Solomon's World View

[Odë:hgöd]

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Ecclesiastes is a difficult book to classify because although it's in the Bible, it's not
all that theological. It's mostly a collection of Solomon's world views rather than his
spiritual insights.

It's the Bible's fun book because it's chock full of normal thinking instead of
religious dogma. Ecclesiastes requires very little interpretation as anybody who's
been around the block a time or two can easily relate to it.

Solomon composed his comments from the perspective of a philosophical man
who's understanding of life and the hereafter is moderated by empirical evidence
and the normal round of human experience. It's a handy book of the Bible for
showing that not all religious people are kooks with their heads in the clouds and
unable to see things as they are through the eyes of normal people.

** According to Matt 12:42, Luke 11:31, John 1:1-14, and Col 2:3; Christ trumps
Solomon, so beware of using proof texts from Ecclesiastes to refute, moderate,
and/or water down Christ's teachings related to the afterlife.

In addition: Christ is the voice of God (John 3:34, John 8:26, John 8:28, John
12:49, John 14:24) whereas there is not the slightest textual evidence in the book
of Ecclesiastes that Solomon was anybody's voice but his own when he wrote it.

To my knowledge, Solomon had never seen the afterlife for himself, viz: he wasn't
an expert witness; whereas Christ had seen the afterlife for himself and knew what
he was talking about.

● John 3:31-32 . . He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is
from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
What He has seen and heard, of that he bears witness.

Christ is also highly recommended, whereas to my knowledge, Solomon isn't.

● Matt 17:5 . . This is my Son, the beloved, whom I have approved; listen to him.

So then, when encountering remarks in the book of Ecclesiastes that are out of step
with Christ's teachings in the New Testament; my unsolicited spiritual counseling is
to marginalize Solomon and go with the wisdom of "my Son".

● John 8:12 . . I am the light of the world. He that follows me will by no means
walk in darkness, but will possess the light of life.

FAQ: Doesn't the apostle Paul say that all Scripture is God breathed?

REPLY: There is a difference between inspiration and dictation.

Solomon was no doubt inspired to record his personal world views in the Bible, but
we shouldn't assume his world views quote God word-for-word the way Christ does.

Buen Camino
Pleasant Journey
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

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● Ecc 1:1 . .The words of Koheleth son of David, king in Jerusalem.

Koheleth is apparently a transliteration rather than a translation. The Hebrew word
is qoheleth (ko-heh'-leth) which means: an assembly gatherer (i.e. a lecturer). A
qoheleth isn't a mechanic on a factory assembly line, but rather, someone who
assembles a group together for a speech, a seminar, a sermon, or classroom
lecture.

Christ was a koheleth. Just about everywhere he went, Jesus set up a soap box and
drew crowds.

The lecturer obviously isn't female because Koheleth was a son of David and a king
in Jerusalem. Sons and kings are eo ipso male.

Tradition accredits Ecclesiastes to David's son Solomon, the brightest intellectual of
his day because of the abundance of his God-given wisdom. None of the other
descendants of David ever matched Solomon's intellect. He may not have been
much of a soldier, but Solomon had no equals in matters of scholarship.

"The Lord endowed Solomon with wisdom and discernment in great measure, with
understanding as vast as the sands on the seashore. Solomon's wisdom was
greater than the wisdom of all the Kedemites and than all the wisdom of the
Egyptians. He was the wisest of all men: [wiser] than Ethan the Ezrahite, and
Heman, Chalkol, and Darda the sons of Mahol. His fame spread among all the
surrounding nations.

. . . He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered one thousand
and five. He discoursed about trees, from the cedar in Lebanon to the hyssop that
grows out of the wall; and he discoursed about beasts, birds, creeping things, and
fishes. Men of all peoples came to hear Solomon's wisdom, [sent] by all the kings of
the earth who had heard of his wisdom." (1Kgs 5:9-14)

Solomon's education would most likely be categorized as Liberal Arts in our day;
which is a pretty broad field of study consisting of a variety of subjects.

● Ecc 1:2-3 . . Utter futility!-- said Koheleth --Utter futility! All is futile! What real
value is there for a man in all the gains he makes beneath the sun?

He has a point. What does it benefit people "beneath the sun" (viz: in this world of
ours) to amass a fortune, build an empire, accumulate knowledge, possessions,
education, accolades, achievements, and experience when they're only going to die
and lose every last bit of it?

Approaching the end of his life; actor Burt Reynolds once remarked that the only
thing he regretted was not spending more of his money.

Here's a humorous epitaph that quite says it all:

Here lies John Racket,
In his wooden jacket.
He kept neither horses
Nor mules.
He lived like a hog,
And died like a dog;
And left his money to fools.
_

 

[Wycliffes_Shillelagh]

I agree. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon enumerates a lot of wordly wisdom, but his purpose for doing that is basically so that he can poo-poo worldly wisdom. (Vanity! vanity!)

So if someone is quoting it to make a point... they might actually be undermining their argument.

 

[Odë:hgöd]

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● Ecc 1:4 . . One generation goes, another comes, but the Earth remains the same
forever.

It's quite humiliating to realize that a mindless lump of granite with an IQ of zero,
and whose personal accomplishments amount to absolutely nothing, will easily
outlive the finest minds and the most energetic movers and shakers who ever
existed.

The rock of Gibraltar, for example, was here before Plato, Alexander the Great,
Darwin, Beethoven, Einstein, Eli Whitney, Edwin Hubble, Jonas Salk, and Steve
Jobs; and the rock of Gibraltar was still here after they all died. It will still be here
after you and I are dead too. Shakespeare once said all the world's a stage. He was
so right. Actors come and go, but the stage is always there; ready for a new cast.

It's just not fair. People are much smarter, more sophisticated, and far more
valuable than anything on the planet. But the planet itself-- mute, ignorant, and
impersonal --endures forever; while its superiors die and drop off at the rate of +/-
7,000 every twenty-four hours just in the USA alone.

In the grand scheme of things, Man's tenure on the planet is but for a fleeting
moment; then he's gone and forgotten; washed away. For the vast majority of
people, it will be as though they were never here at all.

● Ecc 1:5 . .The sun rises, and the sun sets-- and glides back to where it rises.

Sounds like Orphan Annie-- "The Sun-ull come owwwwt too-maw-row. Betcher
bottum doll-ler that too-maw-rohhhhh, thair-ull be Sun." (chuckle) Annie has it
pegged. Maybe clouds block the Sun from view now and then, but the clouds can
never stop the Sun from coming up; nor stop it from going down either. The Sun
always comes up, and it always goes down-- there's always day, and there's always
night

● Ecc 1:6 . . Southward blowing, turning northward, ever turning blows the wind;
on its rounds the wind returns.

Solomon perceived that winds are cyclonic; and he's right. The Earth's air currents
don't move straight ahead like waves roaring in on the beach. No, they circulate.
High pressure areas move air into low pressure areas. And the winds never blow
just once. They keep coming back to blow all over again.

● Ecc 1:7 . . All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full; to the place
[from] which they flow the streams flow back again.

Solomon was pretty doggone savvy about hydrology. It's true. All streams flow
towards the sea (duh! gravity makes water flow downhill, and most landmasses are
above the level of the sea), but the water doesn't stay there. It returns to the land
masses again via evaporation and snow, and rain, and hail, in a perpetual cycle.

● Ecc 1:8 . . All such things are wearisome: no man can ever state them; the eye
never has enough of seeing, nor the ear enough of hearing.

