videos related to the themes of this month's Bible Studies for Life study in Ecclesiastes.