{"id":28157,"date":"2023-10-02T22:00:24","date_gmt":"2023-10-03T05:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ecclesiastes-1_12-18-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-09-12T14:06:17","modified_gmt":"2023-09-12T21:06:17","slug":"ecclesiastes-2_1-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ecclesiastes-2_1-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Work Hard and Play Hard WITH God, not without Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 \u00a0\u00a0 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ecclesiastes 2:1-11.\u00a0 In case you\u2019re wondering, since I believe that Qohelet, the main speaker \u00a0in Ecclesiastes, is best identified as Solomon, I will refer to him interchangeably as Qohelet or Solomon.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?”
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly–my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well–the delights of the heart of man.
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0 After focusing so much on gaining and studying wisdom and coming up empty (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18), Solomon shifts his focus to amassing wealth and pursuing pleasure.\u00a0 Solomon claims that his goal was \u201cto see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.\u201d (v3)\u00a0 Pastor-author Douglas Sean O\u2019Donnell puts it this way: in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 Solomon searches for satisfaction in 4 places: the pub, the garden, the treasury, and the bedroom.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The pub (v3):\u00a0 Most likely Solomon would not drink with all the \u201ccommon people\u201d, but one could easily imagine that Solomon created his own private wine cellar and lounge, the most elaborate of its kind, in which he could try to drink his sorrows away.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The garden (v4-6):\u00a0 Verses 4-6 describe how Solomon made his own version of Buchart Gardens: huge mansions, vineyards, gardens, parks, all kinds of fruit trees, water groves, as well as a large crew of slaves to maintain it all for him.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The treasury (v7-8a):\u00a0 Solomon amassed more wealth than any ruler of Israel before him or after him.\u00a0 Just read 1 Kings 10:14-29 and you\u2019ll get a sense of why they called Solomon\u2019s time as king the \u201cgolden\u201d age of ancient Israel.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The bedroom (v8b):\u00a0 Solomon understates this huge part of his pursuit of pleasure: \u201cand a harem as well \u2013 the delights of a man\u2019s heart\u201d.\u00a0 According to 1 Kings 11, Solomon took 700 wives and 300 concubines.<\/p>\n

As Solomon himself describes, \u201cI denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.\u00a0 My heart took delight in all my labor, and this was the reward for all my toil.\u201d (v10) His was a \u201cwork hard, play harder\u201d approach to life.\u00a0 Yet it did not satisfy. Solomon reports: \u201cYet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.\u201d (v11)<\/p>\n

Solomon claims that through this entire process, he was still being wise: \u201cI tried\u2026embracing folly \u2013 my mind still guiding me with wisdom\u201d (v3).\u00a0 Later in verse 9 he says, \u201cIn all this my wisdom stayed with me\u201d.\u00a0 (Notice how Solomon once again detaches wisdom from God and claims wisdom as his own.)\u00a0 I seriously wonder if Solomon gives himself too much credit here.\u00a0 For look at the fruit of\u00a0his\u00a0<\/em>\u201cwisdom\u201d as 1 Kings 11:1-6 describes it:<\/p>\n

1\u00a0<\/sup><\/em>\u00a0King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter–Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They were from nations about which the\u00a0LORD\u00a0had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the\u00a0LORD\u00a0his God, as the heart of David his father had been.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the\u00a0LORD; he did not follow the\u00a0LORD\u00a0completely, as David his father had done.<\/em><\/p>\n

Abandoning God\u2019s commands regarding marriage and sex, Solomon followed his own \u201cwisdom\u201d and it derailed his faith and destiny, leading to depression and disillusionment.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Be careful that when you think you\u2019re being wise, it\u2019s not actually a pride-fueled wisdom based only on your own understanding.\u00a0 As Proverbs 3:7-8 says, \u201cDo not be wise in your own eyes; fear the\u00a0LORD\u00a0and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.\u201d<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we abandon God\u2019s commands, the result is not satisfaction, fulfillment and peace, but emptiness and disillusionment.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0God made us with a great capacity to work hard and to play hard, but how much satisfaction and fulfilment you gain from working hard and playing hard will depend on\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0you work and\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0you play.\u00a0 Work and play apart from God, and you\u2019ll end up empty and unsatisfied.\u00a0 Work and play with God in mind, and you\u2019re much more likely to experience real joy, peace, wisdom and love.<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is nothing wrong with wine, beautiful gardens, money and sex in and of themselves.\u00a0 All of them are gifts that God is happy to have us enjoy.\u00a0 But problems arise when we have a twisted attitude towards them, when we look to these things for the satisfaction that only God can bring.\u00a0 May we have a right view toward play and pleasure, realizing that you and I were made to work hard and play hard WITH God, not without Him.<\/p>\n

Thank You, Father, that You made me with a huge capacity to work and to play, but always with You and not apart from You.\u00a0 Work and play without You is empty and meaningless.\u00a0 Work and play with You is peace and joy.\u00a0 I pray that I would have a healthy and wise view toward work, play and pleasure, realizing that I was made to work hard and play hard WITH You, not without You.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/em><\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ecclesiastes 2:1-11.\u00a0 In case you\u2019re wondering, since I believe that Qohelet, the main speaker \u00a0in Ecclesiastes, is best identified as Solomon, I will refer to him interchangeably as Qohelet or Solomon.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0I thought in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0“Laughter,” I said, “is foolish. And what does pleasure accomplish?”
\n3\u00a0\u00a0I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly–my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0 After focusing so much on gaining and studying wisdom and coming up empty (Ecclesiastes 1:12-18), Solomon shifts his focus to amassing wealth and pursuing pleasure.\u00a0 Solomon claims that his goal was \u201cto see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.\u201d (v3)\u00a0 Pastor-author Douglas Sean O\u2019Donnell puts it this way: in Ecclesiastes 2:1-11 Solomon searches for satisfaction in 4 places: the pub, the garden, the treasury, and the bedroom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28160,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28157\/revisions\/28160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}