Science is fun. But there is just too much for one man to learn in his lifetime. Even
those who specialize in only one branch, like astronomy, or biology, or chemistry,
never really get it all. They are ever grasping for more knowledge, but it eludes
them. Then they die and someone else comes along to pick up where they left off
and continue the search.

A new 9.7 billion-dollar space telescope, said to be many times more powerful than
the Hubble, dubbed the James Webb Space Telescope (a.k.a. JWSP) was launched
in 2021. What for? Only because Man's eyes never have enough seeing, and his
ears never have enough hearing. He presses on for more and more knowledge
because he just has to know. The quest for knowledge becomes the entire reason
and motivation for missions like the JWSP. It's being built and launched simply for
the purpose of discovery.

Nobel Prize winner, author of several best-selling books, and recipient of at least a
dozen honorary degrees, physicist Steven Weinberg (who views religion as an
enemy of science) in his book "The First Three Minutes" wrote: "The more the
universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless. But if there is no
solace in the fruits of our research, there is at least some consolation in the
research itself . . The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things
that lifts human life a little above the level of a farce and gives it some of the grace
of tragedy."
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

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● Ecc 1:9 . . Only that shall happen which has happened, only that occur which has
occurred; there is nothing new beneath the Sun!

Solomon noticed that nature has yet to reinvent itself; and yet to break its own
habits. The tide always comes in, and it always goes out. The Sun always rises and
it always sets-- there's always a day followed by a night. The wind blows past us,
and eventually returns to do it again. In the Spring, leaves appear on trees, and in
Autumn, they die and drop off-- every year. In the Winter it's cold, in the Summer
it's warm-- always.

It rains one day, it clears; and another day the rains return to do it all over again.
Every year in the woods, little frogs lay eggs in vernal pools. Their pollywogs grow
into more frogs who in turn will lay their own eggs in the very same vernal pools
the following year. Birds fly south for the Winter, and birds fly north for the
Summer

Every 27.3217 Earth days the moon completes one of its own sidereal days, and
every 29.5307 Earth days it completes one of its own lunar months; the meanwhile
always showing us pretty much the very same face; very little of the other side. For
twelve months, the Sun appears to travel along the ecliptic through each of the
constellations of the Zodiac. When it gets back to the Vernal Equinox, does it then
change course and take a new path? No. It will go right back through every one of
those very same twelve signs all over again; the meanwhile tracing the very same
analemma every time.

While my wife and I were gazing at a planetary alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Venus,
Mars, and Mercury some time ago, it occurred to me that I was looking up at a
universe virtually the same as the one that the Egyptians looked up at during
construction of the Pyramids. They saw the very same stars, and the very same
five naked-eye planets more than 4,000 years ago.

Political climates, wars, disease, economic ups and downs, death and life-- none of
that has influenced the circuits of those five planets. They methodically, silently,
and religiously go about their business indifferent to Man's problems; constantly
circling the Sun and haven't changed their behavior one single bit since the day
God told Abraham to try counting the stars. He saw the same Pleiades that we see
today; and the very same constellation of Orion.

Through our Nikon FieldScope, we saw four of Jupiter's largest moons: Io, Callisto,
Europa, and Ganymede. Those very same four moons were circling Jupiter on the
night that Galileo discovered them with his crude 20x telescope in 1609 AD. Can
you guess what those moons were doing 400 years ago back in Galileo's day? The
very same thing they are doing now: orbiting Jupiter. And can you guess what
Jupiter was doing in Galileo's day? That’s right; the very same thing it does now:
orbiting the Sun. Nature is truly in a rut.

● Ecc 1:10-11 . . Sometimes there is a phenomenon of which they say, "Look, this
one is new!"-- it occurred long since, in ages that went by before us. The earlier
ones are not remembered; so too those that will occur later will no more be
remembered than those that will occur at the very end.

When Man discovers something new in nature, it’s best to keep in mind that the
new thing he discovered didn't come into existence the day he found out about it.
No, it was there all along. He just didn't know about it yet. Like coal and uranium.
Did Man invent those? No. Did he invent petroleum? Did he invent tectonic plates?
Did he invent galaxies? Did he invent quasars? Did he invent genes? Did he invent
DNA? Did he invent electromagnetic waves? No. Did he invent electricity? No. Did
he invent gravity? Did he invent magnetism? Did he invent molecules? No, No, No,
No. All those things are discoveries, not inventions.

It's true that Man often manipulates nature to invent things like super sweet corn,
lasers, penicillin, plastic, cardboard, aluminum foil, gasoline, and nitroglycerine. But
left to itself, nature rarely produces anything new because if there's one thing
nature dearly loves, it's routine; and when those routines are disturbed, then we
get things like Covid-19, E.coli 0157-H7, acid rain, air, soil, and water pollution,
habitat destruction, and endangered species, etc.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

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● Ecc 1:12-13a . . I, Koheleth, was king in Jerusalem over Israel. I set my mind to
study and to probe with wisdom all that happens under the Sun.

The phrase "all that happens under the Sun" is limited to exactly that. Ecclesiastes
is an accumulation of worldly observations; viz: one man's philosophy of life.

● Ecc 1:13b-15 . . An unhappy business, that, which God gave men to be
concerned with! I observed all the happenings beneath the Sun, and I found that all
is futile and chasing the wind: a twisted thing that cannot be made straight, a lack
that cannot be made good.

From a practical point of view; it's futile to attempt to assign any real meaning to
life-- just as there are some things that simply cannot be remedied; e.g. a tree
twisted and gnarled so badly that it's lumber is beyond hope for use in a new home,
or a five-foot man trying to meet a six-foot height requirement.

Well; that's Mr. Koheleth's preface to Ecclesiastes; and from here on, he will
elucidate his reasons for being so negative about all that goes on in this life.

● Ecc 1:16 . . I said to myself: Here I have grown richer and wiser than any that
ruled before me over Jerusalem, and my mind has zealously absorbed wisdom and
learning.

Solomon wasn't what might be called a warrior king like Alexander the Great or
Genghis Khan. He enjoyed a peace-time economy and generally good relations with
his political neighbors. War was rare during his tenure on the throne, the state-of
the-union was tolerable, he was financially independent, comfortable, and had
plenty of opportunity to devote himself to self improvement; which isn't uncommon
among the idle rich.

However, Solomon anon discovered there is no guarantee education will bring
people things like peace of mind and less stress. Solomon realized that he had
expected too much from the pursuit of knowledge; because education made him
neither happier nor better off than before.

● Ecc 1:17-18 . . And so I set my mind to appraise wisdom and to appraise
madness and folly. And I learned that this too was to pursue the wind: For as
wisdom increases, vexation increases; to increase learning is to increase
aggravation.

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to be too smart. People who never ponder the
mysteries of life-- existing in obscurity day to day --seem far more content than
sages and philosophers who vex themselves trying to justify the human existence.
Live and let die is the motto of the simple person. But the philosopher just can't let
it go that easily. He agonizes, he ponders the mysteries of life over and over again
for the Nth time, and sometimes can't sleep because of it.

There's really nothing intrinsically wrong with searching for a meaning to life. But
when people limit their search parameters to the natural world of personal
experience and empirical evidence --then they end up perplexed; and life seems
futile and makes no sense.

In my opinion; leaving a supreme being out of one's quest for the meaning of life
leaves a key piece out of the puzzle. In mathematical formulas, there is usually at
least one constant from which a solution can be derived. Well; to me anyway, the
existence of a supreme being is just as valid a constant in the meaning of life as the
values of pi and the speed of light; and I think it's an oversight to look for a
meaning without it; but hey; that's just me-- others may be just as content with a
philosophy of life that's minus a supreme being as I am with a world view that
includes one. Suum Cuique.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

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● Ecc 2:1-2 . . I said to myself: Come, I will treat you to merriment. Taste mirth!
That too, I found, was futile. Of revelry I said: It's mad! Of merriment: What good
is that?

The only problem with a natural high is that it's so transitory. Joy and excitement
are emotions, and emotions can't be sustained for very long before they need rest.
Sometimes after a very pleasurable experience like a big night on the town, a great
victory, an exciting movie, a day at Disneyland, or a wedding; we feel run down
because the merriment wore us out. It's not uncommon for people to actually feel
very depressed and let down after a round of excitement. They don't have a mental
problem; no, their emotions are just fatigued.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with entertainment and excitement. Solomon's
focus isn't upon the morality of fun-- his focus is upon the value of it.
Unfortunately, fun has no lasting value. It's value is temporal. Fun is only good for
now, not for later. And things that are fun for the moment, often become boring
after a while. I mean, picnics are fun, but who wants to do them every single day?
And movies? I love movies like Matrix, Lost in Translation, Love Actually,
Moonstruck, Inception, Avatar, Margin Call, and School Of Rock. I've watched them
at least six times each. But you know what? I can't watch just those same eight
movies all the time. I need variety because fun things lose their fun value when you
do them too often.

From a practical point of view, entertainment is only profitable for an entertainment
vendor. The patron derives no profits from fun. Take a chess game. Chess for some
people is very entertaining, and quite relaxing. But there is no profit in a friendly
game of chess; only a temporal pleasure. That's Solomon's point. Fun is good if you
keep it in perspective. Have fun for fun's sake; but don't expect it to gain you
anything of long lasting value-- and for pete's sake, don't let yourself feel guilty
about having fun because amusement has a legitimate place in the human
existence. Though fun has no eternal value, there's really nothing of eternal value
to gain by asceticism either.

● Ecc 2:3a . . I ventured to tempt my flesh with wine, and to grasp folly, while
letting my mind direct with wisdom,

The Hebrew word for "folly" basically means silliness. Late night comedy like
Saturday Night Live, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon, would fit into that
definition.

Late night comedy isn't for everyone. Solomon, for example, was just far too
sophisticated to enjoy something crass like that. He did give it an honest try though
and thoroughly analyzed comedy's potential just in case there might be something
he was missing. But comedy bounced right off Solomon. He could recognize humor,
but couldn't enjoy it. He was one of those guys who can sit through episodes of
Jerry Seinfeld, the Simpsons, and/or watch a romantic comedy like Made Of Honor
and wonder what people see in them.

What Solomon was searching for was something to cheer himself up. He was an
incredibly brilliant man, but his intellect only made him melancholy. So, along with
comedy, he tried alcohol. But alcohol presents its own problems because your body
gets used to it. Pretty soon, you have to imbibe larger and larger doses to get a
buzz. And then when it wears off, you might have a headache and a hang-over.
Same with narcotics. Users need larger and more frequent doses, and when they
come down they often become blue and irritable; and sometimes so ill that they
die.

● Ecc 2:3b . . to the end that I might learn which of the two was better for men to
practice in their few days of life under heaven.

Well, which is the better of the two-- alcohol or comedy --is a matter of opinion.
Some people would prefer not to make a choice between them but to keep both.
You could watch Leno with a night-cap or a glass of wine just as easily as not. And
actually, those two are a pretty good way to end your day. Leno makes you laugh
at the world, and the booze is relaxing so you can sleep better. The key to
enjoyment in life is to do all things in moderation. A little wine is okay, but a lot is
bad. A little silliness here and there is okay too; but a whole day of it every day all
day long would not be a good idea.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

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● Ecc 2:4a . . I multiplied my possessions.

Even the poor have this opportunity-- to multiply their possessions --and some are
pretty good at it in their own way. It's not unusual to see a homeless person with a
shopping cart or a bicycle piled high to the sky with things they've accumulated.
And many low-income folk here in America have at least two television sets and
one car; and sometimes a gun too.

Here in Oregon we have a colloquialism that goes something like this: When the
weather gets bad, it's time to go shopping. (chuckle) Who doesn't enjoy buying
something new? A new possession can cheer you up; even little doo-dads and
trinkets that cost only 49 cents. Whenever we go to the mall, I stop by the LEGO
store and check out the key rings; and sometimes I buy a small kit to assemble. No
doubt Solomon would just shrug and wonder why I was buying that stupid stuff.

I'm always thoroughly amazed at how lifted my wife's spirits become whenever she
buys herself a trendy new lipstick or nail polish at Sephora's. Multiplying
possessions is good for the mood; like See's candy. True, it's only a temporary
high, but it's a good high and I always enjoy buying things, even if it's only second
hand at Good Will or Salvation Army.

● Ecc 2:4b . . I built myself houses

The filthy rich never seem to be satisfied with just one home. No; they have a
house in Bel-Air, and another out on The Hamptons. They have Summer cottages,
and they have Winter cabins. They build custom homes costing in the millions of
dollars and when they tire of those, they sell, move out, and build another custom
home.

● Ecc 2:4c-6 . . and I planted vineyards. I laid out gardens and groves, in which I
planted every kind of fruit tree. I constructed lakes of water, enough to irrigate a
forest sprouting with trees.

It isn't unusual for governments to build parks and initiate beautification programs
in their cities. What the heck, why not when you can use someone else's money
and don't have to pay for it yourself? Solomon received tribute from all his
neighboring kingdoms: from the borders of Egypt clear on over to the Euphrates
river. It was actually a time of great peace and prosperity in Israel according to
1Kgs 4:20 and 1Kgs 5:5.

Of course Solomon himself didn't do a lick of the work. He purchased slaves and
conscripted his own citizens to accomplish his expensive ambitions. David his father
conscripted foreigners, but Solomon went him one better with a national draft
board that inducted his fellow Jewish men into government service. There was no
danger of war at the time. He just needed manpower in the labor camps.

30,000 were conscripted to work with Hiram's axe men up in Lebanon logging for
the new Temple, and he had another 70,000 general laborers, plus 80,000 men
working in stone quarries-- and not to forget 12,000 horsemen. All his construction
projects were very labor intensive because of the lack of machinery and power tools
in those days.

NOTE: An episode in 1Kgs 12:1-14 reveals that Solomon's people sorely resented
the labor camps. He delighted himself in the public works that they accomplished
with their own backs and the sweat of their own brows while he laid back in his
palace and thought up more things for them to do.

● Ecc 2:7a . . I bought male and female slaves, and I acquired stewards

The Hebrew word translated "stewards" basically refers to home-bred slaves, i.e. in
that day the children of slaves were born into slavery.

People like Solomon, born with silver spoons in their mouths, typically don't take
into consideration the feelings of others less privileged than themselves. They are
often totally self absorbed. Those below them exist only as cannon fodder; lackeys
to serve their every wish as if that were somehow the natural order of things.

Well, Solomon was finding out that sometimes the natural order of things works
against those who are very intelligent, and against those who are very rich, and
against those who are very powerful. Contentment and fulfillment eluded his grasp.
No matter how he exercised his advantages in life, Solomon couldn't find peace of
mind. He found that for men like himself, life is pointless. The more he sought
fulfillment, the more he felt like he was wasting his time trying.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

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● Ecc 2:7b . . I also acquired more cattle, both herds and flocks, than all who were
before me in Jerusalem.

It's interesting Solomon should mention he was a bigger cattle baron than all who
were before him. What was he doing? Competing? Can you imagine? He wasn't
content with enough. No; he had to have more than enough-- larger herds than all
before him so that he became the champion rancher; literally the King Ranch of
Israel.

For some people, it isn't enough to win; no, all others must lose. Does being
number-one really bring contentment? Well, it might for some, but it didn't for
Solomon. And you know: it's only a matter of time before competitors like Solomon
run out of people to best; and then what?

● Ecc 2:8a . . I further amassed silver and gold and treasures of kings and
provinces;

Solomon's wealth was what's known as tangible assets as opposed to assets on
paper. The wealth off many of today's rich men is tied up in investments like
derivatives, stocks, bonds, and funds: but much of Solomon's wealth was in
precious metals-- actual metals that you could hold in your hand rather represented
by an on-paper, Wall Street trading account. Though many of today's rich men can
show you on-record that they own a certain number of ounces of gold, silver,
palladium, and/or platinum et al; where is it? Not in their own hands that's for sure;
no, it's in somebody else's hands. Not so Solomon.

"The Queen of Sheba presented the king with one hundred and twenty talents of
gold, and a large quantity of spices, and precious stones." (1Kgs 10:10)

"Moreover, Hiram's fleet, which carried gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir a
huge quantity of almug wood and precious stones." (1Kgs 10:11)

"The weight of the gold which Solomon received every year was 666 talents of gold,
besides what came from tradesmen, from the traffic of the merchants, and from all
the kings of Arabia and the governors of the regions.

. . . King Solomon made 200 shields of beaten gold-- 600 shekels of gold to each
shield --and 300 bucklers of beaten gold --three minas of gold to each buckler. The
king placed them in the Lebanon Forest House.

. . .The king also made a large throne of ivory, and he overlaid it with refined gold.
Six steps led up to the throne, and the throne had a back with a rounded top, and
arms on either side of the seat. Two lions stood beside the arms, and twelve lions
stood on the six steps, six on either side. No such throne was ever made for any
other kingdom.

. . . All King Solomon's drinking cups were of gold, and all the utensils of the
Lebanon Forest House were of pure gold: silver did not count for anything in
Solomon’s days. For the king had a Tarshish fleet on the sea, along with Hiram's
fleet. Once every three years, the Tarshish fleet came in, bearing gold and silver,
ivory, apes, and peacocks. King Solomon excelled all the kings on earth in wealth
and in wisdom." (1Kgs 10:14-23)

Solomon's personal fortune, in adjusted dollars, and counting his property, his
metals, and his livestock, must have easily exceeded Bill Gates' in that day. But
wealth and luxury just didn't satisfy Solomon. I think many of us commoners would
be happy not to work another day for the rest of our lives. Or would we? You just
never know. Riches don't seem to protect the rich from despondence, boredom,
depression, and feelings of failure and futility.

In 1997, Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of a really cool rock group called INXS,
had a pleasant dinner with his dad and then went back to his hotel room and
hanged himself with a leather belt. He was 37 years old. What the heck was that all
about? Hutchence was young, healthy, wealthy, successful, popular, and doing well
on the music charts. At dinner with his dad, he had expressed concern about the
band's popularity and its future.

What is that saying? Hutchence's happiness was all bound up in music? So his
concern over the band's possible decline in popularity made him despondent
enough to end his life? It just doesn't make sense.

So what does it really take to make some people happy? Well, for Solomon, it
wasn't wealth and success; and, apparently for Hutchence, wealth and success
didn't do it for him either: nor did youth, fame, nor popularity because real peace is
psychological, and nowhere else. When you've got stuff in your head like bad
memories, regrets, inner conflicts, a poor self image, or low self esteem and
feelings of failure, inferiority, inadequacy, and futility; nothing on earth can remedy
that: not therapy, not pills, not dope, not anything-- nothing short of starting life all
over again can get that stuff out of your head.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 2:8b . . and I got myself male and female singers,

Makes one wonder what kind of music a brilliant, sophisticated guy like Solomon
preferred. Rock? Jazz? Pop? Chorale? Rap? Country? Classical? Folk? Blue Grass?
Opera? Broadway? Ballads? Spiritual? Barber Shop? New Age? Techno? Fusion?
Since electricity had not yet been harnessed in his day, the music available was
somewhat primitive, and it was all live and all natural: nothing recorded, nothing
electronic, and nothing amplified.

● Ecc 2:8c . . as well as the luxuries of commoners-- coffers and coffers of them.

"coffers and coffers of them" is apparently a colloquialism similar to "oodles and
oodles" or "a ton of 'em" or "a boat load of them" Actually the phrase "as well as
the luxuries of commoners" is literally "luxuries of the sons of men." Which could
easily be paraphrased "every luxury known to man."

Webster's defines luxury as: 1) a condition of abundance or great ease and
comfort; 2) sumptuous environment; 3) something adding to pleasure or comfort
but not absolutely necessary; 4) an indulgence in something that provides pleasure,
satisfaction, or ease.

No doubt a filthy rich guy like Solomon, seeking the meaning of life, and seeking
the best way to pursue life, indulged his every whim in an effort to find out what
truly makes life worth living. The man was totally livin' large.

● Ecc 2:9 . .Thus, I gained more wealth than anyone before me in Jerusalem. In
addition, my wisdom remained with me:

That was fortunate; the part about retaining his wisdom. Some people go so far
overboard in Hedonism that they mess up their minds. Curt Cobain, the driving
impetus of the punk rock group "Nirvana", at the peak of his success-- wealthy,
married, living in a beautiful home, and everything going for him --ended his life
with a shotgun at age 27 because of deep emotional problems. That's awful. If only
he had kept his mind in all of his success. They say a mind is an awful thing to
waste. Well, a mind is an awful thing to lose too.

● Ecc 2:10-11 . . I withheld from my eyes nothing they asked for, and denied
myself no enjoyment; rather, I got enjoyment out of all my wealth. And that was all
I got out of my wealth. Then my thoughts turned to all the fortune my hands had
built up, to the wealth I had acquired and won-- and oh, it was all futile and pursuit
of wind; there was no real value under the sun!

Some of us would no doubt be very pleased to obtain all the enjoyments money can
buy, but Solomon felt enjoyments aren't adequate; something was missing. It
would seem that wealth should obtain for its owner more than just luxury, and
entertainment, and property, and homes. It should at least make us feel content
with life. But for some people it doesn't. So you've got to wonder: just exactly what
works? What's the secret to contentment? What really does make life worth the
living? What really does make life more than just a pointless human experiment? If
only Hutchence and Cobain had known some satisfactory answers to those
questions, maybe they'd still be here.

Curly, the tough 'ol leathered trail boss in the movie "City Slickers", said the
meaning of life is just one thing. When asked what that one thing was, he replied:
That's what you've gotta find out.

You see; that one thing is not the same one thing for everyone. You have to find
out what that one thing is for you because until then, your life-- a life with no
purpose --is quite pointless.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 2:12a . . What more can the king's successor do than what has already been
done?

Many of the kings of the Davidic dynasty did pretty much the same thing Solomon
did. They initiated building programs and public works, built themselves nice
homes, accumulated wealth, built harems, and lived in luxury. None of them ever
equaled Solomon's grandeur, but they all did pretty much the same things he did.
Solomon recognized that he wasn't an unusual king; just one more doing the things
that kings typically do; and when he was dead and gone, the next king would do
pretty much what he did. Because of that, as a monarch, he felt predictable and
unremarkable. Even though practically everything the man did was on a grand
scale, he was still a foregone conclusion.

There can be entertainment and satisfaction in the doing of great projects; but
what happens when the task is finished? Oftentimes there's a feeling of let-down;
like when finishing a long, complicated, quest-type video game and/or when New
York City's sand hogs completed Water Tunnel #3 after thirty-eight years of boring,
drilling, and blasting. There's a sudden feeling of emptiness; a feeling of being
adrift.

Solomon found delight "in" all his efforts, but afterwards, when they were all done,
and he leaned back to appreciate his accomplishments, he was disappointed
because he felt so empty. So he would begin a new project because it is in the
doing of the work where a satisfactory sense of achievement is truly found. Henry
Ward Beecher once said: "Success is full of promise; until men get it, and then it
becomes last year's nest from which the birds have flown."

During my youth, growing up, I heard a lot about the so-called "work ethic" which
Webster's defines as: a belief in work as a moral good. Well, there is nothing wrong
in work per se, but what about workaholism? Is that really a moral good? Is that
really beneficial to one's mental health?

I have a friend who can't relax. He has to be doing something productive all the
time; even during mealtime. Oftentimes he’ll prune his roses while eating a
sandwich for lunch because he feels that sitting down to eat is wasteful. He never
goes to the movies; nor even watches TV unless it is on while he does the dishes or
vacuums the carpet. He has never read any books other than the ones everyone
had to read in school. He gets TIME magazine in the mail, but rarely bothers to
glance at any of its articles.

He can't take drives in the country because he feels he could better use the time to
mow the grass around his rental properties. He arrives at work a full hour early,
and volunteers for all the overtime. Some years ago, he bought a computer; but it's
remained in the box because he was afraid he might spend too much time on it.
That was prior to color monitors-- the very first version of Windows wasn't even on
the market yet. Now he can't buy software for his computer because it is so
obsolete. My friend is a true workaholic.

Work, for work's sake, can't satisfy the human heart no matter how successful the
endeavor may be. This helps to understand why so many achievers are basically
unhappy people. A single achievement is not enough. Achievers cannot sit back on
their laurels. They have to keep finding new things to achieve. When Alexander the
Great fought his last battle, it is said that he sat down and wept because he had no
more kingdoms to conquer. The poor man was despondent because he had nothing
to live for. People like Alexander have a very narrowly defined reason to live. Take
it away, and they're adrift.

When workaholics retire, they often feel useless, and sometimes die from lack of
meaningful activity. Well; Solomon came to the conclusion that work is okay when
it's kept in perspective. But work alone can't provide lasting satisfaction. Looking
over his works, Solomon felt very unfulfilled; and contentment continued to evade
his grasp.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 2:12b-13 . . My thoughts also turned to appraising wisdom and madness and
folly. I found that wisdom is superior to folly as light is superior to darkness;

Light has always been superior to darkness. Light cannot be dispelled by
introducing darkness into a lighted room because darkness is not something that
can be produced. It's simply a default condition in the absence of light.

Science and engineering has given us a flashlight, but has yet to invent a flashdark.
You simply cannot shine a beam of darkness like you can shine a beam of light.
Light is energy. Darkness is totally inert.

Solomon found that wisdom is superior to folly, which Webster's defines as: (1) lack
of good sense or normal prudence and foresight (2) criminally or tragically foolish
actions or conduct i.e. evil and wickedness; especially lewd behavior.

So in the end, after careful consideration, and personally testing both styles of life,
he found that it is far better to behave prudently than to act stupid, which is the
default in the absence of good sense. I guess that all goes without saying, but
sometimes intellectuals are prone to overstating the obvious.

● Ecc 2:14a . . A wise man has his eyes in his head, whereas a fool walks in
darkness.

Silly people just naturally get themselves into trouble all the time because they
don't stop and think. We could create a huge list of dumb things that silly people
are famous for doing. For example: If you've noticed, many of the advertisements
on television target silly people. Why? Because Madison Avenue knows that most
viewers of certain kinds of programming don't shop intelligently. They often buy
impulsively, guided by their emotions rather than by their better judgment. Silly
people are typically sensual rather than sensible; for example:

Studies show that the average voter typically selects a candidate based upon how
they feel about the candidate; and then use their intellects to fabricate a defense
for their choice. A case in point is America's past US President. Did people vote for
Mr. Obama because of his executive ability? No, the man was no more qualified for
US President than Hollywood actor Arnold Swarzenegger was qualified to be
governor of Cawleefornyah.

People voted for Mr. Obama on the basis of just two elements of his persona: his
charismatic speaking and the color of his skin. (Ironically, voters elected a
candidate who campaigned as a Black man; but had a Caucasian mother; i.e. in
reality, Mr. Obama is neither black or white; he's mulatto. Mr. Obama's skin is
actually coffee rather than black; and he's no more an African American than the
pop singer Mariah Carey.)

● Ecc 2:14b . . But I also realized that the same fate awaits them both.

uh-oh! Now we're getting to the heart of the matter: the brevity of life. Solomon is
looking ahead to the reality of death; and death is the great equalizer after all isn't
it?

● Ecc 2:15-16 . . So I reflected : The fate of the fool is also destined for me; to
what advantage, then, have I been wise? And I came to the conclusion that too was
futility, because the wise man, just like the fool, is not remembered forever-- for,
as the succeeding days roll by, both are forgotten. Alas, the wise man passes on
just like the fool!

Who's ever heard of Hannes Alfvén? He won a Nobel prize in 1970 for discoveries in
magneto-hydrodynamics. Wow! Yeah, okay; wow. Or how about Georges Lemaître?
He proposed that the universe is expanding in all directions before Edwin Hubble
figured it out. But how often do Alfvén's or Lemaître's names come up in
conversation around the average dinner table? Probably never; in most homes.
They might be well known among those who share their interests in astronomy and
magneto-hydrodynamics; but Alfvén and Lemaître might just as well have been two
nameless, homeless bums sleeping under an overpass for all the fame they have
among everyone else.

Most educated people know who Mozart was. But where is the great maestro
today? He's gone. He's just as dead as all the people of his day who had no more
talent for music than an ostrich. What lasting good did it do him to be a genius if it
couldn't give him immortality? Mozart composed something like 600 pieces of
music, but the composer of it all was washed away long ago one month short of his
36th birthday.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 2:17 . . And so I loathed life. For I was distressed by all that goes on under
the sun, because everything is futile and pursuit of wind.

The "loathing" Solomon felt wasn't hatred, but rather, just plain old cynicism born
of disillusion. When we're young, life is exciting and promising: we're optimistic and
ready to roll into the future full speed ahead. But as the years go by, life loses its
luster and becomes a drag, and as we get ever older and more decrepit, life
becomes something to just get through and get over with.

Just about the time you really get set in life, and have a few things figured out, and
start to enjoy it, the aging process moves in to spoil your fun. One of my biggest
gripes about life is that youth is wasted on the young. It's us oldsters who need
youth, not the young because youngsters fritter away their youth on air-headed
nonsense.

One morning on television, Kelly Rippa, of Live With Regis & Kelly, said her little
boy was in a hurry to be older. He was only 5 then and wanted to skip the 6th year
and go straight to 7. See? That's what I'm saying. Kelly's boy was too young to
appreciate how valuable youth is. He wanted to shed youth because in his
immature mind, older is better.

It's not until our youth is gone that we can fully appreciate it's worth; but by then
it's too late. In all of our young, self absorbed, conceited stupidity, we carelessly
squander away the treasure of youth on meaningless pursuits and sometimes
foolishly tempt fate in extreme sports because when we're young, it's all too easy
to perceive ourselves suspended in some sort of time-stasis where we'll be forever
21. To our immature minds; older people appear to be born that way and we fail to
comprehend that every time we encounter someone older, we are looking at our
own futures.

Time is the fire in which we burn.
Dr. Soran, Star Trek Generations

● Ecc 2:18-21 . . So, too, I loathed all the wealth that I was gaining under the sun.
For I shall leave it to the man who will succeed me-- and who knows whether he
will be wise or foolish?-- and he will control all the wealth that I gained by toil and
wisdom under the sun. That too is futile. And so I came to view with despair all the
gains I had made under the sun. For sometimes a person whose fortune was made
with wisdom, knowledge, and skill must hand it on to be the portion of somebody
who did not toil for it. That too is futile, and a grave evil.

It's bad enough that the wealthy have to leave their fortunes behind, but even
worse when foolish relatives end up with it and fail to appreciate the toil and
conscientious effort put into accumulating that wealth and the vigilance required to
keep it. The dumb ones start living it up, not taking into consideration that money
spent is money gone forever. What will be left for the next generation if the first
wastes the primary inheritance and fails to invest for the future?

Some people try to write their wills and trusts in such a way that their estates can't
be squandered; but don't always succeed. In spite of the instruction and good
example they may give, fathers and mothers have no way of knowing what their
posterity will do with the wealth and property they worked so hard to accumulate
during their lives.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 2:22-23 . . For what does a man get for all the toiling and worrying he does
under the sun? All his days his thoughts are grief and heartache, and even at night
his mind has no respite. That too is futile!

One of the disadvantages of striving to gain wealth is the sleep that's sometimes
lost over it. Solomon observed that a rich man's abundance won't permit him to
sleep (Ecc 5:12) for example: Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, the most popular
youth-oriented male singers ever to record music, shared a common malady: both
had trouble sleeping. In contrast, I'm an obscure retired welder whose wife
complains falls asleep too easily. Well, the difference is, I have peace of mind;
whereas those two guys didn't.

"People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish
and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of
money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered
from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." (1Tim 6:9-10)

Managing an empire is no picnic. There's long hours, employee disputes, tax
problems, investment risks, OSHA, EPA, legal hassles, Federal interference,
lawsuits, deadlines, time pressure, accounting errors, loan calls, and all that sort of
thing; not to mention debt. Haw! debt is the Grim Reaper for quite a number of
mega businesses like the auto industry. Debt is what ultimately toppled the energy
giant ENRON; wiping out 1.2 billion dollars in retirement funds, and 2 billion dollars
in pension funds.

You know what else befalls empire-builders? Broken homes. Ray Kroc, the
McDonald's mogul, was on his third marriage when he passed away. Jesus once
said that you can't serve God and mammon. Well; you can't serve money and
family either. Wealth-seekers generally serve the money and leave their families to
more or less sink or swim.

● Ecc 2:24-26a . .There is nothing worthwhile for a man but to eat and drink and
afford himself enjoyment with his means. And even that, I noted, comes from God.
For who eats and who enjoys but myself? To the man, namely, who pleases [God]
He has given the wisdom and shrewdness to enjoy himself;

A person's financial means can enhance their peace of mind and feelings of
security. But to hoard wealth, to stock-pile it, being miserly and stingy, never doing
something worthwhile with your means, never doing even yourself any good with
it; is not wise. Some years ago, I heard about an elderly couple who died. When
the house in which they had lived for many years was torn down, an amount of
cash was found in the walls totaling about $40,000. The coroner's determination of
cause of death? Malnutrition.

Money is a medium of exchange. Unless it's spent, it can do little or nothing for
you. You can't eat money, but it will buy your food. It can't keep you warm, but it
will buy your clothing and heating oil. Money is not a conveyance-- it can't be
ridden like a magic carpet to transport you from point A on over to point B; but it
will buy you a car, a bicycle, or a bus ticket. It can't chew your food, but it will pay
a dentist to fix your teeth. Its possession doesn't make you a rock star, but it will
buy you a ticket to an AeroSmith concert. Money has no scenic glaciers, but it will
buy you a birth onboard a Princess Line cruise ship to Alaska.

"Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put
their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly
provides us with everything for our enjoyment." (1Tim 6:17)

That verse reveals that all the opportunities this world has to offer are provided by
God for Man's enjoyment. Therefore, it is absolutely not a sin to enjoy life. Some
people feel guilty about success. But that is an unhealthy attitude. Others take
vows of poverty in order to enhance their piety. But it isn't necessary to be poor in
order to please God. Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, were all very wealthy men
whose circumstances-- which enabled them to live high on the hog --were made
possible by God's providence. Wealth isn't intrinsically sinful. It's how people use
their wealth that matters.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 2:26b . . and to him who displeases, He has given the urge to gather and
amass-- only for handing on to one who is pleasing to God. That too is futile and
pursuit of wind.

When him who displeases donates to charities, his contributions don't earn him any
points with God whatsoever because one of Solomon's proverbs says, in so many
words, that a bad person's gifts are detestable. (Pro 15:8)

I seriously doubt that it is God who personally urges a bad person to donate to
charity. I just think it's the bad person's own conscience working on them and/or
maybe they're just looking for a tax deduction. Well; seeing as how God created
the human conscience, then I guess you could say "He has given the urge". Maybe
that's how Solomon saw it; I don't really know; but it seems logical.

NOTE: The mention of a supreme being throughout Ecclesiastes reveals that the
author, though quite philosophical, wasn't an atheist. He was what might be called
a theist; roughly defined as someone believing in the existence of one god viewed
as the creative source of the human race and the world, who transcends yet is
immanent in the world.

The author's god is never once named, instead, referred to as 'elohiym (el-o-heem')
which isn't a personal moniker like Yahweh or Brahma, rather, a nondescript label
that pertains to all sorts of deities; both the true and the false, and the real and the
imagined, plus the gods of myth, superstition, and tradition.

The three sacred names for the Bible's God-- Shadday, 'Adonay, and Jehovah --are
nowhere in Ecclesiastes. The reason for that is quite simple. This book refers to the
supreme being in a general sense; sort of like the common expressions: "Thank
God nobody got hurt" and/or "God forbid!" and/or "An act of God". There's nothing
particularly devotional in those kinds of expressions.

● Ecc 3:1 . . A season is set for everything, a time for every experience under
heaven.

This next section smacks of fatalism and predestination, but actually it only speaks
of events that are quite normal and commonplace under the sun.

● Ecc 3:2a . . A time for being born and a time for dying,

Those two events are open ended and their precise moments aren't chipped in
stone. Every person experiences a birth, and each will experience a death too. Birth
and death are like appointments. As soon as a women senses that she has
conceived, she knows it's only a matter of time before she gives birth to a child so
she has to begin planning for its arrival. Same with death. We all know we're going
to die some day; it's just a matter of time.

But the problem with death is its stealth. We're young only till somewhere in our
mid thirties and then to our horror begin to gradually wither. One of the biggest
surprises of Billy Graham's life was age. He always believed he would die some day,
but Billy wasn't prepared to get old first. His is not an unusual case. Most of us
readily anticipate death; but seldom anticipate losing form and function.

● Ecc 3:2b . . a time for planting and a time for uprooting the planted;

Farmers are constantly cultivating, planting, harvesting-- and then tilling what's left
after the harvest to prepare for the next crop.

● Ecc 3:3a . . a time for slaying and a time for healing,

A rabid dog has to be put down. But when your pet is hit by a car, you take it to the
vet.

● Ecc 3:3b . . a time for tearing down and a time for building up;

My dad worked many hours with his bare hands building us a home when I was a
kid. He sold it when I was 11 years old. Twenty-three years later, all of dad's hard
work was torn down and hauled off to make way for an RV storage lot; and the
property denuded of trees and scraped bare by bulldozers. It's like we were never
even there.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 3:4a . . a time for weeping and a time for laughing,

Sometimes people laugh and weep all at the same time; like at a wedding.

● Ecc 3:4b . . a time for wailing and a time for dancing;

In a war, the victors celebrate and the vanquished mourn-- like in professional
sports. The cameras always show the winners elated, jumping up and down,
clapping themselves on the back, emoting for the press, and pouring ice water on
the coach; but over on the other side, the losers are all glum and silent and
dragging themselves back to the locker room.

● Ecc 3:5a . . a time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones,

It would be nice if the Palestinians would follow that and pick up after themselves
when they're done pelting Israeli soldiers.

● Ecc 3:5b . . a time for embracing and a time for shunning embraces;

Sometimes lovers and friends need to make up and settle their differences before
they hug.

● Ecc 3:6a . . a time for seeking and a time for losing,

In other words: A time to search and a time to give it up for lost.

● Ecc 3:6b . . a time for keeping and a time for discarding;

Today's in-vogue couture is tomorrow's Good Will donation.

● Ecc 3:7a . . a time for ripping and a time for sewing,

When doctors need access to an injured patient's body, they often cut clothing off
with scissors rather than fussing with buttons and zippers. The very same clothing
can be repaired later by needle and thread.

● Ecc 3:7b . . a time for silence and a time for speaking;

They say silence in golden, but sometimes it's yellow; know what I mean?

● Ecc 3:8a . . a time for loving and a time for hating;

A time for love might be when your friends come over for dinner-- through the front
door. However, if they sneak in the back way while you're out, and steal your 50"
plasma TV so they can sell it for meth; that might be reason enough to dump your
friends for new ones.

● Ecc 3:8b . . a time for war and a time for peace.

Peace is much to be preferred to war. But sometimes war is necessary to procure
and to preserve peace. We live in a big bad world where there are people more
than happy to oppress you, abuse your human rights, control your movements,
restrict your speech, clamp down on dissent, take away your wealth and
possessions, destroy your home, separate you from your family, and put you to
work in a gulag where you'll be underpaid, malnourished, constantly hungry,
politically indoctrinated, and poorly clothed for the rest of your life.

● Ecc 3:9 . .What value, then, can the man of affairs get from what he earns?

In other words: What does the worker gain from his toil? Well . . one thing he does
not gain is control over the "times" listed in the previous eight verses because
many circumstances in life are unpredictable and out of our hands no matter how
much money a person might be prepared to spend.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 3:10 . . I have observed the business that God gave man to be concerned
with:

The "business" of course just being the daily round of life beneath the sun.

● Ecc 3:11 . . He brings everything to pass precisely at its time; He also puts
eternity in their mind, but without man ever guessing, from first to last, all the
things that God brings to pass.

Man is fraught with anxieties; and some of those anxieties are aggravated by
uncertainty about the future. Within no sphere is that more evident among
Americans than in their thoughts about retirement. Oftentimes people are so
concerned about their futures that they fail to enjoy the present; so life slips past
them until one day they realize they should have lived life when they had the
chance instead of waiting till they retired.

● Ecc 3:12-13 . .Thus I realized that the only worthwhile thing there is for them is
to enjoy themselves and do what is good in their lifetime; also, that whenever a
man does eat and drink and get enjoyment out of all his wealth, it is a gift of God.

There's nothing intrinsically wrong with preparing for the future, but surely not to
the expense of missing out on life in the present. It's far better to enjoy life as you
live it, and thank whatever god it is that you recognize for the pleasures you have
at hand right now, not for the ones that may or may not come your way later. I've
actually known men in my line of work who stayed on the job as long as age
allowed just to get that very last penny of retirement benefit only to die within two
years after leaving.

● Ecc 3:14a . . I realized, too, that whatever God has brought to pass will recur
evermore: nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it--

That frustrates and irritates some people because they would like to make some
changes in the universe and change the world to suit their feelings. But the gods
aren't budging. They're the ones in control. Man is not the one controlling the
scheme of things. Man is a prisoner of the gods' sovereign control and there is not
one single thing he can do about it.

● Ecc 3:14b . . and God has brought to pass that men revere Him.

Unfortunately Man hates God for being the one in control. They neither fear Him,
nor respect Him, nor yield to His sovereign authority. On the contrary, they very
much resent God, and want Him deposed.

● Ecc 3:15 . .Whatever exists today and whatever will exist in the future has
already existed in the past. For God calls each event back in its turn.

What's that saying? History repeats itself? Who would have thought that people
3,000 years ago shared today's evaluation of world events? Modern man's thinking
isn't really so modern after all; is it?

● Ecc 3:16 . . And, indeed, I have observed under the sun: Alongside justice there
is wickedness, alongside righteousness there is wickedness.

Some very glaring examples of that truth are 1) the US government's collusion with
social media to suppress opinions opposed to its management practices, 2) the CDC's,
the FDA's, and the USA's top medical advisors' unscrupulous machinations during
the Covid 19 crisis, and 3) the use of America's top law enforcement agencies for
personal, and political, purposes.

And: with alarming regularity we see more and more criminal cops in the news--
law enforcement that should be upholding the law, not breaking it-- and should be
protecting people, not intimidating them, breaking their arms, electrocuting them
with stun guns, shining blinding lights in their faces, and shooting them full of bullet
holes. To every bad cop I would like to say: Wearing that badge doesn't make you
right; it just makes you a bully with a gun and a canister of pepper spray.

* My personal favorite was a San Diego municipal judge back in the 1980's when
one day, to his utter shock and dismay, a hooker he frequented appeared in court
as a witness to testify in a case he was hearing. Upon taking the stand, the hooker
greeted the guardian of jurisprudence and expressed amazement that one of her
Johns was on the bench.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 3:17-18 . . I mused: God will doom both righteous and wicked, for there is a
time for every experience and for every happening. So I decided, as regards men,
to dissociate them [from] the divine beings and to face the fact that they are
beasts.

When you get right down to it: when you strip away people's accouterments;
what's left is really little more than human wildlife. In point of fact, to call a human
being a beast is an insult to the animal kingdom because people are capable of
doing things that are lower than an animal. I've yet to hear of an animal getting
drunk and beating his wife; nor have I yet to hear of an animal gambling the
family's entire weekly food budget on one pony at Belmont; nor have I yet to hear
of an animal rolling a car into a lake with their kids inside in order to keep a
boyfriend.

● Ecc 3:19-20 . . For in respect of the fate of man and the fate of beast, they have
one and the same fate: as the one dies so dies the other, and both have the same
life-breath; man has no superiority over beast, since both amount to nothing. Both
go to the same place; both came from dust and both return to dust.

Some people are inclined to think it is arrogant of Man to suppose he's the only
form of intelligent life in the universe. But what is Man anyway but an unsanitary
primate with a 3-pound lump of flabby organic tissue sufficing for a mind? We
should want more of his ilk in the universe? I don't think so. Man is hardly more
intelligent than an orangutan; and ten times more immoral. And besides; he's
made of clay. And you know what happens when clay is all wet? It gets stuck on
itself. But death is the great equalizer.

Beasts die and people die too; so people really have no advantage over a cow in
that respect. True: a cow won't die rich, but then the rich take nothing out with
them when they die; same as the cow: so who's really better off in the ground? The
bovine or the rich man? Neither: they're equals in that respect.

● Ecc 3:21 . .Who knows if a man's life-breath does rise upward and if a beast's
breath does sink down into the earth?

Solomon has a point. Who today has a red-phone line connected to the afterlife?
Nobody. People pride themselves on their faith in holy books like the Bible and the
Koran; but really don't know for certain whether or not all of the writings in either
book are actually true; do they?

Solomon never met anyone who came back from the dead with a tale to tell about
the afterlife. How about you? Who have you known personally who died, was
buried, and then later came back?

As brilliant and as intellectual as Solomon was, he was just as much in the dark
about life after death as everybody else. Can you prove beyond a shadow of all
sensible doubt that there exists another life for human beings after death? No, you
can't; and you won't know for sure until the day comes when you actually make the
trip yourself.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 3:22 . . I saw that there is nothing better for man than to enjoy his
possessions, since that is his portion. For who can enable him to see what will
happen afterward?

Is that really such bad advice seeing as no one really knows for sure what happens
after we die? What if all those super pious ascetics practicing a life of strict self
denial discover later after death that it was all for nothing? Wouldn't that be tragic?
It is stupid to suffer self denial when no one really knows for rock-solid sure
whether or not it counts for anything.

NOTE: Seeing as how Ecclesiastes is one man's world view, rather than a specific
religious dogma, then it's no surprise when we encounter things in here from the
point of view of common sense quite often.

● Ecc 4:1-3 . . I further observed all the oppression that goes on under the sun: the
tears of the oppressed, with none to comfort them; and the power of their
oppressors-- with none to comfort them. Then I accounted those who died long
since more fortunate than those who are still living; and happier than either are
those who have not yet come into being and have never witnessed the miseries
that go on under the sun.

I'd be curious to know just exactly when, where, and how Mr. Born-with-a-silver
spoon-in-his mouth king Solomon was exposed to the "tears" of the oppressed.
Maybe he was talking about all the hapless Jewish men he conscripted to work like
slaves in his stone quarries and logging camps.

Some people really are better off dead, and also better had they not been born. I
mean, for some people, what's the point of living at all.

It's difficult for the average American to appreciate the misery of people in other
countries living in poverty, want, squalor, tyranny, despotism, and oppression.
When I was a little boy living in San Diego back in the early 1950's I went on a trip
with my parents to Tijuana. As we walked across a bridge over the Tijuana River, I
looked down below at a pitiful community just like the community filmed in the
movie Slum Dog Millionaire. The jam-packed homes (rudimentary shelters actually)
were constructed of cardboard, sheets of plywood, corrugated tin, and sign boards.
The children were all barefoot and there were no streets and sidewalks; just
riverbed soil. I have no clue what they did for sanitation. It's my guess all their offal
went into what there was of the Tijuana River as raw sewage.

Those people down in that riverbed weren't living; they were surviving, and that with
no more dignity than a hog in a wallow. (In later years, the community was washed
away by unusually high water and subsequently the site permanently closed to
squatters by the government.)

Hafez al Assad, deceased father of the current dictator of Syria, Bashar al Assad,
was ruthless towards his political opponents. In the early 1980's, he dispatched his
air force to bomb the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood's densely populated
neighborhoods in the area of Hama. (I'm talking about Syrian citizens in a Syrian
city; not foreigners in a foreign country). Afterwards, Hafez had his army bulldoze
the smoking remains. Between 10,000 and 40,000 people were killed, and
thousands more were jailed, tortured, and left to languish in prison. Protests from
human rights organizations bounced off Hafez like a BB off of depleted uranium
plating.

Ryan Crocker, a US ambassador who served in Damascus during the transition from
Hafez to Bashar, said of the son: "Any suggestion that Bashar is a push-over is an
illusion. He's so personable that it's easy to underestimate him. But rest assured,
he is his father's son." Mr. Ryan is so right. It isn't unusual this very day to be
dining out in Damascus while at the same time having to listen to dreadful screams
coming from a second-floor window of the Bab Touma police station. In the street,
people cast each other knowing glances but nobody says a word because someone
might be listening.

There's little to no justice in China. Fully 99 percent of all trials result in a guilty
verdict. If you're executed with a gun, the state sends your family a bill for the
bullet.

In North Korea, three generations of a family can be punished for one member's
alleged crime. As of 2008, an estimated 200,000 North Korean citizens were
detained in labor camps: and don't get me started on Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
_

 

[Odë:hgöd]

.
● Ecc 4:4 . . I have also noted that all labor and skillful enterprise come from men's
envy of each other-- another futility and pursuit of wind!

Most of us are reasonably satisfied with what we have until we see someone with
something better. Just because the Devil wears Prada, is it really essential that
everyone else does?

They say money is the root of all evil. Well, I would have to say that envy is
money's kissing cousin. Both are very strong motivators.

● Ecc 4:5 . .The fool folds his hands together and has to eat his own flesh.

Just the opposite of those who strive to get ahead, is the lazy good-for-nothing,
who can't be motivated to go out and find work or start a business. The others have
it all, while he has nothing at all. At least the greedy and the envious have food on
the table and a place to live. The fool is homeless and probably lives out of
dumpsters, or worse, panhandles and mooches off friends. (One of my all-time
favorite panhandler's cardboard signs said: Dreaming Of A Cheeseburger)

● Ecc 4:6 . . Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and
chasing after the wind.

In between the go-getters, and the homeless bums, are the moderate people. They
don't have to have the best that life has to offer, nor the most money, and they
don't want it. Their motto is: Better isn't necessary when adequate will do. These
are happy with what they have and make do with what they can afford.

Moderate people aren't lazy, but then again, neither are they achievers nor overly
industrious. They don't need a lot, they're easy to please, and are usually very
content; e.g. when they shop for diamond jewelry, the stones don't have to be
flawless; just sparkly and pretty. They might splurge on a consumer-priced Bulova
or a Seiko, but won't shell out the extra dough for a Breitling or an IWC even
though they're the better timepieces. They prefer cars that are economical rather
than cars that are cool, fast, and fitted out with the latest electronics. They eat at
ordinary buffets and restaurants rather than fancy, black-tie supper clubs; and their
back yards are likely to have just as many weeds as ornamental shrubs. While
others chase status, moderates prefer to chase sales and clip coupons.

But the sad part is; those greedy, leveraged-to-the-hilt hedge-funders are the very
ones ravaging the moderates' retirement plans. And if the fund goes belly up-- as
many did in the last sub-prime blood bath --what do they care? It wasn't their
money that was lost; it was yours while they escaped with a bail-out and/or a
golden parachute. And the bail-outs? Who pays for those? Duh . . . the moderates;
via federal taxes, of course.

● Ecc 4:7-8 . . And I have noted this further futility under the sun: the case of the
man who is alone, with no companion, who has neither son nor brother; yet he
amasses wealth without limit, and his eye is never sated with riches. For whom,
now, is he amassing it while denying himself enjoyment? That too is a futility and
an unhappy business.

That surely describes people like Ebenezer Scrooge-- Charles Dickens' friendless
loner in "A Christmas Carol" --the prince of misers. The man has great wealth, and
sees the amassing of wealth as the only justifiable reason to be alive. He despises
family life, shuns circles of close friends, and regards charitable causes as theft. The
man won't even spend his money on decent food to nourish himself; let alone wood
or coal to heat his dismal home. His fortune does neither him nor anyone else any
real good at all except provide him with questionable old-age security.
_